Friday, September 21, 2012
Any Other Name
I have officially decided that we have TOO MANY CHILDREN. Keeping track of the times/schedules/activities for three children (plus baby!) has become worse than keeping up with a highly stressful job. I am not sure how the house would function without G o o g l e calendar. The laundry is a fright. If I fall behind on dishes, clutter, and the laundry, I start panicking about ending up on some hoarders' TV show. The baby has absolutely NO bedtime routine to her life because we have a different schedule from one day to the next on who/when we're picking up from what activity. NO ROUTINE. So, no, Dr. Mrs. Pediatrician, I am not surprised (and frankly not even gonna worry about) the fact that she does not sleep through the night yet.
Oh, but she's such a delicious baby! So happy and cheerful! Smiles for almost everyone (except ONE of my friends--LOL!). NO. I refuse to worry about the sleeping thing.
It would be nice if she had her own room, though.
Admitting to the world that Sophia's name just doesn't seem to suit her was a nice thing to get off my chest. And I know that Swistle is RIGHT. It really isn't that hard to change a baby's name. Really. And I think that if it really bothered me THAT much--if I REALLY wanted to do it, I would. But I decided not to, and I guess it's mainly because the whole BABY THING in general was somewhat new to us and getting used to having a baby around the house was enough of an adjustment. Maybe it wasn't just the name, but still--even months later--the CONCEPT of another baby around here I wanted to wrap my brain around. So, no, I'm not changing her name. But I am making more of a conscious effort to call her by her name--even in my head--to help get used to it. (I'm having a very foggy memory of trying to get used to Mary and Izzy's name, too.) And I think that the biggest reason for not changing the name is that for several weeks Sophie has been at the age where SHE knows her name. She looks up and responds when we say her name. How can I change it now? :-) So I'm using it more often when speaking to/about her, and I only cringe when I see reference to the million other Sophia/Sofia's born this last year (top girl's name of 2011!). Or when I tell it to the obviously-Italian-descent folks who frequent my grocery store. (Yes, I stole your culture's name! LOL)
Sophia had her six-month appointment last week, and she is now a "whopping" 14 pounds 4 ounces. She's still a peanut weight-wise, but length-wise she is exactly at the 50 percentile. The doc is quite pleased. Sophia is already bypassing Mary in the weight/height aspect. Poor little Mary. She will always be the first and most peanutty of our peanuts!
Speaking of Mary, she got to officially babysit (for money!) for the first time last week. She watched the neighbors' five- and seven-year old kids when the parents were at their Curriculum Night. She only ended up there an hour and they paid her $15 (!--well, you see, the parents were accidentally told the wrong curriculum night by the 2nd grade teacher, so they did not have to stay, so they paid Mary for the "intended time out" instead of actual time). The kids were good, and Mary came home saying that she hoped babysitting would always be that easy!
John is now a Major League coach for the little league. Draft was last week, and while he (and Keith--whom John picked for his team. heh) are excited about a few winter practices and getting things started up in the spring, John was a bit bummed to go back over his picks and realize that he's going to be short pitchers. It might be a tough season! Ah well.
Izzy has taken to the swim club very well and absolutely loves it. It's wearing her out beyond believe, though. She has been sleeping like a log at night. And I've noticed several more "slips" of forgetting homework, etc. than she has ever done in the past. We may need to go down to two nights of swimming a week instead of three.
Since school has started Keith has remembered to bring home all his homework, planner, and reading log ONCE (and that wasn't even on the first day of school!). It's been worse than usual. The teacher sent me a kind note the yesterday to ask me to check his homework and planner since he's not been turning it in. Ah, sweet teacher. I sign the planner EVERY TIME I SEE IT. If my name's not on there, HE DID NOT BRING IT HOME. That kid is driving me absolutely NUTS.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Back to Life
So we went on our annual trip to the ocean and then school started and that means...summer is OVER. It didn't really hit me until we were driving home from Ocean City that this was indeed the end and that all that stuff I wanted to do over the summer--like get the kids to work a little on their math and try to teach Izzy how to ride a bike without training wheels--just didn't happen. To me, the whole summer felt like one very LONG Sunday. We lounged around the house in our jammies until 11:00 playing or reading, then got dressed, ate lunch, and then lounged, read, and played some more until the girls had to go to their swim club. And then every now and then we actually DID something. Like go swimming at a friend's house, go to the library, or...what else did we do now? Hmmm.... Well, I'm not too bummed about it. It was a good summer anyway.
Anyway, here some pics!
Anyway, here some pics!
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| Ocean City, NJ |
First Day of School
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| Rocking on her knees and trying to crawl! |
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Name Regret
A few weeks ago, John was playing with the baby and says to me, "You know, we should have named her Lucy. I don't think Sophia fits."
...And thus it has officially been verified that we did indeed pick the WRONG name for our baby.
Know what's crazy? *I'm* the one who picked the name to begin with. *I'm* the one who kept putting it on MY top ten list. ME ME ME. But you see, HE sold me on the name Darcy (or Elliot). But then HE had second thoughts at the 11th hour. And then he surprised me by picking Sophia--a name he never really expressed interest in when I kept adding it to my list. And I did say, "I think she looks more like a Darcy than a Sophia." And the name has just not seemed right to me since he picked it. But SOMETHING had to go on that darn birth certificate.
Every time I tell people her name, I feel the need to EXPLAIN it. To justify why we picked this perfectly lovely name that just. doesn't. seem. to. fit. her!
But really. She does NOT look like a Sophia.
And I refuse to go through the hassle of changing her name after the fact.
So I call her Sophie, but you know, that doesn't seem right, either. I know that in a year or so it won't be a big deal. We'll get used to it.
But I wish he would just let me call her Loretta.
*sigh*
...And thus it has officially been verified that we did indeed pick the WRONG name for our baby.
Know what's crazy? *I'm* the one who picked the name to begin with. *I'm* the one who kept putting it on MY top ten list. ME ME ME. But you see, HE sold me on the name Darcy (or Elliot). But then HE had second thoughts at the 11th hour. And then he surprised me by picking Sophia--a name he never really expressed interest in when I kept adding it to my list. And I did say, "I think she looks more like a Darcy than a Sophia." And the name has just not seemed right to me since he picked it. But SOMETHING had to go on that darn birth certificate.
Every time I tell people her name, I feel the need to EXPLAIN it. To justify why we picked this perfectly lovely name that just. doesn't. seem. to. fit. her!
But really. She does NOT look like a Sophia.
And I refuse to go through the hassle of changing her name after the fact.
So I call her Sophie, but you know, that doesn't seem right, either. I know that in a year or so it won't be a big deal. We'll get used to it.
But I wish he would just let me call her Loretta.
*sigh*
Friday, July 20, 2012
Keeping up
Baseball is finally ovah! Oh...it's been a while, so I have to go back to catch you all up.... Keith's league team won the Loser's Bracket (CONSOLATION CHAMPIONSHIP, I mean). Then Keith got chosen to play on one of the Town's Tournament teams again. Last year, John managed the team, and they had a ball. This year, another manager took it on, but John still assisted. And...it wasn't nearly as much fun. We won't go into the hows or whys here, but hey, baseball aside, John and Keith did at least make a few new friends. And well, they lost the other night to the #1 seeded team, so it's finally DONE. Yay! And that's all I'm going to say about THAT!
We are pinching pennies here to save up for our summer vacation and to hopefully get the house connected to the sewer. Another summer of finding all the cheap and FREE things to do around town! Mooching off folks who have pools and are willing to invite us over in the extreme heat. Trying to set up playdates. Reading a LOT. Dragging out the battery-operated pottery wheel bday gift and NOT managing to make a pot (As feared by Mom who almost stuck it in the garage sale. Ah well--pinch pots are fun, too!)
Little Sophie is now 4 months old and trying very hard to crawl when we put her on the floor. At her appointment, she weighed in at a whopping 12 pounds, 12 ounces. The doc is thrilled. They measured her at 23 inches, but I watched the nurse and double checked after she left and made sure the doc knew that it was NOT accurate. I'm guessing she's at least 24 1/2 to 25 inches. Anyway, Sophie is still a little peanut, but she's pretty normal now for a Q baby. And finally fitting into her 3-6 mos clothes. Yay!
My neighbor took some some 4 mos pics of Sophie, but I haven't gotten the proofs yet. Can't wait to see them.
Um, and I never sent out birth announcements. Parenting magazine assures me that in this electronic age that was OK. But yes, I do realize I should have at least gotten her hospital pictures out. Poor fourth child! In a busy house of three very active older children! So, I guess folks will be getting hospital pictures AND 4 mos pictures at the same time. *sigh* It is what it is.
Oh! Did I tell you that now Izzy has joined Mary's swim team? She's is doing so, so well. Her best stroke is the butterfly. It's so wild to see this little thing keeping up so well with some of the older kids with whom she's been swimming. Mary admittedly was a little bummed. "Swimming was supposed to be MY thing." Oh, honey. So tough having siblings who can do the same things as you. (She's being a good sport, for the most part.)
Sophie stopped sleeping through the night two weeks after she started. The only thing I can think of is that she's been showing signs of teething (LOTS of drool, chomping on her toys, tugging at her ears), and perhaps that's helping wake her up. 2:30 is the magic time when she usually wakes up. The doc suggested I try to let her start crying it out a little and soothe her without feeding her. But the crib is in our room so it's kind of hard to let her cry it out for very long. Right now I think that John and I getting some decent sleep is sort of winning over whether or not I am nursing her in the middle of the night. She started cereal last week. So far...not the biggest fan.
We are pinching pennies here to save up for our summer vacation and to hopefully get the house connected to the sewer. Another summer of finding all the cheap and FREE things to do around town! Mooching off folks who have pools and are willing to invite us over in the extreme heat. Trying to set up playdates. Reading a LOT. Dragging out the battery-operated pottery wheel bday gift and NOT managing to make a pot (As feared by Mom who almost stuck it in the garage sale. Ah well--pinch pots are fun, too!)
Little Sophie is now 4 months old and trying very hard to crawl when we put her on the floor. At her appointment, she weighed in at a whopping 12 pounds, 12 ounces. The doc is thrilled. They measured her at 23 inches, but I watched the nurse and double checked after she left and made sure the doc knew that it was NOT accurate. I'm guessing she's at least 24 1/2 to 25 inches. Anyway, Sophie is still a little peanut, but she's pretty normal now for a Q baby. And finally fitting into her 3-6 mos clothes. Yay!
My neighbor took some some 4 mos pics of Sophie, but I haven't gotten the proofs yet. Can't wait to see them.
Um, and I never sent out birth announcements. Parenting magazine assures me that in this electronic age that was OK. But yes, I do realize I should have at least gotten her hospital pictures out. Poor fourth child! In a busy house of three very active older children! So, I guess folks will be getting hospital pictures AND 4 mos pictures at the same time. *sigh* It is what it is.
