Help - I need comments!

After reading Sara's post about some changes to Blogger's comment form, I decided to take her suggestion and install Haloscan for commenting.

It was that or look into migrating my blog to somewhere else and ... well, as Mike says "We fear change."

So, can you guys do me a huge favor and leave me a comment, please? Thanks! Let me know if things work, if they don't, try to break it, whatever.

PS: Mom, this means that you should be able to leave comments now. Let me know if that is not the case. Tx!

WHEW!

I am so glad that it is the 30th of November. I have been scraping the bottom of the barrel for posts for the past several days (it's OK, I know you've noticed) and after this post, I don't have to try to come up with something interesting (or heck, even something) to say.

And.... I'm spent.*

Have a good weekend!

*Quick! Name that movie!

You know what I hate?

... when you're in a public bathroom with someone and they continue talking to you while you are both peeing. You know what's even worse? When that person is a total stranger.

... when you call customer service and the automated system asks you to enter your account number, your pin number, your social security number and the phone number of the last 3 people you called. You know what's even worse? When the first thing the representative who comes on the line asks for is your account number, your pin number, your social security number and the phone number of the last 3 people you called.

... when you take your kid to the doctor for one thing (say, a fever a couple days after she's had a cold) and mention something else in passing that is concerning you. You know what's even worse? When the thing that you mentioned in passing turns out to be the most concerning to the doctor and yay! your 2-year-old gets to have blood drawn!

... when you realize that you forgot to tell your husband to "safe drively"* this morning as he left for work. You know what's even worse? When you get an email from a girlfriend who says she's pretty sure she saw your husband on the side of the road with a banged-up car. You know what's even worse than that? When you call your husband to make sure it wasn't him on the side of the road and he answers your "Do you have something to tell me?" question with a sigh and a "I was in a car accident this morning." [Note: Mike is fine, the lady he hit is fine, the car ... well, it's certainly not going to win any beauty awards, but it is still drive-able and ... beyond that, that's why God invented car insurance.] *This is one of the silly things we say to each other as he is leaving. I tell him to safe workly and safe drively (you know, instead of drive safely and work safely) and he tells me the same thing. Or to safe kid-ly or something. The ONE DAY I forget is the day he gets into an accident.

I Have Seen The Promised Land And It Is Sweet

Last week I gave Lucy some jarred baby food. The first night she had sweet potatoes, she went happily to bed and didn't get me up until 5:45 am.

Well, that's not entirely accurate. She woke up at 2:30, but all I had to do was plug her pacifier back in and then I didn't receive another wake-up call until 5:45.

And I wasn't sleeping that whole time, since that was in the middle of Emily's croup debacle, so I was out of bed several times dealing with Miss-I-Like-To-Cough-Until-I-Throw-Up.

BUT, that night of nearly 10 hours between feedings has become the Holy Grail to me. I KNOW she can do go longer, but clearly she LIKES to see me all bleary-eyed and morning-breathed in the middle of the night, because she keeps getting me up at ungodly times like 3:30 am. And then doesn't go back to sleep until 4:50 am. Ugh.

Even still, I know that my time of getting up repeatedly in the wee hours of the night is limited (thank GOD!) and it is making me alternately very happy and very frustrated. Happy because sleep, sleep is very good. And frustrated because I know that Lucy is capable of spacing her feedings out more and so when she doesn't I spend the time that I am up with her analyzing what I did wrong to make her get up in the middle of the darn night. And it isn't my fault. Well, not always.

And in other stuff, Emily is just now falling asleep for her nap. I put her to bed at 1 pm. It is 2:51 pm. And she spent the better part of the last hour and 51 minutes talking to herself (OK) and calling for me (NOT OK, not OK at all). I went in a few minutes ago and told her to stop crying and go to sleep (FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, KID!) and the poor thing was laying there, her mouth all pout-y and frown-y, trying not to cry. I picked her up and cuddled her some and then put her back down and I think that must have done it. Yay. Because I was really getting tired of hearing her whining for me.

Meh

I've got nothing to write about today. Nothing.

I could tell you about going to get my eyes examined this morning and how I bought (I'm using that term veeeery loosely) new lenses and frames and paid NOTHING out of pocket (woo! go me!).

Or I could tell you about going to the chiropractor yesterday for a sore muscle in my neck that I've had since I went to the craft show on 11/17 and wore Lucy for 3 hours. He cracked my back in 2 places and my neck twice. It felt really good when he was done, but wow! That was a seriously scary sound to hear coming from your neck. Twice. And when he was about to crack my neck the second time (I think the term is actually "adjust", but whatever) it was very hard to relax and let him, knowing what was coming. The good news is my shoulder is feeling much better, so yay.

But none of these things are very exciting. Or interesting. Even to me.

So, consider this a cop-out post. Have a good day!

My Sympathies

I called DISH this morning to resolve a billing issue.

I really sympathize with the customer service rep I spoke with. I called him while Emily was watching The Wiggles. Lucy was in front of me, complaining about eating her cereal and bananas and Emily was asking to talk on the phone.

In short, chaos reigned. Just like every other day.

After we fixed the billing problem, the rep started to ask me about discounts, and something about my DISH protection plan and ... I'm not really sure. It had all the sounds of a double-speak, bait-and-switch sales pitch and I was trying very hard to listen carefully so that I didn't cause us to be charged extra, while entertaining the possibility that he was offering us a deal of some kind.

