Unringing the Bell

The Sorta' Week

I am having one of those weeks where the best thing to do is just keep my mouth shut. So I have been. But I had to break the silence to just say--shoot! I hope that baby starts sleeping again! Waking every 2-3 hours all night long is for....babies! Not big bad 13 week olds!

So let me just take a moment to remind myself that....

at least he's cute.

It also doesn't hurt to look at the pictures of our front yard from last spring. It's only a matter of weeks before our neighborhood turns into an Azaela explosion!

All this whilst monging on hot sweet bread straight from the over of course. Bathing suit weather be danged.

Sigh....
 

Blinded By the Light

I have 20/20 vision.

Ok. Strike that. I USED to have 20/20 vision.

I prided myself on this fact. I was the only one in my family who didn't have (or at least need) glasses.

Fast forward to the birth of my son, Rainer. Halloween 2008. Suddenly, I noticed, my vision was going. Not a lot, but, you know...can't read clocks, menus, channel guides on the television (you know, the real IMPORTANT stuff). I probably wouldn't have done much about it except Alex started calling me on it. I was getting headaches, squinting, driving was becoming a problem. So we tested each other holding up magazines across the room and saying "read that line" to one another. I could read smaller text than he could, but I couldn't lie any longer, I couldn't read all of it--the stuff I USED to be able to read.

Now, I did my research. And yep, it's true, it MIGHT be a temporary hormonal thing because of having the baby. My doctor doesn't think so, but it's entirely possible that in the next few months my vision will slowly go back to the way it was. Until then, seeing while driving (and playing Wii Tetris, because let's face it I have to be able to kick my husband's butt at SOMEthing--not that, uh...I can kick his butt at Tetris YET...but I have been blind! So he better watch out!), has taken precedence over any pride over my vision capabilities. Precious cargo and all that.

So Rainer will henceforth be known as He Who Stole His Mama's Eyesight. Of course, I won't phrase it that way. Don't need to give him a complex. I'll just tell him his beauty was so overpowering it was blinding!

The truth of the matter is, I always secretly kind of WANTED glasses. I think they are kinda' fun. Of course, leaving the optometrist's office today I was also feeling old. And haggard. And like I am falling apart. But that's a post for another day (oh joy!). I AM sad that I can no longer buy cheapo sunglasses and not worry about scratching or breaking them.

So, anyway, this is them.

Whaddya' think? Total nerd?

You can't tell in the picture, but they are sort of orange-y red with a brighter orange on the inside.

Of course, I have this funny thing where I can't SEE what I look like unless I take a picture of myself. Grizzly Adams Alex and I got a little carried away.

Intellectuals. Clearly.
 
This is closer to our natural state.

Georgia wanted in on the action.*

She clearly has a refined sense of humor.**

*The only reason Rainer was not involved is because he was napping. (I swear it's not that I am holding some kind of a grudge over the fact that he stole my eyesight.)

**I am fairly sure that middle finer was totally random. If not, she's a helluva lot smarter than we give her credit for!

Chewy Tubes

Anyone have any input on Chewy Tubes? Our OT gave us one for G since she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. The idea is to have her chew that as a safe alternative to...EVERYTHING else.

She is kind of addicted to it. The drool is...a lot. It looks like a pipe. Ceci n’est pas une pipe.

Should I be worried? Is this even more stigmatizing than it is worth? Thoughts? Is this ANY different than any old teether I could have picked up at the market?

Bullet Points

*Lately, seeing how Rainer tries to imitate us, I have been thinking about what it might mean to have a verbal child. I find this thought exciting and sad. Exciting for the obvious reasons, sad because I wish Georgia would talk. I think when your child communicates it's like that next step in realizing, "Holy cow, I produced this sentient being!" Georgia is certainly sentient of course, by all means, but guessing what she wants does make it a little more difficult to give her credit where it is more than due.

*The other day, while bathing Georgia, I looked down at her legs which have gotten so long and could not believe that that creature emerged from me.

*Georgia continues to be a shadow dancer.

*Georgia snatched Rainer's paci off the floor the other day and I was ready to grab it from her because she is known to chew on them, but before I could get to her she went over to Rainer and tried to pop it in his mouth for him!

*We were scheduled to go to the preschool we are thinking of sending Georgia to on Tuesday, but got snowed out. (More on this in future post.)

*My desk is covered in post-it notes with things I need/want to do on them.

*One of those things is The ABCs of IEPs seminar which I got a flier for in the mail on Saturday. Already? I can't believe it!

*This is Georgia's fake smile again. She is wearing a new outfit that her aunt sent her for Christmas. I wish we had more places to go so G could show off all her cool clothes.

*There are a LOT of patterns in this picture house. Don't accuse us of not liking color!

*Speaking of color we color-coordinated our books in our new (Ikea Billy) shelving unit. I know a lot of people do this, but I wanted to steal the idea in part because it's easier than alphabetizing!

