It's important to be warm

No this isn’t actually about poop.

I floated the idea of having a thing this weekend awhile back and got good responses. However, it’s not happening. I’m sorry. We’re just not ready and I want the house to actually be more baby-/kid-proof before inviting little peeps around. It’s fine for one or two shorties, but if we have a casual herd, there will be sad small people or at least a panic attack on my part as I try to point out all the dangers.

Stay tuned as I am determined to have a thing of some sort later this year.

Filed by joy at 1:28 pm under life
6 Comments

Today while Ian was installing our baseboard (finishing touches! Hurrah!) I left Benjamin happily in his crib to run downstairs to take a peek at the progress. Little B played with his music box, thwacking it while laying on his side, which he had rolled himself onto so as to have a better look at the lights of the box. By the time I came back up the stairs, he had rolled completely onto his belly, and was complaining while still kicking the music box, thus masking his own noise-making. Poor little guy, he hates tummy time. He drooled so much while flailing on his tummy that he added to his own discomfort, leaving a large damp spot when I plucked him up and righted him in his crib. He was no worse for wear, and promptly rolled himself onto his side again to further his study of the room from that angle.

The baseboards look awesome. We are soooo close to having one floor of the house done that it startles me a little bit. I’m too accustomed to living in a construction zone.

Filed by joy at 11:41 pm under baby, crafty
No Comments

The cliche/truism is that once you are a mother, all you can talk about is poop. That’s not an absolute, but it is of far, far greater concern than I ever imagined.

First there is the boy. His tummy troubles are certainly better, but he’s back to the greenish poop again. I’m more annoyed than concerned, and sad that he continues to have these obviously painful crampy episodes. Poor thing.

We had to buy diapers for the first time early last week. (We were blessed with a total of eleven weeks of diapers from friends! Feel the love!) I got the brand that I considered the largest of the smalls since diapers are as inconsistently sized as women’s clothes. It is all part of the conspiracy to make women—the primary buyers of such things—insane. Sure the diapers all say they’re for the same weight, but the fit never matches. At least I learned this on the various brands I was given instead of making myself have a breakdown in the diaper aisle. So this brand that I chose came out with a new style since my gifted ones and now has a very strong smell of baby-powderyish fakeness. It’s driving me insane, which is obviously part of the conspiracy since they couldn’t get me with the stupid sizing. Ian can’t smell it of course, but I feel hit in the face by it just walking into the nursery. Note to the diaper people: Among your other sins, do not stank up the product. I either want to smell nothing but clean baby, or the poop. Save me the layers of fake sweet smell which totally masks the real baby smell and only half masks the poop.

But wait, I have more to say about the boy’s productivity. I’m reading up on Elimination Communication, also known as Infant Potty Training. In the great environmental debate of cloth vs. disposable, the answer is a resounding neither! It’s not significantly more hassle than diapers as the boy does let you know quite clearly what he’s got on his mind. Since he dislikes being in a messy diaper, he complains until clean, so I might as well try to use that to my advantage. Besides, I needed another project. *snark*

Then there is the cat. She’s broken. She still has the Horner’s Syndrome and she was acting fine for awhile. Then, perhaps in utter hatred of her antibiotics, she went off her kibble. In one of our many vet trips, we found out she’s lost a pound, which is quite a large percentage of her total weight. She’s also had two poop incidents, the first being last Tuesday when she skidded her butt into the bathroom (those with cats know what I mean by skidding) after the boy’s early morning nurse. I ended up tossing Smelly Cat into the bathtub for a hose-down and comb-through. There was much complaint, but she knew at least she’d finally be rid of the mess in her fluffy bloomers. Yesterday she was Smelly again, so back into the tub. This time my arsenal included scissors, so now she is a long hair cat in the front and a seriously messed up shorthair in the back. But she is clean, proudly showing her tidy never-seen-the-light-of-day-pale sphincter to the world. All she needs is a safety pin in her ear to complete the done-while-high self-haircut look. Mad-eye Saggar goes punk. Watch out!

You’d think I’d be done with the poop-talk by now, but I’m afraid not. I have still more, though it does get smaller. I recently found that certain proof that mice were living in our outside storage bin with the bike helmets and garden tools, which isn’t so bad, but it was only a matter of time before they found their annoying little way inside. And they did. While I’m in charge of the living creatures, Ian is in charge of any removal project involving extermination. Ian hates those meeses to pieces and from the first sight of their gifts in the kitchen, he was off to Home Depot for traps. Caught the little bugger too. It’s ok with me as long as I never see the critters as I’ll get all sad and guilty about it.

I have to draw the line somewhere, so henceforth the rule is that I won’t talk about any grown-up poop, but that’s mostly because there is not much to say, thankfully.

Just to be fair to myself, we had people over for dinner last night and while playing a good round of Pass the Baby, they are not parents and thus do not discuss poop over dinner. Other than explaining the cat’s haircut, poop did NOT come up in the topics of conversation and a fine time was had by all. We dished about former co-workers and talked politics just like regular boring adults.

Filed by joy at 9:39 am under baby, life, random
2 Comments

Yesterday Little B noticed his crib mobile and was vastly entertained by it for minutes. Today he graced Ian with a proto-giggle. He very nearly repeated it for me while Ian tickled him and laughed in an attempt to get him to laugh along. My mom got quality time keeping the little one snug and asleep so I could do a bit of work. She appreciates his focus on task. There aren’t many people in her life that have any focus whatsoever.

