What says Valentine’s more than a dog being tortured with love bug antenna? A love bug herself, that’s who! And if heart-shaped glasses at a friend’s party and a loving cousin who is willing to brave the “Mystery Machine” Jump house with a hundred ankle biters isn’t love, I don’t know what is. Happy Valentines Day!
Because B has been sick all week, we’ve been doing a lot of nothing. Our day consists of administering Tylenol, Vicks Vapor Rub and sitting in the bathroom with the shower on and breathing in the steam. Pretty much anything that will help her breathe easier and recover from this nasty virus.
We started watching Mary Poppins two days ago – one of my all time favorite movies as a kid. As we continued watching it last night, I realized one thing – this is a strange movie. Like Alice in Wonderland / alternate meaning to scenes weird.
First, why is the neighbor’s house shaped like a ship and why does he fire off cannons? I’m not so weirded out by Mary and the children’s trip into the sidewalk chalk paintings, I am however disturbed that Mary then denies that they did this later. And what the hell is the scene with Uncle Albert all about?! Why are they all on the ceiling laughing and having a tea party?? I also think it would be Uncle Albert’s picture next to “child molester” in the dictionary. I was going to add a picture to the post, but it freaked me out to look at it long enough to save it and add it in…
Thinking back, my other favorite movie as a kid was Old Yeller. For anyone who hasn’t seen this movie – the lovable dog and title character is shot by his master at the end of the movie because he has rabies. When I realized as an adult what actually happened to Old Yeller, I was a little concerned what this said about me and my personality. The more I thought about it, I didn’t realize the owner was killing OY. So really, I should be less concerned about deep psychological issues and more concerned with the fact that I was apparently a very dense child (yes Peter, I said CHILD. Not adult and no, there is no need for a correction).
So today, I’m feeling a little like Phoebe (from Friends, not the dog that we found last weekend) when she realized that her mother had edited all the movies she saw as a kid and never knew the full meaning behind them. I’m now a little afraid too of watching anymore childhood favorites for fear I will learn that they too have some coo coo meaning and or further prove that I was in fact, a very dumb kid.
1. No toddler cough syrup. It amazes me that the medical world can transplant organs, cure horrible diseases, etc. And yet they can’t come up with a cough medicine for a sick 20 month old. I say we lock some scientist up with a few sick toddlers for a few days and see what they come up with. My guess would be some kick ass cough syrup.
2. Benadryl. It doesn’t help Baylie sleep because she hates the taste and spits most of it out.
3. Rude people. People that are in line at CVS at 1pm on a Wednesday buying beer and don’t let the mom with a sick and sleeping kiddo slung over her shoulder with her enormous purse on the other arm, pedialyte pops and tylenol in her hand go in front of them. I know that was an awkward and run on sentence and no, I don’t care.
4. Mother Nature. I get that it’s winter and all, but the extreme wind that keeps blowing the blankets, towels, frost cloth, sheets, etc. off of my plants thus negating all my hard work to keep them from freezing, is a bit overkill, no? It’s fun to make it feel like winter now and then, but could we cap that low temperature around 40 degrees?
5. Stupid people. Why would someone call and leave you a voice mail stating the purpose of their call and a request for a call back without telling you their name? Idiots, that’s who.
Our family calendar:
Phew. I am so happy to see February. It seems that January 2011 has turned into our “sick month”. We started out with the stomach flu two weeks ago.
Then last week, Baylie suffered a buckle fracture in her ankle. No, I was not drinking wine and ignoring the child. She was actually at the Little Gym and is trying very hard to learn to jump. She launched herself off of a 10 inch high piece of equipment and sort of decided mid jump to make it a big step instead of a jump and landed awkwardly on her left foot. I knew instantly something was wrong – she had the “I just got 4 vaccinations” cry and then she wouldn’t walk. This kid was crawling at 6 months, she lives to move especially when she’s with her buddies so for her to insist on sitting in my lap for the remainder of class was a huge red flag. Only our kid gets hurt in a literally padded room. Thankfully the doctor insists that it will be totally fine, it’s not going to affect her softball career later in life nor is it a sign on any problem with her bones. He said it’s actually pretty common and minor enough that they don’t cast it. She’s getting around fine by crawling or scooting and has been walking more and more. I caught her trying to climb into her crib yesterday to get a pacifier so I’m thinking she’s milking it a little for the extra carry time by mom and all the pacifiers she can stand.
Thinking we’ve had our fill of doctors and hospitals for the year, I was resistant to the idea that Bay was a little congested yesterday morning. I tried to blame her phlegmy cough on her yogurt but no luck. By the time she woke up from her nap she was wheezing like an asthmatic and again, only wanted to be snuggled. It’s never a good sign when she wants to sit still. 3 hours of Vick’s Plug In Vapors, the frog shaped humidifier cranked up to high and watching Baby Einstein snuggled together in her room, she climbed out of our chair and wanted to play with her kitchen set – whenever she wants to try to feed Bear T. Dog a fake hot dog, things are looking up.
