Ugh. I wish I could say things are getting easier, but they’re not. The good news is that Kile has a post-op appointment with his surgeon this afternoon and hopefully we’ll find out that he can start lifting small things (perhaps even Evie) or drive or SOMETHING. That would help. In the meantime, it feels like I have more than I can handle and that is even with my mother in law around to help out. So you can only imagine.
Yesterday, Liam was in fine form. After his nap, he decided for whatever reason that he really wanted to play in the dog water upstairs in the kitchen. It’s only a short flight of stairs and there is a gate at the top so we could have blocked it off, but since he has learned the proper way to get down the stairs, it hasn’t been priority. But splashing in the dog water was a NO NO. Kile’s mom was downstairs in her room, busy with something. Kile was trying to relax in the recliner as best he could. I was nursing Evie. We asked Harry to fetch Liam out of the dog water, bring him down the stairs and pull the gate across so he couldn’t get back in the kitchen.
Well, he got most of it right.
He dragged Liam downstairs alright, but he neglected to pull the gate across. He went out in the backyard at that point, to play with the dogs, before we could remind him about the gate. So NATURALLY, Liam was right back up the stairs and in the dog water again.
splash, splash
I was about done by that point. Liam had been going full-boar all day long and I was tired of having to put everything else off to chase him down. I believe I swore. I set Evie down in her bouncer and stomped upstairs. I grabbed Liam out of the dog water and gave his (well-padded) rump a swat (or two) and then hauled him off downstairs.
Now, the stairs are a very short flight. 8 stairs. They’ve been known to be treacherous in the past. Shoot, Liam himself had tumbled down them a couple days prior. Plus, they had new carpet (with Scotch Guard!) and I was wearing socks. I bet you can imagine what happened next.
My feet flew out from underneath me. I bumped down a couple stairs and cracked the middle of my back as I landed. Liam escaped unharmed while I was doubled over in pain and gasping for the breath that had been knocked out of me. Kile and his mom were there in an instant, asking me what I hurt. I would have told them if I could only SPEAK.
Thankfully, the pressure in my chest eased and I was no real worse for the wear. I had a skinned elbow (which I didn’t even feel at first), a sore rump, and an aching back. OY. I’m just glad I didn’t break anything. Because if I had… Well, we would have just been ahead to sell the house in Reno and just move in here. Both of us laid up was about the LAST thing we needed.
This morning, I’m sore. It’s to be expected. But, I can move around and am better off than Kile at this point. My dignity is bruised, for sure. (What dignity??) We’ll see if Liam makes it through another day or if I’m forced to eat him for an afternoon snack. Stay tuned.
Tags: Elko, injury, Liam
Today is one of those days. You moms out there know exactly what I’m talking about when I say that. In fact, I could end the post right now and you would walk away feeling as if you know already just what my day has been like. But… for the sake of being a blabbermouth, I’m going to continue on and write the post anyhow.
It hasn’t been awful. There hasn’t been one major event to send my day on it’s ear. There haven’t even been a series of annoying things. Yet, annoyed I am. That’s what makes it one of those days. Versus just being one of those days you wish you’d never gotten out of bed. Yes, there is a difference.
Liam is, I think, putting through his two year molars. This is what made the whole sleeping thing “interesting” while we were camping. Those of you out there with two year olds know that if there is anything that can turn our normally darling pre-toddlers into full blown jerk toddlers, it’s those two year molars. Liam is no exception. He is, I’m finding out, alarmingly contrary.
As always, it is the whole eating thing that gets the blood pressure up. Eat, dangit! EAT! But no. And when I’m not fighting him about eating, I’m fighting him about flinging around various articles from around the house. Or from wiping his ever, runny nose on the Boppy while I’m nursing Evie (which is ALL THE TIME).
And then there’s Harry. He’s off school this month and boy howdy is he ever a slob. I’m not even sure where to start with him. And on top of being a slob, he’s picked up a few bad habits. One of them is something that Kile does that drives me nuts. He opens a new box of cereal when there are old cereals that need to be used up. The end result is a pantry full of half eaten cereal. DRIVES ME CRAZY.
Plus, the house is a wreck. The living room floor needs a vacuum and perhaps a steam cleaning. The kitchen… well, the kitchen always needs help. The floor is a mess, there are groceries that haven’t been put away yet, dishes on the counter and in the sink and dirty dishes in the dishwasher (then, duh, START IT dumbass!). EVERYWHERE I look there is something out of place. I don’t know where to start. So I just don’t.
