Entries RSS Comments RSS

Archive for May, 2009

Confessional

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

1) I have a basket of clothes in my room, mixed clean and dirty. I have absolutely no desire to put them away.  At all.

2) I’m watching Twilight, and have been laying in bed with my kiddo eating brownies since Igot home from church.

3) Hot DA*N I want some cheetos.  (There isn’t a good location for the star in damn.)

4) I like it when my baby cries in church and I get to go out of the meeting. (He’s been crying less and less lately)

5) I totally ate 90% of a pack of oyster crackers in church today that I opened for the Bubbs.

6) I’ve been extremely jumpy the last two days.  Who knows why.

7) We’re having a yard sale next week, and I’ve secretly been eyeing the competition and feeling superior.  Because yo, we throw our trash AWAY.  We’re selling COOL STUFF.

8)  I hate letting my baby cry it out.  Hate.  But I do it anyway because he’s been regressing since all our travels messed his sleep cycles up.

Cute Things My Kid is Doing

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

1) Waving “bye-bye”  The only issue is…he does it too late.  Daddy will be in the car pulling out of the driveway and he’ll wave for about 5 minutes.  Or we’ll say goodnight to everyone and he doesn’t wave til we get on the stairs.

2) A new “pout” cry.  This involves pouting while fake-crying, poofing out his lips and making a “booo, huboooo” noise.

3) A new noise or two.  These are always hard to capture with letters, but he’ll go “aiyhah!” or simply “Heb” and then purse his lips like an annoyed professor.  The noise is also usually accompanied by a sudden body jerk.  Not sure what this one means yet.

4) Projectile puking.  With the establishment of SOLID solids into his diet, every once in awhile he’ll get overzealous and put too much in his mouth.  Apparently his body is prepared for this type of situation, because he’ll cough, get red in the face, and then puke across the kitchen.

5) Noticing my bed head.  Totally distracting to him while I try to feed him his yogurt and mango in the morning.

Date Night From *Cough Cough*

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

So last night, kind of last minute, John and I decided to go out to dinner somewhere.  First day of work, home for the weekend, seemed like a good reason to get out.  Camper was having a rough time going down, but once we had him under control, we left him cuddling with LaLa and went to go find ourselves some food.

The first place we went to was closed.  As in, forever.  So goodbye that wonderful establishment that made it so we didn’t have to go to Applebee’s.  We UrbanSpooned another place nearby, and ended up standing in the middle of a seedy sports bar so loud that the waitress couldn’t even hear me ask if they served food.  Neither one of us felt very happy about that place, so we walked across the street to another pub-type place which seemed promising until we saw the “No credit card” sign on the front door.  Who carries cash anymore?  Urg.  We got back in the car and stopped at another restaurant that I’ve been eyeing since my parents (and I…) moved here when I was in High School.  I THOUGHT it was too fancy for us, but my level of hunger was willing to pay for it.  Turns out, it was a PIT.  A gross one, and another bar!  People getting drunk.  Back in the car AGAIN, and down to a 99 Restaurant, because you can’t go wrong with something you know, right? Well, when the hostess doesn’t acknowledge your existence for the first 60 seconds you’re standing in front of her simply waiting to say “party of two,” it doesn’t bode well.  When she finally looked at us we found out that it’d be a 40 minute wait, which at that point (an hour into our evening out) seemed ridiculous to me.  So we went to Panera Bread.

Besides being overpriced, and having the words “anti-biotic free” on the menu every five words, it was fine.  Mediocre.  John wasn’t hungry by then, I was starving, and it was interesting to watch the teen fun going on around us.  And by teen fun I mean TOTALLY DISTURBING TEEN BEHAVIOR.  When John went to get our food, I took a gander at the table next to us, and saw that the MAYBE 15 year old girl had her hand on the…uh…PERSONAL ARA of the maybe 15 year old boy next to her under the table.  She seemed to be..handling him…IN PANERA BREAD.  So many things wrong with this I can’t even handle it.  First of all, at that age no one should be handling ANY ONE, regardless of location.  The fact that they chose a Panera Bread, sitting across the table from what I suppose to be peers, testifies to their utter inability to make choices of that nature responsibly.  Where were their parents?  What did they ask to go out last night? “Hey Mom, can I go get felt up with my friends?”  No, seriously…did they tell their parents they had a date, or did they just say, “I’m going out with friends?”  And what do you say to that?  “Which friends?” “Oh you know, that girl that likes to feel me up under the table.” I doubt the critical info was shared.  I had to grip my Panini a little tighter to keep myself from walking over there and saying, “What is your name?  I’m calling your mother!”