Oh! Did I tell you that now Izzy has joined Mary's swim team? She's is doing so, so well. Her best stroke is the butterfly. It's so wild to see this little thing keeping up so well with some of the older kids with whom she's been swimming. Mary admittedly was a little bummed. "Swimming was supposed to be MY thing." Oh, honey. So tough having siblings who can do the same things as you. (She's being a good sport, for the most part.)
Sophie stopped sleeping through the night two weeks after she started. The only thing I can think of is that she's been showing signs of teething (LOTS of drool, chomping on her toys, tugging at her ears), and perhaps that's helping wake her up. 2:30 is the magic time when she usually wakes up. The doc suggested I try to let her start crying it out a little and soothe her without feeding her. But the crib is in our room so it's kind of hard to let her cry it out for very long. Right now I think that John and I getting some decent sleep is sort of winning over whether or not I am nursing her in the middle of the night. She started cereal last week. So far...not the biggest fan.
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| 4 months-ish |
Saturday, June 23, 2012
New Tricks
Thursday night Sophia technically slept through the night--as in, she was out cold for 6 1/2 hours during the night. But really, we bleary-eyed mothers don't want to call it "sleeping through the night" until they are actually sleeping PAST 4:30 AM, thank-you-very-much.
This milestone coordinated on the same exact day/night that Sophia figured out how to roll from her back to her belly. So yeah, I'm all checking on this baby every few hours cuz she's not waking up, and then getting a mini heart attack because she's on her belly. Gotta love THAT milestone.
...And then last night she woke up at 4 hours again. On top of my flipping her over onto her back every couple of hours. I'm TIRED, is what I'm saying here. Ugh.
In other news, Keith's team lost their first play-off game, but they won the first "loser's bracket" game today, so oh joy, they get to play again on Monday night. And he's playing in the All Star team on Wednesday. And then the tournament team starts practice next week. And then Mommy went a little loopy AGAIN from trying to keep the swimming/baseball schedules straight.
The kids are officially out of school now. Mary got out a day earlier than the other two, so as a treat to us, I took her (and baby makes three!) to see Hunger Games on Wednesday. She'd already seen it with her father when it first came out, but as Sophie and I were one week post-partum there, we did not get to partake. The baby was pretty good and nursed/slept through most of it. And I was happy to FINALLY get to see the movie.
Thursday, the first day of all three kids home from school, went pretty well in the morning, but by the afternoon exhausted children and Mommy all got on each others' nerves and Mommy was yelling. Yeah, this is going to be a pretty long summer unless Tired Mommy learns how to get her patience back.
This milestone coordinated on the same exact day/night that Sophia figured out how to roll from her back to her belly. So yeah, I'm all checking on this baby every few hours cuz she's not waking up, and then getting a mini heart attack because she's on her belly. Gotta love THAT milestone.
...And then last night she woke up at 4 hours again. On top of my flipping her over onto her back every couple of hours. I'm TIRED, is what I'm saying here. Ugh.
In other news, Keith's team lost their first play-off game, but they won the first "loser's bracket" game today, so oh joy, they get to play again on Monday night. And he's playing in the All Star team on Wednesday. And then the tournament team starts practice next week. And then Mommy went a little loopy AGAIN from trying to keep the swimming/baseball schedules straight.
The kids are officially out of school now. Mary got out a day earlier than the other two, so as a treat to us, I took her (and baby makes three!) to see Hunger Games on Wednesday. She'd already seen it with her father when it first came out, but as Sophie and I were one week post-partum there, we did not get to partake. The baby was pretty good and nursed/slept through most of it. And I was happy to FINALLY get to see the movie.
Thursday, the first day of all three kids home from school, went pretty well in the morning, but by the afternoon exhausted children and Mommy all got on each others' nerves and Mommy was yelling. Yeah, this is going to be a pretty long summer unless Tired Mommy learns how to get her patience back.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Things making me happy right now
- Mary saying to me, "You know what, Mom? I can't remember what it was like without Sophia here." (HA! See, honey! I TOLD YOU!)
- Keith passing his Suzuki Cello Book 2.
- Izzy playing her viola solo perfectly.
- Izzy being "Narrator 1" for the "Sneech Play". And nailing it.
- All three kids coming up to hold and tickle and cuddle their baby sister.
- Having one night this last week where ALL SIX of us were home for dinner. Of course, being in a celebratory mood (it was the night of Keith's recital), we ordered pizza. ha!
- Sophia's roly poly legs. Well, roly poly for one of OUR babies, anyway.
- Baby girl hand-me-down clothes.
- Softball and Baseball seasons are almost over (although, we still have Keith's tournament season to contend with).
- Sophia's grins and gurgles.
- Chocolate-covered almonds.
- And iced coffee.
- Being able to make a quick run to the store--and leaving Sophia with Mary!
- Finally getting the old, broken down crib and mattress out to the curb. Along with various other icky things from our gross basement.
- Almost keeping the laundry caught up.
- Finally getting Keith to change a diaper. And then his begging to change the next one.
- Sophia chewing on her hands and starting to grab her toys.
- Getting rid of toys and books and even the toddler bed at my neighbor's garage sale last week.
- Scoring a bunch of fun, crafty stuff and a hand-crocheted baby dress from my neighbor's garage sale last week.
- Finding a pair of shorts that fit at Good will.
- $5 Baby Rompers at the R Us place.
- School is almost out!
Monday, June 04, 2012
I heart Shaun
If you have followed my blog at all, you know that I always jump at the chance when Mommy Daisy has a Shaun the Sheep giveaway. My kids have aged a bit since I won the first DVD from her, but we still watch it and just get the giggles every time. (And I catch my husband laughing, too.) It's also nice since it's so QUIET--I can put that DVD on and except for the giggles, I barely know the TV is on. I'm looking forward to getting Shaun out when the baby comes of age. :-)
Friday, June 01, 2012
Why, yes....
My babies ALL had heads full of dark hair when they were born.
Observe:
Observe:
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| Mary, 12/1999 |
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| Mary, 9 wks. I think Sophia looks just like Mary in this pic. |
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| Keith, 2-02 |
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| Keith, 3 months |
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| Izzy, 6 days. Her hair was a tad lighter than the others'. |
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| Sophia, 11 wks |
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
OK. Like. You know? The baby keeps me super busy? I have SO MUCH I've wanted to blog, but just no time to do it. And even now Sophia is in her bouncy seat being all "I'm happy now but I could explode in tears in just under 10 seconds, LADY!" Yeah. Busy.
1) This Little Piggy Baby weighed 9 lbs, 2 oz at her 2 month check-up. HA! She is filling out nicely, thank you! Although, we just met a baby who is only 2 days younger but 2 1/2 lbs BIGGER. Ah well. My babies have never been very big.
2) Mary just ran the mile in P.E. class in 7:18. Um...WOW!? The swimming has really helped her endurance, for sure.
3) And I finally taught my her how to shave. Oh nooooooo, my oldest is growing UP! :-(
4) Keith is the star pitcher for his baseball team. He's just kicking butt this year. And we don't know if it's the glasses (Rec Specks--and so hilariously nerdy on him making his ears all stick out and stuff) or all the batting workshops he did last winter, but he is definitely hitting better. He's still a switch hitter. He makes more contact hitting left-handed, but he has more power hitting right-handed.
5) Izzy just played her Suzuki Viola Book 1 Recital, and we couldn't be more proud. Keith is about to pass his Cello Book 2, and he did that amazing accomplishment in just a year. We have quite the musical family.
6) Izzy is playing softball and has one of the better arms on her team. Her hitting is getting better, but they are still in that "everybody tries until they get a hit" league, so sometimes it takes a few pitches. John is seriously considering having her try to hit left-handed.
7) My life is now "What is on the schedule for tonight, and do I bother attempting to fix dinner?" The answers are usually 2-3 things at once and NO. Tis the season of McCrappy Food.
8) John got a NEW JOB! At a VIABLE COMPANY! We were a little frantic trying to find suitable health insurance and such since he's a contractor, but it's all working out, and he is just so, so much happier being with this new employer. The other place is slowly sinking, and it's so sad to see an iconic company like that start to go down like that. Despite the insurance annoyance, I'm so glad he got out when he did--and that he's no longer got the stress of "WHEN will the axe fall?" and "Gosh, it's so DEPRESSING here."
9) I put together Sophia's crib yesterday right in our bedroom. I don't see a nursery happening anytime soon. She's starting to sleep longer between feedings at night and even in the bassinet! I'm excited about that--and also all "Awww...she's getting so big so fast!"
I'm sure there were about 100 other things, but the Crying Explosion is occurring, so I'm apparently WANTED.
1) This Little Piggy Baby weighed 9 lbs, 2 oz at her 2 month check-up. HA! She is filling out nicely, thank you! Although, we just met a baby who is only 2 days younger but 2 1/2 lbs BIGGER. Ah well. My babies have never been very big.
2) Mary just ran the mile in P.E. class in 7:18. Um...WOW!? The swimming has really helped her endurance, for sure.
3) And I finally taught my her how to shave. Oh nooooooo, my oldest is growing UP! :-(
4) Keith is the star pitcher for his baseball team. He's just kicking butt this year. And we don't know if it's the glasses (Rec Specks--and so hilariously nerdy on him making his ears all stick out and stuff) or all the batting workshops he did last winter, but he is definitely hitting better. He's still a switch hitter. He makes more contact hitting left-handed, but he has more power hitting right-handed.
5) Izzy just played her Suzuki Viola Book 1 Recital, and we couldn't be more proud. Keith is about to pass his Cello Book 2, and he did that amazing accomplishment in just a year. We have quite the musical family.
6) Izzy is playing softball and has one of the better arms on her team. Her hitting is getting better, but they are still in that "everybody tries until they get a hit" league, so sometimes it takes a few pitches. John is seriously considering having her try to hit left-handed.
7) My life is now "What is on the schedule for tonight, and do I bother attempting to fix dinner?" The answers are usually 2-3 things at once and NO. Tis the season of McCrappy Food.
8) John got a NEW JOB! At a VIABLE COMPANY! We were a little frantic trying to find suitable health insurance and such since he's a contractor, but it's all working out, and he is just so, so much happier being with this new employer. The other place is slowly sinking, and it's so sad to see an iconic company like that start to go down like that. Despite the insurance annoyance, I'm so glad he got out when he did--and that he's no longer got the stress of "WHEN will the axe fall?" and "Gosh, it's so DEPRESSING here."
9) I put together Sophia's crib yesterday right in our bedroom. I don't see a nursery happening anytime soon. She's starting to sleep longer between feedings at night and even in the bassinet! I'm excited about that--and also all "Awww...she's getting so big so fast!"
