Pffft! I look under my butt at you!

And another thing. I have been trying to register Lily for an ECFE class for two weeks now and I kept getting the runaround and I finally had to channel my sister Wendy and open up a can of Whoop Ass. I was SOOOOOO mad. I don't like getting mad but I could not waste any more time and they were being stupid, so I had to leave a very IRATE MOMMY message. I said exactly what I wanted and told them to call me back to tell me I got it. Oh, suddenly I got service! Someone called me back within 5 minutes and gave me what I wanted. Of course, she didn't apologize for the crappy treatment I had been getting, because no one apologizes anymore in the service industry. Well, I got what I wanted for Lily. I just hope I don't have to be like that a lot when I'm "advocating" for my child. Why is it called advocating now? Why isn't it just parenting? Jesus, I'm crabby.

Lily do? Lily do?

disclaimer: crabby mommy. probably PMSing. Lily helps by reorganizing my purse.

Oh, for cry-eye. Today we had a new teacher come out to see Lily as part of the ECSE program she's in.

(She qualified automatically to be in this school program because of her birth weight. I can't remember what the acronym stands for, but basically it's to make sure she's not falling behind in her development. It's nice because it gives us an idea of what she is expected to be doing skill-wise at her age. Because she's doing so well we only see the teacher once a month. We were supposed to get the same teacher we had last school year but for some unexplained reason we got a different one. She came this morning and I wasn't thrilled. )

This teacher wants us to work on language skills with her, I guess. She didn't give us a goal sheet like the other teacher did, or really discuss it too much, just spent the time trying to get Lily to play the games she wanted her to play. I thought she was a little pushy with getting Lily to play her games, especially since she's a total stranger to Lily right now. Lily kept turning around and clinging to John, which I totally understood. And then the teacher was talking during play, only talking like a cave person..."Lily put in? Lily do." Oh, Lord. I'm not going to talk to her like that. I just don't believe that's required for her to learn language. Then she'll talk like a cave person, for Chrissake. Every time I come up against a situation like this, where I think the teaching is ridiculous, I have to remember that children have been growing up and acquiring language for thousands of years, and their parents didn't have to talk like babies to get their babies to talk. If that makes sense. Then she did some singing and I thought it was gonna take all frickin' day to get through Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, more like Twinkle right into the end of the universe and down through the black hole into nothingness. Jeeeeeeez. Then when we did Itsy Bitsy Spider she said the normal hand movements people do for the spider were "too complicated" for small children. Oh brother. Barney called, he wants his pea brain back.

Not Sleeping So Good

I'm up right now because Lily is. She took 2 2-hr. naps today and was still tired enough to conk out right after 9pm. Then she woke up at 1am-ish and was inconsolable and kicky in our bed. So we resorted to milk in a bottle. She drank half and I think she'd drifting off to sleep again. I'm falling asleep writing this, and John is snoring holding her in the chair. I hope she isn't getting sick, just growing tall. Come to think of it, Wendy and I were very tall in elem. school. We commended respect... Zzzzzzzzzzz

This photo is of us at the Babytalk World's Biggest Playgroup, that we went to this week. I found a SAHM (Stay-at-Home-Mom) on Meetup that has calendars of events, and I got to meet up with a gaggle of them at the MOA for this event and cruise over there together. It was fun to have a group to be in for the event, we all sat together on the playmats they had set out, and got to play with toys

New Stats: Big Girl

• She's 20 lbs, 5 ounces, so she's finally broken the 20 lb. barrier! Which is good, since we just started using a new car seat because she was too long for the old one and her legs were getting squished up against the seat. So now she's facing forward in style.
• She's 30.5 inches tall, which is 1 inch taller than she was three weeks ago when we put up her growth chart on the wall and measured. It seemed like was reaching more things (that she shouldn't) and it turns out we weren't imagining it, she's growing!
• She's in the 50th percentile for height, and the 20-something percentile for weight. We still need to make sure she is getting plenty of fat. The doctor suggested putting butter on some things we feed her (neither of us use butter except for cooking). But she's drinking enough milk, all cow's milk now, no more formula as of about a week ago!
• Next goal is to get her to drink the milk from a sippy cup and stop using a bottle. She drinks water fine from the sippy cup (no juice, we are anti-juice for her), but milk in it is a new idea. We tried a little today and she only took a couple sips. It's a start.

Sweetie is 15 months old today

And so she had a 15-month checkup and got two shots and a blood draw to check for a couple food allergies. Not a fun time for Lily. We stopped in the gift shop on the way out and bought her a Grover plush doll (from Sesame Street). Grover is so much better than Elmo. She liked him right away and slept on him in the car. She was kind of cranky the rest of the day and went to bed early at 8 instead of the usual 9pm. I hope she sleeps through. She has been waking lately a lot during the night and has two BIG teeth coming in up top. And they're widely spaced apart. So maybe we'll dress her up as a hobo for Halloween. Heehee. Anyway, here's a sweet photo of her sleeping in with Daddy on Saturday morning last week. I love how she has her hand tucked under his chin. And one sock off and one sock on. And bedhead hair.

