Not enough time for a long post, but SkyWalker had to talk at morning program this morning at school. The video for those of you logged in and in my neighborhood:
Monday, December 7, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Insert clever title here
Chewie had her first spoonful of cereal at Thanksgiving dinner and followed it with the whole bowl. You know how they say start out with 1 tablespoon and go slow? No such thing with my girls. She did not gag once, she did not refuse once, she ate and ate and ate and finished a full serving. The next day she did refuse it at dinner because she was tired so it's not like she doesn't know how to say no. She's been doing good with it, except she started getting a little constipated and was up at night again (to put that in perspective, she was up at 10 and then again at 4/5. So really, who am I to complain?). I started oatmeal yesterday morning to try to help in that area. Last night was the worst in that she was crying quite a bit and then this morning during breakfast she was crying A LOT. She had poop when she woke up this morning and I don't think she's stopped since. I decided to skip the cereal this morning and give her a rest. I gave her oatmeal at lunch and might just stick with that today instead of doing the rice for dinner. She is at least smiling now and she was NOT doing that this morning. I think she really needed to get her poop out and now that's it coming all at once her little heiney is getting sore. And this sounds SO FAMILIAR does it not? I'm going to start fruits soon and hopefully she will balance out and get regular again.
Speaking of balance--the Princess started gymnastics today with her usual "Hold my hand/pick me up/help me" attitude but when it was time for the bars and a new young teacher she told me she didn't want my help, she wanted "someone different." I sat on the floor next to Chewie and the Princess did all of the bars with the teacher (a girl in her 20s I think) and didn't even look at me. It was amazing. It was exactly how I thought she would be when I signed her up in September. Unfortunately the teacher was just a sub, but the teacher who would normally be there on Wednesdays (we just switched to Wednesdays because 9 am on Fridays was too hard) is her best friend so I am hoping she is also young and able to bewitch my daughter.
I have officially given up on the Couch to 5k. I gave it up a while ago actually. It's just too hard when I have no idea if Chewie is going to wake up after 45 mins or take a whole nap. And sometimes all I have is 45 mins before I have to get SkyWalker off the bus. I can't be on the treadmill that entire time. Not to mention the fact that I just don't like running. Well, I don't like distance running or running for any length of time. I discovered when I had to chase after SkyWalker's school bus that I actually like sprinting. I'm not sure how I can really do that on the treadmill but maybe when it's warmer I can sprint down the damn driveway. Anyway, for now what I have been doing is just 10 minutes of walking on the treadmill. But to make the most of those 10 minutes I use the incline feature and walk uphill. It's working out well. I can feel that I am actually doing something and I have enough time to do other things.
Speaking of other things-- I need to figure out how to show 3 toddlers how to make a fireman's hat. Which means I need to figure out how to do it first. I might need Vader to decipher the instructions for me.
OH and one last thing--if you used to see pictures of the jedi children and now you don't, well sucks to be you. I decided to make them viewable by neighborhood only. My husband had me sign the form at SkyWalker's school saying he can't be photographed because he's in law enforcement--my husband, not SkyWalker. And here I am with pictures on the internets. So if you were a lurker before but you know me and want to see any pictures I may post of them you'll need to get an account and make sure I add you to my neighborhood. Then you can just make sure to always be logged in when you read this blog. If you're a lurker and I don't know you, well, you're who I'm trying to avoid.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Things that make me happy
I did not get up this morning.
Well, eventually. But not when I wanted to. Instead I stayed in bed so I could be AWAKE thinking about how tired I was. And then I finally fell back to sleep to dream about an overflowing toilet in my bedroom. Yeah. Those 2 hours in bed were SO worth it.
Anyway.
It's almost Thanksgiving. And I have only a few brain cells and am incapable of complete sentences or thoughts.
Things that make me happy:
1. My siblings have found people they love and are growing their families. We'll meet the first cousin this week!
2. My sister-in-law calls me sister.
3. No matter how far away Shinesalot is she still finds time for me. And when I start to feel replaced she usually unknowingly does something to make it better.
4. I have found a great group of local friends who seem to like me.
5. My son is no longer the shy boy he once was--he is a complete goofball wrestling with his friends and talking to people.
6. I've managed to exclusively breastfeed Chewie for nearly 6 months and have no fear that I can continue for another 8-9 months.
7. I am NOT pregnant and vomiting.
8. I don't have pink eye.
9. I can "stay home" with my children and not have to deal with the heartache of daycare again.
10. I have cheese doodles.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Routine
Sometimes I get a little boxed in by my routines. For the most part things work out really well and by sticking to my routines as much as possible I can keep control over my days. I had been "dream feeding" Chewie at 10--feeding her in her sleep so that she would make it until the morning (7:30) and not have her sleep interrupted. Lately she's been waking up at 10. Which is no longer a dream feed and pretty indicative of a habitual waking. The last couple of nights I fed her only one side, something that would have caused a 3 or 4 am waking a few weeks ago. She took it and slept until 7:30. Or well, 7:20, but we're not going to quibble. Last night I decided not to go up there at all. She woke when Vader took SkyWalker and the Princess to the bathroom. I grumbled but didn't go up. She wasn't screaming or crying but really just fussing. She went back to sleep after just a few minutes. I was truly shocked when my alarm went off at 5:30 and I realized I hadn't been up yet. I knew this had become a habit waking but part of me was afraid to not feed her. Not that she would wake me up later, but just because she seems so similar to SkyWalker--born early and small, not the easiest pooping, looks just like him--that in the back of my head I thought "I don't want another baby to stop gaining weight." But she is not SkyWalker and she is still gaining weight. She now has some chunky thighs like her big sister. And she is a week away from cereal anyway. I decided I didn't need to wait until EXACTLY 6 months, so I'm doing it just one week early--on Thanksgiving so my mom can be there. My mother was there for the other 2 and now she can be there for Chewie's first cereal tasting as well.
That was a long paragraph.
I'm pretty flexible with my routines. If Chewie has only napped half an hour in the morning I have no problem letting her nap 3 hours and feeding her a little later. I really don't watch the clock unless she is right on cue and it just happens that way. When you have more than one kid you need some kind of structure though. When we're home we've fallen into a nice routine of me feeding my children all day. Seriously some days it feels like just that:
7:30 feed Chewie
8: feed the Princess breakfast
8:30/9 feed Chewie again so she'll last her nap (this is becoming unnecessary)
11: feed the Princess lunch
11:30 feed Chewie
1: feed Chewie (again, this is up in the air)
3:30: feed Chewie
5-6: make dinner
6:30/7: feed Chewie
I'm trying to keep Chewie from doing nothing but sitting in her high chair or carseat or swing so I need to plan the Princess's lunch before I feed Chewie. I need to have a handle on my day. Of course when we go somewhere it's all up in the air and she gets no tummy time and usually just takes a series of short naps and I feed her way too much trying to get her to just take one long one.
The Princess has just started whining "Mommy" which in turn has woken Chewie up. It's only 6:20 and I'm ignoring it. I should probably shower while I can.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Remarkable
I am up before the sun and all the children and dogs and husband are still sleeping and it is glorious. I was only tired for a few minutes and now I am awake and wondering why I couldn't drag my lazy butt out of bed for the last couple of weeks. We have had a rough patch-- Chewie has been eating like a fiend and SkyWalker spent a few days throwing up. And when you have 3 the odds of you being woken up in the middle of the night aren't 3 times as great it's a MILLION times as great. Throw in Scratchy the dog who likes to scratch his skin off or lick himself ad nauseum. Literally--he threw up this week too.
Yesterday was a remarkable day.
We started with gymnastics in the morning in which the Princess wanted me to hold her the whole time and didn't warm up until half way through. It's always so embarrassing but I wonder if the moms with the kids who are doing stuff but just not what they are supposed to be doing are embarrassed too? Like if a kid is racing to jump on the trampoline instead of doing the bars like she's supposed to, is that Mom secretly thinking "if you're not going to do what you're told just do nothing like that little girl?" and I'm thinking "just do something instead of cling to me?" Perhaps we are all embarrassed of our children. Except the ones who do exactly what's asked of them.
