DANG it is COLD! Even with my built-in midsection space heater I was freezing by the time I'd completed the 10-yard walk from my car to the door of e-baby's daycare this morning. But the weather had to be this way because tomorrow night is the annual winter party (a.k.a. The Prom) that my compnay puts on every January. Several thousand of my closest colleagues and their significant others descend upon a large convention center to enjoy four ballrooms with bands (disco, rock & roll covers, jazz, and Sinatra covers), martini bars, food food and more food, and a casino. There's usually a mardi gras calibur elbow-to-elbow crowd from the front door to the back ballroom and everywhere in between, but surprisingly, the lines to the bathrooms are never too bad.
And it is always FREEZING cold the night of the prom. It's as though someone custom orders sub-freezing weather just in time for the party. Evening gowns are just not warm. Ever. This year is worse because all my maternity dresses are knee-length and sleeveless. Not really evening gowns, more like "little black dresses," but I'll be darned if I'm going to spend money on something fancier when I've only got 5 weeks left to be pregnant, ever, for the rest of my life. And no other proms to attend.
I am heartened by the fact that, unlike my first pregnancy, I've had little or no edema and so I won't have to wear extra supportive hiking boots with my little black dress. I can actually wear something silver and strappy and cute. But that also mean open-toed, and I just will. not. wear. pantyhose with open toed shoes. It's a personal quirk of mine. That knee-length dress will be really, really cold. Maybe I can get away with some wooly leg-warmers for the commute from the car to the door of the convention center. Or long johns, like we used to wear under our school uniforms. Ugh. Never mind, I'll just have to be cold.
On an unrelated note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Partner in Crime! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to H in Austin, too!!
Friday, January 16, 2009
Friday, January 9, 2009
Six Weeks Left and a Nugget of Experience (three, really)
As of tomorrow, it'll be 6 weeks to Jambuca's due date. I'm not sure which end of this tunnel (really, seriously, no pun intended) I'd prefer right now. With a second child, I know exactly The Kind Of Thing I'm getting myself in for, and the first year (OK, 18 months if I'm honest) is really hard. Not that it is without its joy and rewards-- but there's no question it is a challenge, particularly for someone who has always been better with teenagers than with babies. I find it funny that of all the challenges I've ever taken on in life, the only one I've had notable trouble rising to was caring for a baby. I still feel grossly unequal to the job some of the time. Give me singular value decomposition over bedtime problems any day.
The saving grace, though, is that this time around I won't be traveling 3-6 days a month for work, either pumping milk and figuring out how to sneak it home past the TSA or toting a baby with me (and my mom, and my pump for during the business day, and not sleeping much at night). I figure my travel schedule will pick back up once Jambuca's a year or 2 old, but for awhile I get a break. So things might be a lot less hectic. One can hope.
In e-babyland, potty training has been quite successful. She's still having a little trouble with knowing she has to poop, but that's improved over the past week. Last weekend, however, I made the mistake of telling SNG how she hadn't had any out-in-public accidents at all-- tempting the heck out of fate. Sunday, we went to the mall, ostensibly to visit the Hello Kitty store (actually just to get out of the house for awhile). After finding a choice toy in the half-off sale bin, we wandered around the mall. E-baby matter-of-factly announced to the whole world that she had "just had an accident! I made a BIIIIG POOP!" We made a beeline for a department store that I knew had a bathroom on that floor. As we looped around the perfumes and past the suits, she repeated loudly that "that poop is tickling my bottom! My bottom is tickly from that poop!! Heehee!" We finally made it to the ladies' room, and wouldn't you know, there was a line. We waited. I looked down and right next to e-baby's shoe, on the floor, was one dry little poop-nugget, roughly the size of a Barbie doll's head. It had apaprently rolled out of e's pants-leg. I pulled a plastic trash baggie from my bag and scooped it up under the horrified gaze of the lady waiting ahead of me in line. I got e-baby all cleaned up and changed, and when we walked out, SNG stared pointedly at a spot on the floor just near the bathroom door, by a display of menswear: another poop nugget. I was sneakier this time, and got a bunch of paper towel from the ladies' room to scoop it and throw it in the trash. We made our way to the store's exit in total silence, and as we passed cologne, SNG noticed another stepped-on nugget right on the tile floor there. I was out of trash bags, out of paper towels, and out of my mind. I lowered my head and made for the door as fast as my legs would take me and nearly burst into tears as we headed for home.
Looking back, it was really hilarious. I wish I'd just had the ovaries to go back to the ladies' room at the other side of the store, get more paper towels, and just get on the floor and clean up the mess from the last poop. But something about the horrified gaze of the lady in the bathroom combined with the high-traffic zone of the cologne section, and maybe hormones or something, I had no courage left in me whatsoever. Yes, I'm a total wuss. Next time, though, I'll be more prepared-- I carry more than one trash bag with me now. And maybe I can make a game of it for e-baby-- like an Easter egg hunt! Only icky! I keep telling myself that I will not let people's judgemental looks stop me from doing the right thing.
One can hope.
The saving grace, though, is that this time around I won't be traveling 3-6 days a month for work, either pumping milk and figuring out how to sneak it home past the TSA or toting a baby with me (and my mom, and my pump for during the business day, and not sleeping much at night). I figure my travel schedule will pick back up once Jambuca's a year or 2 old, but for awhile I get a break. So things might be a lot less hectic. One can hope.
In e-babyland, potty training has been quite successful. She's still having a little trouble with knowing she has to poop, but that's improved over the past week. Last weekend, however, I made the mistake of telling SNG how she hadn't had any out-in-public accidents at all-- tempting the heck out of fate. Sunday, we went to the mall, ostensibly to visit the Hello Kitty store (actually just to get out of the house for awhile). After finding a choice toy in the half-off sale bin, we wandered around the mall. E-baby matter-of-factly announced to the whole world that she had "just had an accident! I made a BIIIIG POOP!" We made a beeline for a department store that I knew had a bathroom on that floor. As we looped around the perfumes and past the suits, she repeated loudly that "that poop is tickling my bottom! My bottom is tickly from that poop!! Heehee!" We finally made it to the ladies' room, and wouldn't you know, there was a line. We waited. I looked down and right next to e-baby's shoe, on the floor, was one dry little poop-nugget, roughly the size of a Barbie doll's head. It had apaprently rolled out of e's pants-leg. I pulled a plastic trash baggie from my bag and scooped it up under the horrified gaze of the lady waiting ahead of me in line. I got e-baby all cleaned up and changed, and when we walked out, SNG stared pointedly at a spot on the floor just near the bathroom door, by a display of menswear: another poop nugget. I was sneakier this time, and got a bunch of paper towel from the ladies' room to scoop it and throw it in the trash. We made our way to the store's exit in total silence, and as we passed cologne, SNG noticed another stepped-on nugget right on the tile floor there. I was out of trash bags, out of paper towels, and out of my mind. I lowered my head and made for the door as fast as my legs would take me and nearly burst into tears as we headed for home.
