Sunday, November 23, 2008

tik tok - the clock struck 8

Baby J crossed the 8-month mark this past week. In celebration he puked (He's just like his dad! Ha Ha).

It was our first episode of illness with J. I still cannot believe that much stuff could fit inside his body, let alone his stomach. We were in such disbelief that we continued to dress him thinking it was over. He went through 3 sleepers and 2 baths. I also went through 3 outfits, but got no bath. Yum. I realized the next day how gross this was but at the time didn't think about it at all. He was a bit out of sorts the next day so we took it "low and slow" as the nurse suggested (hell, yeah this first time mom called the doctor). They said it was a stomach bug but he never got the other symptoms. I think I fed him bad avocado. How does an avocado go bad even? I have no idea but I'm certain that was the cause. I could have been convinced that the shamrock plant he nibbled the night before was the culprit. But I've deduced it was not. For one, poison control did not apparently mention vomiting (D talked to them - I'll explain) and two, his change of schedule that morning and afternoon has stuck. So it was truly a change of schedule and not a symptom of getting sick.
So yeah, D called poison control because the nibbling occurred on his watch. He had J standing on his lap looking over his shoulder as he checked email. And what was keeping J so happy and content - the shamrock plant (oxalis). He was sucking away at a stem. D pulled the leaf out of his mouth a few minutes later when he went to change his diaper. We'll let the story end there. It got a little ugly.

What else? Let me think.

Crawling is going well. Pulling up is his favorite thing in the whole world. He's starting to try to walk now also. He likes to offer you his hand and then he will take a step to you. He only gets 1-2 steps before he starts bouncing up and down like he's in his saucer (oh and you have to have both his hands once he offers you one). The bouncing is pretty impressive though - up and down, up and down while holding your hands. He's gonna get this walking figured out soon.
Oh, yes and during his first nap today he figured out how to sit on his own. He can sit from a stand but not from crawling or lying down. The sit was not from standing (he was too far away from the rail for that to be possible) but we missed the actual event.

He's continuing with hating orange foods. I love orange foods! So sad. He is currently finding sweet potatoes distasteful. I let him try Cheerios yesterday but he's not ready. Instead we're making his food more coarse for the next week or two and will then try Cheerios again.

He's changed his schedule (I could tell it was happening). He now eats 4x a day not 5 and naps 2x not 3. The naps are longer so it's the same amount of sleep. The food is more (he gets solid at every meal and milk) fewer times so I think that's a wash too. Now I have to adapt to this change. I had finally gotten used to the other as it'd been that way for months.

Overall he's doing great. I'm excited to see how much he's grown at his next appointment in a couple weeks. Personally I think he's tall. He outgrows all his clothes height first, not weight or head size. We'll see. If so he's got two of his four great-grandfathers to thank because no one else is/was tall.

Wherefor art thou . . . .

. . . Mallo Cup?

I was watching Good Morning America on Friday. They had a teaser for an upcoming section on discontinued products. And what did I spy on the table but my love, the Mallo Cup. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
I called my mother immediately. Why? Because each year she buys me a package of these delightful chocolates. I had to let her know of the horror. She can only find them in one place these days. I will be stocking up over the holidays. I hope their supply lasts.
I cannot bear to think that baby J will not know the flavors of the Mallo Cup. It's bad enough I'll look like a crazy woman whipping out things like records, tapes, and by then even cds! Now I must add to this the yearly removal of the Mallo Cups from the freezer (hopefully not freezer burned).
The only glimmer of hope is that GMA is wrong. Boyers Candies shows no sign of discontinuing the product on their web page. However, maybe they've discontinued updating that too though.
Teaberry gum, Necco waffers, and some other lovely products were also displayed on that table. I don't chew Teaberry gum often at all, but I'll miss Hershey's Teaberry ice cream! Maybe the two are not tied together and I'll still be able to enjoy the latter - ya know every 7 years or more when I find myself in Cooks Forest at the Hershey's Ice Cream stand. I'm like a locust in this respect.

exile

I suggest you meditate on the theme of exile. Here are some questions to get you started. 1. Have you ever been shunned by people you care about? 2. Do you know what it's like to unwillingly leave a place that has made you feel safe and secure? 3. Can you remember the desolation that came over you when you found yourself wandering in the middle of nowhere? 4. Has it been a challenge to connect with your tribe or be at peace in the land that makes you feel at home in the world? Whatever your exile is, Virgo, the coming weeks will be an excellent time to figure out how to heal it.

