A productive, expensive weekend

My brain is scattery – I probably didn’t get enough sleep, this is not the flowy post you’re used to.

Landon’s paternal grandparents were supposed to come this past weekend. But it didn’t work out, so in retaliation we spent a ton of money instead. I can’t remember exactly what we spent money on during our Saturday outing, but I remember telling Clinton that my head was about to explode and we needed to go home before we spent any more money.

We got in the hot tub on Saturday night. Which was nice, and Landon really enjoyed it too.

I had compiled a list of things I wanted to get done, and figured I’d have time, what with the extra entertainment for the dictator, and my arms being free to say…put away the Christmas decorations. Of my list, only one thing got done (and it was not the Christmas decorations, or Valentine’s Day stockings as I’ve been affectionately calling them – I guess that makes them Easter stockings now.) I did finish and submit our taxes. We did get other stuff done and had a very productive weekend anyway.

* We hung Landon’s swing on the back porch.
* We trimmed the sago palms and sprayed them for scale.
* We repotted a plant we got from Julie – oh the irony…it’s a money tree (you’ll see.)
* We repotted a plant I won at Kandi’s bridal shower
* We miracle gro-ed all our potted plants.
* We put Tiki torches around the pool
* We replaced one of the skimmer baskets in the pool
* We sprayed the clear coat on the mosaic armadillo and cow skull

(When I say “We”, it’s code for “I watched while Clint…”)

We spent a lot of time outdoors this Sunday, which was nice, it was a really pretty day. Our goal is to try and do that more often, 1 or 2 nights a week when the weather permits, have dinner outside, and when it warms up, swim a little. Landon seems to really enjoy being outside, and who can blame him?


Anyway, after a weekend of spending money and doing house projects, having done only about half our laundry…our dryer died. Just when Landon had already worn all his feetie pajamas that fit and they were soaking wet in a sad little pile in the bottom of the dryer. It smelled like burnt copper. Apparently that’s what money smells like when it’s leaving you. Clint took the clothes to Jay’s to put them in their dryer, and I picked them up Monday night when I pick up Landon.

Monday night Clint took the whole dryer apart and tested parts of it. Motor is blown, according to the internet a blown motor in a Maytag also means a blown circuit board, and based on prices of parts, even if we could fix it ourselves completely, we’ve almost spent what a new dryer costs. So…we went dryer shopping, and ultimately decided to give it one more day and sleep on it. When we returned to Lowe’s on Tuesday night to make the purchase all the dryers were moved around. Apparently ours is the old model as of Tuesday and therefore $50 cheaper. SWEET!! Finally procrastination works in my favor.

So my cushion in the bank account now looks like a big white box with knobs and a little door. Goodbye, money.

The upside is that maybe this new one will alleviate us of having that faint cat urine smell in the utility room while we dry clothes.

Oh and someone killed a bird and left it on the driveway for us. I don’t want to name names, but I have a few suspects.

(Oh and hey, check out the side bar, I got to delete some stuff!)

Teef

Or toof, anyway. Landon cut his first tooth on the 13th. He’s been drooling since, well – it seems like forever. And his doctor said he’s a little young to be cutting teeth, and that it was probably his salivary glands forming and that he just didn’t have teeth to hold back the saliva. Well, various sites on the internet say between 4 and 7 months. So we’re in that window. The emergence explains quite a few behaviors: the drooling, the facial rash, the fussiness while eating, the weird sleeping patterns and the constant bringing things to his mouth to chew on. Two days ago he started pulling on his ears – which is also a sign of teething, but I was more afraid that it might be an ear infection. Anyway, no ear infection.

The culprit



So we went out and bought the toothpaste for babies and the little rubber finger thingy. Landon LOVES his toothpaste. I squirted a tiny bit on the little finger thing and stuck it in his mouth. As I started trying to maneuver around getting all his gums and the top of the pretty little white tooth, he sucked so hard, that he sucked the little finger glove off my finger.

I fought with him over it while I tried to finish the process, but when I was done, and I took it out of his mouth for good…oh the HORROR!!! How dare I!

The next time didn't seem so traumatic when the toothbrush was taken away:

MACS

Remember that do good thing over in the side bar? Yeah, well, it’s the second Wednesday of the month, so I’m talking about what I did.

I went out and bought valentines to send to the January kids. I signed them and sent them off and I kind of felt like I was cheating, because it was too easy.

So then, we had this little debacle with the Girl Scout Troop meeting for last week, and no one remembered whose turn it was, so I thought – AH HA – perfect timing. This time, we’ll do it for the February kids. So during lunch the day of the meeting I went out and bought Valentine making stuff. I bought blank card thingies, valentiney paper, some foam hearts that stick on, and some stickers. Also some funky scissors, some glue sticks, and some new markers, cause let’s face it, when you have a girl scout troop for 4 years, a $7 package of markers will only last so long. In the girls’ defense, the ones we have left are in pretty good shape – but since I throw away 3 or 4 capless ones each time we use them, their color choices have been decreasing by the meeting. But, I suppose every 3 years I could splurge and buy some new ones.

So I took my newly bought stuff home and went to work. Now I’m not a super duper scrappy booky gal. Landon’s scrapbook is pretty much, the fancy paper and the little black corners – and at the moment, only goes through his first month. But I only had about 10 minutes in which to create a “go by” card, because this evening, I’m going to have my hands full. So I used the first pair of funky scissors I grabbed to cut out a small rectangle and the next pair to cut a smaller rectangle and regular scissors to cut a heart each out of a different paper. I arranged them on top of my card, along with 2 foamy hearts and I got this:


On the inside, I just wrote “Happy Valentine’s Day.” But I think it turned out kind of cute. Here are some pictures of what the girls created. I had them each make 2, they could each pick 2 kids and or 1 kid and take one home. I’m putting them in big envelopes with a letter from the troop. I'm very impressed with the girls' creations:

Meme #1

Ok, sooooooo, I’ve got nothing. Nothing has happened, nothing funny, nothing absurd, nothing exciting. Someone needs to run around my cul-de-sac in their underwear, or I have to resort to the memes.

Oh also – a short list of things I will never ever discuss again, because the universe is out to smite me. I will not discuss them here, I will not discuss them with you in person. DO. NOT. ASK.

1. Landon’s Sleep Habits.
2. Post Partum Hair Loss.

OK – On to the meme.

6 Weird Things About Me.

1. I eat candy categorically. Skittles, M&Ms, Reece’s Pieces, are sorted into groups with all the colors, when I run out of a color, I make a group of the colors that are left. I then eat the smallest groups first, leaving me in the end with even amounts of the colors. I eat candy bars in pieces. Snickers I bite the caramel/peanut part off, then eat the outer chocolate away from the nougat and then the nougat last. I can’t help doing it.

2. I am always counting. I count steps, I count when I’m rocking Landon, I count while I’m waiting for the microwave, I count at stop lights. Chances are if you see me not doing anything, you can ask me what number I’m on, and I will have one. Sometimes I count for totals, sometimes I count to eight over and over again, and sometimes I sing the Blue Aardvark song in my head.

3. I am compelled to do math problems that are presented to me, either on TV, or in the movies, or in general. Just to make sure they come up with the right answer. I have seen that tutoring commercial where the little girl figures out how much they feed the fish each week like 100 times. I do the math EVERY. TIME.

4. I can’t hear out of my left ear and I have no desire whatsoever to have it fixed.

5. I don’t want things. I’m the hardest person in the world to shop for, because I just don’t want anything really.

6. I don’t like hamburgers or ketchup – I’ve been called un-American for it.

If you have a blog consider yourself tagged.

