1. We are currently PET FREE. A few months ago, I put my foot down about the FIGHTS over cleaning the bunny's cage (bunny belonging to Keith) and the FLIES that had taken over the den and living room as a result. I was surprised at NO ARGUMENTS over it. Keith, albeit honestly sad to see his little buddy go to the shelter, was also honest about his lack of desire to keep the bunny cage clean. Huh.
Then, on X-mas night, my husband discovered our darling guinea pig--the one whose life I saved exactly a year ago?--had um, expired. Was it because she was just a sickly pig? Was it because Mary had given her a slight sponge bath to get her cleaned up because she was so stinky, and perhaps inadvertently gave the pig a chill? Was it just HER TIME? We will never know. Mary, John, and I are quite bummed because we all felt she was a special pig and not just another "critter in a cage". Mary admits freely that she did not seem to pay as much attention to her since the baby was born...but still, she most certainly took better care of her than her brother did the rabbit that somehow managed to survive his I'm-bored-with-this-pet-now care for six years.
Izzy's turtle quietly left us. And the question of "has anyone seen him surface lately?" finally got answered by ME when I went LOOKING for him in his disgusting aquarium. The poor guy didn't really have a chance. His tank was in a part of the house which caused no one to remember him. And the cleaning of the tank needed to be done by the adults of the house instead of the kid--and a turtle who is stuck in a not-often-visited corner of the house will suffer in silence. And...we're not sure how often or how much the 8-year old was feeding him. BAD ADULTS on this one. :-(
Despite the sad losses, I am enjoying being pet free with no food, treats, or litter to purchase. And even though I would love to honor Mary with the request for a new pig, I am saying NO for now. I think that being pet free is the best option at our house at this baby-crazy time.
2. The baby. Oh, what a love. She now has SIX teeth (four within days of one another!). She is eating mostly table food now. She is starting to imitate sounds and actions. She can nod/shake her head. She says "bow wow wow" when we read her "Doggies" book. She points at EVERYTHING. She is finally wearing 9-12 month clothes. She weighed 16 lbs, 4 oz at her 9 (*cough* 10) month appointment. (Still tiny--even smaller than Mary at that age!) She is a Daddy's girl and lets him know that she does NOT like it when he sets her down. She is still spoiled and wakes up twice in the night. I have started trying to sleep train her, but with the crib in our room it just seems impossible. So I've been getting up with her at night and taking her into the living room and trying to get her to go back to sleep by cuddling her instead of nursing. It's been working about 50% of the time. 50% of the time I think I'm so exhausted that I just grab her and nurse her in bed and then wake up an hour later going, "Um, WHY do I not remember getting her?" Then there is John SHAKING the bed to wake ME if I don't respond to her cries right away. Yeah, I'm not responding because she DIDN'T WAKE ME UP. Sure. LET'S JUST SEE IF SHE WILL CRY IT OUT FOR A MINUTE, OK? We are not getting proper sleep either, is what I'm saying here.
3. I have polished up my resume and have actually applied for a few jobs.
4. I am learning new and interesting means of economy trying to tighten up our budget. We eat a LOT of eggs for dinner. Lately, ground turkey is cheaper than ground beef! Tofu is also cheap and easy. If the kids want hamburgers, I make mini-meatloaf-burgers to stretch out the beef. Mom can do without coffee (on most days....). But when I remember to bring in the recycling to the grocery store, I usually have enough to buy myself a coffee as a treat--a good incentive to get those bottles and cans out of the house!
5. I see I forgot to mention that at least three of us got the flu a few months back. Izzy came down with a 102* temp and slight cough during Thanksgiving week. Then a full week later Keith and I both came down with fevers and coughs. Keith rode in right at the 102* range while I shot right up to 103.2* at one point. I was so sick that I couldn't even properly take care of Keith. I was working at the time and kept Sophie home with us, and it was all I could do to nurse her and throw her a few cheerios. The x-mas tree got decorated by the kids (Keith bouncing back sooner than I) while I sat on the couch bundled up in blankets and in a stupor. I can't even tell you the last time I was that sick. Then Mary got sick a full week after that, but she only had a slight fever for about half a day, so we don't know WHAT she had. So, when it came time for Mary's and Izzy's annual appointment, I went ahead and skipped the flu shots. I mean, what was the point? We'd already had it. (I hope that doesn't bite me in the butt later this season!) And...we passed the nastiness on to my friend who was watching Sophie while I worked--and her family. NASTY FLU, folks. NASTY. Oh, and Sophie, who had had her flu shots? She only came down with a runny nose!!!
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Thursday, January 03, 2013
Q Holidays
Mary turned 13 on December 23, and we celebrated in style by seriously cleaning the house and then inviting five of her friends over for a sleepover. And...it was lovely. We invited friends from all different phases of Mary's life: past friend from our previous town/school, friend from Girl Scouts, friend from swimming club, new friend from middle school, and BFF. They all got along splendidly and were So Much Fun! And when I ran upstairs for a moment and then came back down at 12:37, I noticed that ALL was QUIET. They had actually all bundled into their sleeping bags and settled down for the night. I was expecting at least a 3 AM-er or something. Nope. Good, sweet children who were all apparently tired...? Anyway, Mary said it was the Best Birthday Party Ever!
Mary also learned a valuable lesson about texting while watching her baby sister. See, Sophia is a CLIMBER. None of my other children were climbers! So, now we can no longer just stick her in the high chair with a handful of Cheerios and turn our backs for a moment. Nope, she must be physically monitored at all times. Mary forgot this rule. And while Mom was downstairs turning over the laundry, Mary had put Sophie in the highchair and then left the room to answer a text. All of a sudden, Mom hears THUMP and "WAAAAAH!" A very, very scared Mom (and all the rest of the family) rushed in to find a scared, mostly-unhurt, crying baby. Oh, I think I lost a few years of my life on that one. Thankfully, Sophia only ended up with a bump on her nose. And ALL were reminded of the "can't leave her alone!" rule. I wasn't even mad at Mary--just relieved that my baby was OK. (She also climbs out of the bouncy seat, the stroller, and any shopping cart. No straps can contain THIS child!)