Classic Baby

Here's a couple more pics from the ride last Sunday. The top one is of us before we started the ride. We're hanging out with the General Mills participants, who took a team photo. Lily is right in the middle of the photo, I can't wait to get a copy! The lower picture is about halfway through the ride, at Mounds Park, where we stopped to snack and feed Lily and give her a chance to walk around. She had a good time. And she was the only who stayed dry in her cozy little sidecar, with her blanky and bear. We got rained on and not a little. I was drenched until we got home, at which point I took a long hot shower. I'm still glad I did it. I never got off my bike to walk up a hill, which felt like a huge accomplishment. Especially since I haven't ridden in basically 2 years. And there's some butt-kicking hills on that ride!!

St. Paul Classic Ride today

We did the 30-mile ride around blocked-off streets of St. Paul (and suburbs) today with Lily and she did great. She had such a nice little nest in her sidecar, I wanted to get in there. Especially after it started pouring rain on us and I wasn't wearing anything rainproof. I'll post more pics later but I ache everywhere right now and must collapse into bed.

Oh how very unfortunate

One side of the Rooftop Artpark looks down into a parking lot. Usually not too exciting down there. Today, however, a different story. This was the last day of the Republican National Convention, happening just down the street from the Museum, and so the hours at the Museum were curtailed and streets were blocked off. And so here we have some police officers suiting up in riot gear. At first I didn't want to take a picture because I thought they might look up and see me and then arrest me for being a terrorist. I almost wore my Minneapolis Police sweatshirt today, too. But these guys turned out not to be too aware of their surroundings. I stood there with Lily a good five minutes while she was trying to eat plants by the bars, and not once did they look up. THEN one guy looks around, but not UP, and stands on one side of the dumpster in the corner of the picture, and takes a piss against the wall!! Nice! I declined to record that moment on camera. But I did share this little viewing event with the Children's Museum staff, because I thought they might want to pass it along to the IDIOT police that there are children up above who can see you. And as one of the staff members pointed out, this was especially bad behavior for a public servant. I mean, maybe I should feel a little sorry for him, I thought of Wendy having to do riot duty at the WTC G-8 in Seattle and how much it sucked. But Wendy would have never peed in an alley. And I was just flabbergasted at how unaware of his surroundings he was. DUH! Try to set a good example for the kiddies, bozo.

Mommy loves to paint the baby

We went to the Children's Museum again today, and I painted Lily's face again. I love doing that. I hope she'll want to get her face painted for Halloween at the General Mills event. This is in the sand area on the Rooftop Artpark, a recent addition. It's not really a sandbox, but more of a sculpture with tile and cermic inlaid. Isn't this shirt the cutest? I love it.

Can I Eat That?

Later, Lily woke up for lunch while we were in the Creative Activities Building. She liked the look of the cookies.

Zonkers

...but by that time she was zonked out asleep. We'll do it next year.

Giant Slide

We thought about taking Lily on this, the Giant Slide...

Or Make A Funny Face Instead

That's more polite anyhow.

Play With Your Feet!

When you get bored in the stroller waiting for Daddy to come back with the fried cheese curds, play with your feet! But then it's so fun it's hard to stop. Even when you get to eat some cheese curds. C'mon, show up your cheese curds! Open up! Let's see 'em!

Sea of People

Lily also enjoyed the people-watching very much. There were a lot of whiny kids; she wasn't one of them. One little girl, whose dad stopped her stroller just behind me, kicked me with abandon until Daddy moved her out of the way. When I turned around to see who was attacking me, I saw that she was way too old to be in the stroller, and she looked at me like she knew better, she damn well knew better than to kick me, but she did it anyway. No one apologized. I should have kicked her back. But maybe that's why she was kicking in the first place--she didn't have enough room and was getting squashed into people all the time. That I could understand.

The good thing about the MN State Fairgrounds is that it's all paved. So you aren't breathing in dust all day from everyone (and that's hundreds of thousands of everyones) tromping about. That's what I don't like about some other fairgrounds, and crowded outdoor events. And it would especially suck for Lily, since she's so low to the ground in her stroller.

Linus

She also liked the Peanuts statues scattered around the Fairgrounds.

Lily's First Minnesota State Fair

Here's the first thing Lily got to see: Dog Frisbee club demonstrations. She liked it. This field, right next to the Pet Center building, used to be taken up by a Twins merchandise tent, but now it's evidently being used by the Pet Center for their demos, which is a vast improvement over trying to do them inside the building, which was always totally mobbed with spectators.

How does this happen?

It's a mystery. NO, it's not a ginormous mole, it's a blueberry. But how did it get there? We fed her with her clothes on. Yet somehow...Hmmm.

"Dog"--It's official

Can I get a witness? Oh, that's right, Uncle Mikey witnessed it! That's him sitting on a hand. Hmm, that didn't come out right. It's an art sculpture. That sounds better. Anyhow, stopping by Thursday night, Mike visited with us a bit and we all heard Lily say "Dog," a pronounced (pardon the pun) progression from "Og." She's said it several times since then, although she still likes to say "Og" and "Gog."

