Point to Ponder

Do you still call it a child "safety" cover if you child removes an outlet plug cover and sticks it in his mouth?

I sound like the exhausted mother of a toddler who spent the day trying to go through all cabinets and drawers. I thought we had made some progress when last week, after being told "No" about opening some drawers, he used the knobs to climb the outside of the drawers to the snack area.

When told about these occurrences, my neighbor said "Oh, he's so smart." I think smart would be recognizing the danger when you have been told "No!" plenty of times. If we have to label him, let's say he has remarkable dexterity and poor judgment.

Up All Night

10 pm, 2 am, 6:30 am

it's like having a 2 month old, except now when he's up he is a whirling dervish of destruction.

phone calls to ToolMan at work about whether lotion is toxic...

... emails about whether those AA battery boxes were empty ...

I tried sending him out on the deck with Colin but the dog is petrified of him...

That makes two of us.

A Southerner Deals with Frost

for your amusement, here's the content of my email to ToolMan this morning in reply to how he has potentially found a battery for my uber-wagon.


"hey that is really great about the battery for my car. I agree one of those has to be the right one.

I miss my fancy-garaged VW. This morning it was 25 and the Excursion was frosted over. I did get the Excursion to crank but it was not making any heat fast (meaning in like 15 sec) and the wipers were ineffective at the frost. I did not think I could scrape without a ladder and it was already 7:35 by this point.

I got the garden hose out to put some water on it (I did not think it was cold enough to crack the windows so I decided to go for it.) A little water came out of the hose but then the hose quit flowing. Then I realized that I forgot to leave the wipers on, and now it was ICED over and I had no more water... before it just seemed like I did not have good visibility, now I really didn't. I ended up taking mom's car which we had put in the garage and telling her to check the hose in case I turned it the wrong way and not righty-tighty and it was still on when it thaws later... "

I Hate February

It's like Debbie Downer has attacked my blog!!

No other month of the year blows as much as this one. My normally manageable job goes into chaos overload. I have no idea why this happens in the spring semester and not the fall, but it does, and it does it annually.

Since I am the low person on my priority totem pole most of my needs go unmet. I think that is the lot of moms and parents in general, but I have not been doing this all that long, and I have not figured out any sort of balance.

Here's a list of some of the things that I don't have time to do:

1. Dentist appt. rescheduled 2x, finally called them and said "I'll call you when anyone with a pulse can keep CRB when I am not at work and your office is open."
2. Go to the mall and pick up my contact lens. My six month supply ran out in December... jeez ... and my eyes hurt.
3. Get my haircut. Last hair cut, first week in September.
4. Get my hair colored. Last professionally done March 21, 2007, just in time for my Grandmother's funeral. What a positive memory.
5. Buy some makeup. I'm out, and I have been out. I have a few hundred people who look at me every Tuesday & Thursday. Again this would be a trip to the mall where the stroller would have to cease rolling forward for at least a few minutes, so for me this is an impossible task.
6. Buy some clothes. When ToolMan brings it up you know I am not exaggerating my needs, or trying to follow InStyle trends. I have bought things that did not come as mail order about 3 times since CRB was born, and two of those occasions were for Christmas parties. Thankfully my maternity clothes don't fit, but my pre-CRB wardrobe is pretty pathetic, as I have not bought a lot of clothes in recent years because I was always hoping to be pregnant.
7. Exercise
8. Relax

On a positive note, at least the dreadful month of February is the shortest month of the year.

Debbie would like to add "but it is a day longer this year!"

Weekend Reflections

I cannot seem to remember midweek (!) but I guess I can at least reflect on this weekend.

Friday I took CRB to the allergist. The doctor said that he did not think CRB felt well, but that he did not have an ear infection. He has put CRB on twice daily nasal spray and some singulair. I am concerned that my little boy is becoming more allergic. Genetically, he stands no real chance not to be, but I am so thankful that his ears seem to be resistant to infection.

Saturday morning we got up at 4 a.m. to leave for our "day trip" to Atlanta. We had three big missions. The first mission was to pick up the punch-line to a running joke between ToolMan and Wren – a crashed Suzuki GXSR 1000 motorcycle to use as a donor for the F1000 project. This motorcycle was recently run off a 20 foot embankment, its former owner having to crawl uphill for 9 hours with a broken body (he is doing much better). The bike is stout but is broken in half, telling what a big smack he took.

After strapping the bike (parts?) down on the trailer, we were off to our second mission - IKEA. I have wanted to go to an IKEA for a very long time. I love anything Scandinavian (I am a quarter Norwegian) and a trip to IKEA has been on my wish list for more than a decade. The Green Girl in me loves many of their company policies, along with the modern Scandinavian look of their goods, even if none of it will harmonize with my house. In case you catch a Cash Cab re-run the crashed motorcycle dude's dad said that IKEA is the world's most visited retailer. From my study of the catalog, I thought that the IKEA was going to be something special, and I was not disappointed. Any guesses to what we bought? Kid stuff. We got CRB some really neat things (play table with chairs, kid's picnic table for the deck, awesome green rocker toy, kool town map rug) for his first birthday or Christmas depending upon when he is ready. ToolMan humored me with lunch at the IKEA café and I got to enjoy some lingonberry punch.