After the third (or maybe the fourth) round of him explaining, the kids interrupting and me asking him to repeat it, he gave up.

As for all the whining I did yesterday, I feel somewhat better. Mike found an extra $16 in his wallet, so we're not quite as bad off as I thought.

I'm a bad adult

WARNING: Incoherent rant ahead.

I'm 31 and I still don't feel like a grown-up.

This morning, while I was home with Emily & Lucy and watching my nephew (so that Mike and my SIL could go to church - we're without any childcare at the church right now, which is a whole 'nother story) and I totally felt like the baby sitter. Not just of Tommy, but of Emily and Lucy. Like I was just pretending to be a) their mother and b) the responsible adult.

I mentioned a while ago that Mike and I have put ourselves (me, really) on a cash diet. We're getting out $250 every 2 weeks to buy things like groceries, diapers, dog food. Gas and prescriptions go on the credit card. I have been working extremely hard to make sure that we get the things we need within that $250. A couple of weeks ago, because of the way that Mike's paychecks fell, I wasn't able to get cash for an entire week and had to scrimp even more than usual to get through the week. It was one of the worst weeks I've had in quite a while and I was even more determined coming out of it to never have to do it again.

Well, I just paid the bills and guess what? Yeah, I get to live through this coming week on $12. We're on the last gallon of milk, Domino needs food, we're out of tissues, window cleaner, napkins and getting low on diaper wipes. Some of those things can be put off for a while, but others need to be addressed soon.

Not only that, but I barely was able to pay a tenth of the balance we have outstanding on our credit card.

It will get better, I know it will, but damn! It's hard in the meantime.

Not everything around here is doom and gloom. I am the mother of the world's smiling-est baby. And I started giving her veggies at night along with her cereal and that's convinced her that she doesn't need to see me every 2 hours in the middle of the night. Yay. Both are recovering from their colds. Emily no longer barks like a seal when she coughs and Lucy started sleeping in her crib again this morning and didn't wake herself up with any coughing fits. AND she fell asleep while Emily and Tommy were taking turns beating on a drum.

Ok, I'm off to go review our monetary situation some more. So much fun.

Safety-fying the Bumbo

When the Bumbo recall was announced, I ordered a kit, mostly for the amusement value, because, duh, I know you're not supposed to put your kid on an elevated surface and walk away.

The kit arrived and I just had to take some pictures. If only because it is NaBloPoMo and I'm running low on things to blog.

Very, very unsafe. Even with Lucy sleeping in her swing in the other room.

Whoops! I forgot to rotate this picture. Sorry. The green highlighted part really gets me. It says "With a clean cotton ball, wipe the area with something similar to non-acetone nail polish remover." ??? And that would be what, exactly? Non-acetone nail polish remover? And then I discovered that I only have acetone nail polish remover because the non-acetone stuff sucks. And I don't have any cotton balls, so I got a tissue. Hopefully my Bumbo will be just as safe, even though I didn't use the proper equipment to apply the sticker.

Ahh... much safer.

Post Turkey Day

Wow.

Yesterday was awesome.

We hung out at the house in the morning. Emily played, Mike worked on vacuum sealing the venison (it came back from the butcher in foam trays and he was concerned about freezer burn if we left it in those) and I puttered around doing stuff.

At about noon we got dressed up in nice(r) clothing and went out to Mike's Uncle Bill's house for turkey.

Uncle Bill made 52 pounds of turkey.

There were 20 people in the living room (at 2 tables) and easily another 10 in the kitchen.

Emily missed most of her nap (we were told to be there at 1:30, and Em typically goes to bed at 1 for her nap, protesting the whole time) but was incredibly good. She ran around and played with her cousin Tommy and even voluntarily ate a bite of turkey. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Lucy also did very well, considering that she was fighting a cold and also missed her nap. She charmed everyone and then, when she got sleepy, she'd fall asleep on someone for a while.

Two of the ladies at dinner were nurses and they both commented on Lucy's cough and breathing. I called the pediatrician last night and went in to see the wonderful Dr.Sara this morning.

She said that Lucy has some fluid in the lower parts of her lungs. She gave Lucy a prescription for antibiotics and reassured me that I am doing all I can to help her, given that I can't give her any OTC cold remedies. I feel like the options I have are very ineffectual, but they're all I've got. (Currently my options are: a humidifier in Lucy's room, a PediaCare Gentle Vapors Vapor Plug thing in her room, Vicks Baby Rub on her chest, saline gel up her nose, and I have raised the head of her crib again (though right now she's sleeping in her swing for even more elevation.))

I hadn't planned on going to Target today, but with a prescription in hand, I ventured out and ... it wasn't so bad. It was definitely crowded, but certainly not the mob scene I was expecting.

Mike and I are trying to figure out how we can make Christmas, with all its obligatory visits to family, be as relaxing and fun as Thanksgiving. But, you know, without the sick kids. :)

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

I hope that your bird is as beautiful as ours - picture at left.

:)

If you are insane enough to get up at the crack of dawn to go shopping, I hope that you find the deals of your dreams. If, like me, you prefer to stay home, I have a great sandwich recipe for you.

