I have neglected this blog. My job sucks the life out of me. My second job is awesome, but time consuming, and after I get home from everything, I just want to spend time with this guy.
I see him for a few waking hours a day, but he is more amazing and wonderful all the time. It's not easy being a parent, and there are some tough times, for sure, but for the most part, peanut is a joy, a wonderful human, and full of life.
Some highlights of 3-4:
preschool
tap class
fully potty trained, even through the night
tree climbing
awesome hair
dinosaur obsession living large
name writing counting to 20
Thanks for visiting. I want to write more, and more often. Just have to get off my duff and into the process again.
Ok. So I've been away forever. Literally. Well, literally, a month. it feels like forever though. I've been away trying to work more efficiently at my job. That means no blogging at work. Would I actually ever have blogged at work? guilty. yes.
Because i work for a state university that is struggling through a financial crisis right now, I decided my job wasn't so much of a sure thing anymore. Why do I think this? well, it's a combination of them telling us so AND the furlough. We are all being furloughed 4 to 10 days. Thus the never blogging. That coupled with the fact that I've been doing more hours for the dog training and also coupled with the fact that my little baby is quickly approaching his 2nd birthday (which means a lot, but it means he's taking off in all kinds of directions). Link with that the fact tat J has been sick a bunch, her job ended so I'm working more hours and we're trying to sell stuff to make up or a 2 source income loss (furloughs and a lay off).
Then on Thursday of last week, something more happened. I woke up with a bad stomach ache. I felt bloated and sore al at once. Looked at my stomach and low and behold, I had a lump protruding from underneath my belly button. What the? I suffered through it Thursday. made an appointment with a new Dr. for the beginning of march and carried on. In discomfort. I also had a cold. I was coughing a lot. Every cough hurt. Went home. told J. She was like, well, maybe you should see a Dr. before that. I thought, eh, maybe. Friday. more pain. larger lump. Ok. So I went to the er to find that my suspicions were correct. I had an umbilical hernia. My brother had one too, last year, so I guess it must be genetic. They tried to push it back in. OUCH. When they couldnt, they decided to admit me and correct it surgically. Great.
What does this mean? Well, it means a lot o things. I'm on sick leave for the week. I am recovering from minor abdominal surgery. I get lots of rest, lots of olympics. I have a more normal looking belly button than I've had in years (see, it was looking funny for a while. it just started with the hard lump on Thursday).
Oh, and I can;t pick up anything heavier than a gallon milk carton for 6 weeks. E. is about 30 pounds. Which means J is on duty 24 7 and i can only talk to him. and kiss him. it's very hard. He's a very physical kid, and I find myself really missing him.
His birthday is Sat. and we have J's parents coming from MN. My mom and fam (who have been great through all this hernia business) will come too. But that's it. Small party. I can't believe he's going to be 2. He talks like crazy now (4 to 6 word sentences) and uses the potty a little. He knows when he has to poop, but has a hard time with pee. Sometimes he makes it to the potty, sometimes not. But every time is a win. And we're not in a huge hurry at all. We have switched to disposable diapers till I'm better. I'm the diapers washer, and J doesn't need that to add to her duties. The laundry is in the basement. Sorry environment.
Well this post is everywhere. For real, I hope that the promised squirrel will be done this week. I've been pretty remiss, but also, pretty overwhelmed for as long as I can think Sorry Leslie. I hope you still feel like a winner and are still reading.
wa hoo. that's what this amazing toy santa brought is called. If you have a kid this age, get one.
December 28th
Well, I've been away from blogging for a while and part of that is to do with the utter lack of time and the preponderance of things to do. But it's also because I've been on a digestive rollercoaster since Christmas eve....maybe before. Maybe my body is looking out for me so I don't overdo it on cookies and candy, but I can't eat much. At around 2 AM Xmas morning, while I was sewing a doll for my mom I could no longer deny I felt bad. What happened next was a 12 hour hell fest of many visits to the porcelain deity, constant nausea, and well, we had to un-invite my family over. We had to cancel christmas. Not for the almost 2 year old, but for everyone else. I haven't felt this sick in a very long time. Given the fact that I was under the weather for a few days, I am sure it was a bug. But it was a lot like food poisoning.