Looking back, it was really hilarious. I wish I'd just had the ovaries to go back to the ladies' room at the other side of the store, get more paper towels, and just get on the floor and clean up the mess from the last poop. But something about the horrified gaze of the lady in the bathroom combined with the high-traffic zone of the cologne section, and maybe hormones or something, I had no courage left in me whatsoever. Yes, I'm a total wuss. Next time, though, I'll be more prepared-- I carry more than one trash bag with me now. And maybe I can make a game of it for e-baby-- like an Easter egg hunt! Only icky! I keep telling myself that I will not let people's judgemental looks stop me from doing the right thing.
One can hope.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
It's a Potty, it's a Potty-Potty, It's a Potty-Potty Weekend!
Since I am sure everyone's dying to read about peepee and poopoo, I've been trying to get in front of the computer long enough to write something for several days, but have not been able to until now (and even now, SNG is saying "put on a coat and come out here and bring mittens for e-baby because I need to look at the wires under the house and someone needs to throw the ball for DOTi." So this minute is technically stolen.).
After long consideration, I wouldn't attribute difficulties we've been having to my child being just plain stubborn. That's really not an accurate characterization of her. She definintely has her own mind, and wants things done her way, but she is also surprisingly rational, so usually she'll respond to reason. No, I think any trouble we've had has been related to two things about e-baby. 1- she is a kid who HATES stopping what she's doing to do something different. No matter what she's doing right now, it is, in her mind, the ONLY thing she wants to do. Nothing else can compete (except, as I've mentioned, books-- usually). 2- she is feeling a new sense of power and control with the big-girl underwear, and likes the fact that she can hold it for a long time in spite of my constantly asking "do you need to go potty?". She'll tell me "No, I just hold it a little longer" and then, eventually, she gets a panicky look and says "I need go peepee RIGHT NOW!" and runs to the bathroom.
We haven't had any pee accidents since Monday, and even then there was only one. She takes her naps in underwear and does fine. I have her wear a diaper at night, because I am the laziest mommy on earth and don't want to set a peepee alarm at 2am and I'm not sure she can manage 8-10 hours of bladder control. Poop is another story altogether, but I'll get to that. Yesterday evening we went to a neighbor's house for an early New Year's eve party, and e-baby used their potty twice (both times against her initial wishes, but she was clearly in discomfort trying to hold it so she could play with the other kids). She is always very proud of herself when she does pee on the pot, even when it means she's had to stop something fun.
But the poop. This paragraph is nasty, so if you're of a delicate sensibility, please skip to the next one right now. She had held her poop for 2 days-- making lots of underleg-music ("It's OK, mommy- I just pooted. It's not a poop. I don't need go poop right now" Oh yeah I believe THAT. Sure. Have I mentioned that my kid can lie like a bearskin rug on a Palin bedroom floor?)-- when she couldn't help herself and pooped a big blob of lead bearings in her underwear at the party. I decided to put my formal education to work, however, and told her that we'd put it into the toilet, so she could see, and then she could sit on the potty to try and poop more on top to make a poop tower (I swear, the thing went "Clink!" when it hit porcelain. I TOLD you this was nasty, it's your own fault for reading it). She was interested in that opportunity, and gave it the old school try. No more poop, but it seemed to mark a turning point.
Today she has been surprisingly interested in going pee, and she even went pee at a public restroom (GASP! ARG!) when she is ordinarily terrified of public restrooms with their noisy, automatic-sensor toilet flushers. I was about as icked out as I could be because, yes, kids ALWAYS grasp the sides of the toilet seat ring. ACK! YUCK! No amount of hand washing sets my mind at ease. Me and Howard Hughes just need our graves side-by-side. Then, when we got home, she pooped in the toilet. For real. On purpose.
So, just when it seemed like she'd never get it, everything just fell into place.
I am sure there will be plenty of setbacks, but we appear to be on the downhill side of the underwear expedition amd for that I'm so glad. Next week it'll be the daycare's problem for 8 hours a day. They are way better at this than I am anyhow.
Now, do you need to go to the potty? Are you sure?
After long consideration, I wouldn't attribute difficulties we've been having to my child being just plain stubborn. That's really not an accurate characterization of her. She definintely has her own mind, and wants things done her way, but she is also surprisingly rational, so usually she'll respond to reason. No, I think any trouble we've had has been related to two things about e-baby. 1- she is a kid who HATES stopping what she's doing to do something different. No matter what she's doing right now, it is, in her mind, the ONLY thing she wants to do. Nothing else can compete (except, as I've mentioned, books-- usually). 2- she is feeling a new sense of power and control with the big-girl underwear, and likes the fact that she can hold it for a long time in spite of my constantly asking "do you need to go potty?". She'll tell me "No, I just hold it a little longer" and then, eventually, she gets a panicky look and says "I need go peepee RIGHT NOW!" and runs to the bathroom.
We haven't had any pee accidents since Monday, and even then there was only one. She takes her naps in underwear and does fine. I have her wear a diaper at night, because I am the laziest mommy on earth and don't want to set a peepee alarm at 2am and I'm not sure she can manage 8-10 hours of bladder control. Poop is another story altogether, but I'll get to that. Yesterday evening we went to a neighbor's house for an early New Year's eve party, and e-baby used their potty twice (both times against her initial wishes, but she was clearly in discomfort trying to hold it so she could play with the other kids). She is always very proud of herself when she does pee on the pot, even when it means she's had to stop something fun.