Anyway, we went to gymnastics and as expected Chewie only slept half an hour there. When we got home I was bursting, literally, to feed her, so I fed her at 10:45 instead of waiting until 11:30. The Princess and I had lunch and Chewie was clearly so tired that I put her down and she fell asleep at 12:30. I figured I was in for it since she would be waking up right when I have to get SkyWalker off the bus--provided she slept 2 hours which was no guarantee. The Princess went up at 1:30 and Chewie was still sleeping. Miraculous. The Princess fought her nap, getting up and playing with lotion and doing all sorts of things. I finally told her I didn't care if she slept but she had to stay in bed and have quiet time. I've been wondering what I'm going to do about quiet time for her if she starts giving up her nap and I think this is it. I'm going to make her have quiet time in her room when Chewie is sleeping. Real quiet time in her bed with just a book. Because guess what happened? She fell asleep around 2. Chewie was still sleeping which was simply amazing. I walked on the treadmill (I gave up couch to 5k. It just doesn't fit my life right now.) I got off the treadmill and both girls were sleeping and I didn't KNOW WHAT TO DO. It was crazy. I was so amazed that they were sleeping and I was alone that I kept checking the monitor and wasting time. I got some dishes done and Christmas presents wrapped. Chewie woke up right before I had to get SkyWalker off the bus but I couldn't get her. She never cried just woke up. And then put herself back to sleep! SkyWalker and I did his homework and the girls still slept. It was UNBELIEVABLE. I wasn't sure if I should wake Chewie since I did still need to feed her. She woke on her own at 3:30, as did the Princess--in a cheery mood, hugging her brother and acting like she hadn't seen him in weeks.
It was truly remarkable.
I have been up for an hour and the sun is still not up. This too is remarkable.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Good days
I have 20 minutes before the bus drops off SkyWalker. Both girls are napping and it is lovely. We had a pumpkin painting playdate this morning and because we were home/Chewie was fed enough/active enough/the planets were aligned enough/ she actually took a decent morning nap. Which will hopefully also mean a decent afternoon nap and then a decent night. We were thrown off when we had to postpone lunch so we could bring new pants to SkyWalker at school. And they were barely wet! He could have made it. They don't even smell like pee!
The Princess was social and talking and having a great time this morning. She has been very clingy lately so that was really nice to see. And she must have actually gotten tired because she is sleeping! Yay! I decided to start getting her up at night and having her pee like we do with SkyWalker. Yes, I am deliberately interrupting her night time sleep so she will nap. Sounds funny, huh? Actually, she should get used to getting up to pee at night. I barely woke her up, just put her on the potty, she peed, and then she was right back to sleep. And her diaper this morning was not very wet at all. So there are multiple reasons.
SkyWalker was having a problem with a classmate but now they seem to be friends. It's so hard relying on a 5 year old for information. I wish I could bug him when he goes to school so I can hear/see things firsthand.
Chewie woke me up at 5 this morning, which was annoying, but it forced me to get out of bed. I am SO glad I did. It is beyond funny that I, who used to sleep until noon, am now a morning person. Or at least really want to be. Instead of going back to bed, I stayed up, ate my first breakfast, had a cup of tea, used the computer, wiped down the toilet, swept, got dressed, and enjoyed the silence of no children. I woke the girls up at 7:30 feeling prepared for the day. And despite the school trip, it's been a good day. I will probably be falling asleep during Flash Forward tonight, but it is worth it. I hope it's easier for me to get up so early when we change the clocks. It's hard when it's so damn dark out. Hopefully the girls will adjust okay since I generally wake up them in the morning anyway.
And now, I run to the bus stop/mailbox.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Summin' up
I don't know why it's so hard to update here. Oh... yeah...
But that's okay, because the 3 people that read this probably know it all already.
I've been big into the lists now:
1. I quit my job back in August. An amicable split that benefits both parties. Although weird at first, this not working at all thing is lovely. Particularly because I have no idea how I would have done it and taken care of 3 kids. So it's all good. Someday I'll go back... maybe. ;-)
2. We might just hibernate for the winter. I'm cutting back on the playdate activity. I'm seriously paranoid about swine flu--I know that people can die from regular flu too--but I have a 4 1/2 month old baby and a toddler who has had THREE surgeries. I did not get her the swine flu vaccine. I did get her the regular flu vaccine so I'm not worrying about that. SkyWalker got the swine flu one because he's in school. Did I put that here already? I don't remember. Anyway, forgive my paranoia--I have delicate little ones.
3. Chewie is 4 1/2 months old. I'm trying to hold out until 6 months for cereal. I know lots of moms do it right at 4 months, but I would rather wait. She doesn't seem to really need it. On a good day I feed her every 4 hours and then the dream feed at night. On a bad day it's more often but I think that's more my own reaction to bad naps... She needs the right combination of feeds and activity time or she's victim to the 45 minute nap syndrome. Usually if her first nap is 45 mins we're screwed for the rest of the day, but today I fed her and fed her and fed her and managed to get her to nap for over 2 hours for her second nap, so she wasn't quite as overtired as she would normally be. EASY* is not as easy when you have older siblings. Anyway, I don't want to do cereal until I really have to, so I'm holding out.
4. I have a new quest--couple friends. Yes, I have become Lily on HIMYM. I've done a good job making mom friends and friends for my kids but we have no couple friends. Part of that is that my husband has no friends--or rather, the one friend he does have is just so busy that we never do anything. I'm not sure how one goes about making couple friends. I'm quite sure I will get no help from my husband.
5. I'm an Aunt! My brother and his wife finally quit playing around and had their baby almost a week late. Ridiculous. ;-) All is well and I'm quite sure she will be bigger than Chewie is when we go down there for Thanksgiving. I feel very far away.
6. Chewie rolled over! From her tummy to her back. Let the games begin!
*EASY -- Eat. Activity. Sleep. You. I'm a Baby Whisperer. I don't feed to sleep. I structure my baby's day according to the same routine of eating, activity and then sleeping. The You flew out the window as soon as I had more than one child. It's much harder when an older sibling makes you go to gymnastics and storytime. But she doesn't need my boob to fall asleep. Or rocking or any other kind of prop. She falls asleep on her own. When she's had a horrible napping day and I'm feeding her extra I might let her sleep-eat for 10 minutes or so, but that's as close as I ever get to feeding to sleep. Except at 3 am. Anytime after bedtime there is no activity, it's just straight back to bed. But luckily there really aren't too many wake up nights anymore, and when she does wake up she *usually* puts herself back to sleep (one of the benefits of EASY).
Thursday, October 8, 2009
What Month is it?
