My son has an imaginary pirate ship. He calls it the Bowy Rodger. (As in the Bow of a ship). (It took us ages to figure out the correct pronuncation. We spent several weeks going "Bolly?" and him saying "no, Bowy" and us not hearing the difference). I have been meaning to write about it for ages. It just gets more and more elaborate as time passes and I am sure I will miss some things, but here is what I remember (in the order that I think I was told it). I intend to add to this post as he adds to his ship or as I remember things he has said, or as they are reported by other caregivers in his life.
The Bowy Rodger is big. Really big.
The Bowy Rodger is good pirates, not bad pirates.
The Bowy Rodger is so big it would fill up the whole universe.
The Bowy Rodger is just a little big. It doesn't fill up the universe.
The Bowy Rodger is so big it would fill up the whole city, but only the outside part, not in people's houses.
The Bowy Rodger sometimes has bad pirates.
The Bowy Rodger is painted many colors, not just brown. It is painted red, and white, and blue, and green, and orange, and pink.
The Bowy Rodger is one of the many "Rodger" ships. It is the biggest Rodger.
The Bowy Rodger has really big cannons that shoot lightning and can break other ships.
The Bowy Rodger has one mast with two sails.
The Bowy Rodger can have birthday parties on it. That is why its painted so many colors.
The Bowy Rodger is big enough to fit a GREAT BIG DRAGON on it as a crew member because the Bowy Rodger is REALLY big.
The Bowy Rodger has a microscope pointed down into the water so you can look for germs.
The Bowy Rodger has a cabin (not all pirate ships do, but the Bowy Rodger does).
The Bowy Rodger's cabin is for baby dragons and baby dinosaurs to live in.
Added 4/5/15
The Bowy Rodger has warm, soft beds for Mom, Dad, Felicity and Ben
The Bowy Rodger has wheels when it goes on land, but not when its in the water
The Bowy Rodger has wings when it flies (but only when it flies)
The Bowy Rodger has a small button on the inside wall that the baby dinosaur's can press to change it into a Submarine
The Bowy Rodger is the biggest ship in the world.
...
Aren't you just on tenderhooks to see what the Bowy Rodger gets next?
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Week of DOOOOM
First. Housekeeping.
For the record, Felicity started sitting on the same day that I posed to the blog that she was not quite sitting yet. 2/23/2015. I went to pick her up from daycare and had her on my lap to put her socks and jacket on, and I realized I wasn't supporting her anymore. As of that moment, she can sit just fine, as long as she so desires (which might not be that long if there is something interesting she would rather lean or lunge for).
Now that that is documented...
This week sucks.
The sucktitude of this week so far is one for the record books. No ONE big thing has happened. We all have our general health, jobs, no car accidents, etc. I am sure a week can suck more than this one. But in terms of small things adding up... this week takes the cake. This blog post is my therapy about it.. I am well aware MANY things that went "wrong" are things I could fix by being more organized, but thats sort of the point really. I am just ridiculously sleep deprived, aggravated, and everything sucks. I do NOT want suggestions for how to "fix" anything here.
What I want is a hug and a "wow yeah that really sucks". No other comments welcome.
To set the stage... Felicity had a cough for a week. We went to urgent care on Friday and everything looked ok. Clear ears, clear lungs. We were told to see if it got better or worse. Saturday night it seemed to approve... then
Sunday Overnight - Felicity did not sleep hardly at all, unless it was upright in my arms. Coughing fits and general fussiness.
Monday - We had Ben' s Early Childhood assessment. I had looking forward to it for ages, I wanted to see what he did at it. I scheduled it specifically so I could be there and see it. But, Felicity was sick too and needed to see the doctor. DH stayed home to to sort out what to do with both kids. Because we got up/came downstairs later than normal, my auto-brew coffee had been sitting too long and had to be tossed. When I go to pack my pump bag I find out that I never put Friday's milk in the fridge, so it has to be tossed. Bye bye liquid gold. Felicity was fussy and did not want to be put down. I called the doctors office right at 8am when they opened and was on hold for 15 minutes. When they finally answered, I discovered my phone is broken and they couldn't hear me even though I could hear them fine. I had to hang up and call from DH's phone, wait on hold 15 minutes, and then be told "OK we will have a nurse call you back". So we had no idea when or if we could get Felicity to the doctor. We all headed out to Ben's assessment. Because we had to drive separately, I ended up trying to get both kids out of the car and into the place where the assessment was, juggling multiple bags, the carseat, and the three year old, who did not want to walk (he did walk though). We go to the assessment and its going fine, but then the doctors office calls in the middle of it. SO, I miss the part of the assessment I am most interested in, that I have been looking fwd to for months, to answer the phone. I schedule the appointment. DH takes Ben to daycare and I take Felicity to her appt. Because we did not know what would happen with it, we didn't think to pack the stroller or a baby carrier, so I have to carry her in a very long way from parking to the office, which is crowded and busy at 10am in the morning. (Also I had a feminine issue that I won't go into detail on here, but it made this even worse). We see the doctor and it turns out Felicity has a double ear infection that had popped up since Friday. The doctor prescribes antibiotics. I know that you are not supposed to jump right to antibiotics for ear infections, but I also know that if I DONT agree to the antibiotics it means I will need to come back in 24 hrs to have her ears checked again. So I agree to the antibiotics and feel like a bad mom. I take Felicity to daycare and drop her off, and go to work. At work everything is insane. It is the start of the month, which is always busy, but on top of that we have lots of bad cases we are dealing with (messy cases with mistakes, or cases where the client isn't very nice to deal with, etc). We are down a man. I am team lead, so on top of trying to catch up on my task for the day people keep bringing me all the nasty stuff, including my supervisor who seems to be having as bad of a day as I am. A migraine sets in. I should have expected a migraine because they are pretty predictable, but I didnt and I do not have any tylenol. Because I am breastfeeding, I cannot take any of the meds other people offer me, and no one has tylenol. Finally I get off at 4:30, where I go to the pharmacy. I discover once their that I don't have my prescription card for the new year, so I will have to pay out of pocket. I ask if the prescription can be mixed with milk, and they say absolutely not. I get the prescription and go to daycare where they report Felicity has had a miserable afternoon, which I expected. I get home and go to give Felicity the first dose, reading instructions carefully because she is so little, and it explicitly says in the instructions that it CAN be mixed with milk. Who is right? The directions of the pharmacist? Who knows. This medicine is THICK gross and pink, with a horrid bubblegum smell. Felicity hates it and is gagging on the texture. She has snot coming in torrents out her nose and hates getting her nose wiped. I don't remember everything else that happened that night... so lets move on.