I don't remember the name of them, but you need leftover turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and a package of sandwich rolls. Take the leftover turkey and warm it in a frying pan. Make patties out of leftover stuffing (or, since I'm not cooking today (woo!) I'll make up some Stove Top) and warm them in another frying pan.

Toast the sandwich rolls under the broiler.

Put the warm turkey and stuffing patties on the toasted rolls and top with some of the leftover (or in my case, fresh from the can) cranberry sauce and then eat. YUM!

This is what we will be having for dinner tomorrow night.

Put a

Yet Another Party Trick

Check out Emily's new party trick.



It ends badly, but she's ok. And I had a talk with her after this and told her that she wasn't allowed to climb the gates any more. We'll see if she actually listens to me or if we have to put up the bigger and harder-for-Mommy-to-climb-over gate.

HAWT

This is what Emily looked like when she got up from her nap today.

Her hair was soaking wet and plastered in ringlets to her head. Her shirt was wet and even her pants were damp. Mike said even the sheet where she was laying was wet.

It would seem that Emily fell asleep just as she was when I tucked her in; beneath the sheet, blanket and comforter, fully clothed.

The good news is that she slept. She went to sleep sometime around 1:15 and woke up at 4.

Dod Howy & Prune Doody

Every time we have the radio on, Emily has been asking us to play the "Dod Howy" song (translation: God Holy). I think we finally figured out which song it was: "You Are Holy" by Third Day & Caedmon's Call. It just ended and she's asking us to do it more. Mike has also been teaching her to say "Thank You, God, for dinner" or Mommy, or Lucy, or toys or ... pretty much anything.

I know I am biased, but I think it's pretty darn cute.

And the cold/croup thing she has is making her loose her voice, so she's all raspy. And stuffy. Last night wasn't an especially good night, but she didn't wake up barking, so that's a good thing.

She's been a real pain in the butt today. She barely napped, which always makes for a fun evening and then on top of that she's been extremely .... well, extremely two. I think she's been in time out at least 5 times tonight. Mike and I are both counting the minutes until bedtime.

And then there's my darling Lucy.

I have been feeding her rice cereal mixed with prunes for several weeks now and she really likes it.

I'm not all that crazy about it because it is doing the opposite of binding her up. She has shat through at least 2 outfits every day. Saturday she wore a record 4 outfits. I picked her up to put her in her carseat to go to the craft show (btw, it was great, but not really very good picture fodder) and she was all poopy.

When I exclaimed over the poo she smiled at me, all proud of herself.

I spent at least 15 minutes downstairs tonight putting stain remover on all the soiled clothes. I was thinking about this post and what I was going to say and realizing that the word "shat" is, to me, seriously funny.

To try to slow the flood of be-shat-ified (hee) clothes, I have started feeding her some cereal mixed with breast milk. Hopefully that will start to take effect soon. Otherwise, I recommend you all buy stock in Shout. Sales will be increasing.

He Got One!

Mike got a deer yesterday.

YAY!

He says it's nothing to brag about, size-wise. It was a doe and she is pretty small. But, our meat needs aren't that large, so this is just the kind of blessing we were looking for.

In other exciting news, Emily has croup.

I woke up last night to a strange noise. I couldn't figure out what it was, so I laid in bed for a second. When I heard it again, I got out of bed to go check on the girls. Turns out the noise was Emily barking when she tried to say "Mommy."

I was walking down the hall, towards the girl's rooms, just passing Emily's door (her room is right next to ours and then Lucy's is next to hers at the end of the hall) when Emily rounded the corner in the hall by the bathroom and Lucy's room. GAH! She was out of bed!

I put her back to bed and decided to get the humidifier out of Lucy's room and put it in Emily's room, vaguely remembering that moist air can help croup. I had to fill the water cannister before I could set it up, so I brought the whole thing into the bathroom and carefully filled it with water, trying to be as quiet as I could so I didn't wake Mike or Lucy. When it was full, I held the container on the edge of the tub with one hand while I reached around behind me for the cap with the other. BAM! Spa-LOOSH! The water container fell off the tub and the water WENT EVERYWHERE!

I picked up the container and discovered that the seam between the top and bottom parts had broken on impact. Grrreat. Mike came staggering down the hall, more than a little concerned about the source of the loud bang. We have a mini-conference in the bathroom about our options. Option 1: the other humidifier that the broken one replaced. Mike is pretty sure we got rid of it. I'm not so sure, but don't want to venture down to the basement to find out, plus that one has a seriously grody filter. Option 2: put a Vapor-Plug pad into Emily's nightlight and go back to bed.

We decided option 2 sounded best.

I spoke with the pediatrician on call this morning and he said it sounds like classic croup. He also sounded very glad that I didn't call him at 1. He reassured me that infants typically don't get croup, though Lucy is also stuffy in the nose and gave me some really good news. He said that often the second night of croup is worse than the first. Goody. Tonight should really be a blast.

I am going to lay down on the couch for a few minutes and try to get some rest in between trips to Lucy's room to plug her pacifier back in.

The Most Wonderful Time of Year

I awoke this morning to the sound of corks popping and an empty, quiet house.

Last night, Mike gathered his ever-so-stylish blaze-orange coat and his Dickies overalls. He tried to get me to touch his gun (heh). And he set his alarm for the crack of dawn.