Great Day for Lily and Mommy

Tuesday we started with a stroller ride to the park and playing on the swings and slide, then later after second breakfast, we went to the Children's Museum. Top pic is Lily in the Habitot room, playing Peekaboo with me. It's very cool, this area is decorated like a winter scene, and then the corner is full-length windows. There's a bumper rail for kids to hang on to while they look out at the people and cars below, and a post near the corner just big enough for a toddler to walk around but not an adult. So she liked walking around that a lot, and looking out the window at the bustling world below.

The scene below the window is a main intersection in downtown St. Paul and it made me think of Richard Scarry's books, how he had Busytown and all these little animals with jobs like postman and milkman and florist and such. I can't wait 'til we can read those to her. I have several from my childhood, but she's not good with the paper pages yet--they get bent or ripped. So we'll wait a little longer and make do with board books.

The second pic down is Lily playing with another little girl in the sand area (it's more of a sculpture than a box, so I can't call it a sandbox) up on the newest part of the Museum, an outdoor artpark on the roof. The sand is so soft and squishy, I took her shoes off so she could feel it between her toes. Not like the dirty gritty stuff at the public park.

Last picture is Lily playing with a cute toy I got her that day while she was sleeping--after the Children's Museum, we went to the downtown St. Paul library and played there with some other kids and checked out more books, and when I got her back to the car she fell right asleep. So I drove over to Unique Thrift on Rice and Larpenteur. It's one of the best thrift stores in the cities, and I found a couple blouses for myself for under 5 dollars, then found several toys for Lily. This one is an elephant with wheels that actually turn (he can go roll pretty far, too) and each wheel is a rattle. So she can sit and shake it to make noise, or push it around like a car. She likes it very much and I spent 60 cents to get it. That's right, 60 cents. I am so proud. Don't worry, I cleaned it thoroughly before I gave it to her. It cleaned up very nice. I also found a Mother Goose See and Say, a Fisher Price "radio" that plays 6 songs, a little hand "vacuum" that is like the old corn popper toy but smaller and less noisy, and a spinny light thing. All these toys were under a dollar each. God, I love thrift stores, and recycling toys. I feel like I'm rescuing the Velveteen Rabbit from the trash.

Okay, I have to go to bed now, I was going to make this short because I have a headache, but I just had to share what a fun day I had with my baby girl.

Og

Lily's first really specific word, I think, is "og." or "gog." Which means "dog." She says it whenever she points to Cocoa, or at other dogs. It's pretty cute. And she's very happy when I confirm that yes, indeed, that is an "og" she's pointing at. She says "mama" and "dada" but it's more like "mamamamamama" or "dadadadadada" and either will do in a pinch when she's, well, at a loss for words. Haha, don't hit me for that bad joke. But you know what I mean, they are just universal words right now that can be used for anything good, or anything she wants. But "og" is reserved for an actual dog.

The picture thing isn't working on Blogger tonight, otherwise I'd have a cute playground pic up. Will try tomorrow.

Today I did fine on my own with Lily until about 5pm. I got a headache on the top of my head and have felt dizzy and nauseated since then. I think it's from blood loss, because I have my period and I am just gushing blood. It didn't used to be this heavy, like before I was pregnant. Now I can barely keep up with it the first few days. I should probably talk to my doc about this...meanwhile John gave me a spinach dish for dinner, so I'd get some iron. I gotta go to bed now, just hope the dizziness stops soon because closing my eyes makes it worse, all spinny.

Lily on her first boat ride

She didn't even mind the bulky life jacket. I didn't go on this ride because I had a headache, so I stayed in the house and napped with an icepack over my face. I'm glad I only had one headache over the weekend, that's an improvement.

So we had a really nice, relaxing weekend at Jack and Mary's, got to visit with Mike and Sue as well, and came home happy.

This week I don't have my helper at all, so I might not get to post again until the weekend. In general, things are going well. The candida diet is really making a difference in how healthy I am. Lily had a cold after she had the croup, and then John got it, but I never got sick! So I'm pretty happy. And I was telling John last night how I feel different now about being a Mommy, after a year. I feel more confident, and when I get up in the morning I don't think "how am I going to make it through the day with this baby?" but "What fun thing can I do with Lily today?" She is so much fun right now, and it's so exciting to see her starting to walk. She tears around the house pushing her little cart, giggling and smiling, how can that not rub off on you? I thank God every day for Lily, she's so special. And mine, all mine!!! Hee hee

Lilybug dress

Lily all dressed up for church. She was very good at Mass. Then we took these pics after we got home, before we changed her clothes to pants so she could crawl around properly (it's very hard to crawl in a dress).

Lily reading to herself

She can turn the pages very well now.

Lily in the Labyrinth

John takes Lily through the tile labyrinth in downtown Eau Claire near the river. Here's what I learned: The difference between a labyrinth and a maze is that a labyrinth only has one path. There are no dead ends like in a maze, you just follow it and you'll get out fine. John told us this as we were all looking at it. And I turn to Susan and say, "How do they know these things?" meaning the Mercers. They know things like that. And she knew just what I meant. "I know!" she said. It's like, where did you get that information? The History Channel? And how do you remember these details? Anyhow, Lily was more interested in the other little kids playing in the grass.

