Saturday, January 21, 2012

Daybook January 21

Outside my window...it is dark and cold. I can't really complain though as we've had really not that many truly cold days here at all, and even though I still groan on the days I wake up and it's 40 or less outside and not getting any warmer, those days are much farther apart.

I am thinking...of a dear friend and how much I miss her and wish I could be with her right now.

I am thankful for...doors that I can close.

From the learning rooms...[or in our case--the learning brain]...words continue to explode. Even words that we don't even know when she learned them all of the sudden just produce themselves. "Hot!" "Adie" (blanket or water--depends on what's indicating she wants). She is mastering the fine art of climbing chairs.

From the kitchen...comes not enough GF bread. Desperately need to make some.

I am wearing...jeans and a long sleeve shirt. Need to get ready for bed. Much more comfortable.

I am creating...nothing. At least that's what it feels like some days this week. Surviving is more like it--just existing. Not living.

I am going...to take a bath as soon as I can get my hyperactive Blueberry to go to sleep.

In my mailbox this week...not much, to be honest. Slow mail week.

I am reading.. . book three of the Night Angel trilogy. And my latest Living Without magazine.

I am hoping...for three relatively non-sick days off starting Monday. I need three normal days with no major stress, enough time to get my feathers unruffled, my daughter's nose cleared up, and some much-needed quality time with my husband.

I am hearing...Blueberry rustling around on the floor. "My ball!" Now she's reading to the dog. anyone getting the impression that she is far to awake for 9:10 at night, especially when she's usually been asleep for about 2 hours at this point. Oh, now she just stole my water bottle. I guess mine is better than hers. Of course. She is awake but obviously overly-tired, but sleep is definitely not coming easy to her tonight. So I blog, she colors, tortures the dog, throws the ball, and dances to the lullabies on Pandora (isn't the whole point of lullabies to put you to sleep?), while Mommy gets her thoughts out here because out they must come.

Around the house...things are a mess. This week has been interminable. I'm exhausted. I'm frustrated with various other adults who should be helpful to us are, frankly, aren't. I'm tired of questions. Tired of snotty noses. Tired in general. Tired of other people telling us how we should be handling situations when they go home at 4:30 and don't have to be the ones living the situations. I'm tired of not having clean clothes--and going through 2 or 3 outfits a day because mine are gross. The floor needs mopping. The chaos needs to be put away. And I need clean sheets on my bed.

One of my favorite things...having friends to talk to.

A few plans for the rest of the week:sitting and doing absolutely nothing. And finding a babysitter. I need a date with my husband--sans all children, including my own. Or I may lose my mind.

Here is picture (or more) for thought I am sharing...





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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

There Was a [Youngish!] Woman Who Lived in a Shoe...

My Mum asked me the other day if I felt like the old woman who lived in a shoe and had so many children she didn't know what to do....today the answer to that question is an unequivocal, "yes!" And the sad thing is that technically we only spent most of the day time dealing with three of the children, but it was enough.

It all began with us coming off of a lovely weekend that we spent with some friends who drove down here for the sole purpose of hanging out with us. We had much fun, played many games, but sadly spent a number of late nights consoling Blueberry who had a cold and was having a rough time sleeping. So we came on shift a little bit on the tired side.

Well, that was highly unfortunately as our Monkey also had a severe cold and cough. Very severe. The nursing staff finally decided to set up a doctor appointment with her today when we had to go and get her early from daycare Monday because of how poorly Monkey was feeling. (think coughing so hard she's been throwing up).

Well poor little two and a half year old Monkey has had a slew of doctor's appointments the last few weeks--many of which included shots, stabs, or sucking out of the ears (disgusting!). She was not thrilled to see another doctor and screamed her way through much of the visit--basically any time any nurse or doctor came near to her to do anything--weigh her, measure her, take her blood pressure, check her lungs, you name it.

Final results was that she has RSV--oh yay. A highly contagious disease, particularly for Blueberry. Of course Monkey can't go to daycare for the rest of the week, and she has to be isolated in her room from the rest of the cottage (you try explaining to a two year old the concept of isolation!) to try to minimize the possibility of passing it on. The primary problem with this is that she is (a) two and a half and very high needs and (b) my own kid is not to thrilled with mommy have to spend a lot of time caring for another "baby" and so they spent the day taking turns demanding mommy's attention and (c) I'm of course getting coughed, snotted, and vomited on all day long, so spending time with my own kid is tricky when I'm trying to not make her sick!

I foresee a lot of showers, hand washing (my poor, already dried out hands), and extra laundry in my short future.

Oh, and of course I still have 5 other children who need me as well--fortunately they are in preschool/school for most of the day. Otherwise I really don't know what I would do!

It is now almost time for 4 of them to come back from church service. The two babies are in bed, sleeping (thank you Lord for small mercies!) and I'm watching our oldest (Mama Bear) play Plants vs. Zombies (love that game!). She stayed home from service to help me by watching Blueberry while I got Monkey to bed. She's very good with Blueberry and revels in helping, so it worked out well--and frankly I would not have been able to handle the two by myself tonight.