I heard Mike's dad pull in the driveway while it was still dark.

Mike opened the bedroom door and said goodbye. I mumbled something and fell back to sleep.

Today is the opening day of hunting season.

Mike has taken all next week off to observe this sacred occasion. Oh, and Thanksgiving, too.

This is the view from the front window of our house. I'll see it repeated all over as I head to my parent's house to go to the craft sale.

And for the first time in the 5 or so years that I have been going to this sale, I think I am actually prepared. I have a canvas bag with a couple of diapers for each of the girls and a small package of wipes. I have some cash set aside just for the sale. I'm dressed in layers so that I don't have to wear a jacket and Lucy is wearing a one-piece outfit so that her pants don't hike up, exposing her skinny little legs to the elements while she's in the front carrier.

I can't wait! I've been looking forward to this sale for months now. It will be incredibly crowded, but it is so worth every moment of dealing with the herd mentality of large groups of people. HEY! I just had a great idea. I have a camera phone. I'll take some pictures and post them tomorrow so you can see what I'm talking about.

No rest for the Mommy

you are trading off
today, one goes to sleep and
the other wakes up

The girls are tag-teaming me today. Lucy woke up at 2:30, wanting the cereal she spurned earlier and is now drifting off to sleep. Emily woke up at 3 (to an "Oh hell NO!" from her mother) and is crying for me to come get her.

I have a bunch of errands to run, so I guess I am going to get Cryie Cryerson up and start getting ready to get out of the house.

Tonight we are going to a 5 year Cancer-Free celebration for my mom.

2002 was a great year and a sucky one all at the same time. It was great because it was the year that Mike and I got married and I got out of the call center from hell, but it was sucky because my mom was diagnosed with melanoma on her leg and was laid off from work.

'Course, she now says that getting laid off from that company was one of the best things that company ever did for her, but it was more than a little stressful for her to be facing a cancer diagnosis at the same time as hearing that she would no longer have a job.

Emily is going to spend the night at my parent's tonight (woo!) and then tomorrow, Mom, Dad, Emily, Lucy & I are going to a holiday craft show. This is an annual thing for Mom and I, and the first time we've dared to bring the girls (other than when they were inside my body and thus, much easier to care for.)

GAH!

Gah! Can't blog now - phone just rang. The name on the caller ID was familiar, but I couldn't place it.

Until I answered and started talking. It's the president of the company whose project I am managing; wondering why half of November has gone by and seemingly no progress has been made. GAH!

Have to go do work.

Back later.

Maybe.

PS: It's not that I have been slacking. I didn't receive the project until last week. And I don't know what I am doing, so I have had to wait for someone to be able to help me. Good times.

It's all fun and games until the cops show up

[Edited to add pictures!]
This morning I took the girls on a field trip organized by my MOMS Club. We toured a local firehouse.

It was great - the firemen showed us the radio room, their gym, their day room (where they eat and hang out) and the bunk room, where they sleep. They also gave us a demonstration of their nifty infrared camera.

After the tour of the inside of the firehouse, they took us out to where they keep the fire trucks and let the kids sit in the driver seat.

Except for Emily. She wanted NOTHING to do with the truck. "No Emmy wide truck." Ookay.
They pulled the ladder truck out and raised the ladder (104 feet in the air, I later learned).

It's been a strange day here weather-wise. The temperature actually went up overnight (or so my resident weather man tells me. I don't really keep track.) and so when we got to the firehouse, I took my jacket off and tossed it in the van.

While we were watching the ladder truck do its thing, it started getting more windy and cool and I thought briefly about going to the van to get my jacket.

And that's when I had a flashback. Of me putting my keys in my jacket pocket and then taking said jacket off and tossing it on the floor of the van. When I get the kids out of the van, I hit the buttons to open both doors (gotta love the power doors) and then, with the driver's door open, I lock the car.

I mentioned to one of the other moms standing by me that I was pretty sure I had locked my keys in the car. And my good friend Courtney heard me. To say that she thought it was funny would be an understatement.

I called my mom to see if she would be able to bring my spare set of keys to me and she pointed out that I was at the firehouse. Maybe the firemen would be able to help? Oh, yeah, that's a good point.

I told one of the nice firemen about my predicament and he kindly called the cops. He said that they could get in my car for me, but I wouldn't like the result. They were very eager to try to get my keys, but I decided to wait for the police.
So the nice officer came and ... broke into my car for me. And the alarm went off. And then I couldn't get it to stop. And Courtney was taking pictures for the newsletter the whole time.
PS: Court, send me one of the pictures and I'll put it up here. [Thanks, woman!]

Emily's Goin' To Jail

When I went in last night to check on Emily, I found this:

Emily's going to jail. I hope that they will accept this instead of the regulation orange jumpsuit. Orange really isn't her color. And these are much cuter. And soft and snuggly, which is important in a prison uniform, ya know.

I wonder if Oscar can come with her to the pokey?

Emily-isms

Emily's verbal skills are increasing at amazing rates and this is bringing about some really funny quotable Emily-isms.

I've already shared with you the now-infamous "No Emmy eaty poopie", which still makes me laugh.