What else do you need, when you have a puppy who loves you enough to let you do this and keeps coming back for more:

Today's Lesson

When you pack your pump bag, and you pack 4 bottles, it's probably a good idea to pack more than 1 lid.

Olly Olly Oxen Free

No, I haven’t been hiding. I had been posting everyday and you people were getting all excited and loving it, and I was getting more hits and the modem crapped out on me and I not only missed blogging for a few days while Clint was still gone, but I missed a blog post about our Dr. visit and his 4 month newsletter. So I’ve backdated those posts along with a couple others that I wrote during this down time, and I’m sorry for the delay. But seriously – take it out on the modem. Oh and the modem…took our network card out binge drinking and caused all kinds of mayhem – cause they’re buddies like that. Anyway, new modem, network card has recovered from its hangover, and we’re back in business so to speak. Also – don’t cry too hard, because you nearly got some really boring posts anyway, as I was running out of stuff to talk about – do you really want me to do meme’s when you could be reading about power issues and pumping? Maybe you do. Maybe you don’t care and only come to look at the pictures anyway and never read a word of what I say. You’ll probably still get them (the meme type posts), but just not now.

And in the nanny search land. The lady next door can’t do it because she doesn’t have room in her car for his car seat and she has to go pick her daughter up from school. I really liked the lady I spoke with two weeks ago and had she been in our neighborhood or on my way to work it would have been a no brainer. We’ve decided to have Jay’s wife Linda take care of him during the day. Linda offered to watch him, she lives around the corner, she’s got a 9 month old, and she’s had a child with colic – so she pretty much is everything I was looking for. When I left him I felt good about it.

In The Dark

It’s a wonder that anyone in town has power. I didn’t post about my fight with the electric company when we moved into our house because I wasn’t blogging yet. So I’ll start with that LOVELY story.

We moved 5 houses over last January. Actually, technically, we moved down the street first, because the people who bought our house moved in before the house we bought was ready. Anyway, we were moving into our new house. We scheduled the move out and move in a week apart so that we could have some rooms painted and clean up and blah blah blah. So the night they moved the previous owners out…they cut off our power. This was a Friday. A Friday NIGHT when we discovered it. Luckily the painter didn’t mind painting without power.

No one required a permit 3 years ago when we had moved in to the old house – or maybe they did but someone else took care of it, because I certainly didn’t, but now…MUST HAVE CITY PERMIT. So I got the permit issued, after some finagling of the gate in the back yard. And TXU said – you will have power on Tuesday. And Tuesday came and went and we had no power and I called and they said. “You’ll have power Wednesday.” And Wednesday came and went and we did not have power. So I called and they said “You don’t have a permit.” So I called the city and the city said they issued it.

I called again and I got a lady who said “There’s a permit for your street address, but in another city, same day…but that’s not your permit, you still need a permit.” And I got off the phone and called the city again and they said they issued it, but they would re-issue it. And I got to thinking. Kind of weird that we, in THIS city, would be moving on the EXACT same day as someone in THAT city would be to the EXACT same street address.

So I called again, and the lady was not helpful and I asked her what number she called when she called Centerpoint, because I only got a machine to talk to and I wanted to talk to a person.

Her: They’ll tell you the same thing.

Me: What number do you call, when you call Centerpoint?

Her: They’re going to tell you…

Me: What number do you call?

Her: Well, there’s no permit.

Me: WHAT NUMBER DO YOU CALL?

Her: You don’t have to yell at me.

Me: Well, I didn’t think you could hear me, you weren’t answering my question. What number do you call?

And she gave me the number FI.NA.LLY. At this point, the movers have come, they are unloading furniture, and I had Shane with me, because I didn’t want to be alone when they came…he called Clint and told him I was getting more and more mad every time I got off the phone and I think I may have even scared him a little.

So I called Centerpoint and I spoke with Belinda, who I later fell in love with, and considered switching teams to be with her. And I said “Here’s the deal, our power was turned off on Friday, we didn’t have the city permit, the city permit was issued Monday, They said power on Tuesday or Wednesday, it’s now Friday – I’m now moving furniture into my house without having been able to even so much as vacuum the carpet. Now they tell me that I don’t have a permit with Centerpoint and the city says I do. And this morning I was told about a permit that’s for my exact same address but only in THAT city instead of THIS city…and I find it odd that people are moving in at the exact same time as me to the exact same address in THAT city. I think that’s my permit. I’d like to give you my permit number and see if that is indeed my permit.” I was completely amazed that she let me tell my entire story, and even more so when she said “Ok.” I gave her my permit number and she said “Yes, that is your permit. Oh my, you should not have been without power that long, let me give you my extension and my name, and I will speak to my supervisor and see if we can get your power turned on today – and give me a number where I can call you back…if you don’t hear from me in 1 hour, call back and ask for me.” I felt very good about this call and skipped/danced back into the house (cell reception being what it is at our house, I was making these calls in the backyard.) And she called me back in 15-20 minutes and had my power scheduled to be on by the end of the day.

When the guy walked up to the house, he didn’t even knock, he just drove up and walked to the side of the house where the power stuff is and I leaned out the front door and yelled “YOU ARE MY FAVORITE PERSON IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW!!!” I refrained from running out and hugging him, but I seriously considered it, also I didn’t want to cheat on Belinda.

All this to say, guess who doesn’t have power? Clint’s cousin Jay, who has been living in their house for a month now. And they just now cut off the power, and the landlord, just now got the permit issued, and they will be without power until Friday. And when he asked to speak to Belinda? They don’t know who Belinda is. She no longer works for Centerpoint. She must have been too smart or too nice or too good to work for them. It’s sad for us, but for her, I hope she’s found a better job – one where she’s not surrounded by all the other morons I spoke to during that week.

Linda is still watching Landon this week, even without power. She has his milk in a cooler and since the weather is nice, it’s not like they’re dying of heat stroke or freezing to death. She also has a key to our house, just in case she needs something electrical – or gets tired of living in campground style.

Leprechaun Gangster

According to the powers that be, Fluor is required to have a transgender restroom. And when we were told about it, we were told it was the bathroom by the auditorium.

So when I asked about a pump room, I was told, there’s a little room off the auditorium. And I only knew of a bathroom…a transgender bathroom. So I never went to check it out. I mean, if I’m going to pump in a bathroom, it might as well be the one closest to my desk, no?

So, I’ve changed projects and I’ve moved to a different area, and I’m using a different bathroom. The bathroom closest to me, doesn’t have an electrical plug close enough to a stall even with my extension cord, so I have to go to the next closest bathroom. I’m using the bathroom on the floor with a lot of the department managers. Among whom are the managers who are women and most of the secretary types. They’ve been around quite a while, so they know some things that aren’t known to everyone. While I pumped in the bathroom today, I was told a few times about this pumping room. I got told about it a few times by women in the other bathroom, but no one seemed to know exactly where it was. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, so to speak. So I clarified with one of them that it was indeed NOT the transgender bathroom, and where exactly I should be looking for this room.

This afternoon I had to take a piece of mail to the mail room and since this mythical room is only about 100 yards further, I decided to give it a visit. Color me impressed. There’s a lock on the door. There’s a couch and a bunch of magazines. There’s a sink and little fridge. With this room, I no longer would need my extension cord – well, I do if I want to sit on the couch, but if I sat in the chair I wouldn’t. There’s a little dry erase board to sign up on for time slots, so you don’t interrupt someone. I’m totally going to this room from here on out. The only thing missing is a way to lock up my pump in that room so I wouldn’t have to lug it back and forth, then it would be perfection.