Back to my shoe...I mean dinner. Hope your week is going less overwhelming than mine.

Friday, January 6, 2012

7 Quick Takes (vol. 25)



#1 - Happy 2012 to all! I hope your new years eve celebration was better than mine. Mine consisted of sending the girls to bed at 8:30 and crashing early myself. I'm getting old. I hate to admit it, but its the truth.

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#2 - I feel that my first post of 2012 should be full of wit and intelligence--deep thoughts, you know. So allow me to pontificate on Kung Fu Panda 2 which I finally saw for the first time and absolutely loved. Good story, draws you in with some great comedy--both verbal and physical. Finally a sequel that actually worked, with more to come apparently. I read somewhere they have a story arc of 6 total movies? That would be great if they'd pull it off.

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#3 - In cottage news, I'm exhausted. Well, recovering from exhaustion. We're in the middle of our three off days, and they didn't come a day too soon. We got two new children in the cottage--a 2.5 year old and a 4 year old (soon to be 5). For the sake of this blog, the little one I shall call Monkey (because she is a monkey and climbs on everything). The older girl I think I have settled on calling--Parrot. She is very intelligent, picks up on new ideas and concepts quickly, flits around the house quickly, and talks nonstop if you let her!

All in all, they are both beautiful little girls, bright, sweet, and desperately in need of some stable home life. Monkey is, well, two and a half in all respects. "Mine" is her favorite word, and she doesn't take "no" for an answer with much grace. Pretty well behaved though for the most part--fortunately. Picking her up has been a bit of a shock to the system as I'm used to teeny, tiny Blueberry. And fortunately she and Blueberry are getting along pretty well. A few "mine" squabbles here and there, but for the most part, they do well together.

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#4 - Christmas was nice. Busy, but nice. I finally really am beginning to feel at home here, and a large part of that is definitely due to the onslaught of guests who came over Christmas. Having friends and family around really helped me feel like this is still us--just a new location. I don't know if that makes sense, but there you have it.

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#5 - And while Christmas was nice--I'm definitely ready to get the decorations down. Hopefully can get that accomplished this upcoming shift. In between myriads of doctor appointments that Monkey and Parrot have (all the newbies on campus have a lot of appointments initially). I was just really settling down into our house, and I'm ready to finish that acclimation for ourselves. I'm surprised it's taken me this long, to be honest--but we're getting there in the end.

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#6 - Tonight was another big step to the acclimation process--at least it was for me. We found and explored the Asian market in town. Didn't even know there was one (had actually looked it up and hadn't found information on one) until I happened to meet a Thai lady and her daughter who were part of a church Christmas party for our kids here on campus. She told me about the market. I found green papaya and pretty much every other necessary ingredient to Thai food. Score! Such a relief.

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#7 - Talking about doctor's appointments, finally got Blueberry in for her 15 month appointment (ok, ok, a little late). A bit frustrated. She is perfectly healthy in all aspects except her weight, and that is still painfully slow to go up--to the point where they are calling it "failure to thrive". Which I find a little odd as in all other respects she is definitely thriving. She's developing normally in terms of motor skills and verbal skills, she sleeps well (did I mention that she's FINALLY sleeping 12 hours through the night on a consistent basis with no waking up? Yes, there has been much rejoicing at this development. Not to get myself to bed earlier to take full advantage of these full nights of sleep...), her eyes are clear, she's constantly active, and rarely sick.

In looking up what the phrase actually means, the only thing that matches their definition is just the fact that she is not putting on weight quickly. Of course their recommendations all included things like giving her Carnation and Pediasure--all of which have dairy in them. So we're having to try some other methods to get her to put some weight on a little faster than she is. So far (thank you Hillery), we're attempting the no liquids with her meals (or too close to a meal) trick, which does seem to be helping a little bit to get her to eat more. Tried making a shake the other day with coconut milk and fruit...we'll see if she gets into those--didn't drink much of it. I thought it tasted good, but sadly, I'm not the one needing to gain weight.

Part of my problem is how do you get an active 17 month old to eat more if she doesn't want to? We try to feed her healthy meals and snacks, and frankly, she eats quite a bit, just not a lot at one time. And she just doesn't put on weight. It makes me wonder if there's something else underlying all of this--inability to absorb food is one of the common things I've found mentioned, and which her doctor did mention. Problem is, she's not showing any of those symptoms either (other than the slow weight gain symptom).

Sigh. Very frustrating. And in truth, scary. I want the best for my kid, and the very phrase that she's not thriving is frightening. But at the same time, as I stated earlier, I'm having a hard time accepting that phrase when I look at the rest of her development.

We do our best and that's all we can do, I guess.

Six More Months of Shuffle and Change

The last post I wrote was July 2018. We were settling into routine, finding a groove, and trying to fit our family of five into a two-bedroo...