A Day in the Neighborhood

Yesterday it was so gorgeous outside - I thought the clouds behind the stained glass in the girls' room made the butterflies look particularly beautiful. Slipshod's mom does stained glass for fun and made the butterfly mobile (or whatever you would call it...). She also made a beautiful lampshade for Sweet Pea when she was born, and is working on The Bug's lampshade. I just love the colors. For the best effect, click on the picture so you can see it bigger.

In the morning yesterday I took the girls outside for a walk - The Bug in the bjorn, and Sweet Pea on her tricycle. We waved to a neighbor who was home for just a few minutes getting something out of his garage, and he said, "I've got something for you two" to the girls, and gave them Serta stuffed sheep! ha ha! They're so cute. Sweet Pea's is a #44 and The Bug's says 1/2 on the side, and is about half the size of Sweet Pea's. He also gave us another 44 for Grandma, because when he gave the sheep to the girls I said, "omigosh, my mother-in-law is going to LOVE these." ha ha! AND, he gave us a Serta night light! I said, "so, I imagine this is what you do?" He said, "yeah, I'm the regional manager for Serta for this area." What a nice guy, eh? ha ha!

In the afternoon the girls and I went out to get some children's toothpaste that the local health food store had ordered for me, and then to the new Trader Joe's in town, which is only about 5 minutes away. YAY! We had a good time.

The Bug has been crawling up the stairs every chance she gets lately (which means, every time she needs a diaper change, and at bedtime), and as a result has been sleeping better! Rock on!

Google and ye Shall Receive

When Sweet Pea was a baby, and really until The Bug was born, sometimes even thereafter, I would cut her fingernails and toenails while she was taking a nap. It was just easier that way, because when she was awake she was afraid I might cut her with the clippers (which I have never done), or she just didn't want to sit still.

After The Bug was born it was not guaranteed that both girls would nap at the same time, and even if they did when her nails needed to be trimmed, I would not necessarily remember. I would cut my nails in front of her, explaining to her what I was doing and then tell her that after mine were trimmed I would cut hers. Sometimes that worked. She usually doesn't mind too much when I cut her toe nails. But it's hit or miss with the fingernails. Sometimes she doesn't care, gives me her hands and sits still. Most often, though, she will yank her hand away as soon as I hold it, once she realizes what I'm going to do (I often try this while she is watching a show on TV, because she is sometimes distracted enough by the TV not to care too much about me trimming her nails).

A friend gave me a good idea - she said that she tells her daughter, who is just a few months older than Sweet Pea, that when she gets her fingernails cut, she can have fingernail polish on them. Same goes for the toes. I was raised to think that stuff like fingernail polish was somewhat whorish, so even though I got over that for myself by high school, it was initially a little weird to actually entertain the notion of putting fingernail polish on Sweet Pea's toes. I mean, come one, she's only three.

HOWEVER, it works. And really, what is "toenail polish," as she calls it, going to hurt?

When I told her we could do the polish she wanted it on her fingernails but I told her that she still stuck her hands into her mouth too often for me to be comfortable with that. It's possible that the nasty chemicals in fingernail polish are inert once it's dry, but I don't know that for sure. So we agreed that when I cut her nails, whether on her hands or feet, she could have toenail polish.

I have put regular old fingernail polish on her toenails, but was still pretty uncomfortable putting that kind of nasty stuff on my child. I searched online to find an alternative. I used search terms that I thought might actually make my computer sprout a huge mouth and laugh me out of the room. I typed in, "non-toxic fingernail polish." You know what? Google brought up this.

We ordered today - Mahalo for Sweet Pea (her favorite color is light blue), and Plasma and Tickle Me for me. Oh, and clear, and some remover. I've never paid more than $1.50 or so for a bottle of fingernail polish before in my life, so the prices here are pretty scary, but you know what? Non-toxic on my girls (and me!) is TOTALLY worth it. (My mother-in-law, who gets her nails done every two weeks, also told me that quality polish costs a lot more than drugstore polish - I had no idea!) Besides being non-toxic, there are also claims that this stuff is actually beneficial to your nails, instead of stripping them like all the other nail polishes and removers on the market. If anyone is interested I'll report back about these products once we use them.

I really didn't think I would find what I was looking for, so since I did, I thought I'd put it out there in case anyone else is looking for something similar - or looking for ideas to help with cutting their kids' fingernails!

The Latest Developments

Yep, stairs. Here's Sweet Pea cheering The Bug on, trying to get her to come up to the halfway landing on Friday. The Bug made it up two stairs but was then distracted by my crunchy, juicy apple. Had to have a go at that. She is still not eating Cheerios or anything like that, but this past week decided to chew bits off my apple (and then let them fall onto the carpet, lovely) and has also eaten a few half ABC crackers (actually Earth's Best brand Crunchin' Blocks - but they have letters on them so we call them ABC crackers).

In language news, The Bug has started to say, "kitty cat!" She has begun to follow our cats around - crawling quickly after them and then "petting" them, which appears more to the untrained eye to be a baby giving a cat a beating. We're working on the whole notion of "gentle" with her. ha ha! The cats, however, trained by Sweet Pea as kittens, just sit and take it most times. When they've had enough they leave - they haven't smacked The Bug yet. Probably won't. They've never stood up for themselves with Sweet Pea either. Anyway, The Bug is so enamored of the kitties that she talks about them all the time, and she points all the time now, too. She says, in her super cute, chipper, high-pitched little baby voice, "KEE CAH!" Over and over. It's utterly adorable. hee hee!

Oh - and those stairs she was unsure of on Friday? She crawled up nearly all of them on Saturday. And today, ALL the way from downstairs to upstairs (17 stairs), THREE TIMES. She's outta control! ha ha

Easter

Preparation - Friday Auntie B came over and helped Sweet Pea dye two dozen eggs. Well, actually 23 eggs. One of them was missing a bit of shell (but not the membrane) and looked like it would probably explode if I boiled it, so I didn't. A full 11 of the eggs ended up light blue - Sweet Pea's favorite color. ha ha!

The Excitement of the Hunt - As it turned out, the Easter Bunny somehow knew that we would be at Auntie A & Uncle's house, and hid the eggs there - can you imagine! Sweet Pea made a happy, surprised scream with every single discovery (23 real and 12 plastic eggs). We all enjoyed the hunt a lot.

Just Checking - Clever Auntie A helps Sweet Pea check to be sure The Bug isn't sitting on any eggs.

The Feel of Wind in Her Hair - The Bug LOVES being outside and will cry to go out. She has had little exposure to fresh grass (since she spends most of her time outdoors in the Baby Bjorn following Sweet Pea, who is usually riding her tricycle, with me), so she didn't even crawl around the yard, she was having so much fun poking at the grass and enjoying the breeze, and giggling while watching her sister run around finding eggs. This is her biggest grin - something relatively new. It always makes me giggle out loud. ha ha!

Looks Like Trouble

Lynda, I think you were right - I should have just kept calling her "Miss Thing." ha ha!

Actually this isn't as bad as it looks. These are her teenage cousin's sunglasses, and what looks like attitude is actually Sweet Pea trying to keep the sunglasses on without using her hands while also trying to peer over the tops of the lenses.

A Look Into Last Weekend

Friday evening: DADDY'S HOME!

Do I need to explain this? We loooooooove teaching The Bug new tricks. Grandma D started teaching her this weeks ago and it just gets funnier and funnier - seriously! Tee hee hee!

Speaking of new tricks...

Slipshod found a good excuse to spend a couple hours potatoing on the couch.

Finally - A Working Weekend

I'm not saying that I want to spend every weekend working - but every once in a while is good. This weekend Slipshod and I made an amusing switch - I broke down most of the mountain of empty cardboard boxes that had gathered in the garage around Christmastime, and I ran the carpet cleaner around the house (in various places that needed to have pee-pee removed from the carpets), while Slipshod washed dishes and made creme brulee. He did do a little more kid watching than usual, too, but on Saturday his mom and her hubby were here to keep them occupied as well.

I am feeling GOOOOOOOOD to have finally done some work that has been nagging at me. Every day I can see what needs to be done, but for one reason or another a whole lot of the jobs are not doable when I'm here alone with the girls. Usually for safety reasons.