Really need to work on that brain-blog hook up. Or vox needs to play nicely with my iPod touch. 1. SkyWalker loves school. Loves the bus. There's supposedly a bully on it, but he wants to ride everyday and gets annoyed if we have to pick him up for doc visits. He's reading to us at bedtime and is so much better behaved. I think it's a combination of him not being bored anymore and me not having to deal with it all day long. Craziness at 5 pm is much easier to handle when you haven't been dealing with it since 7 am!2. The Princess misses him a lot but is doing really well without him. She's doing better on the potty since he is not home to distract her. She is so good about entertaining herself. And she makes much fewer and smaller messes than he does... She's definitely getting her 2 year molars and one of them is a bit bloody and has a big flap of gum. This does not please her. But I would say for 90% of the day she is happy and pleasant and funny and a joy to be around. She is "farting" with "my mouth" on my arm right now--blowing raspberries is farting in her mind.3. Chewie is happy and done with her screaming. I think she's going through a growth spurt right now, but for the most part she sleeps all night. She does not like to nap when we go out. She doesn't scream and cry, she just doesn't sleep. It's not a problem until we get home and then she's overtired. Because of this I need to stay home at least 2 days a week. We have storytime on Weds and gymnastics on Fridays so I *really* need to force myself to stay home on Tues/Thurs. Luckily my every other Thursday preschool group is cool with always doing it at my house. It is so hard juggling the needs of a toddler with the needs of an infant. 4. I started running again--sticking with week 2 although at a faster speed. I hope to get up to week 3 soon. 5. I've been thinking a lot about the type of parent I want to be. This deserves a bigger post. But in short: my big problem has always been wanting SkyWalker to listen--which really means I want instant obedience. But now that he's in school I'm starting to feel differently. Do I really want him to just automatically do what's he's told--whatever he's told? No. I want him to make good choices and decisions. I'm focusing on him but really this extends to all my kids. So I have been trying very hard to not just bark commands and give orders but instead to treat my kids with a little more respect than that and try to help them understand WHY I'm telling them to do things. Instead of shouting "get in your seat" I'm saying "please get in your seat so we can eat dinner now." And I'm trying to pick my battles--there are some things that are really important--don't touch the stove, hold my hand in the parking lot, don't run away, etc. And there are some things that are not important--going to wash hands, putting away toys, etc. I want to raise smart thinking adults--not sheep who follow orders. I want to be a parent, not a drill sergeant. This is only remotely related, but I'm also trying not to focus on little things just because everyone else does. My son can say "More milk" in a nice respectful tone. Does he really have to say please? He's saying it with his tone. I'd rather have that than have him say please but in a rude way. My husband can make the words "Excuse me" sound like "Get the hell out of my way" just with his tone of voice--I'd rather him say "move" but say it nicely. But society has hammered the please and thank you in our brains and we think we have to go along. So I'm trying to really focus on my kids and listen to them and not do things just because someone else decides it's a good idea.6. Pediatrician visit yesterday: SkyWalker is now 35 pounds, 42 inches. Chewie is 12 lbs, 5 oz and 24 1/2 inches. The Princess did not get weighed since it was not her checkup. 7. I need to click on the arrow to see what happens with Elmo next.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Hermitude has its benefits
We've barely left the house at all this week since we've become victims to the kindergarten cold. It's actually worked out fantastically. I've defeated the 45 min napping demon in the house... on Monday I watched Chewie's cues closely, made sure she was well-fed and not overtired. I put her down and at 45 mins she started crying. I went upstairs and instead of picking her up I watched her. She had her eyes closed and was still sleeping! I continued to watch her and she went through a cycle of crying and not crying for the next 20 minutes. And that was it. She slept another hour and I woke her up! And after having a good first nap she continued to have good naps the rest of the day! Had I been unknowingly waking her up and disturbing her at the 45 min mark?? On Tuesday she let out one cry at 45 mins and that was it. Today she didn't even cry. She has been waking at night but I think that's from her cold and not from actually napping during the day.
It's so exciting. I love when I figure out what's going on. I'm sure we'll have a different problem next week. But for today, I am excited. I'm also terrified of leaving the house on Friday for gymnastics! What if napping in her car seat and not her crib sets off the same 45 min pattern?? That would suck. But I don't want to be hermits forever.
I've also gotten the Princess to nap with Chewie again. Still no 3 hour naps here, but I've been getting a good 1 1/2 hours of free time. I have not been running because I've been in observation mode with the naps and because I have a cold and I'm a big sissy. We'll see how leaving the house on Friday changes things... it may be that I will have to commit to 2 days at home each week so I can get good naps and run. And then do the 3rd day over the weekend. I hope to start up again next week.
Once again I planned a huge post about parenting and what kind of parent I want--and don't want--to be (okay, aside, I have 30 mins before SkyWalker's bus. I just looked out the window and saw yellow and almost crapped myself and it was... a big yellow truck.), alas I am too tired and unmotivated for a huge blog post.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Balance/Juggling/Why I need to clone myself
Balance. People. The balance, she eludes me. I strive for it everyday and everyday it slips from my fingers.
SkyWalker is loving school. He's disappointed that he doesn't have more homework (he is so getting beat up). He has been much better behaved at home. He still has his moments but for the most part school has been the answer to everything. He peed his pants 2 days in a row and yet he still wants to go to school and enjoys it. Vader brought cupcakes to the school yesterday morning and passed by his bus. He was able to see SkyWalker smiling and laughing and having a good time. It's such a relief.
The girls and I are doing well alone. I've filled the Princess's mornings with playdates and storytime and gymnastics. Today was gymnastics. She did much better than her brother years ago, but she did not respond the way I thought she would... maybe she was just in a bad mood. She wanted me to hold her the whole time. Didn't want to do anything. Luckily she had randomly insisted on bringing her baby doll--something I usually don't allow--and I made the baby doll do stuff and then she warmed up a little and did a little jumping and swinging. I KNOW she would love it if she would follow directions. We're going back and hopefully she will be in a better mood next week. It didn't help that Chewie started crying after only a 30 min nap.
Chewie is doing better at night. I still dream feed her at 10ish and she doesn't wake until 7 (or 6:40 depending on how loud the boys are). She goes to bed at 7:30ish and she doesn't wake for the dream feed so that's pretty good... I'm still getting up at 5(ish) so I look forward to giving up that dream feed.
The problem now is naps--for both of them. We had such a good routine going for a couple of weeks. I put the Princess down at 1:30, asleep by 2, put Chewie down at 2:15, asleep by 2:30 and then I was good. I could run. It was all good. Now the Princess is fighting her naps. Chewie is all over the place, 45 min naps, getting overtired. By the time I get them both down I have an hour or LESS before SkyWalker gets off the bus. Which leads me to....
Balance.
I have not run in a while. I skipped last week because school messed things up, naps messed things up, and I just don't know when I can do it. I tried on Monday but I went to week 3 when I should have repeated week 2. I couldn't do it. I walked for 20 minutes and was proud that I did that. The whole time I was watching the clock so I wouldn't get too close to bus time. AND my left ankle hurts again. This sucks. SkyWalker is in school all day and I have LESS me time than before!
I should be folding the clothes and cleaning the house for his party tomorrow, but I needed to just sit and blog. As I type the Princess has STILL not fallen asleep (despite gymnastics this morning) and Chewie has just woken up after 20 minutes and is crying. She's been not pooping for a couple of days and then getting cranky and then pooping a lot. Who does that sound like? I know it's normal for BF babies to go days without pooping but the other 2 never did, so this is new to me.
Something has got to give. Either I spend less time with the girls in the morning and run while they are awake, or I give doing anything else during any nap time and just run, or I don't know. I think I need to take the next couple of weeks and work on getting a consistent routine and getting both girls to take good naps and THEN fit running/cleaning/me into it. Because I am way too stressed out each day trying to get them down for a nap.
It is now 2 pm. In 44 minutes SkyWalker will be off the bus. Chewie is crying. I would bet that the Princess is not sleeping either.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
And just like that
Kindergarten tomorrow. 5 years have just flashed by. Yesterday I was in the hospital being induced. Today I'm making school lunch. How did this happen?
Today was all about SkyWalker. We went to the library, the park, played baseball and bubbles, had mac and cheese for dinner, and did whatever he wanted to do on his last day as a school-free boy. I am behind on laundry and dishes and everything else. I didn't run yesterday or today and while it bugs me (!!) I'm glad I chose to spend the day with my boy instead.
Vader is home from shopping. This is not nearly as long as it was in my head. Hopefully I will have a nice long post tomorrow about how lovely it was being down to two again... and how much SkyWalker enjoyed school!
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Week 2
I didn't think it was going to happen, but the planets aligned just long enough for me to finish week 2 of Couch to 5k and take a shower. The shower was interrupted by multiple children, but let's focus on the positive.
Day 1:
total time: 29:38
calories: 190.8
miles: 1.88
laps: 7
1 mile: 15:43 mins
highest speed: 5
Day 2:
total time: 29:39
calories: 189.4
miles: 1.87
laps: 7
1 mile: 15:52 mins
highest speed: 5
Day 3:
total time: 29:41
calories: 196
miles: 1.92*
laps: 7
1 mile: 15:22 mins*
highest speed: 5
* lookee there. That's improvement. Now if I can only find something to fill this belly. Between nursing and actually getting off my ass I'm hungry!
