So it seems once a week is about my average for posting the last month or so. There goes my Fairly Adequate Blogger status. I haven't been commenting on many of your blogs either, I know, and I'm sorry but have no explanation other than laziness. Well, and some work stuff, actually. I've been doing some event planning for my family's coffeehouse, and it's actually, you know, TAKING UP SOME TIME and all. And I haven't even been doing it singlehandedly by any means. I have such new respect for my sister in law, who has been handling most of that crap PLUS her three kids PLUS a full time job for the last six years.
Anyhoo, I can't even promise the posting/commenting sitch is going to get better anytime soon, since in a few weeks I will be gone again, two weekends in a ROW, and both times SANS HUSBAND AND KIDS. I KNOW. Let that sink into your brains for a minute. The last weekend of this month my mom and I are flying to Minnesota to visit my younger sister and her fiance. I've only seen her house in pictures and I've never been to the Great White North, so I'm pretty excited. And I get to meet her soon to be stepson, Logan, who is practically EXACTLY Addy's age, which is awesome. I'm always bugging my sisters and brother in law to hurry up and have kids so mine will have more cousins, and now my sister will be providing, via marriage, a kid who is the perfect age! Way to pick 'em, Rach.
Then the weekend after THAT, myself, my little(er) sister and three of our friends are driving to Louisville to meet up with my best friend from high school, who moved to Kentucky a few months ago after she graduated from pharmacy school (YAY RENEE!) And did I mention it's my sister and one of the friend's twenty-first birthdays? So that will probably be a pretty fun trip, I'm thinking.
Um, unless I'm newly pregnant, in which case I'll be doing zero drinking and probably lots of napping and staring queasily at the toilet, playing the "Will I or won't I barf?" game. Or maybe not? That stuff usually doesn't kick in until around five or six weeks, right? Geez, I can't even REMEMBER. Biology is so kind (and SNEAKY) in the way it erases all the gross parts of reproduction from your memory.
Speaking of the getting pregnant biz, man, the Clomid is affecting me a lot less pleasantly this time than the last. I am one grumpy mama already. My patience level is about nil right now, and I feel just FRESH OUT of tolerance for things like playing Spiderman off the back of the couch and wiping boogers on the sofa pillows and throwing the dog food into the water dish for the KATRILLIONTH time in one day. That stuff, and then also the crying and screaming and gnashing of teeth about catastrophes like getting a spot of water on one's sleeve or being unable to find a certain bath toy or getting the wrong color lid with one's sippee cup. These aren't hypothetical examples.
Whining, demanding and overreacting are more frustrating for me by far than outright misbehavior, because it's so much harder to pinpoint the WRONG ACTION that I am upset about. It's easy (theoretically anyways) to explain to an adult that their attitude or tone of voice is incorrect and frustrating, but when I tell Adelay to "talk nicely" she just repeats in an even more shrill screech, "Get me some milk now PLEASE!" Then I say, "Talk more softly," and so she'll hiss the above sentence instead. How do I get her to take the NASTY out of her voice?!
Relatedly, how do I explain to her that while it may be acceptable for an almost two year old to happily yell "Mi'k!" from his high chair and, so long as he has not hurled his cup at the nearest parent, be rewarded with more milk, it is not acceptable for her to do so, especially when her tone of voice is decidedly less cheerful?
Also (and sort of apropos of nothing,) lately when Eli has been particularly ornery and it seems he's been IN time out more often than OUT, Jim has taken to warning him, with a completely straight face, about The Big Time Out In The Sky. I think it is the funniest thing evah.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Fun Fact Friday!
Because I haven't stolen Tessie's idea in awhile:
-My sister made us a Cocoa Cola Marshmallow Cake the other day. It's very good, but also very weird, and I can only eat it a few bites at a time. So basically there's a pile of chocolate-ish goo sitting in the fridge with random dents dug out of it. It looks like a science project at this point.