Tuesday: Felicity slept horribly again, and is a snotty mess in the morning. I am exhausted and what was a migraine has remained around as a dull background headache. I look at the Tylenol on my dresser and think "I need to remember to bring that to work" and promptly forget it. We are running late. Something in the kitchen smells HORRIBLE. We get downstairs at 7am (late) and realize ITS SNOWING. Boatloads. I give her the medicine, which she hates. We manage to get everything (or so we think) packed up and in the car to go to daycare drop off. We get to daycare and I realize that we forgot Felicity's milk, so DH takes them inside while I "run" home, a task that is significantly complicated by the horrible roads and us running late (we live by a high school. Running late means that there is much more traffic there). I drop off the milk, and head to work. Roads are TERRIBLE and now I am running REALLY late. I hardly make it up the hill to park, but I do. I get into work, and its exactly like Monday. We are still down a person and everything we touch is a disaster. My best work friend is in a horrible mood and not feeling well, and decides to leave early, meaning I have no company AND we are down another person. I leave work feeling horrible and stressed, and head to daycare where we have parents night. Parent's night goes OK, except for the fact that they don't have enough food, which is a first, they always have a ton of food for dinner. I leave parent's night hungry and get home with two cranky kids. We both take a moment to dig through the fridge to find the source of the stench and throw out a really old gross milk. Now our whole kitchen REEKS of rotten milk. I give Felicity her medicine, and she gags on it so badly that she throws up all over both of us. She is still a snotty mess, and now her poo is beginning to look funny from the meds. Because it snowed all day (there is a good new 8 inches outside), DH has to leave me alone w the kids while he goes and shovels. Normally not a big deal, except when you are already tired and frustrated, with a stinky kitchen. DH tries to help give me a bit of relief by taking Felicity up when he does Ben's bedtime, but it only lasts 10 minutes because she poops again, the stringy gross stuff. I try to help get rid of the kitchen smell by doing some cleaning, but discover we are out of vinegar, but I do what I can. While trying to clean up a bit I manage to spill a cup of sweet tea all over the dining room floor. It still stinks in the kitchen no matter what I do. Because we didn't get enough to eat at daycare, I am desperately hungry so I keep going to try to find a snack, but everytime I open the fridge it stinks and really we have nothing I want in the house.
Wednesday: Felicity slept slightly better but still not great. I got up and was optimistic about the day because I didn't fall into the toilet. Yes. That was reason for celebrtion, as I had the opportunity to do so and managed to avoid it. Then, when I gave Felicty her medication, I managed to spill 2/3 of the bottle of sticky pink goo all over our changing table. Cleaning up the spill was bad enough but I also would then need to get a new bottle. On the way to take the kids to my parents house I had to loop back and check that someone who ran off the road was OK. Coming back into town to go to work my mind drifted and I started heading towards home instead of work. By the time I got downtown I was running quite late. I had to try three different parking spots before I found one that was legal (got to watch out for those sneaky driveways that no one shovelled yet) and that I was confident my car wouldn't slide out of. Everything was super icey and it was bitterly cold. Work continued much the same. Chaos, problems, and strife. My supervisor was heard making the comment she wishes she could erase the week. We were short staffed for part of the day and my supervisor said other units were so short staffed we might need to lend them workers despite being behind. (This is mostly due to illness). I once again managed to NOT bring tylenol and once again my migraine reared its ugly head in the afternoon. After work I had to go by the pharmacy to get the replacement meds, which was crowded and unpleasant. I found out there that the pink sticky mess was the only option and I couldn't get something more baby friendly. I got out to my parents house to find two sleeping children, which was nice. However, my mom reported that they both had been needy all day, Felicity had a bad diaper rash and was pooping frequently as a side effect of the antibiotics. When they did wake up, both kids were extremely needy. Felicity still clearly did not feel well and JUST WANTED MOM. Ben was sleep deprived from his shortened/late map and JUST WANTED MOM and was brimming with toddler emotion that had him crying over things as horrible as "having a brownie for dessert". My parents were being lovely and trying to help but both kids just wanted me. Its nice to be needed... except when there is not enough of you to go around and your tired, sore and grumpy (did I mention muscle soreness that made me think I was getting sick??). When I got home I went to give Felicity her medicine, and she gagged to the point of vomiting, this time producing a large ball of mucous that probably explains why she hadn't been eating much, all the snot she has been swallowing was gumming things up. I got the second half of her dose in her and proceeded to try to relax only to be up to change her poopy diaper and re-spread diaper cream four times in the next hour. She also ate twice in that next hour. Ben was having a rough time settling in for the night and kept calling DH back in again and again.