But the poop. This paragraph is nasty, so if you're of a delicate sensibility, please skip to the next one right now. She had held her poop for 2 days-- making lots of underleg-music ("It's OK, mommy- I just pooted. It's not a poop. I don't need go poop right now" Oh yeah I believe THAT. Sure. Have I mentioned that my kid can lie like a bearskin rug on a Palin bedroom floor?)-- when she couldn't help herself and pooped a big blob of lead bearings in her underwear at the party. I decided to put my formal education to work, however, and told her that we'd put it into the toilet, so she could see, and then she could sit on the potty to try and poop more on top to make a poop tower (I swear, the thing went "Clink!" when it hit porcelain. I TOLD you this was nasty, it's your own fault for reading it). She was interested in that opportunity, and gave it the old school try. No more poop, but it seemed to mark a turning point.
Today she has been surprisingly interested in going pee, and she even went pee at a public restroom (GASP! ARG!) when she is ordinarily terrified of public restrooms with their noisy, automatic-sensor toilet flushers. I was about as icked out as I could be because, yes, kids ALWAYS grasp the sides of the toilet seat ring. ACK! YUCK! No amount of hand washing sets my mind at ease. Me and Howard Hughes just need our graves side-by-side. Then, when we got home, she pooped in the toilet. For real. On purpose.
So, just when it seemed like she'd never get it, everything just fell into place.
I am sure there will be plenty of setbacks, but we appear to be on the downhill side of the underwear expedition amd for that I'm so glad. Next week it'll be the daycare's problem for 8 hours a day. They are way better at this than I am anyhow.
Now, do you need to go to the potty? Are you sure?
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Pee-pee Chronicles
I am primarily blogging this so I will remember what it was like when Jambuca's time comes to potty train.
SNG and I both really, really dislike the process of potty training. It's miserable. Luckily, it's no more miserable than I had expected it to be, once we got past the initial motivational phase. But it is just plain miserable.
As I've said before, diapers just don't bother me. But I know that e-baby has to potty train before she's 3 (daycare rule) and I know I don't want to go through this process while also managing the needs of a second child. And now, being in the thick of it? NO WAY do I want to do this with a second, younger child around. I'd have to check myself into an institution.
Christmas day we put a complete moratorium on training and just let her wear diapers. That was good because she didn't want to be distracted away from her living room full of new and wonderful presents, so we'd never have convinced her to sit on the pot for even a second. The day after Christmas she wore pull-ups and used the potty a few times for stickers, but still her heart wasn't in it. Today, I went cold-turkey and had her use the big-girl panties. That did the trick. She loves to wear them. We went through seven pairs with accidents (usually peeing on the way running to the toilet, yelling "I want to pee-pee on my potty!!!") and one poop mystery ("I have a big, big poop, I need go sit on my potty" well, the poop is already out, so I'm not sure what she was trying to accomplish). She had a dry naptime, and by the end of the day, she was able to make it to the potty three times without leakage.
The big difference? 1. Actually putting on the big-girl underpants, which unfortunately means a LOT of mess to clean up but also a great tactile lesson and 2. (most importantly) every trip to the potty means reading at least two books while sitting there. You can bribe that child into almost anything with books. She doesn't care if it's a book she can quote cover-to-cover by heart. As long as she's being read to, you could probably give her immunizations, brussels sprouts, and a hair washing all at the same time.
Tomorrow will mark the second day of potty-training in earnest. I'll let you know how it goes. There's certainly no turning back now, and this is definitely the best time for us to do it, but honestly? I hate this. Cleaning pee and poop off my floor is just so nasty. It is the reason I prefer to adopt older dogs rather than getting puppies. I can't wait for this to be finished. I am already dreading potty training Jambuca, and he hasn't been born yet.
Just as there are dog people and cat people, perhaps there are diaper people and potty people as well.
SNG and I both really, really dislike the process of potty training. It's miserable. Luckily, it's no more miserable than I had expected it to be, once we got past the initial motivational phase. But it is just plain miserable.
As I've said before, diapers just don't bother me. But I know that e-baby has to potty train before she's 3 (daycare rule) and I know I don't want to go through this process while also managing the needs of a second child. And now, being in the thick of it? NO WAY do I want to do this with a second, younger child around. I'd have to check myself into an institution.
Christmas day we put a complete moratorium on training and just let her wear diapers. That was good because she didn't want to be distracted away from her living room full of new and wonderful presents, so we'd never have convinced her to sit on the pot for even a second. The day after Christmas she wore pull-ups and used the potty a few times for stickers, but still her heart wasn't in it. Today, I went cold-turkey and had her use the big-girl panties. That did the trick. She loves to wear them. We went through seven pairs with accidents (usually peeing on the way running to the toilet, yelling "I want to pee-pee on my potty!!!") and one poop mystery ("I have a big, big poop, I need go sit on my potty" well, the poop is already out, so I'm not sure what she was trying to accomplish). She had a dry naptime, and by the end of the day, she was able to make it to the potty three times without leakage.
The big difference? 1. Actually putting on the big-girl underpants, which unfortunately means a LOT of mess to clean up but also a great tactile lesson and 2. (most importantly) every trip to the potty means reading at least two books while sitting there. You can bribe that child into almost anything with books. She doesn't care if it's a book she can quote cover-to-cover by heart. As long as she's being read to, you could probably give her immunizations, brussels sprouts, and a hair washing all at the same time.
Tomorrow will mark the second day of potty-training in earnest. I'll let you know how it goes. There's certainly no turning back now, and this is definitely the best time for us to do it, but honestly? I hate this. Cleaning pee and poop off my floor is just so nasty. It is the reason I prefer to adopt older dogs rather than getting puppies. I can't wait for this to be finished. I am already dreading potty training Jambuca, and he hasn't been born yet.
Just as there are dog people and cat people, perhaps there are diaper people and potty people as well.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Holiday Cheer!
(poopoo and peepee post warning)
We just got home from a 10-day trip to Austin which was mostly business for me and all vacation for e-baby. SNG was there for the last 3 days of the trip, and we all had a great time.
