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July 31, 2008
Want a cat?
A friend of mine one time thought by whining about the discomforts of pregnancy she wasn't being fully appreciative of the baby she was carrying. I assured her that she had the right to complain about aching hips, etc. no matter how much she loved her baby. So if I gave her the right to complain, I'm going to give it to myself as well.
This is hard. I had seen mothers with their young children before, and was amazed at the huge energy output they had to give, but I still don't think I realized it would be this hard. One friend, a single, working mother of two toddlers, really wanted to learn to crochet, but said she didn't have time. I didn't understand. Now I think I should have gone to her house & mopped her floors. If you know any single, working mothers, feel free to take that as a suggestion.
To start with, that whole sleeping thru the night thing is just a myth. I'm aggravated at so many people urging me to teach her how and giving me the false hope that it would actually happen on a regular basis. I would much rather they had just told me that toddlers are ALWAYS either teething or fighting a cold & to just learn to deal with the sleep interruptions.
Some aspects I handle quite well. I'm ok with not being able to crochet, knit or read while she's awake. If she's awake, I consider it my job to watch her anyway. I deal with having to take baths rather than showers pretty well. I've never complained about changing diapers, feedings, baths, etc., or even wanted to complain about those things.
But what I don't handle well is doing something I don't particularly enjoy anyway while she is making it harder. For example, my tub just really needed to be cleaned yesterday. The entire task was done with her trying to climb on my back, trying to climb into the tub, and pulling my pants down or my top up. When I moved to cleaning the toilet, I had to literally hold her back with one arm while I cleaned with the other. For whatever reason, she didn't want me to vacuum either, so I was carrying her in my left arm while trying to vacuum with my right - using my foot to kick chairs & other objects out of my way. Until, that is, the power went out, at which point I just gave up. I decided maybe it would be good to get out of the house so I ran some errands. I made the unfortunate decision to let her walk from the car to the store. I say unfortunate because after the freedom of walking all that way, she was utterly pissed to be then confined to a shopping cart & screamed her way thru the whole store. You'll be glad to know that after after all the screaming she did as a baby, I've completely gotten over the embarrassment of a screaming kid. I don't even know if people were looking at us or not, 'cause I just really didn't give a flip.
And I have to admit to being just a bit scared. Baby Center describes this at the "honeymoon" period of childhood. Before things get "difficult" as they turn 2 & 3. How much harder is it going to get!?
Since I'd had such a hard day, and on such little sleep, I decided to go to bed early last night. It was about 9:30 & those covers felt so good! Until, that is, my leg bumped into the cat vomit. If you are interested in owning a cat, I have 4 that have been fixed & de-clawed. Come get 'em.
Posted by Wifeepoo at 6:03 AM | Comments (1)
July 29, 2008
See my new toy
My friend just e-mailed me this picture from Mandy's birthday party & I just had to post it. She was so excited to receive each toy that she showed them off & offered them to people - so cute!
Posted by Wifeepoo at 7:23 PM | Comments (1)
July 24, 2008
Coming out from under my rock
Maybe you all know about this - maybe I've been self absorbed, or just live under a rock, but apparently Chattanooga is getting a new abortion clinic. We've long prided ourselves on being the largest city in the country without one.
I know abortions are going to happen whether we have a clinic here or not. The 2 hour drive to Knoxville isn't going to stop anyone who is determined, but this saddens me.
According to the vote on WRCB's website, 74% of us are against this. Seems there should be some way of letting the majority rule and stop it. I've never been very political and I certainly would never consider myself an activist, but if I knew how, I would certainly get involved in this.
Posted by Wifeepoo at 7:52 PM | Comments (3)
Catch up
I realize my posts have slowed to a crawl in recent months. The very same-ness of every day doesn't lend to many interesting stories. Luckily, we don't need much entertainment around here & are quite content to watch her steal the dog's ball and run away as quickly as she can, giggling. The dog, of course, doesn't find this quite as entertaining. She's even smart enough to trick him into dropping the ball by distracting him with another toy. Pretty impressive if you ask me.
We did go to the gastroenterologists who talked us into trying beef. I did it just to prove to him that I knew what I was talking about, and she did have the expected reaction. He was also eager to try her on cow's milk. As much as I'd love to get out from under the $30 per half-can formula, I'm shaking my head at the very suggestion. I can't help but have the feeling that he just doesn't get it. He's also wanting us to see an allergist, but tells me food allergies are very hard to test for in babies under 2 1/2 - says the test will frequently give a false negative for something they are actually allergic to. Then what's the point? The good news is that she is growing very well even on her limited diet.
I finally got around to getting her one-year pictures done this week. That was so hard it was comical. I really wanted one of her standing up, but a standing up Mandy is a mobile Mandy. We spent about 30 minutes leading her to the spot we wanted her, but she didn't even pause over it as she went toddling off to her next point of interest. I was about to pack it in & just go home already when another person came to help. We abandoned the standing up pose and managed to get some outstanding shots of her sitting down. For all our efforts, we really did get some great shots. You'll see on 08/05 when I get them back.
