Project 52: Week 4: Pose

I enjoy a good candid shot as much as the next person, but sometimes I just want the kids to face the camera and grin gosh dang it.  They were being squirrelly and silly and so I grabbed the camera.  I said, "Kids, say cheese!" and both kids looked straight at me and said some kind of an eeee noise that I am counting as the right on camera response.

Less Sick, Partially Diagnosed, Nap Time Fits, and Bachelor

So its probably The Gallbladder. The symptoms fit.
The online diagnose yourself sites nailed it.
And caused me to call the doctor, and I got in as the very last patient of the day, which meant I had speedy quick service.

And I have an ultrasound on the upper right abdomen tomorrow morning at 11:15.
Its my first ultrasound that isn't related to a pregnancy. Interesting.

I called my parents to tell them, since it seems like that's the thing to do, or maybe its not since I am close to 30 and pay our own medical bills, but it did seem like the way to go.
So I called them and found out that my dad doesn't have a gallbladder because it was making him sick.  Its been out for three years.  I wonder how I missed that?

The kids were at home with their dad today.
The Hot Wheels track was played with a lot today, something I never get out.

The toddler gave him FITS today around nap time, and he actually conceded victory to him and let him go napless.
He's 2.5 and still needs a nap in order to function well after 3 PM.  He doesn't get that though.  Its a whole sea of NONONONONONONO that is uncharted territory for us.
 I didn't realize we had such a compliant child and easy child until he suddenly WASN'T.

Oh, did you see The Bachelor tonight?
Man, I really do unwind watching such toxic reality TV.
Two girls were rejected tonight, and both of them said the same things: "What is wrong with me?".  They both heard him say the same thing, "nothing, we're just not a match" but they didn't listen to him.  They both assumed that they failed and were flawed.
What a bummer.
Dan told me he though it was his job to step up for our daughters and let them know their true value.  I was impressed. Both that he watched half an hour of that show and that he said that out of his own accord!!!
Also, there's an evil girl on there that I just love to hate.  She coerced him into skinny dipping with her.  She didn't have to twist his arm too hard, what with being a lingerie model and all.

And oh, these snowman photos weren't taken today.
They were taken on Saturday morning.
It snowed an inch overnight, but melted a hour after the photos were taken.
Today it was 67 degrees and we enjoyed sometime with the double jogging stroller (strolling, not jogging, mind you!) at a park that's nearby my doctor's office.

Sick Weekend and Randoms.

I feel like I lost a good 36 hours this weekend.
Maybe I lost three pounds or something, too.
I lost some patience.
I probably lost some respect from my husband and kids.

I napped a lot.
I felt some very strange pains in my top abdomen, and more than one person said it was a galbladder issue, so I feel freaked out.

I hate being sick.
Its like swimming uphill the days after you are sick trying to catch up to life.
And it wasn't any special float trip down that river being sick.
IDK.

It was bad, its still not over, but Dan did the laundry folding and cleaned the kitchen really well.

I paid for a software download to recover 600 files from an SD card that my computer said had been deleted only to find out that they actually weren't.  They were just hiding in my computer and reappeared after I started the program over again.
It was only $25 and only 3 days of photo memories, but I think its the closet to an "FML" time I've felt in the last few years after realizing I didn't have to spend that.

Hallmark sponsored this movie I swore I wouldn't watch called "A Smile As Big As the Moon" about SpEd children in the 80s who go to space camp.  I found myself watching it.
It was as corny as the previews.
But it had  Aiden John Corbott and I was too tired to turn off the TV, so I watched it.
And I cried at the commercials for greeting cards.
For each card I expected someone to die in it, but no one died.
They were the cheesiest commercials I've ever seen.
And thus a Sunday evening was wasted spent.

PS - Do You Like the New Look?

I updated the look last week, mostly because I thought it needed some freshening.

I think that the background on the header looks like a frosty winter, and then the name area reminds me that sunshine summer is around the corner.