I'm sure there were about 100 other things, but the Crying Explosion is occurring, so I'm apparently WANTED.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Time passes....
And I find myself in a more-cluttered-than-usual-and-beyond-belief house, but with a beautiful tiny baby, so you know...that's the way it goes.
For those of you not on FB, here are a few pics.
And now our SD card is completely full and so I guess the pics will stop until my husband saves them over to some place safe, or I just get out there and buy a new card.
So! At her appointment way last Monday, Sophia was up to 6 lbs, 9.5 oz. Not a huge gain, but the doctor says that she thinks this peanut is probably just a slow gainer (hey, 4.5 oz in a week isn't tooooo shabby). We're not going to do any more weight checks and don't have to come in again until her two month appointment. But just in the week and a half since then I'm noticing more chubby cheeks, and I'm thinking that there are probably a few of the smaller-sized 0-3 month outfits that she could probably fit. Wish the SD card had room so that I could take a more recent pic to show you!
The pediatrician keeps reminding me that Peanut is still too young to spoil, but I think she's special. Getting this baby to sleep without someone holding her is pretty difficult (she's on my lap right now--or else I'd never get this post done). Hence, the reason why the house is even worse than normal. For the most part, I don't mind, but when the other three kids are whining that they have no clean socks and hubby is searching the house for clean undershirts and I'm embarrassed to have the plumber walk in the door and I try to figure out a way to prevent the neighbor from walking into the kitchen when she's dropping off a meal, I realize that we might just have a problem. The really sad part is that just last Wednesday, while the kids were home for Spring Break, I had a HUGE cleaning spell where I put the baby in her front carrier (and she miraculously stayed asleep!) and put the others to work (except for lucky Mary who was at a friend's house) and we got a LOT done--vacuuming! shampooing carpets! dusting! de-cluttering! And then, 10 hours later the house was pretty much back to its cluttered, scary mess. Let's just hope that neighbor doesn't call CPA on me.
Today I went in for my not-quite-6-week check-up. The doc says I healed wonderfully. And TMI: we had the big BC discussion--which is just an annoying topic on ALL levels. Due to some interesting changes upcoming (stay tuned!), I decided to go ahead and try an IUD. It gives me the creeps just thinking about it. I'm going to try the non-hormonal one, but the doc was really trying to sell me on the other. Really, both have their own individual levels of awfulness, so does it matter which way I go? Unfortunately, it could not be placed right away as it has to go through approval with insurance. Ahhh..,, Well, guess I'll be going back in a few weeks. FUN!
To add to our daily stress, we've found out recently that our septic is about to GO and that we have to hook up to the sewer. It was on our list of household projects, but quite far down, so this unplanned escalation is pretty bad timing on top of a huge hospital bill. And then yesterday I went to Izzy's viola lesson as John couldn't make it, and when we went to leave the minivan wouldn't start. Oh...NO. Izzy and I ended up having to walk home with the baby in the stroller. Thank goodness we live close by--and that I had the stroller with me! The minivan is still in the school parking lot today as it would not go even after a jump attempt. New starter, anyone? ugh
The good news is that the three eldest are just doing wonderfully with this new baby. They can't seem to get enough of her. And Mary was pretty apprehensive and scared when I first made her change a diaper, but I only PUSHED her to do that first one so that she could LEARN it. And wouldn't ya know it, she's all helpful and changing diapers WITHOUT request now. And changing the baby's clothes. And trying to soothe her when Mom is attempting to cobble together some sort of dinner for the evening. I'm just so proud and happy that I didn't have to force this on her, and that she's helping out because she WANTS to help out.
Izzy is a bit TOO happy and "helpful" around the baby. She's too loud and her movements aren't too gentle. Her exuberance (and perhaps a bit of passive-aggressiveness) is a bit over-kill. No doubt she loves her baby sister, tho.
For those of you not on FB, here are a few pics.
So! At her appointment way last Monday, Sophia was up to 6 lbs, 9.5 oz. Not a huge gain, but the doctor says that she thinks this peanut is probably just a slow gainer (hey, 4.5 oz in a week isn't tooooo shabby). We're not going to do any more weight checks and don't have to come in again until her two month appointment. But just in the week and a half since then I'm noticing more chubby cheeks, and I'm thinking that there are probably a few of the smaller-sized 0-3 month outfits that she could probably fit. Wish the SD card had room so that I could take a more recent pic to show you!
The pediatrician keeps reminding me that Peanut is still too young to spoil, but I think she's special. Getting this baby to sleep without someone holding her is pretty difficult (she's on my lap right now--or else I'd never get this post done). Hence, the reason why the house is even worse than normal. For the most part, I don't mind, but when the other three kids are whining that they have no clean socks and hubby is searching the house for clean undershirts and I'm embarrassed to have the plumber walk in the door and I try to figure out a way to prevent the neighbor from walking into the kitchen when she's dropping off a meal, I realize that we might just have a problem. The really sad part is that just last Wednesday, while the kids were home for Spring Break, I had a HUGE cleaning spell where I put the baby in her front carrier (and she miraculously stayed asleep!) and put the others to work (except for lucky Mary who was at a friend's house) and we got a LOT done--vacuuming! shampooing carpets! dusting! de-cluttering! And then, 10 hours later the house was pretty much back to its cluttered, scary mess. Let's just hope that neighbor doesn't call CPA on me.
Today I went in for my not-quite-6-week check-up. The doc says I healed wonderfully. And TMI: we had the big BC discussion--which is just an annoying topic on ALL levels. Due to some interesting changes upcoming (stay tuned!), I decided to go ahead and try an IUD. It gives me the creeps just thinking about it. I'm going to try the non-hormonal one, but the doc was really trying to sell me on the other. Really, both have their own individual levels of awfulness, so does it matter which way I go? Unfortunately, it could not be placed right away as it has to go through approval with insurance. Ahhh..,, Well, guess I'll be going back in a few weeks. FUN!
To add to our daily stress, we've found out recently that our septic is about to GO and that we have to hook up to the sewer. It was on our list of household projects, but quite far down, so this unplanned escalation is pretty bad timing on top of a huge hospital bill. And then yesterday I went to Izzy's viola lesson as John couldn't make it, and when we went to leave the minivan wouldn't start. Oh...NO. Izzy and I ended up having to walk home with the baby in the stroller. Thank goodness we live close by--and that I had the stroller with me! The minivan is still in the school parking lot today as it would not go even after a jump attempt. New starter, anyone? ugh
The good news is that the three eldest are just doing wonderfully with this new baby. They can't seem to get enough of her. And Mary was pretty apprehensive and scared when I first made her change a diaper, but I only PUSHED her to do that first one so that she could LEARN it. And wouldn't ya know it, she's all helpful and changing diapers WITHOUT request now. And changing the baby's clothes. And trying to soothe her when Mom is attempting to cobble together some sort of dinner for the evening. I'm just so proud and happy that I didn't have to force this on her, and that she's helping out because she WANTS to help out.
Izzy is a bit TOO happy and "helpful" around the baby. She's too loud and her movements aren't too gentle. Her exuberance (and perhaps a bit of passive-aggressiveness) is a bit over-kill. No doubt she loves her baby sister, tho.
Tuesday, April 03, 2012
Found a Peanut
I have groceries waiting not-so-patiently to be put away while I try to nurse a tiny baby and blog. Ahhh...motherhood.
Little Sophia went in for her three-week appointment yesterday and surprisingly only gained 5 ounces in 15 days. She is now at 6 pounds 5 ounces. The doc and I talked over her feeding/pooping/peeing habits and really, honestly, we're not worried--too much. The doc said that perhaps she lost a little weight and then started gaining again...? Seriously, this kid eats OFTEN. And goes through 13+ diapers a day. But...I'm bringing her back to the doc in a week to check her weight. And trying very hard not to get all my hormones in a bunch and start crying/worrying/freaking/dragging-out-that-can-of-free-formula-to-suppliment about it.
Keith had his annual at the same time and mentioned that he wanted his eyes checked, and yes, his eyes are a bit weak and so he needs to go to the eye doctor. This is not the first time he has complained, but it is the first time he's not tested well. John and I are torn between, "Does this explain why he doesn't hit well in baseball?" and "Is he faking this because he wants glasses like Mary?"
I know I had others items to discuss, but I need to sign off now and put away those groceries. And pay attention to my Little Peanut. And call the plumber for my phone-phobic husband....
Little Sophia went in for her three-week appointment yesterday and surprisingly only gained 5 ounces in 15 days. She is now at 6 pounds 5 ounces. The doc and I talked over her feeding/pooping/peeing habits and really, honestly, we're not worried--too much. The doc said that perhaps she lost a little weight and then started gaining again...? Seriously, this kid eats OFTEN. And goes through 13+ diapers a day. But...I'm bringing her back to the doc in a week to check her weight. And trying very hard not to get all my hormones in a bunch and start crying/worrying/freaking/dragging-out-that-can-of-free-formula-to-suppliment about it.
Keith had his annual at the same time and mentioned that he wanted his eyes checked, and yes, his eyes are a bit weak and so he needs to go to the eye doctor. This is not the first time he has complained, but it is the first time he's not tested well. John and I are torn between, "Does this explain why he doesn't hit well in baseball?" and "Is he faking this because he wants glasses like Mary?"
I know I had others items to discuss, but I need to sign off now and put away those groceries. And pay attention to my Little Peanut. And call the plumber for my phone-phobic husband....
Friday, March 23, 2012
Still here...sorta
My cold has been kicking my butt, but Sophia is now 12 days old, and I can finally have a conversation without hacking a lung. Progress!
We are totally in love with this tiny baby. The other three kids are doing great (so far). I'm getting slightly more sleep than I imagined since she goes about three hours between feedings at night. Three hours seems such a luxury after the 1 1/2-2 hour spans her siblings gave me!
By the time she was a week old, we'd already had three sets of guests in the house. Crazy, but still nice. I got a lot of good food cooked for me by my mother and my father. And now one of my friends set up a meal train, so we're receiving comfort food every night. That's...just awesome! I wish I had been this spoiled with the other three!
Now that the visitations have died down, I'll see if I can ever finish the birth story. It was similar to my other three and yet also completely different, ya know? Just...weird.
Sophia did well at her 5 day check-up and goes to the doctor again on the 2nd. She's got a bit of jaundice, but it's nothing to fret about. It's already fading nicely.
Here's the awesome pic John managed to capture on St. Patrick's Day.
Seriously, one cute baby. :-)
We are totally in love with this tiny baby. The other three kids are doing great (so far). I'm getting slightly more sleep than I imagined since she goes about three hours between feedings at night. Three hours seems such a luxury after the 1 1/2-2 hour spans her siblings gave me!
By the time she was a week old, we'd already had three sets of guests in the house. Crazy, but still nice. I got a lot of good food cooked for me by my mother and my father. And now one of my friends set up a meal train, so we're receiving comfort food every night. That's...just awesome! I wish I had been this spoiled with the other three!