Auntie Susan feeds Lily

Notice how Lily's reaching for the container. If she gets it, she'll turn it upside down to get the yogurt out. Then she'll be frustrated she can't pick it up to eat with her fingers, so she'll smush it all over the high chair tray. Luckily this did not happen.

Here, Let Me Fix That For You

Lily helps Mike fix the TV.

Weekend at Jack and Mary's house

Well, I didn't get to go swimming but we had a wonderful weekend just the same. Here's Lily with Daddy in the backyard, lake in the background. The weather was wonderfully cool and even a bit cold at night, just the way I like it for sleeping.

Toking on a Stogie

Actually it's a stick. But she has to taste everything, so it went in the mouth. It could have been worse, like an actual cigarrette butt.

At the Park Exploring the Ground

Such a cute pose. This was after being on the swing for a while. I let Lily explore the grass around the playground.

It Fits!

I just had to share, I'm so excited. I'm still on the Candida diet and I've been losing some weight. I just tried on my one-piece Speedo swimsuit size 14 that I've had for years but haven't worn in forever, and it fits! It actually looks good! I feel good in it, like I won't want to hide. So I'm hoping I'll get to go swimming this weekend. It will have to be hot and unslimy. I don't like lake swimming much because of the slime when it "blooms" (algae and other gunk). I bet Mike and Sue are having fun swimming up in the Boundary Waters this week. That's got to be the best place I've ever gone swimming, the water is crystal clear. Well, that's all, I'm just excited not to look frumpy in my swimsuit. :)

Weekend Plans

Friday afternoon we'll be going to Jack and Mary's for the weekend while Cocoa stays at her doggie hotel (Downtown Dogs). We're kind of excited to show off Lily's new skills--she can almost walk by herself and has taken a few steps on her own already. Mike and Sue will be there part of the weekend, and we're really looking forward to seeing them. They're still living in Singapore but are here for most of this month.

Cheerful even coughing

Lily still has a cough, but she's pretty much done with the runny nose part of her cold. That was quite illuminating, having her all congested and then watching her sneeze. Um, it's like projectile snot. A few times just hugs gobs of snot came flying out of her nose. Which is good. I know, disgusting, but it cleared out the tubes.

We went to the clinic on Tuesday and they checked to make sure she wasn't developing an ear infection or pneumonia, and she passed with flying colors. Her appetite is fine and she hasn't had a fever all week. Just the pathetic-sounding cough is left. But no more barking. Wow, that was freaky. And scary. She has been taking more naps and that's great, I'm sure it's helping her heal faster. They told us her cough would probably be worse at night and it was the first couple days. Didn't get a lot of sleep because we were up holding her to get her back to sleep and calmed down, not in that order, after she'd wake up coughing.

She's not grumpy at all about being sick, which I think she gets from her Daddy. I would be grumpy. She's still our giggly girl. We kept her in her jammies all day since the weekend, until today, and she even got to go on a walk to the park and swing in her jammies yesterday. I took her again today but with pants. We have a nice walk routine now, where we walk down to the river and then over to the park. Then Lily gets to swing for as long as she wants (if you stop too soon, she kicks her feet to let you know she wants more) while Cocoa is tied to a nearby tree. Then we go over to the creek and Cocoa gets in and cools off while Lily watches. When Lily's well I'll dip her toes in the water and walk her around in the shallow part, but not this week. Cocoa is getting used to the routine and even lying down next to the tree while she waits now. Before she was just so hyper wanting to get to the creek, jumping and whining, but now she's more mellow, I think she remembers the routine. I always make sure she has a shady spot to lie down in and that helps. Then if she starts rolling around in the grass, Lily laughs and laughs.

Lily doing better

We didn't have to back to the hospital, hooray. Lily slept really well overnight, and was quiet, not coughing, so that was great. Today she seemed to have more of a cold, like it's developed into that from the croup virus. She's stuffy and wheezy but still cheery and giggly, just needs longer naps. She's eating fine, too, so that's good.

What a crazy weekend. Tomorrow we have to get an appt at the Children's clinic so they can check Lily and make sure she's not developing an ear infection from this.

I need to go to bed now. Lily is sleeping peacefully and pretty quietly, and we have a humidifier running next to her crib so that should help. My poor little sweetie pie. I just want to hug her all day. But she wants to get back to playing! Silly baby.

