The summer monsoons are upon us!

Horray! Horray! Horray! This was all I could say when the weatherman finally reported that rain was highly likely and we would finally be getting our summer monsoons. Now let me be clear I despise monsoon season, not for the rain per se, but rather for the general lack of other peoples knowledge of how to drive in it. Growing up on the north east coast of the US I've always been comfortable driving in all kinds of weather...snow, sleet, hail, ice, rain, storms, wind, sun, you name it I've driven it and happily so. This is not the case here on the west coast and especially in the deserts of Arizona, people here either don't know how to drive in poor weather or are just afraid to do so and it's bothersome to me because I get in a groove of knowing what I'm doing and where I'm going and someone gets infront of me who just has no clue and so decides to travel at a snails pace for miles instead of pulling off into a parking area and waiting out the rain they so fear.

I was however thrilled to hear of the coming rain because for weeks it has been 110+ degrees in the daytime and hovering just below 90 at night. So the rain is welcome because with the rain comes temperatures in the 100-107 range and low to mid 80's at night which feels like a cool breeze compared to what we've been having. So last night we had a great rain, it poured for more than an hour, and then continued to drizzle for another hour or more. This storm however moved in during the wee morning hours when most normal people are asleep, I however was up feeding the baby when it just began to rain. I fed little man and then went to sleep...about an hour later I was awakened to the most awful sounding boom! It was thunder and I have never heard it so loud in all my 27 years, so I laid in bed a few more minutes and the super loud thunder continued. I got up and started to walk in to check on the older boys when my oldest came in crying that he was scared so I cuddled him a bit, tucked him into my bed and went to check on the middle boy (the baby was happily sleeping through all of this) who was sitting up in his bed and told me he can't sleep because the thunder is too loud. I brought him too into my bed, which at this point is quite crowded as it now holds me, my 6yo, my 5yo, and my 1month old poor hubby would have to either move them in the morning when he got home, sleep in the older boys room, or sleep on the sofa since there is now no room in our bed. This terrible thunder continued for more than an hour and somewhere in the middle of it lightning hit someone's air conditioner because all we heard was a loud crack with flashes of light and then this morning the crane was here removing an a/c unit. This was not the start to summer monsoons I was hoping for, as I am now a very tired mama who got all total maybe 4 hours of sleep since it's nearly impossible to go back to sleep with that thunder cracking.

Hopefully tonight's storms will not be so loud or damaging. Oh and I should add mama isn't a fan of thunderstorms (yeah the old angels are bowling story didn't work for me). Birbitt wants the rain but would prefer if the thunderstorms would be a little quieter and maybe not shake her whole house!

Old habits are hard to break...

and even harder to restart. Yes this is a funny way to start a blog post but here's the issue. I was raised on a farm, my family raised goats and we sold the milk as well as the meat (I have never and will never eat goat so please don't ask me what it tastes like) and being that we already owned the goats I was also raised on goats milk instead of cow milk. We made our own cheese from goat milk, we made fudge from goat milk, we made butter from goat milk (that's a funny story), we drank goat milk, we made ice cream from goat milk, and we made yogurt from goat milk. So until the day I got married and moved in with my husband I never tasted even a drop of cow milk. I never even drank milk in school unless it was milk mom had sent in my lunchbox.

So about a week or so ago my little baby was very fussy, generally unhappy (and until then he'd been a very happy baby), screaming, and just miserable. After nearly an hour of rocking, cuddling, burping, singing, talking, rubbing, and everything else I could think of he finally let out this MONSTER burp and then promptly threw up everywhere. I couldn't figure it out, so the next feeding he does the same thing, and again at the next feeding. I started thinking about what I might have eaten that would upset him and all I could come up with was milk. So I didn't drink anymore milk for a few days and he seemed all better. I figured I'd just go to the store and get some goat milk and try that see if it wasn't better...yeah not going to happen I took one taste of that goat milk and YUCK! I know it's not the same milk I grew up on because it's been pasteurized and such but still it just tasted horrible I just didn't like it, so I bought some Lactaid milk and we've been doing good with that and it tastes fine to me.

I found it strange that when I started cow milk I hated it for months, but eventually got used to it, and now I can't stand the taste of goat milk which I used to love. While it was hard for me to break the goat milk habit, it's even harder to start drinking it again. Guess I'll just stick to lactaid milk (and I do love milk).

What is it about babies?

What is it about babies that make complete strangers want to come up and touch both me and my newborn baby? I understand babies are cute and that babies are blessings and everyone (myself included) wants to look at new babies and tell the parents how cute they are and such, and I understand that babies bring us hope and joy sometimes when there is little of both to be found, but WHY must people touch them?

Now I don't mind when someone I know touches my baby, because I know them I trust them and I expect that they are not going to harm or endanger my child. Strangers are another matter all together though and I really would prefer that they simply look, make their comments and then walk away without touching my child or me. I am not so crazy about germs and such that I feel the need to sanitize every possible surface my child will touch, or that I feel I must sanitize myself before handling my baby but really I do not know what other people have touched before touching my little one. Although beyond just the germ issue I really think it's rude to touch someone else without their permission or in the case of a child without the parent's permission.

When I took my little man to church on Sunday for the first time and presented him to the church members no one and I do mean no one actually touched the baby and several people actually stayed away because they were not feeling well and didn't want to pass it on to the baby. I appreciated this because they were showing respect for me and for my baby, and they were being cautious to avoid exposing him to unnecessary germs that may make him ill. Now had the church members touched him I would not have had a problem because these are people I know and trust, and I fully trust that they would not touch him if they thought for any reason it would harm him or make him ill.

I had to go to the grocery store on Saturday and for ease of the whole family my Dear Husband decided to stay home with the older two boys while I took the baby and did the shopping (basically I am the only one with the baby's food source and hubby is not allowed to do the shopping) and in the one hour I was inside Albertson's my son had attracted the attention of at least 15 people 3 being small children whose parents lifted them up so they could see AND touch my son. I did ask that they not touch him, but some people just don't seem to listen. I tried to steer away from any isle that had more than one or two people in it just to lessen the chance of little man attracting attention, but it didn't work. Even the lady behind the meat counter came out and touched him (this was especially gross to me since she handles raw meat all day). I appreciated everyones congratulations and well wishes and kind comments, but I really wish they wouldn't touch my baby.

So to all you baby touchers out there please at least ask the parent before you touch a baby, you never know if that child is very succeptable to illness or very sensitive to lotions, or soaps that you may have on, or even if the parent is just uncomfortable with strangers touching her child so please, please, please ask first or just make your comments and walk on by.