This afternoon I was getting Lucy up from her nap. I was babbling some nonsense to her while I got her up, something about her being my honey bunny (my dad's name for his girls) and my snuggle bunny (a take-off on Snuggle Puppy, one of my favorite kiddie books). Emily was standing in the doorway and suddenly she said "No baby honey bunny." What? "No baby bunny wabbit." Yeah, she thought I was saying that Lucy was a rabbit.

Whenever I change Emily's diaper, I usually have to admonish her at least once to not touch the dirty diaper. Thus came about "No Emmy touch poopie."

I'm sure there are more, but I can't think of them right now, between getting up every 2 minutes to put Lucy's pacifier back in. And I'm flying solo tonight, so I gotta run.

Farewell, Old Friend

Last night we bid adieu to a faithful friend.

After much discussion, deliberation, angst and hand-wringing (all on my part), we decided to stop using the Miracle Blanket to swaddle Lucy at night and nap time.

I emailed customer service just to see if they had any suggestions on when and how we should stop using the most wonderful sleep tool ever invented.

The email I received back said at 4 months (which Lucy is today - wow! 1/3 year old already! Where does the time go?!) it is probably time for us to start the transition out of the blanket of wonders. They recommended that we go "cold turkey" and just put Lucy down without it. Obviously, they recognized that 1) this is going to cause some sleep disruptions, but ideally not more than a couple of days and 2) that option isn't for all families.

We decided to go for it, and so, last night I put Lucy to bed, plugged in the binky, turned on her birdies (mobile) and her sleep sheep and walked out. We had to go back in there several times, but she did ultimately fall asleep. Overnight was ... OK. She woke up a couple of times and I was able to get her to go back to sleep by giving her the binky again. Otherwise, she was up at 2:45 to eat, which is better than she did when we were swaddling her (I would typically be up with her at 11-ish, 2-ish and 5-6-ish. Ick.) I think the lack of night feedings last night was not due to the lack of swaddling, but to the fact that I fed her again at 9:45 when she was just screaming in her crib, spitting out the binky and screaming again.

Today we have put her down for 2 naps and, again, had to go in a couple more times than usual, but as of right now (*knocking furiously on all available wood surfaces*) she's asleep.

We've been invited to Mike's parent's house for dinner, so I am off to make an apple crisp to bring. Ta-ta!

Wrap-up

I think Emily's tantrum issue was mostly caused by a crummy lunch. I made sure to feed her a good lunch the past couple days and she was been much easier to deal with. Yay. Go figure, a growing child needs food? Really? C'mon!

This morning my mom and I took the girls to a craft show at a local church. Emily did ... reasonably well, considering we didn't have her in a stroller. She likes to touch stuff and there were lots of things there that weren't suitable for handling by a 2-year-old, so one of us wore Lucy in a carrier and the other corralled Emily.

And Lucy. Oh, Lucy was hilarious.

We had her in a front carrier, facing out and she LOVED it. She kicked her legs, grinned and "talked" at all of the people she saw. It took whoever was wearing Lucy (we swapped halfway through) almost twice as long to look at everything because all the vendors had to exclaim over Lucy.

By the time we got out to the car, Lucy was done. She had expended all her energy being charming and was ready to nap. I barely had her back in her car seat and she was on her way to sleep.

This afternoon I had a couple ladies over and we made beaded things for Christmas. The president of my MOMS Club's sister-in-law makes beaded jewelry as a side business. I met her at a Mom's Night Out gathering we had through MOMS Club and I contacted her to ask if we could get together again so I could make some Christmas presents. She graciously agreed and I invited another couple ladies over to join us.

It was a lot of fun. And, in just under 3 hours, we got a lot accomplished. Kari made 3 bracelets and 2 pairs of earrings. Liz made 4 bracelets and I made 3 bracelets.

So now I have even more Christmas presents done. Yay!

Keep on keepin' on

I bought Emily her Christmas present(s) today.

We are giving her a Sit N' Spin and an outfit for her to put on a Cabbage Patch Kid doll. I went to the basement after she went down for her nap and unearthed my Cabbage Patch Kid. She's got red hair in pigtails and blue eyes. Perfect for my Emily. I'm going to bring her to my mom tomorrow to help de-funk-ify her before Christmas. Now if I can only remember her name...

The Sit N' Spin is a leftover idea from Emily's birthday. This girl LOVES to get dizzy. She runs around in circles in the living room until she falls over. One of her favorite things is for Daddy to put her in our big black chair and spin her round and round and round and round. And then Mike takes her out of the chair, sets her on her feet and laughs until he pees as she tries to walk.

My plan for Lucy's Christmas is to buy her a Baby's First Christmas ornament similar to Emily's. Em has one that is a memory book, with places to write about her first Christmas. Otherwise, Lucy's Christmas present from us will be money towards the 2 convertible car seats she'll need in January.

Part of the reason behind the slightly small-ish-ness of our Christmas present plan is all the lead in the toys. I'm not going through and throwing out every toy the girls have, and I'm not eschewing (woo! look at me with the $3 word!) all toys made in China, but I am aware of the issue. And I am quite concerned.

But, I keep thinking, even if the toy is made here in the Good Ole USofA, how can we know with any certainty that the paint/decoration/flavoring/whatever is lead-free? Just because the toy itself was manufactured here doesn't mean that the paint/decoration/etc was also manufactured here and that also doesn't guarantee unleaded-ness in the toys.

So what is a parent to do?