The Croup

Friday night Lily was pretty tired after a long day of fun with Daddy--she got a walk to the park and swings in the morning, and then swimming (well, splashing in a shallow pool at Minnehaha Park) in the afternoon. Here I am that evening with my new haircut holding her. She looks pretty wiped out. She had a little bit of a cough about 7, we noticed, and then an hour later she coughed again a couple times and it sounded worse, kind of wheezy. We fed her with a bottle at 9 and put her down for the night, but at about 11 she woke us up coughing like a barking seal. That's the telltale sign of croup, I now know, and it's quite alarming to hear coming out of your child's body. It's very loud and sounds like it hurts awfully. John took her into the bathroom and turned on the hot shower to steam up the room to help her stop coughing while I called the 24-hr. nurse line at Children's Clinic and the nurse said we did the exact right thing, and to keep her in the bathroom with the shower running for another ten minutes, and then bring her in to the ER at Children's. Hospital. Well, that was kind of alarming. But we got her calmed down, which is good because everytime she coughed, it inflamed the tissue and made it harder to breathe. Poor baby. It just came on so suddenly!

The Children's Hospital was fantastic. They had me in a room with Lily before John even finished parking the car. She had to get epinephrine, or a "neb" as they called it, and that helped immediately, but not enough, so they had to do it a second time about 2 hours later. She didn't like the mask so that was kind of a challenge, because they didn't want to agitate her and make the cough worse. They were all very wonderful nurses and doctors and we felt really taken care of. The hours kind of flew by and suddenly it was 3 in the morning and they decided to admit her overnight to keep an eye on her in case she needed any more nebs. There was one rocker and one pull-out bed in the room, so John and I took shifts on the bed to get some rest while keeping an eye on her. Luckily she slept very well and they didn't have to give her any more of the nebs. The also gave her a steriod shot with the first neb, and that is going to work longer term, over the next several days, to keep the inflamation down.

She slept very well, most of the time with her hinder in the air, which is extremely cute. Then in the morning when she woke up, she took some formula and a new thing: Pedialyte, which I guess is like Gatorade for babies. Keeping her hydrated is our main goal for the next few days while she gets better, and she's doing fine with that so far. She's such a little trooper, she was happy and laughing again this morning when she felt better. John went home for a while in the early morning to take care of Cocoa while I stayed with Lily, and I just climbed right up on the crib/bed and held her while she fell asleep again. I turned on the TV to get to her sleep, and that worked pretty well as enough of a distraction to get to sleep. We watched Spongebob. I've never done that before, turned on the TV for her to watch it, but I figured this was a good time to do it.

When we brought her home John and I had both had about 2 hours of sleep overnight, so I crashed first, slept for 6 hours, and then he crashed after doing a whirlwind cleanup of the house, catching up on laundry and dishes. He's asleep now and I'm getting ready to go back to sleep but wanted to sit in Lily's room for a while (where I'm writing this) and listen to her breathing. So far in the three hours she's been asleep she only woke up once coughing and it wasn't too bad. I put the baby plug in (the pacifier) and she went back to sleep.

okay, my eyes are closing of their own accord now, so I'll take the hint and go to bed. I don't think we'll have to go back to the hospital tonight. Cross your fingers.

Miss CutePea

Here's Lily in her purple sunsuit aunt Wendy sent. I think she is getting a tan! We slather sunblock on her whenever we go out, but she gets a lot of walks between me and John. The park is so close and she loves the swings.

Today I was on my own again all day with Lily because my helper was out sick, and I think for the first time I really felt comfortable, like yes, Mommy knows what she's doing. Not just that I would survive the day, but that I would be on top of it and enjoy the time with her. Now when I pick up Lily to carry her, there's a spot on my right hip where she fits just perfectly and I can carry her with one arm, and it's like I've been waiting for that feeling, that level of Mommyness where baby sort of fits back into me while still being her own unique self. And now I have it, and it is good.

Hop on Pop

Giggle giggle giggle Daddy so funny!

in the pond

Here's Lily in the pond area in Habitot, looking into the mirror on the floor. Next to her is a soft nest with "eggs" and a frog puppet. On the lower edge on the left you can see the tip of a rain stick that's mounted to a wall and can be turned upside down to hear the rain.

Children's Museum fun

Here's Lily with John in the Habitot room at the Minnesota Children's Museum. This was her first time at the museum, and she had lots of fun. I've taken her back twice since, but with just me and her, it's too hard to take pictures and keep up with her. When it gets crowded I have to run interference and protect baby from the bigger kids. Today I was there and had to pluck a girl out of mid-stride and put her down somewhere else because she was about to run over Lily.

New Skill!!

Yesterday Lily starting clapping! It's the cutest thing, how proud of herself she is when she does it. For months we've been doing pat-a-cake and other clapping games and she never clapped and didn't like it when you tried to take her hands and show her how to clap. So I guess she just wanted to figure it out on her own and do it when she was good and ready. It's so exciting to see when she can do something new and how happy she gets when we tell her she's wonderful and smart and "that's so good!!"

More at the Children's Museum

Here's Lily in the pond, and then in another exhibit that has a tunnel with little storybook scenes in cubbyholes lit up inside. She is having a ball.

Lily at the Children's Museum

Here is the cutepea at the Children's Museum, our first visit. We bought a membership and I've already taken her back there once. They have a really fun room just for toddlers and babies to crawl around. Here Lily is on a ramp. There's a mirror behind her and the flash is me taking the picture. They have the room divided up into different types of terrain: prairie, pond, caves, stuff like that. Very fun. I hope to bring her there again this coming week.