Some of the things we did in Austin-- several trips to the Mother Ship (um, the Whole Foods world headquarters- a sight to see if you've never been), two trips to Central Market (another grocery marvel, as only Texas grocery stores can accomplish), one trip to IKEA (we REALLY need one here), a trip to Austin Java Company (where e-baby had a fit of the Two-Year-Olds and had to be unceremoniously taken from the restaurant to think about what she'd done. I won't say more of her indiscretions, except that they involved a brick, a basin of water, and pre-masticated spaghetti). We saw lots of family and opened a few gifties, and relaxed.
The flight home Monday night was uneventful, and yesterday we went to work. Can you believe that? One day at work, with (of course) nobody there, and e-baby was one of only a handful of kids at daycare that day. My campany is closed from noon on Christmas eve until Jan 5, so naturally everyone needs to extend the holiday by a day or 2.
And, against my laziest wishes, I've finallydecided that it's really time to move e-baby into big-girl underwear. She's been playing with a potty seat for almost a year now, and goes on it at least once a day, but seriously? I've never felt too strongly about making the transition for real because changing diapers is just not a big deal to me. I don't mind it much at all, and in a lot of ways, diapers are so convenient. I am not at all excited about the prospect of having e-baby use public toilets, for example. Ick-ugh. But Jambuca will be here in about 2 months' time, and I don't want to go through all the cleanup and effort of potty training when I also have a newborn to wrangle. So having 12 days off for Christmas seems like a perfect time to make the transition.
Now I wonder if I've waited too long. I know friends who tried to potty train too early, and spent months cleaning up accidents, so I figured I'd just wait until she was 2. E-baby can tell me when she has to go and no longer pees in her bathtub (hallelujah!), but she's just not all that interested in big girl underpants. We bought some. She picked them out. We took them home. She doesn't want to put them on.
I took another tack-- one sticker for pee, two stickers for poop (in the potty, of course, not on the floor). She really wanted a sticker, and so she sat on the toilet for a few minutes, and then announced that she couldn't go and completely lost all interest in the stickers. Now she's taking a nap, in a Pull-up (see above re: not wanting the underpants) and I wonder how you go about convincing a girl who is about as determined and headstrong as her stubborn full-grown mother that she really does want to get out of the diapers. I don't want to use candy as a reward. Associating poop with candy is just a little to icky for me, and would not work well with those public restroom trips. Besides, I have about ten thousand little stickers.
This is only the first day, with 11 to go, so maybe things will look better tomorrow.
Oh, and Santa Claus comes tonight. He'll have to knock at the back door, because there's no chimney and besides, I promised e-baby that he wouldn't just be tromping into her bedroom unannounced. But the chocolate chip peanut butter cookies we're leaving out for him should persuade him to leave some really great loot.
I hope you get everything for Christmas that your heart desires!
We just got home from a 10-day trip to Austin which was mostly business for me and all vacation for e-baby. SNG was there for the last 3 days of the trip, and we all had a great time.
Some of the things we did in Austin-- several trips to the Mother Ship (um, the Whole Foods world headquarters- a sight to see if you've never been), two trips to Central Market (another grocery marvel, as only Texas grocery stores can accomplish), one trip to IKEA (we REALLY need one here), a trip to Austin Java Company (where e-baby had a fit of the Two-Year-Olds and had to be unceremoniously taken from the restaurant to think about what she'd done. I won't say more of her indiscretions, except that they involved a brick, a basin of water, and pre-masticated spaghetti). We saw lots of family and opened a few gifties, and relaxed.
The flight home Monday night was uneventful, and yesterday we went to work. Can you believe that? One day at work, with (of course) nobody there, and e-baby was one of only a handful of kids at daycare that day. My campany is closed from noon on Christmas eve until Jan 5, so naturally everyone needs to extend the holiday by a day or 2.
And, against my laziest wishes, I've finallydecided that it's really time to move e-baby into big-girl underwear. She's been playing with a potty seat for almost a year now, and goes on it at least once a day, but seriously? I've never felt too strongly about making the transition for real because changing diapers is just not a big deal to me. I don't mind it much at all, and in a lot of ways, diapers are so convenient. I am not at all excited about the prospect of having e-baby use public toilets, for example. Ick-ugh. But Jambuca will be here in about 2 months' time, and I don't want to go through all the cleanup and effort of potty training when I also have a newborn to wrangle. So having 12 days off for Christmas seems like a perfect time to make the transition.
Now I wonder if I've waited too long. I know friends who tried to potty train too early, and spent months cleaning up accidents, so I figured I'd just wait until she was 2. E-baby can tell me when she has to go and no longer pees in her bathtub (hallelujah!), but she's just not all that interested in big girl underpants. We bought some. She picked them out. We took them home. She doesn't want to put them on.
I took another tack-- one sticker for pee, two stickers for poop (in the potty, of course, not on the floor). She really wanted a sticker, and so she sat on the toilet for a few minutes, and then announced that she couldn't go and completely lost all interest in the stickers. Now she's taking a nap, in a Pull-up (see above re: not wanting the underpants) and I wonder how you go about convincing a girl who is about as determined and headstrong as her stubborn full-grown mother that she really does want to get out of the diapers. I don't want to use candy as a reward. Associating poop with candy is just a little to icky for me, and would not work well with those public restroom trips. Besides, I have about ten thousand little stickers.
This is only the first day, with 11 to go, so maybe things will look better tomorrow.
Oh, and Santa Claus comes tonight. He'll have to knock at the back door, because there's no chimney and besides, I promised e-baby that he wouldn't just be tromping into her bedroom unannounced. But the chocolate chip peanut butter cookies we're leaving out for him should persuade him to leave some really great loot.
I hope you get everything for Christmas that your heart desires!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Girl Can Speak For Herself
This morning, e-baby was in a foul mood when I dropped her off. It was just a rough morning for some reason, normal 2-year-old stuff I'm sure. I wondered how her day had shaped up, and at dinner, e-baby said to me, "My teacher named Anna told me I a mess. I told her I not a mess, I a kid!"
And just like that, I feel this crazy reassurance that kiddo's growing up just fine.
And just like that, I feel this crazy reassurance that kiddo's growing up just fine.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Insert Title Here
It has been hard to get around to blogging lately, and it's been tough to think of what to write. So I'll just post an update on all of us, mostly e-baby.