See all those boxes in the kitchen?! Do you know what this means for our basement playroom? Progress! We are leaving the lower shelves empty for the time being because of G's penchant for eating books. We may add doors to the lower half though we are currently undecided. We also reorganized the books so that the reds start on the right shelf second from the top. Like this:

As a result of our color coordinating, we have taken to placing any objects that we put down on the shelves in it's corresponding color section. Can you find the objects in that picture? (Click to enlarge and play along. Hint: There are three obvious things and two much less obvious things.)

*Apparently we have too much time on our hands.

*Both the kids are sick. Georgia has been sick since before Christmas and the antibiotics have not cleared up her nose. Rainer has had a runny nose since yesterday. So far, luckily, I am the only one who caught the stomach bug.

*I don't think Rainer is going to like rollercoasters.

*I have a girl's night out on Friday. The ladies are having mudslides but because of my (or rather, Rainer's) dairy problem, I will be having wine. Rainer started taking to the bottle just in time, now I have to get serious about pumping again since I had to throw away all that dairy 'tainted' milk.

*The phrase "dairy tainted milk" is funny.

*Did you know it's already time to start thinking about outdoorsy things like sprouting flowers and building or buying a shed??? (At least in this part of the country.) Any suggestions on a small shed that you'd recommend?

*We have new neighbors who live across the street from us. They have a 2yo daughter and they have stopped by a few times. While their daughter is on the three end of two and seems to be MILES ahead of Georgia, it is still nice to know they are here. They have done a lot of work on their house and have offered us a lot of advice on waterproofing our basement (that's what the mister does). They have loaned us a stud finder and GIVEN us a shovel. The mister even shoveled our walk for us the other day. It's nice knowing another family in our neighborhood and once we are healthy I plan to get together with the mom who is also a SAH one.

*Look at all that hair!

*Rainer loves pulling to stand. He's also playing with toys (batting and beginning to shake). He likes to thrust his butt up in the air when we change him as if to say "Look at what I got!" He pretty much HATES being on his stomach. He's starting to talk more and more and smiles often. He has giggled, but only once or twice at a time so it's not yet a full string of laughter. A fuller post on him soon. (I found a photo album that I kept of my entire pregnancy with Georgia while unpacking books and felt terrible that I do not have something similar for Rainer. Is it the second child thing? As a second child myself, I should know better! I need to get better at recording his life. For instance, his birth story. Soon...)

*Everything in this photo (other than the chair) was a gift. Lately, I have been feeling so blessed. To have friends, to have a loving husband (who cares for me even when I am at my absolute pukey worst), to have two healthy lovable children, and to have enough money to make our ends meet. It's all really been dawning on me. I am so very lucky and grateful.

Blanket via Princess Nebraska, clothes via Jen, shoes via Prince Vince's Mama.

*A close-up of the shoes. Just because.

*I have a million and one things on our house list. We are working slowly on our kitchen, living room, basement, bathroom, master bedroom...ok....just about every room other than the kids' rooms,although we have a few small projects in those rooms as well (i.e. I got some shelves for R's room at Ikea today). I also want to get our yard in better order this year. Some projects are bigger than others (i.e. transplanting the rosemary=small, building a patio with pergola=large), but I am finally starting to feel less rushed about this and we're letting it happen somewhat organically. (If for no other reason than the fact that we don't have enough money to do it all at once.) Feeling ok with this is a wonderful feeling.

*I have been feeling more at home lately.

*But I am still not looking forward to summer. Spring, yes. Summer, no.

*I will be looking MORE forward to summer if I can get more serious about taking some of this weight off, then I will feel less bad about living in a place that pretty much requires shorts.

*I hate shorts.

*But I have other things to worry about.

*And in a pinch, I dare anyone to look at this picture and NOT let it brighten their day.

Well, that's ONE way to kickstart a diet.

I don't think I have been THAT sick in 15 years, if not more. I got the stomach bug everyone and their mother's seem to have gotten. I am feeling about 90% better, but there was a time at the 22 hour mark where my temperature was fluctuating so much that I went from teeth-chattering cold to I- can't-possibly-get-enough-layers-of-clothes-off hot. In the span of one hour my temperature went from 97.2 to 100.4.

Anyhow. I just Cloroxed the...er...shiz...out of the house and I am PRAYING that the kids or Alex don't get this bug. As it was, Alex had to stay home from work yesterday to watch the kids because I was that out of it. Have you ever tried to breastfeed an infant when you are barely sipping down enough liquids to sustain yourself? It's NOT fun.

I was worried about BF-ing because I didn't want Rainer to get sick, of course, but all the literature says to keep BF-ing b/c the virus isn't in the breast milk, he's already been exposed, and there are antibodies in the milk that are fighting this particular illness that could protect him. So far, so good--at least with the stomach bug. Unfortunately, however, he started with a runny nose in the middle of the night last night and it's continuing today.