Lily on the swing

Lily loves going on the swing at the park near our house. We try to go for a walk most days with her and Cocoa, and I've even managed it with both of them on my own a couple times. I just figure, this will be the most challenging thing I do all day. And it is, with the dog weaving back and forth and pulling, and me trying to steer the stroller with one hand. But it's worth it.

But Enough about Me

What about Lily? She is doing wonderfully. She's growing big, almost 19 lbs. now and very happy and healthy. She's finally getting some teeth!! Right in front, she's sprouting two lower and two upper teeth. It's so cute, when she gnaws on things now, you hear this little click-click from her tooth.

We're starting to have a more normal schedule, trying to get her in bed by 9ish, although our goal is really 8pm. It's hard to have any time with John if we are up until 11pm with baby every night. She is sleeping through the night now, pretty much. Sometimes she wakes up crying and we think it's the teeth, and Oragel works pretty well helping with that.

We have gone out on a few dates since last time I wrote. Finally got to see the Indy 4 movie, and yes, Harrison Ford was kind of geezer, but it was funny, they made fun of it. It was better and more entertaining than I thought it would be. Last night we went out and saw the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, and I loved it. I want to see it again. Hans Zimmer did the music and his scores always send chills down my spine. Too bad Heath Ledger is gone, he was so talented in this movie. Usually sequels suck, but this one was almost better than the previous one. This is one I'd actually like to have on DVD when it comes out. There aren't that many movies I like to watch over and over, but there was so much packed into this one, I would watch it again several times.

My mother's helper is working out pretty well, I just look forward to times when I don't have to lie down with a headache when she comes. I'd much rather spend that time on me, making more art, especially for my Etsy shop, and I haven't been able to do that most of the time.

I think that's all for now, I do have a headache and need to go lie down. Will try to keep up better on this blog, even with only a few lines a day if possible. So much is going on with Lily right now and I want to share it!

Me on Diet. Splenda Evil.

I haven't written in this blog (or any of my others) for quite a while, and I'm missing it so I'm going to try to just jump back in. What's been going on with me? Well, I've been trying to deal with my health issues. I can't be a good Mommy if I'm sick all the time, and I was getting sick all the time. I got a new doctor who is Western but is open to alternative medicine, and she believes I have Candida problems, so she put me on the Candida diet. What is Candida? It's a natural bacteria everyone has in their bodies, but you can get an overgrowth of it and it can wreak havoc. Most Western docs don't believe in it because it explains too many things, but it sure fit the bill when the doc went down the list of symptoms:

fatigue, headache, mood swings, sinus congestion, depression, poor memory and concentration, and cravings for sweets (not to mention yeast infections and and UTI's).

The diet is basically low carb, avoid wheat, gluten, sweets. So, no pasta, no bread. I've been doing this almost a month now and I can't believe I've lived without bread for that long. Breads are basically my favorite foods. And of course being a vegetarian made this challenge just that much harder. I eat a lot of peanut butter, and almond butter. Oh, and cereal, how could I live without cereal?? I finally found some brown rice cereal that I can have a bit of, although it's not real low in carbs. At least it has no wheat. I also went to Whole Foods and found a case of wheat-free, gluten-free goodies and got some cheddar biscuits, cornbread, and peanut butter cookies. And no, they don't taste like shoe leather! They're actually really good. Just very spendy. $7 for 8 cookies. So I see the doctor next week to find out how my body chemistry has changed in this month.

I haven't been sick, except for the nausea and stomach cramps that I got when I tried to use an artificial sweetener: Splenda. Evil! I've always been suspicious of those artificial sweeteners, especially aspartame, which gives me a headache, but I thought Splenda would be okay to try since it's "made from sugar." Er, yeah. It wasn't okay. Not for me, anyway. I made these delicious muffins with almond flour, and used Splenda instead of regular sugar, and got bad cramps and nausea and fatigue right after I would eat a muffin. So I started researching Splenda (probably should have done this before I bought it), and what it is is very freaky:

Sucralose is a molecule of sugar chemically manipulated to surrender three hydroxyl groups (hydrogen + oxygen) and replace them with three chlorine atoms. Natural sugar is a hydrocarbon built around 12 carbon atoms. When turned into Splenda it becomes a chlorocarbon, in the family of Chlorodane, Lindane and DDT.

And I read many horror stories of people who had all kinds of side effects from it. So I stopped using it right away. Ugh! I'm not a dieter so this has been very weird for me. John has been very supportive, finding meals to cook that are low-carb and making sure I get enough protein. I'm glad the month is almost over, but I think I will probably keep eating a lot of these healthier foods. Like not so much pasta, and I found some great brown rice tortillas that are great with either cream cheese or almond butter on them (corn tortillas not so much).

What, Did I Jinx Myself?