Friday, September 4, 2009
let me sum up
I *would* have finished the second week of Couch to 5k but my ankles are starting to hurt and I think I need new sneakers. It turned out good that I did not since I forgot to eat lunch and probably would have passed out.
I think I'm going to call it an early night. Here's my quick updates:
1) SkyWalker and Vader rode the bus together for bus safety day yesterday. The Princess and I watched them get on the bus. One of us cried and one of us comforted the other. I'm not telling who did what. SkyWalker was fine and seems to be okay with the fact that Vader will not be on the bus next week. He and his friend sat together on the bus coming back home. That is good.
2) The Princess speaks and speaks and speaks. And yet still she whines. You'd think being able to communicate would cut down on the whining, but alas, it does not. I do think her molars are coming in though. She's doing okay with the potty training, but I need to find a way to get her to pee on a regular basis without it turning into a fight. She is a stubborn one.
3) Chewie is doing really well. She really doesn't cry all that much anymore. No more screaming. She smiles a lot and seems so much happier. I moved her to the girls' room at bedtime now. I started on Monday and she has slept longer each night. Last night I gave her a bottle at 11 and she slept until 5:30. I've been giving her bottles to try to get her used to them. But she only takes 2 ounces, whether it's at 10 or 11. Tonight I'm going to skip it and see how she does. The girls do just fine in the same room and both SkyWalker and the Princess seem to be excited to have Chewie up there with them. I'm glad that I had the girls nap together from the first week. I think that helped a lot. I stopped swaddling Chewie since it didn't seem to be the miracle cure it was for the Princess. I just have her in a sleep sack and she's doing great. I kind of miss her at night, but she was in my room longer than the other two so it was really time. She turned 3 months yesterday.
4) This is not as quick as I thought it would be.
5) I ran two of the three couch to 5k days this week and I've already improved. I don't see myself ever running a race. I don't like to run in front of people. But I am enjoying the experience. It gives me the energy boost I need in the middle of the day and I am So proud of myself for sticking with it. I might have some scheduling problems once SkyWalker starts school--since the time I normally do it is nap time for the girls and that will be when he gets off the bus. And after being in school all day I don't think I can tell him to just wait for me to run... The Princess is better at entertaining herself so maybe I can actually attempt to do it while she is awake. Or try to get them down for early naps. I'll have to play around with our routines.
6) I need to hook my brain up to the internets so I can blog directly from it. I blog a lot in the shower. And then forget it when I see the screen...
Saturday, August 29, 2009
I finished week 1! In week 1!
This is mostly just for me and my record keeping because I am a dork who likes keeping records (should have worked in archives I guess):
I just finished Week 1 of the Couch to 5K IN week 1. How momentous. Anyway, stats for my own purposes:
Day 2:
total time: 29:05
calories: 160.7
miles: 1.65
laps: 6
1 mile: 17 mins
highest speed: 4.5 (don't laugh Felice!)
Day 3:
total time: 28:41 (I must have hit the start on the treadmill too soon last time)
calories: 175.3
miles: 1.78
laps: 7
1 mile: 16:08
highest speed: 5
I didn't write anything down for day 1. Oh well.
Because I am a DORK and surrounded by positive reinforcement for children, I'm totally making myself a sticker chart.
Monday, August 24, 2009
A fine Monday
I should be folding towels or doing something productive. But I'm not. It's Monday. As far as Mondays go, this one was actually okay. Chewie went to bed at 8 last night and I didn't feed her until 4:30. It was miraculous. And for most of today she was right on cue--feeding every 3 hours, napping when she should, and smiling instead of screaming. We all went outside and she took her first wagon ride. SkyWalker was not nearly as crazy as he has been. He's definitely still testing me, but he actually listened a lot better today. There was no big drama. Both girls took naps at the same time, just long enough for me to use the treadmill. So all in all, not a bad Monday.
I did the first run of the first Week of the Couch to 5k program. It's meant to slowly work you into being able to run a 5k so you don't do too much too fast and then burn out and give up. I have no intentions of actually running a 5k anywhere, but I like the structure the program has instead of me just walking on the treadmill for an indeterminate length of time. I downloaded the free podcasts for my iPod (which plugs into the treadmill) so it's easier for me to know when to walk and when to run. I managed to do a mile and a half in less than half an hour. I'm sure it will take me longer than the 9 weeks to complete it since I may not be able to do it as often as I'm supposed to. But that's okay. My goal isn't actually running a 5k. It's getting off the damn couch.
I'm pretty sure if I go to bed now Vader will get home from shopping and the dogs will go nuts and wake me/Chewie up. And while he will put away all the fridge & freezer stuff, I will get up tomorrow morning to find all the pantry stuff still has to be put away. I'd rather just do it tonight.
But. Yawn.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Home sweet home
We're all done traveling and I am glad to be sleeping in my own bed again. I will be even more glad when Chewie is sleeping in her own bed (her crib upstairs instead of the co-sleeper in our room). She had a couple of really good nights on LI and I think they were both because she was outside in the heat for the majority of the day! We have yet to replicate it. I'm getting really tired of, well, being tired. Being up twice a night is wearing on me. Particularly since I know the Princess was sleeping all night long by now... it's not fair to compare but that's what's in the back of my mind.
We were on LI for our anniversary so we were able to go out by ourselves and have dinner and walk around Port Jeff. I had an Italian Ice. I don't know if any place up here has Italian Ices... in any event it was nice. Much better than last year when the kids and I went to dinner by ourselves.
We're still not done with the cleanup from the Yellow Jacket Invasion of '09. My husband is going a little cooky with it. At this rate we will never be done.
SkyWalker starts kindergarten in 3 weeks. I can't quite believe it. We're going to start getting him up earlier. His bus will come at 6:52. Isn't that crazy? He should be home by 2:45 though. I'm not sure if I want to try getting the Princess down for earlier naps or keep her on her current napping schedule. It might be nice for SkyWalker to have some alone time with me when he gets home. This is assuming the Princess naps. Actually she does okay as long as no one else wakes her up.
The sun is still not up yet. I haven't gotten up this early in a week and I feel it... I think it was good to get a bit more sleep, but I definitely prefer getting up before everyone else and starting my day in peace. And then going to bed early.
Shinesalot had her baby Tuesday morning and I realize once again how lucky we were that she was here when Chewie was born... I have been going crazy being so far away.
On a related note there is a Clutch concert in NYC the day my SIL is due. Wouldn't it be lovely if we could be down there and see the concert and the baby in the same weekend? Would it be even more lovely if Chewie is sleeping the night by then?? Cross your fingers for me.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Buzz
A week or so ago we noticed a lot of yellow jackets flying around outside our front kitchen window. Vader investigated and saw that they were all going down underneath the siding at the house's floor level. He sprayed and sprayed and then I started finding them IN the kitchen. I went downstairs to the basement. The basement is in two sections--one is our finished office and kids' playroom directly below the kitchen. The other is the "basement-basement" that is unfinished. I went to the office and in the area that the we thought the yellow jackets were in I saw a tiny hole in the ceiling. I showed Vader who told me that it had always been there. I never look up. Anyway, it had always been there but it looked a little tampered with. So he went to the adjacent basement and was able to look in between the beams of the house, between the ceiling of the office and the floor of the kitchen. And way down at the front of the house he saw mud and yellow jackets. Knowing there was no way he could get down there to really spray he accepted the fact that we had to call an exterminator.
On Tuesday we had an exterminator come out who guessed it was a pretty large nest and set up an appt. for Friday. They were supposed to come between 1 & 4 on Friday and they would have to cut out the sheet rock in the office ceiling in order to get the nest and remove it.