I’m very much not looking forward to yet another trip to the doctor today. Mostly because I don’t want to sit on the sick kid side of the waiting room. The only other time we’ve been to the doctor for being sick (yes, we’re extremely lucky that B is almost two years old and this is the first time she’s been sick) I thought she had an ear infection so we sat on the “well” side because I didn’t want her to catch anything. I don’t think the other moms and nannys are going to take kindly to my wheezing, juicy coughing kiddo on the well side so I’m going to have to bite the bullet, sanitize our chairs and hold my breath like the big girl that I am.
Is it February yet?
Per my New Year’s Resolution to do more gardening so that I can show B where food really comes from, we did a big gardening day a few weekends ago. Peter completed the “salad table”, I planted the rose bushes I got for Christmas, Freesia bulbs and Amaryllis bulbs, carrot and onion seeds, and lastly prepped the raised bed to plant tomatoes next month. I also fertilized everything within an inch of their little plant lives.
All the while Baylie was hard at work digging, putting rocks in a bucket, and moving her toys from her play house to the raised bed garden and then back using her wagon. Engrossed in digging holes, I didn’t realize Bay had traveled through the open bedroom door to retrieve my favorite Tory Burch flats left on the floor. She proceeded to fill them with dirt and rocks and then present them to me with a look of satisfaction that only a mother could appreciate. She was so proud of herself, I had to laugh! Thankfully, they were easily emptied and no damage.
I’m now showing her how to fill pots rather than shoes.
Warning: don’t read this over lunch 🙂
What the hell is this? Let me explain…
Baylor had the pleasure of contracting the stomach flu last week and then spreading it like wildfire to Peter and I and also various family members. Now a week later, a gallon of bleach and a washer that is tired of running 24 hours a day, I think it’s safe to say we’re done.
It started last Monday night. B woke up around midnight and after a quick rock, she was back out. I chalked it up to a bad dream. Two hours later, she was back awake and it was then I realized she was awake because she had tossed her cookies all over her crib. I felt like a horrible mom for not realizing the first time she was awake, but I don’t turn on the light when I go in and check on her and she didn’t feel wet…anyway, put a check in the “bad mom” column. Peter and I spent the rest of the night rotating on the couch with her and a bucket.
But by 7am, she was pale, but in good spirits. A day of the BRAT diet and it was like nothing happened so I assumed she had eaten something that didn’t agree with her or maybe a leaf from the backyard or something. So we had our play date with her cousin on Wednesday. And then I ended up in the ER that evening from the same virus. I broke my record of only having been in the hospital for my birth and then Baylie’s. Thankfully two bags of fluids, some pain meds and something to stop the vomiting and I was like new – or at least able to walk without being hunched over a bucket. I kind of remember Peter saying to the triage nurse “Listen, you couldn’t pay this woman to walk barefoot across a hospital floor let alone curl up in a ball and clutch your trash can on it”. It was ugly – but if I had to choose, I would so rather I have gotten the worse version than B. We’re very blessed that we have lots of family and all close and willing to help out so Bay went to Grandma’s house the next day and my sister came over in the afternoon after work to check in on me.
While this was great for me, it turns out it was awful for our family. We single-handedly spread the nasty bug to my sister, my sister-in-law, her infant daughter and my mother in law. When Peter came down with it this weekend, we decided it was time to quarantine ourselves and break out the bleach. The picture above is every toy that Bay has touch in the last week that would survive a bleach bath. This is them drying after soaking. Anything that could go in the dish washer, clothes washer or sink of bleach did so. The few remaining, battery operated toys got a through cleaning with antiseptic and hot water. Baylie loves to clean so being given her own pack of alcohol wipes and free rein to wipe anything and everything was like heaven. By Saturday afternoon, our home no longer smelled like a frat house after a date dash but rather a school cafeteria after it had been swabbed with bleach post lunch.
I may have burned out my sense of smell, but our house is clean, we’re all well and I won’t get any more calls from family letting me know that they too have contracted the virus from us.
That said, I wrote several blogs last weekend that didn’t get posted. So if you’re reading one about gardening that refers to “last weekend” just know it was last last weekend. And wash your hands and stay away from anyone who even KNOWS someone who has the flu!
I got this picture frame for Christmas and I love it. It’s a chalkboard frame and it matches the chalkboard wall in our kitchen so it’s a huge hit with all of us. I finally decided which picture to put in it and what to write on it:
Er, rings.