Now that the visitations have died down, I'll see if I can ever finish the birth story. It was similar to my other three and yet also completely different, ya know? Just...weird.
Sophia did well at her 5 day check-up and goes to the doctor again on the 2nd. She's got a bit of jaundice, but it's nothing to fret about. It's already fading nicely.
Here's the awesome pic John managed to capture on St. Patrick's Day.
Seriously, one cute baby. :-)
Thursday, March 15, 2012
OMG, you guys!
Most of you have probably already seen it on FB or Twitter, but guess what? SHE'S HERE!
And after continuously debating whilst contracting and for about two hours AFTER she made her appearance, my husband surprised us all and went with the name that Izzy and I picked WEEKS ago.
SUCH a peanut!
I will attempt to put the delivery story up on the Baby Blog soon. But first I have to get over that whole natural childbirth thing--and the really, really nasty cold I picked up the day before she was born. #Ifeellikedeathwarmedover.
And, hopefully I'll have some new pictures to post soon, too!
Love to you all!
And after continuously debating whilst contracting and for about two hours AFTER she made her appearance, my husband surprised us all and went with the name that Izzy and I picked WEEKS ago.
So! Meet Sophia Loretta!
Born March 11 at 8:36 pm
6 pounds, 4 ounces
19 inches
SUCH a peanut!
I will attempt to put the delivery story up on the Baby Blog soon. But first I have to get over that whole natural childbirth thing--and the really, really nasty cold I picked up the day before she was born. #Ifeellikedeathwarmedover.
And, hopefully I'll have some new pictures to post soon, too!
Love to you all!
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
ME ME ME ME!
Saly tagged me for a MeMe! And...isn't she lucky that I haven't had this baby yet and had a moment. But...WOW, that's a lot of questions to answer/think of!
So!
Post a picture of yourself, tell us 11 things we might not know about you, answer the 11 questions asked of you, then write 11 new questions and tag some friends to play along (let them know you tagged them!).
38 Weeks!! With perfectly coiffed hair from a salon!
1. I mentioned this before, but it's cool and worth repeating. When my husband and I got married, we combined our two last names and created a whole new name. Every now and then someone on FB is all, "HOW did you end up with a married last name that also starts with a Q?!" LOL
2. Speaking of last names, I got my maiden name from my father (of course), but he did NOT get his name from his father. No, he took his step-father's last name. The cool part is that it's a Hispanic name. Growing up as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl with a Hispanic last name in a very white-bread town/state was kinda unique, to say the least. I once went to a job interview and completely threw the interviewer--she was expecting a little Latina chick!
3. I do not like mayonnaise nor most mayonnaise products.
4. I really, really love science fiction/fantasy and consider myself quite the Geek (well, perhaps "moderately" Geek).
5. I sort of have an obsession with Weird Al Yankovic. (Again: Geek.)
6. I am usually a pretty fun-loving, easy-going person, but I have a nasty stubborn streak which most definitely does me more harm than good.
7. I was pretty girly as a kid. My third grade year I pretty much wore a dress EVERY day. Amusing that it's probably right around the time that I noticed boys that I stopped dressing so girly. But I think mostly do to laziness. It's way too much work to dress up like that all the time. Now it's a very rare day that I'll wear make-up, and in all honesty it's mostly because 1) I'm always second-guessing the application, 2) I can't stand the feel of it on my face--I want to be able to RUB MY EYES when I'm tired!, and 3) I'm too lazy to want to wash it off every night! And I don't wear dresses (especially in the winter) because tights/pantyhose are the works of the DEVIL.
8. I was a Girl Scout from 1st through 12th grade. [I guess it's no surprise that I'd end up being a leader for both of my daughter's troops--and be secretly glad (yet also MOANING) that this baby is also a girl, so I may as well just become a lifetime member!] As a kid, I mostly liked it for the camping opportunities. Getting to spend 1-3 weeks away from home in the summer was absolutely WONDERFUL. But my poor girls haven't gotten many opportunities to go to the camps due to their locations/convenience (and our council is selling most of the close-by camps making it even worse!) and the expense. I feel bad for my poor girls not getting the same camping opportunities I had as a girl.
9. Hey, Saly, I also do not wear my glasses while I'm eating. No motion sickness, but for some reason the feel of them on my face while I'm eating drives me nuts! I'm also near-sighted, so I don't need them (yet) to see the faces of any diners accompanying me. (I also do not wear my glasses while reading or using the computer. I lose my glasses a LOT. LOL)
10. I was very out-going and obnoxious as a child. I think a lot of my classmates thought I was just plain weird. I have mellowed out now and am shy/awkward about meeting new people now. Sometimes I wish I could tune in to that weird kid more often to help me cope with some social situations.
11. I have never been a heavy drinker, even while away at college. It doesn't take much to make me all red-cheeked and goofy(er!). Technically, I think I've only been "drunk" once. I drank a lot of homemade apple punch at a friend's party. I went to stand up to get more--and felt too woozy to stand. I immediately sat back down--and stopped drinking for the evening. I was probably 23-24.
In answer to Saly's questions:
1. If you could have any job in the world, what would it be, and why? Um....hmmm.... I dunno. I struggle with this a lot since I've never really had a job I've DESIRED and can't afford to go back to school to do the jobs I WANT to do. It would be nice if I could go back and get my Master's and go back into teaching again. I have also played with the idea of becoming a lactation consultant--if I could afford the training, that is.
2. What is your favorite flower? I'm...not much of a flower person. And any flowers I do like, I don't really know the names for them? Gardenias? Jasmine? I do love it when it's lilac time around here. I could stay outside smelling our lilac trees all day.
3. What is something you regret? Oh! That one is just WRONG, Saly! I try very hard to NOT look back at past mistakes and beat myself up with regrets. I guess the biggest is probably tied to the first question. I sometimes regret moving out of my home state which made my teaching license NO GOOD in my new state--and then being all content and fat and happy with the first job I landed and not more actively looking into what all I had to do to get said teaching license updated to the new state's standards. MAYBE I could have gotten a teaching job, which would have given me more job satisfaction--and I probably would have been better able to afford to get that (required!) Master's degree...which I now can't afford at all. But that regret leads to the path of "but if I HADN'T moved out of my home state, it probably would have led me down a path without my soon-to-be four kids". HOW can I regret a decision which eventually led me to those wonderful kids? See! Everything happens for a REASON!
4. You are in a frou frou coffee shop. What do you order? I usually order Mochas or White Mochas. I love coffee, but even while pregnant I'm not supposed to have much caffeine, so I tend to NOT tempt myself with fun flavors which could create addictive, and then unhealthy, ISSUES later. LOL Anyway, at home, I'm pretty darn happy with decaf and a bodacious creamer like coconut, peppermint mocha, french vanilla, pumpkin spice when it's in season. I only buy the creamers every once in a blue moon since it could cause me to drink much more coffee--even decaf!--than I should.
5. What is the best thing that you cook? Gosh. I have a meatloaf recipe (it's in my blog somewhere) that I really rock at. I also LOVE to bake (but tend not to so as to help keep a healthy waistline). I just tried the Pioneer Woman's chicken and dumplings and totally rocked that, too. I make a mean coconut cream pie for my husband for his birthday every year. YUM!
6. Where is your favorite place to vacation, and why? Ocean City, NJ. The last two years we've rented a condo two blocks from the beach, and it was just heavenly. Just hanging out on the boardwalk/beach with my family is joyful to me.
7. What’s the weirdest thing in your refrigerator? Well, I had to get up to look, and my refrigerator is surprisingly weird-free right now. I guess the weirdest thing would be the collection of odd cheeses my husband apparently got a craving for and bought (probably should check those and make sure they're still good!).
8. Do you collect anything? I have a Strawberry Shortcake doll collection from when I was a kid. Of course, it's been stored in my father's basement/garage the last twenty years, so now they smell more like mold and motor oil, but..... I also like stuffed lions, but I'm no freak about it--I just have a few of them.
9. You have an entire day alone with no plans. What would you do? Usually I READ. And ignore the housework.
10. Who is your #1 celebrity crush? #1? OH dear! Um...Patrick Dempsey has been up there for a while now. (Why, yes, I DO have his Robert doll from Enchanted on display in my bedroom. What of it?)
11. How do you like your eggs? Usually scrambled. But the last few years, I've been starting to eat them over easy (which I could NOT stand when I was a kid). But usually NOT in restaurants--I'm only brave enough to do scrambled there!
And...MY questions. Mostly taken from the million "Getting to know you" websites out there. Ha!
Saly tagged just about everyone I would have. I guess I'll just keep trolling everyone else to see their answers? How about Two Adults and Samantha Jo. Cuz I LOVE following them on Twitter. And my BFF JJ (who NEVER has the time to read my blog anymore!).
1. What was your favorite food when you were a child?
2. What’s the #1 most played song on your iPod?
3. If you could witness any event past, present or future, what would it be?
4. What would you name the autobiography of your life?
5. What story does your family always tell about you?
6. What’s the best/worst gift you’ve ever given/received?
7. What was the last movie, TV show or book that made you cry or tear up?
8. Have you ever had something happen to you that you thought was bad but it turned out to be for the best?
9. Do you have any embarrassing indulgences? (Like, reading bad romances???)
10. What is your favorite cereal?
11. Rolling Stones or Beatles?
So!
Post a picture of yourself, tell us 11 things we might not know about you, answer the 11 questions asked of you, then write 11 new questions and tag some friends to play along (let them know you tagged them!).
38 Weeks!! With perfectly coiffed hair from a salon!
 |
| Torpedo belly! |
 |
| No, that's not my belly button--it's the seam on my pants! LOL |
1. I mentioned this before, but it's cool and worth repeating. When my husband and I got married, we combined our two last names and created a whole new name. Every now and then someone on FB is all, "HOW did you end up with a married last name that also starts with a Q?!" LOL
2. Speaking of last names, I got my maiden name from my father (of course), but he did NOT get his name from his father. No, he took his step-father's last name. The cool part is that it's a Hispanic name. Growing up as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl with a Hispanic last name in a very white-bread town/state was kinda unique, to say the least. I once went to a job interview and completely threw the interviewer--she was expecting a little Latina chick!
3. I do not like mayonnaise nor most mayonnaise products.
4. I really, really love science fiction/fantasy and consider myself quite the Geek (well, perhaps "moderately" Geek).
5. I sort of have an obsession with Weird Al Yankovic. (Again: Geek.)
6. I am usually a pretty fun-loving, easy-going person, but I have a nasty stubborn streak which most definitely does me more harm than good.