I wish I had enough time to totally finish the tabs that are under the header... I'll post when they are done. I think its worth my time to do it, and I'll like it better finished than unfinished, but lately I've been thinking half done is better than perfect in my head and nothing to show for it.

Confession: I Tried To Sneak Skinny Jeans Into My Husband's Wardrobe.

I tried to fancy up my guy a few months ago in the way of a new style of jeans.
Three of his pairs of jeans, which he wears pretty much daily with only the occasional addition of khaki pants or gym pants, had holes.
He needed replacements.

There aren't many places to buy 33x36L jeans, especially since he wants to spend less than $50 a pair.
And since two years ago I found them at a super online sale at Old Navy for $13.50.
So now he thinks that's the price to pay, which is really tricky to ever find, obviously.

I found a great pair of Levi's on an after Thanskgiving sale, and they were a slimmer bootleg.  For some reason I ordered a size down, which meant that when he tried them on, though he desperately needed the pair for work, he didn't think he could swing it.

They were too Skinny Leg for him.
He called them Fashion Pants.
To mock me, I think.


He wore them one day to a conference and he said he felt self conscious the whole time.
It was an asphalt conference, so maybe the other civil engineers wearing Carhartt jeans gave him a sideways glance.

But for the record, he looked GOOD.


So to placate him, I returned them.
I told him I did it with great sadness.
I bought him the standard loose-fit painter style jeans in a dark rinse.
They are boring.
But they were $15, so he was delighted by this.

But I didn't  marry him for his fashion-sense, so I guess its not that important.
And he didn't marry me so that I could do his pants shopping, it just worked out that way.

Goodbye Binky Post #4

Tuesday, January 24, 2011 marks one of the worst days of my life. 

On Monday evening, DHH learned that his last binky, apparently his very favorite White Binky, fell victim to Old Age.
It got old and broke.

(His dad clipped it.)

But he just knew it was old and broken.
 It made him upset that it was broken, but he, on his own accord, threw it in the kitchen trash can.


He just threw it away.

TOO EASY.
This is too easy, we thought.  Its gotta be worse than this.
It was.

He didn't go to bed easily, and we let him stay up on the couch and cuddle.
He seemed to enjoy The Bachelor, but of course that's a whole other #horribleparentingidea thing, right?

He woke up more than an hour earlier than normal and wanted to go find that broken white binky so I could fix it.

He didn't nap in the afternoon.

He was a terror for the most part.

By 3PM it was Fit Central around here.
Any disappointment that happened was A BIG. HUGE. DEAL.
There were rockings, cuddlings, tolerating less-than appropriate behaviors, distractions, and some cajoling.

By the time his daddy came home after 5 PM, he'd been crying for an hour and a half solid about how I wouldn't let him watch (another) Mickey movie, and by the way, he was sad about no more binky.

Dan distracted him by letting him play Duck Hunt on the very old ninetendo that we use like twice a year.  This was a good thing for him.

But when that time was over, it was back to The Worst Times Ever in the Life of DHH.
"Daniel feels sad, miss that white binky! Daniel want to suck on that white binky!" he said between wails.

I don't know how we survived until 9 PM.  It was just a mess of crying, trying to comfort and distract.
It was not good at all.

It was Dan putting Daniel back to bed every two minutes.
Down, up, down, up, wail, cry, pat, rock, go to sleep, buddy.
For an hour and a half.
So incredibly difficult.

For some reason, perhaps just exhaustion, he caved at about 9 PM when Dan agreed to put the old, broken blue binky in the freezer, in case that would fix it.
I don't know why he came up with that solution, but somehow that thought crossed his mind and he agreed.
So the blue binky went in the freezer, and DHH went to bed soundly.

He slept until 7:30 AM, then came to find me as I was drying my hair.  "Its daytime, Mommy.  Daniel go fweep and no white binky.  Daniel fweep all night and no white binky!!!!!"

He was triumphant.
I praised him.
I pulled out a toy I bought long ago for him and didn't give him for Christmas because he had too much already - a trash truck.  He loved it.
He said, "Daniel is so excited about new truck, Mommy! So excited!!!!!" while we opened it.

