Answering More Questions: On Starbucks Drinks, Teething, and Surprise Babies.

Woah. That *is* crazy. Since I am a total coffee nerd, I made a little chart for Starbucks drinks:

SO, as you can see 14 pumps is A LOT of pumps. If you get, say, an iced venti caramel white chocolate mocha, though, there would be typically six pumps of each white mocha and caramel – which is 12 and almost hits that crazy 14 pump orderer. Almost.

I am! Although about once a month, I do a shampoo wash, mostly just because there is still a bottle in my shower. It’s probably a bad idea, since I know the ‘no poo’  is all about natural oils and not stripping the oils and all that earth mama jazz. (When you first heard the term ‘no poo,’ did you also thing it was a movement about not pooping? Or is that just me. Oh. Just me? Okay.)

Not weird at all! (Or maybe I’m the weird one for telling everyone.) I am fairly open about the fact that Gabe was the best surprise we ever got. We were married almost two-and-a-half years when I found out I was pregnant. Gabe was born three weeks after our third anniversary. It was the perfect amount of time for us – we had several years to just be ‘us’.  While it was initially a bit of shock (I  actually cried the first few times I told people) (though I blame pregnancy hormones in addition to being happy-slash-scared), there are far worse things than finding out you’re expecting a child with your husband of three years.

Yes! Just a few times and it’s the craziest, most awesome thing.  It always throws me off, like What? Me? Is this a joke? I suddenly get nervous for some reason. It’s fun. Most recently at a vegan bake sale to raise money for Japan, a lovely gal named Abby recognized me (and knew Gabe’s name!). Vegan bake sale? Let’s be friends, Abby!

So. Two months ago (Though it was so awful it feels like yesterday. Every time Gabe gets fussy or has trouble sleeping, I get all panicky: ‘Teething Round Two is coming! The end is nigh! Run! Run for your lives!“), Gabe cut his first two teeth and it. was. awful. He was grumpy all day and would wake up four times in three hours, screaming. This kid is usually not a scream-waker-upper. He is a lie-quietly-then-yell-when-you-realize-you’re-alone-waker-upper.

After one particularly awful night, I bought a ton of different things in hopes that something anything dear GOD would make it stop. I bought: Sophie the giraffe, a Smart Mom Teething Bling necklace, an amber necklace,  and homeopathic teething drops in addition to infant acetaminophen and ibuprofen. I also got Orajel Naturals for a review program and Hyland’s Teething Tablets from Natali.

Nothing was that great. Sophie is a squeaky dog toy that smells like a rubber balloon and costs $20. I wanted to love the amber necklace, but for $25, it didn’t seem to do much. The teething bling necklace was probably my favorite since I can still wear it and he loves to chew on it. Most nights, we gave him some ibuprofen, numbed his gums with the Orajel, and popped two Hyland’s tablets. The Orajel numbed him quickly, then the ibuprofen gave him a few hours of relief. And the Hyland’s tablets were just fun to watch dissolve. Of course, take all of this with a grain of salt, since Gabe only has two teeth. And I hear kids usually get more than that, so we’ll be putting these toys to the test once more. Or twice more. But no more than twice more. That’s enough teeth for one baby.

And I just wrote three paragraphs about teething merchandise. Oh dear.

[If I didn’t answer your question, email me. For real. It was probably just a wee bit too personal to share on the world wide webs, but I am a very open person behind closed door. Or email inbox.)