Chubby Big Head

Our doctor visit went really well this time. No scale peeing, no fussing while we talk to the doctor, although he did make some fun noises to get his attention. He weighed 15 lbs 12 oz (75%), is 24 ½ inches tall (50%) and has a 43 cm head (75%). He’s doing the things the doctor expected him to be doing by now. The doctor held him up by his armpits and had him “stand” for as long as he could, I guess we never really let go of him when we do that, but he gave him about a ½ inch clearance, so he freaked himself out when the wobbling started.

We read a few books while we waited for the nurse to come in with the shots. Well, I read them; he tried as hard as he could to eat them.

He got his shots, which he was not happy about, but recovered from very quickly – like within seconds. I can only hope this is a trait he keeps. He ran a VERY low grade fever after and was cranky and I’m guessing sore all day Saturday. Nothing a little Tylenol couldn’t take care of.

Monthly Newsletter #4

Dear Landon,

Wow, what a difference a month makes. In an effort to keep your nasal cavity clean, this month you’ve been home 99% of the time. Your cousin Ashley and Grandma Logan have been taking care of you while I go to work. It’s quite possibly the best arrangement EVER. But as it is, all good things must come to an end.


I’m not sure who to give credit to, but one of them got you to lay still for diaper changes instead of flipping and trying to scoot away with your naked butt up in the air. This was cute at first, but oh so annoying after a while. Grandma said she’s been working on singing and sticking your tongue out, you’re still not really doing anything when anyone else thinks of it, and most of your feats seem to be complete accidents and you even shock yourself. Grandma said one day she put you in the bassinet on your tummy and when she came back to get you that you were on your back. You’ve done it a few times for us too. They also got you to take a pacifier pretty reliably.





You went to your first Girls’ Night Out dinner this month. Where I became that woman who brings her child into a restaurant lets him scream and doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it. Everyone took turns trying to make you happy. Myra was most successful, but you certainly let her know when she changed her bouncing pattern and it wasn’t to your liking. You should know that it’s privilege to come to that and if you’re going to keep up those kinds of antics, you won’t be invited. Also, one day your Daddy will feel confident enough to keep you at home while I go by myself! Oh sweet freedom, I can almost taste it.


You went to your first (and second) basketball game. Dylan’s team won both times, and aside from that whole pesky being tired and hungry at the first one, you did pretty well. The noise and movements kept you busy for the most part. And your cousin Dylan was super excited that you came.

Your dad spent about a week with your Grandparents, so you got a taste of what life would be like if you only had one slave. I think you went pretty easy on me, which I totally appreciate, but it also didn’t go unnoticed that upon his return you realized you need to ramp up your demands so that you could keep us both busy. You wouldn’t want a slave to have a break and say…groom themselves or anything.


Starting on Monday you will be staying during the day with your not-so-distant cousins. You’re going to have to be nice to Linda. Right now she thinks you’re very cute and sweet, and we don’t want her to know otherwise. You and Noah will have a great time playing during the day, and hopefully you will be nice and tired when I get you home. Because we all know I could use the rest.

Love,
Mom

I didn't want to like her

I went to “interview” the in home day care lady yesterday evening. I got there earlier than I thought I would because traffic wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, and someone pulled their head out of their butt and made the lights work together through the construction area…imagine that!

I got to her house about 15 minutes before I was scheduled to arrive and rang the doorbell. I got no answer. I thought it was odd that she wouldn’t be there just 15 minutes before a scheduled interview. I knocked. I waited. I started to walk back toward the truck to call her and see what was going on. But she answered the door as I started to take my first steps. She apologized; she had been in the back yard. The little girl told me several times that they had been “bwowing bubboes.”

She immediately asked me if it would be ok if she asked me to take off my shoes. So I did. That’s a pretty normal request in situations where people care for infants, so I’m fine with that. I didn’t plan for it, but thank goodness my feet didn’t stink.

She gushed over the baby, her daughter pulled out all her toys one by one to show Landon, maybe he’d like a plastic peach to eat, or a plastic plum. Oh, here’s this little TV thingy I bet he’d like to eat that. Here are my teletubbies. And the “scary” dragon. (Looked like a pretty friendly dragon.) She clearly had prepared for me to come over, and after seeing how neatly everything was put up in the living room (play area) prior to the “show and tell” – I understand why she had taken the girls outside. I think Landon will be very happy there.

We talked about various areas of concern for me. That he’s not always hungry, just because he’s crying. That he’s colicky and her second daughter was colicky, so she has some experience with that. She seemed very eager to do the background check. She’s going to register with the state of Texas, and they will do those background checks, not just on her, but on her husband as well. I told her my concerns about how he got sick. She told me that she only expected to maybe get 1-2 other kids, and that she would expect me to keep him home if he were to get sick, and that she would also make me aware if she or her children were sick, that she’s looking for a backup person, but also that I could make other plans if I needed to. (Hi Mom!) She’s got her CPR and First Aid and will be taking a class next week to renew it.

I told her that I was working on a plan to be home by August, and that at that point I would only need part time day care or possibly not at all (i.e. switch to Mother’s Day Out). She was very excited for me, and hoped that worked out.

She’s supposed to send me a reference today. I hate to be one of those people who only talks to one person and hires her. But I didn’t expect to like her this much. I wanted to not like her. I wanted the traffic to be terrible to get over there, I wanted this to be an easy “Nope, Mom, you just have to keep coming to take care of him, while I keep looking.” And it’s not. Because I liked her.

I’m still going to talk to my neighbor again, just in case, because just the ease of walking him next door instead of driving across town would make me feel better. I’m also going to talk to Clint’s cousin Jay’s wife. She offered to watch him, but I don’t know how serious she really was about it.

Ok, here’s the spectacular…fine, maybe not spectacular, but it has the potential to be, once he’s doing more fun stuff, also once I figure out how to get the thing in better focus:

Seatbelt

I don’t mean to make you cry. But I can’t help doing this, it’s important. One of the blogs I read each day points me to other blogs I might find interesting. Yesterday it pointed me to this one. Start here, and read the next few entries – if you can still see through your tears. Some of you don’t click links, so suffice it to say that Jeff dropped his 3 year old daughter, Isabelle, off at his cousin’s house to be babysat on Friday night. At 4:10 am Saturday morning, they got a call that Jeff had been in an accident and had been crushed beneath a car. The 4 posts (so far) that follow are the cousin trying to find a way to deal with the loss, and also how Isabelle is dealing with it.

Everyone has their stories of people who were saved by wearing their seatbelt, people who it wouldn’t have made a difference, people who were killed because they didn’t wear theirs and people who were saved by being “thrown clear” because they weren’t wearing one. The truth of the matter is that the number of people saved by their seatbelts far outweighs the number of people killed by having them on. Also consider this, because by TX law adults are “allowed” to remain unbelted in the backseat of a vehicle: one person without a seatbelt in the car endangers the other people in the car, because in the event of an accident they become a human battering ram and can kill the people who were wearing their seatbelts. See this video for an illustration of that. The video is in Spanish, but I don’t think you even really need the volume on to understand the point.

When we bought the Magnum, Clint made a promise to me that if he got the car he wanted, he would wear his seatbelt – something he didn’t do reliably before. He still has to be told sometimes when he gets in my truck. But if you ever need a reason to wear a seatbelt, it’s this:





and even this:



Tune in tomorrow, I promise not to give a lecture or make you cry. But I’m working on something spectacular.

Pictures Etc

Hey - does anyone who uses blogger know how to get it to show a strikethrough? When i do it in word and copy it, it doesn't show up here. Also - i'm not fixing that link in the last post - if you don't know that song, you won't get it from the link anyway.