That is my Freewill Astrology for this week. I like it. I often like them and I used to check them weekly. I've been forgetful and lax since leaving my job. I have a schedule now but my schedule then was all about me and so I remembered things like my horoscope. Let me answer the questions for everyone - why not.
1) Yes. I used to think I was the black sheep of my family. I don't anymore. Where I was different and always odd girl out, now we're all different. And during my black-sheepdom I was not shunned. The shunning came later for a brief time. It was a ridiculous matter and I won't go into it further but to be shunned is painful, especially for something ridiculous.
2) Yes. I'm stronger than I know and more fragile than I'd like. We moved when I was in second grade, in the middle of the school year. I went from a neighborhood with kids I'd known since birth to a rural area with no friends. I used to walk out of my door and have kids all around and one day there was no one. Just cold, desolate fields. It took me having the realization late in middle school that a friend who had moved there years after me had adapted better and faster. I was still considering myself "new" in the close knit school. 'Cmon, I realized, I'd been there since 2nd grade! I'm slow to adapt sometimes though I try harder now.
3) Nope. I don't recall wandering in the middle of nowhere. I'm racking my brain to think of a time or place. I've been to some remote parts of Utah but I was not alone and felt more awe than desolation.
4) A resounding yes. Connect with my tribe? Regardless of what you consider your tribe, what I consider mine is not in one place and impossible to connect with physically. Not being physically near one another makes maintaining connectedness extremely difficult.
At peace in the land that makes me feel at home in the world? Ugh. I don't know where that is! This is a struggle for me and has been for years. I have recently written about part of this - the internal flip-flopping I do over staying here or moving to TX (when in fact the decision won't be mine anyway so why stress). I very much want to find this part of the world or succumb to making where I'm at now this place. This is a process, and one that more than anything needs my offering of patience.

None of the above exiles are the one my horoscope immediately brought to mind. My current exile is myself or the separation/loss/change/departure of myself. Where am I? There don't seem to be enough hours in the day to find me, nurture me, entertain me, develop me, nourish me, or anything me.
I know these horoscopes are self-fulling prophecies (if you choose to fulfill them - hence the freewill aspect), and I love them because they are written in a way to make you think. This one I felt. I felt the exile immediately and recognized that yes, I do need to heal.
It's not going to be easy. I've tried before.
I've done the 1 step forward 2 steps back thing. I really need to commit and make, well, myself a priority. Time will have to be carved out and I'll have to adapt. I should really be excited to meet the me I find on the other side of exile. I think I am.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

I got the Garrett nose

I got my hair chopped yesterday. I hope it's not "mommy" hair but too bad if it is - too late now. I did not get it cut to make it easier to deal with or to limit the pulling & tugging by baby J. I got it cut based on the vast amount of hair I've lost.
When J was 2mo old I started losing hair and assumed it was post-baby only to find out it was not. Instead I was told it was from going cold turkey on the high level of blood thinners I was taking. Fast forward to October, J is 7mo old and now I'm not sure if this round of massive hair loss is baby-related or fall shedding. I tend to shed my hair like a dog in the fall. It's gross.
In any case, by the time the October hair loss started, I had sprouts of regrowth from the May shedding. So I was looking even more like a dog - a very mangy one. That or maybe I am part Peruvian Hairless?!?! In any case, I had my haircut in September to deal with the new sprouts. It would take forever for them to reach my mid-back, my pre-September hair length. But with even more falling out I was going to still look ridiculous with my above-the-shoulder bob. So I went back under the scissors.
Now it's officially short. I like it though. I can't hide my tattoo without a turtleneck now, but oh well. That's another benefit to staying home (for work, not like a hermit or anything), now I can fully become the alternative, vegetarian, tree-hugging, hippie mama that I know lurks in me somewhere. I may have to ramp things up to vegan to fully make this work.
In any case, the new hairdo supposedly makes me look younger (you can be the judge). I hope it does! But what I really think it makes look different on my face is my nose. It's huge. I had not realized how huge it had become. It was camouflaged somehow by my long locks - not that I wore them Cousin It style in front of my face, but still somehow longer hair detracted from the schnoz.
It may be an old wives tale, but I read or heard, more than once, that your nose never stops growing. Looking at some family members on the Garrett side, I have to agree. And lucky me - I have the Garrett nose. It's large, it's growing and it'll surely start frightening young children any day now. Of course baby J will be used to it so I think he'll cope okay - until school though when they make fun of his hippy mom's witch nose. If only it were a lovely, long (even hooked) nose but alas it's just growing more bulbous. Joy.
So from under the scissors I will now become more self critical and begin to contemplating going under the knife.
No not really, but maybe. Who knows how far this current path to bout of reduced self-esteem and nose neurosis will go. Stay tuned.








