Baby Corner

[Susita 175]

Susi@ I know what you mean, Silvio loves Peru, the culture, the people but he was always the BIG GRINGO, I'm trying to convince him to move there but that's the part that he doesn't like, they don't treat him the same.

Haha... the big gringo. Poor Sil

Where would you guys want to live? In the areas where we went in Lima like Miraflores or San Isidro, I really didn't have any problem I guess because they were used to seeing tourists all the time.

The first time I was in San Bartolo everyone stared at me all the time, but for the most part everyone was really nice. Now when I go, sure they look at me but most people know I'm Luis's wife. I even know some Americans and one guy from South Africa that live there, they don't get stared at. Everyone knows who they are and they know everyone else, etc.

I think it would just take a little time for everyone to get to know him and then he wouldn't feel so out of place. Does he speak Spanish? That was always an advantage for me because I could communicate.

[chnst 6]

@ chnst: Taylor Swift. ROFL. He's gonna be into blonds!

oh, he already is. He BEGGS me every day to find a "Taylor Wift" video on the demand channel (CMT has some sometimes). It started when he was 9 months old, we heard a song on the radio and he started tapping his hands on his legs to the beat. From then on he was sold. haha. He also goes through my people magazine every week to find pictures of Taylor. freak.

We bought him the CDs for his 1st birthday, and now we have to listen to them every single minute in the car and on his CD player at home. He knows all the words to every single song (so do we after all this time ) I cant hear it anymore... Hubby made the mistakte to introduce him to youtube, now my laptop isn't even safe anymore. He pushes buttons and says "Taylor, Taylor, sing" ... LOL, I bought him a poster for his room for his 2nd birthday. He'll love it. muhahahaha.

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

Charles@ I know, I know, the situation is a big mess, my friend met the hubby for a couple of months and got pregnant, the baby was born in Brasil and then she moved here to NYC . Problems started as soon as she arrived here, he is not mentally stable and it got to the point that HE KICKED HER OUT OF THE HOUSE, she had to move to her in laws house (the basement) the hubby never visited the baby,she was on her own all the time, she was lucky that her in laws are fantastic people an they took good care of her and the baby. It was a horrible situation, now she is in Brasil with her family and friends and as she says, she finally has PEACE, what to do? come back to live in hell?

unfortunate situation, i hope she has a good attorney already.

[chri'stina 190]

That's so interesting. I think your efforts really do show a lot of respect for the culture. How do you communicate with the in-laws? Do they speak english?

My father in law speaks English almost fluently, but my mother in law doesn't. She understands some and knows a tiny bit. So that is hard since I would like to talk directly to my MIL and I don't know a lot of Hindi either. I am catching on to some words and phrases but I can't form a lot of full sentences. At their place also lives two of my sis in laws and a niece. (One sis in law there is unmarried, the other widowed with a daughter). My sis in laws all speak English and my niece who lives there is very fluent in it. She surprises me with her long, complicated English words that I don't even use! hehe. Almost all of Suj's aunts, uncles, and cousins I met last year spoke English.

[Vi Mazzella 4]

Susita@ My poor Silvio, he speaks spanish a LO TARZAN as I say, he undertands alot, he can have a conversation. The only thing is thta he looks like the typical gringo, tall, white, you know what I mean. I live in Lince, right next to San Isidro (2 blocks) nice area,can't complain. I have a feeling that the only reason why he doesn't want to move to Peru right now is 'cause his parents still around, I'm sorry,that sounded horrible but is the true, it might be different in a couple of years...

Charles@ big drama! She doesn't have alot of money so she hopes the hubby realizes that if she comes back he will get an unhappy miserable and depressed wife.

[Susita 175]

Susita@ My poor Silvio, he speaks spanish a LO TARZAN as I say, he undertands alot, he can have a conversation. The only thing is thta he looks like the typical gringo, tall, white, you know what I mean. I live in Lince, right next to San Isidro (2 blocks) nice area,can't complain. I have a feeling that the only reason why he doesn't want to move to Peru right now is 'cause his parents still around, I'm sorry,that sounded horrible but is the true, it might be different in a couple of years...