7. I was pretty girly as a kid. My third grade year I pretty much wore a dress EVERY day. Amusing that it's probably right around the time that I noticed boys that I stopped dressing so girly. But I think mostly do to laziness. It's way too much work to dress up like that all the time. Now it's a very rare day that I'll wear make-up, and in all honesty it's mostly because 1) I'm always second-guessing the application, 2) I can't stand the feel of it on my face--I want to be able to RUB MY EYES when I'm tired!, and 3) I'm too lazy to want to wash it off every night! And I don't wear dresses (especially in the winter) because tights/pantyhose are the works of the DEVIL.
8. I was a Girl Scout from 1st through 12th grade. [I guess it's no surprise that I'd end up being a leader for both of my daughter's troops--and be secretly glad (yet also MOANING) that this baby is also a girl, so I may as well just become a lifetime member!] As a kid, I mostly liked it for the camping opportunities. Getting to spend 1-3 weeks away from home in the summer was absolutely WONDERFUL. But my poor girls haven't gotten many opportunities to go to the camps due to their locations/convenience (and our council is selling most of the close-by camps making it even worse!) and the expense. I feel bad for my poor girls not getting the same camping opportunities I had as a girl.
9. Hey, Saly, I also do not wear my glasses while I'm eating. No motion sickness, but for some reason the feel of them on my face while I'm eating drives me nuts! I'm also near-sighted, so I don't need them (yet) to see the faces of any diners accompanying me. (I also do not wear my glasses while reading or using the computer. I lose my glasses a LOT. LOL)
10. I was very out-going and obnoxious as a child. I think a lot of my classmates thought I was just plain weird. I have mellowed out now and am shy/awkward about meeting new people now. Sometimes I wish I could tune in to that weird kid more often to help me cope with some social situations.
11. I have never been a heavy drinker, even while away at college. It doesn't take much to make me all red-cheeked and goofy(er!). Technically, I think I've only been "drunk" once. I drank a lot of homemade apple punch at a friend's party. I went to stand up to get more--and felt too woozy to stand. I immediately sat back down--and stopped drinking for the evening. I was probably 23-24.
In answer to Saly's questions:
1. If you could have any job in the world, what would it be, and why? Um....hmmm.... I dunno. I struggle with this a lot since I've never really had a job I've DESIRED and can't afford to go back to school to do the jobs I WANT to do. It would be nice if I could go back and get my Master's and go back into teaching again. I have also played with the idea of becoming a lactation consultant--if I could afford the training, that is.
2. What is your favorite flower? I'm...not much of a flower person. And any flowers I do like, I don't really know the names for them? Gardenias? Jasmine? I do love it when it's lilac time around here. I could stay outside smelling our lilac trees all day.
3. What is something you regret? Oh! That one is just WRONG, Saly! I try very hard to NOT look back at past mistakes and beat myself up with regrets. I guess the biggest is probably tied to the first question. I sometimes regret moving out of my home state which made my teaching license NO GOOD in my new state--and then being all content and fat and happy with the first job I landed and not more actively looking into what all I had to do to get said teaching license updated to the new state's standards. MAYBE I could have gotten a teaching job, which would have given me more job satisfaction--and I probably would have been better able to afford to get that (required!) Master's degree...which I now can't afford at all. But that regret leads to the path of "but if I HADN'T moved out of my home state, it probably would have led me down a path without my soon-to-be four kids". HOW can I regret a decision which eventually led me to those wonderful kids? See! Everything happens for a REASON!
4. You are in a frou frou coffee shop. What do you order? I usually order Mochas or White Mochas. I love coffee, but even while pregnant I'm not supposed to have much caffeine, so I tend to NOT tempt myself with fun flavors which could create addictive, and then unhealthy, ISSUES later. LOL Anyway, at home, I'm pretty darn happy with decaf and a bodacious creamer like coconut, peppermint mocha, french vanilla, pumpkin spice when it's in season. I only buy the creamers every once in a blue moon since it could cause me to drink much more coffee--even decaf!--than I should.
5. What is the best thing that you cook? Gosh. I have a meatloaf recipe (it's in my blog somewhere) that I really rock at. I also LOVE to bake (but tend not to so as to help keep a healthy waistline). I just tried the Pioneer Woman's chicken and dumplings and totally rocked that, too. I make a mean coconut cream pie for my husband for his birthday every year. YUM!
6. Where is your favorite place to vacation, and why? Ocean City, NJ. The last two years we've rented a condo two blocks from the beach, and it was just heavenly. Just hanging out on the boardwalk/beach with my family is joyful to me.
7. What’s the weirdest thing in your refrigerator? Well, I had to get up to look, and my refrigerator is surprisingly weird-free right now. I guess the weirdest thing would be the collection of odd cheeses my husband apparently got a craving for and bought (probably should check those and make sure they're still good!).
8. Do you collect anything? I have a Strawberry Shortcake doll collection from when I was a kid. Of course, it's been stored in my father's basement/garage the last twenty years, so now they smell more like mold and motor oil, but..... I also like stuffed lions, but I'm no freak about it--I just have a few of them.
9. You have an entire day alone with no plans. What would you do? Usually I READ. And ignore the housework.
10. Who is your #1 celebrity crush? #1? OH dear! Um...Patrick Dempsey has been up there for a while now. (Why, yes, I DO have his Robert doll from Enchanted on display in my bedroom. What of it?)
11. How do you like your eggs? Usually scrambled. But the last few years, I've been starting to eat them over easy (which I could NOT stand when I was a kid). But usually NOT in restaurants--I'm only brave enough to do scrambled there!
And...MY questions. Mostly taken from the million "Getting to know you" websites out there. Ha!
Saly tagged just about everyone I would have. I guess I'll just keep trolling everyone else to see their answers? How about Two Adults and Samantha Jo. Cuz I LOVE following them on Twitter. And my BFF JJ (who NEVER has the time to read my blog anymore!).
1. What was your favorite food when you were a child?
2. What’s the #1 most played song on your iPod?
3. If you could witness any event past, present or future, what would it be?
4. What would you name the autobiography of your life?
5. What story does your family always tell about you?
6. What’s the best/worst gift you’ve ever given/received?
7. What was the last movie, TV show or book that made you cry or tear up?
8. Have you ever had something happen to you that you thought was bad but it turned out to be for the best?
9. Do you have any embarrassing indulgences? (Like, reading bad romances???)
10. What is your favorite cereal?
11. Rolling Stones or Beatles?
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Big Ten
Keith turned TEN on Monday. Double digits for my one and only boy. Unbelievable!
I did my usual thing and kept putting off putting together a party for him. It's really difficult since his birthday always falls on the school's winter break. And then he has another friend who has a birthday at the same time, so we're always competing for party days/times. And then Keith couldn't decide WHERE he wanted his party. So then of course we got the invite from the friend for the same day we were hoping to have Keith's party (I told the mom that next year we just need to tag team our parties). Anyway, I ended up just emailing the parents of his friends to see if they were going out of town for the break, and whether or not we could try to get together. And then I finally talked Keith into having his party at the Y. He was adamant he did NOT want a swimming party, but he was cool with it when I told him they could play games/basketball in the gym instead. And then after lots of phone tag and NO CALLS BACK from the nicer newer Y, I finally just called the Y that's actually closer to the house. They responded immediately. A time slot was open, and I SNAGGED it. And can you believe it, only ONE of his friends couldn't make it due to a basketball tournament. YES!
Anyway, there were seven boys and two girls (sorry, buddy, I'm paying for 12 people, so yes, your sisters are coming to the party, too!). Those boys played HARD and had an absolute BALL. I basically didn't have to do a THING--the party people there did everything including the cleaning up. And even when I realized as we were about to eat our pizza that I forgot to bring a drink (wt..?), the Y folks had ALREADY NOTICED and filled up pitchers with ice water for the kids. I could not have been happier with this party!
Keith wanted a cookie cake. I had the store put a basketball and hoop on it with "Big Ten". I know Keith didn't get the reference, but John and I thought it was a cool idea. (Keith loves to play his basketball, but he just hasn't really been schooled yet on all the conferences. We are apparently bad former-Hoosiers.)
Now Keith's room is awash with Legos, Legos, and more Legos. John is somewhat miffed because he wanted to be all cool dad and help Keith put together a few of these Lego projects, but Keith didn't want the help. Sorry, dad.
In other news, John decided to sign Mary up for a springboard diving class during the break. She gave him grief about it. She just didn't want to do it. John just had a feeling that if she just TRIED it.... And wouldn't ya know it? He was right. She is LOVING it and doing really well with it. The coach says, "You're only in sixth grade? So that means I have to wait two more years before you can compete?!" See, Mary, sometimes we DO know what's best for you!
So with Mary doing the springboard diving this week and Keith doing a few pitching clinics, poor Izzy is the only one stuck at home with no activities planned. She's bummed. At least she DOES have a birthday party to go to tomorrow (crap! we still need to get a gift!).
NO going to the water park for break this year. It's just too costly right now. And really, what fun would *I* have sitting along the sidelines like a beached whale? And traveling even only four hours while nine months pregnant is generally frowned upon.
Oh! And John and I finally had our Christmas Concert last week, too! Santa was pretty smart giving me tickets to see Rain, a Beatle's tribute band. The show was really well run and the band sounded GREAT. The George was a very impressive guitarist. If we go again, we'll try to bring the kids. They would have loved it (especially Keith). I got all decked out because I had a maternity dress someone gave me, SO I COULD. Of course, walking just across the street from the parking garage to the venue was a bit of a chore. Not to mention walking up and down the stairs. My back and hip are just NOT cooperating this pregnancy!
Countdown is on! 2-4 weeks until baby!!!!
I did my usual thing and kept putting off putting together a party for him. It's really difficult since his birthday always falls on the school's winter break. And then he has another friend who has a birthday at the same time, so we're always competing for party days/times. And then Keith couldn't decide WHERE he wanted his party. So then of course we got the invite from the friend for the same day we were hoping to have Keith's party (I told the mom that next year we just need to tag team our parties). Anyway, I ended up just emailing the parents of his friends to see if they were going out of town for the break, and whether or not we could try to get together. And then I finally talked Keith into having his party at the Y. He was adamant he did NOT want a swimming party, but he was cool with it when I told him they could play games/basketball in the gym instead. And then after lots of phone tag and NO CALLS BACK from the nicer newer Y, I finally just called the Y that's actually closer to the house. They responded immediately. A time slot was open, and I SNAGGED it. And can you believe it, only ONE of his friends couldn't make it due to a basketball tournament. YES!
Anyway, there were seven boys and two girls (sorry, buddy, I'm paying for 12 people, so yes, your sisters are coming to the party, too!). Those boys played HARD and had an absolute BALL. I basically didn't have to do a THING--the party people there did everything including the cleaning up. And even when I realized as we were about to eat our pizza that I forgot to bring a drink (wt..?), the Y folks had ALREADY NOTICED and filled up pitchers with ice water for the kids. I could not have been happier with this party!