After that we came home, and went to sleep.  I think the BEST part of date night was cuddling with John, having some ice cream (late late secret treat!), and going to sleep by 10pm.  Camper didn’t wake up til 5:30, but of course I compulsively woke up around 4 to check to see if he was breathing, go to the bathroom, and get some water.  I think that my brief stint with breastfeeding ruined my ability to go through the entire night without drinking water.  I almost get dehydrated if I don’t drink at least something while I should be sleeping.

So yes, it’s official.  I’m old.

And, I Might Be Lazy

Friday, May 29th, 2009

Today is John’s first day of work, sounds like it’s going well so far.  My Dad has the day off, so he and my Mom made a yummy breakfast and then went to a movie.  The Bubbs is napping.  I went through my GRE cards once, started some laundry, reserved a museum pass for the weekend…and now I’m trying to get motivated to do something else.  I think that I should probably wait for John to be around before I start digging through the office looking for tag sale items…I wish I loved vacuuming.  That’s something that can ALWAYS be done in New England.  If it’s not the dust in the winter, it’s the pollen in summer.  At least our house won’t randomly get smoked out, right? I can’t find the post on that fun little happening from a couple of summers ago, fun Utah mountain fires…

So instead of anything else constructive, I’m writing on this here blog, and listening to the golf club across the street practice their lightening alarm system.  Better not wake Camper up.  I’ll be UNhappy about that.

First Night of Resignation

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

So John resigned from the job, because he has a NEW job, starting tomorrow!  That means my husband will be home at night.  All night, no more sleeping by myself!  We changed the sheets on the bed yesterday, and he went and got his favorite pillow from the office, and I got all bleary-eyed.  He will be HOME.  So how did we spend our first evening of his resignation?

8pm Put Camper to bed, watch Chuck.

10:30pm Camper wakes up for his last minute feeding, eats two ounces, passes out.  SCORE. Back to Chuck.

11:00pm Camper makes a funny noise, we interrupt Chuck to go see what is up.  As I pick him up, he pukes down my front, and I smell the unmistakable smell of poo.  Sick poo, which is different than well poo.  I start to change him when John discovers that he’s pooed out his diaper into his crib.

11:15pm Laundry

11:30pm Watching mindless TV with a child, suddenly hyper, chewing on our fresh sheets between us.

12:00am Camper starts with the scratching.  When he’s falling asleep, he scratches the sheets, my neck, my shirt, whatever he can get his hands on.

12:30am After a million Mommy kisses, Camper falls asleep and I relocate him to his crib.  He then starts to scream.

12:32am He ceases crying, and begins banging his pacifier along the slats of his crib, prison style.

12:33am John goes in to cuddle Camper to sleep.

1am John comes back to bed, falls asleep, and promptly begins to snore/cough.

1:30am I instruct him to face the other way in bed.

2am I fall asleep.

4:30am Camper wakes up, comes into bed with me.  John has mysteriously disappeared into the office bed, where he slept because his cold was making him restless, and keeping me up.

5am-7:30am In and out of sleep with Camper scratching me, and me replacing his pacifier every 15 minutes.

7:35am Up so that we can get to a doctor’s appointment for the baby.

So yeah, hopefully we get in the swing of NIGHTTIME again soon.  Oh my.  But yes, we ended up bringing Camper into the doctor this morning.  He’s has a runny nose since May 10th (I know, dorky me, keeping track) and had a rash from about May 12-19.  The last three days he won’t really eat, but he’s been pooing non-stop.  When I called the doctor to ask if we should be concerned, they said probably not, but to bring him in anyway.  He hasn’t had a significant fever, and the nurse practicioner we saw this morning did not think that he had Fifth Disease, based on the type of rash.  More likely, our recent travels have done a doosy on his skin, he has allergies and may a slight cold, and is teething.  All at the same time.  She said that he’s not dehydrated, and that hopefully the nose will clear up when the pollen changes.  Apparently if it IS allergies, there’s nothing they can do until he’s two.  Poor kiddo.  The snot is making it hard for him to eat, and messing up his poo.  So there ya go.  I guess you couldn’t expect anything different from a child made out of a combination of our genetic material.  He never had a chance.

So tomorrow is John’s first day of DAYTIME work.  Which means that he’ll get up super early, commute to New York, and be gone all day long.  But hey, I get to see him all night, as long as he doesn’t snore, right?