****


Clinton is in Gun Barrel this week, his father is having his second knee replacement, so I'm experiencing single motherhood...which sucks. Anyway - he called this morning to request pictures be posted.





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Intense basketball watching:






"Hey Scarlett, what are you DOING?!?!? Are you completely insane?"

"Give me the camera."

"That's enough pictures, WOMAN!!!"

"Mmmm, tasty."

I still haven't found what I'm looking for

Do you have that song in your head now? Sorry…well, not really. If it’s still in your head tomorrow, I’m sorry.

I’ve spent the last couple days looking seriously for a nanny. I put it off, partly because I had an evil hope that Ashley wouldn’t get her job in DC (She did and I’m very excited for her, it’s really a neat opportunity), and partly because I knew it would be a hard find. I want someone who will either come to our home or keep him in their home. I need someone who has some experience with colicky babies, or at least a tremendous amount of patience. I need someone with whom I feel comfortable leaving him. I had a lead on one, but she has a job already. I asked the lady next door who already takes care of some kids during the day and she said she’d let me know, but she didn’t seem really interested. I emailed a few people on craigslist and houstonzone and asked for references and rates. By the way, when you post an ad asking for a job or professing your services – USE SPELL CHECK and GRAMMAR CHECK. If an ad tells me you are “flooent in Inglish” or that “Englesh is yore furst langage.” I’m not really convinced. I don’t honestly care if you speak much English, if you love my baby, but don’t pretend to be something you’re not. I have a listing of registered home based care places from the state of Texas, but I need to map them before I figure out which ones I want to call first.

My main problem so far, is that leaving him with Ashley or my mother has been SO great. I know they love him and I know he’s in good hands and I’m not crying my way to work like I did when I left him at day care. The thought of trying to explain to yet another person that he doesn’t need to eat every hour, or that just because he cries doesn’t mean he’s hungry exhausts me. And in all honesty – I want to be the one that’s there. I want to be home with him. I want that more than anything. I have my plan in place and I’m working on it seriously, but until then I need this one thing to work out, for now anyway.

I do have an appointment on Tuesday with a lady who would keep him in her home. I’d have to drive into some of the worst traffic in the evening and then back out of it, so I have to really like her, but I’m going to talk to her anyway.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Ok, I get it, I am not to speak of the positive things lest they disappear. Landon used to sleep through the night. I told too many people. He no longer sleeps more than 4 hours. Landon used to wake up in the night and go right back to sleep after being fed. I told too many people that I did not feel sleep deprived, that I was used to getting up, and he has punished me by waking up at 3 am not to return to sleep until I leave for work – so guess who didn’t get much sleep?

Also, last night a house exploded near our house. It’s about a mile away (2 if you take roads). I woke up shortly after midnight, because his royal highness was hungry and I started feeding him when I heard the BOOM. My first thought was that Clinton had fallen asleep at the computer and fallen out of the chair, because the room shook, and I thought it must have been right above me. But when I went up stairs to check on him, he was in the guest bed (still slightly sick, not taking chances). He’d heard it too. My next thought was that a car had crashed into our house, but after sending him outside to investigate, and finding nothing, we heard sirens. The sirens let me relax, knowing that it must have been something somewhere else, and someone was on it. Clint apparently stayed up another couple hours because he was sure the AC was going to fall on his head, and he needed to be up and ready to jump out of the way. As it turns out, the lady had smelled something funny yesterday afternoon, and the funny turns out was probably a gas leak. She was blown out of the house, she has singed hair and bumps, bruises, and small cuts, but is otherwise in pretty good condition, considering her house was leveled by the explosion and following fire.

Landon does not care if you didn’t get much sleep. He does not care if you had to go to work where they frown on the naps while he took several naps during the day. “It’s not my fault you didn’t take a nap when I did.” He says. Loudly. Madly. “I’ll teach you to stay awake at work all day.” He’s really not a very nice kid sometimes. Also doesn’t seem to respond to threats of being put in a closet or left on the front porch. He’s pretty cocky, that kid.

A New List

I’m a compulsive list maker. It’s the first thing I do when I get to work, and the first thing I do when I wake up on the weekend. I like the feeling of accomplishment when I cross something off my list, so much so, that at the top of my lists of things to do, sometimes I write things I have already done, just so I can cross them off. Those of you, who know me, know that from birth I have always been a planner. I plan things a lot, I once planned a birthday party down to the minute – it did not work out that way, but I planned it that way – and that’s when I first learned that just because you plan something, does not always mean it will work out that way. When things don’t happen the way I plan, I regroup and plan again. When someone asked “when are you two going to have kids?” back in 2003, I answered “2006.” And people laughed at me, but I was right, because I planned it. Part of that plan was to have my PE license already, be out of debt, have extra money in the bank, have my inspector license and blah blah blah – none of my plans happened but the baby. So I’ve regrouped and I’m making new/rearranged plans.

I’ve been kind of in limbo since I registered for a class that only had 2 people sign up for it. Surprise, surprise, my HVAC class did not make. I still need 32 hours to apply to take the test to be a professional home inspector. I will probably not be able to take those hours until after the PE exam. There are plenty of classes to choose from post PE Exam for the inspector’s license. In good news, the tuition money from the class will spend nicely as I pay for study materials for the PE exam. All that’s left to do in that category is to choose whether to take the civil or the structural exam and purchase the study materials, I’m leaning towards civil.

I have new goals, and to be accountable to those goals, I have to tell someone and I’m telling you. You don’t have to ask me about it, I just need to know that other people know my goals, and that will be enough of a push to get me to accomplish them. This is a general order of things to come, so if you ARE going to ask about something, ask about the first things first, if I haven’t accomplished those things – I haven’t even touched the others.

* Send in Application for PE Exam (See I feel better already)
* Purchase a study guide for the PE Exam
* Register for the PE Exam (by March 1)
* Study for the PE Exam
* Take the PE Exam (April 20)
* Take a class (or 2) to complete the remaining 32 hours needed for Inspector’s * License
* Take the Inspector License Exam
* Set up a Business Plan
* Execute Business Plan
* Save $X to pay bills in case of lulls in the market
* Quit working my “normal” job

My intention is to have this list completely marked out by August. I’m putting this list in the sidebar as a reminder to myself, and will cross things off as I do them.

Housekeeping

OK – wow, so no one really wants to hear from me for more than 1 day? I can totally feel the love. I’m not counting my own comment. Here I was thinking I wouldn’t have enough to write about. Well, I’m posting two times tonight anyway – because Blogger would not let me post yesterday - and it took a lot of yelling and cursing for it to let me post tonight.

I changed my format slightly and those of you un-noticey types are probably saying “it doesn’t look any different to me.” But it does, slightly. SHUT UP, I am NOT good with big changes. I’m still using the template from blogger, but if anyone wants to design me a banner (*cough*ahem* for free *cough*ahem*), I would totally use it. Woodgrain or logs, or 2 crazy boxers and a baby boy…whatever appropriate design you come up with I will totally use and will attribute to you.

The monthly archives look different, but it gives me total number of posts for each month, which helps me see if I’m ignoring you guys, or I’m beginning to be one of those people that talks so much that people smile and nod at them while they think about their grocery list.

I added categories. I don’t have a category for Landon because out of 50 posts so far – he would only be not mentioned in like 6 of them, so a category that pretty much encompasses the whole blog – not necessary.