Despite all that, I managed to make some great stuff, most of which I forgot to photograph. I'm still working on the felt nativity set for peanut. Made of felt and fabric scraps. I made my sister a glasses case, quilted, to protect her sun glasses, and my mother an art yoga doll, which she was a bit surprised by at first...not in a good way. The hedge hog for my sister my law, a shirt for my brother.
my brothers bills shirt that i made, by request!!
the hedgehog pin cushion...if you've been reading for a while, you know this is a long time coming.
BLOG POST interrupted..........picked up again 12-31....................by the flu. Seriously, while I was writing this, peanut woke up. I tried to go get him back to sleep, but he was fussy, and I got him up. Moments (and I mean moments) later, he threw up all over me and all over the living room rug. Now I was just recovering from the Xmas stomach flu. So I'm surprised how well I handled it. Also I was surprised at the volume. O Man.
Today was his first day back in the OK.
He lost weight, was really sad and threw up a lot. Worse yet, J came down with it a few hours later. So not one but 2 sick people in the house.
So I hope you all forgive me for bowing out of blogging until January. I have to get to wrk on the big craft of the xmas season. Stay tuned for that.
but before I go, I will say that the peanut has a verbal breakthrough. He talks all the time. His cute new thing though is to call himself peanut. And he says it so cutely.
Well, I missed a day, a whole day, even though I was planning very much to write last night. I had a good day, a very good day. Woke up too early with peanut and he had a bad night of sleep. Poor kid's teething right now. He has a tooth coming in between 2 others that already exist. It has less room than it needs but it's making room, as teeth do. It is making his nose itch all the time though and I think it's disrupting his sleep. Anyway, woke up early and crabby, but J let me go back to sleep for a nap which was just what I needed. So that helped my day be awesome. Then we all went for a fun walk. Then I got a hair cut, a good one, a really good one, which is hard for me. Some of you probably know what I mean. I want to walk out looking hip and cool, but I walk out looking like dorothy hammel. I walked out looking a lot cooler this time.
So why didn't I write last night? Well, peanut woke up before I could. And I could get him back to sleep, but he woke up every time I left him again. It's the teeth, I'm sure. We just had to call it an early night. I woke up freezing and in my jeans and sweater at 1am. Reminded me of newborn days.
So E has lots and lots of words now, but one he's had for a long time is this one that he seems to have made up. And more than that, it seems to be an expletive, a curse word. And it cracks me up. The word is Nighnee. He says it in distress when he's sad, or frustrated, he says it when he can't get something to work right, he says it when he stubs his toe or hurts himself in a minor way. Other than comic relief for his moms, it got me thinking about how we need expletives or how we use them to feel better. I just saw an article about this the other day.
Do your kids have one or 2 choice words like mine does?
in other news, we are not trying hard to potty train, though we encourage potty use. And e used it twice (both for pee) yesterday. And today, twice too, so far, with one of each.
today, i don't even know what it was an answer to at the time, Peanut answered a suggestion or a question (i think it was, lets get your diaper changed) with the phrase :
"not right now."
He's been using a lot of phrases lately, in fact, and the first use always catches me in a flutter of pride and excitement, as it should. I don't know much about language devel
opment, but I do know that I love when he tries to say new things.
That's all true, and the hyper parent in me is thinking where did he learn that phrase and does it indicate that we are too dismissive? Do we make him wait too long when he shouldn't have to? I do know that sometimes he makes a crazy request or suggestion, like wants to go visit his bff in the middle of the night, and we say not right now. Then he says 'tmorrow?'
Halloween was sick house here, but the previous week there was a neighborhood parade and trick or treating in the stores in our hood. Peanut had a blast. There was a marching band. He LOVES marching bands. Sadly, we got the tail end of the band and he wanted to follow them where they were going. He stood watching them saying, "bay? Bay? C'mon? Bye!!"