-Addy is very into playing baby dolls right now, but dude, she keeps trying to get me to nurse her babies. Which mainly thrills me, because I'm so happy that she knows babies drink breast milk and that there's nothing weird or gross about breasts and RANT RANT RANT AMERICA HAS OVERSEXUALIZED THE BREAST AND EVERYONE NEEDS TO GET OVER IT ALREADY AND WHIP 'EM OUT IN THE NAME OF INFANT HEALTH etc. BUT. I feel a little weird whipping it out for a plastic doll staring at me with creepy, sightless marble eyes. I'm working on convincing Addy that it's perfectly acceptable to just PRETEND to nurse the baby and still keep my shirt on. So now she's taken to nursing it herself. Whatevs.
-I'm supposed to use an LH detector this month with the Clomid, which I've never done before because I can pretty much tell when I'm ovulating due to the DEEP DEEP STABBING PAIN that lasts for two days afterwards. But the doctor said the pain usually means your peak ovulation time is already passed, so... Whoops. Does anyone have any recommendations on a brand of LH kit? And perhaps an explanation for how exactly one uses an LH kit? Pregnancy tests I have MUCHO experience with, but this other kind of pee stick, not so much.
-Portable DVD players are the best invention ever. We now have TWO. But hey, we don't have cable, so it all evens out.
-Our vegetable garden is really taking off, despite little to no care or attention from us after initial planting. I gave it a good watering today and am a little AFRAID about how much growth might occur tonight.
-I went to a tiny little local grocery store today just for a change of pace, and Eli chose that particular hour to throw the hugest public fit I've ever witnessed. I had to tear into a box of fruit snacks which I wasn't even planning to buy AND carry him the entire time to get him to be even REASONABLY quiet. Yikes. I was totally expecting evil stares, but the older ladies who ran the store were SO nice and sympathetic. They kept suggesting every ailment or illness known to man that could be causing his misery, and reassuring me that, "He just doesn't understand why he doesn't feel good! Kids don't mean to be bad!" This was so nice to hear, compared to the usual nasty stares you get, or occasional comments about DISCIPLINE.
-I am such a disappointment as a mom to Adelay. She is currently losing it because of my colossal fail at making her a fort with pillows and blankets, and also at my pathetic attempt to make HAIR, for the love of pete, for her LEGO doll. I am batting a thousand today, lemme tell ya.
-Just discovered that some persistent and sharp-toothed varmint had a hayday in the garbage bags piled in our garage last night. Most especially with a sealed container of EXPIRED MEAT. There were rubber gloves and Lysol involved in the clean up, let's just say that. But I was tough about it, just got right in there picking up nectarine pits and broken jars and picked-clean meat bones and all, until I got to the MAGGOTS squirming beneath one of the bags. OMG. OMG. OMG. I was pretty much dry heaving after that. And now we'll be having pizza (AND WINE AND SOME LOVELY LOVELY WINE) for dinner because there is no way I can stomach looking at raw meat after that little adventure. Not for quite some time, I think.
-My sister made us a Cocoa Cola Marshmallow Cake the other day. It's very good, but also very weird, and I can only eat it a few bites at a time. So basically there's a pile of chocolate-ish goo sitting in the fridge with random dents dug out of it. It looks like a science project at this point.
-Addy is very into playing baby dolls right now, but dude, she keeps trying to get me to nurse her babies. Which mainly thrills me, because I'm so happy that she knows babies drink breast milk and that there's nothing weird or gross about breasts and RANT RANT RANT AMERICA HAS OVERSEXUALIZED THE BREAST AND EVERYONE NEEDS TO GET OVER IT ALREADY AND WHIP 'EM OUT IN THE NAME OF INFANT HEALTH etc. BUT. I feel a little weird whipping it out for a plastic doll staring at me with creepy, sightless marble eyes. I'm working on convincing Addy that it's perfectly acceptable to just PRETEND to nurse the baby and still keep my shirt on. So now she's taken to nursing it herself. Whatevs.