straight from the hairdresser:

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

It's been awhile - I know you've missed them . . .

What might that be? Why it's the bullet-list blog posting of course!

  • What is sleep, Alex? Indeed, what IS sleep? I used to have a baby that slept through the night. For that mater, I used to have an elderly dog who also slept all night and lazily into the morning. In the very least these two could get on the same schedule, but no. Instead we have baby J waking up 1-2x a night because he rolls around too much in his crib and gets "stuck" (not really but in his half-sleep state he's convinced). If it's not that then he's up and wide awake for a good hour in which he gets fed and rocked back to sleep. Ahhh, 3AM how lovely your dark, quiet streets are, that is until the blaring train horn shreds the night and pierces our ears - though not our slumber. Soon I'm back asleep though, that is until Miss Cleo wakes. Apparently 5AM is THE time for an elderly dog to awaken and pee on the floor if not promptly taken out. Oh, and she needs fed - take her back to bed and pooping on the floor as revenge is likely. Sigh. Maybe I should take the melatonin instead of giving it to the dog - then I'll just sleep through all the nonsense.
  • I am no social butterfly. I got the worry gene not the party gene - some get both in my family. I'm the wallflower. I like a soft couch and good book far better than a bar or party. They are too loud and too crowded and conversation is impossible. Maybe if I drank but I don't so I'm also bored at these social gatherings . BUT that's not to say I don't get out and socialize. Okay, I don't. But I used to and that's the point. Baby J has never been with anyone but D or I for more than the 2hrs I left him with my mom for an appointment. He needs to get socialized and more adaptable with his routines. And I need to be able to accept some of the invitations I get. The issue? Well, firs there is the before mentioned worry gene. He'll need to be in a safe environment, but he is not used to strangers so it's not going to go well, ugh! So our house, after he's in bed sounds like a plan but alas we've painted ourselves into a corner up here. We're really far north - like an outpost or something and few people want to hike up here. Plus we have the dogs. A babysitter ends up being a basenji sitter which in reality is part lion-tamer (unless you are a dog whisperer - that'll work too, and if you are then we've got a job for you!). It's our own fault and I recognize it. I'm willing to accept it too. However, at some point it seems important for everyone involved that J get some time with others and I/we get some time away from J to hang out with friends. May will come faster than we know and the plan is for him to spend a week with his aunt. How's that gonna work if he's never spent an evening with anyone else let alone at another house? We'd like not to paint ourselves into a second corner for that vacation.
  • November here - it's Save A Turkey month with the Save A Turkey 4th Thursday holiday. :) What else is here? COLD! During September I thought how lovely the cool air was and how I was looking forward to fall and even winter. What was I smokin'? I still believe snow is pretty and I want J to have the opportunity to play in it as he grows. And to play in fallen leaves. But I'm back to thinking the cold is not cool.
  • So if cold is not cool then what? Well, D has already talked to his bosses and they know he's as open to taking a promotion in Dallas as he is in Ohio (well nearly AS open to it - I think OH is still his first choice). I go back on forth with my first choice. The key reason I'd be interested in going to DFW is family. I have family there and so does D, and more importantly they have kids J's age. Sometimes I think I'd have a built-in friendship network but really I have to get away from that. I would still need to forge friendships there to have the social network I'd be comfortable with. Okay, maybe I'm more of a social butterfly than I'm admitting - but I still hate crowded bars and parties though I can't think of any of the latter I've attended since college.
  • I have no freelance work. Blame the economy? Who knows. My t-shirts are moving forward though. I found an artist local to St. John and hope to have rough sketches by Thanksgiving at the latest. From there we'll settle on the favorites, the fees, and do contracts. Gulp. I'm excited though, really. She sounds really nice and genuinely excited about the venture. I may have her do a website for me also so I can sell the shirts online as well. For those not in the know, the company is Wearable Souvenirs and the shirts are just that. It would be great to get another freelance job or two this winter to pay for this venture in full. I had mistakenly labeled myself as "part-time" on my cover letters. I think that killed my chances. I'm no longer doing that and instead will only take on the size chunk I can do in part-time hours. I hope that helps!
  • It's November 12th. I have library books due today but I'm too lazy to want to go to the library. I'm also too lazy, busy, mismanaged to continue the adventure I started earlier this month. I signed up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoMo). I need (needed) to write about 3 - 3.5 pages a day to get the required 50,000 words by November 30th. I've not ever written a sentence of fiction in my life though (purposely at least) so I was nervous. But I figured if not now then when? The expectations are so low that I might as well just do it and know it will suck if it even gets done. I do still want to do it but I've already lost my umpf. I only have 4 pages and it's the 12th of November!!! I have a full storyline and list of characters and even an outline so I think I just need to make time to dive back into the process. I'm only writing this here to hopefully receive a litany of comments tell me I must write and I'm a loser if I don't. I need motivation - external motivation!

