It Boggles The Mind!

My husband has an amazing talent.

He can lay down to sleep on a bed with perfectly applied sheets (especially the bottom, fitted sheet and mattress pad) and when he gets up in the morning, the fitted sheet and mattress pad are bunched up in the center of the bed. He usually winds up sleeping on the mattress itself.

I have absolutely no idea how he does it. He says it is my fault. That somehow I am taking the sheet and mattress pad from under his 200 pound, sleeping body and bunching them up next to me while we sleep. When he's not blaming it on me stealing them from him, he's blaming the sheet bunching on our sheets being too small, or too ... inferior, I guess.

(Side note: OMG! Emily just pretended to steal Lucy's nose! Emily and Grandpa play this game all the time and now she's playing it with Lucy. How adorable is that?!)

Part of the problem might be caused by our mattress pad. Our mattress is one of the deep, thick, cushiony ones and I know that the pad doesn't fully cover the sides of the mattress. So when Mike engages in full contact sleeping, the mattress pad is quick to cry uncle.

I've also, I think, mentioned the role allergies play in our lives. Mike and I both have (or had, in Mike's case) allergies to a number of things, especially dust mites. As I recall, when I had my allergy testing done, my reaction to the dust mites was so great that they had to give me additional medicine to stop the reaction. The allergist recommended that I get mattress and pillow covers to protect my bedding from dust mites. I looked at the prices, gasped, and tossed the pamphlet. I didn't have the money to spend on pricey covers, even if they would help reduce my allergies.

Emily came along in 2005 and I knew that she was going to have problems with allergies, just like Mike and I. This was confirmed for me earlier this year when she had her first batch of allergy testing done. She's allergic to dust mites (that's my girl!) and ragweed, primarily. She also had reactions to milk, eggs, wheat and peanuts (GAH! You can imagine my surprise, since she'd eaten all of those without incident. Because of that, the doctor told me we didn't need to worry about those reactions). I can say with a fair degree of certainty that 3 of the last 5 ear infections Emily has had were directly caused by her allergies.

Enter Charlie (and my point).

He sent me an email earlier this month asking me if I would be interested in trying the Protect-A-Bed mattress covers. These are the covers that were recommended to me when I had my allergy testing done in college. They are soft, breathable, terry-cloth, WATERPROOF mattress covers that are designed to provide protection against allergens and dust mites. I requested a twin sized cover for Emily's bed, figuring that the extra protection might help ward off another ear infection (we're poised at the threshold between tubes and no tubes - she's had 5 infections since October of last year. At 6, our doctor starts talking tubes).

You can imagine how excited I was when I got home from Las Vegas and discovered not one but TWO packages from Charlie. We received both a twin mattress cover for Emily and a queen for Mike and me. YIPPEE!!!

I put the covers on last week and we have been happily sleeping on them ever since. I have definitely noticed a decrease in the bunching of the mattress pad and sheets, and was excited to see that the mattress cover fit over our fat mattress without a problem. Mike says that the mattress cover is noisy when he rolls over, but while I can hear it when I am awake, it doesn't wake me up. And did I mention they are waterproof? This isn't an important feature for Mike and me, but with Emily starting down the potty training path, waterproof is definitely something we want.

If you are in the market for mattress covers, I would definitely recommend the Protect-A-Bed covers.

Haiku Friday - Vacation Style!

vacation with kids
like home but with more yelling
and less relaxing

Mike and I have not taken very many vacations, and even fewer since the kiddos were born. That is mostly because we are unwilling to spend the money required to go on a vacation (also, it's hard to spend that which you do not have (though I have been trying...)).

The trip that Mom and I took to Vegas last week is the basis for the haiku above. I felt like all I did the entire trip was yell at Emily. I know that we both had a good time, but with her schedule so off and less sleep happening for all of us, tempers were a little short.

In spite of my perception of family vacations, Mike and I both are looking forward to taking our girls on fun family vacations when they get a little older. We've talked at length about buying a camper of some kind so that we could go on trips and not spend a fortune on food and lodging.