Keith wanted a cookie cake. I had the store put a basketball and hoop on it with "Big Ten". I know Keith didn't get the reference, but John and I thought it was a cool idea. (Keith loves to play his basketball, but he just hasn't really been schooled yet on all the conferences. We are apparently bad former-Hoosiers.)
Now Keith's room is awash with Legos, Legos, and more Legos. John is somewhat miffed because he wanted to be all cool dad and help Keith put together a few of these Lego projects, but Keith didn't want the help. Sorry, dad.
In other news, John decided to sign Mary up for a springboard diving class during the break. She gave him grief about it. She just didn't want to do it. John just had a feeling that if she just TRIED it.... And wouldn't ya know it? He was right. She is LOVING it and doing really well with it. The coach says, "You're only in sixth grade? So that means I have to wait two more years before you can compete?!" See, Mary, sometimes we DO know what's best for you!
So with Mary doing the springboard diving this week and Keith doing a few pitching clinics, poor Izzy is the only one stuck at home with no activities planned. She's bummed. At least she DOES have a birthday party to go to tomorrow (crap! we still need to get a gift!).
NO going to the water park for break this year. It's just too costly right now. And really, what fun would *I* have sitting along the sidelines like a beached whale? And traveling even only four hours while nine months pregnant is generally frowned upon.
Oh! And John and I finally had our Christmas Concert last week, too! Santa was pretty smart giving me tickets to see Rain, a Beatle's tribute band. The show was really well run and the band sounded GREAT. The George was a very impressive guitarist. If we go again, we'll try to bring the kids. They would have loved it (especially Keith). I got all decked out because I had a maternity dress someone gave me, SO I COULD. Of course, walking just across the street from the parking garage to the venue was a bit of a chore. Not to mention walking up and down the stairs. My back and hip are just NOT cooperating this pregnancy!
Countdown is on! 2-4 weeks until baby!!!!
Friday, February 10, 2012
What happened to all my patience?
Really. I used to be able to handle just about anyone and anything. I used to be such a "live and let live" kind of person who NEVER held grudges and certainly hardly EVER raised my voice with anyone. Not even my husband. I mean, sure, I CAN explode on people every once in a blue moon (um, usually my husband), but I'm always over whatever is the issue rather quickly. It's like I need to just let off the steam and then...all's well! What's for dinner?
But ever since I became a mother and then produced three little, independent beings, I've become a mean, mean monster. It's just so totally different when it's YOUR progeny who want to do things contrary to what YOU think they should do. My patience...is GONE. I get so mad at myself because I feel as if I'm not teaching my kids ANYTHING but how to yell and be short and be just generally unpleasant. HOW did I become like this? More importantly, HOW do I change myself BACK to how I SHOULD be?
I don't want my kids growing up thinking that their mother just seemed to HATE them and had to absolutely CONTROL everything they did. I don't want them thinking that I have NO compassion for them (which is not true, but my distorted behavior seems to give that impression). I certainly do not want them to think that this is the way they should treat their own children!
HOW do I take pause in my actions and stop the teeth-gritting, angry retorts? WHEN will I learn to say yes more instead of automatically no? HOW am I supposed to change myself now when I'm already stressed, and I'm about to bring a fourth into the mix?
I guess my "best" feature is that I talk to my kids about my own behavior quite often. If I've had my own personal temper tantrum, I always tell them after I've calmed down how wrong I was and that I will try my best to do better. It is probably confusing to them to get these mixed messages from their crazy, hormonal mom, but I am under the hopeful illusion that if I keep using my own bad behavior as an example, they will learn from it and NOT do this to their own kids. One can only hope.
The hormones have definitely had a huge impact here lately. My patience is even thinner than it was. My "mean" responses seem even meaner. Some solutions that come to mind (perhaps DAD taking over a few mornings or crazy evenings a week) are just not...doable with our life/schedule. If only I could afford a mother's helper!
I will keep working on this. Keep trying to contact and bring out a new zen-me. Keep apologizing when I've gone too far. And keep hoping I'll figure out a way to PAUSE before responding with the negativity. I just hope that I don't "lose" their love before I figure it out.
But ever since I became a mother and then produced three little, independent beings, I've become a mean, mean monster. It's just so totally different when it's YOUR progeny who want to do things contrary to what YOU think they should do. My patience...is GONE. I get so mad at myself because I feel as if I'm not teaching my kids ANYTHING but how to yell and be short and be just generally unpleasant. HOW did I become like this? More importantly, HOW do I change myself BACK to how I SHOULD be?
I don't want my kids growing up thinking that their mother just seemed to HATE them and had to absolutely CONTROL everything they did. I don't want them thinking that I have NO compassion for them (which is not true, but my distorted behavior seems to give that impression). I certainly do not want them to think that this is the way they should treat their own children!
HOW do I take pause in my actions and stop the teeth-gritting, angry retorts? WHEN will I learn to say yes more instead of automatically no? HOW am I supposed to change myself now when I'm already stressed, and I'm about to bring a fourth into the mix?
I guess my "best" feature is that I talk to my kids about my own behavior quite often. If I've had my own personal temper tantrum, I always tell them after I've calmed down how wrong I was and that I will try my best to do better. It is probably confusing to them to get these mixed messages from their crazy, hormonal mom, but I am under the hopeful illusion that if I keep using my own bad behavior as an example, they will learn from it and NOT do this to their own kids. One can only hope.
The hormones have definitely had a huge impact here lately. My patience is even thinner than it was. My "mean" responses seem even meaner. Some solutions that come to mind (perhaps DAD taking over a few mornings or crazy evenings a week) are just not...doable with our life/schedule. If only I could afford a mother's helper!
I will keep working on this. Keep trying to contact and bring out a new zen-me. Keep apologizing when I've gone too far. And keep hoping I'll figure out a way to PAUSE before responding with the negativity. I just hope that I don't "lose" their love before I figure it out.
Monday, February 06, 2012
Big Girls
It was a crazy Saturday, as usual. After basketball, John took Keith to a REAL basketball game--with the Harlem Globetrotters! I am slightly envious because I could just tell they had a ball! Meanwhile, I was stuck with one extremely cranky 7-year old, a DS-addicted 12-year old, and a bad hip. Yep, the hormones are attacking my joints again and walking was quite the chore. And dealing with the out-of-her-mind 7-year old while in pain was not...pleasant. And I think I had a bigger temper tantrum than she did. Well...maybe NOT.
Anyway, I had to take Izzy to her swimming lessons and was GOING to take the girls to lunch first, but due to Miss Cranky Pants not wanting to do ANYTHING I asked her to do, we did NOT go out to lunch and stayed in and had Spaghettios instead. WHY do I get the feeling this ended up being more of a punishment for Mama instead of for the 7-year old??? *sigh*
Well, Izzy mentioned the other day that she wanted to get her hair cut again for Locks for Love. I wasn't quite ready yet--I do so love her hair. But it HAD been two years, and Mary was also in dire need of a hair cut since she swims every blessed day and does NOT take care of her hair and looks a big frizzy, freaky mess. So why not do both at the same time? So after swimming, we went to the salon I started frequenting a while back--a salon that I discovered does FREE Locks for Love haircuts and will even mail off the pony tail FOR YOU.
Izzy ran right up to the chair to get her hair chopped. She was not shy and did not mind losing that 10 inches one bit. (But! It's sooooo pretty!) I had them angle the front a bit, but otherwise, it was just a straight cut. It's now just past her shoulders and looks absolutely DARLING on her. She looks OLDER, and I'm not sure how I feel about that!
Mary has been fighting me about getting a hair cut for a while now. She wants her hair LONG. I told her getting a hair cut does not mean getting it cut SHORT, it also means getting a TRIM--to help keep hair healthy. I'm getting blue in the face trying to explain to her that ONLY HEALTHY HAIR WILL GROW. So PLEASE take care of it, for the LOVE OF GOD. *cough* Anyway, while her sister was in the chair, Mary surprised me by saying, "You know what? I'm thinking of getting it cut short." Um...REALLY? Wow....! I'm ALL about the long hair, but really, since this child has NO interest in taking care of her hair and swims 4-5 times a week, I think that the shorter her hair, and the less care she has to do, the better. So, we grabbed a short styles magazine, and she picked a nice chin-length bob. And the woman in the picture had a tiny bit of bang, too. "Do you want this? You don't HAVE to have a bang. I know how annoying bangs can be, but it might give you a tiny bit of style, and if you don't like it, it will be pretty easy to grow back." When it was her turn to go up to the chair, we showed the picture to the stylist and Mary said she DID want the little bit of bang.
I just LOVE the short style on Mary. Even though it makes my long-hair-loving heart a tiny bit sad, it really just seems to suit her better. The bang...I'm not so sure about it. Mary's not sure either. I explained that it's not quite "trained" yet and that after a few weeks and a bit more practice styling it, she might grow to like it. And if not, it can just be tucked/clipped back until it grows out. (The only detriment about her cute cut: John noticed immediately that she now has the same hair style as her swimming coach. Oh. Whoops. That was NOT intentional. Now every time I see Mary in her new do, I immediately think of her swimming coach. Meh--coach probably won't even notice it since Mary will be wearing a swim cap.)
And just to get you all feeling sorry for me, yesterday while scooping up laundry to put in the wash, I slipped on a sock and my legs tried doing the splits. That was just LOVELY on my hormonally-hurting hip. I spent most of yesterday grounded on the couch and wincing in pain every time I had to go up to the bathroom (why a split house, WHY?). I did absolutely NOTHING today, and I'm happy to report that I seem to be now back to the NORMAL pregnancy-hip pain instead of the acute injury pain. Ugh.
Anyway, I had to take Izzy to her swimming lessons and was GOING to take the girls to lunch first, but due to Miss Cranky Pants not wanting to do ANYTHING I asked her to do, we did NOT go out to lunch and stayed in and had Spaghettios instead. WHY do I get the feeling this ended up being more of a punishment for Mama instead of for the 7-year old??? *sigh*
Well, Izzy mentioned the other day that she wanted to get her hair cut again for Locks for Love. I wasn't quite ready yet--I do so love her hair. But it HAD been two years, and Mary was also in dire need of a hair cut since she swims every blessed day and does NOT take care of her hair and looks a big frizzy, freaky mess. So why not do both at the same time? So after swimming, we went to the salon I started frequenting a while back--a salon that I discovered does FREE Locks for Love haircuts and will even mail off the pony tail FOR YOU.
Izzy ran right up to the chair to get her hair chopped. She was not shy and did not mind losing that 10 inches one bit. (But! It's sooooo pretty!) I had them angle the front a bit, but otherwise, it was just a straight cut. It's now just past her shoulders and looks absolutely DARLING on her. She looks OLDER, and I'm not sure how I feel about that!