-I'm supposed to use an LH detector this month with the Clomid, which I've never done before because I can pretty much tell when I'm ovulating due to the DEEP DEEP STABBING PAIN that lasts for two days afterwards. But the doctor said the pain usually means your peak ovulation time is already passed, so... Whoops. Does anyone have any recommendations on a brand of LH kit? And perhaps an explanation for how exactly one uses an LH kit? Pregnancy tests I have MUCHO experience with, but this other kind of pee stick, not so much.
-Portable DVD players are the best invention ever. We now have TWO. But hey, we don't have cable, so it all evens out.
-Our vegetable garden is really taking off, despite little to no care or attention from us after initial planting. I gave it a good watering today and am a little AFRAID about how much growth might occur tonight.
-I went to a tiny little local grocery store today just for a change of pace, and Eli chose that particular hour to throw the hugest public fit I've ever witnessed. I had to tear into a box of fruit snacks which I wasn't even planning to buy AND carry him the entire time to get him to be even REASONABLY quiet. Yikes. I was totally expecting evil stares, but the older ladies who ran the store were SO nice and sympathetic. They kept suggesting every ailment or illness known to man that could be causing his misery, and reassuring me that, "He just doesn't understand why he doesn't feel good! Kids don't mean to be bad!" This was so nice to hear, compared to the usual nasty stares you get, or occasional comments about DISCIPLINE.
-I am such a disappointment as a mom to Adelay. She is currently losing it because of my colossal fail at making her a fort with pillows and blankets, and also at my pathetic attempt to make HAIR, for the love of pete, for her LEGO doll. I am batting a thousand today, lemme tell ya.
-Just discovered that some persistent and sharp-toothed varmint had a hayday in the garbage bags piled in our garage last night. Most especially with a sealed container of EXPIRED MEAT. There were rubber gloves and Lysol involved in the clean up, let's just say that. But I was tough about it, just got right in there picking up nectarine pits and broken jars and picked-clean meat bones and all, until I got to the MAGGOTS squirming beneath one of the bags. OMG. OMG. OMG. I was pretty much dry heaving after that. And now we'll be having pizza (AND WINE AND SOME LOVELY LOVELY WINE) for dinner because there is no way I can stomach looking at raw meat after that little adventure. Not for quite some time, I think.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
A Blog Post! About Actual Stuff!
Well, lookee here. I was clicking around the ole Internetz this morning and discovered that I apparently have, like, this blog thing. That I write in regularly. I suspect that this nugget of information slipped through a crack in my brain this last week or so, falling, unnoticed, into the piles of detritus and genuine filth that as of yesterday were still covering the majority of the floor space in our once-lovely Town and Country. The upholstery in that family vehicle has taken quite a hit in the name of family fun this summer, let me tell you.
I kid you not, I spent the bulk of two hours cleaning that van out. And I don't even mean really detailing it, like with Armor All and a squeegee and a can of wax. I mean, throwing armfuls of CRAP out the door, pell mell, until the yard was littered with broken plastic crowns and bent up board books and empty fry containers and lone flip flops and kiddee sized lawn chairs and granola bar wrappers and, strangest of all, random pieces of plastic fruit from our play food collection. Once all the junk was out, I could face the horror of the actual floor, which could barely be seen beneath its carpeting of sand, gravel bits, grass clippings, ground up Pop Tart dust, and of course, innumerable bits of petrified french fry.
I just about broke my vacuum cleaner on that mess, no lie. Or, my vacuum cleaner just about broke me. I probably looked like a cartoon character, wrestling around with it furiously in the driveway, the humidity sproinging my hair up into a crazy lady wig while I futzed around with extension cords and hissed menacingly at the various attachments I was slamming around.
But! That nightmare is behind me, and the van, while not showroom clean by any means, is at least free of the bulk of the dust and food particles previously covering every visible surface. The kids, however, are now covered in snot, as they have both come down with colds just in time for yet another road trip scheduled this Saturday, this time to Michigan for a big joint birthday party. So the car should be back to its usual condition, a veritable Little Shop of Horrors, within a few days.