After IKEA, we headed to our third mission: ToolMan's uncle's retirement party in Helen, Georgia. Uncle Wayne has had many interesting flying jobs – F4s in Vietnam, big iron to take people on vacations to exotic places, and lastly as an instructor at Flight Safety. CRB was the world's most hugged and kissed baby on Saturday. He THRIVES on attention, so he had a great day even considering he took only 45 minutes of naptime. ToolMan has an awesome family and we had a wonderful time! Again, I am reminded how we need to make big family gatherings a priority.

We got home around 12:30 am, and managed to be in bed by 3 minutes until 1. CRB giggled with delight when I put him in his crib. Home is good.

For more weekend reflections, vist Judi.

Weekend Reflection

Monday we had a great evening by doing a cook-out for five of ToolMan's cousins. Everyone ate a lot and had a great time. We should have more days like that.

Tuesday and Wednesday were difficult days for Colin the yorkie. He had a seizure on both days. Thursday he had another, but much more minor episode. ToolMan thinks that over-exertion may be a partial trigger of the seizures so we have been trying to limit Colin's activity. We also think Colin seems anxious, and perhaps has just figured out that CRB is here to stay. It may seem that Colin should have figured this out long ago, but Colin is the dog that needed almost two years to figure out that the treats are kept on the top of the deep freeze.

Friday we went to a retirement party for one of our secretaries. It was a nice party and CRB was well-behaved. He even got to have a tiny bit of cake.

This week ToolMan and I discussed how I am ready to let CRB go to church nursery. This is a big step for me. I also put CRB on some pre-school lists late this week.

Saturday we arrived at the university pool when it opened. It was not crowded at all and we had a wonderful time. We made some more new friends, too. Saturday afternoon I got to do a little shopping with Kerri. We had an awesome time!

Today, I baked some cinnamon rolls and brought them to ToolMan as breakfast in bed. He enjoyed his cards and he was excited to hear about his father's day gift. I tried to spend some time in the shop with ToolMan as he has said he misses that. This afternoon, I put the baby pool out on the deck. Colin was determined to participate. He got and out of the pool many times before CRB did. He had the best time retrieving tennis balls and removing all the toys from the pool. I am thankful that CRB thinks that Colin is playing with him as opposed to understanding the real motive – steal all the toys. With his love of the water, sometimes I think my yorkie must be part Lab, a Labra-dor-kie perhaps?

ToolMan made a piece to fit in the little sprinkler I put in the pool. The piece makes a water fountain out of the sprinkler using an unbelievably low trickle of water.

I am making some progress on my sleeping, but I am still plagued with nightly nightmares: cancer, drive-by shootings, smurf-blue snakes, ToolMan setting fire to different items in the kitchen, ToolMan removing the Start button from the microwave,… it goes on. Many times in the past we have noticed that Colin has experienced major anxiety whenever I am anxious. Here's hoping for a little less anxiety next week for the two and four-legged folks.

For more Weekend Reflections, click here.

To sleep, perchance to dream

To me it's rather incredulous that I cannot manage to sleep. Back in the spring, on nights before my classes, I had a hard time sleeping because I was overwhelmed with the day that was ahead. I understood that, it made sense. Also, no doubt some of my sleep problems then were the on-call nature of a new mom. But now, what gives?

Unlike last week, I am home, and unlike last night, no relatives are in health crisis. Why am I up and completely awake at 1:30 am?

Around 11:40, CRB stirred and began crying. This is a rare event at our house, but it was no problem, I was already up and awake. (I will try never to ever blog about my child's to good to be true sleep habits though I do have a few thoughts on the subject.) He was fast asleep again after a quick bottle.

Lately ToolMan has been in the same state as I have about the sleep problems. Like many other kinds of problems, people with similar sleep problems can compound each other's problems. Tonight we resolved again to do better. We each took some sinus medicine. ToolMan is asleep, but nothing here. As I have mentioned before, it's imperative that I fall asleep first, but once I fall asleep I can sleep through almost anything. ToolMan understands this, was really concerned that I could not sleep again tonight, tried to stay up, but understandably (and thankfully) fell asleep before I could.

It is time for me to make some sort of radical lifestyle changes. I am not sure where I can get the smarts to do this (lack of sleep = dumb bunny) but obviously it is past time. This has been going on for weeks. I spend a great deal of thought and energy perfecting CRB's schedule, I need to do the same for me.