PS Robin, if you are reading this, I keep dreaming (as in twice now) that you got a new washing machine.   A huge one with a red lid, and that you won’t let anyone but me see it.  And when I say HUGE, I mean HUGE, as in filling up the whole basement.  I wonder what that means…

Decisions and Advice

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

So I’m applying to school.  I take the GRE in a couple of months, I’ll start the application process for the Theology/Religious Studies programs to 5 schools, and then we’ll see.  I want to start September 2010.  My question for all of you out there is…how do you recommend going about getting letters of recommendation when you haven’t been to school in awhile?  I went to the University of Scranton from 2001-2004, then BYU until 2006.  I think I’ll end up making appointments to see people in Scranton, since it’s driving distance away.  But these need to be awesome recommendations.  Really, really awesome ones.  Anyone with any tips?

Duh

Monday, May 25th, 2009

After an hour of boiling, skinning, and chopping carrots into tiny toddler-sized pieced (Bubbs like to CHEW food now) I realize: what I’ve just made looks an awful lot like frozen carrots. As in, the kind from the store. As in, I’m going to freeze these so how is what I made any better? Oh my. The things we do for our kids.

Like a Bicycle

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

John, the Bubbs and I attended a funeral in New Hampshire yesterday (yes, this makes it 4 states in one month, way to go traveling Bubbs!).  One of John’s friends, Robert, had passed away sometime while I was in Utah.  One of the men who stood up to say something about Robert said that he was kind, approachable, and forgiving.  Robert was a passionate man about many things, and in his passion sometimes those  others traits were covered up.  In his zeal to educate and enlighten, the love he had for the people around him sometimes failed to show through.  The speaker indicated that he had the same problem, and that in life he often found it difficult for  to balance his hard side with his compassionate side, the part of his that wants to be bigger and tougher and more aggressive with the part that wants to listen and forgive and be humble.  “It’s a bicycle ride,” he said, and “thank goodness for women.”

I thought a lot about that as I pretended to be asleep in the back of the car on the way home (I pretended for Bubb’s sake, until he really fell asleep, and then I fell asleep, t00).  I think we all have that bicyle ride going on inside of us, some are just more graceful at it than others.  And it’s not just “thank goodness for women,” it’s thank goodness for partners, thank goodness for babies, thank goodness for parents,” and all the people who soften us and remind us that we need to show love, be loving.  I have no idea what my funeral will be like, but I really really hope that whoever stands up to say something about me will be able to say that they felt loved by me.  That is someone is close enough to me to say something about me after I’ve passed away, that I would have made an effort to make sure that they knew how much I loved them.  Something to work on, I guess.  Just something to pay attention to.  Oh, and bring on the lillies.  They can’t hurt me then. (Very, very allergic to lillies…)

In the meantime, life around here has been busy.  I still feel exhausted from the trip out west- the time change seems to have hit a little harder than usual.  And although I had fun, I’m glad to be home with my regular routine.  I’m hoping the Bubb’s will join me in that routine soon, as John is going back to work tonight.  The last few days have been nice and sunny, warm and beautiful.  John and I went out in the kayaks the other day, and then we went out with my Dad again the day after that.  I love the lakes around here.  I DON’T love to fish.  But I like being out in the water, floating around, getting a little exercise and some sun.  When we got up early yesterday morning to drive out I realized how gorgoeus it is early, early in the morning.  Sometimes I think New England is a little moody.  It’s usually pretty green, sometimes sunny, can be pretty gloomy, and saves the best time of day for those people who barely even see it.  I remember being here in the winter between college semesters, when I would wake up at 5am to take my Dad to work so that I could go to the gym.  It would be almost purple outside, with all the snow and the sun.  Crystally and still and perfect. I should probably make an effort to get up and outside in the morning, soak it all in before it gets cold again.

And now that I’m back from my travels it’s time to get a few more things done.  The next projects of the summer include a yard sale (hopefully clear out the storage unit), applying to grad schools, and the GRE.  August 8th.  I’m nervous about it, but have time to prepare.  I don’t know how much of where I apply and what I get I’ll blog here- and my ego already took a hit with the whole librarian thing, but I just hope I do well.  Hope hope hope.

Winner!

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

The winner of the Mouse Paint giveaway, Paula H.! Thanks for playing, everyone. We’ll have another one soon!