On a couple of personal notes, my ex-husband used to have a sweet comment for when I'd make a mistake for the second time. That comment was "even rats learn from negative reinforcement." Alas, it is applicable as I recently allowed my mother-in-law to give me a perm. I know she leans toward really small curls. In fact, we usually have a mini argument before every perm in which she's telling me there's no point in doing it if I'm going to use the giant rods I've picked out & I'm trying to convince her that they will in fact give me the body and wave I'm looking for. We did not have this argument this time and that should have been my first clue. I have an afro. A very tight one. If I brush it continuously while blowing it dry, and if I pull a curling iron through every strand very slowly, I can get it to look like a smooth football helmet. It will hold this shape for a couple of hours before reverting back to the afro, if and only if, the weather is not humid or it doesn't get wet, at which point it reverts almost immediately. The whole rat & negative reinforcement thing? This is the second time this has happened. Sigh.
I'm also getting eager to finish my degree, but I'm running into some frustrations. I checked into some online degrees, but I'd have to sell my left kidney to fund it. One wanted $427 per credit hour. My boss went to a private Christian college & his tuition was less than that. Another wouldn't even give me the tuition per credit hour - gave me a per semester rate that included the computer equipment I would need. I tried explaining that I probably had whatever computer equipment they would require, but that didn't get me anywhere. The sum of his degree would be $41,000 - for an ASSOCIATES degree! Either they are idiots or they think I am. Deciding I needed to stick with Chattanooga State, I remembered a daycare on site. How sweet would that be to drop her off, take my class & pick her back up. Nope. You can do that, of course, but you have to pay for the whole month at over $600. What a fantastic opportunity they are missing to actually be of service to their students. So I can't afford an online education and I don't know how I'm going to manage going to a physical classroom. I'll figure it out soon.
Work on the house has halted until our financial situation improves. Mike did repair our current gutters. They are still brown, but at least they are no longer held up with a highchair and a board. Other than the gutters, all we really need to do is paint a bunch of stuff anyway. And my amazing husband is going out of his way to get all the overtime he can while not uttering a single complaint over me spending most of my time caring for the baby and the house. Some days I'm just overwhelmed at the blessing that is her. To just have an hour to snuggle with her while she watches her morning shows is a moment so sweet as to almost bring tears. I remind myself constantly how blessed I am for these moments. Without my husband, and without my employer allowing me to work from home, I would be racing thru my mornings trying to get somewhere and spending my evenings just trying to keep the house clean enough to live in. But I'm in a situation where I actually get to enjoy her. And I don't know what I've done to deserve that - rather, I know I haven't done anything to deserve it. (And yes, there are moments during which I would happily hand her to anyone walking by, but luckily we don't get that much foot traffic in front of my house.)
But speaking of money, we recently went from a "get by with as little as you can" mentality to a "spend no more than this amount per week" mentality. Much more effective and actually interesting. Did you know that generic Honey Nut Chereeos were half the price of regular? Did you know that omelets make a wonderful and affordable dinner? Did you know that leftover pork roast makes mouth watering barbecue sandwiches a day or two later? Just some things I missed by not having an actual food budget in the past.
There. You're all caught up. Aren't you glad?
Posted by Wifeepoo at 10:26 AM | Comments (3)
July 4, 2008
It's not about you anymore.
It must be so hard to be booted from the #1 position...
We were at Taco Bell today and I had some teddy grahams for Mandy. I gave her one, but needed to go to the bathroom, so I slid a few more towards Mike - obviously for him to continue feeding her while I was gone.
He said "I don't want any."
"huh?"
"I don't want any of those."
"They're not for you, dear. Give her one at a time until I get back."
Poor guy - everything USED to be about him.
Posted by Wifeepoo at 6:08 PM | Comments (0)
July 1, 2008
Where have I been?
I'm sure the 3 of you that read this are asking that very question.
We've even had a birthday in the meantime (on the 24th). I video taped the whole thing, but getting it loaded, transferred to the mac & edited is a pretty time consuming process & I just haven't gotten around to it. The cake was a non-event. She ate very little, just a couple of nibbles, and basically played with it until it was reduced to a pile of crumbs. She didn't even seem to enjoy it - I got the impression she just wanted me to clean her up & get her out of the high chair already. But she did get a great kick out of the presents. We sat a gift bag in front of her & let her pull the tissue paper & toy out of it. She seemed to enjoy that whole process and gave us several over-the-top excited squeals. The house I bought her was a hit and gets played with a certain portion of every day.
We've also had our 1 year check-up. Remember the last one, where her weight dipped down to the 25th percentile & I didn't like it? Well, somehow we've jumped up to the 75th percentile for weight. I think a big part of it is the muscle development in her legs as she walks EVERY WAKING MOMENT. Kid won't sit down for anything. But when I took her to an indoor playground the other day & watched the other babies her age, I was very glad to have one that apparently is going to capture every bit of fun she can from every moment. There were two other babies her age & both just stood beside mommy & looked around, not sure what to do. Mandy never even looked back at me - she was off trying to climb on everything & see what everything was.
But this wasn't about the playground, it was about her check-up. The other development is that we're getting referred back to a gastroenterologist. I still can't feed her anything other than fruits, vegetables and grains and she should be getting over this already. Plus she still sometimes has problems and I can't figure out why, which makes me wonder if her problems are even food related. I'll be glad to be back under the care of a gastroenterologist and feel more certain that I'm feeding her what I'm supposed to be.
Posted by Wifeepoo at 1:35 PM | Comments (0)