I remember going on trips with my parents, especially my Michigan parents. Every summer, when I was visiting them they would take me (and usually my cousin Jenny) on a trip. We went up to Mackinack Island, to the Sleeping Bear Dunes, and to Battle Creek. We also made at least one trip to Cedar Point.

Those trips with my parents are some of my fondest memories of my childhood. One vacation to Lake Superior has become something of a family legend.

When I was in 3rd grade, I got a retainer of sorts. It was called a bionator and it was intended to help correct my underbite. When I got it my mom had a long talk with me about keeping it safe and making sure I didn't lose it. That message really got through. I think it was the threat that if I lost it (I think she meant if I wrapped it in a napkin and it was thrown away) she was going to make me pay for it.

So, I am at Lake Superior with my dad and stepmom. I wade out into the water and am playing. As I remember it, a wave came up and caught me off guard. Somehow, the bionator flew out of my mouth and plunk! landed in the water.

I promptly fuh-reaked out. I was sobbing and crying about losing the bionator (and telling my parents "You don't understand! I have to pay to replace it! I don't have that kind of money!"). My poor dad waded out into the water where I had been and searched for it for easily 45 minutes. In case you aren't familiar with Lake Superior, it is the coldest of the 5 Great Lakes. My dad said he lost the feeling in his feet after 5 minutes, but kept searching anyways, just in case.

I remember, very clearly, sitting in the motel room that night, calling my mom to tell her that I had lost my bionator in Lake Superior.

I am sure that I added my own special brand of chaos to each of my family's vacations when I was a kid, just as Emily and Lucy added their special chaotic touches while we were in Vegas. I especially appreciated how Lucy would start SCREAMING whenever we had my aunt in the car. Emily usually started crying, too. We'd be driving down the street (and remember it took us at least an hour to get anywhere in Vegas) with at least one, if not both children sobbing. I always sat in the far back seat of the van, with the kids in front of me. I spent at least one trip from Joyce's to Erica's house out of my seat belt, so I could keep putting the pacifier back in Lucy's mouth. My current plan for avoiding vacation chaos is to go on our next family vacation when the kids are at least 30.

If you have watched Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s “Vacation” and not recognized your own family in the Griswolds, then you haven’t taken a real family vacation. Because no matter how carefully you plan, chaos will befall you - although hopefully it won’t be as extreme as the chaos that the Griswolds seem to attract.

Now’s your chance to write your own vacation story for Parent Bloggers Network and PickPackGo and win an 8" Sony portable DVD player for your next family trip!

BRB

I won't be around much for a day or so (I'm hoping).

My computer, which has been having a few hiccups in the past months, gave me two blue screens in as many hours last night. I have a replacement hard drive for it, which I was meant to install 3 years ago when I first had a blue screen, but it didn't seem all that necessary, so I didn't.

Anyways, I got 2 blue screens last night and it has been running very slowly recently, so I am going to pull out the old drive and install the new one. And then I have to get a bunch of updates and reinstall my programs. All that is going to take some time. Hopefully I'll be able to get everything back up and running soon, but I really don't know how long it is going to take.

Also, I started Lucy on her non-soy, non-dairy formula this afternoon (the pediatrician recommended I give her the formula for several days while pumping to maintain my supply so that we can weed out what exactly is causing the pea green sulfur poo this child is having) and she is having none of it. She was SO incredibly upset. I finally did get her to take it, but mostly by putting it into a medicine syringe and chinese water torturing her with it.

Like I said, I am not planning on doing this for the long term, and I definitely want to keep nursing her, so this formula thing is just so that we can figure out it my dairy elimination diet needs to be dairy and soy free or if I can go back to having my milk (please!) and there is something else going on.

I will be back soon. TTFN!

Home again, home again

Our trip in pictures. We had so much fun. The girls did really well, considering we threw their schedules completely out the window and added a 3-hour time difference just for fun.


I told Emily that we were going to go fly on an airplane up in the sky the morning we left. She left the kitchen and then came back a few seconds later and said "Go ... guy?" (Translation: go fly? or go sky? I'm not really sure which). It was just too cute.


Emily made sure that Elmo was safely buckled into the stroller. We don't want him to fall out and get hurt.