Now, gimme some love about this, check it out: I finally dragged the Nordic Track out of the garage and into the house! Okay, I probably really don't deserve kudos for that until I actually start using it - regularly - but I am excited to have it in the house now. That gives me a MUCH bigger chance of getting a workout than having it all dirty and dusty in the garage. And as boring as working out on that thing is, it has helped me get fit and lose a bunch of pounds in the past.

Slipshod is not happy with his creme brulee - it was his first try - but I thought it was great, and he had fun using a torch to brown the sugar on top of it. ha ha! Ever since we got a high definition TV, he has started watching cooking shows, since there is an HD cooking channel. It's definitely rubbing off on him and giving him ideas. We love to watch Alton Brown's show "Good Eats." He is such a hoot! "Ace of Cakes" is also fun to watch, as well as "Dinner Impossible." It's very exciting for me that Slipshod is intrigued enough to try his hand at cooking. He has been thinking of ways to snazz up the usual boring eggs I make for breakfast, and has fun making things he has never tried before.

As for the kids - The Bug is trying to kill me again. I can't wait until the next set of teeth come in. Sweet Pea is doing great, though. Sleeping well, playing with The Bug and teaching her things, etc.

Oh - and The Bug is really getting the signing thing now. She watches intently and tries new signs, and it is so exciting to actually be communicating with her!

What's Up, Buttercup?

We've had quite a busy few days here recently. Grandma D (my mom) was here Thursday and spent the night, and on Friday night Grandma S (Slipshod's mom) and Boopa came over and spent the night. That is an unusual occurrence because they only live half an hour from here, but my sister is coming this weekend with two of her kids and the foreign exchange student her family is hosting this year, and we weren't sure when, and Grandma S and Boopa wanted to make sure they got to see Sweet Pea and The Bug this weekend.

Turns out that my sister and the kids aren't coming until midday tomorrow, so I was thankfully able to get the laundry under control today (there were baskets and baskets of clean laundry in the living room and more piles on the couch, and a few more piles of dirty laundry upstairs - don't ask me where it all came from, I'm not entirely sure!). There is still so much more to do, but I am trying to be at peace with the reality that this house is not going to be spic and span when they arrive. However, having to grandparently playmates for the girls here all day today helped me to get a lot done, so I'm glad that it looks better than it did, at least.

I could yack a lot more, but really need to go do some more cleaning. Just wanted to make an appearance.

Let's Try That Again

Okay, I tried to write some stuff yesterday but never got around to hitting the "publish" button because I wasn't finished. Hit the button this morning and lost the whole thing. It was just a list of what's going on around here anyway, nothing exciting.

Before I get going again on our stuff, let me just give a quick twins update. One twin is doing beautifully and just needs to grow big enough to go home. The other twin is actually doing better as well. She will still need lots of care over the next year but things are looking somewhat better than before and hopes are high.

As for our household... the baby gates went up at the top and bottom of the staircase Sunday night, after The Bug spent a good part of the weekend trying to crawl up the first step. She's not even 100% on crawling, but just can't wait to try the next thing! Oh - I have noticed recently that she can roll from her belly to her back. Apparently she just doesn't have much occasion to use that skill, which I didn't even think she had for a long time. Lately she has been using it in bed when she rolls onto her belly and wakes up wondering how she got there.

Sweet Pea is having a great time trying to teach The Bug how to eat crunchies. The Bug loves this new dinner theater concept.

Just when I thought I might go so far as to blog that The Bug had begun to sleep better again, the night before last she woke me up nearly every hour. She followed that night up with a no-napping day yesterday. During the afternoon I noticed that she had cut her second eye tooth. I hope that was the problem. Last night she slept *somewhat* better, but anything would have been an improvement over the night before. By dinnertime last night she was so exhausted that once she was finished with her food, she very nearly fell asleep on her placemat. The only reason she didn't end up with her face in her food was that Slipshod was holding up her head.

Last night would have been a better sleep night for me, since The Bug slept better, except that Sweet Pea awoke at11pm and stayed awake for TWO HOURS. She hardly ever wakes up in the night, but when she does, for some reason it takes her hours to get back to sleep. Add to that Slipshod's snoring and The Bug waking during Sweet Pea's awake time, and you've got a recipe for me tearing my hair out and going to sleep on the couch. I should have. Bleh.

Oops, gotta go, The Bug doesn't want to be in the stroller anymore. Sweet Pea has been feeding her and playing with her while The Bug has been strapped into the stroller, looking out the sliding glass door into the back yard. It was Sweet Pea's idea.

Babies on the Brain *UDATED*

Last Friday was Slipshod's birthday, and from now on he will share his natal anniversary with a special set of twin girls who were born to very good friends of ours. I don't know how much detail it would be prudent to go into, since these are not my own children I'm blogging about and I don't want to overstep any boundaries. However, I thought it would be alright if I asked you all to send prayers, good wishes, happy thoughts, positive energy, and the like to the two little cuties. They were born early so they are in the NICU but are, as I understand it, good weights for preemies. The smaller twin is doing quite well and will hopefully be home in a couple weeks. The bigger one had some complications and things are still going on with her so please send good vibes to the Universe to help her get that tiny body and all its vital processes organized soon.

**Please redouble your prayers, etc. for the baby - she is critical and her parents are being asked to make an unbearably difficult decision.**

Free the Clutter!

Over the years I have come to realize that I am somewhat of a packrat. Due to being a sentimental soul, I have a large stash of letters saved, starting from the time my family moved across the country (age 14). Due to moving across the country (and back) again after graduating college and not being able to take all my stuff AND then not getting back to it later, I still have lots of clothes and other things at my parents' house. In my own house there are many, many things I do not use. Some of them I save for sentimental reasons, some because "I might need them later," and some just because for some reason I am not ready to let go of them.

Here I am at my parents' house this week, and while it is a neat and tidy, they have a lot of stuff as well. But the real eye-opener to my packratty nature did not come until the second day we were here.

Sweet Pea had been running around outside playing, but came back in because she was looking for Grandpa and thought he might be in the house. I told her I thought he was down by the barn, hooking up a sprayer to his tractor (turned out to be his itty bitty tractor mower instead) so he could spray his fruit trees. I told her I would walk down with her and show her the barn and she could see what Grandpa was doing.

As we walked by the back of the house we heard a noise and looked, and there came Dad, walking out of the garage. Sweet Pea pointed to the doorway and said, "I want to go there, to the dirty place!" Dad and I both had a good laugh and then I took her in and showed her the tiny, extremely cluttered and dusty bathroom that is in the garage (it has a toilet, a big wash tub, and a tiny window, all in a corner of the garage, closely surrounded by primered drywall, with a sliding wooden door). Then we looked at Mom's car and Dad's car and some of the things in between.

Her curiosity was quickly sated in the garage so we went back outside and walked down the hill to the barn. The garage door on one end of the barn was open so I asked if she wanted to look inside. She nodded and we walked in about two feet and looked around. She wanted to know where the animals were. I laughed. That is what you would think would be in a barn, wouldn't you? But no. "This barn," I told her, "is for... stuff." I had never really thought about it that way, but it is true.

We looked around. Dad's old pickup truck (which was already old and run down when he bought it 10 or so years ago) sat rusting amongst my grandmother's furniture, which is covered but still just sitting, unceremoniously, abandoned in the barn. My dad's seafoam green 1963 Pontiac Catalina, scene of many a family vacation and squabble and singalong (imagine 6 of us on 2 hot, vinyl-covered bench seats, often driving 8 hours per day at the start and end of a trip) sits gleaming, beautiful for its age but not running, amongst the cobwebs.

There is a huge orange tractor which I have never seen my dad use. I'm sure he got a "good deal" on it and figured he'd use it around his 5 acres, but I don't think it has seen the light of day since it got abandoned with the rest of the memorabilia in the barn. The old red Troy Built rototiller is stashed in as well, along with the ancient green shredder, old 2x4s, and a large wooden garden cart with bicycle wheels.

Upstairs - yes, there is an upstairs over half the barn, but it can only be reached by way of a very long ladder - there is more old furniture and lord knows what else.

Sweet Pea took a look around but once she saw the cobwebs, she turned and ran. She is petrified of cobwebs - I have no idea why. Slipshod and I do not react to them, so she didn't learn it from us.

I walked away with a little forgiveness for myself. How can I help but collect clutter when getting rid of it was never modeled for me? Obviously we have to take personal responsibility at some age for these things, but if you don't grow up with a behavior, it can take you many years to figure things out for yourself.