At this point, I am planning to just keep on keepin' on. I watch for toy recalls, try to minimize the amount of chewing on toys that Emily (and eventually Lucy, once she masters the whole get-something-in-the-hand-and-get-hand-and-thing-in-the-mouth concept) does and hope. Oh, and those vending machines with the jewelry and candy and crap in them? The ones in the grocery store? Yeah, my kids are NEVER getting anything from those. Gah! I get the heebie-jeebies just thinking about them.

I also participate, via posts like this one, in blog blasts for The Parent Bloggers Network and The Consumers Union's Safe Shoppers program.

For those of you who might want more information about toy recalls and/or "Safe" Toys, here are some links:

http://www.consumersunion.org/campaigns/notinmycart/learn.html

http://www.leagueofmaternaljustice.com/safer-toys.html

http://www.recalls.gov

http://www.cafemom.com/topics/toyrecalls

http://coolmompicks.com/safertoy07

http://www.buyhandmade.org/

OCD Much?

Last night, as I mentioned before, we had pasta for dinner.

It was a slightly odd combination of elbow macaroni and shells and when I dished it up, I put it in bowls.

We also had peas and I put those in bowls, too.

And then, because I was craving StoveTop stuffing, I got out plates to have the stuffing on.

Mike pointed out that I could have used 1/3 the dishes if I had just put everything on one plate.
He just doesn't get it.

What? You don't either? Ok.

Here's the deal. I hate when my food touches. And some foods are more prone to sliding around the plate and touching the other foods and ... that's just bad.

It would appear that I have some rules about what foods can be served in what containers.

- Non-spaghetti pasta is a bowl food. By non-spaghetti I mean, shells, elbow macaroni, ziti, etc.
- Spaghetti can be a plate food or a bowl food. If it is a plate food then there can't be anything else on the plate. Except maybe bread (but I do NOT use my bread to mop up the sauce).
- Vegetables like peas, corn and green beans (the holy trinity of the veggies I serve around here) are bowl foods. Broccoli is a plate food. Carrots are a bowl or a plate food.
- Salad is a bowl food. Mike's mom serves salad on the same plate with the rest of the food and it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Not only the food touching issue (salad dressing! It runs!) but also the salad isn't easily contained and without the side of a bowl it is really hard to get the last bits of salad out.
- Virtually every meat is a plate food. I can't think of a non-plate meat.
- Tacos (burritos, really) are a plate food. A dinner-time staple.
- Stew, chili, and beef stroganoff are all bowl foods, to me. I will put them (the stew and the beef stroganoff at least) on plates sometimes, but I prefer that they be in bowls.

I'm sure I could go on more about my plate vs. bowl ideology, but I need to go figure out what we are having for dinner.

************************
PS: Jennifer, thank you for the ideas about Emily's reign of terror. I'm hoping that the 2 pieces of pizza (homemade, half a tortilla-pizza), applesauce and cookie will hold her through until dinner better. We'll see. I also discovered a molar in her mouth before she went down for her nap. And I have been sick forever, so I would not be surprised if she is also fighting some kind of cold.

Child for Sale

The past two afternoons, Emily has woken up in a mood ... well, imagine that you are fixing a porcelain figurine. You know how if you gently jostle it when you set it down it breaks again? Yeah, that's how Emily has been when she gets up from her nap.

She is completely unreasonable. The slightest deviation from her plan causes her to dissolve into a howling, screaming tantrum. And the tantrum? It does not stop. She stands in her tantrum spot (by the front door, where I can't see her, but sure can hear her.) and SCREAMS. Forever. And then my ears bleed.

This afternoon she woke up at 4 pm (she went down for her nap at 1, and was asleep by 1:30). She started crying when I suggested that she ask me to watch The Wiggles in a nicer tone of voice, instead of whining. At 4:20, she was still crying. She then spent 15 minutes on my lap (I told her that she could either stop crying and go play or go back to bed. She chose to stop crying. Then she wanted a hug. Hoping that would help her mood, I agreed to snuggle her for a while.) She finally got down to go play and when she discovered that I was *gasp* nursing Lucy, she dissolved into another puddle of tears and howls.

After two more sessions like this, I made good on my threat to put her back to bed.

You can imagine how well that went over.

I went in and got her when she stopped crying and was just yelling "Emmy all done nap!" and we talked again about how she needed to stop crying and tell me when she needed a hug. That seemed to work, but I am still very drained from all the screaming and tears.

It also doesn't help that Lucy had me up every half an hour between 9:30 (we were HUGE dorks and went to bed at 9 last night) and 1:30, when she graciously let me sleep for an hour. And then, then she let me sleep from 2:30 to 5:30. It's no wonder that I am closing in on week three (or is it four?) of a cold.

Emily redeemed herself this evening while we were eating dinner. We were eating the last of a vat of pasta sauce I made (really good stuff - it had tomatoes and shredded zucchini from our garden, plus some ground beef and, you know, spices and stuff. mmmm!) when Emily leaned closer to look at her bowl. "No Emmy eaty poopie." Whaaaat?! I leaned closer to figure out what she was saying. The ground beef really did look like poop. And then I had to turn away so that she wouldn't see me laughing. I guess I won't list her on eBay just yet.

