Enrique, as an animal welfare advocate and animal rescuer I do not support breeding, not even the most responsible of responsible breeding. I understand why you called me biased and I don’t disagree, this is after all a blog, which expresses my opinion. Until the homeless rate and euthanasia rates are down in this country, I stand vehemently against breeding of any kind. Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment.
More on Dogs
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Year: 2011
Still Sick
Hack. Wheeze. Cough.
After being fed-up of my almost-week long cold (that I so luckily got from my husband Jason and passed on to our son Mylo) I went to the Brooklyn Heights after-hours clinic on Sunday. The doctor I saw listened to my chest and told me I had an upper-respiratory infection. I told him I was breastfeeding and he prescribed me medication accordingly. An antibiotic and a steroid. I never really questioned him because a) he’s a doctor and knows better than me and b) I was willing to sniff glue if that’s what would make me feel better.
But it’s been 2 1/2 days since I have been on the meds and while my voice has cleared up, my cough certainly hasn’t. But I am so sick of hacking up a lung while I am mid-sentence that I went back to the doc’s office again this morning…
So $60 later (co-pays are a pricey $30 for each visit), the doctor I saw today told me I had nothing more than a common cold and that he never would have put me on an antibiotic. Seriously, WTF?
Blog it and they will come?
I came across a great post about building community through blogging by Amber Strocel of Strocel.com, I only wish I came across it when it was published last March. I came into the blogosphere in 2008 – I didn’t miss the boat, but I was late.
Strocel writes that she lurked on other blogs but didn’t comment. She didn’t participate in forums or social media either, and was nervous about the prospect of having visitors to her blog. That’s me in a nutshell. She proceeds to share invaluable tips about how she makes blogging work for her.
I wish I stumbled on Strocel’s blog last year as I was just laid-off and pregnant and certainly had a ton of free time on my hands. Not to mention that I didn’t take blogging seriously until May 2010 when I made the leap from Blogger to WordPress.
Now my son Mylo is six months old and I recently wrote something that was featured on BlogHer and they subsequently came. Now I am frantically trying to absorb, absorb and absorb as much as I can about building and keeping a community.
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How did you get and how do you maintain your blog community?
Mederma My A$$
Update
The goddesses at Groupon must have ESP! The morning after I submitted this post I got my daily Groupon email and it was (hold on to your seats), for three stretch mark removal sessions for $220 with Dr. Morris Westfried right here in Brooklyn!! The same Dr. Westfried that I paid $1,000 to remove one of my three tattoos in 2006. Where were the Gods, forget the Gods, where was Groupon then, HUH?!
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I often refer to the 40 weeks I spent pregnant as the most magical nine months of my life. But those gorgeous nine months left me with stretch marks on the underbelly of my belly, the part you can’t see when you’re carrying around a watermelon in your uterus. I didn’t even know they were there until I dropped a good chunk of the 32-pounds I added while preggers and my tan vanished after the summer. At my six-week post-partum appointment my midwife, Beverly, advised me there was cream out there for it.
Save. Your. Money.
I read the decidedly mixed reviews for Mederma on drugstore.com and took the plunge anyway. I have been using the cream as advised, twice daily, for a few months now and zero, zilch, nada. As in, they are not gone. NOT as in there are no more. My stretch marks, which are slightly darker than my skin color, are still very much with me.
I’m torn about my mama-marks. On the one hand they signify a magical time in my life when I did not yet know the little person budding inside me, and on the other hand they serve as a reminder that even if I can get my body back into a bikini, it won’t ever be perfect.
As far as Mederma goes, I wish I had saved my money.
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Are there any mama’s out there that can recommend a different product for stretch marks? One that actually works?! Do share!
January 2011 Takeaways
I’ve had this blog for almost three years but always kept it to myself. No more. This year, I made ‘building a blog community’ one of my New Year’s resolutions, and well, to do that I need to blog more for starters. Becoming a more active participant in blogs I like would help, too.