However - my mom has been going through the house and the garage for the past few years, sorting through things cabinet by cabinet, box by box, and getting rid of stuff right and left.

I have been trying to at least do a little bit per day at my house, though some days are better than others. It's a long process, since some of this stuff I have from childhood.

Today I think I will work on the things in "my" closet here at Mom and Dad's.

I Think Spring is Creeping In

No, that statement is not based on the weather. While it was sunny today, just a few days ago it was cold and blustery and POURING rain outside, and I hear that more rain is expected next week.

But inside the house, things are changing. Rooms are getting cleaned up and rearranged. The Bug is too big for her co-sleeper, so I'm putting it away. She's too able to sit up for the bouncy chair to be safe anymore, and she doesn't want to be in it anyway, so I'm putting that away too. The swing also very suddenly lost its magic over her and she is also trying to sit forward and get out of that when I put her in it, so yep, I'm putting that away too.

In a small way I am a little sad that The Bug is already too big for these things, that she is growing so quickly and - yes - crawling (more on that later). But in a very large way, I am practically having a party to celebrate being able to get these things out of the way. The swing in particular takes up so much space, and there is no really good place to put it. The bouncy chair has been out in the hallway at the top of the stairs because we used it in different rooms and that was a good middle place to put it so I could pick it up on my way to whatever room it needed to be in.

Our new sleep situation is as follows: We have pushed our California King bed into a corner of our bedroom and all four of us are sleeping in it. In order for all of us to have enough room, we turned ourselves sideways on the mattress. Slipshod is the only one who notices any difference in length, but his feet aren't sticking out. Because he sleeps with his knees curled up a little bit, I think. But he seems to be sleeping just fine and isn't upset about the arrangement.

The Bug is getting used to sleeping with us all night every night now. At first she was not liking it much but I have now figured out that was because she didn't want our covers on her. She would kick them off and then get cold. So, back to the Halo sleep sack for her. We only had one in the small size so I have ordered a medium from the diaper service, which they will bring with our next delivery. Yay! For now she is in the small sleep sack and it is still longer than her legs, so it is working. She is warm and sleeping better.

Speaking of her sleeping better - I don't know how excited I should get about this because maybe it's just for a couple days - but The Bug has suddenly started sleeping well again! I am STOKED. The night before last she woke up a lot during the night but her last bunch of sleep before we all woke up in the morning lasted 5 hours. That's much better than things were going for a long time. And last night was even better. She slept for 8 hours from the time I put her to bed until 3:45am, and then she was awake for a little bit and nursed. Then she slept for nearly 3 more hours until we all woke up at the usual time. YEAH! I am not feeling the effects of longer sleep chunks yet, but hope to soon. Right now my body is still in crisis mode, I think, and can't quite believe that it has been allowed to sleep for 4-5 hours at a time.

Back to putting away baby things. Now we take the next step, and again I have mixed feelings. You see, we are done. I don't want to be pregnant or go through labor again, and I am at my absolute limit with two children. More power to the families who want and have more, but this is it for us. Because 95% of the parenting is on me, and I think I might actually go crazy in the throw-her-in-an-institution kind of way if I had three kids or more.

That means, goodbye baby things. I have already passed along the 0-3m and 3-6m clothing to some good friends who are expecting twing girls any day now, and the rest of the clothes will go to them as The Bug grows out of them. The baby swing was a hand-me-down to us, so I will give it away to another family who needs it. The bouncy chair was very cheap so I will give that away as well. I'm planning to sell the co-sleeper, but the rest of it can just go.

While I know we're done, at the same time it feels a bit rushed to be shooing these things out the door. But why wait? Somebody else can use them and they'll serve no purpose in our garage.

As for crawling... The Bug has been making new leaps every day in her attempts to move toward objects, across the room, etc. For the past month or so she has been able to push herself further and further backward, frustratingly away from the objects of her desire. These days, she also turns sideways when moving backward, so she's making the movements she can do work for her. For the past week or so she has worked very hard on getting her bootie up in the air and rocking. She made a few successful moves forward on her hands and toes, with a couple lip stands along the way. Now she is trying harder to get her knees under her, and tonight right before bedtime, she truly crawled a bit on her hands and knees. I had a feeling she would get the hang of this faster than Sweet Pea did. Sweet Pea was already moving across the floor at this age, but she was doing the "Army crawl," which I also called "swimming," from 8 months to 11 months. I think The Bug is going to discover true crawling any day now and just go from there.

Interesting note: She STILL does not know how to roll from her tummy to her back. Sweet Pea has tried to show her, but The Bug doesn't care - now she's mobile!

Sweet Pea LOVES to play peek-a-boo with The Bug, and the bug loves it just as much - maybe even more. It is so cute to watch and hear them play, and exciting for me to see them be more interactive, because sometimes I can actually leave them playing and go do something else across the room. For instance, last night while they were in the family room playing peek-a-boo in their play tent & tube, I walked a few feet to the kitchen and set the table and got dinner ready. Oh, how I have waited for these days - and I imagine it will only get better, though I know that with more mobility will come more screaming. Sweet Pea is not excited that The Bug can get to her toys now. She's good at sharing some of the time, but on her terms. She refuses to accept that we are not going to buy The Bug her own set of Legos, building blocks, etc. and that what has until now been hers is now theirs. But, I imagine that will come soon enough. And there will always be disputes. They are siblings, after all.

The Haps

Our heater is on the fritz this weekend. It's not too bad, but it's chilly. The *emergency* electrician can't make it out until Monday. Good thing we live in a near-sea-level area of California - yeesh!

The Bug is rocking on hands & knees, getting up on her hands & toes, and can really get around on her tummy. Can push backward, but that's not what she's trying to do, so it's frustrating for her. Yesterday my mom taught her "so big," and her enjoyment of the game and response whenever Mom asked her, "how big are you?" had me in hysterics. She didn't do it today, though.

Familial (mine) disapproval of Sweet Pea having her own computer. It's not like we bought her a new one or hooked it up to the internet. It's a very old computer of mine, and until someone at work gave Slipshod some hand-me-down CD ROM kid games, all she did was type letters in Word and play with the paint program. Now, thanks to the kind person at Slipshod's work, she can also play preschool games (mostly matching and memory games). She is scary good at figuring out how to get around on the CD ROM menus by herself, can turn on the computer herself and get into the programs, and even switch out the CD ROMs. Dude. But, as I said to my parents yesterday, "what do you expect from a child of Alpha Geek?"

Obviously, a visit from my parents occurred Friday/Saturday. Here's what I'm doing wrong with The Bug now: while Mom has to concede that The Bug is eating solids now, apparently I am not getting enough food into her. No further mention (by which I mean pushing) of Cheerios or teething biscuits, but by golly, she's behind developmentally because she is not waving "bye bye." Whatever. I imagine that if we ever DID that with her, she might learn it. ha ha!

Mom spent time reading aloud to me from one of my parenting reference books. Things like, "don't do anything to reward your child for waking up at night. You can speak reassuringly to her, but don't pick her up, don't feed her, and whatever you do, DON'T bring her into your bed!" I had a good laugh. I know that my parenting choices make mothering harder on me than if I could follow the advice in some of these books, but thank you very much, authors, I will do what feels right, not what you, who do not know me or my family, tell me to do. I love having my children sleep with me, and I will not make them cry through 21 months of teething alone in a dark room.

Despite the chilly winds and cloudy skies, the girls and I have been getting out for more walks recently. We're WAY close (once out of our small neighborhood, just about 2 blocks & across the street) from the grocery store, so even though Slipshod has been driving my car to work most days (the steering in my van is less painful on his arms than his own car's steering), we can still get out to restock on baby food and ice cream. There is also a grassy park (no swings, but pretty - trees and grass and grape vines) on our side of the main street, across from the shopping center, so we can - and do - fart around over there as well. Unfortunately, speaking of things that come out the backside, every time we do go to that park I end up stepping in dog poop. But it's still worth it to get out for a walk.

My sister found a breadmaker for me on the local Freecycle group. She went so far as to respond to the lady and go pick it up for me, isn't that totally sweet? I had always thought it would be fun to try one but never wanted to actually buy one, especially because we already have many many appliances and not that much counter space. BUT - it was free, so now I can play with it and see what all the hype was about 10 years ago. ha ha! Amusingly, the model of this thing appears to be Australian, so the recipes in the user manual/cookbook are written in milliliters and grams and call for things like treacle. But, somewhere along the line I read that any 1 pound recipe will work well with it (I think it was the lady who gave it away who said that), so I've looked up some recipes online and can't wait to try it. I just need to find some time to read all about how to use the thing before I throw in any ingredients.