I’m just letting normal stuff (and yes, this is all pretty normal) get to me today. Hormones, maybe? I don’t know. I hate days like these. I’m tense and on edge and ready to just freak out at the drop of a hat. I hate feeling this way. I wish I could just take a pill or a deep breath or something and feel better. Maybe tomorrow, right?
Before you go, don’t forget to check out my BlogHer ‘08 registration giveaway! Are you tired of me reminding you about that yet? Well too bad. I’ll be reminding you again tomorrow too, just so you know.
Tags: bad day, Harry, housekeeping, Liam
So we went camping on Saturday. We could have gone up Friday night but in addition to being nervous about how Liam would deal with sleeping in the Great Outdoors, we had some shopping that needed to be done Friday evening and Kile wasn’t able to get off work early enough so that we could have been up there by any reasonable time. So Saturday it was. Our friends had JUST bought a toy hauler and invited us to stay in it with them. Which really sold it for us because sleeping in a tent? Not gonna happen. Not these days, at least. So all we needed to do was pack up some food, some clothes and some diapers and head on our way.
When we got there, Liam was very unsure of the whole thing. Much like how he felt about grass last year, he was hesitant to walk on pine needles. Goofball. We set up his super yard so that he could adjust to nature without running into oncoming traffic. Always a good plan.
The weather was cool, but not cold. Spring was springing up all over and the hues of green really caught my eye. I couldn’t stop looking at them. Evie fell into a routine, though she decided she wanted constant nursing in that routine as well. The girl is a touch spoiled, methinks. So between breaks to nurse in the van and the toy hauler, we were able to sit out in the air and soak it all in. I think she enjoyed it.
Meanwhile, Liam (whom we had put a sweatshirt on and who stole my friend’s hat) was developing a fond fascination with the dirt.
It was the greatest thing… well… EVER. We don’t go outside a lot around here, especially in the winter when it’s nasty out. So the poor kid is really kind of a newbie when it comes to things like dirt and pine needles and rocks and whatever else. He loved it though. And he made a right mess of himself while he was at it.
Our one set of friends had their own (enormous!) tent set up to sleep in and there was this teeny tiny tent set up next it for the boys to sleep in. Three boys, from 8 and 7 years old, were going to be sleeping in this tent. I harbored suspicions that maybe ONE could fit in it, but all three went in pretty easily. Color me impressed!
As I mentioned before, we were able to stay in the toy hauler. There was a lot of room in that thing! And it cemented my notion that having a trailer or camper or some sort is pretty much the ONLY way to camp. We were able to easily fit two families in there, and could have squeezed another one in if we needed to. And did I mention it had a microwave? And a bathroom? Oh yes. LOVE.
As you can see, we brought a rugged stroller (one we’re testing out) and it had a tray on it. We used it as a makeshift high chair for Liam and he could also sit in it while we had campfires going and of course we took a walk or two.
I love that picture. I cannot possibly tell you how much I love that picture. Such is my love. Anyhow, as the sun went down it was time to start thinking about things like campfires. Or, in this group’s case, a bonfire. There was a sort of “master fire ring” that the bonfire was built in. It started off humbly enough…
Lots of little scraps of wood, a few pinecones, lighting a paper plate or two to help get the thing going… Before too long, we had something a little more like this:
Which, you know, was sufficient for roasting some s’mores on. Which we did. YUM. Then, the guys (and some gals) decided they wanted to see what would happen if you took a bottle of 151 and spit a mouthful into the fire. At that point, our little group retreated back to our particular campsite (this was a group camping trip) with the kids and started a much more sedate fire in our little firepit.
Liam went down to sleep easy enough (if you call a 1/2 hour process involving infant’s motrin easy) and didn’t even stir when some of the other of our party entered the trailer. I retired before long with Evie and made the colossal mistake of not changing her diaper and into her sleeper before going in. Because I had no flashlight on me and it was dark as pitch in there. Seriously, you could close your eyes and see just as much as you could with them open. I was hesitant to turn on any lights because I did NOT want to wake up any small children. Particularly those whose names start with “L”.
Kile came in not too much later and I gave in and asked him for the diaper, sleeper and to turn a light on because putting on a diaper in pitch blank is NEVER a good idea. I don’t care how much of a pro you think you are. Evie threw a pretty good fit at that point, because she had been so peacefully sleeping but before long she was back fast asleep.
However, once Kile settled in and started snoring, this woke up Liam. I think the snoring scared him, at least at first. Every time Kile would drift off and start to snore a little, it would wake Liam up crying. We didn’t want him to cry, since we were sharing this trailer with other people. After getting up and down no less than 10 times, Kile gave up and took Liam out of the trailer. He ended up putting him in his carseat with a blanket and then laid back one of the seats in the front of the van to sleep in himself. Poor guy.