When I returned from work today, I put him down for a nap with minimal sass and relative ease.  He requested a cup of water and to sleep with a Mickey book, and that was it. No mention of the binky.

Maybe its all over.
Maybe we're past the inconsolable grief of losing a prized possession and way to soothe.

Last night was so bad that I went to bed at 9 PM, too.
I had to otherwise I would have dug through the trash to get that binky out of the garbage so he could go to sleep already.

It was one of the harder moments of being DHH's mom.


**** And note that during this time, my little daughter staged a nursing strike, which added more stress.

Getting Dumped. (Out-takes From Weekly Photo Project.)

For the record, these shenanigans are never MY idea.
But times like this are the reason why I am glad I keep the camera ready to shoot, on a (high) shelf in the living room.

So this little dump truck was a great $2 yard sale find.  Its been hauling garden rocks and small children for two years now.

I just love her expression.  She was sucking on her top lip.  DHH was giggling and squealing.

We really couldn't tell if she liked it or not.

All good things must come to an end.  In this case, it means getting dumped.

This was not as traumatic as you might think - the baby was comforted and the boy was scolded, but no one cried or anything.  

I've only been dumped once, and I cried buckets.

I guess this is a little different though.

He decided to give himself a ride.

Life is not dull here, that's for sure.

Goodbye Binky: Post 3

So a little background info about our binky situation.
(Previously mentioned here, here, and here.)

I resisted introducing the binky, like most mothers who read an excessive amount of natural parenting books.  An artificial nipple? No!
A hunk of plastic to PACIFY, rather than do a good job and teach your child coping skills? No!
A germy, dirty little thing that my dad referred to as a PLUG for crying out loud?? No!!

But when I researched more about infant development and non-nutritive suckling needs, and became more resolved that I am not okay with nursing on demand and wanted to adhere to a feeding schedule, I realized we should embrace the pacifier if my son did so.

August 2009, Baby's First Binky (Avent)

But we'd give it up at four months.
We didn't.  The bink let us take him all kinds of places, like church and libraries, and it gave him something to fiddle with or stay quiet.  Like how a smart phone is used to pacify a teenager.

I decided that it was okay to let the binky go past six months, despite Tracy Hogg's recommendation in the Baby Whisperer book that we pretty much followed to the letter (with great success and confidence!) in raising our kid the first year.  She recommends taking it away then because the transition to bink-free is easy then.  I didn't follow the advice because I was more interested in a short term solution.  I needed more sleep, and I was getting up twice a night with DHH.  The pacifier was used to keep him asleep longer in the mornings, and thus; I got more sleep.

Being held by Aunt Ann at about 9 months.  Doesn't he look like his sister here??

We thought we'd remove it at one year.
But at one year, we were FINALLY GETTING A FULL NIGHT OF SLEEP. (I mean we as in me.  Dan can sleep through anything.)
So it stayed.
And more often than not, he was holding the pacifiers in his hand, not in his mouth.
And then he started to grit his teeth.  Oh how this drove me crazy.
So it stayed around longer.

At one year of age, we went to binks for bed only.  We made the rule that they had to be in the crib, and this rule led to a game called Toss It Over the Crib Rail.  With Double Points if it bounced out and behind the crib.

Confession: we once had a dozen binkies back there, various stages/sizes, collecting dust.  Now that I type it, I realize I am Binky Enabler.  I bought all those guys!

At a year old, he started to use the MAM binks exclusively. He is 16 months in this photo.

So binks have been used for sleeping only for quite sometime, and only on the rarest of occasions in car seats.  

At age two, many people began to nudge us away from the binky.  Well meaning, I am sure.
But at that time, I was teaching DHH feeling words, coping skills, and emotional regulation.
Instead of big huge fits, we were finding ways to CHILL THE HECK OUT.
Sitting in his bed holding a book and using his pacifier was one good way for him to calm down.
He began to give himself time outs and use that bink to self- soothe.
And so the binky stayed.