Thursday: I started this morning when I woke up so optimistic!! from 6-7 went pretty smoothly. Then I got downstairs. The kitchen still/again smelled like rotten milk. We don't know if there is still a source or if the stench just won't go away. I gave Felicity her meds and she spit them all over her outfit (though didn't throw up at least?). I went to pack my pump and found MORE of my breastmilk to throw out that I forgot to put in the fridge on Wednesday night. We ended up running really late and I was practically late to work. Walking into work was FRIGID COLD. Now, its Thursday afternoon and I have a migraine again. But, Maybe things are turning around. Things have gone slightly smoother at work, and there was free pizza for lunch. I am trying to convince myself that this is the end of the bad week and tomorrow will be up up and up. Wish me luck.
For the record, Felicity started sitting on the same day that I posed to the blog that she was not quite sitting yet. 2/23/2015. I went to pick her up from daycare and had her on my lap to put her socks and jacket on, and I realized I wasn't supporting her anymore. As of that moment, she can sit just fine, as long as she so desires (which might not be that long if there is something interesting she would rather lean or lunge for).
Now that that is documented...
This week sucks.
The sucktitude of this week so far is one for the record books. No ONE big thing has happened. We all have our general health, jobs, no car accidents, etc. I am sure a week can suck more than this one. But in terms of small things adding up... this week takes the cake. This blog post is my therapy about it.. I am well aware MANY things that went "wrong" are things I could fix by being more organized, but thats sort of the point really. I am just ridiculously sleep deprived, aggravated, and everything sucks. I do NOT want suggestions for how to "fix" anything here.
What I want is a hug and a "wow yeah that really sucks". No other comments welcome.
To set the stage... Felicity had a cough for a week. We went to urgent care on Friday and everything looked ok. Clear ears, clear lungs. We were told to see if it got better or worse. Saturday night it seemed to approve... then
Sunday Overnight - Felicity did not sleep hardly at all, unless it was upright in my arms. Coughing fits and general fussiness.
Monday - We had Ben' s Early Childhood assessment. I had looking forward to it for ages, I wanted to see what he did at it. I scheduled it specifically so I could be there and see it. But, Felicity was sick too and needed to see the doctor. DH stayed home to to sort out what to do with both kids. Because we got up/came downstairs later than normal, my auto-brew coffee had been sitting too long and had to be tossed. When I go to pack my pump bag I find out that I never put Friday's milk in the fridge, so it has to be tossed. Bye bye liquid gold. Felicity was fussy and did not want to be put down. I called the doctors office right at 8am when they opened and was on hold for 15 minutes. When they finally answered, I discovered my phone is broken and they couldn't hear me even though I could hear them fine. I had to hang up and call from DH's phone, wait on hold 15 minutes, and then be told "OK we will have a nurse call you back". So we had no idea when or if we could get Felicity to the doctor. We all headed out to Ben's assessment. Because we had to drive separately, I ended up trying to get both kids out of the car and into the place where the assessment was, juggling multiple bags, the carseat, and the three year old, who did not want to walk (he did walk though). We go to the assessment and its going fine, but then the doctors office calls in the middle of it. SO, I miss the part of the assessment I am most interested in, that I have been looking fwd to for months, to answer the phone. I schedule the appointment. DH takes Ben to daycare and I take Felicity to her appt. Because we did not know what would happen with it, we didn't think to pack the stroller or a baby carrier, so I have to carry her in a very long way from parking to the office, which is crowded and busy at 10am in the morning. (Also I had a feminine issue that I won't go into detail on here, but it made this even worse). We see the doctor and it turns out Felicity has a double ear infection that had popped up since Friday. The doctor prescribes antibiotics. I know that you are not supposed to jump right to antibiotics for ear infections, but I also know that if I DONT agree to the antibiotics it means I will need to come back in 24 hrs to have her ears checked again. So I agree to the antibiotics and feel like a bad mom. I take Felicity to daycare and drop her off, and go to work. At work everything is insane. It is the start of the month, which is always busy, but on top of that we have lots of bad cases we are dealing with (messy cases with mistakes, or cases where the client isn't very nice to deal with, etc). We are down a man. I am team lead, so on top of trying to catch up on my task for the day people keep bringing me all the nasty stuff, including my supervisor who seems to be having as bad of a day as I am. A migraine sets in. I should have expected a migraine because they are pretty predictable, but I didnt and I do not have any tylenol. Because I am breastfeeding, I cannot take any of the meds other people offer me, and no one has tylenol. Finally I get off at 4:30, where I go to the pharmacy. I discover once their that I don't have my prescription card for the new year, so I will have to pay out of pocket. I ask if the prescription can be mixed with milk, and they say absolutely not. I get the prescription and go to daycare where they report Felicity has had a miserable afternoon, which I expected. I get home and go to give Felicity the first dose, reading instructions carefully because she is so little, and it explicitly says in the instructions that it CAN be mixed with milk. Who is right? The directions of the pharmacist? Who knows. This medicine is THICK gross and pink, with a horrid bubblegum smell. Felicity hates it and is gagging on the texture. She has snot coming in torrents out her nose and hates getting her nose wiped. I don't remember everything else that happened that night... so lets move on.