... a lo tarzan

I understand the whole thing about his parents, and that's the exact reason why Luis & I want to move to Peru at least for a few years. His mom & dad are getting old and his dad has very bad diabetes. We had a scare a few months ago, he almost went blind in one eye. The doctors were able to salvage it but he needs a strong prescription on that side now with his glasses. If we don't move we will probably have them here for 3 months next year when his dad retires. But then again, there is also my grandma, who I am very close to almost like a mom, and she is getting up there too and I don't want to leave her. It's a hard situation

So anyway someone asked me the other day what kind of formula I will need for the baby and I said "I don't I'm going to breastfeed." And they said "ewww."

Why are so many people grossed out by breastfeeding I never understood this?

[Anna C. 4]

One of our Safeways in town is closing and they have a blowout sale. I don't know why they don't just move all the stuff to the other branches, but anyway, everything is 50% - 75% off. Since Jona loves Earth's Best baby food, we bought up the whole stash they had (of course checking the expiration dates!!!). We should be good for 3 months, lol. He doesn't like tablefoods and prefers baby foods, that's fine with me. The cool thing is every jar was 18 cents! That's awesome. We also got lots of other staples that you can store for now, like organic rice and crackers, spices etc. We just bought the really good stuff since it was so cheap! We paid $124 for stuff that would usually run $370! What a deal. All the cat food was gone already and I was hoping to get some, but oh well.

[Mommy2ZaidnSalma 11]

Anna....What a great deal! My bosses son is 17 months and wont eat table foods, except for breads (english muffins, bagels, etc) and he was telling me how expensive it is to still be buying it. Zaid never really even liked baby food for long, but, I think it is waay more costly trying to buy things that he can eat. We spend 12$ a week alone on organic milk. I just wish it was cheaper to eat better, I would really like to have Zaid on strictly organic but the prices are outrageous.

[Anna C. 4]

@ Zaidsmommy: Yeah sounds like Jona. He is such a late eater anyways! He eats Annies Bunny crackers and breads, and LASAGNE. That is the only table food he'll eat, hahaha, little stinker is quite picky. But he weighs well over 30 pounds so we don't need to worry. He really got taller recently and leaned out! On the cloth diapers are different snap setting and I can put them tighter now than just 2 months ago. It just takes time for him to take to food... Apparently my oldest sister was like that until my other sister was born, et voila, madame suddenly wanted all the food she could get cause she was worried that baby would eat it all up.

Wow $12 a week for milk? Our King Soopers (Krogers) sells organic milk a gallon for $4.50... It is way more expensive at Walmart for some reason (it's like $6 there). I also was pleased to find 2 quarts of yogurt packs at King Soopers - it's the organic stuff, whole milk for way less than Yobaby.... He still eats the latter though, but only once a day now. I mix fresh fruit in it. I always try to look for coupons and sales, and then stock up.

Btw, cooking myself sort of never happened (baby food). I so wanted to do it, but then he never wanted to eat and the jars seemed less of a waste. Also buying everything organic would be sort of more costly for us since we would have to go to Colorado to get the stuff.... I thought though that the jar-time would be over by now, oh well. Maybe we need a second kid

Edited February 21, 2010 by Anna C.

[Mommy2ZaidnSalma 11]

Yes, maybe thats what Im doing wrong, lol. Walmart gallons of Horizon are 6.38$. We go thru 2 a week. I think I may go to Trader Joes tonight.

Baby #2 sounds fun! We are currently TTC and hopefully I can take a test in about 10 days

[chnst 6]

... a lo tarzan

So anyway someone asked me the other day what kind of formula I will need for the baby and I said "I don't I'm going to breastfeed." And they said "ewww."

Why are so many people grossed out by breastfeeding I never understood this?

what? That is so stupid and disrespectful. I had this kind of experience a few times when I was pregnant and then after Ben was 6 months old, people were telling me it is wrong to continue. It made me feel bad and like I am doing something 'wrong', but now it just bothers me that there are people who are just so ignorant to mothers. I always tried to avoid talking about bf with other people because of this kind of reaction. With the next baby I really don't think I will care anymore. When someone used to say this to me when I was a brandnew mom, I was kind of trying to make an excuse or didn't know what to say, and it really shouldn't be that way. I don't know why some people put such a negative stigma to bf mothers? I don't judge people who choose to formula feed their kids for whatever reason. It doesn't matter what someone chooses to feed to the baby but no one deserves an "EWWW". Sorry I could rant and rant and it's not even worth it.