That's about it. Nothing very new or exciting. But thought I'd post while I have a quiet moment. That's actually pretty exciting, that I have one of those. ha ha! But that's about it.

Out and About

Yesterday was so gorgeous that we just couldn't waste it at home. It took us a while to get everyone showered and dressed and get all the drinks, snacks and diapers together, but in the afternoon we took the girls to the zoo. It was so great to be able to walk around in shirtsleeves in the 75 degree weather after all the rain and chill we've had this winter! The lions looked pretty happy, too.

We had only brought snacks to eat in the car, nothing that really constituted lunch, so we had to get lunch at the zoo. MISTAKE. Slipshod waited in line for a good hour for tuna on white bread. Yuck. But it was food, and we ate it. While he waited and ordered and waited some more, I took the girls for a walk around part of the zoo. We got to see the tigers up pretty close and Sweet Pea, with her love of all things catlike, was enthralled. Interestingly, she seemed even more enthralled by the yellow anaconda, but I think the real draw there was the cavelike place they had the anaconda cage. We also saw some LOUD macaws and some monkeys swinging from branch to branch.

When she saw the over-the-park sky chair things Sweet Pea wanted to go for a ride. I told her she would have to wait for Daddy and eat lunch first. Once we did those things, she dragged Slipshod right to the ride and they waited in line. As The Bug and I waited, me pushing her majesty in her fabulous rolling chair for her first ride in the "big" part (i.e., not in her infant seat, but actually sitting up in the stroller), I remembered with horror how very scared of heights Sweet Pea is. I don't know why - but she has quite the fear of heights. I found Slipshod and Sweet Pea in line and asked Slipshod if Sweet Pea knew what the ride was. He said that he had been explaining it to her the whole time they were in line, and continued to do so until they got on the chair. I was sure I would her an earsplitting shriek of terror when their chair went up a little bit past the platform, but she was totally fine on the whole ride up and back. Whew! She and her daddy had a great time riding over the park, seeing the lions, tigers, wildebeests, camels, giraffes, etc. from above.

I'm glad they got to see the animals that way, because by the time they got off the chairs it was closing time and although we were not shooed out of the zoo, all the animals were being fed behind the fences, and being "put away" for the night. I hope we can go back again soon and get there earlier in the day so we can see more.

As for The Bug - she napped just a little bit in the car before we got there. I carried her in the Bjorn for part of the zoo trip, but we both got hot and she seemed to want to see a bit more, so once Sweet Pea was out of the stroller I put The Bug in. At first she was like, "um, Mom, are you going to leave me here? This is a little weird." Then she figured out that the seat belt was neat to chew on (she's so little that she could pull up the huge bit of slack hanging outside the buckle and chew on that), and she enjoyed looking at everything as I strolled her around. She didn't make a sound the whole time we walked around, except to hum/coo happily when she saw a lot of birds flying and landing on the wires above our heads at one point.

Of course, the not sleeping made for a 3-hour bedtime last night (she fell asleep very quickly but woke up less than an hour later, then couldn't get back to sleep), but I don't think she woke up too much during the night. Two times, maybe three, I think. I lose track nowadays because I just bring her in bed with the rest of us and fall asleep nursing her so I can get some rest too.

Today the weather is not quite as glorious but it is still bright, if not exactly sunny. Not exactly overcast, either - hard to describe. Grandma and Boopa are visiting and The Bug is FINALLY napping. She cries and wakes up when I put her on her back and the swing is losing its magic over her, so I decided to try putting her on her tummy to sleep. It worked, and she has now been asleep for a whole half hour - so exciting! I hope she takes a good nap. For once.

She is really getting all over the place on the floor. Still not truly crawling, but definitely making progress in that direction. Getting Sweet Pea to keep paper, crayons, and too-small-for-baby toys off the floor is a daily struggle, but I imagine that's par for the course with two kids. I am amused at the way The Bug tries to launch herself out of our arms and take head dives when she sees something she's interested in. I can't tell if she's more gregarious about that than Sweet Pea was, or if I just can't remember this stage very well with Sweet Pea.

I'm Back

Not that anyone missed me, but my internet connection was down all week. Something broke upstairs. Slipshod fixed it tonight and it's good to be able to get "out" again!

I think everyone is healthy around here again. No more coughs or snot, and the girls finished up their antibiotics last week (it was only a 5 day course). Every day I wonder if I should take The Bug back to make sure her ears are clear, though, because her sleep is still even more messed up than it was pre-cold. This results in her frequently touching her ears when I lay her down on the changing table. However - she has reached the unfortunate age where she ALWAYS cries when I put her on the changing table (in fact, if I so much as walk into the room holding her she starts to complain), and she is always tired, and she is the kind of kid who plays with her ears when she's tired. So I am really pretty certain that her ears are fine. She is not sticking her thumbs into them like she was when she was sick; I think that's an indication of them being better. ha ha!

Anyway - The Bug cut tooth #4 on Monday the 12th, and seems like she's got more coming any day, the way she's gnawing on everything including the kitchen table (she's not actually hanging from it like the little sister in the Lemony Snickets movie, but only because she can't walk yet, I think...).

Sweet Pea has had a couple 12-hour nights of sleep, one even longer, and I have to say, those days are almost always so wonderful. She is so much sweeter and more cheerful when she sleeps that long at night. And she doesn't need a nap the following day, which gives us more time (well, it did when The Bug used to sleep during the day) to do fun things together while The Bug naps.

That is all... nothing exciting or fun or quirky, just the daily grind. I am having a very difficult time catching up on the sleep lost during the cold, but had a good night the other night. Probably because I went to bed a couple hours earlier than usual. Which means tonight I am not doing myself any favors by being up so late. Duh.

Will The Trial Never End?

The poor Bug - I'm not sure she's getting better. I mean, she is definitely better than she was a couple days ago, because she's smiling and playing again. However - it still looks like her ears hurt pretty badly when I lie her down flat. She cries and bats at both of her ears. I don't know if the antibiotic isn't working because she's not taking enough of it (meaning, she is spitting too much out), or if she just still has too much congestion in her head for her ears to feel better.

She is still waking up REALLY often at night and is nearly impossible to get back to sleep. She is tired and really wants to go back to sleep, but it just doesn't seem to be happening. Until she's been awake for a couple hours and just can't stay awake any longer. I forsee another trip to the doctor's office next week if this doesn't clear up soon. Today and tomorrow she will have her last two doses of antibiotic. Today she is more congested and is coughing more than she was yesterday, and nose is running more. We'll see what happens... of course, as luck would have it, our doctor's last day at work before vacation (or whatever - maybe it's a convention) was last Thursday. He's out for two weeks now. There are other doctors in the office, but the one there who most often sees children is... not our kind of person. VERY opinionated and pushy about what she feels is the right thing - she's one of those doctors who doesn't give parents the benefit of the doubt and doesn't seem to think that we can have working brains and our own educated opinions, because WE don't have medical degrees. I guess we can ask to see someone else. I think they're all family physicians. I should really find the girls a pediatrician up here, but I think that since we've already taken this problem to our current doctor and have called in and talked with his physician's assistant, we need to finish this out with the people who know what's going on.

Can I just say, I'm so bummed about the ear infections. This is the first time either of the girls has had one (well, actually they both have two). I'm very happy that Sweet Pea made it 3.5 years without one, but am bummed that The Bug didn't make it through the first year without one. I remember when Sweet Pea was a baby, our doctor said that if a baby can make it through the first year without an ear infection, they're doing very well. Oh well. This cold apparently lent itself to ear infections, since there was so much phlegm involved. Yech. And The Bug DID make it 8 months. She never even had a cold or anything until she was 6 months old. So I guess she's still doing pretty well.

Isn't She Sly?

I had a feeling The Bug was slipping something in unbeknownst to us... sure enough, yesterday while carrrying her I heard her grinding her teeth! That means she's got one on top now. Her third tooth came in - the top front left one. So, I guess the fourth will follow soon. Yay!