Tuesday: Felicity slept horribly again, and is a snotty mess in the morning. I am exhausted and what was a migraine has remained around as a dull background headache. I look at the Tylenol on my dresser and think "I need to remember to bring that to work" and promptly forget it. We are running late. Something in the kitchen smells HORRIBLE. We get downstairs at 7am (late) and realize ITS SNOWING. Boatloads. I give her the medicine, which she hates. We manage to get everything (or so we think) packed up and in the car to go to daycare drop off. We get to daycare and I realize that we forgot Felicity's milk, so DH takes them inside while I "run" home, a task that is significantly complicated by the horrible roads and us running late (we live by a high school. Running late means that there is much more traffic there). I drop off the milk, and head to work. Roads are TERRIBLE and now I am running REALLY late. I hardly make it up the hill to park, but I do. I get into work, and its exactly like Monday. We are still down a person and everything we touch is a disaster. My best work friend is in a horrible mood and not feeling well, and decides to leave early, meaning I have no company AND we are down another person. I leave work feeling horrible and stressed, and head to daycare where we have parents night. Parent's night goes OK, except for the fact that they don't have enough food, which is a first, they always have a ton of food for dinner. I leave parent's night hungry and get home with two cranky kids. We both take a moment to dig through the fridge to find the source of the stench and throw out a really old gross milk. Now our whole kitchen REEKS of rotten milk. I give Felicity her medicine, and she gags on it so badly that she throws up all over both of us. She is still a snotty mess, and now her poo is beginning to look funny from the meds. Because it snowed all day (there is a good new 8 inches outside), DH has to leave me alone w the kids while he goes and shovels. Normally not a big deal, except when you are already tired and frustrated, with a stinky kitchen. DH tries to help give me a bit of relief by taking Felicity up when he does Ben's bedtime, but it only lasts 10 minutes because she poops again, the stringy gross stuff. I try to help get rid of the kitchen smell by doing some cleaning, but discover we are out of vinegar, but I do what I can. While trying to clean up a bit I manage to spill a cup of sweet tea all over the dining room floor. It still stinks in the kitchen no matter what I do. Because we didn't get enough to eat at daycare, I am desperately hungry so I keep going to try to find a snack, but everytime I open the fridge it stinks and really we have nothing I want in the house.
Wednesday: Felicity slept slightly better but still not great. I got up and was optimistic about the day because I didn't fall into the toilet. Yes. That was reason for celebrtion, as I had the opportunity to do so and managed to avoid it. Then, when I gave Felicty her medication, I managed to spill 2/3 of the bottle of sticky pink goo all over our changing table. Cleaning up the spill was bad enough but I also would then need to get a new bottle. On the way to take the kids to my parents house I had to loop back and check that someone who ran off the road was OK. Coming back into town to go to work my mind drifted and I started heading towards home instead of work. By the time I got downtown I was running quite late. I had to try three different parking spots before I found one that was legal (got to watch out for those sneaky driveways that no one shovelled yet) and that I was confident my car wouldn't slide out of. Everything was super icey and it was bitterly cold. Work continued much the same. Chaos, problems, and strife. My supervisor was heard making the comment she wishes she could erase the week. We were short staffed for part of the day and my supervisor said other units were so short staffed we might need to lend them workers despite being behind. (This is mostly due to illness). I once again managed to NOT bring tylenol and once again my migraine reared its ugly head in the afternoon. After work I had to go by the pharmacy to get the replacement meds, which was crowded and unpleasant. I found out there that the pink sticky mess was the only option and I couldn't get something more baby friendly. I got out to my parents house to find two sleeping children, which was nice. However, my mom reported that they both had been needy all day, Felicity had a bad diaper rash and was pooping frequently as a side effect of the antibiotics. When they did wake up, both kids were extremely needy. Felicity still clearly did not feel well and JUST WANTED MOM. Ben was sleep deprived from his shortened/late map and JUST WANTED MOM and was brimming with toddler emotion that had him crying over things as horrible as "having a brownie for dessert". My parents were being lovely and trying to help but both kids just wanted me. Its nice to be needed... except when there is not enough of you to go around and your tired, sore and grumpy (did I mention muscle soreness that made me think I was getting sick??). When I got home I went to give Felicity her medicine, and she gagged to the point of vomiting, this time producing a large ball of mucous that probably explains why she hadn't been eating much, all the snot she has been swallowing was gumming things up. I got the second half of her dose in her and proceeded to try to relax only to be up to change her poopy diaper and re-spread diaper cream four times in the next hour. She also ate twice in that next hour. Ben was having a rough time settling in for the night and kept calling DH back in again and again.
Thursday: I started this morning when I woke up so optimistic!! from 6-7 went pretty smoothly. Then I got downstairs. The kitchen still/again smelled like rotten milk. We don't know if there is still a source or if the stench just won't go away. I gave Felicity her meds and she spit them all over her outfit (though didn't throw up at least?). I went to pack my pump and found MORE of my breastmilk to throw out that I forgot to put in the fridge on Wednesday night. We ended up running really late and I was practically late to work. Walking into work was FRIGID COLD. Now, its Thursday afternoon and I have a migraine again. But, Maybe things are turning around. Things have gone slightly smoother at work, and there was free pizza for lunch. I am trying to convince myself that this is the end of the bad week and tomorrow will be up up and up. Wish me luck.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Miss Fliss - 5 Months
Has it really already been a month since I posted? Or close to it?
Felicity is sick this week. She had a very snotty nose over the weekend, and now has a barking "seal" cough. Second time she has had this seal cough, maybe its her thing.
SIZE: She is growing fast. We will need to switch her to a crib (from her mini-pnp) soon. I don't have actual measurements though. She is wearing size 6m, except sleepers need to be 9m (when they are her full length), and a lot of 6m pants are getting tight.
GROSS MOTOR: She still isn't really sitting, like if you put her in a sitting position she topples over, but I really think its more because she wants to reach something always, can't just sit there. Her goal is to get something in her hands, not to sit up. She likes to be in a standing position and likes her bouncer OK. She is finally tall enough to take the calculus book out from under it. Daycare tells me she is a roller. I have yet to see her go back to front, but thats because we hold her so much at home, she isn't on the floor much.