I really like this picture. I should probably crop my mom out of the background. Emily has started to be more aware of when people are taking pictures and she really likes to have her picture taken. I was taking some pictures of Lucy and she came up and asked me to take her picture.


Lucy totally turned on the charm while we were gone. She woke up early one morning and was sort of fussing in her swing. When I got over to give her a pacifier, she looked up at me and grinned the biggest, gummiest smile. It was like she was saying "Hey, I know you! You're that nice lady with the milk. Can I have some of that?" It was very cute, but I really wanted her to go back to sleep and be charming at a more socially acceptable time. Like after 7 am.


We gave Emily a pretty hefty dose of Benadryl to try to get her to sleep decently on the plane. She slept like the dead for about 45 minutes or an hour and then woke up and refused to go back to sleep. She was ... well, let's say unpleasant to be around when we got to my cousin Erica's house. Our plane landed at 2 something Vegas time. I kept her up until 7:30 Vegas time to try to get her adjusted to the time change more quickly. She wanted to wake up at 3 in the morning the next day, but I managed to convince her to stay in bed until 6:30 or so. After that, she did ok as long as we didn't skip her nap (which we totally did to take her to the Strip).


I don't think Lucy ever figured out that we were in a different time zone. She's usually awake around 7 am, and then is ready for bed around 7:30 or so. Well, now that I think about it, maybe she did adjust. She did essentially the same thing while we were in Vegas. Her schedule is less iron-clad than Emily's so she was easier to deal with. And she totally slept while we were on the plane. She didn't seem to care about the pressure changes or anything. Yay.

On the phone with Daddy. She loves to talk with Daddy. And she's getting pretty good at actually having a conversation (of sorts) with him.


We bought the hat (the green and red thing next to Lucy) and the sunglasses while we were in Vegas. Lucy hates them, but she looks seriously cute in them. Just another abuse she can complain about to her therapist when she gets older. I heard someone (comedian, friend, I can't remember) joke that they would put a dollar in the "therapy jar" when they did something potentially scarring to their kids.


We took Emily (and Lucy, but she didn't enjoy it as much) to a really great park near Erica's house. Emily had a ball. We wound up cutting this trip short in favor of going down to the strip. We went to the Venetian (ostensibly to show Emily the living statues - she was unimpressed, probably too young) and then walked down to Caesar's Palace. We were going to go to the Bellagio to see the fountains, but it was way farther down the strip than I remembered and Emily was losing her mind from lack of nap.

I love the look of wonder on Emily's face here.

This is in FAO Schwartz in Caesar's Palace. Emily dragged that bear onto her lap to give him hugs, kisses and nose rubs. Very cute.


This is on the way to Erica's house. She lives in North Las Vegas. Both Mom and I were suffering from some major city envy and house envy. The area is not only gorgeous scenery-wise, but also growing and very vibrant, in comparison to where we live. They have a huge selection of interesting restaurants and attractions. The houses are also cool. Almost all of them are adobe and they have neat architectural features we don't see here in NY. The downside is that it takes FOREVER to get anywhere, all the houses look the same (at least within the developments, mostly because they are all by the same builder), and, of course, the heat.


Lucy, loungin' around at Erica's house. I love the rolls on her thighs. You'd never know we're having a hard time with milk (and possibly soy) sensitivity.


We went back to the cool park on Friday. While I was feeding Lucy, Mom took Emily and they wandered off to other areas. There was an amphitheatre thing (you know, circular depression, with steps going down to a flat area...). In the flat area, there was a puddle from an overnight rainstorm (I know! In Las Vegas! Rain! Hard to believe). Apparently the concrete was really slippery, because Emily fell. Then Mom fell trying to get Emily. I heard a splash! and then Emily started crying. Mom said that we were going to have to change Emily's clothes because she was soaked. Then I heard a bigger SPLASH! That was Mom going down. To my credit, I made sure everyone was ok before giving into hysterical laughter. The picture documenting the mishap was Mom's idea. Posting it on my blog? All me.


A great picture of Emily. Not so much Lucy. I couldn't get a good one of the two of them together. But Emily has started asking to hold Lucy more and more so it'll happen eventually.