Yesterday morning while at Chewie's checkup, just as she was about to get her shots, my cell rings. Vader tells me that the yellow jackets broke through the sheet rock in the ceiling and had now infiltrated the office in large numbers instead of the few that had managed to find their way through the vent to get to the kitchen over the last week. He was going to go to home depot and didn't want us to go to the office. We got home around 12 and Vader was on his way home from the depot. I was just getting everybody settled in the house and was going to make a quick lunch when the exterminators showed up early. I went out to meet them and explained the different situation now. They came inside and I showed them the office door. One of them opened it and there was a yellow jacket right there. He told me to go in the kitchen with the kids and he went down to see. He didn't get far when he came back up and said there were LOTS of them. We had to leave the house for 2-4 hours. So as soon as Vader got back the kids and I left, again, and he went out on the deck with the dogs.
We went to Burger King and planned to eat at the park when I realized I left my cell phone at home in the rush to get out. Joy. I wanted to be near a phone. So we decided to go to my MIL's house because she was in North Carolina. My new key for her house didn't work. We ate BK on her front steps while I nursed Chewie who was irritated at the shots and life in general. The Princess tells me she has to pee. I get out the travel potty that I luckily had in the car and she sat on it and proceeded to do a huge dump. I'm sure the neighbor's were watching through their windows--I would have been--but I didn't care at that point. My MIL's outside garbage now has burger king bags and a bag of pee and poop. I took the kids to the library and had an awful feeling of deja vu--being stuck there and counting the minutes until 5 pm. ;-)
The Princess asked to go home, everyone was cranky, aside for the brief 30 mins we were home we had been gone since 8:30 am. I called for a pizza and we went to pick it up. The Princess fell asleep in the car. Chewie was sleeping/crying. I considered leaving them in the car while I went inside to get the pizza but SkyWalker refused and said someone would take them all. Not bloody likely with the way they were behaving that day! So I picked up the sleeping Princess and Chewie in the carrier and SkyWalker held the door open for me and we went and got our pizza and the guy brought it out to the car without being asked. We got home shortly after 5 and ate on the deck since the guys said we shouldn't go inside until 7. They had to spray so much.
It took them 4 or 5 times to spray before they could even get close to where the nest was in the office ceiling. The nest didn't fall through, the yellow jackets themselves just ate a hole or whatever through the damn sheet rock. They cut out a huge section of the sheet rock because the nest was HUGE. They showed Vader the larva in the nest and we would have had even more! There were at least 1000 yellow jackets there. Vader spent last night with the shop vac and the steam mop vacuuming up the dead yellow jackets. We now have to clean all the kids toys and anything we can. He took pictures but I can only upload them on the desktop in the office and I'm not going there until the smell is completely gone.
We were very lucky that A) Vader was home and not in Rochester. B) We were home and not on LI like we will be next week and were just 2 weeks ago. C) Even though the exterminators were scheduled at 1 Vader left work at 10 and was home to wait for them--instead of us getting home from the doc at noon and SkyWalker and the Princess going to the office like they normally do. So many things could have been so much worse. None of us, dogs included, got stung at all. It was a long irritating day but much better than being in the ER because the kids had gotten swarmed.
Pictures will follow as soon as I can.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
The Princess and the pee, part 2
The Princess had her ultrasound yesterday and her ureter looks a lot less swollen than it did, her kidney looks fine, and everything is working. We're on the right "track" but we'll be continuing the meds for at least another 6 months. I'm disappointed about that but the last thing we need right now is another UTI. And potty training girls tend to get UTIs. While it's a nuisance for them, it's really bad for the Princess. Because she is potty training she was able to pee in the "hat" in the toilet and give them a sample. The doc was happy about that. Her urine is clear and that's great.
Speaking of potty training, we almost had an accident free day yesterday. Her only accident was when we were coming in from outside. She had wanted to pee in the grass since Daddy had her do that but it just wasn't working with Mommy. By the time we got inside and negotiated sitting on the potty she told me she was going in her underwear.
The exterminator came yesterday for our yellow jacket problem. They're coming back on Friday and will take out some sheet rock to get rid of the HUGE nest in the wall and then patch it up. It is not cheap. But it is cheaper than what they quoted us because my husband refused to do it otherwise. I just want them out of my house.
It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday, just like Monday. They went outside a little bit with Daddy. I'm sure the days that we do not have doc visits will rain. We've used the pool twice? Three times maybe? It's rained so much or we're out when it's nice. The sun really needs to coordinate with our schedule.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Blither blather
People who read this blog, and there are some, must think I am completely bipolar. It's either how great everything is... or how sucky everything is. The fact is most days are neither. Most of our days are made up of tiny happy moments and tiny stressed out moments. These days I feel no strong compulsion to blog. I don't find it necessary to say we had an okay day or to update on the minutia of my life ... that's what twitter is for. Do you really need to know that at this moment I am finger combing my hair and don't know for sure what this sticky stuff is but could guess that somebody spit up on me? Yuck.
We all went to the dentist today and for the first time SkyWalker opened up and let the hygenist clean his teeth and let the dentist look at them. I was so relieved. He needed a form for kindergarten and this was the 3rd or 4th time we were trying the dentist! The first few times he cried and screamed. The Princess also let the hygenist count her teeth and look at them.
Tomorrow morning we have an exterminator coming to hopefully get rid of our yellow jacket problem. They've made themselves an entrance to our house and have done a bit of damage to the wall. Good times. We also go to the Princess's ultrasound tomorrow where we will hopefully hear that her insides are all fixed and she will not need antibiotics again. Because it's getting a bit old and she's getting a bit too used to having medication every day.
I have a sinkful of dishes and baskets of laundry and I would like to just sit on the couch with a bowl of cheese doodles and watch some mindless TV. Dog barking and baby screaming can take a toll on me. I can deal with baby crying... but baby screaming is different. Chewie goes from fine to SCREAM in about 2 seconds. I actually started watching her eyes today to make sure she was looking at things... I thought maybe she couldn't see. But she looks at us and smiles at us and I think she is just very vocal and has very little tolerance for whatever she doesn't like. Maybe she thinks she's got to scream the loudest to be heard. In any event it is irritating. She doesn't cry all day, she doesn't cry for hours, she's not colicky, but when she screams, even for a moment, it pierces my soul. She has her 2 month check up on Friday so we'll make sure that everything is A-Okay.
Vader is on vacation in a couple of weeks and I can't wait. I'm sure he's got some type of project in the back of his head but instead he'll be taking us to a semi-local animal preserve and maybe mini-golfing or bowling or whatever his children want to do to have fun. Although Daddy's idea of fun is sitting home and watching Wipeout (admittedly that is funny), his children like to go places. And do things. And in a strange turn of events their mama is starting to like it as well.
I've put the dishes off as long as I can... Vader will be home... some time... and I'd rather he not see me sitting on my butt in front of the computer when I have dishes and laundry and things to do. Which is silly since he always sits on his butt in front of the computer with dishes in the sink. When I've been feeding a baby for what seems like hours. Ah well...
Nutshell
I know. It's been a while. Been very busy. Have 3 kids ya know. Potty training is time consuming. Behavior training. Sleep training. Lots of training going on. And I can't blog on my iPod touch which is what I'm usually on in the middle of the night when I'm feeding Chewie. Much easier to facebook and twitter with that...
Been doing really well getting up early. Chewie's sleeping a bit better and now I'm just trying to adjust her big stretch to be when I want it to be. The good behavior jar seems to be working. SkyWalker has filled his once so far and was so proud. The Princess is not as easy to potty train as I thought she would be. Even though she can hold it in for hours and is dry after her nap every day, she will just as easily pee her underwear. If I bring her to the potty all day and she cooperates we're okay, but if she doesn't want to sit we're in trouble. Yesterday was the first day she stopped herself and told me she had to pee and we made it there. So that's progress.