Mary has been fighting me about getting a hair cut for a while now. She wants her hair LONG. I told her getting a hair cut does not mean getting it cut SHORT, it also means getting a TRIM--to help keep hair healthy. I'm getting blue in the face trying to explain to her that ONLY HEALTHY HAIR WILL GROW. So PLEASE take care of it, for the LOVE OF GOD. *cough* Anyway, while her sister was in the chair, Mary surprised me by saying, "You know what? I'm thinking of getting it cut short." Um...REALLY? Wow....! I'm ALL about the long hair, but really, since this child has NO interest in taking care of her hair and swims 4-5 times a week, I think that the shorter her hair, and the less care she has to do, the better. So, we grabbed a short styles magazine, and she picked a nice chin-length bob. And the woman in the picture had a tiny bit of bang, too. "Do you want this? You don't HAVE to have a bang. I know how annoying bangs can be, but it might give you a tiny bit of style, and if you don't like it, it will be pretty easy to grow back." When it was her turn to go up to the chair, we showed the picture to the stylist and Mary said she DID want the little bit of bang.
I just LOVE the short style on Mary. Even though it makes my long-hair-loving heart a tiny bit sad, it really just seems to suit her better. The bang...I'm not so sure about it. Mary's not sure either. I explained that it's not quite "trained" yet and that after a few weeks and a bit more practice styling it, she might grow to like it. And if not, it can just be tucked/clipped back until it grows out. (The only detriment about her cute cut: John noticed immediately that she now has the same hair style as her swimming coach. Oh. Whoops. That was NOT intentional. Now every time I see Mary in her new do, I immediately think of her swimming coach. Meh--coach probably won't even notice it since Mary will be wearing a swim cap.)
 |
| Looking good. And older! |
And just to get you all feeling sorry for me, yesterday while scooping up laundry to put in the wash, I slipped on a sock and my legs tried doing the splits. That was just LOVELY on my hormonally-hurting hip. I spent most of yesterday grounded on the couch and wincing in pain every time I had to go up to the bathroom (why a split house, WHY?). I did absolutely NOTHING today, and I'm happy to report that I seem to be now back to the NORMAL pregnancy-hip pain instead of the acute injury pain. Ugh.
Sunday, February 05, 2012
Crazy Normal
I have been at the kids' school almost every day this last week for music lessons and volunteer stuff. Throw in all the after-school stuff that's been going on for the last few weeks, and I'm surprised my head hasn't exploded. Well, my head may be OK (relatively), but while trying to keep up with everything, a few balls DID get dropped.
Keith is still terrible about bringing home his homework, so I've been trying to keep an extra eye on him so that things do not get missed. With all the crazy after-school stuff (two nights of which affected HIM this week), it's easy for the homework to just get forgotten. Well, with all the focus on him, I sort of let my littlest's needs slip through the cracks. I got a voice mail from her teacher Friday that Izzy hadn't done her homework most of the week. Oh. Whoops.
I DO know better. Like Keith, Izzy has homework generally every night. So when she announced to me Thursday (after chess club for which I had volunteered and before the run-Mary-to-swimming chaos and before the feed-the-other-children chaos and the get-Keith-ready-for-baseball chaos) that she had no homework, I didn't bother to double check. SO MUCH was happening that night that I just took her word for it. Come to find out from the teacher's message, not only did she HAVE homework, she had homework from the previous two nights she hadn't done...?
OK, it WAS a crazy week. And frankly, after the after-school stuff and getting Mary to swimming, and getting dinner ready, I think I did just sort of put my feet up and FORGOT to check Izzy's backpack, but I DO remember Izzy getting SOME homework done last week. HOW did I miss almost three nights of not-done homework? UGH!!!!
(Although the cutting-out-the-spelling-words-and-stuffing-them-into-an-envelope-homework annoys me to NO end. Really, teacher. You are calling me because she didn't get THAT done. I get the math worksheet she missed for two nights, but you can't possibly expect me to get worked up that my kid who gets 19s and 20s on almost every single spelling test is really HURTING herself by skipping THAT asinine assignment. And what happened to making them do their missed homework during recess, anyway????? HMMMM?????)
*sigh* OK. Step back. Take ownership. MY FAULT. I believed my sneaky kid (Whose punishment was to finish ALL of her homework Friday night before she got to join us for pizza and movie night--oh! the tantrums about THAT! Especially since she missed half a day on Friday due to a doctor's appointment and had classwork to do, too!). I will TRY HARDER.
But, I'm worried. If I can't keep up with the homework from the three of them now, HOW on earth am I going to keep up with them whenever #4 comes, and I'm all sleep-deprived and leaking out of every orifice????
March and April are going to be very, very challenging months, I think. ugh.
OK! More baby posts up! Now, I'm talking NURSERY! (Not that I have time/energy to actually DO anything!)
Keith is still terrible about bringing home his homework, so I've been trying to keep an extra eye on him so that things do not get missed. With all the crazy after-school stuff (two nights of which affected HIM this week), it's easy for the homework to just get forgotten. Well, with all the focus on him, I sort of let my littlest's needs slip through the cracks. I got a voice mail from her teacher Friday that Izzy hadn't done her homework most of the week. Oh. Whoops.
I DO know better. Like Keith, Izzy has homework generally every night. So when she announced to me Thursday (after chess club for which I had volunteered and before the run-Mary-to-swimming chaos and before the feed-the-other-children chaos and the get-Keith-ready-for-baseball chaos) that she had no homework, I didn't bother to double check. SO MUCH was happening that night that I just took her word for it. Come to find out from the teacher's message, not only did she HAVE homework, she had homework from the previous two nights she hadn't done...?
OK, it WAS a crazy week. And frankly, after the after-school stuff and getting Mary to swimming, and getting dinner ready, I think I did just sort of put my feet up and FORGOT to check Izzy's backpack, but I DO remember Izzy getting SOME homework done last week. HOW did I miss almost three nights of not-done homework? UGH!!!!
(Although the cutting-out-the-spelling-words-and-stuffing-them-into-an-envelope-homework annoys me to NO end. Really, teacher. You are calling me because she didn't get THAT done. I get the math worksheet she missed for two nights, but you can't possibly expect me to get worked up that my kid who gets 19s and 20s on almost every single spelling test is really HURTING herself by skipping THAT asinine assignment. And what happened to making them do their missed homework during recess, anyway????? HMMMM?????)
*sigh* OK. Step back. Take ownership. MY FAULT. I believed my sneaky kid (Whose punishment was to finish ALL of her homework Friday night before she got to join us for pizza and movie night--oh! the tantrums about THAT! Especially since she missed half a day on Friday due to a doctor's appointment and had classwork to do, too!). I will TRY HARDER.
But, I'm worried. If I can't keep up with the homework from the three of them now, HOW on earth am I going to keep up with them whenever #4 comes, and I'm all sleep-deprived and leaking out of every orifice????
March and April are going to be very, very challenging months, I think. ugh.
OK! More baby posts up! Now, I'm talking NURSERY! (Not that I have time/energy to actually DO anything!)
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
A lot
I have been super busy trying to get some of my volunteer GS stuff done (I had a LOT of stuff hit me all at once), and I'm starting to set my sights on getting my co-leader(s) caught up before I can "drop out". Last Friday, I put on the Fun Day for the local kindergarteners and first graders. 45 crazy 5 to 7-year olds. I planned it well, and I think it went off great. I am trying to get out of doing it next year, but so far no one is stepping up. ugh.
THIS Friday I get to take Izzy's GS troop to THEIR fun day. This one is busier, crazier, and includes CAKE. But at least *I* didn't have to organize it! Ha!
Anyway, I'm trying to wrap up the rest of the GS year, and everything else is getting in the way. Too much to do--not enough energy to do it. You'd think I'd get more done being unemployed, but the sapped energy (typical SADD-like symptoms on top of Growing-an-extra-Human symptoms) get the best of me. I'm forcing myself to do a little bit at a time, but my self isn't liking it one bit!
In addition to this, all three kids have had major reports to do/due this month. We have two down, but we still need to get one done. At least there was a BIT of an overlap, but really, Local School System, couldn't you time these things better? Yeesh!
And, in case you're wondering, so far Cinnamon the Pig seems to be doing GREAT. I was a little nervous because after all her meds and most of her mush-food was gone, she still didn't seem to be eating a lot on her own. I just kept giving her grass and carrots and I did wean her down from the mush so that she wasn't having to go back to eating her "kibbles" cold turkey after being hand-fed for almost two weeks. After a few days (and a LOT of grass and carrots), she gradually started eating more and more of her own food. Mary and I did a little dance when we discovered that her food bowl and water bottle were actually EMPTY the other day. And the pig has even taken to jumping up on top of her house again (really funny to see, especially after the last LAZY piggy we had), and she now squeals more often when *I* walk into the room than John or Mary. Yep, she's MY baby now! Tentatively hopeful that whatever was ailing her is out of her system now, and we can go back to "normal" pig care. Whew!
Keith and Izzy are well on their way to passing their current books in their viola/cello lessons. Keith is to the point where he's practically teaching himself, and the instructor has pretty much given him free rein. Izzy does NOT like to be interrupted from play time to take time to practice. She is still managing to keep up, tho. Mary has discovered that they no longer do the Suzuki program in middle school--they just work on orchestra. She is fighting this change and never brings home her instrument or her music, and she's able to use her busy swim schedule and mom's distractedness to basically never practice at all. The biggest problem is that she doesn't like her orchestra teacher. We keep telling her that life will continually hand us teachers/bosses/people we don't like but still need to work with, but she just rolls her eyes and continues to find ways NOT to practice. I fear her violin-playing days are numbered.... My last hope is to tell her that next year she'll get a different teacher, so maybe things will get better. AND that she can continue to work on her book AT HOME and Mom and Dad will pass songs for her. We'll keep trying, anyway....
John and I are trying not to panic about the possibility that he may not have a job much longer. This isn't really the time for him to become unemployed and lose health insurance! He is hoping he'll be OK at least through the summer. This bad news about his company we've really been expecting for quite a long time, but NOW, universe, NOW? That's just COLD!
So, if anyone knows of any technical writing/editing jobs....?
OK. No more depressing stuff! I am posting a new belly pic up at the baby blog! Go! Enjoy!
THIS Friday I get to take Izzy's GS troop to THEIR fun day. This one is busier, crazier, and includes CAKE. But at least *I* didn't have to organize it! Ha!
Anyway, I'm trying to wrap up the rest of the GS year, and everything else is getting in the way. Too much to do--not enough energy to do it. You'd think I'd get more done being unemployed, but the sapped energy (typical SADD-like symptoms on top of Growing-an-extra-Human symptoms) get the best of me. I'm forcing myself to do a little bit at a time, but my self isn't liking it one bit!