Somehow my child has acquired a Carolina accent. Not a gentle little drawl, either, but a full-blown 2-syllables-per-vowel kind of thing. Egg="Aayugh." Bed="Bayud." Hands="Hayunds." Head="Hauyd." No="Naoo." When I try to direct her toward an American Standard Stage pronunciation (Sweetie, it's "egg," not "aayugh"), she laughs her head off and says "Not egg, I like aaaaaayuuuuugh!" Perhaps I should have interviewed the day care teachers for proper pronunciation rather than for silly things like a loving and stimulating environment.
She has picked up one thing from her head teacher that I looooove. Head teacher calls everyone "honey" or "sweetheart." Yesterday, e-baby and I were lying on the couch (I, outrageously, hoped to take a nap; 3rd trimester has hit me like the sandman). She started playing with my hair and said, super-softly, "Hi, honey. You're so pretty, sweetheart." I nearly melted right through the upholstery.
All four grandparents were here for Thanksgiving, so now e-baby is totally Tuti-Granddad-Granny-Grampy obsessed. Not only do all groups of objects have to have a mommy, a daddy and a baby (this applies, BTW, to dolls, flowers, spoons, packets of sugar, rocks, cars...), now there are grandparents. Grandparent coins, grandparent greeting cards, grandparent pieces of cheese... The thing of putting groups of objects into little families goes way back, and it has persisted a long time. I gotta think there's some important cognitive schema being developed and refined through all that. One shift that she has made, though-- six months ago, a lone bird in a tree was a baby bird looking for its mommy. Now, a lone bird in a tree is a mommy bird collecting food for her babies. That particular pattern-shift is interesting-- almost like she has let go of some of the anxiety of losing track of mommy. Oh, and now, whenever there's a third bird flying away, it's daddy going to work.
On my own end of things, I'm feeling pretty ambivalent about third trimester. On the one hand, I'm really sick of being pregnant, and tired, and big, and lumpy, and sleepless... on the other hand, I know that having the baby won't make ANY of those symptoms go away. The only relief will be that I can sleep on my stomach again. Sleeplessness? That'll be much worse. Feeling fat? Well, if it's like last time, I can expect that to last for an indeterminate, but long, time. Add to that the likely repeat of baby blues, juggling two little people at once, double the worry about their personal safety... you get the idea. I guess it boils down to this-- although I was madly in love with her from the first day, e-baby was 18 months old before I decided that parenthood was really a lot of fun. A lot of moms I know say that it was a full two years. So I guess I'm really excited about Fall 2010 or maybe early 2011.
Knowing the way I am, working some exercise back into my schedule would probably fix nearly everything. So far I don't see any realistic way that this will happen (outside of that whole fantasy "oh, I'll jog when the baby's sleeping, and get a double jogger to walk BOTH kids to the daycare...maybe e-baby will actually stay in the jogger if there's a baby brother next to her" -- you know, the fantasy world where everything can be made to work just right).
I haven't given up on being able to get my workouts going again after the baby is born, but I don't have a plan right now that I think will actually be workable. Hopefully something will come to me by March or April.
Somehow my child has acquired a Carolina accent. Not a gentle little drawl, either, but a full-blown 2-syllables-per-vowel kind of thing. Egg="Aayugh." Bed="Bayud." Hands="Hayunds." Head="Hauyd." No="Naoo." When I try to direct her toward an American Standard Stage pronunciation (Sweetie, it's "egg," not "aayugh"), she laughs her head off and says "Not egg, I like aaaaaayuuuuugh!" Perhaps I should have interviewed the day care teachers for proper pronunciation rather than for silly things like a loving and stimulating environment.
She has picked up one thing from her head teacher that I looooove. Head teacher calls everyone "honey" or "sweetheart." Yesterday, e-baby and I were lying on the couch (I, outrageously, hoped to take a nap; 3rd trimester has hit me like the sandman). She started playing with my hair and said, super-softly, "Hi, honey. You're so pretty, sweetheart." I nearly melted right through the upholstery.
All four grandparents were here for Thanksgiving, so now e-baby is totally Tuti-Granddad-Granny-Grampy obsessed. Not only do all groups of objects have to have a mommy, a daddy and a baby (this applies, BTW, to dolls, flowers, spoons, packets of sugar, rocks, cars...), now there are grandparents. Grandparent coins, grandparent greeting cards, grandparent pieces of cheese... The thing of putting groups of objects into little families goes way back, and it has persisted a long time. I gotta think there's some important cognitive schema being developed and refined through all that. One shift that she has made, though-- six months ago, a lone bird in a tree was a baby bird looking for its mommy. Now, a lone bird in a tree is a mommy bird collecting food for her babies. That particular pattern-shift is interesting-- almost like she has let go of some of the anxiety of losing track of mommy. Oh, and now, whenever there's a third bird flying away, it's daddy going to work.
On my own end of things, I'm feeling pretty ambivalent about third trimester. On the one hand, I'm really sick of being pregnant, and tired, and big, and lumpy, and sleepless... on the other hand, I know that having the baby won't make ANY of those symptoms go away. The only relief will be that I can sleep on my stomach again. Sleeplessness? That'll be much worse. Feeling fat? Well, if it's like last time, I can expect that to last for an indeterminate, but long, time. Add to that the likely repeat of baby blues, juggling two little people at once, double the worry about their personal safety... you get the idea. I guess it boils down to this-- although I was madly in love with her from the first day, e-baby was 18 months old before I decided that parenthood was really a lot of fun. A lot of moms I know say that it was a full two years. So I guess I'm really excited about Fall 2010 or maybe early 2011.
Knowing the way I am, working some exercise back into my schedule would probably fix nearly everything. So far I don't see any realistic way that this will happen (outside of that whole fantasy "oh, I'll jog when the baby's sleeping, and get a double jogger to walk BOTH kids to the daycare...maybe e-baby will actually stay in the jogger if there's a baby brother next to her" -- you know, the fantasy world where everything can be made to work just right).
I haven't given up on being able to get my workouts going again after the baby is born, but I don't have a plan right now that I think will actually be workable. Hopefully something will come to me by March or April.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving!
This is, really, the first time since moving day that I've been able to sit still long enough to post anything. We only just got our cable/phone/internet back Monday, so my only internet access was at work and, well, that's work, so at last, I've got a minute to myself.