X-mas was spent opening presents and except for a few comments of "not getting what I wanted" by the middle two (one apparently forgetting he has a birthday coming up and the other apparently forgetting she JUST HAD a birthday a month ago) (and both apparently forgetting that they did not provide a Wish List until about a week before X-mas when 95% of the gifts were [sorry!] already bought and shipped and wrapped!), it was a great day. (They really DID get a lot of what they wanted, just not ALL of it or sometimes SPECIFICALLY the item written down.) We then cleaned up and headed off to our Japanese restaurant and had our lunch. We set off for the movie theatre, and...it was completely, totally packed with people. The line to buy tickets was soooo long, we eventually gave up--by the time we would have bought our tickets, we would have missed the first half of the movie! (NEVER has this happened to us on X-mas day!) We headed back, played with some of our presents, and then John took Mary and Keith back that afternoon to watch The Hobbit while Izzy, Sophie, and I stayed home and watched a few movies here (we were unsure of Izzy's reception of the movie--even though she's been read the book--and we were unsure of the 9 1/2 month old's ability to stay quiet now).
New Year's Eve started somewhat sporadic as everyone seemed to have a different idea of what to do, and at one point all five (since Sophia can hardly be counted since she was always with me) of us were each in different areas of the house. We finally all converged to the den where Mary, Keith and John played Just Dance 3 & 4 (well, John for ONE song, anyway--heh), and Izzy and I played Headbanz. John, not being the dancing type, broke out the Rock Band upstairs, and we finally all got together up there and sang and played Beatles tunes until we watched the ball drop. Mary strained her neck at her swim practice earlier that day, so after Just Dance, she was basically done for the night and spent the rest of the evening dozing under a blanket on the couch. John kept Izzy and Keith up until almost 2AM playing on Rock Band.
We slept in a little on New Year's Day (Well, me and Sophie, not so much--even though Sophie was up for MOST of NYE apparently not wanting to miss out on the fun?), then we met friends of Keith's and Mary's for sledding. Most Fun. Keith came home and took a two-hour nap, but the rest of us were up (Mary and Izzy finished the day with a playdate with their friends) and totally exhausted and totally NOT READY for school on Wednesday morning. Ugh.
Mary also learned a valuable lesson about texting while watching her baby sister. See, Sophia is a CLIMBER. None of my other children were climbers! So, now we can no longer just stick her in the high chair with a handful of Cheerios and turn our backs for a moment. Nope, she must be physically monitored at all times. Mary forgot this rule. And while Mom was downstairs turning over the laundry, Mary had put Sophie in the highchair and then left the room to answer a text. All of a sudden, Mom hears THUMP and "WAAAAAH!" A very, very scared Mom (and all the rest of the family) rushed in to find a scared, mostly-unhurt, crying baby. Oh, I think I lost a few years of my life on that one. Thankfully, Sophia only ended up with a bump on her nose. And ALL were reminded of the "can't leave her alone!" rule. I wasn't even mad at Mary--just relieved that my baby was OK. (She also climbs out of the bouncy seat, the stroller, and any shopping cart. No straps can contain THIS child!)
X-mas was spent opening presents and except for a few comments of "not getting what I wanted" by the middle two (one apparently forgetting he has a birthday coming up and the other apparently forgetting she JUST HAD a birthday a month ago) (and both apparently forgetting that they did not provide a Wish List until about a week before X-mas when 95% of the gifts were [sorry!] already bought and shipped and wrapped!), it was a great day. (They really DID get a lot of what they wanted, just not ALL of it or sometimes SPECIFICALLY the item written down.) We then cleaned up and headed off to our Japanese restaurant and had our lunch. We set off for the movie theatre, and...it was completely, totally packed with people. The line to buy tickets was soooo long, we eventually gave up--by the time we would have bought our tickets, we would have missed the first half of the movie! (NEVER has this happened to us on X-mas day!) We headed back, played with some of our presents, and then John took Mary and Keith back that afternoon to watch The Hobbit while Izzy, Sophie, and I stayed home and watched a few movies here (we were unsure of Izzy's reception of the movie--even though she's been read the book--and we were unsure of the 9 1/2 month old's ability to stay quiet now).
New Year's Eve started somewhat sporadic as everyone seemed to have a different idea of what to do, and at one point all five (since Sophia can hardly be counted since she was always with me) of us were each in different areas of the house. We finally all converged to the den where Mary, Keith and John played Just Dance 3 & 4 (well, John for ONE song, anyway--heh), and Izzy and I played Headbanz. John, not being the dancing type, broke out the Rock Band upstairs, and we finally all got together up there and sang and played Beatles tunes until we watched the ball drop. Mary strained her neck at her swim practice earlier that day, so after Just Dance, she was basically done for the night and spent the rest of the evening dozing under a blanket on the couch. John kept Izzy and Keith up until almost 2AM playing on Rock Band.
We slept in a little on New Year's Day (Well, me and Sophie, not so much--even though Sophie was up for MOST of NYE apparently not wanting to miss out on the fun?), then we met friends of Keith's and Mary's for sledding. Most Fun. Keith came home and took a two-hour nap, but the rest of us were up (Mary and Izzy finished the day with a playdate with their friends) and totally exhausted and totally NOT READY for school on Wednesday morning. Ugh.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)