We were even gonna go on a date tonight and see the geezer Indy movie in the theatre. Instead I woke up this morning with a raging UTI. If you don't know what UTI means, I hate your life. And I had to get up because this morning was John's Diabetes TourdeCure ride, so I had to watch baby. She slept a lot which was great because I was exhausted and weak from this sudden infection. Well, I say sudden, but the doctor says it's probably been building a while. But I felt terrible when I absolutely positively had to put Lily in the crib to go pee and then it took forever cuz it hurt so much and she was crying and wanting out of the crib jail.

Then of course I get to take myself into urgent care because the other option is bring everyone and that's just more stressful. No coddling sick Mommy. So I took myself. Then I was an eejit trying to get out of the parking ramp. I'm sure the person behind me thought they'd never get out because I couldn't follow instructions. Doy.

So of course I have to take Cipro, the big monster killer antibiotic. Luckily the doctor was a woman and when I told I needed Percoset for pain for the last yeast infection I had, and I could write her a guarantee I'd get a yeast infection from these antibiotics, she prescribed anti-yeast meds at the same time. Bless her. Instead of "Well, let's deal with that if it happens."

John was gone when I got home from the drugstore, I think he's out walking the babies, both Lily and the fuzzy one. So I fixed myself some food in my stupor--a bowl of cereal--so that I can take all these pills.

I've heard that you're sick the first year of your baby's life, but come on! I mean, I expected colds, not this stuff. This is major. I'm weak. I need to go lie down. I'm a little scared, too, because the Topomax I'm taking as a preventive for migraines (which it doesn't seem to be doing much of) can cause kidney stones...that's all I need. Pain worse than birth.

It's such a nice summer day outside, and I'm sick. Poo. I just want to roll up in a ball and sleep. I'm glad Johnny got the babies out.

Time for Delight

Even with a raging headache this week, I was able to laugh (once i took my meds and lied down for a few hours) at Lily, who decided to do her raspberry noises for like an hour straight when we were trying to watch TV and eat dinner. It was not to be. And she's so thrilled with herself about it, being able to make this noise! It's like Horton hears a who, she's a little Who and she can suddenly make a big noise.

And I love how she finds new things funny. I got a mouse pad for my computer with her picture on it and the first time she saw it she just laughed, she thought it was so funny. She had to pick it up and turn it over and and around and wonder at the silliness of it.

Today I had a 7up with a straw in it and she giggled at the straw and flicked it so it got 7up all over my face. Goof.

With Nora, our Mother's Helper, I've had time time to work on a couple things for Lily, like putting pictures in a toy of me and John and Cocoa, and then a bunch of family pictures all over this box she likes to push around in the front porch.

I even vacuumed the rugs where she plays the other day. I think we are going to get some of those FLOR rugs and construct our own weird shape to make a path of through the house of where baby crawls most. Should be fun, actually.

Mother's Helper

Thursday was also my first day with my Mother's Helper, Nora, Sharon's daughter. I love her already, she's calm and patient and very sweet with Lily. And didn't take it personally when Lily wasn't ready for me to leave the room yet. I didn't get a whole lot done yet, but it felt great to be started getting help.

Lily's First Ear Infection

Aw, po baby. She had a fever Thursday and it got up to 102.2 and she'd been snorky all day so we went in to the doctor and they said, yup, ear infection. Funny, I wouldn't have guessed it. I thought she would have been pulling her ears but the doc said all the snot is a better predictor than pulling the ears, that studies have shown ear-pulling can mean anything. Future comedian? (Carol Burnett). Anyhow, she's been a little trooper. We have to put saline drops in her nose and then suck out the boogers so she can breathe, esp. before we feed her, and especially in the morning. This morning John just held her in the bathroom while I took a shower and got the bathroom all steamy and humid. And she gets some liquid antibiotics. Pink flavor. Smells like Pepto Bismol to me, Bubble Gum to John. I don't think his smeller works very well.

So I don't think we're going anywhere out this weekend, just staying home and snuggling da baby.

Mama Goes to Bed Now

Blog guilt is a terrible thing. But I can't tell you everything now! I have to go rest up for tomorrow's daily baby marathon. Actually tomorrow I have a mother's helper coming for 3 hours and I amd soooooo looking forward to it. I'll be able to start clearing away the rubble in the house, it looks like a collapsed mine shaft right now.

And projects.

• Like Mom's belated Mother's Day present that I'm making.
• My Chinese New year pages for which I need to carve a dog stamp and maybe a monkey stamp
• Childproof the house
• laundry
• charms for the BBA group due at the end of June??
• make more art pieces for my Etsy store, which are actually selling!
• finish the nap pillow for Lily that I started when I was pregnant
• finish the quilt I started before I was pregnant
• finish the other easy quilt I was too slow to finish at the sewing conference so I know how to do a ragged edge quilt
• clean out my desk
• organize and label every bin and box in my supply closet in my craft room
• make more dolls
• keep my blogs updated
• make simple toys for Lily that the ECFE teacher suggested
• and so on...