FINE MOTOR: She loves to grab things, and doesn't really miss when she reaches for them anymore. She is obsessed with having something in her hands and wants to get it to her mouth. She often ends up with it on her head instead of in her mouth, which is also adorable. She will grab anything you leave in her reach, including your hair (which she pulls), your plate/glass, etc. She likes to lay on her back and grab her toes or to take her own socks off. She throws things a lot now when she is done with them (or on accident? Its hard to tell sometimes).
VERBAL: She is a "talker". Lots of noise and babble all the time. Sometimes when she is fighting going to sleep she just murmurs babble really loudly, it is adorable.
SOCIAL: She is a pretty happy baby, its rare for her to cry and when she does its usually pretty easy to identify the cause. She is happy at daycare as well. She watches everything around her intently. She loves watching her brother bounce around and be crazy. She recognizes us, especially me (mama), and flails a bit reaching for me when I come into a room. She doesn't like to be left alone. If you are out of her site and she is not otherwise distracted she will start to fuss a bit, but this can often be alleviated by singing so she knows someone is still around (I like singing A Thousand Years to her, its her song in my head).
EATING: Still exclusively breastfed (bottles of Breast Milk at daycare). She has become a distracted nurser, if there is a noise elsewhere in the room she has to detach and look, its rather annoying. She is interested in food but isn't quite ready yet.
SLEEP: She is not a great sleeper. On an average night she would wake up every 2-3 hrs. Sometimes if I am lucky she will go 4-5 hrs before the first wake up, but that has been rare recently. Sometimes if I am unlucky she will be restless and not settle well and be up more. She still is sleeping in a PNP within arms reach of me at night.
HABITS: She uses a pacifier, but mainly for sleeping. She is a gassy baby. She is fascinated by the television, especially soccer it seems, or things with green/solid backgrounds. She laughs when you make noises at her, and its pretty easy to get a smile out of her w a little effort on this front. She will use her bouncer, sit in a bumbo, or her reclined baby seat, or lay happily on her back, as long as someone else is around and she isn't hungry/tired. Somestimes she just wants to be held. She of course likes sleeping in someones arms (who wouldnt?) As for toys, she seems to especially like that crinkly/plastic bag noise, and chewing on books. But better than any toy is whatever you have... your phone, the remote, your container, your plate, the table, etc.
APPEARANCE: She has thin but growing hair all over her head, rather wispy. The bald spot she had on the back is filling in. Her eyes are slate grey. Her eyelashes are ridiculously thick. She still has a chronic "milk blister" (really a callous) on her top lip from sucking. She has kind of dry skin so we use lotion a lot.
**
I know baby's grow up fast. I was totally prepared to sit back and let this happen with Felicity and not stress over it, and I am enjoying every second with her that I can. When you think about it in the grand scheme of things, 6 months pinned to a couch because your baby is sleeping on you really isn't so bad, actually kind of amazing in its own way. I snuggle her as much as I can, and try to keep taking pictures to capture what I can of this time.
Felicity is sick this week. She had a very snotty nose over the weekend, and now has a barking "seal" cough. Second time she has had this seal cough, maybe its her thing.
SIZE: She is growing fast. We will need to switch her to a crib (from her mini-pnp) soon. I don't have actual measurements though. She is wearing size 6m, except sleepers need to be 9m (when they are her full length), and a lot of 6m pants are getting tight.
GROSS MOTOR: She still isn't really sitting, like if you put her in a sitting position she topples over, but I really think its more because she wants to reach something always, can't just sit there. Her goal is to get something in her hands, not to sit up. She likes to be in a standing position and likes her bouncer OK. She is finally tall enough to take the calculus book out from under it. Daycare tells me she is a roller. I have yet to see her go back to front, but thats because we hold her so much at home, she isn't on the floor much.
FINE MOTOR: She loves to grab things, and doesn't really miss when she reaches for them anymore. She is obsessed with having something in her hands and wants to get it to her mouth. She often ends up with it on her head instead of in her mouth, which is also adorable. She will grab anything you leave in her reach, including your hair (which she pulls), your plate/glass, etc. She likes to lay on her back and grab her toes or to take her own socks off. She throws things a lot now when she is done with them (or on accident? Its hard to tell sometimes).
VERBAL: She is a "talker". Lots of noise and babble all the time. Sometimes when she is fighting going to sleep she just murmurs babble really loudly, it is adorable.
SOCIAL: She is a pretty happy baby, its rare for her to cry and when she does its usually pretty easy to identify the cause. She is happy at daycare as well. She watches everything around her intently. She loves watching her brother bounce around and be crazy. She recognizes us, especially me (mama), and flails a bit reaching for me when I come into a room. She doesn't like to be left alone. If you are out of her site and she is not otherwise distracted she will start to fuss a bit, but this can often be alleviated by singing so she knows someone is still around (I like singing A Thousand Years to her, its her song in my head).
EATING: Still exclusively breastfed (bottles of Breast Milk at daycare). She has become a distracted nurser, if there is a noise elsewhere in the room she has to detach and look, its rather annoying. She is interested in food but isn't quite ready yet.
SLEEP: She is not a great sleeper. On an average night she would wake up every 2-3 hrs. Sometimes if I am lucky she will go 4-5 hrs before the first wake up, but that has been rare recently. Sometimes if I am unlucky she will be restless and not settle well and be up more. She still is sleeping in a PNP within arms reach of me at night.