She is still coughing until she turns beet red and can't breathe sometimes, but not as much, and everything is getting much better rather quickly, which is SUCH a relief. Yesterday morning The Bug didn't seem a whole lot better, but over the course of the day yesterday she improved really really rapidly.

Sweet Pea's cough is still here but doesn't surface very often and is mostly dry now. She's doing great. Last night I left all the couch cushions, etc. downstairs and Slipshod came back to the family bed. His cough is much better too, but it's amazing how just a couple nights with him out of the room can make me forget his snoring! Oh well. The Bug slept much better, mostly in her co-sleeper propped up (but part of the time in bed with the rest of us). So I finally got to sleep a little better too. Whew.

Oh yes - Slipshod's grandma went home yesterday from the hospital. I guess she had two mini-strokes over the weekend (did I already say that?). We had heard that she had some slightly slurred speech and something else that didn't feel or work right, but I can't remember what. Slipshod went to see her yesterday at lunchtime and said she seemed totally normal to him, so either the slurred speech had cleared up, or it's so minor that he didn't notice. Glad she's home, but I hope the doctors told her stuff she can do to try to avoid more strokes... the doctor did give her a "Life Alert" button necklace thing, so at least she'll be able to get help right away next time - though she could have called any family member over the weekend. Yeesh.

Over the Hump - I Hope!

Okay, here's the latest: The night before last I slept sitting up again, for the third night in a row. The Bug slept more fitfully than the previous night, and kept pushing away from me, probably because it's just too damned hot for both of us to sleep with her in the Bjorn! But she has needed me to hold her upright so she can breathe, and obviously I can't go to sleep holding her; she'd slide down and end up in my lap on her back or her face if I fell asleep that way. Thus, the Bjorn.

Yesterday morning Sweet Pea woke up and sat up at 4am. I kept telling her to lie back down and go back to sleep, it was the middle of the night, etc. She finally told me, "my ears hurt when I lie down." I had two conflicting thoughts: 1) she keeps waking up and seeing me holding the baby, so she just wants attention, and 2) if she's waking up at 4am and saying that her ears hurt, her ears probably hurt. She didn't get back to sleep until 6:30am, after a lot of pleading for me to lie down and cuddle with her. I knew she didn't feel good and besides that she has been becoming more frustrated and bummed by me carrying the baby around all the time and not holding her has much, so I felt pretty sad about not being able to lie down with her and comfort her, but... I just couldn't. The Bug had to be kept upright, and also needed to be kept asleep as much as possible.

After Sweet Pea went back to sleep I got up with The Bug to change her diaper and it was nearly dry. I went downstairs to tell Slipshod that something had to change. The Bug hadn't thrown up again, but just couldn't breathe and was getting more and more tired and not wanting to nurse or drink from a cup. I had stopped feeding her solid food two days prior both in order to get her to poop wet stuff again and stop with the tiny bricks, and also because feeding her seemed like too much to deal with when she didn't want to be set down. And dammit, I wanted some sleep.

The Bug's temperature had been slightly elevated (98.3 or so axillary, which means 99.3 oral or 100.3 rectal - and all four of us have a normal resting temperature of 97.9) for a couple days and she just didn't seem to be getting better, so Slipshod stayed home from work again yesterday and called the doctor's office as soon as it opened at 8am. They had some free appointment times, so Slipshod and I moved as fast as we could to both get showers before we had to leave. The appointments weren't for 3 hours, but we are still seeing our doctor in Los Gatos, and now that we've moved up here, that's an hour's drive. AND, there's always the possibility of traffic. So we managed to get ready in time to leave an hour and a half before the appointment time.

All morning before we left Sweet Pea was begging to be allowed to stay home. She didn't want to go see the doctor. She wanted us to call various family members and ask them to leave work and come stay with her, and wanted us to just take The Bug to the doctor. She insisted over and over again that her ears felt better. I asked her if she was lying to me in the middle of the night that they had hurt and she said, "no," then later said, "yes, I was lying to you - PLEASE let me stay home!" We told her that she must be lying to us one way or the other - either they hurt or they didn't, and that lying was not okay.

Turns out that she may have been telling the truth both times. When the doctor looked in her ears, he said she had a broken blood blister on one of her ear drums (!). He didn't seem too concerned about it, but said that she definitely has an ear infection in both ears. He said that the blister was probably full in the middle of the night and was causing pressure that would have hurt Sweet Pea, but that once it broke, she probably felt better.

The Bug's ears were getting red inside. She did not have an active infection yet, but the doctor said she was right on the verge. By bedtime she was batting at her ears and was miserable. I mean, she had already been miserable for three days, but it seemed markedly worse at bedtime last night. But with her, it's hard to tell... she plays with her ears when she's tired anyway.

So, they're both on antibiotics for ear infections in both ears. Sweet Pea says she feels fine, though; I think she only had any ear pain when she woke up the other night. The Bug is still miserable because of all the plegm, but last night she slept propped up (on the foam wedge we used for her to combat her reflux as a newborn, and a thin pillow under that) in her co-sleeper and I was finally able to lie down and sleep on my back. She woke up every hour except for the couple times that she slept for two hours, but that was WAY better than the three nights preceding. AND, she is nursing a lot more often now. WHEW! I fed her banana baby food for dinner last night and for breakfast this morning. Since she is finally pooping normally again (no more bricks! Yay!) I think I will give her some oatmeal baby cereal with her baby food tonight for dinner. She is definitely very interested in the milk and the solids now - even warm water from a cup! Wahoo! She is still clingy but is playing more and is able to be away from me (playing on the floor, or sitting with Daddy) for short periods of time before missing me. That is progress from a couple days ago when she only wanted me to hold her at all times.

As for the medicine - Sweet Pea says it tastes awful, but she takes hers just fine. I never appreciated how good she is at taking medicine until The Bug came along. She spits everything out, so we have to hold her almost on her back in order to get anything in. We have to hold her hands away from her mouth so she doesn't knock the dropper away or grab it, hold her head facing forward, and then we have to cram the dropper as far back in the side of her mouth as we can and give her small bits at a time so she has less chance of spitting out the medicine. Then we have to hold her there until she swallows, which usually occurs as part of a huge sobbing fit. Then repeat until the dropper is empty. It's just lovely. BUT, they've both had two doses now (our doctor gives us Zithromax for them so we mercifully only have to give them one dose per day), and there are only three doses left. Whew. It's good to be on this side of this crap.

As if all this with the girls weren't enough, yesterday evening Slipshod's mom called to tell me that her mother was in the hospital. She's out now - went home today at lunchtime - but she appears to have had two mini strokes over the weekend. She has had another mini stroke before. We're talking about the queen of the martyrs, as was demonstrated when she told her doctor, "I felt weird on Saturday but wasn't sure what was going on. Then Sunday night I felt awful and thought I may have had a mini stroke but I didn't want to call and bother anyone because it was 2:30am... so I waited until Monday morning." The doctor told her that time counts for everything after a stroke, and that if she can get to the hospital within three hours of a stroke, they can help minimize any damage that might occur as a result of the stroke. Grandma said, "Oh, that's okay, I'm DNR." (DNR = do not recussitate) The doctor said, "well, that's all well and good, but strokes don't usually kill you. They're much more likely to paralyze you." I really hope that she heard him on that and will be less martyrlike about this in the future if she has more of these. But she probably won't want to bother anyone... GAH!

My Butt Hurts

... because I got what sleep I could last night while sitting up, propped on pillows, with the baby on the front of me in the Bjorn. It was very hot. And my butt hurts. Did I already say that? I am living in sort of a bubble here, so I lost track of what day it was and forgot to put the diapers out last night for the service to pick up. So we have a new bag of clean ones, but we also have a big stinky bag full from last week that we have to keep until next Monday night. Ugh.

The good part: We both actually did get a little bit of sleep - more than the night before.

Slipshod has been sleeping downstairs on the couch since he has a loud cough too. Sweet Pea still wants to sleep upstairs with me, though, even though I make tons of noise and move around all night, trying to keep the baby upright so she can breathe, nurse her when she needs it, and then burp her for a long time afterward, hoping to avoid another eruption of snot and breastmilk. But once she gets to sleep, Sweet Pea can sleep through just about anything.

More good news: The Bug has managed to keep 4 feedings (nursings) down since the last time she threw up, WHEW. Her diapers were getting drier and drier last night - but she awoke with a very wet one, and has nursed successfully a couple times today. The coughing is horrible and her face is all runny. But she's breathing.