All in all, it was a good marking for his 12th week, or the beginning of his 4th month, which seems a completely bizarre notion.

Tomorrow we take Saggar back to the vet for another check of her mysterious Horner’s Syndrome. She still may or may not be really sick. She doesn’t seem to want to tell us. (Benjamin, ever on task, has been very clear with us that he has quite a bit to complain about.) Perhaps she acted funny these last few days because there was another baby in the house. I could almost hear her grunting, “What?!? Another one? Please, people. This must stop.”

Cousin Z and her adorable A came to town and we had a wonderful time. There are many plans afoot to repeat the visit as much glowing and grinning was had by all. Besides, we have the only two redheads in the family that I know of, with the added bonus that they look so cute together.

Filed by joy at 6:38 pm under baby, life, visuals
2 Comments

To catch up, I will make a list. I’m very good at making lists. I get it from my mother.

We drove to Indiana a couple of weeks ago (seems ages, but really it was only mid-July). 800 miles is a long way for an 8 week old baby over the course of a weekend. There were some complaints, though mostly it was great. Benjamin met a few of his second cousins. It was especially satisfying sitting with two of my cousins who’d had babies this summer, each of us nursing at various intervals. My mom’s family is pleasantly nuts, especially the uncles, who would sit around the pool drinking their beers, sunburning their matching balding heads, telling anyone carrying a baby to “Get that baby out of the sun, that’s bad parenting” to which the answer was “You know a lot about bad parenting, don’tcha?” One cousin who’d had her baby just five days before the gathering teased Ian, “We’re in this family by chance, you’re in it by choice.” There’s a lot of amiable mockery going on.

En route, we stayed a night in Yellow Springs, home of Antioch College. It is a lovely little college town and reminded me of good things about Bennington. There we learned that we are too old for crappy hotels. When the funky and interesting places were full, we forsook the local leftover ick and drove back up to the interstate for a nice, clean, generic Days Inn. It did not have bugs. We like that in a hotel.

I’ve been working more and more, freelance, gallery, etc. It’s eating up all my time even though I’m hauling Little B with me. Still, I don’t feel like I’m getting anything done, whilst in actual fact I am a master of multi-tasking. It’s tedious. I have not yet found a way to get out of my own way about it.

I discovered that Little B’s abundant forehead wrinkly-ness is excellent for playing with, mostly causing me to ask him Are you evil again? Those who have seen it and get the reference also find it hilarious. It’s especially funny since he can now smile at me while nursing, positively vampiric.

Speaking of the boy, he was given his 2 month vaccinations, got a fever following them, and has suffered tummy maladies ever since. He and I are equally unimpressed. It’s disheartening to be unable to console him. Of course, I’m the same way when I have a stomach ache, we simply verbalize it differently. He goes to the naturopath this weekend so we can have strategies for dealing with further immunizations as well as the GI spasms he’s having now. Poor little guy. When he’s not in the midst of a tummy pain, engulfed in justified complaint, he’s an expert smiler, cooing and chatting. Totally adorable.

Saggar is also unwell. Last weekend, she jumped into the bathtub as usual to have water dripped on her head (aka drinking). I noticed that her right eye had the third eyelid half up and pupils dilated unevenly. Then I noticed that below her right ear was damp and when I wiped it, it was wet with watery blood. Needless to say, this upset me quite a bit as it is never a good sign to have blood coming out of ears. Long story short, Saggar has Horner’s Syndrome which in cats is caused by one of three things, or is caused by something unknown. The vet not only brought in two textbooks, one with pictures, to show me the condition, but also brought in his three assistants/residents to see such a “textbook case” in the flesh, or fur, as it were. Of the three things that might cause the syndrome, it might be infection, head trauma (ie: concussion), or the big C. Infection in this case is unlikely, but she’s getting a round of antibiotics just in case. We have no idea what could’ve fallen on her head and we seriously doubt she fell off of anything. She’s not the most graceful, but she’s not a clutz either. Still, I’m hoping something fell on her, since the alternative is some form of cancer.

Also last weekend we drove to Lancaster, PA to meet up with some of the other side of my family. Benjamin met a few of his third cousins. There will be pictures posted at Flickr once I get myself in order. It was big fun. We had a Dutch Wonderful day. There were obscene desserts and a roller coaster. While away, Susie and my mom took care of mad-eye Saggar while we were away. Ian and I joked about her pea-brain, which was now a split-pea.

There happen to be outlet stores in Lancaster. I suppose it offsets the Horse’n'Buggies on the cultural spectrum. I finally broke down and got new underwear as everything I used to wear irritates my C-section scar. I have the most brightly colored granny panties in existence. But my scar is much happier and it’s not like I wear low-rider pants anyway, especially not without something covering up the belly.

It is hot. I dislike hot. I dislike August generally. I am a delicate flower and cannot bear the oppressiveness of walking into a hair dryer every time I leave the house. Also, I sweat. A lot. It’s icky. This is another advantage of granny panties. They are very healthy cotton in this much needed “breathable” fashions season.

___

The music video is not dead, it’s just not on TV anymore. This is hilarious, and the best use of a treadmill I have ever seen. Ganked from at least two peeps, but I finally watched it, so I’m sharing late.

Also old news, also ganked, and despite an instance of an improper apostrophe, this is well worth reading.
A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.
- Aristotle, philosopher (384-322 BCE)

Filed by joy at 7:27 pm under life, travels
1 Comment