I think I figured out what Emily's deal might be. She hasn't exactly had the best of lunches the past couple days and she might be hungry. You know, growing kid and all that. I'll test the theory tomorrow and we'll see.

Open Letters

My dearest, darlingest Lucy,

I have logged 4,904 steps so far today. 4,000 of them have been between your room and my chair in the living room. Please try to keep the binky in your mouth while sleeping. Please also refrain from spitting it out and starting to cry just as I am 2 steps away from my chair. That just toys with me and it's not nice.

Love,

Mommy (aka The Nice Lady With The Milk)

***********************
My dearest, darlingest Emily,

I know that you do not want to go to sleep, due to your deep-seated fear that you will miss something (really, you won't. I promise.) but is it really necessary for you to shriek at the top of your lungs? Also, I think I can count on one hand (with fingers left over) the number of times you have awakened without much wailing, crying and gnashing of teeth. Could we work on this, please? For Mommy?

Love,

Mommy

PS: Any time you want to get on board with the whole time-change thing would be fine with me. Waking up at 5:45 am is not acceptable.
************************
Dear ... People,

This is the Reply button. This is the Reply to All button. Use the Reply button when you want to respond to the message you just received. Use the Reply to All button ON PAIN OF DEATH!!!!! I know that they look similar, but they are not the same. One sends a nice little note to the person who just sent you that cute forward and the other annoys the heck out of those of us who delete the cute forwards.

Okthxbye,

Erin
***********************
Dear Dinner,

I don't suppose you would want to make yourself tonight, would you? And fold the laundry while you're at it? I'll be here listening to the wind howling outside and finishing my book.

Oh, and could you come in on Saturday, too? That'd be great.

Lazily yours,

Erin

Randomly Random

With Bullets! Because everyone loves bullets!

• Isn't the plural of 'gas' (i.e., hydrogen is a gas, oxygen is a gas) "gasses"? Or am I ... overthinking this?

Also, while I was cleaning the bathroom this afternoon, I started thinking about some of my stranger habits. Here are a couple:

• When I am in a bathroom that has a toilet with a lid, I put the lid down before flushing. I got into this habit at home because I leave my toothbrush out and don't want a bunch of toilet germs on my toothbrush from flushing with the lid up.
  
• When I am washing my hands in the bathroom, I usually will wipe down the faucet and sometimes the sink while I'm washing.
  
• I must have Outlook be the first program to the right of the start button. If something else is opened before I open Outlook, I close it and reopen it so that it is the first program.
  

Also, not that you guys really care but I went to the grocery store this morning and bought $23 of groceries for $17! Woo! I get an enormous charge out of that stuff. I also got 2 bottles of fenugreek at Vitamin World for $3.49! Each bottle is $6.99, but they have a buy one, get one free thing the first Monday & Tuesday of the month and my mom gave me a $3.50 off coupon! Yay!

Now I am going to go sit in Emily's room and watch her play. She loves that!

PS: Karen - you asked why we took the rail off Emily (Fred)'s bed. Mostly because it was getting in the way. It's a pain in the butt to make her bed (changing the sheets, etc) and it was difficult for Mike (or me, but usually Mike) to sit on the bed and read her "Two Pigs" (aka, The Three Little Pigs) at night.

Mommy & Daddy Time

Yesterday, I went to a MOMS Club luncheon (MOMS stands for Moms Offering Moms Support). It was really fun to get dressed up and then go spend some time with a bunch of cool ladies, some that I knew and others that I had never met before.

I had chicken french for lunch (MMM! One of my favorite foods!) and TWO pieces of yummy chocolate cake. And a caesar salad that was possibly one of the best salads I had EVER had.

I left the house at 9:45 and got back home at 4:30. I didn't see my kids for nearly 24 hours and was able to not only get an uninterrupted night's sleep, but also was able to go spend several hours just being Erin, not Mommy.

It was wonderful.

Mike left at 5 last night to go play Halo 3 with his brother. I had bath and bed duty on my own. Then I watched Music and Lyrics and went to bed.

Mike got home at 4:30 AM. Well, my clock (which I had changed to fall back before I went to bed) said 3:30, but it really was 4:30. Or was it 3:30? Anyways, he got home LATE!

He said that the only reason they stopped at 4 was that the power went out and reset their game.

I think it is really important that both Mike and I take time out to be grown-ups and not just Mommy and Daddy. Having nearly 24 hours off has left me feeling refreshed and more capable of doing all the stuff the Mommy title requires.

And this morning we're playing hookey from church so that SOMEONE can catch up on his sleep.

Oh, and this time change thing? SUCKS! Emily woke up at 5:45 am, which, to her body, was 6:45 am (early for her, but not by much). I went in and snuggled with her in her bed and managed to keep her there until 6:30, but DUDE! That was some hard work. We'll keep her up until her normal nap time and bed time and hopefully that will get her into the groove of the time change. It's worked before. We'll see.

We had two exciting things happen last night while I was home alone. The first was that Lucy rolled from her back to her belly all by herself. Very exciting. My days of putting her down to go do something and finding her in the same place when I return are numbered.

The other exciting (sort of) thing is that Emily fell out of bed. We took the rail off Em's bed a couple of days ago and were waiting for her to fall out. She's been doing pretty well, but we knew that it would happen. And while I was up at 1:30 (or 12:30, depending on which clock you look at - I REALLY HATE this time of year), feeding Lucy, I heard Emily roll over and then I heard a prolonged thump. I went in there with Lucy still latched (poor kid, she never gets to nurse in peace) and helped Emily get back into bed.