I currently have her upstairs in her swing, hoping that she'll drop back to sleep so I can take a shower. I didn't get one yesterday and am feeling rather disgusting.

Two nights ago I tried putting The Bug in her swing, but apparently its magic isn't active at night. Last night I tried putting her in her car seat, but she woke up 30 seconds later and just wanted me to hold her. AND, if not belted in, she can squirm out of the car seat. So - looks like I just have to hold her all night until the worst of this cold is over. I really hope tonight is the last night of this... I just want to lie down and sleep!

But, more good news: The other night when I had a sore throat and headache seems to have been the worst of it for me. I am still WAY better off than anyone else who lives here. Whew!

Slipshod returned to work today, but will come home if needed. He went out and got breakfast for me before he left, which was nice. Now I just need a personal shopper to go out and get me some new shirts and some sweat pants. I STILL don't have the rest of my clothes, and due to all the baby spew, I am now wearing a pair of shorts from a set of summer pajamas, and one of Slipshod's long-sleeve T-shirts that he wears at night to keep his arms warm (yes, his RSI is still very bad).

Yesterday The Bug did not want to nurse much so I tried to pump in order to make sure I kept producing milk for her today. Apparently she doesn't suck very hard, though, because the pump on its lowest setting HURT! I couldn't use it for fear of making my nipples too sore to nurse for real. That was my electric pump. I also have a manual Avent Isis pump, but lost the last little valve down the drain. Gotta call Babies R Us today and see if they carry replacement valves so Slipshod can go get one for me at lunchtime. Whee... the fun never ends!

Oh, and for the record: The swing doesn't work when the baby's sick, either. So I woke her up by moving her for nothing, and now she's miserable and can't breathe AND is making more mucus by crying. Augh! Gotta go.

Damned Turkeys

They got me. I fought valiantly, but they got me down. I'm sick. Dammit. And so is The Bug. Which means, of course, NO sleep for me, because she can't sleep lying down - can't breathe that way - and to make matters worse for me, she doesn't seem to be able to sleep unless I'm holding her. IN MY ARMS. Yes, the Baby Bjorn will keep her against me, but I have to use my ARMS. AUGH! So, almost no sleep last night. I'm sure that will help me get better really quickly. Also, today she has reached the lovely point of "I'm-a-baby-so-I-don't-know-how-to-clear-my-throat," which means that when she gets too much phlegm going on, she has to throw up to breathe again. Joy. At least it's only snot and breastmilk... she hasn't had any solid food for two days because she is STILL pooping teeny, tiny bricks and only after lots and lots of effort for each of them.

Slipshod is, of course, all ready to go back to work after his weekend of being sick at home. Though thankfully, he's going to work from home today, whew. Sweet Pea is better every day, hooray. She's not waking up coughing anymore, and her daytime cough doesn't sound so awful and body-wracking anymore.

I am hoping that I'll just get a glancing blow. So far I've got a sore throat and post nasal not-drip (it's just sitting there). Oh, and I had a headache last night at bedtime. But hopefully it won't get any worse... wish me luck. Going to lounge in the couch-bed now with the kids and watch "Cars."

Mamas are Strong!

Everybody's sick here. Except me, of course. Yeah! ha ha

Slipshod has been sort of sick for over a week, but of course kept going to work.

Sweet Pea has been sick for a few days and thank goodness her cough is getting a little better. Two nights ago and yesterday every time she got on a coughing jag I was afraid she was going to either puke or cough up a lung. It's still bad, but the jags aren't happening quite as frequently or lasting for as long. She still has a mild fever, because she can't seem to have any tiny little germ in her body without getting a fever, but it's nothing serious. Nose running like crazy and every time I try to school her in proper noseblowing techniques, she says it hurts and pushes the tissue away, and continues to make that yucky snorkeling noise people make when they've got a gallon of snot just waiting to pour out.

The Bug and I were doing well to all appearances until today, though The Bug had been clingly for the past five days or so - which is unusual for her. She's got other issues, though... I seem to have plugged her up with rice cereal and other solid foods (though I think the rice cereal is the culprit). I stopped feeding her the cereal a few days ago but have kept giving her the fruits and veggies, and two days ago on the advice of our family physician I tried giving her some apple juice with her water, but she was pretty pissed about that and wanted nothing to do with it. But she has been drinking a little more water lately. However, today ever since she got up from her nap she has seemed tired and cranky and has spent a whole lot of time with her little head laid on my chest, resting. She does seem to be trying very hard to poop today, though so far nothing has materialized. The past couple days, though, she was quite the little pebble factory.

So, we will not be going to the birthday party we were supposed to attend tomorrow, darn it. I do hope that Slipshod feels better tomorrow. When he gets sick he sleeps and doesn't talk much. We've watched a whole ton of TV today, because I just don't want to deal with parenting two sick kids AND a sick daddy without any input from anyone else (the cats are just not help at all).

I must say, though, I'm actually doing a surprisingly good job of taking care of the house through all this. I think it's a reaction to not being able to make anyone feel better - I'm excercising control where and how I can.

Anyway, wish us luck... and health...

Father-Daughter Conversations

Upon Slipshod's return home from work at night, when he walks into the kitchen and the girls see him:

The Bug: MAMAMAMAMAMAMA!

Slipshod: Da da da da da da da.

The Bug: (giggles) Mama!

Slipshod: (laughs) No, Dada! Da da da da da.

The Bug: BABABABABA!

Slipshod: Close. DA da da da da. DAda.

The Bug: LALALALALALALALA!

Slipshod: DADA.

The Bug: YAYA!

Slipshod: DADA.

Sweet Pea: DADA!

Slipshod (grinning and tousling Sweet Pea's hair): That's right, one of my girls can say my name!

Blog Vacation!

Flodigarry Hotel, Isle of Skye. We HIGHLY recommend it. Great rooms, gorgeous views, fabulous food (yes, even though it is in Scotland).

The hotel as viewed from the shore line.

A view out from the front of the hotel.

Down by the water's edge.

Slipshod and I visited Ireland/UK in October, 2001 and this was one of our favorite places. We stayed two nights on the Isle of Skye, at the Flodigarry Hotel. We also visited Portree and found a neat batik shop.

Still Alive

Really. Just barely.

The Bug and I have lost A LOT of sleep lately, so I am barely dragging myself through the day. I've been trying to post some pictures from Picasa in the mean time, but something's screwy with the Picasa-to-Blogger connection and the pictures aren't actually coming through the way they used to.

A Real Pisser

Welcome back to the microcosm of our house. Here's something I just KNOW you'll want to hear ALL about.

Lest you should think that Sweet Pea's potty usage has remained wonderful since the day she suddenly started using it... let me fill you in.

The first month was fabulous. There was only one accident, right in the middle, and that was minor. Then she started wanting to take naps in her room rather than the master bed, and she started not making it to the potty. Why? Because she can't open the door to her room. The doorknob is all tight and messed up. I've always got the monitor on so I know what's going on in there and when she needs me, but she doesn't always let me know right away. I finally came up with the idea of putting her kid potty in that room in case she needed a potty right away, but by that time she was fine with sleeping in the master bed for naptime again. In the master bedroom she can hop off the bed and go straight into the bathroom, so there are no problems in there.

I also of course instituted a policy of "you must use the potty before your nap," which helped for a bit.

However - at the beginning we had been giving her incentives - small toys, etc. for periods of time without accidents. I told her while this was happening that when she got really good at using the potty we wouldn't give her things anymore, we would just expect her to do it. She didn't really seem to understand why, but she seemed okay with the idea. The incentives petered out and then disappeared.

Now, however... she has started having accidents all the time. All over the place. Never in bed, thank goodness, but... sometimes on the carpet, sometimes in the kitchen/dining room/family room (it's all one long room). Mostly on the linoleum in the little bathroom downstairs. So, yes, she usually does make it to the bathroom, but not the potty. I am constantly having to take sopping pee-filled underwear and sometimes pants and socks as well upstairs to the washer. There are days when she NEVER makes it to the toilet on time, and it's a day of soggy underwear, wiping up the kid, and mopping the floor.