HABITS: She uses a pacifier, but mainly for sleeping. She is a gassy baby. She is fascinated by the television, especially soccer it seems, or things with green/solid backgrounds. She laughs when you make noises at her, and its pretty easy to get a smile out of her w a little effort on this front. She will use her bouncer, sit in a bumbo, or her reclined baby seat, or lay happily on her back, as long as someone else is around and she isn't hungry/tired. Somestimes she just wants to be held. She of course likes sleeping in someones arms (who wouldnt?) As for toys, she seems to especially like that crinkly/plastic bag noise, and chewing on books. But better than any toy is whatever you have... your phone, the remote, your container, your plate, the table, etc.
APPEARANCE: She has thin but growing hair all over her head, rather wispy. The bald spot she had on the back is filling in. Her eyes are slate grey. Her eyelashes are ridiculously thick. She still has a chronic "milk blister" (really a callous) on her top lip from sucking. She has kind of dry skin so we use lotion a lot.
**
I know baby's grow up fast. I was totally prepared to sit back and let this happen with Felicity and not stress over it, and I am enjoying every second with her that I can. When you think about it in the grand scheme of things, 6 months pinned to a couch because your baby is sleeping on you really isn't so bad, actually kind of amazing in its own way. I snuggle her as much as I can, and try to keep taking pictures to capture what I can of this time.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Life
Benjamin is a threenager, he is moody, selective and demanding. He is obsessed with candy. Left to his own devices, he would eat corndogs twice a day. With encouragement there are a few other things he eats. His interests have branched out and are in constant flux. His "babies" change from dinosaur to dragon to human in the blink of an eye. In the same sentence he will tell you to hoist your sails and ride your Dragon (and perhaps add that your building a crane). He only pees in the potty to get a sucker, not out of any desire to potty train. He likes dad's bedtime stories more then mom's.
Felicity changes so much day by day. She pays attention to everything now. She reaches for everything. She grabs everything. If you are handling something (for example, I was washing a coffee cup last night), she wants to see what you are doing and if possible grab it. She will examine the same toy for quite some time (good attention span at this point!). She also has been trying to sit up, working those core muscles. She has been a bit fussier lately, and does not like to be put down at times, plays a some "not the mama" if I walk away, all very age appropriate. I am just amazed though at her growing awareness. (I'm her mom, I am supposed to be). [[I wrote this draft a week ago around 2/4. Now its 2/12 and I need to add that she is practically sitting up on her own, if she wanted to I think she could sit, but she frequently straightens her waist instead of sitting. She also grabs grabs grabs everything, your jacket, your face, anything and everything]]
The 2 weeks ago was a health disaster. Ben and Aaron had a stomach bug, then Felicity and I Had a cold. Felicity's was bad enough to have us get her checked out at urgent care (all is well), but she still is coughing quite a bit. Then, at the beginning of lastweek, I got ill, the kind of ill where I was in the bathroom for 8 hrs and lost 4 lbs. Even though I was "better" on Tuesday it really has taken all week to feel at full strength again. I am hoping we can all stay marginally healthy for awhile now.
The sickness has resulted in the house being a total disaster. We are trying to catch up. Also, it sadly means that I fell behind on my Declutter 365 challenge (the 15 minute daily task to get your house clean/organized). I am having a very difficult time geting it back together, getting back on track. I feel like I am playing catch up, again. I feel like I spend 75% of my time playing catch up because something "disrupted" progress I was making. I am beginning to wonder if there will ever be a time that I won't be in catch up mode.
Felicity changes so much day by day. She pays attention to everything now. She reaches for everything. She grabs everything. If you are handling something (for example, I was washing a coffee cup last night), she wants to see what you are doing and if possible grab it. She will examine the same toy for quite some time (good attention span at this point!). She also has been trying to sit up, working those core muscles. She has been a bit fussier lately, and does not like to be put down at times, plays a some "not the mama" if I walk away, all very age appropriate. I am just amazed though at her growing awareness. (I'm her mom, I am supposed to be). [[I wrote this draft a week ago around 2/4. Now its 2/12 and I need to add that she is practically sitting up on her own, if she wanted to I think she could sit, but she frequently straightens her waist instead of sitting. She also grabs grabs grabs everything, your jacket, your face, anything and everything]]
The 2 weeks ago was a health disaster. Ben and Aaron had a stomach bug, then Felicity and I Had a cold. Felicity's was bad enough to have us get her checked out at urgent care (all is well), but she still is coughing quite a bit. Then, at the beginning of lastweek, I got ill, the kind of ill where I was in the bathroom for 8 hrs and lost 4 lbs. Even though I was "better" on Tuesday it really has taken all week to feel at full strength again. I am hoping we can all stay marginally healthy for awhile now.
The sickness has resulted in the house being a total disaster. We are trying to catch up. Also, it sadly means that I fell behind on my Declutter 365 challenge (the 15 minute daily task to get your house clean/organized). I am having a very difficult time geting it back together, getting back on track. I feel like I am playing catch up, again. I feel like I spend 75% of my time playing catch up because something "disrupted" progress I was making. I am beginning to wonder if there will ever be a time that I won't be in catch up mode.
Monday, January 26, 2015
Miss Fliss - 4 Months Old
Felicity turned 4m old a few days ago.
People ask if she can roll. I don't think so. I am sure she gets lots of time to try this at daycare... in the precious time I have with her in the evenings I do not put her down much. She is pretty much held from 4:30pm - 10pm every night, with occasional interruptions. Not much chance to see if she can roll. She does like to sit up, propped on the couch or held on your lap, or to stand up with your assistance.
She is very vocal. She went through a very talkative phase where she was babbling a lot. Lately now her newest thing is blowing raspberries. Yes, she can blow a raspberry, though she spends much more time TRYING to do it then actually doing it. See?