And that's pretty much it in a nutshell.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things
The past few days have not been very good in the Jedi house. I've come to expect Mondays to be extremely difficult, but when it hits on other days it's somehow harder. SkyWalker has been doing his best to get my attention by being a wild crazy naughty boy. He did the same after the Princess was born but I attributed it to other things. He's still very affectionate and wonderful with his sisters, but he's taking it out on me. He's doing bad things, I yell and yell and yell, he laughs when he's in time out and completely disrespects me. I don't have enough time/mental power to devote to him, Vader has worked late every day and has taken work home and has spent VERY little time with us, he doesn't have preschool anymore. There are so many reasons, but in reality these are just excuses. When it comes down to it he's treating me the way he is because I am allowing it. I have somehow lost my way. Somewhere in the lack of sleep and the desperation that comes with fitting a newborn into our lives, I have given up. I've become the nagging cajoling "don't do that again!" mother who is not listened to and is instead laughed at. It's particularly hard when I know that he is such a good boy and this is just not normal for him. He needs structure and I haven't been giving it.
But that's all over.
We hit rock-bottom (I hope) on Tuesday when lots of tears from multiple people were shed. Wednesday morning I had a bit of an epiphany thanks to MetroDad (who you really should be reading if you don't already) and then spent a lovely 2 hours at the beach with friends, watching my children play with my mother's helper and being so good, and listening to Chewie snore in the baby bjorn instead of scream, and I realized what I have to do.
I have to get myself back. If I think for a second that I can't do this--that I can't parent 3 children--that I can't parent a 4 1/2 year old--then he's going to feel it and freak out. He needs reassurance that yes, Mommy actually is in charge, even if he claims otherwise. I've already implemented some new tactics, both philosophical and um, practical, for lack of a better word. In the interest of brevity (ha ha) and because I like lists:
1. Good behavior jar-- I have two little jars (I believe they once held chicken bouillon cubes in them), one for each child. It's mostly for SkyWalker, but the Princess wanted one too and it's good for her as well. When they do something good they get a bead in the jar. When the jar is full they will get a chance to pick a ticket out of another jar for a reward--special treat, alone time with Mommy, extra TV. I'm not specifying what they have to do to be good--my neighbor is doing this but with specific behaviors--not getting out of bed, not hitting, etc--but I really want to focus on overall behavior. Bringing his dishes to the sink gets a bead. Doing something nice for his sister gets a bead. Sharing. The number one thing is listening and doing something the FIRST time I say it. That is ultimately what I'm trying to get to. I'm doing the random reward so that he doesn't just always choose M&Ms. We started for real yesterday and he has over 15 beads already.
2. Ignore the bad--I really need to focus on the GOOD behavior and ignore the bad. I cannot reinforce it by yelling and repeating myself 20 times. Time out doesn't work for him anymore. Threats don't work. He's looking for attention, I have to give it to him for being good, not for being bad. Even if what he is doing is terribly embarrassing or annoying or he's been told a million times not to do it, I have to not react. Yelling is the worst thing to do. I have to just say "Please don't do that" and then walk away.
3. Solitude-- I get up at 5/5:30 every morning so that I can have some me time. I have to continue that but I also have to make sure it's ME time. It's not enough to have physical solitude because they are sleeping. I need to have mental solitude as well. That means instead of reading babycenter message boards or researching 6 week growth spurts or potty training or whatever, I need to do something not kid-related at all. My goal in getting up so early is to start the day with a clear head but I really haven't been doing it. So from now on when I get up after I eat breakfast and check my e-mail (I can't give that up), I need to sit on the couch and read a book. That's the only way I ever truly get out of my own head. I need to be engrossed in a book and just relax with a hot cup of tea. No exercise, no cleaning. No pressure. Just some nice quiet solitude.
4. Quiet time/nap time--I had wanted to do the treadmill in the morning once Chewie is upstairs in her own room, but I don't think I will now. I think I will aim for doing it in the middle of the day when I need that pick me up. I'll shoot for 3 days a week, but once again, no pressure. Some days I will have other stuff to do and that's okay. I don't need to lose 50 pounds, I just want to be healthier in general and have more activity than before.
5. Leave the crazy behind--our really rough time is after nap and before dinner. When we're really having a hard time I need to change the scenery. Put Chewie in the baby bjorn if she's awake and take them all outside, or to the library, or to a park or call up a friend. Some of this may also be SkyWalker getting bored and needing to burn off steam. I need to give him the opportunity to do so. We have to get outside and if that means dirty dishes and unfolded laundry then oh well. I need to get back on track with my kid and that's more important right now.
I have just yawned 3 times in the last minute and I think that's my cue. Getting up at 5 am for my solitude is important, but so is going to sleep early!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Monday Monday
It is 8 pm and all of my children are sleeping. This would not have been shocking 7 weeks ago, but today it is. Perhaps it was because Chewie got all of her screaming out between the hours of 5-7 that she was able to fall asleep nicely tonight. The other two were upstairs in their beds at 7. Yeah. 7. It's Monday.
Mondays are always so hard for us. Vader goes back to work. He goes food shopping after work. The jedi and I are left alone all day long and by the end of the day we are not very nice. Today was better than most--we had a playdate this morning with a mom & toddler we had never met and both of my children were nice and sociable and well, normal, and that started the day out well. I managed to use the treadmill during nap/quiet time and did a whole mile. It took me a whole 17 minutes to do that mile, but hey, that's more than I've done before. And I ran some of it again. Just to see if I could. Not a lot and not fast because I'm really *not* a runner. I am lucky I can put my feet in front of one another just to walk. Anyway, I got a total of 20 minutes on the treadmill and that was good. After that it all kind of went downhill. Chewie started screaming, woke up the Princess, SkyWalker left quiet time after less than an hour. They all bugged me. Chewie needed another nap as I was making dinner but cried off and on through most of it. SkyWalker mashed up his hot dog and vegetables instead of eating them and the Princess quickly followed suit. When I was feeding Chewie right after dinner the other two were messing around in my bedroom and ran out with Chewie's pacifier--the Princess has been stealing them for weeks now--but what really annoyed me was that they went under the bed with it and probably got it all dirty so I now have to sanitize it. Again. And once again SkyWalker just went NUTS and refused to listen. At all. I put Chewie down when she was done and dragged SkyWalker up the stairs (yes literally) and threw him on his bed (once again more for his attitude and behavior towards me than for anything else) and told him he was going to bed. He laughed and then realized I was serious and started crying. Chewie was screaming by that point so I got her and the Princess, gave them a bath together while SkyWalker asked "Am I going to get a bath?" I completely ignored him. Completely. He didn't listen to me, I didn't listen to him. The Princess answered him "No, you're not" (yes that is a direct quote). It seemed to finally sink in and he started to speak in a more calm and respectful manner and we all read books together before bed at 7.
I think he is getting bored to a certain extent--while Chewie is doing a basic routine, it's not quite as predictable as it will eventually be. Sometimes she wakes up early and that throws things off. Particularly if she wakes up because of sibling noise and then gets overtired. I've been giving her the first nap in her swing in the kitchen but I think I need to move her to the crib so she starts the day out with an uninterrupted nap. If she gets overtired from the get-go, we're in for a crappy day. Anyway, so because I am often tied to Chewie's needs, I can't just drop everything and do whatever SkyWalker wants me to do. And even though we had a playdate and spent time outside this morning I guess it just wasn't enough. I'm actually thinking of scheduling some after-nap playdates since that seems to be the worst time for us.
We have a busy week ahead of us and I'm hoping to tire them all out into behaving! The Princess is so ready to be potty trained but we're going to LI soon and she has her next ultrasound the first week in August so I think I should wait before I take the diapers away. But she is so ready. Potty training with pull-ups is just not the same. SkyWalker continues to stay dry--we continue to have dinner before 6--and have Daddy help him pee at 10. It would be so nice to just have one baby in diapers. Although the Princess will be in them at night for a while. Actually, who knows with her? She's always surprising me.