I imagine that I wouldn't be so upset about all of this if she hadn't done so very well at the beginning and then slipped back to this. I would also be less upset if I knew that she was having accidents. But I know better. Nowadays she has confessed to me on several occasions, in these words, "I just don't want to stop playing." We have explained to her that that's not acceptable. Often we make her sit on the potty when it's been hours since the last time she went. She used to say, "I don't have to go," "my bladder's not full yet, " or "I don't want to go right now." But if her bladder was full, it would empty on those visits. And often she would cry and say, "I didn't want to go pee pee!" We were, of course, thankful that she didn't know how to hold it.

But now... she can hold it when we make her sit there. Even if she really has to go. She will sit there when told, often arguing or just telling me that her bladder isn't full. I will explain to her that if she feels like something needs to come out, she needs to let it out - that going potty keeps her healthy, etc. She won't go, she'll get off the potty and pull up her underwear, wash her hands and go back to playing, and then - yep, five minutes later - all over the floor. Or whereever.

Last Friday I had already been having a difficult day with her, so while I cooked dinner I let her play computer games on Noggin.com to keep her out of my hair. I had asked her if she needed to go potty and she had said "no." I had asked her repeatedly and she had always said "no." During dinner preparations I had to take The Bug upstairs for a diaper change. Sweet Pea came up while I was finishing up with the diaper change, and wanted to go back downstairs with me. Then I noticed that she wasn't wearing any underwear. I asked about it and she said,

"they're downstairs."

Me: "Did you have to go potty?"

SP: "yeah."

Me: "Are your underwear dry?"

SP: "no."

Me: "Where did you go? Did you go on the potty?"

SP: "No, I went on your chair."

At this point in time I was at the bottom of the stairs, rounding the corner into the dining room, so I surveyed all the chairs at the table. They were dry.

Me: "what chair?"j

SP: "Your computer chair."

Yeah. My computer chair. My stuffing-filled, plush, computer chair on wheels. She ruined it. In order to give her the benefit of the doubt, I asked her if she had peed on my chair on purpose. Her answer was, "yes" but then I reasoned that maybe she didn't know what "on purpose" meant, and asked her if she had known that she had to pee and done it on the chair anyway. I asked in as many different and simple ways as I could think of, to make sure of what I was hearing. Every answer she gave told me that she had been fully aware that she had to pee, but she simply did not want to stop playing computer games to go to the bathroom and use the toilet.

I explained to her how that is NOT an accident, told her she had ruined my chair, and put her on time out.

She peed on the floor in her time-out spot (which is, thankfully, tiled - it's the entryway to our house, since there's nothing there for her to play with). She said that she still needed to go, that she hadn't finished. But why, then, had she come upstairs? I had assumed she was finished, because instead of going to the potty after peeing on my chair, she had come upstairs and chatted with me for a while.

I am really at the end of my rope here. There have been a few days when she has asked to wear diapers again so she won't have to stop playing to go to the bathroom. Of course I have told her "no" and we're not going to go back, but I am really ready to make her live in the back yard until she can take this seriously. I don't care if she pees in the yard, but I am really really really REALLY sick of her using the house as a toilet (although, thank goodness, she does not have poop accidents).

Every time I flip out at her about peeing somewhere other than the toilet I figure I'm probably reacting in exactly the wrong way. What long-term damage am I doing here? Slipshod has an even shorter temper with her than I have (surprising given how laid back he is, though if she didn't push him away all the time he might have an easier time of giving her the benefit of the doubt) so we're not really getting anywhere.

Every time she has an accident outside of the bathroom, playing somewhere, we take away whatever she was playing with (so, no computer games for now - that's a bigger blow to her than taking away regular toys). But now we're talking about getting her a potty watch - basically a little timer she can wear on her wrist. That might sound fun, but I have shown it to her and she doesn't like the idea of having to wear it - so instead of getting it as an incentive, we're getting it as a punishment. ha ha!

Slipshod's mom says that you have to figure out whether your child responds to incentive or punishment. We are having trouble figuring that out because she is ALWAYS being given things - by Slipshod's mom for the most part, nearly every couple weeks. But I am pretty sure that at this point we've got to just go with punishment.

Any ideas would be appreciated if you've been through this and found something that worked.

Is it Just Me...

Or do all parents, while trying to burp their babies, end up burping themselves?

You're on the Spot

Hey, turns out this is the tail end of "Delurking Week" - so if you've been reading along but not commenting, out yourself! Just say "hi" so I know I'm not alone; please? I feel very alone on the blog this week. :o)

Tickled Pink

Guess what - Sweet Pea is READING! She and I are both SO excited.

We started teaching her letters as soon as she could speak. We've been going over the sounds letters make for probably longer than a year. We started with her blocks - Slipshod and I would playfully quiz her on what letters she saw on the blocks we held up while we stacked them, etc. Ever since we bought the ABC box from our friend Lynda, Sweet Pea has been even more into letters, learning what the lower case looks like of each, and looking at and saying the names of the pictures each book shows of words that start with each letter. There was a period of time last year when she would sit and go through the entire box at once, reading every letter and picture to anyone who would listen: Me, my sister who was visiting from out of state, her favorite fishie squirt toy, you name it. We have also made use (and continue to) of a lot of the wonderful games on Noggin's website, especially the Maisy block game, which teaches the sounds that letters make. Sweet Pea and I used to play that a lot when we lived in San Jose.

And I've been reading to Sweet Pea just about every day (often for half a day because she used to want to read each book over and over and over ad nauseum) since she was younger than The Bug is now. She loves to be read to (who doesn't?), likes to write words when I tell her how to spell them, and for a few months has been telling me that she wants to learn how to read. I hadn't yet looked into any sort of teaching guide for reading, but I mentioned the situation to my sister who is a teacher, and she got SO excited and sent us the first set of Bob Books to borrow.

They arrived with the girls' Christmas presents from my sister but due to the hubub of the holidays, Sweet Pea and I didn't sit down with the books until yesterday evening. She was very interested in learning the sounds that the first book used, and in learning how to sound out words, though I was having a difficult time explaining to her what I meant when I said, "sound it out - good - now do that faster." She was like "how do I sound it out faster?"

Sleeping on it seems to have made everything sink in a little more, though, so that today when she asked to read the Bob Books after breakfast, she was quicker at sounding out. She was also interested for longer, and managed to read the first two little books herself by sounding out the words!

I cannot fully express my excitement about this. Really. My mom says that she taught all of us to read before we went to school but I don't remember knowing how before then, because I distinctly remember being horrified that I didn't know how to spell 3-letter words as early as some of the other kids. Though I guess I could have known how to read without paying enough attention to learn how to spell. They are different skills... hm.

ANYWAY - being the youngest in my family (thereby never seeing anyone younger than me learn to read) and never having taught anyone to read before, I had no idea you could teach a 3 1/2-year-old with instant success. I am STOKED. As with all things I am sure that Sweet Pea's interest in reading will wax and wane, but this is a very exciting start and with each page she tells me that she really wants to learn how to read, and that she's excited to be learning. I can clearly see how thrilled she is each time she figures out a word and then reads a 2, 3, or 4-word sentence after having sounded out each of the words in turn.

Of course, this means we're headed toward the days when Slipshod and I can't spell to each other without her knowing what we're talking about - and our very basic sign language is already useless for that too, since we learned it for HER, in order to help her be able to communicate with us before she could speak - but oh well, maybe by the time she can understand everything we're spelling we'll have better skills at signing when she's not looking, or we'll get walkie talkies implanted in our brains... ha ha ha! Okay, we'll just have to suck it up and deal, and learn how to talk when she's not around if there's something she shouldn't hear.

But anyway... isn't this the coolest? The reading cut into The Bug's naptime (though if she had stayed asleep the first time she would have been fine, dammit) and I still haven't had a shower today - but it was all totally worth it to help Sweet Pea take these first steps toward a new exciting learning discovery!

** Note: After sharing this new excitement with my sister she pointed out that the Bob Books are VERY simple, so it's no great wonder that Sweet Pea was able to get through the first two books so easily. It's true, the books ARE very simple, specifically designed for ease of learning as you might expect. Each has only 5 or 6 pages and each page has anywhere from 1 to 4 words on it. No word is longer than 3 letters. Sweet Pea is not reading encylopedias yet. I'm just completely excited that she can sound these words out so easily, and although these books are super simple, this is a BIG first step for her! My sister's comment sort of made me feel like I shouldn't be so excited, but you know what, I am. I am. This is huge. **

We Could Make BILLIONS

Do you remember that commercial with the big red "Easy" button?