Great-Aunt Joyce talking with Lucy. I love the look of wonder on Lucy's face. Too cute.


Still talking with Great-Aunt Joyce. I am on the hunt for a good picture of Lucy to use for Christmas presents. Hopefully Mom got a good one cause so far, mine aren't the best.

The trip home was pretty hellish. The plane left Vegas at 12:30 pm. We had a stop-over in Atlanta (only an hour and a half layover) and then landed in NY at 11:30 pm. By the time we got our luggage, got to the car, nursed Lucy (she has FANTASTIC timing, that one), and got home, it was 1 am. Emily fell asleep in the car (FINALLY - she was so tired she was hyper on the plane. I'm sure our fellow passengers loved us).

We are all definitely glad to be home. I was planning for this week to be low-key and also the beginning of an attempt at giving Lucy discrete nap times (instead of the fall asleep in the carseat thing we've been doing) and working more with Emily on potty. Instead, we had a MOM's club thing today, a gym program tomorrow and Thursday for Emily, a flu shot tomorrow for Emily, matching mommy and Emily dentist appointments on Wednesday and a trip to an apple farm on Friday. Yeah, nice and relaxing...

New look

So you might notice that things look a little different around here. If you use a feed reader, click through to see what I am talking about.

I finally got around to finding a 3-column template that works in Blogger.

I also signed up for Auction Ads through eBay. I'm not a big eBay-er, but I definitely go there to look for stuff when I a) don't want to buy it new (read pay full price) or b) think I'll have a hard time finding it. I've had a lot of success buying medical equipment on eBay. We're the proud owners of a nebulizer and an otoscope that were both purchased on eBay. Click through and buy stuff if the ads appeal. Or don't.

So. There's a new template. Let me know if you find bugs.

You'll also notice (or maybe not) that my Daily Blogs list has vanished. It was woefully out of date and I don't have the energy right now to go through and list the blogs I subscribe to (I wish that there was some option to take my subscriptions from Google Reader and just poof! have them become my blog list in Blogger. They're related and all, you'd think it would be easy enough to do. But, noooo, I have to go through and pick stuff. And I suck at picking. Decision making isn't a strong suit.)

I'll figure something out about the blog list and add it to my template. Later. Maybe.

Leaving on a jet plane

I am going to Las Vegas tomorrow.

I might have forgotten to mention this.

My mom's sister and her daughter and her daughter's family live in Vegas and my mom decided that she wanted to take me, Emily and Lucy out to see everyone out there. My aunt has never met Emily or Lucy and I haven't met my cousin's husband or their daughter. I think the last time I saw my aunt was at my wedding. That was 5 years ago.

So we're going to Vegas tomorrow and we'll be back late Saturday night. Mike is getting left behind with the dog, in case there are any prospective burglars who have figured out where I live. I will spend the majority of today packing and trying to get the majority of the chores done so that the place isn't a total disaster when I get home.

In the meantime, I will leave you with this video that Mike took yesterday.

Four little words

Emily had another Early Intervention assessment on Monday. I asked the speech pathologist when she thought that Emily might start to say her name.

Emily has never referred to herself. At all. She can point to all her parts, indicates herself if you ask "Where's Emily" and so on, but she never says anything about "I do it" or "Emily do" or anything like that.

The speech pathologist said I should expect Emily to start saying her name any time now (the assessment indicated no real delay, though I was advised to keep an eye on her enunciation and if it hasn't improved dramatically by next May or June have her assessed again, this time through the school district). She also mentioned that it would appear that Emily is going to be making some large strides very soon and, well, hang on to your hat.

Last night, Emily and I were playing on the floor and I asked her "What's your name?", never in a million years expecting that she'd respond "Emm -- y". My eyes got real big and I asked her again. And she said it again. And then I asked her what the baby's name was and she said "Wooshy" (it's really really garbled, since the "L" and "SS" sounds are some of the last ones to develop).

One of the other things that I have been waiting patiently (well, maybe not so patiently) for Emily to start saying is "Mommy" and "Daddy". Especially "Mommy". She has been calling me "Mama" pretty much since she started talking, with a "Mommy" thrown in every once in a while to keep me on my toes.