I read a nice article that defended pacifier use, or at least the comments readers left seemed to support DHH's use of binkies to relax.  Bolstered by the comments, I felt more secure in our parenting choice to let him choose the binky option.
And so the binky stayed.

Until now, exactly 2.5 years old to the week.

I have some exciting news to share in a future post, but as a little foreshadowing ... I'll tell you I am pretty tired. and I should get some sleep for now.

Project 52*3: Mischief.

Having an older brother means you have to take certain risks in order to have a good time.  Enjoying a dump truck ride around the living room is quite fun until he decides its time for him to take his turn.

Oddly, EK didn't really mind being unloaded in such an abrupt manner.

Celebrating Lives.

Lately I've been thinking about what it would mean to take my children for granted. 

That is to say, I do not think that I do so.  

I feel incredibly fortunate to get to be with these kids, especially after the babies that I lost from miscarriage.  

I get that these lives are special and fabulous and that I want to celebrate them.

Its like. "HEY EVERYONE!!! I've got these FANTASTIC TINY BEINGS! Come see them! LOOK! Be delighted by them! These little ones have infinite possibilities! Be energized by them!!"

From how nuts about my kids I am, I feel like everyone should be nuts about their kids, like its the totally normal thing to do.   I also think given the chance, I'd go nuts over YOUR kid or any kid.  

But I said I've thought about taking them for granted.

Some people take children for granted.

The abuse or misuse their precious gift.

They think everyone just has kids, probably before the age 30, before a first divorce, between college and a short-mom-haircut.  Its just what you do.

And if that kid scenario plays out too early, you can alter that problem.  

Abortion, NBD.

I do think its a big freaking deal though.  

I mourn for the loss of those little ones that didn't get to experience love and life.

Its Sanctity of Human Life Sunday today.

This includes respecting life for the elderly, disabled, disenfranchised, unborn, orphaned, and unfortunate.

Its a day to pause to respect and celebrate human life.

Greta wrote a very eloquent blog post today about the sanctity of life and a call of action.
I honestly cannot write it any better myself.

So I link to her.

I especially like the quote that she includes that draws a parallel to those who disagree but are silent with those who did not work against Nazi policies.  What brutal truth.

Please read this post because she makes some good points.

I really support this Be A Voice page, too.

Sewing Project: Car Seat Blanket.

This WAS the current project, but I am happy to announce as of 11:30 PM last night, its officially not current!

I finished my first solo sewing project!


Maybe I shouldn't call it solo, because I had a lot of back up.  Emily, Susan, Ann, and Mom... thanks for your encouragement and trouble shooting tips. The assistance came at a perfect time! It turned out that it was cheap thread, that the tension knob needs oil and still needs some TLC, that the bobbin area had some fuzz in it, and that my son had set the special switch selector dial THAT I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WAS THERE to a rick-rack setting, which did make it look wrong.


Anyway, its done and is being enjoyed!

I bought the fleece for DHH because he loves all things Mickey Mouse, and now that he is forward facing in his car seat, he needs a longer blanket for the car. (You aren't supposed to have children in thick coats and in car seats because it is a safety hazard).

This project was tricky because I didn't think it through. I should have researched how to do mitered corners properly.  Instead I did it as best as I could, provided that I'd already cut the binding! It also means I have to hand stitch the four binding pieces together, rather than using these REALLY good  instructions.

I will also say that I feel a bit too ashamed to take close up photos of the actual sewing.  There are a lot of errors.  There are fewer errors as I progressed in the project, and a few of the errors are machine errors.  I learned how to thread the machine and wind the bobbin a lot quicker.  I learned how to feed the fabric in at a steady rate. I learned a lot.

And it looks like a seventh grade FACS student made it.  But my kid doesn't know the difference.  The one I make for EK might look like a 10th grader made it.  Which is cool to consider!

When I finished the blanket, I went into my (snoring) kid's room and snuggled it around him.  That was a rewarding feeling, and I kind of felt a kinship to those pioneer women who quilted for necessity and wrapped their children in blankets made by their own two hands.