Traveling with the Bubbs- 8 Months

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

I didn’t travel to Utah alone- but I think I still picked up some “tricks” to flying/traveling with an infant.  Here it goes…

1) Don’t travel alone if you don’t HAVE to.  I know it’s possible (people do it all the time), but it was nice to have someone to pass him to when I wanted something from my bag.  It’s virtually impossible to get something from under the seat in front of you with a baby on your lap.  Bravo to anyone who figured that one out.  I guess if I had been alone, I’d just have to get anything I needed out before I sat down, or before he fell asleep.  Or just not gotten anything out of my bag…

2) Disposable bottles.  I always use Avent bottles- so I just got the a few of the disposable kind for the trip.  That meant that I brought 1 bottle, a bunch of liners, and 4 tops.  The sucky thing is that Avent doesn’t allow you to JUST buy the tops…leaving you with more bottle bottoms than you need.  Other brands might do it differently so that you don’t have to buy a whole bottle to get more tops to go with your one bottom.  Hopefully that made sense…

3) Buy food when you get there.  Airports are charging more and more for checked bags, don’t fill yours up unnecessarily.   I only took enough Bubbs food to get us to Utah.  The morning after we arrived, I went to the store and picked up enough formula/food to get us through the trip.  No trying new things, just stick to the same old foods you’ve always given baby.  You don’t want to find out that this food causes gas or that food gives him a rash…while on VACATION.  And look at it this way, it’s not any more money than usual.  He’ll eat the same (if not less) any place you are…so just get what you need for each day, and you’ll be just fine.

4) You can bring water/juice/milk/formula/breast milk/any kind of baby medicine or cream through security.  It doesn’t have to fit in a small zippy bag, but you do have to declare it before you go through.  With all that said: Buy water on the other side of security.  I did it both ways.  On my way out I brought water and liquid formula through security to have with me on the plane.  That was nice because I didn’t have to mix the formula.  Just pop and pour.  It WASN’T nice in that I spent an extra 20 minutes in security watching them swab my baby’s diaper (and my hands, and my clothes) for explosives.  They patted us BOTH down (scary, I know) and had to test everything we brought through before allowing us to move on.  The second time through I brought a can of powdered formula and bought water on the other side.  It’s a choice, I guess.  20/30 minutes of time vs. $4 water.  You can fill up a bottle at the fountain, but EW.  have you SEEN those things? Darn OCD.

5) Get there early.  You don’t want to be rushing around and panicking and getting all sweaty and gross, not to mention freaking your baby out.  Give yourself plenty of time.  Our flights out were actually canceled, so we went super early to get it straightened out.   I’m glad we did, because we were going through security while the rest of the people from our original flight were hitting the line to get new tickets.

6) Get a bottle ready before you get on the plane.  On the way back we finally figured out that if we had a bottle ready for take-off, and held him off until then, Bubbs would eat and then pass out.  It made for a tricky 20 minutes while taxiing to our take-off lane (or whatever you call them) as he was hungry and hot and tired, but then he slept for most of the time.

7 ) The smaller the stroller, the happier the flight crew.  Bringing your whole travel system will make that guy in the orange vest unhappy with you.  Umbrella is the way to go.  If you get a bag to go over it, you can leave some important items in it (like a diaper, a small blanket, a pacifier) and not worry about them falling out or getting contaminated.

8 ) If someone offers help, take it.  Let me be clear: I DON’T mean that you should let strangers hold your baby while you pee, or leave your bags in someone else’s care while you run and get a snack.  Don’t be stupid.  But there are people who offer help that is not scary or threatening in any way.  For instance, the man in front of me in the security line offered to collapse my stroller and put it on the conveyor belt.  Thanks, that guy.  That was a big help.

9) If you need for something, ask.  You’d be surprised what they can do.  Airport people can switch your seats, check extra weird things, provide liquids and places to stick stinky diapers.  All you gotta do is ask.

10) Rent a car seat on the other side.  Not fun, I’ll tell you.  It definitely wasn’t the seat I would have chosen, but it worked just fine…once I figured out how to install it correctly.  And it was more fun than bringing one more thing with me to the airport.

11)  You might be tempted to bring a lot of toys with you.  We were, and we did.  But we quickly found out that Bubbs had plenty of toys.  Seat belts, seat backs, travel pillows, airplane windows, tray tables, feet, noses (ours, his, and the guy’s sitting next to us).  You can ask for a plastic cup from the attendent, give him a package of cookies, let him chew on the boarding passes.  The possibilites are endless.  What you DON’T need is 100 lbs. of stuffed animals and squishy books for the flight.  Maybe one squishy book.  That’s it.