Earlier this week she started saying "Mommy" almost more than she says "Mama". And I won't ever (well, at least not till she's much older) tell her that she could call me "Mommy" and get herself out of a whole heap of trouble. I can't explain why I like her calling me "Mommy" so much, but the sound of her little voice calling me "Mommy" makes my heart melt.

Mike also got her to start calling him "Daddy" today and I think he likes that as much as I like "Mommy".

These are the four best words to me, right now: Mommy, Daddy, Emily and Lucy.

I'm going to start working on getting her to say "I love you."

Thicker in the middle

I was tagged by Jill to do the following: You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

I have seen this meme floating around the internet over the past few weeks and I have to tell you: there's a reason why I haven't done it. The reason is this: my middle name? Is Elizabeth. Not only is it 9 letters long, but it also has a 'z' in it. A 'z'! Ok, enough whining.

E - Energetic. I am almost always running around doing something. I remember when I was living with my mother-in-law, I was amazed at how she was always doing something. She usually only sat down long enough to eat dinner and then she didn't stop until she went to bed. And now, I am exactly the same way. There's a ton of stuff to do every day, and usually not enough hours to do them all.

L - Likeable. I like to think that I am a nice person (though 2 people have flipped me the bird in the past 2 days) and I try very hard to be a good friend.

I - Integrity. I try not to lie and I try to be a good Christian and a role model for my kids. This means that when the lady flipped me the bird this morning because I had the gall to look over at her car (to make sure I wasn't going to sideswipe her), I didn't return the gesture. I even have given up my habit of not using the hands-free feature on my cell phone when I'm driving (for non-New Yorkers, it's illegal in NY to hold your cell phone in your hand while driving. You have to use the speakerphone or a headset.).

Z - Zany. I think I'm pretty funny and have a silly and crazy sense of humor. Hopefully some of that comes out here.

A - Adaptable. I think I have managed to get the hang of this two-kid thing pretty well. And if a monkey-wrench is thrown into my plans, I manage to figure out how to work with the new plan. I might complain and whine while I'm doing it, but that which needs to be done gets done.

B - Biased. My kids are the cutest, smartest, sweetest and most darling children. Yours are great, too, but mine are ... well, mine. :)

E - Energetic Oh, wait. I used that already. Ummmmm.... Eclectic. I have a variety of interests. I would love to be a mail person. I read almost any book, on nearly any subject, I listen to a wide variety of music...

T - Timely. I hate being late. I get very twitchy if I think I am going to be late, or not early.

H - Happy. I love my life. This mommy gig is seriously hard, but man! It is so fun! I have a wonderful husband, two adorable kids, family who loves me, a great house, a job I like.... who can ask for anything more?

***

And just for your reading pleasure, here are Mike's words for me using the letters of my middle name.

E - Engineered

L - Lovely

I - Incredible

Z - Zany

B - Bodacious

E - Egregious - he didn't know what that meant. then I told him. :P

T - Trouble

H - Hot

***
If you read the directions above, I am supposed to nominate people to do this. I'm not going to do that. If you want to join in, please feel free. If you do, I'd love for you to come back and leave a comment with a link to your post.

I'll think about it tomorrow...

Note: Read the title with a Scarlett O'Hara-type dramatic flair, preferably with a hand delicately fanning your face.

Lucy has a strange thing going on. She won't poop for days and when she does, she can clear a room, it smells that bad. And her farts aren't much better. Her poops have a decidedly green tinge to them when they do arrive.

I mentioned all of this to the pediatrician at today's 2-month check-up (11 pounds 10 ounces (75th percentile for weight) 22.25 inches (30th percentile for height)). Dr. Sara said that she's not so worried about the not pooping for a couple of days, but the smell is a little strange.

I told her that I drink a lot of milk (we typically go through 4-5 gallons of milk per week for the 3 of us) and eat ice cream nearly every night and I had a gut feeling that Lucy's issues might be related to the vast quantities of dairy that are being consumed by her mother. She agreed that dairy might be the culprit and recommended I try eliminating dairy from my diet for several days to see if the doody comes more frequently and is ... if not pleasant-smelling, at least not quite so foul.