My parents got to town last Wendesday night and it's been a whirlwind of unpacking-moving stuff-unpacking more stuff- moving more stuff- etc. Today the newly re-cushioned and reupholstered living room furniture was delivered, and with that, we are completely and totally moved back into the house. We even have a new (used) set of patio furniture that I can't wait to sit on one warm sunny day.
And as I write, my parents are out hiking, e-baby is napping, SNG's parents are working on jobs at Dianaverse's house, SNG is at work, and I am cooking veggies and pumpkins for pumpkin soup tomorrow. Between SNG's mom, Dianaverse, my mom and me, we will have a massive feast with a turkey, a ham, stuffing, pumpkin soup, salad, green beans, broccoli, bread, 3 kinds of pie, and coffee and tea to help digest it all. Perhaps we should add a shot of pepto to the menu, too? What this really ensures is that we won't have to waste valuable shopping time cooking or getting groceries this weekend. Not that I can afford to buy anything now after the renovation and associated costs. But I can look. I can wake up at 5am and wander the aisles of Sam's or Kohl's and think of all the places I'd put a 52" flat screen TV, or some cute home furnishings.
I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!
My parents got to town last Wendesday night and it's been a whirlwind of unpacking-moving stuff-unpacking more stuff- moving more stuff- etc. Today the newly re-cushioned and reupholstered living room furniture was delivered, and with that, we are completely and totally moved back into the house. We even have a new (used) set of patio furniture that I can't wait to sit on one warm sunny day.
And as I write, my parents are out hiking, e-baby is napping, SNG's parents are working on jobs at Dianaverse's house, SNG is at work, and I am cooking veggies and pumpkins for pumpkin soup tomorrow. Between SNG's mom, Dianaverse, my mom and me, we will have a massive feast with a turkey, a ham, stuffing, pumpkin soup, salad, green beans, broccoli, bread, 3 kinds of pie, and coffee and tea to help digest it all. Perhaps we should add a shot of pepto to the menu, too? What this really ensures is that we won't have to waste valuable shopping time cooking or getting groceries this weekend. Not that I can afford to buy anything now after the renovation and associated costs. But I can look. I can wake up at 5am and wander the aisles of Sam's or Kohl's and think of all the places I'd put a 52" flat screen TV, or some cute home furnishings.
I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!
Monday, November 17, 2008
HAPPY-HAPPY-JOY-JOY
The house is finished!! We moved home again last weekend!!
Well, there's a little more stuff to do outside, but nothing that will require adjusting our lifestyles. Friday night we had "a picnic" in the house. SNG moved stuff from storage rooms to other places and I started the process of cleaning every single dish in the kitchen, and every single piece of exposed fabric in the house since everything-- cabinets or no-- was covered in a layer of sheetrock dust. E-baby kept herself busy with emptying out the cabinets, and we all had a good time staying up too late and eating on the newly finished floors.
Saturday morning I dropped e-baby at Season's house, where she played and played and wore herself out for a whopping afternoon nap. I met the housecleaners at the house at 8:30am, and we cleaned in tandem-- the whole house, top-to-bottom, twice-- while SNG continued moving things from storage rooms to their final resting places. No, we are nowhere near finished with that. There's still dust, and there's still stuff being stored in wierd places. In the afternoon I packed the apartment, we ate out Saturday night (and ordered a houseful of new cellular blinds) and tried to sleep.
At 5:30 Sunday morning, E-baby was too excited to sleep. So were SNG and I. We started working on the house again, and then I took e-baby to spend the day with her cousin C-baby. PIC is a total mommy ninja, and managed to get both girls to take a nap-- at the same time-- in the same room!! I am not worthy. Peace, Fuzzy, Dianaverse, and 2 friends from church came to help move everything (Peace and I are as useless with heavy lifting as a couple of waddling pregnant ladies can be, but we're great at lifting with our index fingers), and SNG and I spent all afternoon making the upstairs a safe place for loose toddlers who escape from their bedrooms in the middle of the night. Because, you know, we have one of those now.
Last night we slept in our "new" house. E-baby slept as well as she's slept since August. Maybe because she had so much fun at c-baby's, maybe because she's back in a room that isn't adjacent to a road with giant pickup trucks barreling over speedbumps with super-loud music blaring all night long. That would help me sleep, too.
I actually slept very poorly, because the paint/varnish/carpet/sheetrock fumes are killing me. I think the varnish is what's getting me, although it's hard to say.
I don't know what we'd have done with e-baby underfoot-- we just got so much work done in two days, and it's still nowhere near finished. We might have only moved a few things to the apartment, but we moved EVERYTHING else to other rooms in the house, and it all got dirty. Having Karma and PIC take care of e-baby Saturday and Sunday was a lifesaver.
Well, there's a little more stuff to do outside, but nothing that will require adjusting our lifestyles. Friday night we had "a picnic" in the house. SNG moved stuff from storage rooms to other places and I started the process of cleaning every single dish in the kitchen, and every single piece of exposed fabric in the house since everything-- cabinets or no-- was covered in a layer of sheetrock dust. E-baby kept herself busy with emptying out the cabinets, and we all had a good time staying up too late and eating on the newly finished floors.
Saturday morning I dropped e-baby at Season's house, where she played and played and wore herself out for a whopping afternoon nap. I met the housecleaners at the house at 8:30am, and we cleaned in tandem-- the whole house, top-to-bottom, twice-- while SNG continued moving things from storage rooms to their final resting places. No, we are nowhere near finished with that. There's still dust, and there's still stuff being stored in wierd places. In the afternoon I packed the apartment, we ate out Saturday night (and ordered a houseful of new cellular blinds) and tried to sleep.
At 5:30 Sunday morning, E-baby was too excited to sleep. So were SNG and I. We started working on the house again, and then I took e-baby to spend the day with her cousin C-baby. PIC is a total mommy ninja, and managed to get both girls to take a nap-- at the same time-- in the same room!! I am not worthy. Peace, Fuzzy, Dianaverse, and 2 friends from church came to help move everything (Peace and I are as useless with heavy lifting as a couple of waddling pregnant ladies can be, but we're great at lifting with our index fingers), and SNG and I spent all afternoon making the upstairs a safe place for loose toddlers who escape from their bedrooms in the middle of the night. Because, you know, we have one of those now.