In other news, Addy has an appointment with a group of eye specialists a few towns away next week because we found out right before we left for Canada that she has intermittent strabismus, sometimes referred to as lazy eye, though it's actually a different problem. Basically the muscles in left eye are weak and have trouble focusing, even though her actual vision in both eyes is perfect. We've noticed her squinting, closing or covering her left eye quite often, particularly when she's trying to focus or trying to look at something far away. And then lately we've begun to actually see her eye travel a bit when she's relaxed. Sometimes she'll blink and correct it, but often, if she's tired, she'll just let her left eye go unfocused. Once I had her in the doctor's office and he was doing the tests, you could really see the problem. She was almost incapable of focusing with that eye alone, and has obviously become used to just not using it when it begins to drift to the side, which of course has only exaggerated its previous weakness.
We're going to begin with treatments to exercise and strengthen her eye. How often and for how long remains to be seen. Many people with this problem end up in surgery, but the doctor here in town was optimistic that we caught it early enough that exercise alone will correct it. So here's hoping. And while you're hoping, maybe also hope that our insurance will decide to help us out a little!
And now I have to go get ready, because I have an ultrasound scheduled in two hours to check my ovaries! And if all seems well, its back on the Clomid I go. Somewhat problematically, I also have an appointment next week with my surgeon to see about having an old hernia repaired. It's one of those little hernias which they often patch with mesh, and the mesh is now weakening and causing pain and probably pulling at scar tissue or something. It's only moderately annoying right now, mainly when I exercise or lay on my stomach or something, but I don't want to let it get any worse and then get pregnant and just have to deal with it for another year.
Back when I had it fixed my doctor said that about one out of every ten hernias will need repaired later on, probably more than that for women who get pregnant after having one. So it's not a total shocker, but still annoying. I THINK I can get squeezed in to have it repaired before I ovulate though, so fret not: I'm not planning on trying to get knocked up and THEN going under anesthesia for an elective surgical procedure. And I'm definitely going to ask her if it's ok to have anesthesia-type drugs after a round of Clomid. If not, then oh well. I'll just deal with it until I CAN get it fixed, and at least I'll have the consult out of the way. But I wouldn't think it would be an issue, so long as I got it done before the actual getting pregnant part, right?
Edited to add: My ovaries are good to go. However, as of this morning, my glorious tan from the beach has turned into a horrible case of brown, molting skin on my forehead, nose and cheekbones. It is sex-AY. Hooray for irreparable sun damage!
I kid you not, I spent the bulk of two hours cleaning that van out. And I don't even mean really detailing it, like with Armor All and a squeegee and a can of wax. I mean, throwing armfuls of CRAP out the door, pell mell, until the yard was littered with broken plastic crowns and bent up board books and empty fry containers and lone flip flops and kiddee sized lawn chairs and granola bar wrappers and, strangest of all, random pieces of plastic fruit from our play food collection. Once all the junk was out, I could face the horror of the actual floor, which could barely be seen beneath its carpeting of sand, gravel bits, grass clippings, ground up Pop Tart dust, and of course, innumerable bits of petrified french fry.
I just about broke my vacuum cleaner on that mess, no lie. Or, my vacuum cleaner just about broke me. I probably looked like a cartoon character, wrestling around with it furiously in the driveway, the humidity sproinging my hair up into a crazy lady wig while I futzed around with extension cords and hissed menacingly at the various attachments I was slamming around.
But! That nightmare is behind me, and the van, while not showroom clean by any means, is at least free of the bulk of the dust and food particles previously covering every visible surface. The kids, however, are now covered in snot, as they have both come down with colds just in time for yet another road trip scheduled this Saturday, this time to Michigan for a big joint birthday party. So the car should be back to its usual condition, a veritable Little Shop of Horrors, within a few days.