I read Amanda's blog while she was on an elimination diet for Genoa and I know it ain't gonna be pleasant. While I was driving home from the doctor's office I started thinking about all the things that have dairy hiding in them and how hard it is for my sister-in-law to find non-dairy stuff for my nephew and then my thoughts turned to the piece of leftover cheesecake that I had waiting for me at home. And I decided that since I had already had dairy today (milk and yogurt for breakfast) that I would make today my last dairy-full day (my last hurrah, so to speak) and ... well, think about being dairy-free tomorrow. I went to the grocery store this evening and bought some soy milk to get me through the morning and also discovered that Honey Smacks and Oreos are dairy-free (I really don't want to think about what makes up the center of an Oreo if they don't contain any dairy). I'll go to Wegman's tomorrow to get more stuff and think some more about things like lunches and dinner.

So, here's hoping that I won't have to do this for very long. And, at the same time, here's hoping that this clears up the problem, because if it is something else I am eating, it probably will be just as painful to avoid as milk.

If anyone has any dairy-free recipes they want to share with me, especially that involve chicken or ground beef, I'd love to hear them!!

Happy birthday to...

When I was a kid, I used to try to watch Entertainment Tonight to see who shared my birthday with me. And I was usually disappointed, because I would usually forget. I'd also look at those lists of famous people's birthdays and be depressed because it seemed like no one had September 11 as their birthday.

This morning, I went out to Famousbirthdays.com and discovered that several people share my birthday, I'm just not sure who they are.

So, with the help of FamousBirthdays.com and Wikipedia, here are the people who were born on September 11.

O. Henry: The pen name for William Sydney Porter, who wrote The Gift of the Magi, among others. He was also imprisoned for embezzlement from the First National Bank of Austin.
D.H. Lawrence: Another author, he wrote Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love, and Lady Chatterly's Lover.
Brian DePalma: An Academy Award-winning director. He directed Scarface and The Untouchables.
Tom Dreesen: Wikipedia doesn't know who he is, but according to his website, he's a comedian, motivational speaker and master of ceremonies. According to IMDb, he opened for Frank Sinatra's club and concert appearances.
Lola Falana: A singer and dancer, she was the first black woman to market a cosmetic that wasn't intended soley for blacks, the Faberge Tigress perfume.
Kristy McNichol: An actress who appeared on the TV shows Starsky and Hutch, The Bionic Woman, Love American Style, and The Love Boat.
Moby: A songwriter, musician and singer, he is most well-known for his album Play.
Maria Bartiromo: A business news anchor and reporter for CNBC.
Harry Connick, Jr: This one I knew. And I also knew that we share a birthday. Harry an American singer, pianist, actor and humanitarian from New Orleans.
Brad Fischetti: A member of the group Lyte Funky Ones.
Ludacris: A rapper. I knew who Lucacris is, too, but didn't know that I am exactly 1 year older than he is.
Ariana Richards: An actress who starred in Jurassic Park.

Happy birthday to these famous people. And to the other not-so-famous 9/11-ers, too!

***

There is an organization, called myGoodDeed.org that is encouraging people to memorialize the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks by pledging to do a good deed on September 11. I can't think of a better way to pay tribute to the 2,996 people who were murdered 6 years ago today.

Also, project 2,996 (which I took part in last year) is happening again this year. Go check out the tributes.

A good time was had by all

We took Emily to the local amusement and water park on Saturday and she had a ball. They have a bunch of kiddie rides and she enjoyed all of them.

Motor boat, motor boat, go so fast...

Whee!

Emily is following the unwritten "must not touch the wheel" rule

And the "must not smile" rule, too.

I love this picture. My big little girl.

You wouldn't believe it from this picture,
but she spent the entire time she was in line for this ride,
begging to go on the blue car, please! Car, go, please! Blue!

This picture looks like Emily is about to get out and
beat on the girl behind her if she hits the back of Emily's T-bird.
Yeah, my kid's bad like that.

Mike took this picture.
You can see Emily and I in the background in our
(unintentionally) matching pink swim suits.
Mike wasn't trying to beartsy fartsy,
the picture is kinda cool, with the big globs of water.