I didn’t sleep much myself, mostly because I was worried about Liam and just on edge. I guess I didn’t drink enough alcohol. Heh. Evie was a champ though, and slept through until dawn. She probably slept the best of any of us. Well, besides Harry, was snug as a bug in that teeny tent with his friends.
Once morning rolled around, we all huddled in the warm (it has a heater!) trailer and had a yummy breakfast of pancakes and bacon. And then, alas, it was time to start to think about packing up. Bummer.
Truly, despite the wakeful night, we had a great time. I’d really like to go camping again sometime, even. We need to brainstorm a good routine for Liam at night. If worse comes to worse, at least we know he’ll sleep in the carseat! We came home around noon and after giving Liam and Kile a shower (Liam was, once again, covered in dirt), we all fell into bed for much needed naps. Well, except for Harry who got reacquainted with his Mario Kart Wii. I think a mark of a good camping trip is how tired you are when you get home, don’t you think?
So what did you all do over the weekend? Did you all enter my BlogHer ‘08 registration giveaway? You have two more days left to enter! Get on that!
You should totally go check out the rest of the pictures from the camping trip!
Tags: camping, Evelyn, Liam, photography, pictures, sleep deprived
Once upon a time, I had a baby named Harry. Harry was born at a normal size (7lbs, 5oz at 40 weeks) and was exclusively breastfed. He grew to ginormous proportions. His fat rolls had fat rolls. He was corpulent. A basketball with smaller basketball shaped appendages. Adorable, yes. Rotund, yes. He didn’t start to slim down until after he was 6 to 8 months old. And even then he didn’t lose weight, it just turned to solid MUSCLE. Now, to this day, Harry isn’t a fat child. But he is the tallest kid in his class. And he is SOLID. He’s got his mama’s big bones. He was consistently riding the top of the charts when we would take him in for well-baby checkups. I guess I got to thinking that I simply made big babies. I don’t know why I decided that after ONE child, but there you have it.
Then Liam was born.
As you all are well aware, Liam earned the moniker “puny runt” around here for constantly running along the bottom of the growth charts. It was bizarre to me. And to most people, he looked like a normal sized baby. And he pretty much was. It was just that compared to HARRY, he was a shrimp. He still is. He’s got stubby little legs (that he got from Kile’s side of the family) and frequently looks adorable running around on them. This isn’t to say that his thighs aren’t a little chubby or whatever, but just that his build is a lot more slight than Harry’s ever was. And we got rather used to hearing that he was in the 30th percentile or less for his height and weight. Then there was that whole “not gaining anything” period he went through. That was FUN.
Except that it SO WASN’T.
Anyhow, moving on.
Now we have Evie. Which way was she going to go? Would she be more petite like Liam, or would she push the envelope like Harry? It appears that we have our answer! Evie went to her two month pediatrician appointment yesterday. It was dreaded, because of those awful shots they always insist on stabbing into our children’s juicy little thighs.
But Evie survived, and that’s the important thing. She cried. She may have broken a heart or two. She was STABBED three times, ya’ll. I probably would have cried too. I think I showed great restraint by not crying myself when it happened, actually. The poor dear. Anyhow. That’s not the point of this little ditty. The point is her weigh in. Which I’m getting to. Right now.
At her one month, she was pushing 8 1/2 pounds and 21 inches. This month? She is 11lbs, 9oz and 22 inches. Now, I’m pretty sure that 9 of those ounces was her diaper as she was wearing a cloth diaper that was wet at the time (why didn’t they take it off??) and those things can be heavy (for the record, it’s not the one in the picture. We put that one on her after the weigh in). STILL. Girl is GAINING. She’s 35th-40th percentile for height and 70th percentile for weight. If she truly does take after her biggest brother, she will be pushing 90th percentile at her four month appointment. Mark my words.
The only thing that remains somewhat small is her head. The measurements came in at 30th percentile which is REALLY strange. Because that was the only area that Liam EVER had high measurements in. He had (has) an enormous head, made even more enormous on top of his teeny body. But Evie’s head has the opposite effect. It’s just so… small. Smaller than I’m used to, at least.
I just have this picture of Evie out-growing Liam in a couple years and her and Harry towering over him. Of course, with Liam’s personality he could probably still easily take them both out. That kid has some cohones.
***
In other news: Have you checked out my review blog yet? You should head over there today to read about a new contest from CompanyKids. You could win lots of really awesome stuff. You should TOTALLY enter. Go read about it! Do it now!
Tags: checkup, doctor, Evelyn, Harry, Liam, shots
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