Nap time in our house means Baylor sleeps for approximately 2 hours and mommy scrambles to get as much done in those 2 hours as possible. I can be quite productive – “to do” items are prioritized not only by need, but also if it can be accomplished with the help of my “assistant”. Dishes these days are a toss up. She’s actually pretty good at handing me the silverware and then is totally entertained pushing the buttons – she actually locked out the controls the other day and I had to break out the manual to undo it. Laundry is fine as long as she gets to push and pull the baskets, put the wash into the dryer, push all the buttons and I can fold it on the bed so she can’t pull down the freshly folded shirts. Most household cleaning is doable. She really likes to swiffer, take turns holding the vacuum and makes “ppssshhht ppssshhhtt” sounds while holding the spray bottles of cleaner (because she can’t actually squirt it, she just makes the sound). But anything to do with the office is a no go – she lllooooovvveeess to type on the computer, whether or not I’m sitting at the computer makes no difference. She climbs into the chair and either wrestles me for the keyboard and mouse or stands behind me and tries to get the headband, hair tie or ear piece away from my head. Not only is it unproductive, it’s also potentially painful.
That said, all calls that I need to make, bills to be paid, blogs to be written and read, emails to be sent, etc. take place between in the hours of noon and 2pm. Most significant are the calls because I’m self conscious about a screaming kid in the back ground, especially when it’s a semi professional call. I try to make all calls of this nature around noon and then pray that the return call will happen before 2pm. Which, it almost never does. As soon as I hear the tell-tale sounds of a baby starting to wake up, I know that phone is going to ring. I try to ignore the sounds. If it hasn’t been two hours yet, I go in and silently rock her back to sleep, begging for just 45 more minutes.
No sooner do I close the door and sigh with relief… the whimpers develop into wails and I close out what I’m working on. Only then does the phone in fact, ring.
For some reason, when Baylie gets diaper rash she REALLY gets diaper rash. It seems like the combination of a new tooth and the super chlorinated water she inevitably drinks at swim lessons makes for a lethal combination for her booty.
This past week was particularly bad. She was at the point of refusing to let me use wipes – she would scream and squirm and it was obvious that her poor red booty was just too sore for the harsh wipes. That said, I was giving her a quick rinse twice a day in addition to her nightly bath. Then, I found California Baby Diaper Area Wash. I love this all natural brand any way so it was a no brainer for us to try it. It uses Calendula and Aloe Vera to soothe and then cleanse the tender skin. It cools the burn and helps wash up saving us from 19 baths a day. It also really helped clear up the rash.
Target, Buy Buy Baby and Diapers.com all carry the California Baby line as well as Californiababy.com. I love their “relaxing aroma therapy” scented line – it makes for pleasant bubble baths and a nice smelling kiddo – I think the fact that the bubble bath comes with a bubble wand is adorable.
I really don’t like resolutions. I feel like they make what is already a sad time of year worse. There’s nothing more depressing than knowing the fun, socializing, decorating, getting and giving, drinking and eating of the holidays are over and now I’m supposed to add a new and undoubtedly unfun thing into my life too? No gracias.
Thankfully for me, I don’t have any vices I’m willing to give up. We’re planning to have more kids some day so I’ll give up the drinking then – why put off that good bottle of wine on a random Thursday night now? I don’t smoke so I’ve got a big check mark next to that resolution and I wear sunscreen and my seatbelt so we’re good there too. I already work out and I’m near wedding weight so that’s covered. I already pinch our pennies, clip coupons and work any discount possible so that’s out.
The two things I’ve come up with are actually very fun resolutions so the chances of sticking with them are good. First, I need to get back into volunteering more. I love Pets On Wheels as written about in Give A Little Bit, but I’ve gotten away from it because it can be a hassle wrangling Travis T. Dog and the kiddo into the car and then through the nursing home. Last time we were there, a resident was coloring which Bay was all to happy to help out with. It’s always a toss up whether someone is a baby person or a dog person and this lady was not a baby person. It was a little exhausting getting B out of her room without the markers and with little screaming. But I think I build it up too much in my head and need to just take it for what it is. If we stay for 45 or 15 minutes, that’s good enough and that’s what I need to focus on.
Second, I’m going to get serious about growing our garden. I love to be in the yard and I love to grow beautiful flowers, but I tend to become a slacker on fruits and veggies once it starts to get hot and requires more work to keep the plants producing and or alive. But I really want Baylie to know that food doesn’t come from the grocery, but from the ground. So in addition to the two beautiful new rose bushes I got for Christmas, we’re going to plant carrots and scallions in the same planter. Then our usual two tomatoes, but I’m going to put in some serious effort to keep them alive past May. The jalapeno and sweet pepper that already exist and produce despite zero attention are going to get some serious TLC. Peter is building us a Martha Stewart inspired lettuce table that will be home to spinach, red leaf, butter lettuce and also strawberries – it’s my damn lettuce table and if I want it to be a lettuce and strawberry table, so be it.
Lastly, as soon as it’s warmer than 60 degrees out, B and I are going to plant the flower bulbs that I put out every year. Growing up, we always had pots of bulbs in the windows of our house. There was nothing prettier to me than the little green shoots on a dark, cold morning. Something about them made me feel like it wasn’t going to be cold and dark forever because spring was just around the corner.
I think any more than this amount of self improving would be like trying to make a sunset prettier…it would just be too much 😉
The Goon Room 