Last night we slept in our "new" house. E-baby slept as well as she's slept since August. Maybe because she had so much fun at c-baby's, maybe because she's back in a room that isn't adjacent to a road with giant pickup trucks barreling over speedbumps with super-loud music blaring all night long. That would help me sleep, too.
I actually slept very poorly, because the paint/varnish/carpet/sheetrock fumes are killing me. I think the varnish is what's getting me, although it's hard to say.
I don't know what we'd have done with e-baby underfoot-- we just got so much work done in two days, and it's still nowhere near finished. We might have only moved a few things to the apartment, but we moved EVERYTHING else to other rooms in the house, and it all got dirty. Having Karma and PIC take care of e-baby Saturday and Sunday was a lifesaver.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
NOLA Recap
Last weekend we went to New Orleans (Covington, really) for Fish and Jen's wedding. It was the first time I'd been back since The Storm, and I'm 1) glad I waited to go until after a lot of the cleanup was done 2) glad I went at all. It's unreal how much has changed, and yet, the stuff that's the same is, well, exactly the same.
First thing we did was pick up some po-boys from Deanie's and go to the lakefront to eat them. We sat on the seawall to watch pelicans, ducks and seagulls as we ate and although it is still not really cleaned up, or even entirely reopened yet, some things were no different than ever. The green slime below water line on the seawall, the bird begging for food, the guy waxing his Camaro in the afternoon sunshine playing Def Leppard.
Next we drove all over lakeview, my old neighborhood and area of some of the worst Katrina flooding. My old high school looks terrific. My old elementary school doesn't exist anymore. For that matter, neither does my old house. But houses across the street (several feet higher than my side of the street and backing up to Bayou St John, ergo desirable property) were, for the most part, being renovated and made habitable. It has to be strange to live on a street where people live on one side of the road in modern, luxurious and architecturally designed homes of widely varying styles, and the other side consists entirely of abandoned, destroyed, stripped, or completely eliminated houses.
Since I knew to expect this, though, it wasn't quite as painful to see in person. There's no way to walk around a concrete pad was once your childhood home without a little bit of melancholy, but it didn't last. We cheered ourselves up by wandering around City Park awhile, and then we took e-baby to dinner at Camellia Grill. And then to Angelo Brocato's for cannolis. Pecan waffles and cannolis can cure almost anything.
Friday was Halloween, so we got e-baby dressed up in her costume for the post-rehersal reception. She was so proud of herself, I could have just eaten her up.
I won't give a play-by-play of the entire weekend, because if you read this blog, you were either there yourself, or wouldn't care much about the details. But I will say that e-baby was SO impressed with the fact that K is an animal doctor and immediately fell in love with her. She learned that Fish and Jen are both animal doctors, too, and so of course, she's decided to be an animal doctor herself one day.
More than anything, it was just really great to see old friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in a very long time, some of whom I could easily live next door to and be happy as a clam. We need to have an annual reunion or something, y'all. I'm so happy for Fish and Jen, and for this new stage of life together. Jen was a stunning bride and Fish is quite a catch himself (pun INTENDED!).
I posted the New Orleans trip pictures this morning. And J & K, I definitely want a copy of your pictures from the weekend. Please!
So this week we're back at work, feeling hopeful for the future, waiting for our house to be finished (a week and a half to move home again WOOOO!) and enjoying that these are the last few nights of late-night car engine exaust noises and car stereos.
First thing we did was pick up some po-boys from Deanie's and go to the lakefront to eat them. We sat on the seawall to watch pelicans, ducks and seagulls as we ate and although it is still not really cleaned up, or even entirely reopened yet, some things were no different than ever. The green slime below water line on the seawall, the bird begging for food, the guy waxing his Camaro in the afternoon sunshine playing Def Leppard.
Next we drove all over lakeview, my old neighborhood and area of some of the worst Katrina flooding. My old high school looks terrific. My old elementary school doesn't exist anymore. For that matter, neither does my old house. But houses across the street (several feet higher than my side of the street and backing up to Bayou St John, ergo desirable property) were, for the most part, being renovated and made habitable. It has to be strange to live on a street where people live on one side of the road in modern, luxurious and architecturally designed homes of widely varying styles, and the other side consists entirely of abandoned, destroyed, stripped, or completely eliminated houses.
Since I knew to expect this, though, it wasn't quite as painful to see in person. There's no way to walk around a concrete pad was once your childhood home without a little bit of melancholy, but it didn't last. We cheered ourselves up by wandering around City Park awhile, and then we took e-baby to dinner at Camellia Grill. And then to Angelo Brocato's for cannolis. Pecan waffles and cannolis can cure almost anything.
Friday was Halloween, so we got e-baby dressed up in her costume for the post-rehersal reception. She was so proud of herself, I could have just eaten her up.
I won't give a play-by-play of the entire weekend, because if you read this blog, you were either there yourself, or wouldn't care much about the details. But I will say that e-baby was SO impressed with the fact that K is an animal doctor and immediately fell in love with her. She learned that Fish and Jen are both animal doctors, too, and so of course, she's decided to be an animal doctor herself one day.
More than anything, it was just really great to see old friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in a very long time, some of whom I could easily live next door to and be happy as a clam. We need to have an annual reunion or something, y'all. I'm so happy for Fish and Jen, and for this new stage of life together. Jen was a stunning bride and Fish is quite a catch himself (pun INTENDED!).
I posted the New Orleans trip pictures this morning. And J & K, I definitely want a copy of your pictures from the weekend. Please!
So this week we're back at work, feeling hopeful for the future, waiting for our house to be finished (a week and a half to move home again WOOOO!) and enjoying that these are the last few nights of late-night car engine exaust noises and car stereos.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Through Someone Else's Eyes
Sometimes it is refreshing to see things from another person's perspective. For example...
- Sitting on bails of hay in a farm trailer being pulled by a rusty tractor with a large, meaty-handed man at the wheel. Passing through fields of dry cornstalks, a miniature train cruising by, red and orange leaves falling from the trees. Surrounded by kids and parents, cradling the pumpkins they've just selected from the pumpkin patch. A source of unexpected bliss, which as cynical and sleepy adults, SNG and I recognized upon seeing this little reflection of the soul:
I voted today. Regardless of my choice of candidate, regardless of yours, I hope you have made your plan to go and vote, if you are eligible. In the end, whether you canvassed or made cold calls or donated money to a party or a grassroots organization or just sat on your couch watching reruns on Corner Gas, in the end, you have the same power as I do. It's more than some people will ever have in their lifetimes.