In other news, Addy has an appointment with a group of eye specialists a few towns away next week because we found out right before we left for Canada that she has intermittent strabismus, sometimes referred to as lazy eye, though it's actually a different problem. Basically the muscles in left eye are weak and have trouble focusing, even though her actual vision in both eyes is perfect. We've noticed her squinting, closing or covering her left eye quite often, particularly when she's trying to focus or trying to look at something far away. And then lately we've begun to actually see her eye travel a bit when she's relaxed. Sometimes she'll blink and correct it, but often, if she's tired, she'll just let her left eye go unfocused. Once I had her in the doctor's office and he was doing the tests, you could really see the problem. She was almost incapable of focusing with that eye alone, and has obviously become used to just not using it when it begins to drift to the side, which of course has only exaggerated its previous weakness.
We're going to begin with treatments to exercise and strengthen her eye. How often and for how long remains to be seen. Many people with this problem end up in surgery, but the doctor here in town was optimistic that we caught it early enough that exercise alone will correct it. So here's hoping. And while you're hoping, maybe also hope that our insurance will decide to help us out a little!
And now I have to go get ready, because I have an ultrasound scheduled in two hours to check my ovaries! And if all seems well, its back on the Clomid I go. Somewhat problematically, I also have an appointment next week with my surgeon to see about having an old hernia repaired. It's one of those little hernias which they often patch with mesh, and the mesh is now weakening and causing pain and probably pulling at scar tissue or something. It's only moderately annoying right now, mainly when I exercise or lay on my stomach or something, but I don't want to let it get any worse and then get pregnant and just have to deal with it for another year.
Back when I had it fixed my doctor said that about one out of every ten hernias will need repaired later on, probably more than that for women who get pregnant after having one. So it's not a total shocker, but still annoying. I THINK I can get squeezed in to have it repaired before I ovulate though, so fret not: I'm not planning on trying to get knocked up and THEN going under anesthesia for an elective surgical procedure. And I'm definitely going to ask her if it's ok to have anesthesia-type drugs after a round of Clomid. If not, then oh well. I'll just deal with it until I CAN get it fixed, and at least I'll have the consult out of the way. But I wouldn't think it would be an issue, so long as I got it done before the actual getting pregnant part, right?
Edited to add: My ovaries are good to go. However, as of this morning, my glorious tan from the beach has turned into a horrible case of brown, molting skin on my forehead, nose and cheekbones. It is sex-AY. Hooray for irreparable sun damage!
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Can't Talk! Playing!
You know, it always used to annoy me when bloggers would sort of go MIA during the summer, posting lightly here and there and even then, only with quick, quasi-funny stories or pictures of their kids, followed by the inevitable, "Sorry about infrequent posts- it's the SUMMER and we're so BUSY!"
(Busy preparing to give the Kiss of Life to a fallen comrade, apparently.)
Well. How are the mighty fallen. But I don't even feel too apologetic, because MAN, it's nice to be enjoying a summer during which I am not largely pregnant nor do I have a relatively young, nursing baby, as has been the case for the previous, oh, FOUR summers. Sure, there are still diapers to change, but at least no one is physically lodging under my ribcage, or essentially tied to my body every two or three hours due to the WONDER and BEAUTY of breastfeeding. So look out, world: you are pretty much my oyster!
And now we're off to pack because we're going back to the cottage this weekend- for the third time already since May! The Fourth of July is also my FIL's birthday, so we'll be celebrating our American Independence in Canada this year.
Another picture of sweet kids to lengthen post:
(Busy preparing to give the Kiss of Life to a fallen comrade, apparently.)
Well. How are the mighty fallen. But I don't even feel too apologetic, because MAN, it's nice to be enjoying a summer during which I am not largely pregnant nor do I have a relatively young, nursing baby, as has been the case for the previous, oh, FOUR summers. Sure, there are still diapers to change, but at least no one is physically lodging under my ribcage, or essentially tied to my body every two or three hours due to the WONDER and BEAUTY of breastfeeding. So look out, world: you are pretty much my oyster!
And now we're off to pack because we're going back to the cottage this weekend- for the third time already since May! The Fourth of July is also my FIL's birthday, so we'll be celebrating our American Independence in Canada this year.