Writing down my monthly takeaways will help me see how therapeutic this blog can be and how much growth and progress I have made in my life (or not). After all, a month left behind means my son is one month older, I am one month older and therefore, hopefully, one month wiser.
My hope is that these takeaways will be fun and interactive and that you will join me by posting about your takeaways from this past month in the comments, below.
So, here goes…
My January Takeaways
1. Breastfeeding a baby who has teeth is not that painful after all.
2. Running with the baby jogger kicks my butt.
3. Collecting unemployment insurance benefits does not mean I am a stay-at-home-mom.
4. I am torn about going back to work as an analyst at a financial company. (Writing more on that depends on whether or not I land the job).
5. Homeless people have a story. My new friends’ story in particular, is a compelling one.
6. The ASPCA has a program called “Operation Pit” in which even the most unfortunate pitbull gets spayed/neutered, vaccinated and microchipped, FOR FREE.
Nirvana doning her free K9 camo gear after her surgery.
6. It’s worth waiting until after the holidays to get your fix of much-needed retail therapy.
My $475 Michael Kors boots that I paid $100 for.
7. I am in awe of how social media has sped up the process of protest in Egypt.
8. I should have opened a consignment shop in Brooklyn when I still had a sizable nest egg.
9. If your pup has blood in her poop, don’t delay. Take her to the vet. ($165 later)
Ella was poopin' blood on and off the whole month.
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So, what are some of your takeaways from this past month? Please share them with me in the comments, I’d love to hear!
Snow Storm Numero Ocho
Not sure if I’m right about this being the eighth snow storm of the season, I pretty much lost track after the first two wallops. Honestly, it feels as if it’s been snowing once a week since the first storm on December 26th!
I ran out to get bagels this morning and for the first time in almost 11 years that I have lived in this neighborhood, it was closed! Closed because not one employee was able to get their butts in to work! Bococa without bagels on a snow day? Blasphemy!!
I took these two photos on my way there. The first one is a good representation of the main road which is plowed and is the main drag since the sidewalks look like something out of Siberia. The side streets are also another story. On the hunt for some place else to buy breakfast had me trekking down Bergen Street where I saw a couple of kids snowboarding! Yes, snowboarding in Boulder Brooklyn.
Michael Vick Dogs on PBS
This is quite possibly the best video yet chronicling the Michael Vick dogs. Well done PBS.
Mylostone – First Cold
My baby's got a cold 🙁
Ok, so it’s not a good Mylostone, but it is one nonetheless. I woke up with a piercing sore throat Monday morning – the beginnings of a winter cold. And by mid-afternoon my son Mylo’s eyes were glassy and he was sneezing. By nightfall the poor guy had a fever.
It reached 102.5 Tuesday morning, which was alarming to say the least, so off to the doctor we went. Luckily though, by mid-afternoon, his temperature was pretty much gone. They said to keep an eye on his fever and his willingness to nurse – which of course was not hampered the slightest!
I feel horrible that I gave my baby my cold. It is day three now and while we are on the mend, we also share a gnarly-sounding cough.
NYC Ups The Ante On Dog Laws
Alas, two bills were passed by the city council Tuesday aimed at protecting dogs in New York City. Now Mayor Mike just needs to sign them into affect!
The first one takes aim at people who tie their dogs up outside in all weather for hours and sometimes even days at a time. The second looks to a more than 50% increase in the licensing fee for dogs that are not spayed or neutered.
NY1 covered the story and posted a video here: http://tinyurl.com/4kuw95s
Also published on Huffington Post.
Mashed Avocado
My son Mylo recently started on solid foods. As I wrote in an earlier post we unintentionally started with something sweet, mashed bananas. Not ideal, I know, so at the behest of our midwife, we introduced mashed avocado soon after. I wish I had a picture of what happened when we did — better yet, I wish I had video of it.
Yea ok. Not my son. But it might as well have been.
Mylo shuttered, winced, scrunched up his face, began to cough and then threw up green!! And of course my husband and I could not help but laugh hysterically. I think it’s safe to say that we’ll be holding off on the mashed avocado.