Kind of.
They didn't use synthetic fabric with ridiculous mice on them, but I am giving up the ghost of trying to raise this kid in a commercial-free and sustainable way.

Also, note that I am allowing him to be a couch potato and watch Mickey Mouse Club while wearing Mickey jammies and using his Mickey blanket.

FYI:
Here's clear instructions for the Faux Mitered Corners.
Here are the basic instructions I followed for making the blanket from Prudent Baby.

Some Blog Face Time for EK - 9 Months

I think its about time for a photo blitz of my baby.  Here are three different occasions when I had my photo ready to capture how much fun this little girl is.

First up: The Tub.

She loves bath time, and truthfully, she NEEDS bath time.  She's been getting so messy at dinner lately that its a good idea for us to shampoo her.  Its her  most active time of the day, so I think it counts as her daily work out.  She splashes and carries on until her big brother decides its time for him to come in the bath and climbs in.

Next: Music Time

You can see she's still wearing that purple dress from church on Sunday. When her dad and brother went out on a little Sunday afternoon adventure, she got to play with a toy that her brother always takes away from her: this tiny piano.  Elsa wanted to play and dance at the same time, and it was obvious by her shrieks that she enjoyed banging on the toy.

MY HEART MELTS.  

Playing with her eggs:

This egg-toy was on my Kid Toy Wish List, and my mom got it for EK.  I am so glad!  This might be her favorite toy of all.  She sits and bangs at the egg carton until the eggs wobble free, then she bounce them around, yells at them, sings into the shells, and basically has WAY more fun with eggs than I've ever had.

Time to sleep:

EK tells us she is tired by getting fussy.  She puts her thumb in her mouth and lays down.  Then we know its time to do the sleep sack and/or swaddle (still swaddling at 9 months!!) and lay that baby down!

My mom made that sleep sack.  Its so pretty.  I started to sew it, but couldn't finish it for lack of enthusiasm and know-how.  Thank you, Nanny!

And this is what happens if she does not get her peace and quiet for a nap.  She WANTS to go to sleep, and she wants her brother to go away and let her take a nap on her parents' giant bed thankyouverymuch.

Potty Training Post #1

Maybe there will be several of these posts, or maybe not.

But I feel I must share the bizarre turn of events that occurred this morning.

I changed DHH from his night time cloth diaper (an Econobum cover, Flip organic insert, and small microfiber insert) at about 8 AM this morning.  It had been on for 12 hours, and if he had it his way, he'd have kept it on longer.  
Of course it was wet - but not SO much so.
Of course it was smelly - its toddler urine, which reeks of ammonia.

I have been saying, "Its time to change from your night diaper.  Let's clean you off and keep your bum healthy." I am saying it in my most cheerful, non-confrontational way.
He has been saying, "NOOOOOOOO diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie-per change!" and doing a fit.
Then we do a Sit On The Naughty Bench For Your Unnecessary Tantrum And Calm The Heck Down song and dance.  And then change the diaper like its NBD. (No big deal, a phrase I am trying to bring back into common language!)

So during that morning it was a normal, at home morning.  Play dough cookie making, reading books about excavators and motor graders, a foam sticker craft, and miscellaneous housework.  About the time I was sitting down to fold a load of clothes, he said:

"Mommy, its potty time."

I asked if he needed help, but he said no.
I watched him run to get a step stool.
I heard him put it down in the bathroom and say, "Huh." I could tell he needed to be reminded about the next thing to do.
"Take off those pants, DeeDee."
"Okay."
"Now unsnap that diaper."
"Yeah. Do it self."

A moment later, there was a flush, followed by hand-washing noises.
He raced into the room and requested his "Blue potty training Ms".

He ate his candy and went about his day as if it was NBD.

This was a parenting success because :
a) He was the one in charge of the whole process
b) I trusted him enough to do it alone and didn't interfere
c) There was no power struggle involved

I won't lie, I've been a bit stressed over this life-skill for DHH.  We've been doing potty learning and communication forEVER (since 13 months) and he goes from dry diapers to dry undies to fits about wearing undies to refusing undies to diapers to wet undies.