I should really go to bed now but I'm kind of waiting for Vader to get home. I have a hankering for an ice cream sandwich. I have to replenish the calories I burned running/walking on the treadmill.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Walking on sunshine
I'm not sure how much time I will have. So rather than the long-winded blathering paragraphs you are used to, I'm going with the lists. I'm not sure if blathering is a word but I'm going to continue to use it because I'm a grammatical rebel.
I love:
1. that my son has been dry 5 nights in a row now. Vader gets him up at 10 and that's it. The difference? I've made sure we eat dinner before 6:30, preferably before 6, even if that means we're already eating when Daddy gets home.
2. that my youngest just fell asleep with her arm out of the swaddle. Perhaps she won't get as addicted as her older sister did.
3. fun relaxing playdates with no drama.
4. that I have become someone who looks forward to and enjoys playdates and can honestly say I have friends who are not just on the internet.
5. that I am becoming a morning person and getting up at 5/5:30 every day.
6. that all 3 of my children are upstairs and I am not.
7. that I reorganized my tupperware and glassware cabinets and pots and pans cupboards.
8. that I am wearing my skinny shorts and have not done any regular exercise yet. I know. I just lost all my friends.
9. that the sun is shining and the sky is blue.
10. that SkyWalker and the Princess both sang Twinkle Little Star to Chewie at naptime.
And now I'm going to do something productive for the rest of my nap/quiet time. (No, Mama doesn't nap. What's the fun in that?)
Friday, July 3, 2009
Embracing
The Princess is embracing being a 2 year old. Quite well. One minute she is all smiles and amazingly cute and clever. The next minute she is having an all-out breakdown because of a shoe. Or some minor thing that is the end of the world to her. Sometimes I have no clue. It's been great fun. Really.
I have been embracing the insanity. Really. Examples of my recent insanity: 1) I am thinking, seriously thinking, that I can avoid the baby jar route when Chewie starts eating solids and that I can just puree my own. I was afraid I couldn't because all we eat are frozen vegetables, but guess what? Unless you're getting fresh vegetables from your own yard or from the farmer down the road, frozen is actually BETTER for you. Amazing. I no longer have to feel guilty about giving my kids frozen peas. Anyway, so I can totally use frozen vegetables and puree them for Chewie. This is insane because it goes against my true laziness and why would you start with the 3rd kid?? But it's cheaper... we already have the frozen veggies and I really don't want to have to go to Price Chopper to get the jars because Wal-Mart (where Vader does the food shopping) doesn't carry a good selection of Beech-Nut and that's what I prefer. 2) I am also seriously thinking about starting potty training--no more diapers training--with the Princess soon. I potty trained SkyWalker when the Princess was just 3-4 weeks old and it was the hardest craziest week ever. And here I am thinking of doing it again. Insane. But the Princess is further along than he ever was... it speaks to her "I do it!" attitude right now... and I'm stuck at home most of the time now anyway. I might as well right? Insane. 3) We went to a local farm stand and got some strawberries and the Princess picked up a tomato. Damnit if it isn't the best tomato I've had in a long time. So much better than the store-bought tomatoes. So now I am thinking that I should grow my own damn tomatoes. A) I am lazy. B) I know nothing about this stuff and C) I don't even like doing stuff like that. Who am I? Insane!! Although I did see some infomercial for a tomato growing device that you can hang upside down on your patio. Looked easy enough.
I will be 34 in just a few days. I'm not quite sure how this happened. I swear I'm still 18. Besides that whole 3 kids thing, I really don't feel like I'm in my 30s now. And I'm IN them. Almost in the middle of them. I don't think I like that. It's funny, you spend so much time when you're a kid wanting to speed up your life, wanting to be older, to just get on with it. And then one day you wake up and you're in your damn 30s and you think how the hell did that happen? And you want to pause time, stop it, enjoy every moment. Because you know every year, every day, every moment is just one more closer to, well, you know. And who the hell wants to be closer to that?
On a lighter note, if you're interested in books you should read my book blog. And if you have a google account you should follow me. I've always thought more people should follow me.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Ramble On
It's funny, when your time is split into 2-3 hour chunks it goes amazingly fast. I close my eyes and it's a week later. We've been working really hard on our routine. And by we I mean me. Chewie has been on EASY (the baby whisperer) since I brought her home--I nursed her, changed her diaper to wake her up a little, and then put her down to sleep. Eat, Activity, Sleep. The Y is supposed to be You time, but with 2 older kids there is no You time. She's starting to be awake longer... and thus is now able to get overtired and then have to scream herself to sleep. Joy. In addition to the sudden and random blood curdling screams brought on by gas, she also enjoys crying in her sleep. I am so glad I got that video monitor because I would think that the Princess was sitting on top of her. Oh no. She's completely asleep. Crying. I do think she's been overtired and that I've been misreading her cues a bit and feeding her when she just needs to sleep. Ah well, tomorrow is a new day. She'll be a month old tomorrow and all things considered she's doing really well. I do remember with the Princess that I thought she would never go longer at night and settle into a routine, but she did her first 7 hour stretch at 7 weeks old, followed shortly thereafter by ALL night long. So I have hope.
My routine has pretty much remained the same. I get up at 5:30 every morning. Pump, eat, check the internets, shower if I can, sometimes do laundry, and enjoy the quiet. Lately the quiet has been interrupted by either a crying Chewie or a wandering SkyWalker who says that 6:45 is "close enough" to 7. I hope to add some treadmill time in the morning as soon as Chewie is sleeping upstairs in her crib. It's one thing for me to leave her in the co-sleeper while I'm in the kitchen and the dogs are still sleeping in our room, but I don't want to go downstairs and be too far away (the co-sleeper is attached to our bed with one of the sides off so that I can "roll over," and pick her up to nurse her. But I discovered I can attach the 4th side while it's still attached to our bed so it functions as a bassinet. It's safer for me to leave the room.)
It is almost my bedtime. It is also almost my birthday. My son thinks I need a bicycle for my birthday.
I am fading fast right now so I leave you with this: I frequently tell SkyWalker that he needs to eat his meat and vegetables if he wants to grow big. Whenever he's eating or drinking something he'll ask if that will help him grow big. He really doesn't eat a lot of meat so I'm constantly telling him that's what he needs. At bedtime tonight we were all in the girls' room and I was feeding Chewie, as usual, Vader was teaching the Princess how to do math on her fingers, and SkyWalker was sitting on the floor with me. He asked me what tomorrow is and I told him that Chewie was going to be 1 month old tomorrow. He asked if she was going to get bigger and I said that she was getting bigger everyday. And he said "from your breastmilk and meat. Your meat milk. Haha. The meat in your milk. Haha."
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
3 weeks
Chewie is 3 weeks old today. She has discovered how to cry, quite loudly, as well as the joys of gas. Her little legs held rigid, her face purple, she screams with a painful rage whether she is awake or asleep, and then is fine and you'd swear she had been quiet the whole time. I hope this phase will pass quickly (ha, I said pass. Like pass gas. Ha!) because it is irritating as hell. She did manage to poop this morning and she rip a few with no fanfare so maybe it is passing.
We're getting into a routine during the day. Well, we've been on one since we got home but it mostly consisted of me feeding her constantly, changing her diaper in an attempt to wake her a bit, and then her sleeping. Now she's going a little longer between feeds and has a bit more awake time before her naps. She's also not falling asleep as easily though since she is more awake, so I'm going to have to start doing more than just putting her down. But she's napping in her crib which is something the Princess refused to do this early and she's fallen asleep on her own plenty of times. I think the last couple of days she's been getting very overtired because of the gas waking her up and interrupted her bedtime sleep and her naps. And siblings who like to run around the house playing music band. But mostly I think it's the gas.