Another picture of sweet kids to lengthen post:
Sunday, June 28, 2009
O. M. G. Also, I Quit
Fonzie threw up his entire breakfast today while we were eating lunch. He's a big dog, you know, so his meals are big too, which means that the enormous pile of regurgitated meal was... big.
Jim put Eli down for his nap after lunch. Ten minutes later, he went in to find that Eli had torn off his diaper- his FULL dirty diaper- and stepped in the contents, before running all over the room and his bedding. Man do I wish we had held off on that "moving him out of his crib" business another week or so.
While I was scrubbing the rug, wiping down the entire wood floor, sanitizing the tub wherein Eli had undergone Feces Removal and soaking the bedding, I heard a yell of alarm from the den, followed by the rapid pattering of Addy's feet as she announced, "Eli broke the computer!"
While he hadn't broken it, he did manage to climb onto the desk chair and rip several plastic letter covers off the keyboard of Jim's laptop.
Also, the other day Eli pooped in the bathtub. For like the fifth time.
These are the kind of days that I feel 100% glad, not even a tiny bit sorry, perhaps even downright CELEBRATORY, that I am not pregnant.
Jim put Eli down for his nap after lunch. Ten minutes later, he went in to find that Eli had torn off his diaper- his FULL dirty diaper- and stepped in the contents, before running all over the room and his bedding. Man do I wish we had held off on that "moving him out of his crib" business another week or so.
While I was scrubbing the rug, wiping down the entire wood floor, sanitizing the tub wherein Eli had undergone Feces Removal and soaking the bedding, I heard a yell of alarm from the den, followed by the rapid pattering of Addy's feet as she announced, "Eli broke the computer!"
While he hadn't broken it, he did manage to climb onto the desk chair and rip several plastic letter covers off the keyboard of Jim's laptop.
Also, the other day Eli pooped in the bathtub. For like the fifth time.
These are the kind of days that I feel 100% glad, not even a tiny bit sorry, perhaps even downright CELEBRATORY, that I am not pregnant.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Out of Breath
This week, rapid fire:
-moving my old twin bed to our house from my parents' house
-setting up twin bed in Addy's room
-moving Eli's dresser INTO Addy's room and moving a bunch of toys OUT of her room
-coaxing Eli to sleep in the toddler bed in the same room as his sister
-coaxing the kids to play with their toys in the official play room (Eli's old room) rather than dragging every basket and car and ball back to the living room
-coffee with a friend I haven't seen in awhile
-drinks with another friend I haven't seen in awhile
-sadly little exercise
Today, rapid fire:
-two farmer's market visits
-grocery shopping
-sweeping off the front porch of an enormous mound of seed pods and dirt, throwing away a dead hanging basket and replacing it (and WATERING it so it doesn't meet its predecessor's fate)
-Jim giving Eli's hair a fade without letting me know about it first
-going to a cookout
-going to a concert at the coffeehouse
-going to a fireworks display
-moving my old twin bed to our house from my parents' house
-setting up twin bed in Addy's room
-moving Eli's dresser INTO Addy's room and moving a bunch of toys OUT of her room
-coaxing Eli to sleep in the toddler bed in the same room as his sister
-coaxing the kids to play with their toys in the official play room (Eli's old room) rather than dragging every basket and car and ball back to the living room
-coffee with a friend I haven't seen in awhile
-drinks with another friend I haven't seen in awhile
-sadly little exercise
Today, rapid fire:
-two farmer's market visits
-grocery shopping
-sweeping off the front porch of an enormous mound of seed pods and dirt, throwing away a dead hanging basket and replacing it (and WATERING it so it doesn't meet its predecessor's fate)
-Jim giving Eli's hair a fade without letting me know about it first
-going to a cookout
-going to a concert at the coffeehouse
-going to a fireworks display
Sunday, June 21, 2009
To My Baby Daddy
Happy Father's Day, Jim! Thanks for all the times you're patient when I am losing it, rational when I'm frantic, stern when I'm being a pushover, fun when I'm boring, and awake when I'm sleeping! I would never want to parent without you. Hope you had a great day!
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