@Anna: oh wow that's a great deal!! Luckily when Ben was eating babyfood I always got the earths best on sale for 69 cents a jar with coupons at our grocery store. I agree with Kelly, feeding him tablefoods, esp. organic stuff it costs a lot more than the babyfood stage. We all eat a lot better though, more fruit and veggies etc. So Jona doesnt even like it if you mash it yourself? Ben was the same for a while but he switched pretty quickly to the regular stuff. Now he eats EVERYTHING. haha.

@Kelly: do you have a grocery store near you that has storebrand organic foods? They are only slightly more expensive than the regular stuff. Some are the same price. I used to buy everything strictly organic, but I now just buy the stuff that has the most chemicals (lettuce etc) or the major things we eat (milk, bread, pasta, yogurt).

[Anna C. 4]

@ Susita: Oh wow what a comment. Was that person a parent? Before I was pregnany I had always heard that you nurse for 6 months and that's it... I thought my SIL was weird, but then during pregnancy I learned so many new things! I don't care about people who thinks it's gross to nurse an infant or toddler. We just do what's right for us, and I worked hard on the nursing and am proud of it working out. Hubbie is sort of getting antsy about it, but oh well, he'll have to deal. I always point out how expensive that organic milk is he'd drink instead, hehehe.

So agree about store brand organic foods. Safeway and King Soopers has it. It's really not bad, and they have regular sales on the stuff. We make compromises too, like for now as it is just us drinking milk, we buy the hormone free stuff, or the vegetarian-fed-antibiotic-hormone free eggs (not bad, 18 eggs for $2.80 at Walmart). I'd prefer the organic stuff, but we'll hold out til June when we get a big promotion... Other things are non-negotiable, like ketchup has to be organic (cause all the other stuff has high fructose corn syrup) or any meat has to be too (or at least the natural variety, like Lauras lean beef - after seeing food inc I cannot stomach conventional stuff). Hubbie is picky though and refuses to eat whole wheat pasta or dark rice....

I totally eat so much better now then when we had no baby. I drank sodas here and there and ate a lot of processed stuff. But it's not like you care when you don't know what's in there.

@ chnst: He will eat it if I mush the food up, but it must be vegetarian or only ground beef for him to eat. I think it's a game for him too, cause recently he has been "acting up", you know, pushing his limits. And he knows refusing food makes me upset, and sometimes he holds out for nursing and even refuses water throughout the day. He is sooooooooooo stubborn. Must be that Italian DNA from hubbie. (all his Italian family members are quite stubborn.... so is hubbie... must be why Jona likes Italian foods, he'll down that, but it will serve him well later in life since all those guys are so determined and succeeded, lol)

Edited February 21, 2010 by Anna C.

[Mommy2ZaidnSalma 11]

We do, like Jewel Osco and Dominicks, but the selection of vegetables isnt great (and they dont sell a store brand Organic Dairy, just stoneyfield and horizon). I have actually never been to Trader Joes and its only like 20 mins away so I think Ill go check it out. My girlfriend said the produce isnt bad there.

[Anna C. 4]

Trader Joes is really nice. Lots of natural and organic stuff, crazy variety (all kinds of ethnic foods) and low prices. You'll like it. We have way different supermarket chains I notice.... Too bad you don't have Safeway, I really like it.

Edited February 21, 2010 by Anna C.

[sara535 15]

We do, like Jewel Osco and Dominicks, but the selection of vegetables isnt great (and they dont sell a store brand Organic Dairy, just stoneyfield and horizon). I have actually never been to Trader Joes and its only like 20 mins away so I think Ill go check it out. My girlfriend said the produce isnt bad there.

Trader Joe's doesnt carry baby food but everything else there ROCKS. My closest TJ's is 45 minutes - if I had one 20 minutes away I would be there twice a week.