We got fried dough and Emily thought that the "cookie" was DELICIOUS!

Mike said that Emily was fascinated by the seagull.

We are planning to go again next year and are eagerly looking forward to the day when both Emily and Lucy are old enough to go with us.

PS: Please ignore the seabreeze.jpg post below. I was playing with ways to upload pictures to Blogger and decided to try the email pictures from Flickr to Blogger thing.

PPS: Jill tagged me for a meme about my middle name. I'll try to get to it later this week. Probably won't happen tomorrow, since it's my birthday. #31. Woo!

seabreeze.jpg

seabreeze.jpg
Originally uploaded by erinlooneybin

What a week

This has been one of those "Life Lesson" weeks.

On Wednesday, Emily and I were in the parking lot of the Mom's Club meeting and Emily was pretending to push the automatic sliding door on our van (a Honda Odyssey). As the door reached the end of its track, she didn't pull her fingers out from behind the edge of the door.

I'm sure you can see where this is going.

Her fingers got caught in the door as it latched and locked. I tried, oh, how I tried, to tell Emily to move her fingers as it was closing, but she, in typical 2-year-old fashion, didn't listen.

The shriek she let out was ... well, I'm getting chills sitting here thinking about it. (This was about 10 am EST on Wednesday. If your dog suddenly perked up its ears around that time, now you know why.)

Of course, the car was locked and so I was frantically fumbling for the keys and the remote to unlock and open the door and free her fingers. I got the door open (man those doors move so slowly when you need them to open quickly) and looked at her hand. The middle, ring and pinky fingers of her right hand were the ones that were affected the most and they were red and inflamed. There was an angry looking line across the palm of her hand. I had Emily make a fist and then spread her fingers and, while she was sobbing, it seemed like she could move her fingers ok, so I didn't think anything was broken.

We went to the Mom's Club meeting and then met my parents at the mall for lunch. My dad took one look at Emily's hand and said that he thought it needed to be seen by a doctor. He's not one to go running to the doctor for the least complaint, so I felt like if he thought it needed attention, it might be worse than I thought. And watching Emily eat her lunch, totally favoring her right hand, using only the first two fingers, I was even more convinced that something was really wrong. And I felt awful.

We went to the doctor that afternoon, after Emily's nap and the doctor examined Emily's hand and pronounced it bruised and sore, but not broken. She was able to press firmly on all areas without Emily flinching at all (liberal singing of the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "This Little Piggy" helped immensely).

I finally was starting to ease up on myself about letting Emily pinch her fingers in the van this morning. And then we had another life lesson.

Emily's breakfast typically consists of a baggie of Cheerios ("dee dee") and a sippy cup of milk. She sits on the couch and watches an episode of Sesame Street on the DVD player while I wander around and get things done.

I was in the bedroom, changing the sheets. I fed Lucy this morning and used Mike's pillow for support. Lucy, of course, took advantage of this, and spit up. I felt like making Mike sleep on a spit-up covered pillow might be beyond the call of duty. I came out of the bedroom to put Lucy's pacifier back in and Emily was standing in the hall with her finger in her nose. I told her in passing to take her finger out of her nose.

I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this one, too.

Emily said "Dee dee noo" (Cheerio, nose) and then started to cry. She had a Cheerio up her nose. I grabbed her and pulled her over to the nearest light source and, sure enough, there was half a Cheerio in her nose. I had her try to blow her nose into a tissue, hoping to get it out, but no luck. I also kind of pushed on her nostril to try to drag it down enough that I might be able to dig it out.

It was at this point that I remembered our pediatrician telling me that she loves to pull stuff out of ears and noses. That, and cleaning the goo out of umbilical cord stumps. (Different strokes for different folks and all that...) I grabbed the phone and called the pediatrician's office, thanking God that it was 9:30 and they were actually open.

I talked with a nurse and she recommended saline up the nose and then a bulb syringe to try to get it out. I put the saline up Emily's nose, which did not make her a happy girl (GOOD! Maybe she'll learn not to stick crap (or Cheerios) up her nose!!) and then went after it with a bulb syringe. I didn't get anything out, and when I peered up there again, the Cheerio was MIA. I'm not sure if it went down her throat or out the front, but either way, it is no longer in her nose. And that's really all I care about.