She smiles all of the time. If someone is looking at her, holding her, paying attention, she is happy. She likes it when you sing to her or make little sounds at her, or even just talk. As happy as she is, she also is more vocal about being unhappy when she isn't. I am starting, however, to get pretty good at reading her as to what she is unhappy about, so that's nice.
She isn't sleeping great. It really varies night to night... sometimes every two hrs, sometimes more like 4 hrs, she is awake to eat. The one annoying thing is she really wants to get up at 5:20. No matter what else she does, she seems to wake up about a half hr before my alarm just to taunt me (I kid, LOL, but it is annoying!!)
Her hand-eye coordination is pretty neat. She can take her pacifier in and out of her mouth.She can, and does, grab any toy you give to her. She is getting to that age when you have to be careful with her at the table because she might try to grab your plate or your glass. She takes anything she can get her hands on and brings it up to her mouth. Her drooly, wet mouth. She really is a drooler!!
Her stats - 24.5 Inches (57%), 14lb2oz (53%), 70% head. She is slowing down.
I love holding her, and kissing her chubby cheeks (all the time), and her cool forehead when she sleeps. I love how her lip keeps moving to suckle long after her sleepy mouth has dropped the pacifier. I love her tiny hands grabbing mine and how she grabs at and scratches my arm when she is trying to comfort herself. (She scratches many things!!). I love her little kicks and how chill she is most of the time,content to hang out in my arms, looking out on what is going on. I am in no rush for her to grow up, just trying to take it day by day and get as many kisses as I can along the way.
People ask if she can roll. I don't think so. I am sure she gets lots of time to try this at daycare... in the precious time I have with her in the evenings I do not put her down much. She is pretty much held from 4:30pm - 10pm every night, with occasional interruptions. Not much chance to see if she can roll. She does like to sit up, propped on the couch or held on your lap, or to stand up with your assistance.
She is very vocal. She went through a very talkative phase where she was babbling a lot. Lately now her newest thing is blowing raspberries. Yes, she can blow a raspberry, though she spends much more time TRYING to do it then actually doing it. See?
She smiles all of the time. If someone is looking at her, holding her, paying attention, she is happy. She likes it when you sing to her or make little sounds at her, or even just talk. As happy as she is, she also is more vocal about being unhappy when she isn't. I am starting, however, to get pretty good at reading her as to what she is unhappy about, so that's nice.
She isn't sleeping great. It really varies night to night... sometimes every two hrs, sometimes more like 4 hrs, she is awake to eat. The one annoying thing is she really wants to get up at 5:20. No matter what else she does, she seems to wake up about a half hr before my alarm just to taunt me (I kid, LOL, but it is annoying!!)
Her hand-eye coordination is pretty neat. She can take her pacifier in and out of her mouth.She can, and does, grab any toy you give to her. She is getting to that age when you have to be careful with her at the table because she might try to grab your plate or your glass. She takes anything she can get her hands on and brings it up to her mouth. Her drooly, wet mouth. She really is a drooler!!
Her stats - 24.5 Inches (57%), 14lb2oz (53%), 70% head. She is slowing down.
I love holding her, and kissing her chubby cheeks (all the time), and her cool forehead when she sleeps. I love how her lip keeps moving to suckle long after her sleepy mouth has dropped the pacifier. I love her tiny hands grabbing mine and how she grabs at and scratches my arm when she is trying to comfort herself. (She scratches many things!!). I love her little kicks and how chill she is most of the time,content to hang out in my arms, looking out on what is going on. I am in no rush for her to grow up, just trying to take it day by day and get as many kisses as I can along the way.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Baby Dinosaurs
Friday afternoon Benjamin came home from daycare proud to have learned that Dinosaurs lay eggs. We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for pizza and the four of us (DH, Me, Ben, Felicity) were sitting in the living room, and Ben said he wanted to play dinosaurs. It started normal enough, with him and DH stomping around, short little T-Rex arms but big steps, roaring mouths, but then Ben interrupted the play and laid flat out on the floor and announced he was laying eggs, dinosaur eggs. He did not understand that laying meant anything other than being supine, so he was laying on the floor, "laying" eggs. Then he started handing us the eggs to help take care of. He announced he had laid 67 (productive day, and I did not even know he knew numbers that big). He handed one to DH and DH immediately pretended to eat it. Ben MELTED DOWN. Flipped out. Full Mandrake Face. His dad, after all, had just eaten one of his babies.I chastised DH who quickly reversed and said "no no I was only pretending to eat the egg." (Thus creating a layer of imagination in which he pretended to eat the pretend egg, but actually was caring for it). Crisis averted. Ben handed me some eggs and I promised not to eat them. We sat there for several minutes just looking at each other, our palms upturned holding imaginary eggs. Ben was walking around the living room "taking care" of the rest of them. Then DH said one of his eggs was hatching. It was a T-Rex. Then I said mine were hatching. Benjamin tended to them as they hatched and "laid" on the other unhatched eggs on the floor so they would stay warm. As they hatched he would feed them, he gave some of them pacifiers. He chased off the scary/mean dinosaur that was going to eat his babies. We played this for some time actively, but eventually did other things. Then, as we were leaving,, he asked to make sure that we were bringing them home. I assured him all 67 dinosaur eggs/babies were in the car. By Saturday morning all the eggs had hatched. By Saturday afternoon, they were learning to walk. I pointed out to Benjamin that they were learning and growing just like him and Felicity. He said NO! They are not growing, only learning. (Ben does not want to grow up as of late).