I added a blogroll. Sensitive types beware – I have put a few blogs on there by women who crack me up – but they also use the occasional well placed curse word – you’ve been warned. I read an embarrassing number of blogs every day, I didn’t put them all on there, I put people I know in real life and people who regularly crack me up – I did not separate the 2 and the groups are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

I added a section for the “Small Change” thing by Beth at Playgroup Dropout. I’m going to try and link to each place/thing I do.

I changed my email address on the blog, not that anyone was using it anyway, but I never check that other one.

Snotwatch 2007 Round 1 – Kristine: 1, Snot: 0

I am asking for a relapse just by typing these words, I know – but after the last post, there was some concern about how the little dictator was doing. And you should all know that he’s doing much better now, and was no where near the condition he was in for Snotwatch 2006.


Zicam is quite possibly the best working stuff I have ever stuck up my nose. I never would have tried it if I wasn’t breastfeeding, because it’s so expensive, but hot damn it works! And it doesn’t mess with Landon’s system or my milk production like decongestants and antihistamines do when I take those. There’s a lot of crap on the internet about losing your sense of smell after using them, but I have a feeling that those people did not follow instructions and seriously jammed the Q-tip thingy way up their nose, instead of just inside. I am finding these days that a lot of people must have gotten the “Does Not Listen To or Follow Directions” note on their elementary report cards.

We did a bunch of things I found on the internets to help Landon in his snot battle. Which one worked? I don’t know. Will I do all of them again next time around? Yes, because something in that combo worked, and I don’t care which one it was, and I’m not going to do the “elimination diet” on them to find out, I’ll just do them all. And I have a few more up my sleeve that we didn’t get to yet. So if next time these don’t work – I have some alternatives.

We washed – or at least placed in the dirty clothes – everything that he touched each day, his sheets, his blanket, his clothes, any burp rag that he used, and the towels we changed him on. Philosophy: the GERMS!! They are ON his clothes!!! I was watching Rachel Ray’s talk show a few weeks back – she had Dr. Harvey Karp, M.D. as a guest. He wrote The Happiest Baby on the Block, which SAVED. MY. LIFE. He said that one way to keep your school age kid from getting sick so often is to make them change clothes when they get home from school or day care, because the GERMS!! They are ON their clothes!!! Also hand washing.

I squirted breast-milk up his nose instead of saline (although occasionally I used saline) – and used the Angry Blue Snot Bulb. Philosophy: Breast-milk contains antibodies; antibodies will fight the snot battle for us!!!

I put him down to sleep in his carrier in his stroller, so he was at an incline. Philosophy: Aim snot at his belly, rather than letting it stay in his nose, and he’ll either digest it or it will irritate his stomach and he’ll puke it up – either way it leaves the system.

We set up and turned on his humidifier and ran it every time he was sleeping in there. Philosophy: Keep the snot from forming giant hard man-sized boogers.

Clinton held him in the shower for a few minutes with the Sudacare Shower Soother The box says not for use by children under 12, so I called my own personal pharmacist – what, she’s not at my beck and call every time I have a drug question? You mean she actually works for CVS? Surely you’re kidding, right? RIGHT? She said that exposure for the entire time would be too much for him – something about toxicity and menthol and eucalyptus, but a little bit of exposure would be fine. We only put him in there for a few minutes and then I took him and Clint finished his shower. Philosophy: loosen the snot.

TA DA – I’m going to keep him sleeping in the stroller for a few more days, just to make sure, and we’ll leave the humidifier on too.

The circles, they are vicious

It has been a merry-go-round of snot at our house for the past month. First I got sick, then Landon got sick, then Clint got sick, then I got better and Landon got better and Clint got better and then Clint got sick again and now Landon is sick again.

The blue snot bulb syringe is his arch nemesis. He sees it now and gets mad before I even touch him with it. Tonight will be the third night he sleeps in his carrier in his stroller, trying to aim the snot at his stomach instead of letting it be stagnant in his nasal cavity. So between the bassinet, the TV tray with the CD player, the TV tray with his diapers and wipes and changing towels, the TV tray with his elephant humidifier, and the stroller, I’m lucky I can get to my side of the bed at all. I did kick Clinton out into the guest room, because I have a one snotty man limit in my bedroom.

You're all peeping toms!

Ok - apparently it's delurking week...because we totally need another made-up "holiday." I don't get a lot of hits, some days I get like 15, some days I get like 2. Anyway - lurking is what you're mostly all doing, because no one is commenting. So leave me a comment, just to say hi and let me know you're out there. And...uh...for every comment I get I promise to post that many days in a row...starting...next Wednesday - so you have until Wednesday. And it's totally not fair to comment 40 times in a row. And I promise not to save up a bunch of posts and back date them like I did tonight. Oh and pictures, I'll put more pictures up too.

Do Good

I’ve joined up in one of those bloggie group things. I’ve never done that before. In November there were groups who promised to write something every day (I’m not that interesting), or groups who posted pictures of shoes every day (I don’t have that many shoes). This one is a bit more of a commitment, but I think wholly worth it.

Beth at Playgroup Dropout has started a group to pledge to do something to help children, other than their own every month. She specifically said under privileged children. Seems like a worthy enough cause, and it’s something I want to instill in Landon, that he has a lot of stuff, and a big family who loves him, and the importance of giving back.

In that same vein, we started this in December actually, because I decided that as one of our Christmas traditions we should donate a toy each year to a toy drive for Christmas, each year we will go and he will pick something out and drop it in the bin. For 2006, he donated a set of Baby Einstein Blocks to the Channel 11 Toy drive. At that point he really wasn’t interested in anything to play with, so I picked what I thought would be a good toy for his age group. He also has a set of these blocks. Next year he will pick something out.

Beth’s challenge this month is Make a Child Smile . It’s a worthy cause, they pick 3 kids each month who have a life threatening illness and ask people to write them cards. They set up a PO Box for the kids to receive the cards, so that they don’t have to publicize their home address. It’s super easy, you can make or buy a card, address and stamp and there you go. We did this in our Daisy troop 4 years ago for one of our petals. I can’t remember which petal it was, because it honestly falls under a lot of the Girl Scout Laws – but it was probably “Considerate and Caring.” We did it in December, so we sent Christmas cards. But knowing that these kids have potentially terminal illnesses, we stayed away from the “Get Well Soon” on purpose. I’ll probably lean more towards the “Thinking of you” cards for this month, or a good Valentine’s Day card.

Anyway, I’ll send off some cards to the 3 kids on the website this month, but also there’s something even easier that you can do. The girls in our area will be selling Girl Scout Cookies beginning on the 13th. Each girl has a column on their order form for “Cookie Share.” Cookie Share is a program where people buy cookies for the troop to donate to some worthy cause. This year for example, our troop will be donating the cookies to foster care group homes. These are places where kids are sent when they are taken from their parents, before they are placed in a home with foster parents, or because they can’t find a home for them. This is a double whammy of goodness on your part. The troop earns money for each box of cookies you buy, AND those kids at the homes get the cookies. Not all troops donate to the same place, so ask the person taking your order to whom the cookies will be donated. You were going to buy cookies anyway, right? Just add a box in the Cookie Share column and add the extra money to your check when they come in, easy enough.

You may need shin guards

If one more person tells me that Landon is spoiled because he prefers to be held, I will kick them in their shins. It is impossible to spoil a baby by giving them love and comfort. His wanting to be held, is simply that he wants to be comforted. I carried him 24 hours a day for 9 ½ months, any less than that is a short fall to him. And my guess is that those same people who dare to tell me that my child is spoiled…have a favorite chair or spot, one they think is the most comfortable, one they go to when they feel “down” or when they need to recharge…and I see no difference – maybe those people are spoiled, maybe someone should come take away their favorite recliner just when they get home from a hard day at work and want to sit down and rest.