Well, it seems like forever since i logged in to blog in and that makes me feel a bit overwhelmed now. Catching up is hard to do. You can't catch up on sleep for instance, and if you miss a dose of meds, you should wait till the next one is due, and though you can make up time if you leave late by speeding, this is dangerous and unlawful :)
But as a mom reporting about my life with the baby, i suppose i can maybe so some catching up, if I can remember at all what has happened since my guy returned from his trip to MN with Mama. MN was fun for my peanut, he enjoyed seeing his grandma and grandpa, and his little cousin. But I guess he didn't sleep as well, and he nursed more, and as a result, we are still getting back into a sleep routine that works and he gets sad in the morning if he doesn't get to nurse (which is most mornings). He gets over it, but asks often even as we go about our morning, eating breakfast and taking care of the dog.
This is what a calm moment in our typical morning looks like. Notice Winnie waiting for yummy food to drop.So what's going on for the baby? He's running faster than ever, has dropped down to one nap a day. wants to be outside all the time, and calls almost everything that starts with the letter "b" (and even some tings that don't) "B?" or "B!" For banana, he says "B!" and signs for banana....but for other words we have to interpret what he means. B is for baby, balloon, boob (though we don't call them that), belly (though lately, he's calling it a "bee be", um, what else, window, bird, book, bed, bath...you name it. it's um, a bit of a challenge. A good one that i love, but a challenge none-the-less. Especially since this guy is very active, spirited and busy. Oh, and most of you who read this know very little about me, but the truth of the matter is, I'm slow...I take my time. So he gets his speed from Mama and his donor. Not from me or my nurturing influence. He gets annoyed and screams sometimes if we don't know what "B???!!" he means.
on a side note, mamas, mommies, babas, memes, mimis, and dads out there, I recommend a great singer we recently discovered. Check out Justin Roberts. Man is he fun. As I've been blogging this, I've had his "everything else starts with e" song in my head. Other language victories are his mastery of the word "no". He says it, and knows what we mean when we say it AND he knows that yes or "ya" is the opposite of "no". We've been trying to say no less, since he says it so very much now, but it's hard when he's getting into everything to remember how to talk in full sentences.
So usually I consider myself to be pretty healthy. We are a healthy family overall. Peanut has had some coughs and colds, and some ear infections, but nothing big since a heart scare early on which ended up being pretty normal and not scary. Anyway, the point is, and maybe as I write this I realize the very fact that I'm in denial here, the point is, healthy...that's us. Well, as the post title hints, not so much just recently. I've been down with sinusitis and my very own (and very first) ear infection. I've actually missed two full days of work. And I don't do that. Plus I had to cancel my dog training class. It was terrible stuff. I think I'm on the upswing though. I've not coughed but a few times in the last hour.
So that's me, and though sick, I still made time to do this with peanut:
I'm trying to get in shape for summer and shed some of these extra lbs. So I walk with him on my back. Carrying an extra 23 lbs on your back is a workout. I just put him in the er;go and um, go! (note: if your little one is big like ours, get an er.go. They make baby carrying much easier) And it's been so nice being home with him so much. J and I noticed today that he's really getting so smart and aware of things. It's awesome.
Speaking of Peanut....Peanut had...wait for it....
Pink eye. I know! try putting eyedrop medicine in a squirming and noncompliant 14 month old. It's crazy fun. Another thing to be greatful for my partner for. Another reason to be glad I'm not alone.
We are watching with amazement the leaps P is taking in his development. He knows things now. He knows what he wants and knows a lot of the time how to ask for it. Language is still creative. He has some really clear words, like tickle, tea, hi, and ball (though he drops the ll sound). But then he also says dog, tree, teeth, head, banana, balloon, and tries to say other things. He's still signing, though he uses the same sign we taught him for potty for outside. That's my fault...oops.
In addidtion, if he hears the word "head" or "toes" he tries to break into the Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes song...pointing at each part...but he waits for us to join in keeping his little hand pointing to his head until we do. Sound cute? It is. Other songs he sings are Irish Lullabye and Itsy, Bitsy Spider.
Ok, and when I say he knows things, I was getting him dressed and we needed socks and shoes. So I said, what else do we need, and so he walked to the sock drawer *(which is on the other side of the room) and pointed at it. He knew what came next!