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Mobile

I've had to move the laptop into J's room. He cannot be left alone. It's not his fault - it's ours. We did not baby proof at the speed we needed. I expected him to crawl by now - he just made it by the end of October deadline. On Halloween our little Jack O. lantern was crawling across the room. D counts the two days before that as when he started with only 2 steps. I disagree, I needed to see more than 2 steps so Halloween it is/was! And well, it wasn't really a deadline but the consensus from friends and family after seeing him at the beginning of the month rocking away on his knees.
Now just a little over a week later and he's crawling over things and down the hall and exploring his world constantly. Toys - who needs toys when the world is at your fingertips?!?! The poor cats are so confused. How can he suddenly get their tails even if they move away?

What I didn't expect for Halloween or anytime soon was that J would also start pulling himself up on things. Last night I could hear his shrieks of delight upstairs with D. When I went up, I was told he had pulled himself up on the bookshelf and was ripping down books left and right. How fun! He's taken a few tumbles and I'm shocked that some don't phase him (face planting on the floor after bouncing off the armoire headfirst) while others cause hysterics (falling backwards and hitting the armoire before sliding onto the floor). Yes, I see the pattern here - that pesky armoire. It's the one spot in the room without carpet.
We rushed out last weekend and bought two area rugs. The one in his room is a very large remnant that covers most of the floor. It's nearly the same color too so it blends. Everyone is much happier now. So now the new question is when will he walk? Some of the same friends have guessed a familiar time frame - 1 month. I'm guessing by Christmas which is what, six weeks?
Now it's time for baby proofing in earnest . . . draw locks, furniture ties, and the simple removal of some items from his room. The plants have already left. Smaller ones have returned in their place because they fit on the newly installed shelf that also houses some breakables. The mini fridge that has not been used in months is going to need to go too. We're a little slow in the baby proofing. We normally do it when we see an immediate need, as in that very moment (i.e. moving the plants).
Autumn and winter prove to be fun! Locked up indoors, away from the cold and flu, J will have ample time to explore every nook and cranny. I will thus have ample opportunities to find things that need fixed, cleaned and moved.



Not sure why he's making the funny face.