The Best of Times

The best times were feeding times. Here's my Mom feeding Lily. And everyone else sitting around the table being entertained by the spectacle, because she is so fun to watch eat. She's so happy. That's when she was happiest. It was just the rest of the time that I, Mom, was not allowed to be 2 seconds out of her sight or the wailing would begin. I got three showers that week, I think. Not much sleep. Not much outing, besides a trip to Archie McPhee, and one walk to the ocean with Lily, Wendy, Kathy, and crazy dog Zoey. We did make it all the way to the ocean, though, and that was my goal, for Lily to see the ocean. And me, I wanted to see it, I miss it.

Northworst Airlines

Stinks. Stinks. Stinks. Especially towards Moms with kids. Don't expect to be treated like anything better than filth. Even in first class.

Vacation

WASN'T.

Mobile Baby

I apologize to the five people who read this, I haven't been keeping up. Lily has suddenly become mobile, zippity-zooming acrossing the room, and we haven't had time to baby-proof anything yet. And she's standing. Not in the middle of the room, but against furniture, and so we kind of need to be right there in case she fall down go boom. It's all pretty amazing, she's surpassing her developmental goals, so it's good. On the other hand, it's a lot of work! I think I'll be looking into getting a mother's helper when I get back from vacation to Seattle. I just can't keep up. It seems like I'm always sick. I leave for Seattle in 5 days and I had to go the urgent care tonight because I was in horrible pain and found out I have not only a yeast infection but some other vaginal infection, bacterial vaginosis. Luckily I get to take oral pills, no more suppository mess-fests. But it's just overwhelming. I need rest. I hope I can get some on vacation.

Cel Phone Destroyed by Baby Yogurt

Well, the yogurt didn't have a lid on it, and I tucked it my purse, uncovered. Dumb idea. Of course my phone found its way into the yogurt. And it died a creamy banana death. John tried to revive it but no luck. Bye bye phone. Oh, so, we had to buy a new one. Correction, new phoneS, plural. I don't know why. But I think John had fun picking them out.

Lily in Church Waitin' for Holies

It was a long mass, there were lotsa babies before us, like 25. She was real good. And super cute and slippery in her dress. Which she didn't even barf on once!

Holy Babies, Batman!

At the Basilica of St. Mary on April 6th: The troupe of holies makes our way up to the altar to christen Miss Lily. Dad is holding Lily, Godmother Sue is next to him, Godfather Steve behind them, Grandparents Jack and Mary bring up the rear. Mommy is holding the camera.

Hallucinating?

I'm taking Ambien CR for sleep, and guess what? I'm not sleeping! I just feed the baby and here I am, writing. Feeling pukey. I haven't written here in a while because it's all just been a bit overwhelming.

I'm on my third winter cold/stomach thing. Winter? you say? Isn't it April? Uh, yes, that is also my query. It was snowing today and in the 30's. Two days ago we had 30mph winds and ice pellets, the day John had changed his bike tires for spring weather. He drove that day. I hibernated, crabbily.

The weather is really affecting my mood and whether and I'm getting out of the house, which is in part affected by how sick I am. I'm also on new preventive meds for my headaches, and just this week reached the goal dose so will now flatten out on that and get used to it, after a month of ramping up.

We used the last bag of frozen breast milk on Lily's 10-month birthday a couple days ago, which means my frozen stuff lasted a whole month after I quite pumping. Impressive. Say it's impressive, dammit! So I feel sad. The end of an era. An epic I never knew I'd be so big a part of for so long. Of course now I feel useless. I'm just a name, Mom, but what do I really provide? I know, shut up. Hey, I told you I need to get out more, if it would just stop frickin' snowing. Every time it warms up we race outside for a family walk and bask in the light.

So, no, I'm not sleeping well. And this stupid Ambien only seems to make me hallucinate. Not a side effect I'm fond of. Think I'll go back to the Klonipin. Meanwhile, I'm down to pumping about once every couple of days, and yesterday I stopped wearing a bra 24/7 for the first time in 10 months. No bra, no leaky pads, I felt naked. Wow, it's nice. They still get a bit sore, and that's when I know I need to pump to get some relief, but mostly I'm done with it. Phew! And I thought it would never END!!!

It's only 2 weeks until I go visit my family and I'm on my own with Lily. I hope we'll be okay with Wendy's help the first few days. I know it will be a respite but also really hard for John to be away from Lily for that long. I hope Lily can stand it, she is always so wiggly and thrilled to see him every day when he comes home from work. I hope we can enjoy that First Class seat from Uncle Mikey, what a prince!

Mommy and 2 works of art

I know, lame caption, but I couldn't think of anything else. This is me at a community art event next to a piece I made, a shrine to Amelia Earhart. I carved two rubber stamps of her image for it, one of her as a child, which you can see on the open right door, and a famous image of her in her flightsuit in the middle. The art show was the 22nd of March but I still don't know if it sold because they were so bloody disorganized. Lily and Sue came with me to the event and Lily was great. I had to carry her around and it was totally mobbed and hot and there was nowhere to sit so we didn't stay long. I hate how my hair looks. I can't get it to behave. I'm not using this perm person again, she f-ed it up last time, too. I just can't get it to do anything. As soon as it dries I look like I haven't combed it for a week. I can call it Avant Garde but really it just looks like crap.