In addition to this, all three kids have had major reports to do/due this month. We have two down, but we still need to get one done. At least there was a BIT of an overlap, but really, Local School System, couldn't you time these things better? Yeesh!
And, in case you're wondering, so far Cinnamon the Pig seems to be doing GREAT. I was a little nervous because after all her meds and most of her mush-food was gone, she still didn't seem to be eating a lot on her own. I just kept giving her grass and carrots and I did wean her down from the mush so that she wasn't having to go back to eating her "kibbles" cold turkey after being hand-fed for almost two weeks. After a few days (and a LOT of grass and carrots), she gradually started eating more and more of her own food. Mary and I did a little dance when we discovered that her food bowl and water bottle were actually EMPTY the other day. And the pig has even taken to jumping up on top of her house again (really funny to see, especially after the last LAZY piggy we had), and she now squeals more often when *I* walk into the room than John or Mary. Yep, she's MY baby now! Tentatively hopeful that whatever was ailing her is out of her system now, and we can go back to "normal" pig care. Whew!
Keith and Izzy are well on their way to passing their current books in their viola/cello lessons. Keith is to the point where he's practically teaching himself, and the instructor has pretty much given him free rein. Izzy does NOT like to be interrupted from play time to take time to practice. She is still managing to keep up, tho. Mary has discovered that they no longer do the Suzuki program in middle school--they just work on orchestra. She is fighting this change and never brings home her instrument or her music, and she's able to use her busy swim schedule and mom's distractedness to basically never practice at all. The biggest problem is that she doesn't like her orchestra teacher. We keep telling her that life will continually hand us teachers/bosses/people we don't like but still need to work with, but she just rolls her eyes and continues to find ways NOT to practice. I fear her violin-playing days are numbered.... My last hope is to tell her that next year she'll get a different teacher, so maybe things will get better. AND that she can continue to work on her book AT HOME and Mom and Dad will pass songs for her. We'll keep trying, anyway....
John and I are trying not to panic about the possibility that he may not have a job much longer. This isn't really the time for him to become unemployed and lose health insurance! He is hoping he'll be OK at least through the summer. This bad news about his company we've really been expecting for quite a long time, but NOW, universe, NOW? That's just COLD!
So, if anyone knows of any technical writing/editing jobs....?
OK. No more depressing stuff! I am posting a new belly pic up at the baby blog! Go! Enjoy!
Monday, January 09, 2012
Baby Bonding
So towards the end of the holiday break, my husband and I put our heads together and realized we had made the same discovery--Mary's guinea pig was not acting normal.
Every night when John locks the house up, he also checks the animals. We realize that we have children as their care-givers and food/water just might get forgotten every now and then. Again.
Anyway, he and Cinnamon have a neat routine. Cinnamon has gotten so used to John walking in and then handing her a handful of grass that now every time she hears his footstep, she starts squealing for it (um, even when it's NOT grass-feeding time). So...John noticed that she wasn't squealing anymore. And she wasn't eating the grass anymore. And I noticed that she seemed lethargic. And she only took one bite of the carrot Mary tried to give her. And then we noted that the food/water was full and asked, and no, Mary hadn't had to fill them for AGES. And...yeah, THIS can't be good.
So I called around and found a vet who saw guinea pigs and eventually got her in. While waiting, John and I googled everything guinea pig and discovered that a) we'd been using the wrong litter forEVER (which, we had JUST changed to the proper kind, coincidentally) and b) not all of Cinnamon's symptoms really seemed to exactly fit in any of the typical pig ailments, and c) chances are, we would have to start feeding the pig by hand. With a syringe.
The vet was very alarmed at Cinnamon's condition and wanted to keep her there. Um, I'm sorry. We LOVE this pig and all, but we can't possibly afford to hospitalize her! I told the vet that I was willing to do whatever care the pig needed and then bring her back, but a few days' stay at the vet was just not doable.
Anyway, after examining our squirmy pig, the vet determined that a) it's definitely a SHE (even the vet had difficulties figuring it out!), b) she had guinea pig LICE (breed-specific, so no fear of kidlings or myself getting it--and she probably has had it all along and got it from the pet store), c) it was no OBVIOUS ailment (it's possible Cinnamon had already been sick and gotten over something but was now so weak and lethargic due to the fact that she stopped eating and was STARVING), and d) Cinnamon had SOMETHING weird and brown and icky stuck in her mouth.
The vet tried to remove the glop out of the pig's mouth, but getting a pig to cooperate with something like that is a chore, indeed. Even with myself and two techs helping, the vet was only able to pull out part of it. It appeared to be a hunk of litter. Oh, you mean the litter that is the PROPER kind to use for guinea pigs???? Um...???? Anyway, the vet was obviously quite stressed and frustrated and almost looked as if she wanted to cry since she could not keep the piggy there to anesthetize her and try to get the rest of the glob out of her throat. Really. I'm sorry, lady. But I'm unemployed. (And I don't even want to get into the scary possible future of my husband's job while we have a surprise fourth kid on the way!) And we're a bit tapped out right now due to the holiday after-math. And...really, it IS just a $20 pet store guinea pig. (Oh! The guilt of not having the money to hospitalize my poor daughter's pig! But REALLY, the poor pig is lucky we decided to put some money into taking her to the vet to see what we could do in the first place!) But yeah, the hunk of litter may have been the key to ALL of this--it's kind of hard to eat when you've got something stuck in your mouth..... GUILT, WRACKING GUILT!!
Yeah.... So, I accepted and got sent home with a treatment plan for our poor Cinnamon. I have to syringe feed her this mashed food three times a day. She is getting some other med--I think like a pedialyte--twice a day. And an antibiotic once a day--which must have been a five day treatment since we just ran out. (Vet: I'm being over-cautious here. I don't see any signs of an illness, but we've had pigs die before, and when the bodies were checked [wow--pig autopsy?], one was found.) They also dumped a ton of fluids into her and even sent me home with some lice/critter killing medicine to use for FREE (it was part of a dosage not needed for another tiny animal).
So since last Wednesday, it's been like having a baby in the house again. Sort of. I'm having to mix food and feed this pig three times a day and give her meds, and I'm watching her pee/poop. And she looks at me with her cute little brown eyes while I'm feeding her (baby bump makes a nice, convenient shelf), and Oh, am I going to be sad if this little girl doesn't make it after all of this!
The good news is that we can tell she's feeling a bit better. There is definitely more pep in her step (and more pee/poop in the cage!). She has even squealed a bit over her grass. The bad news is that she's still not eating her regular food and while she has been eating tiny carrots, it's still not with the vigor of before. And she doesn't eat nearly the amount of grass she used to.
*sigh* Poor pig. All I can say is that she's lucky she's so darn cute!
Every night when John locks the house up, he also checks the animals. We realize that we have children as their care-givers and food/water just might get forgotten every now and then. Again.
Anyway, he and Cinnamon have a neat routine. Cinnamon has gotten so used to John walking in and then handing her a handful of grass that now every time she hears his footstep, she starts squealing for it (um, even when it's NOT grass-feeding time). So...John noticed that she wasn't squealing anymore. And she wasn't eating the grass anymore. And I noticed that she seemed lethargic. And she only took one bite of the carrot Mary tried to give her. And then we noted that the food/water was full and asked, and no, Mary hadn't had to fill them for AGES. And...yeah, THIS can't be good.
So I called around and found a vet who saw guinea pigs and eventually got her in. While waiting, John and I googled everything guinea pig and discovered that a) we'd been using the wrong litter forEVER (which, we had JUST changed to the proper kind, coincidentally) and b) not all of Cinnamon's symptoms really seemed to exactly fit in any of the typical pig ailments, and c) chances are, we would have to start feeding the pig by hand. With a syringe.
The vet was very alarmed at Cinnamon's condition and wanted to keep her there. Um, I'm sorry. We LOVE this pig and all, but we can't possibly afford to hospitalize her! I told the vet that I was willing to do whatever care the pig needed and then bring her back, but a few days' stay at the vet was just not doable.
Anyway, after examining our squirmy pig, the vet determined that a) it's definitely a SHE (even the vet had difficulties figuring it out!), b) she had guinea pig LICE (breed-specific, so no fear of kidlings or myself getting it--and she probably has had it all along and got it from the pet store), c) it was no OBVIOUS ailment (it's possible Cinnamon had already been sick and gotten over something but was now so weak and lethargic due to the fact that she stopped eating and was STARVING), and d) Cinnamon had SOMETHING weird and brown and icky stuck in her mouth.
The vet tried to remove the glop out of the pig's mouth, but getting a pig to cooperate with something like that is a chore, indeed. Even with myself and two techs helping, the vet was only able to pull out part of it. It appeared to be a hunk of litter. Oh, you mean the litter that is the PROPER kind to use for guinea pigs???? Um...???? Anyway, the vet was obviously quite stressed and frustrated and almost looked as if she wanted to cry since she could not keep the piggy there to anesthetize her and try to get the rest of the glob out of her throat. Really. I'm sorry, lady. But I'm unemployed. (And I don't even want to get into the scary possible future of my husband's job while we have a surprise fourth kid on the way!) And we're a bit tapped out right now due to the holiday after-math. And...really, it IS just a $20 pet store guinea pig. (Oh! The guilt of not having the money to hospitalize my poor daughter's pig! But REALLY, the poor pig is lucky we decided to put some money into taking her to the vet to see what we could do in the first place!) But yeah, the hunk of litter may have been the key to ALL of this--it's kind of hard to eat when you've got something stuck in your mouth..... GUILT, WRACKING GUILT!!
Yeah.... So, I accepted and got sent home with a treatment plan for our poor Cinnamon. I have to syringe feed her this mashed food three times a day. She is getting some other med--I think like a pedialyte--twice a day. And an antibiotic once a day--which must have been a five day treatment since we just ran out. (Vet: I'm being over-cautious here. I don't see any signs of an illness, but we've had pigs die before, and when the bodies were checked [wow--pig autopsy?], one was found.) They also dumped a ton of fluids into her and even sent me home with some lice/critter killing medicine to use for FREE (it was part of a dosage not needed for another tiny animal).
So since last Wednesday, it's been like having a baby in the house again. Sort of. I'm having to mix food and feed this pig three times a day and give her meds, and I'm watching her pee/poop. And she looks at me with her cute little brown eyes while I'm feeding her (baby bump makes a nice, convenient shelf), and Oh, am I going to be sad if this little girl doesn't make it after all of this!
The good news is that we can tell she's feeling a bit better. There is definitely more pep in her step (and more pee/poop in the cage!). She has even squealed a bit over her grass. The bad news is that she's still not eating her regular food and while she has been eating tiny carrots, it's still not with the vigor of before. And she doesn't eat nearly the amount of grass she used to.
*sigh* Poor pig. All I can say is that she's lucky she's so darn cute!
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