Silent Saturday

Something was very strange in our house today. The house was very ... quiet.

Lucy's room was empty.

So was Emily's. The beds were made, no toys were strewn about.

My parents took the girls over night so that I could get some sleep and so that Mike and I could have a date night. It was very strange. I miss my girls! And I won't see them until later this afternoon because I am going to a MOMS Club luncheon today. It will be lots of fun!

See you tomorrow!

3-fer Friday!

I know what goes in
your little tiny stomach
the output doesn't match

so very hungry
can't get enough cereal
another growth spurt?

no Emmy potty!
the diapers smell very bad
you WILL go potty!

This morning was ... challenging. I had a meeting at 11, and needed to drop Emily off at a friend's house around 10:30 to get to the meeting on time. I took Lucy into her room to put her down for a nap at 8:30 and discovered that she had had a diaper blow out of astonishing proportions. I had to strip her completely down, clean all the crevices of poo (this child has a lot of crevices) and then put her in another outfit. She went down for her nap and woke up around 9:15. I fed her at 9:30, figuring that would settle her down.

Yeah, not so much.

At 10, Lucy was still screaming. Because she was starving. Again. I had just nursed her, so my only other option was to give her some cereal. I mixed up 2 tablespoons of cereal and prune juice and she ate it all. And probably would have kept going.

I have been trying to gently encourage Emily to use the potty instead of her diapers and she seems to prefer the diaper. I've learned not to ask her if she wants to go to the potty, since that answer is always a no, but even when I suggest that we go sit on the potty, the answer is usually a whiny "No!" But I am getting so tired of changing the stinky diapers. I will continue to encourage and not make it a battle of wills, as illustrated above, but I would love it if she would wake up one morning and suddenly decide that she no longer wants to use diapers.

And while we're talking about wild wishes, I'd also like to have a million dollars, please.

Dairy-Free Roundup

I've been on the dairy-free diet for 7 weeks today and I thought to kick off NaBloPoMo I would do a round up of the things I have learned.

I'm more or less coming off the diet, mostly due to budgeting issues (I can't stomach buying rice milk at $2.99 a HALF GALLON (more about our budgeting challenges tomorrow)) and we'll see how Lucy does with my greatly reduced dairy intake. More about my new plan below.

So here are the things that I have found that don't have dairy in them:

• Oreo cookies (I especially like the mini Oreos)
• Nutter Butters (again the minis are great, especially when eaten in alternating handfuls with the mini Oreos)
• SmartBalance (you want the small tubs that come in a two-pack. Tastes exactly the same as the regular SmartBalance, but is Kosher and dairy-free.)
• I found that I prefer rice milk to soy milk, and I was buying WestSoy's 1/2 gallon of shelf-stable rice milk for $2.99. I would drink it by the glassful with a generous squirt of Hershey's syrup.
• Hershey's syrup is amazingly dairy free. I went through a significant amount of chocolate syrup while doing the dairy-free thing.
• I found some soy sour cream that was really quite good in things, like tacos or fajitas (or maybe stroganoff if I was willing to sacrifice an entire container ($2.49 for ... a cup or so) to make it.) I licked it off the spoon a couple of times and it wasn't (obviously) as creamy and delicious as regular sour cream.
  
• I also found some soy ice cream that was REALLY good. It's called So Delicious and I especially enjoyed the chocolate peanut butter flavor. I bought some Rice Dream ice cream that was AWFUL. It tasted like dog food. I couldn't bring myself to eat more than a bite of it and then I threw the rest away.
  

The stuff I miss?

• Cheetos. I desperately want some Cheetos.
  
• Pizza
• ice cream (when we were in Vegas we decided to get Emily some ice cream. As we walked down the strip, we saw signs for a Ben & Jerry's and I completely forgot that I couldn't have ice cream. When I remembered, I wanted to cry. I almost did cry, actually.)
• hot dogs. I will only eat a certain brand of hot dog (Zweigle's) and they have dairy in them. We're having them for dinner tonight, regardless.
• rye dip with rye bread. Or any kind of creamy dip.
  
• a specific kind of fruit tart with a custard filling, from Wegmans. We had one for my birthday party (a mere 3 days after I had started the dairy-free diet) and I was very sorry that I couldn't eat it.
  
• candy bars, specifically Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. All the Halloween candy that's on sale has been killing me. I don't even want to think about the after-Halloween clearance...
  
• the ability to eat whatever the heck I want, when I want, without scrutinizing the label, or asking PITA questions of servers in restaurants (I always feel so high-maintenance...).
  

My plan is this: I am going to re-introduce some dairy into my diet, but still try to avoid as much dairy as possible. As I said before, we're having Zweigle's hot dogs for dinner tonight (YUM! Can't wait!) and I only bought skim milk today at the store, so I'll probably have a small glass of milk with dinner. I'm not planning to eat a lot of the things that I listed above until I'm either no longer nursing or am certain that the dairy isn't having an adverse effect on Lucy.

I'm hoping that the introduction of the prune juice into Lucy's diet will help to keep things moving and that she will grow out of the dairy allergy/sensitivity with time.