And just as lagniappe, this article gave me pause today. Sort of like realizing that your high school principal is a real person and not just an archetype, this lends a refreshing humanity to a topic that is far too easy to generalize.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
State Fair
We went to the state fair this morning with Dianaverse, PIC, c-baby and LeBon, and it was a blast. E-baby enjoyed the animals that were being shown, the flowers on exhibit, the kettle corn, the cotton candy (OH, that COTTON CANDY), the music, the bright colors.
E-baby was a real tropper about not touching any of the animals, and was pretty much OK with just looking and pointing and asking about "their mommies" and "their daddies," so when we found the Petting Zoo area of the fair, we indulged her. Also, c-baby wanted soooooo badly to touch the animals, which makes sense as she used to live near lots of animals that she was allowed to pet regularly. Poor kid, it was like they were holding out on her!
The petting zoo mostly had small goats, but also a couple of camels, some calves, and lambs. She had never had an animal eat from her hand before, and it was CRAAAAAZY COOL to her when she was able to give little disks of carrot to them. I have to admit I was watching her really carefully to be sure the hand never went toward her mouth/eyes/nose, but she never so much as scratched her head. All of us cleaned up really well afterwards, and I think she liked the tiny sink as much as the animals, because she washed and dried her hands three times.
Around time to go home, I won a teddy bear for her that has been named Cotton Candy, and he is e-baby's new best friend. Instead of falling right asleep at nap time, I could hear her in there giving Cotton Candy the low-down on her crib and its various amenities (blanket, chupons, pillow...).
Tangentially related to the fair-- the silver lining to apartment living is that we're right next to where they set off the nightly fireworks show at the fair. Every evening at 9:45, we step out onto the breezeway to front-row seats.
I'll have fair pictures up soon. Check back tomorrow when I can get some sleep. 'Night night!!
E-baby was a real tropper about not touching any of the animals, and was pretty much OK with just looking and pointing and asking about "their mommies" and "their daddies," so when we found the Petting Zoo area of the fair, we indulged her. Also, c-baby wanted soooooo badly to touch the animals, which makes sense as she used to live near lots of animals that she was allowed to pet regularly. Poor kid, it was like they were holding out on her!
The petting zoo mostly had small goats, but also a couple of camels, some calves, and lambs. She had never had an animal eat from her hand before, and it was CRAAAAAZY COOL to her when she was able to give little disks of carrot to them. I have to admit I was watching her really carefully to be sure the hand never went toward her mouth/eyes/nose, but she never so much as scratched her head. All of us cleaned up really well afterwards, and I think she liked the tiny sink as much as the animals, because she washed and dried her hands three times.
Around time to go home, I won a teddy bear for her that has been named Cotton Candy, and he is e-baby's new best friend. Instead of falling right asleep at nap time, I could hear her in there giving Cotton Candy the low-down on her crib and its various amenities (blanket, chupons, pillow...).
Tangentially related to the fair-- the silver lining to apartment living is that we're right next to where they set off the nightly fireworks show at the fair. Every evening at 9:45, we step out onto the breezeway to front-row seats.
I'll have fair pictures up soon. Check back tomorrow when I can get some sleep. 'Night night!!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Airport Open House
Our area is moving into the big-time by taking the previously odd terminal system and converting it to an inexplicable terminal system and eventually replacing the entire airport, bit-by-bit. When we moved here, construction was underway to rebuild and renovate Terminal C. Terminal A (a.k.a., The Bus Terminal) was very old and decrepit. After completion of the Terminal C renovation, Terminal A was renovated. BTW, there is no Terminal B. No sooner was the Terminal A renovation finished than the airport closed one half of Terminal C, demolished the Admiral's Club, and renovated the closed section. Admiral's Club became Admiral's Hallway, with fabric dividers between the lowly people whose companies paid an exorbitant annual fee and the lowly travelers whose companies do not. The closed section reopened, a new Admiral's Club opened, and the other half was demolished just in time to begin construction on Terminal 2.
Yes, that's right. A, 2, C.
As soon as Terminal 2 opens this month, the recently renovated Terminal C (and its new and miniaturized Admiral's Club) will be demolished, to be replaced by the Other Half of Terminal 2. Then, Terminal A will be demolished to make room for Terminal 1.
Confused? Try living here!
Terminal 2 had to be given a totally different kind of name because it cost so darn much money and it is so much bigger and fancier and prettier, that it can't possibly even be listed in the same data type as Terminals A and C.
All of this serves as segue to my story of what we did last weekend. Saturday morning was the Open House for the new Terminal 2, with free vendor samples, tours, activities for kids, TSA agents sporting brand-new royal blue shirts and being as surly as ever explaining the 3-1-1 rule (again!), K-9 officers with their own collector's cards, someone in a Curious George costume, and lots of moving walkways for people to test-ride. SNG, e-baby and I went and PIC and c-baby met us there. The kids loved it, and I was happy to have a sneak preview at my new future home-away-from-home. I didn't get to see the new Admiral's Club. I am afraid that maybe there won't be one. Or perhaps it will be temporarily located in the "family restroom" until The Other Half of Terminal 2 is finished.
And speaking of airlines, I am in Indianapolis. just for one night, but leaving on a Sunday morning really put a cramp in my mood. E-baby took it much better than I thought she would. She told me bye-bye, gave me kisses, and was really just excited about the prospect of daddy taking her to the playground as soon as they dropped me at the airport. We had a video call this evening, and she showed off several tricks. No tears. Still, I can't wait to get home tomorrow night.
Here are a few pictures from the open house:
Friday, October 10, 2008
Sick, Sick, Sick
I caught some creeping crud thing from e-baby this week. She had a fever Tuesday and stayed home on Wednesday, and I'm staying home today. I felt worse yesterday, but with all the coughing and the high risk of losing my voice (again!), and with teaching in Indianapolis on Monday, it's better to just keep my crud quietly at home.
I go sleep now.
I go sleep now.
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