We had someone come over yesterday as a mother's helper and it was great. She's the daughter of someone my BFF knows and is very good with kids. As soon as she got here I sent her outside with the 2 stir-crazy children. Although they both hid under the kitchen table when she got here, it was in silliness not shyness. They both willingly went outside and I could hear SkyWalker tell her all about his preschool kids that are going to kindergarten with him. He was not shy at all. It was amazing since he's never met her! And if he's comfortable with someone, the Princess is, so she was fine. It worked out really well. When she left she said something about SkyWalker really liking to talk and I just had to laugh. I can't believe this is the boy who hid in the bathroom at our first playdate. It really makes me feel like everything I've done (mom's group) has had an effect. And the added bonus is that the Princess seeing him comfortable with people will hopefully prevent her from becoming painfully shy too. Of course now that's he's going to kindergarten we've been telling him about strangers and who he can and can't talk to. It's funny--didn't have to worry about that before because he didn't talk to anyone!
The Princess was up a lot last night. My poor mother took care of her before Vader could get upstairs. I don't know what her problem was and hope she's not getting sick. Chewie was up every couple of hours but she was just up to nurse and then right back to sleep, no in between painful gas crying, so it wasn't that bad. And I'm pretty sure SkyWalker peed the bed again and I'm pretty sure my mother (who is sleeping in his room) dealt with that too. He's had some dry nights so I know he can do it. We went to Denny's for dinner though and it was later than normal and he drank a boatload of milk. I should have had Vader go up and have him pee twice last night. Oh well.
I took all the jedi to the train station yesterday to pick up Nana. It was the first time I had the three of them myself. It was also the first time I drove in 3 weeks. I had to remember what to do. It always feels so weird when I don't drive at all for a few weeks. I obviously don't forget how to drive, but it just feels weird.
And with that the dogs have woken Chewie. So much for my peaceful time.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Mishmash of random unrelated things
I'm happy to say that nobody's milk was spoiled. We had to throw out some chicken, but you all know I'm not crying about that (I hates the chicken, I do). Vader and I were able to pull off the back wall in the fridge, blow dry some ice away, and we now have a working fridge. I ordered a $20 part on the internets and hopefully we'll get it soon and we can prevent this from happening again. So much better than needing to buy a new fridge. I do think we will get a freezer though. We have a lot of frozen stuff--chicken nuggets and fish sticks for the kids, frozen vegetables, pizza, etc. And when I make spaghetti sauce and turkey balls I like to make more than we need and freeze the rest. Same with turkey meatloaf. It would be nice to have more space to do things like that.
I also need to get a new steam mop. Less than a year ago I got the Shark Steam Mop. I knew people who had it, I did the research and read the reviews. It worked great on my bathroom floors and was so much easier than anything else for getting little boy pee off the floor. I loved it. And then it stopped working. It just won't steam and that's a pretty crucial part of the whole process. I tried running vinegar through it to clean out any accumulated deposits. I tried that CLR stuff. Nothing works. I decided I'm done with it and I'm giving it to my sister--so she can try and get the handle off and put it on her Shark mop. Because her mop, that she had for less than a year, is also broken. The handle just snapped right off. We spent $80 for this! And what will customer service do? We can pay to ship it to them and they'll fix it or send a new one and I'm sure we can pay for that shipping too. Screw that. For $80 this thing should be working right and if it doesn't I should get a free replacement. So I am now in the market for a new, different, steam mop that will let me clean the bathroom floors quickly and easily. If anyone has any recommendations I would love to hear them.
Vader goes back to work tomorrow. I'm not quite ready for that. And not only is he going back to work, but because he was so busy before and then he took 2 1/2 weeks off, he will be working late every day this week. Luckily my mother is coming on Tuesday and staying for the rest of the week. Otherwise I would have some stinky kids. I don't know how I would give all 3 a bath! Maybe he'll be home in time for that though. In any event, we've all gotten used to Daddy being home and although he has done a lot of outside stuff he's brought both SkyWalker and the Princess with him which has been very nice for me and for them. The Princess especially has really enjoyed having some Daddy time. Hopefully my mother will be enough of a distraction for SkyWalker and he won't miss Daddy too much. I'm not thinking about next week yet. I do have someone coming over on Tuesday morning who is a potential mother's helper. I don't have the cash to have someone everyday, but once a week would be nice. And when we go to the beach. If it ever stops raining.
I think I decided to go with Chewie as a blog nickname for the newest member of our family. It actually makes sense for reasons I shall not disclose. Chewie has been doing well, she's up to 6 pounds now and is nursing well. She's been getting more vocal, particularly in the middle of the night. The other night she had really bad gas and when she wasn't nursing she was screaming so we were up all night. I did not get up at 5:30 yesterday. I took her temp when we did get up just in case because I am now paranoid mama after the Princess and her kidney problems. Her temp was fine and she did a big poop shortly thereafter, which was another reason I took her temperature. Never underestimate the power of a thermometer up the ass. She did much better last night and actually did a 3 hour stretch (she hasn't been going more than 2 hours lately) and then she started crying again. She pooped a couple of times, the loud explosive kind, so hopefully she's getting it out and tonight will be better. I remember when SkyWalker had problems as a baby he would always want to nurse all night long until he finally got it all out. And the Princess would always have her big poops in the middle of the night.
It is wet and raining again, as it's done all week. This is sucky, BUT the rain meant that Vader did not have to water the trees so that was good. And it's filling up our pool, albeit slowly. We're trying to fill up the pool without emptying our well. Our water is so messed up--with the sulfur and the clay--that have two filters on it. The chlorine filter takes care of the sulfur and works immediately, but the clay is different. That filter uses something called F-86, some chemical and it mixes with the water in a big tank and makes the clay settle at the bottom. It takes time to work. If you take a lot of water out of the system it doesn't have the time to do its job. And then the water gets all cloudy and dark. Which is how our toilets looked on Thursday when we started filling up the pool. This is why I wanted Vader to do it in May so we'd have more time to get it done and balanced and could enjoy it for the summer. Although with all this rain we wouldn't be using this week anyway.
The dogs went to the vet the other day to get their outstanding shots. Isaac has been doing okay with his leg. It's clear that it's not exactly right, but he has some days that he doesn't limp at all. We've been giving him an arthritis vitamin every day and that might actually be helping. Vader mentioned the leg to the vet tech, but the actual vet didn't even say anything about it. So unless he takes a turn for the worse I think we have avoided surgery. It doesn't make sense to do it when he can still function and run and doesn't seem to be in any pain. We have a new shampoo for him to try to help his itchiness. And he apparently has a consistent low-grade yeast infection in his ears. Vader cleans his ears constantly. The next time he starts scratching and head shaking again we're just going to shove some monistat in his ear. Haze, of course, has no problems but has put on some weight. She is now over 60 pounds and Isaac is over 70.
And I should get off the internets and do something productive for my last 30 minutes of freedom.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Somebody's milk is going to spoil
I've been seriously considering getting a separate freezer not just for my accumulating breastmilk but also so we can stock up on things that we eat all the time. There are 5 of us now, with plans for another, and the freezer in our fridge is not really all that big (it's a side by side fridge). The freezers are not that cheap if we want a good one that will hold more than just a few things, but I think it would be worth it in the long run. So I've been researching them. Can anyone guess where this story will end? I will give you a hint, the old me would think the universe was plotting against us. Now, I just think it's funny. Irritating as all hell, but funny.
Our fridge isn't working.
We heard a clicking noise a couple of weeks ago but it went away. The last couple of days I noticed that things aren't as cold. We have about 3 gallons of milk there. Gah. I looked it up online since we have no manual (fridge came with the house) and because there is also some frost on the freezer side it looks like one of the defrost things may not be working. So we'll have to take everything out of the freezer, open up the back wall, get to the coils and if there's ice we'll have to melt it/dry it with a hair dryer. I don't know if that will solve the problem or just be a quick fix until we can get something else.
How funny is that I'm looking to spend money on a freezer and at the same time the fridge decides to die?? I'm not quite sure we'd have the money to buy both a new fridge and freezer. Unless maybe we can get some kind of deal for buying two together? Hopefully we can fix the fridge before all the food goes bad, and do it quick enough that the frozen stuff (like my breastmilk) doesn't go bad too. Should be fun! It'll be a race to see who's milk will spoil first!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)