One or the other (or all of us) have been sick since before Christmas. I am ready for a healthy family.

Although as sick as it is, I won't begrudge an 8lbs weight loss in about 24 hours!

Now off to do more laundry.

I'm No Nietzsche

But my philosophy is that toddlers subscribe to the chaos theory. If something is on a shelf, a table, in a box, a garbage pail, Georgia feels it should be knocked down, pulled out, thrown over, etc. Same goes for anything hanging on walls, in closets, or really...anything organized in any way. Socks on feet? Pull them off! Books on shelves? Tear them out! Drawers close? Open them!

And on and on and on...

Here's Some Funner (Yes, Funner) Stuff

I always feel funny when my last post on the blog is so yicky with the worries. So how about this? We have new friends. We see them fairly regularly now. The fun thing is there is one of them for every one of us (a woman (with whom I feel totally comfortable talking about all sorts of things with), a man (who is a musician like Alex), a G-age child (who dotes on Georgia), and an R-age (3 days younger) baby). Tonight, it's PF Chang's take-out at their place. I've never eaten from there, but I hear it's delish.

I like having friends. This little step (along with joining the gym and getting bookshelves assembled in our house) have made me feel about 75% more at home. I still have a little to go before I really feel like this is my home for the long(er)-haul. But these things help. Go figger.

So. A couple pictures.


Both my kids have oral fixations apparently.

Medical Stuff

Honestly, how do insurance companies SLEEP at night??? How can you go from a $35 co-pay on non-generic meds (Georgia's Prevacid doesn't HAVE a generic of course) to $65?? That's almost DOUBLE. Did they not get the memo that people are tightening their purse-strings?????

That and, Georgia had her bloodwork this weekend. The doctor told us that her thyroid was slightly elevated, but not enough to merit re-testing at this point. Anyone have any experience with this? Should I be more concerned even though she is not?

Also her white blood cell count was slightly low, but she attributed that to this cold G has been fighting.

She said that if it were her child she would not worry about it and would just re-test at the regular time (next year), but I worry. I'm that type.

Also. OK who's kids have had their Tonsils & Adenoids out and what difference has it made in terms of runny noses, noisy breathing, sinus infections? We may be looking at this procedure.

Oh...and one other thing that has to do with me. Anyone ever have a childbirth injury involving their pubic bones? I was starting to feel better in that regard (although my low back continues to crack almost every time I turn over in bed and not in that "Oh, yeah, that felt good" sort of way). However, since I've started going to the gym I have been having pain and clicking and that raw feeling again in my joints. The bike (which I rode last night) has caused some particular unpleasantness.

And while I am airing our medical laundry. Breast lumps. I have one. It may be a milk duct, but at my 6 week appointment my OB said "Can you come back in 3 months to have it checked again?" and then said, after feeling it again, "Well...can you come back in 1 month?" And of course I said yes. I go back next week. She told me she is 99% not worried about it, but she likes to err on the side of caution which I totally appreciate, but I can't say I am not worried. In order to not get too worked up over it my coping mechanism has been to not think about it. So....well good, the baby's crying can't think about it anymore now. But...anyone have experience with lumps while BF-ing that seemed DIFFERENT from the regular weird boobness of BF-ing?

Doing Laps

Georgia spends much (MUCH) of her day walking around the house. She will pace the living room, walk in the circle between the living room, kitchen and dining room, and do laps around the dining room table. While she is doing laps she is babbling to herself. She has started "talking" in such a way that it seems like she is imitating what it sounds like to hear other people talk. No real words, but lots of bla-ble-bla-ble-ee-aaaa, etc.

Our house is in a constant state of upheaval and re-arranging so don't mind that, but check out this little bugger.

She also does her "big smile" for the camera these days.

Go, Georgia, Go!

When she is not doing laps, of course, she and Elmo still have a special connection.

(OK, I admit, I just wanted to throw in a picture of her in her cute little outfit, even if it IS from behind!)

First Snow

For the first time yesterday we dressed Rainer in his snowsuit for it's intended purpose--snow!

Ooooh! What is this stuff getting on my face???
 
**squinch** It's chilly! (I LOVE this squinchy picture.)

Is it safe to come out?

Georgia enjoyed the snow too (although we just walked through it and didn't play IN it in part because we don't have a snowsuit that fits her or snow boots), but after her winter in VT last year, snow is kind of old hat anyway. Still, to me, after our snow-less winter this year snow feels so fresh and new. I have to say I've missed it, although it does seem like our families up north are getting slammed this year.

I think we'll stick to hand-me-downs when it comes to snowsuits/boots. Chances are we may never need them, they're expensive, and the kids grow so fast! Of course, if we visit the fam the kids will have to wear SOMEthing!!