Monthly Newsletter #3

Dear Landon,

What a month! I have to be completely honest with you, if we never have this kind of month again so long as we both live, I will be totally ok with that.

It started out kind of slow; in fact I had a hiatus from the blogging, because you were just not doing anything that interesting. We got your first round of shots, which you took like a champ.

Your latest trick is to rollover. They said you’d go front to back first, but you go back to front. I’m not terribly worried about the order or speed in which you learn things though. I don’t even own a book about when you should do things. People keep asking me “When will he XYZ?” And my only real response is “When he’s ready.” Although – whenever you’re ready to hold on to me when I hold you and/or sit up unassisted, bring it on!

You have turned into a new person this month. I get to see that smile that melts me more often – even in sickness. You will spend 30-45 minutes in a row being happy and talking to me – whereas last month I was lucky to get 10 minutes of that in row. You have shown moderate interest in a couple of your toys. My need for you to like some of them compelled me to pull all the ones I thought you might remotely like out into the loft to play with. Your father did not appreciate the mess I left behind, but I just wanted to make sure you got a chance to see them all and pick your favorite. He has no idea what’s in store for him in the future when we pull all your blocks and legos and Lincoln logs and little people and animals out and create a town in the living room.

We contracted our first illness from the day care. First you brought it home for me – a re-gift, if you will. Let’s not do that again. And then you got it. You were stuffy headed for 2 weeks – I kept doing the suctioning thing that the doctor said to do, and you just weren’t getting any better – but they said it would take time and as long as you didn’t have a fever we were doing all we could. Then the Friday before Christmas – because clearly we weren’t busy or anything and we needed some drama in our lives – the fever spiked and would not go away with Tylenol. Lots of firsts that weekend, with the ER, the ambulance, the X-rays, not to mention Christmas. Everyone was terribly worried about you. So much so, that you will not be in day care for at least the next month. And the whole experience has kicked my butt into high gear to finish what I need to do to go into the inspection business.

You are a trooper though. I was thinking that maybe I was a mean mommy, because it doesn’t really bother me when they poke you at the doctor’s office, but it makes your father want to break people’s necks for making you cry. Your Aunt Kathy pointed out that since I’m a very logical person and not a very emotional person, that I can see past them hurting you and see that they have to do it. It’s not like they’re hurting you for the fun of it, and if there was a way to do it without hurting you, they would. This just confirms that I’ll be the one in all your doctor appointments and emergency room visits from here on out. Also – given the choice between a shot of something and pills for 10 days – I’m totally going for the shot, and it’s not because I want them to hurt you, but because it will be a faster recovery and God knows I cannot give pills on schedule reliably – just ask our animals.

Your first Christmas was kind of anti-climatic after the ER visits that weekend. But you did get lots of good stuff. Fun stuff – stuff we can use to build that city in the living room, whenever you’re ready – just let me know.

Love,
Mom

Public Service Announcement

If you’re wandering down the toothpaste aisle, thinking to yourself “Hey, self, I don’t think my toothpaste is tasty enough.” And you come across this:

That's Lemon Ice Crest Whitening Expressions

Just walk on by, proceed to the cleaning aisle and pick up a pack of these:

They’ll taste about the same, and at least you can wipe the furniture with these.

Poop Stories

Clinton had the day off today, and I had to work. This morning I was running late and even though we have Ashley coming to baby-sit Landon, we told her she could come a little later, since Clinton would be there. Clinton’s still a little afraid to be left alone with Landon for an extended period – and I honestly don’t want to push him to do something he’s not comfortable doing – for his sake and for Landon’s sake.

For those not familiar with a baby’s intestinal working – it’s like a conveyor belt. A reflex in the sucking makes them poop. Milk in, poop out – almost at the same time, or immediately following a feeding anyway.

So I’m late and he’s asleep right up until I should be leaving – and then he wakes up crying. Since I’m going to get to work and immediately pump anyway – I figure I might as well just feed him. So I fed him, and handed him off for burping and ran out the door. I thought he might poop after I left, but I didn’t think it would be a big one, and I thought if nothing else, he’d survive the 30 or so minutes until Ashley got there to change him.

But the little gremlin pooped up his back and all over Daddy, and caused him to have to change a dirty diaper. I didn’t plan it, but if I had, it wouldn’t have worked so well. Anyway, it turns out that he CAN change a dirty diaper! Clinton called me for sympathy. He said he asked Landon if he and I had conspired against him in planning this – and Landon giggled at him. I probably didn’t give him much of the sympathy he was after – I certainly don’t get sympathy when I change a dirty diaper. But I am proud of him for not sticking him in the bathtub and waiting for Ashley.

SIDE NOTE SIDE NOTE SIDE NOTE SIDE NOTE SIDE NOTE SIDE NOTE SIDE NOTE SIDE NOTE

Yes Clint lives with us.

Clint said yesterday that people ask him after I post something about where he was in the story. “Don’t you live with them?” they ask. And I have to say that all the “we” and ‘”us” references kind of sound like I mean Landon and me, but I really mostly mean Clinton, Landon, and me. He’s in there. He may be in the background, but he’s in there.

Right now, I hold a disproportionate amount of duties when it comes to Landon. I am his food, I change his diapers, I get up during the night with him, I take him to his appointments, I was the day care dropper offer/ picker upper and I’m the author of the blog – therefore I will be in more stories than Clinton will be.

That being said, when Clinton starts his blog about taking care of the house – I will be pretty absent from that – as he’s the dishwasher, the vaccuumer, the tidier, the duster, the pool boy, the sprinkler guardian, the lights in the landscaping are burnt out noticer/replacer, the decorator, the trash taker outer, and for the most part, the laundry guy – I’m the one running around making messes for him to clean up. I think I have the better end on this deal.

Gratuitous Christmas Picture:

You're so Vein

Or in Landon’s case, not vein. He’s been congested for 2 weeks and the doctor said to suction him out with saline, but as long as he didn’t have a fever – or that his fever couldn’t be broken with Tylenol, that we were ok. This past Friday his fever reached 102.9°F, I gave him Tylenol and after 2 hours it had only come down to 101.5°F. We were in Gun Barrel, so we headed to the ER at the hospital where Grandma Wood works. First order of business is to rule out RSV – so they did the swab and it came back negative. Then they ordered a CBC. The kid has ninja veins. They tried twice to start an IV – and when that didn’t work, they collected the blood from a heel stick. The CBC came back with a really high white blood cell count, so he was clearly fighting off something. Then they ordered the X-ray. The X-ray showed pneumonia. So they arranged for an ER to ER transfer to Children’s in Dallas. Where we were treated like we had come in with a kid with the sniffles. They ordered another CBC – which meant another try to get a vein, they got the blood sample, but couldn’t get the IV. Their CBC still came back high – but that doctor thought it was viral. They deep suctioned him, cleaned out his nasal cavity, and sent us packing.

Luckily for us, the doctor who saw him first called to check up on him the next day. He had shown the X-ray to another doctor locally and one in Houston, and all 4 (including the second one from the night before) agreed that it was pneumonia and when he heard we had been released from Children’s and not admitted, and not even been given anything to deal with the infection, he called in a prescription for him.

All in all – over the weekend, he had his first ER visit, his (and my) first ambulance ride, his first X-ray, his first dealing with a Doctor who didn’t seem to know what she was doing, and his first Christmas.