I am so done. I have had it with the life lessons this week. I know that she needs to learn that doors are dangerous and you don't put things up your nose (which I probably blew all to bits by sticking a saline bottle and a bulb syringe up there), but comforting her in the aftermath of
these lessons kind of takes it out of me.

Oh, and yesterday, when I got home from my mom's house, Domino met me at the door. I had put him in his crate when I left, but he greeted me at the door, all wagging tail and happy face. I had only been latching the top of the two latches on his crate and he decided yesterday was a good day to make a break for it. The door is a little bent, but is still serviceable. Which is good, cause we so don't have $100 for a new crate for the dog. We also don't have money to deal with the split toenail he has that he can't seem to leave alone, but the vet said that one wasn't an emergency and should resolve on its one, so we're waiting and watching.

I'm going to go get a big bowl of Edy's Loaded Peanut Butter Cup ice cream and a big glass of iced tea now. Have you tried that stuff? Nectar of the gods. Chocolate ice cream, a ribbon of peanut butter and chunks of peanut butter cups. The most delicious ice cream. Ever.

And I still can't get past the two spaces thing. I spend a lot of time backspacing to delete extra spaces at the end of sentences.

Have a great weekend! Mike, Emily and I are going to go celebrate one of the last warm weekends at a local amusement and water park. Mike and I are so excited. We can't wait to show this place to Emily. She's going to have a ball. My parents are going to watch Lucy for us so we can all have a good time without one of us constantly having to sit with Lucy.

Rockstar!!

Bedtime when Emily was a wee little one were a long involved process involving feeding, rocking, pacifier and slooooooooooowly lowering a slumbering baby into her crib. If she awoke anywhere in that process, we had to start all over again.

I didn't really believe the whole "put the baby down when she's drowsy, but not asleep and let her fall asleep on her own" idea, but thought I would give it a shot with Lucy, since I really wasn't up for 3 months* of rocking Lucy to sleep, having gotten used to kid-free adult time at night after Emily goes to bed.

I'm definitely a convert to the school of putting the baby to bed before she falls asleep now. Around 7:30, Lucy gets one last feeding and then I swaddle her in her crib as tightly as I possibly can get her, wrap another blanket tightly around her in her crib, turn on her sleep sheep, stick a pacifier in her mouth and walk out. I have to go back in a couple of times to reinsert the pacifier and sometimes to rewrap her, but she is usually asleep within 30 minutes of me putting her down.

And every night, when I realize that yet again, I have managed to put the kid to bed while still able to watch TV and play on the computer, I feel like a rockstar. Go me.

* I say 3 months because we started working with Emily to teach her to put herself to sleep when she was approximately 3 months old. We used this system.

New Math

What do you get when you add the following:

(1) 7.5 week old baby

(1) tired mommy

(1) Mike's Hard Lime


****

In my case, you get a baby who sleeps from 9:30 pm to 3:30 am. When I told Mike how well Lucy had slept after Mommy's little cocktail, he immediately drove me to the nearest liquor store. So now I am the proud owner of a bottle of Mudslide mix (mmm, had it on the rocks last night... so yummy) and amaretto and sour mix so I can have Amaretto Sours. Mike kept saying this is for the good of the family. When I get more sleep, I'm less ... we'll say "crabby" and everyone is in a better mood. Plus, I got a bunch of stuff done over the weekend. I finished the book I was working on for my mom, folded 8 loads of laundry and put it all away, took all of Emily's 2T clothes out of her room and put all the 3T stuff away, and typed up the bylaws of two charities for my mom. It feels really good to have all that stuff off my plate.


Oh, and last week, I mentioned that there was something exciting happening here and then never had a chance to post about it. It was exciting to me, but probably not as much to you. We got DISHTV. Our phone company has been offering a package deal where you get phone, internet and DISH for $60/month. We had the phone and internet and were paying $70/month, so I called and signed up for DISH, since it was less expensive, even factoring in the fact that we'll have to have DISH for 2 years. I'm pretty excited.