The baby dinosaurs now make periodic appearances throughout our days of play. Last night at bedtime, they all came up with us. Benjamin kept calling me up to his crib and asking for pacifiers for the dinosaurs until I finally told him I was handing him 67 of them (of course, then his stuffed panda bear needed one ten minutes later). He is so loving towards these imaginary mini dinosaurs that are running all over our house, it is adorable. I had to write this tidbit down before I forgot more of it.
(In Felicity news, she is able to put her pacifier in and out of her mouth, she really likes toys, things to grab and try to eat, she likes her bouncer which we just got out, she likes trying to stand up in it. She is not quite rolling or sitting up yet).
The baby dinosaurs now make periodic appearances throughout our days of play. Last night at bedtime, they all came up with us. Benjamin kept calling me up to his crib and asking for pacifiers for the dinosaurs until I finally told him I was handing him 67 of them (of course, then his stuffed panda bear needed one ten minutes later). He is so loving towards these imaginary mini dinosaurs that are running all over our house, it is adorable. I had to write this tidbit down before I forgot more of it.
(In Felicity news, she is able to put her pacifier in and out of her mouth, she really likes toys, things to grab and try to eat, she likes her bouncer which we just got out, she likes trying to stand up in it. She is not quite rolling or sitting up yet).
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Resolutions
I was going to start writing about my resolutions for 2015, but I realized I never did a post of how my resolutions went last year. (I also never really reflected fully on 2014, that is for another post).
Last year I had one goal: Simplify. OK, nothing is going to get simpler by having a second baby, and I did not have specific goals to measure whether I succeeded. But, I still can evalute how I did a bit. I failed at decluttering. I did not get to any of the crawl spaces I wanted to. I did not get rid of nearly as much stuff as I had hoped. I did (and still do) though feel a change in the way I think about life. There were a lot of things last year where I chose the simpler path - chose not to buy something I don't really need, chose to throw out something now instead of later, chose to turn down an obligation, delete a game, etc. It was not every time, but there was change. This is a change I hope to continue, expand upon.
And.. I know. It is late to be writing about resolutions, I am already through half a month! Also, my resolutions this year are not very well defined. That said, I do have things I want to do differently in 2015.
First, I want to get the decluttering process really underway. And I want to keep a positive attitude about it and get some momentum going. I have joined an internet group to help me in this. The Facebook Group is called Declutter 365 and is linked to/run by this blog: http://www.home-storage-solutions-101.com/declutter.html. Basically there is a Daily "Challenge", a 15 minute decluttering task. Today's is to declutter the tupperware/food storage containers. Its nice to have it broken into tiny little tasks, its nice to make a tiny bit of progress everyday and not stress about trying to get it all done or get overwhelmed by the amount that needs to be done. And, if I miss a day, its easy to catch up. And each little task I do, whether I do it well or poorly, is a tiny step forward. Its nice. I am enjoying it. There still will be some heavy lifting tasks... you know. Crawl spaces. Basement.
Second, I want to continue the mental move to simplicity. I want to be conscious of what I take on, and whether it is really something I want in my life, whether it be a new hobby, an internet game, or a new toy. I want to be selective when making purchases and think about not only the money it will cost, but the time it will cost to upkeep and the space it will take up in my home.
Third, I want to worry less and be more generous. I do not want to let fear of rejection, breaking social norms, looking stupid, fear about money, whatever, stop me from doing things that are nice for other people anymore.
I am really hoping that the first and second of these goals will make more time to work on other things... like reading good books, and writing, and eating healthier. But I really want to work on making room before finding things to fill the room, so we will stick with the resolutions.
Last year I had one goal: Simplify. OK, nothing is going to get simpler by having a second baby, and I did not have specific goals to measure whether I succeeded. But, I still can evalute how I did a bit. I failed at decluttering. I did not get to any of the crawl spaces I wanted to. I did not get rid of nearly as much stuff as I had hoped. I did (and still do) though feel a change in the way I think about life. There were a lot of things last year where I chose the simpler path - chose not to buy something I don't really need, chose to throw out something now instead of later, chose to turn down an obligation, delete a game, etc. It was not every time, but there was change. This is a change I hope to continue, expand upon.
And.. I know. It is late to be writing about resolutions, I am already through half a month! Also, my resolutions this year are not very well defined. That said, I do have things I want to do differently in 2015.
First, I want to get the decluttering process really underway. And I want to keep a positive attitude about it and get some momentum going. I have joined an internet group to help me in this. The Facebook Group is called Declutter 365 and is linked to/run by this blog: http://www.home-storage-solutions-101.com/declutter.html. Basically there is a Daily "Challenge", a 15 minute decluttering task. Today's is to declutter the tupperware/food storage containers. Its nice to have it broken into tiny little tasks, its nice to make a tiny bit of progress everyday and not stress about trying to get it all done or get overwhelmed by the amount that needs to be done. And, if I miss a day, its easy to catch up. And each little task I do, whether I do it well or poorly, is a tiny step forward. Its nice. I am enjoying it. There still will be some heavy lifting tasks... you know. Crawl spaces. Basement.
Second, I want to continue the mental move to simplicity. I want to be conscious of what I take on, and whether it is really something I want in my life, whether it be a new hobby, an internet game, or a new toy. I want to be selective when making purchases and think about not only the money it will cost, but the time it will cost to upkeep and the space it will take up in my home.
Third, I want to worry less and be more generous. I do not want to let fear of rejection, breaking social norms, looking stupid, fear about money, whatever, stop me from doing things that are nice for other people anymore.
I am really hoping that the first and second of these goals will make more time to work on other things... like reading good books, and writing, and eating healthier. But I really want to work on making room before finding things to fill the room, so we will stick with the resolutions.
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