Yesterday we went to check in with his pediatrician, and he said what we did was good and that the antibiotic we had for him should be plenty, he agreed that with that high of a white blood cell count that he would have had the same diagnosis. And as we left, we were checking out, and the mom in front of us turned as said “Does your baby have pneumonia too? We spent Christmas in the ER.” And in a weird way – it was kind of comforting that we were not the only ones.

So the good news is that we caught it early and he’s recovering nicely – we still have a couple days of antibiotics to go though. He’s a trooper and was called the “best looking sick kid ever.”

When I enrolled him in day care I completely expected that he’d have ear infections and get sick – I did not expect pneumonia. We went to get all his stuff from the day care yesterday. While we figure out our plan, his Grandma Logan and his cousin Ashley will be taking care of him during the day for the next month.

Skateboarding Dinosaurs

Today we had our 2 month check-up and first round of vaccines. And just to make things interesting, he peed on the scale.

He's 13 lbs even (75th percentile), 41cm head (75th percentile) and 23 inches tall (50th percentile). So he's slowed his weight gain a little bit to be normal.

The appointment went better than normal, he was actually quiet while I talked to the doctor.

Then he got upset when we got left alone for a while. Cranky, cause he was tired I'm sure. He was nearly asleep when the nurse came in with the shots. He got 4 shots and one oral vaccine. For all the horror stories we heard about this appointment. Landon cried more when he heard some other kid crying down the hall than he did when he got his shots. He did not appreciate the taste of the oral vaccine at all. He didn't spit it out, but he tried and tried to tell that lady that he didn't want to have that thing in his mouth. SHe laid him out on the table and gave him 4 shots in very quick sucession and when it was all over he fussed for about 15-20 seconds and promptly started to fall asleep.

He got some rockin' band-aids.


He slept all the way through a shopping trip to Wal-Mart and probably would have slept for a while at home if I hadn't banged his carrier on everyting on the way in.

He seems to be ok with the whole shot thing.

In fact, he's sitting on my lap now, talking away...it won't be too long before you get a guest blog entry from him.

A rough idea of what a blog entry might look like from him, from what he's saying. (*Cluck* being the tongue popping trick.)

uh-yeeeeeaaah. uh nea avvve. *Cluck* ehh ehh ehh *Cluck*uh oooh ooh ne aaah hey I ewe. *Smack* *Slurp* Aaaaye, Whuuu, Aaaaaye, EEEEEEEEEEEEE.

My court reporting skills could use some help.

No time

Pictures tomorrow - I promise.

Monthly Newsletter #2

Dear Landon,

You’ve come a long way this month. We’ve reached what’s supposed to be the height of your colic and are headed back down hill. Either you’re getting better, or I’m getting better at dealing with you, but either way – we’re getting better together. And thank goodness, because it got kind of rough there for a while. I read a book that has helped us tremendously, and I can see the improvement since I started implementing the suggestions.

You’ve started cooing for us, and while we don’t necessarily understand what you’re saying, you don’t seem to mind telling us what’s on your mind. You’re vocal throughout the day – mornings you seem to be happy vocal and evenings you get angry vocal. We’d like to see some of that happy vocal in the evening, the hour or so I get in the morning before I drop you off at day care is not quite enough for me, and your father gets so little of it, he seems to think you are ONLY angry.

You’ve been sleeping less and less during the day lately – although you normally gave me one good nap each day so I could accomplish something. Towards the end of my maternity leave you let me complete my PE application and the Ethics test that goes along with it – which is going to be helpful for us in the long run. Now I just have to study for that test.

You had your second Dr. appointment this month, and everything seems to be going well – you’re gaining weight like you’re supposed to. You started out at the top of the chart, and you’re staying up there.

I’m afraid to say this out loud – and I knock on wood every time I do – I’m sure I’ll pay dearly tonight for putting it in here. But you have been consistently sleeping through the night for over a week. Not the textbook “6 hours is considered through the night” crap, but when you go down at about 8, 9 or 10pm, I have to wake you up in the morning. I on the other hand am still not sleeping through the night, but then I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have since we got Scarlett, so that’s no biggie. Also, don’t tell the AAP – but you like to sleep on your tummy. Anyone to whom I have confided this information has assured me that their children slept on their tummies just fine. You’re not in any other risk category for SIDS, so I think I can justify it. If you fall asleep swaddled you go down on your back, but un-swaddled, gets the tummy.

You had your first road trip and first overnight away from home (other than the hospital) this month. We drove up to Lake Limestone for Thanksgiving – and it seems like we are going to have to work on your vehicle skills. Fiona didn’t seem to mind the screaming, but Scarlett stared out the window like she wished she was out there in the fields with the cows instead of in the truck. Fiona tried to show you how looking out the back window was a lot of fun, but you were having none of that. Scarlett checked in on you occasionally and tried giving you a good lick to calm you down, but that didn’t work either. You kept your schedule of happy in the morning angry in the evening. You went to sleep a little early, so your father and I went to sleep then too, we’re no dummies, when you’re down for the night, if we want 7-8 hours of sleep in a row, we go when you go. Maybe it was that it was a new place, maybe it was your father and me yelling at the dogs as they took turns trying to get up on the air mattress with us after we repeatedly told them no, maybe it was that they took turns doing the ear flap clap, maybe it was that I forgot your CD of the heartbeat thumping noise, or maybe it was that when I put the pack-n-play together and set the bassinet part in it I managed to lay it down at a slight angle and you slowly slid to one side throughout the night, but you did stir a few times during the night – however you were able to get back to sleep. Even with that – you still slept from 8:30 pm to 3:30 am



Your first day at day care was an adventure. First you tried that trick where you don’t take a bottle, so I had to take you a different one, and you got to see me and nurse mid morning. Then you tried your old stand by trick where you tell the nursery ladies you’re hungry – only this time they had a bottle to feed you instead of sending you to where I was – so they fed you and fed you and fed you and you ate 2 ounces almost every hour for 4 or 5 hours and when I picked you up you had a “Big Belly Tight Tummy,” which incidentally is Ivan’s Indian name. And then I got you home and you claimed to STILL be hungry. Liar! The little paper they fill out that tells me what you did all day let me know how VERY little you slept – which tells me they fed you when you cried because you were tired and they thought you were hungry. Also it looks like you started on your newest hickey. This first week has been rough on both of us, but you’ve got to get used to it, because it’s going to be the routine for a while.

This morning you started a really neat new trick of clicking your tongue against the roof of your mouth. We can't get you to do it on command, but it's pretty funny when you do it - sometimes you even startle yourself.

Tomorrow is your 2 month check-up. You’ll be getting your first vaccines (aside from that pesky one they gave you in the hospital that I didn’t even have to witness.) I have been forewarned that it’s heart-wrenching. The day care requires them, and so does the school district, so you’re going to have to get them one way or another, I’m sure you’ll forgive us.

Love,
Mom

Someone’s A Big Cry Baby Today

Today was my first day back to work. Today was Landon’s first day at day care. Do you hear that cracking noise? That’s my heart breaking. He’s just starting to be cool. He’s talking to us – and being happy and fun. The thing is that his good hours are in the morning, and now I have to give him to someone else for his good hours, and I only get the crap hours.

I cried all the way to drop him off; he was happy and talking to me and the lady who took him when I left. And I cried all the way to work. And when I got to work I discovered that not only are my benefits still screwy the lady who told us they could be fixed 3 weeks ago…is a big fat liar. They had to wait until my status changed from leave of absence to active – which it did today and so by Thursday I should have my dependent care FSA in order.

My module is for the most part done, the only complaining I heard was that I made my model way more detailed than anyone else (which I find odd, since they are the ones who TOLD me it needed all that stuff.)