With that in mind, picture this:

You need to go to the grocery store but your child hasn't napped and you don't want to deal with a throw-down fit in the frozen aisle.

OR

You're ready to go to the post office but your child refuses to go potty/get dressed/let you wipe her face, etc. etc...

OR

You've been butting heads all day with your limit-testing three-year-old and you long to just get the hell out of the house and go for a walk to cool down

OR

[Insert your own 10 billion possible scenarios here.]

You yearn for a way to just GO, while your child somehow stays safe. You need to do your thing but if you just leave your child at home alone, that is of course negligence and they'd probably get hurt, you'd get arrested, etc. Not to mention the emotional damage it would do to just walk out and leave a small child alone.

But then you remember: "Oh, that's right." You reach out your hand and ever so simply push the big "Instant Babysitter" button.

Your problems are solved.

POOF, she/he appears: Someone you trust to keep your child safe. Someone your child knows and trusts and likes to be with. Someone who knows what who needs to eat and when, and not just that - they also know where the food, bowls, and spoons are. They know where the nearest park is, where the kids' shoes are, and how to cajole said kids into putting the shoes on. They may even have tricks to get the kids to nap when they don't want to.

But that's not all. Oh, no, the fabulousness doesn't end there. You see, this "Instant Babysitter" button is not limited to home. There is also one on the dashboard of your car. That means that the next time you arrive at the store, post office, etc., and one or more children are asleep in the back of the car, you hit the button and >poof,< there is someone in the car to sit with them while they sleep, freeing you to go inside and do whatever it is you need to do, without you having to wake them up or carry them, sleeping, while you accomplish your errand.

When I need this miracle in the car I often picture the inflatable autopilot from the "Airplane" movies. ha ha ha!

But back to business: I am not above mass cloning of grandmothers to achieve the perfect solution for this service. Now - any ideas on how, given the costs involved in research and development, we could make the "Instant Babysitter" button/service affordable for the average family?

Down the Rabbit Hole

Yep, that's where we've been... the holidays took over so completely that I feel as if I've been on a big long vacation from blogger - not that I wanted to leave...

Anyway, I'm back. Hope I can find time to blog more often and also read others' blogs every day again like I used to!

We had a good time with family and now I've been cleaning house, trying to get the thank you notes written and the new stuff put away. Thankfully the girls received more clothes than toys, so they've got cute things to wear (some of them matching sister outfits - so cute!) AND just enough new things to play with to keep them entertained.

The Bug is on the move! Her sleep has continued to deteriorate to a point of being worse-than-newborn, though last night was a lot better. Her second tooth came in the other day so I'm hoping we'll get a rest now until the next tooth or two come in. She really enjoys jumping in her exersaucer and doorway bouncer (just put that up yesterday and she had a hoot while I was in the shower) and sitting and playing on the floor. She is really really good at rolling from back to tummy, but still has not mastered tummy to back - doesn't even try. HOWEVER - once she rolls from back to tummy, she wants to actually move. She is actually starting to get her knees under her already! I have nightmares about having an 8-month-old climber. While I don't think she's actually going to be on that fast of a track, I am figuring she will probably be crawling and walking earlier than Sweet Pea. We'll see... In the mean time I am talking with Sweet Pea every day about what is and isn't safe for The Bug, and trying to make her more conscious of what she leaves on the floor. The biggest potential problem I forsee is paper; she's pretty good at keeping her crayons and colored pencils up on my desk.

Now that the hubub of the holidays is over and I've got the place almost back to normal, I've hooked the baby seat back to the table and now The Bug is joining us for breakfast and dinner. She still thinks that eating solids is kind of weird, but she is cheerful about it and she is getting more food into her mouth these days. She spits it out as soon as it gets in, but it's a start... Also, yesterday she suddenly got an understanding of her sippy cup and now enjoys sucking water out of it... so she can then spit the water out. ha ha! She can't actually hold the cup in a useful way yet, but Sweet Pea is happy to help give The Bug drinks between spoonsful of food.

Sweet Pea has been showing signs for quite a while of wanting more of my attention. I do what I can, but obviously the baby needs me physically more than Sweet Pea. Sweet Pea doesn't blame any of this on the baby and still adores her sister, but she is also suffering a bit and her frustration is coming out in a couple of different ways: 1) demanding that I sleep with her at naptime and refusing to nap if I'm not there (FYI I have only ever napped with her every so often - mostly while pregnant), and refusing to do as we say. When we get tired of her refusal and start using stern voices she gets sad and asks us to "please talk nicely." Then we remind her that we started out talking nicely, and tell her that if she had listened to us and done what we asked the first time or three, we wouldn't get so upset! Gah.

Her sleep is interesting. She sleeps very well, but I find myself at a crossroads with her naps. I can either let her continue to sleep 10 hours per night and then fight about the nap every day, or I can let her sleep 12 hours at night and say goodbye to the nap. I have kept up the first thing because I don't want to give up her nap. But a couple days ago she slept 12 1/2 hours after having a no-nap day, and the day after all the sleep she was SO sweet and wonderful and helpful and listened so well. Her not napping also allowed us more time together without the baby, which I'm sure she appreciated. I don't know... still haven't decided what to do about this. I almost think that giving up the nap would be best, but I'm not sure, and am afraid to go down that road for fear that our wonderful day the other day was just a fluke. ha ha! I guess we could try it out for a few days in a row and see how that goes, and make a decision from there.

I am attempting to become good at crock pottery, i.e. actually having the ingredients and using morningtime to get dinner ready, because I hate reaching 4:30 and starting to wonder what's for dinner. However - I am finding that for the most part crock pot recipes just taste overdone to me. Also, it's difficult to find a lot of good recipes in one cookbook. I've got the Vegetarian Slow Cooker cookbook, and it's got a couple of good ones for sure; I guess we just need to try more. We tried two pot pie recipes in there and they didn't taste anything like we expected. The Southwestern one with corn bread topping had zero spices in it save salt and pepper, which was weird, and the cornbread topping was very dry and mealy - not like corn bread for real. We've decided to see if we can perfect this recipe by adding the spices we think should be in it, and trying to cook actual cornbread on top of it.

Sweet Pea and I finally got the kitchen totally under control the other day and now I'm washing everything as soon as we're done eating, so I won't have to do a ton of dishes after the girls are asleep. It's been nice to be able to do a little something that I want to do at night these days! There is still a lot that needs to be done, but now I feel as if I've got the house under control enough to do a fun thing here and there as well.

I have started going to bed a little earlier since The Bug started trying to kill me by not letting me sleep. A couple nights while one or the other of the girls was sick and I wasn't feeling too hot either, I stayed in bed with them when I got them to sleep. Felt a lot better the mornings after those two nights.

Our New Years Eve was a lot of fun. For the 7th year in a row we went to the party of some local friends - this is the first year we've been so close! This year the house was crawling with babies and kids. The food was fantastic. It was potluck but our hostess made a bunch of super fantastic vegan dishes too. And for the first time ever, the table wasn't mostly covered with cakes! ha ha!

Well, I should get back to the girls; The Bug has been playing and filling her diaper so she will probably need to nurse and nap now.

Seriously - What Will They Think of Next?

I am not joking. This really exists!

Check This Out

Too busy wrapping gifts and cleaning house in preparation for Mom & Dad's arrival to post today. Okay, you got me, we've gotten up late and I've only just started making waffles. The Bug is bouncing in her exersaucer and Sweet Pea is enjoying a fresh tangerine at the table. There is a load of laundry washing though nobody has yet had a shower, and almost all the gifts still need to be wrapped. Slipshod is still sleeping like the dead.

Had an interesting and very vivid dream about Ireland last night - something about Slipshod and I trying to find a special book.

But for today, I leave you with this - in case you didn't already go to the link from QofS's blog. Because you have to hear this. Really.

Put away your glassware, get some tissues ready for your bleeding ears, and have a listen. Most importantly, you may not want to hold small children while listening to this, because you will be so overcome by laughter that you may not be able to keep your grip on them.

Thursday Morning Discovery

I guess the messed up sleep was due to teething after all... this morning The Bug has a tooth! Her lower left front tooth, which we could tell would be the first out of the gate, has finally cut. YAY! I'm hoping that the right one will cut in a couple days and then we can start sleeping better again for a while.