I was just about ok, when I got my first call from the Day Care…I know you’d like to think he got in trouble for picking a fight with a bigger kid…but really – they just couldn’t get him to take the bottle I left for him and wanted to know if I had a different bottle I could bring. So on my first day back, while I’m trying to be good and not call and check on him, he managed to get me to go home and get him a different bottle. When they called they told me he was asleep, when I got there, he was awake again. So I decided to go ahead and nurse him then, just in case he wouldn’t take the new bottle and I would have to come back anyway.

He was happy to see me and nursed but when I tried to hand him back to go back to work he broke my heart again, because he certainly didn’t want to let me go.

I didn’t hear back from them for the rest of the day – so I assumed all was going well. The afternoon lady asked why I had left instructions for them to only give him 2 oz at a time, that he was hungry every hour and she gave him 2 oz almost every hour in the afternoon and the milk I had left, which I thought was more than enough, was empty. So he had tried the trick he pulled in the hospital, only instead of being able to be sent down to my room, they had a bottle and fed him.

Thanksgiving

It was a big weekend for Landon. His first family holiday and his first road trip. He met several cousins and 2nd cousins for the first time. And it was the last of my maternity leave.

On Friday, Grandma and Grandpa Wood came down. He actually was pleasant for them and cooed for them and was nice for a while. And then we went to Lynn and Kimber's to eat, that's when he decided to start up his evening antics. He got bounced around by everyone for a little while, but there was no end to the fussy, at least not until I got him to sleep for the last time that evening.

On Saturday morning we headed up to Lake Limestone. A girl (dog) on either side of his car seat in the back seat, and off we went. He fussed for a while when we first started out, and then he fussed for the last 45 minutes or so of the drive. Clint even got in the back seat and offered him a bottle to no avail. Although Scarlett enjoyed her front seat time!

He had a similar experience as he did at the other Thanksgiving, being bounced around from person to person but still pretty fussy. His cousin Joshua was a little upset about the dent in his head (soft spot), but after a little explaining about his skull not being ready yet and him still growing and that it's normal, he was ok.

He did the same thing on the way back that he did on the way there, crying for the last 45 minutes of the trip.

Growing Like A Weed

At Landon's Dr. appointment last Monday, he measured 21 1/2 inches (50th percentile - average), weighed in at 12 lbs 5 ozs (100th percentile - fatty), and 40 1/2 cm head circumference (90th percentile - big head). He's healthy - and he's gaining weight like he's supposed to.

And he seems to like lounging by the tree that HCAD gave us.

As if there was any doubt that this is Clinton's child - here's solid proof in a facial expression:

Complaints should be filed with....

Landon.

Any complaints about this blog not being updated can be directed to him personally. He has decided that I should not be allowed to do anything without him in my arms. And are you kidding? Sit down? How dare I think of doing such a thing?

I get one decent length nap a day - and I have to say - I'd rather be in the shower (or napping myself) than sitting at the computer.

We've slowed down considerably in the past 2 weeks, and not many pictures have been taken, but they will be. I promise.

Monthly Newsletter - #1

Dear Landon,

This has been quite the exciting month for you. First there was that whole being ripped from the coziness you’d been in for 9 months. And it’s been kind of weird ever since.

A lot of women on the web write birth stories and include all kinds of details that I’m sorry to say, I’m not going to be able to do for you. I remember Monday waiting and waiting and waiting for them to call us to come in to start the induction. I hadn’t eaten since noon on Monday – and they wouldn’t even let me have water or ice. They finally had us come in at 11pm.

When we got there and got settled in they finally let me have some ice chips. And I spent about 2 hours in pain when I asked the nurse (who I went to high school with) for either the sleeping pill or the pain meds. And I’m sorry to say – that that’s when it all gets fuzzy. I don’t know when a lot of stuff happened. I know both your aunts, and both sets of Grandparents showed up, as well as Shane. I know everyone came in to see me, right up until Clint decided it was too much for me and then banned everyone but your aunt Kathleen. I know that at 5:00 they decided that you weren’t coming and that they would do a C-section. I was really upset about it. I know that when they wheeled me into the OR I heard them counting sponges and instruments, and then they called for your daddy. I heard my Doctor say, “Oh, well, no wonder he wasn’t coming.” You had been head down for the last 3 months or so, but when you decided you couldn’t fit, you backed up and turned sideways. 9lbs and 9ozs. You were very blue when they showed you to me, and apparently they couldn’t get you breathing like they wanted you to. I was very sleepy but I was afraid to go to sleep or I’d miss getting to see you. They wheeled you by me and let me touch your hand. They took you off to the level II NICU. And that’s the last time I saw you until about 1am. Your Dad took each of the Grandparents in to see you.

You gave your Daddy quite a scare by not breathing like you were supposed to right out of the womb. Every time he looks at you he might as well have heart shaped pupils like in the cartoons.

I should have known you’d be a challenge when you started out by tricking the nursery nurses into bringing you to my room, saying you were hungry – but all you really wanted to do was cuddle.

Since being home you have done a lot of growing, although since I am with you 24/7 – I don’t see much of it. You’ve had a lot of visitors in the past month as well.

You had your first Dr. appointment; they examined you and pricked your heel again – which you absolutely did NOT care for. And neither did your father, so we’ll be going to those appointments by ourselves from here on out.

You had your first outing – we took you to pick up Daddy’s new car. You were unimpressed. And you don’t particularly care for the whole riding in cars thing to begin with.

You had your first bath after you FINALLY lost your umbilical cord.

You took your first bottle on Halloween night from your daddy. Up until that point I had been the one who tried to give you a bottle, and you were absolutely not having it. But for your daddy, you took it like a champ. Which is good news for me, because it means I can go back to work in a month and not having visit the Day Care a few times a day to nurse.

You refuse the pacifier. I mean, what’s the point anyway if nothing good is coming out of it? But you’ve decided to use your forearm instead and have successfully given yourself your first hickey.

You have decided that the swing is not as evil as the carrier and have allowed me to take exactly one shower and fix one dinner while you sat in it quietly. You have yet to sit in the carrier while awake quietly.

Your sisters have decided that you must be staying, and they’re tolerating you. Scarlett gets annoyed with the constant crying and leaves the room. Fiona tries to calm you by pressing her nose to your head. They both check on you constantly.

You have some kind of sensor that makes you poop within 5 minutes of a diaper change. I could probably spend my entire day changing your diaper. Everyone says you are very alert for such a young baby; you’re pretty good at holding your own head up.

And for my birthday you gave me 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep, it was probably the very best present you could have given me. So thank you very much for that.

Love,
Mom

PS - there's some kind of issue with the picture uploading - and I have placed a bunch of pictures on flickr (see sidebar for link) where I couldn't get some to upload. And then Flickr screwed up and I didn't get them all uploaded there either - but I will eventually.

Teenagers

Landon is now 15 days old. And I can't help but notice how much a 15 years old boy and a 15 day old boy are the same.

When he wakes up he thinks about food almost immediately (also boobs).

He likes to sleep all morning and stay up all night.

When he's watching TV, don't dare take him away from it - or there will be consequences.

He will NOT tell you what's wrong, but totally expects you to fix it anyway.

I'm posting some new pictures on Flickr.

He's Here!!

Weighing in at a whopping 9 lbs 9 oz. Landon made his appearance at 5:36 p.m. on 10/03/06. He's already sneaky and tricked the nursery nurses into bringing him into my room saying he was hungry when he really just wanted to cuddle.

My child is part elephant

An elephant's gestation is an average of 22 months...so I have about a year to go.

(We are supposed to start calling at 6pm this evening to see if they have room for me to start the induction process.)