Oct

30

By CinnamonOpus

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Categories: Daily Photo, Holidays, That Baby

Protected: Saturday Smile: Winnie the Pooh Goes to School

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Oct

29

By CinnamonOpus

6 Comments

Categories: Fun Stuff

Confession Friday

In the words of the immortal philosopher Aristotle… thank doG it’s Friday.

Okay, Aristotle didn’t say that. It might have been Emmanuel Kant. Or maybe even Nietsche. Anyway, the point stands: It’s been a tiring week, and I, for one, and glad to see the weekend.

And with Friday comes our weekly baring of the soul, our confession to the masses. So, without further ado, I confess…

  • …that I am not one of those moms who can decorate the hell out of her house for every frigging holiday that comes along. I used to feel bad about it, and lack of money and creativity really are not the only culprits. I’m just not That Mom. I mean, I have visions of myself making our house look festive and pretty, but realistically? Not gonna happen. Although I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish I could magically transform into someone who could do that. And safe to say, for Halloween, we’ll be lucky to get a jack-o-lantern out and lit.
  • …that I ate way, WAY too much pizza last night. Thursdays are work days, and because of all the rushing and the driving and the lack of Stinkerbelle’s nap and so forth, I often feel too lazy and tired to cook, so we do takeout. And last night? I craved pizza.
  • …that I am so very excited about getting my hair cut and coloured tomorrow, I can’t even tell you. New look! Pretty colour! And most of all… “Me” time!
  • …that I am suffering from some very low self esteem these days.
  • …that the cold weather we’re having right now makes me me want to curl up on the couch under a blanket and knit all the livelong day.
  • …that when I visit some people’s houses and see how they live, it makes me feel like maybe our house isn’t such a mess after all, and that we’re blessedly average and normal. And it’s the impeccably neat and clean houses that are not the norm.
  • …that I kind of want to buy a trampoline next summer. And although it would hilarious to see That Baby bouncing around on it, I really wish I could use it too. But I would be too embarrassed.
  • …that I am coming to one of those paradoxes of health: I need to lose weight, which means I need to exercise more. But I can’t exercise more because my joints are in bad shape, so in order to do make exercise possible I have to — wait for it — lose weight. ::head desk::
  • …that watching too many British TV shows and movies makes me dream about moving to the UK. Although I fear if we did that, our life would be less “Notting Hill” or “Love Actually” and more “Coronation Street” or “The Vicar of Dibley”.
  • …that, somewhere underneath the fog of tiredness, I am kind of excited about doing Christmas baking. I don’t bake for us anymore, because we have to watch what we eat, and I really, really miss it. So Christmas gives me the excuse to bake, because we give it all away.

Oct

27

By CinnamonOpus

6 Comments

Categories: Welcome to the Mommyhood

Dismissed

Today’s drama is brought to you by Meryl Streep, a purple Dora chair, and Rougemont Apple Juice.

(Scene: A playroom somewhere in Suburbiaville)

That Baby: MOAR TEETEE!
Me: What do you want to watch?
That Baby: (surveys DVD collection thoughtfully) Mommy Me Me.
Me: Mamma Mia?
That Baby: Awight!! (she settles into her comfy purple chair)
Me: Okay. Mamma Mia it is. (puts DVD in) Here’s your juice. (hands her a sippy cup containing two ice cubes and some apple juice)

That Baby takes a long swig of apple juice, then sets the cup down on the floor beside her chair. She looks at me, fixes me in a VRY SRS BZNS look, and then points her finger up at my face.

That Baby: Buh bye.

~ FIN ~

Oct

26

By CinnamonOpus

2 Comments

Categories: Everyday Life Stuff

Random Tuesday: House and Home Edition

Tuesdays are good for randomness. After the crazy-go-nuts-ness of Monday, Tuesday is just a matter of wrapping your head around the fact that you are still putting one foot in front of the other on the way to Friday.

  • My kid seems to have gotten over the speech delay hump. And by that I mean, she stood on top of the hump, jumped up and down on it a few times, and is using the downward slope on the other side of the hump as a slide. Somewhere between July (our speech pathologist assessment) and now, That Baby found her voice. And although the way she is talking now is what we expected to hear a LOOOOONG time ago, we are simply happy to know that she is ready and able to talk, no matter when it started. And the sheer joy that it brings me to hear my child repeat words she hears, or tell me what she wants, or “read” a story — well, there’s no describing it. These early words and sentences and conversations are one of the things I looked forward to most about being a parent.
  • BDH and I are opposites in many ways. It works for us. I hate to drive, and he likes it, so he does all the driving. When we order chicken wings, he likes the wing bit whereas I like the knobby bit. He hates spoilers, whereas I love to know what is to come and will look spoilers up on the internet or read the last few pages of a book before I get even halfway through. He’s a linear thinker, whereas I am a spatial thinker. I So when it comes to housecleaning, for example, and he loads the dishwasher, it looks like a car wreck, whereas I load everything in a particular way so that it all fits just so. On the other side of the coin, his linear nature means he can make a list and clean the house in a logical and efficient fashion, whereas I futz and faff around between 16 different tasks and never seem to get anything done. But the best part? He’s a technical guy who can fix computers and technology of all kinds. Whereas I? Break the Interwebs on a regular basis.
  • Speaking of which, I read on the Interwebs today that we’re supposed to be hit with a weather bomb today. Excuse me, what? A “weather bomb”? WTF? I mean, sure, it’s raining, but when I hear the phrase “weather bomb” I am expecting the likes of Hurricane Katrina blowing into an erupting Krakatoa in the middle of a blizzard. WITH marauding dinosaurs. Not, you know, LOTS OF RAIN. But hey, I’m game for some crappy weather tonight. I’ve got nowhere to be except in front of Netflix with a bunch of knitting. But BDH has a soccer game so… sucks to be him. Ah well, better now than, say, January or February.
  • My husband has an ongoing feud with the local furry yokels. He spent a bunch of time, and drove a drill into his finger, building privacy screens and stairs on our stone patio out back. And, because we feed the birds and squirrels, several of our fuzzy-tailed friends come and sit on the wall or steps to eat a peanut, or the blue jays will queue up on top of the wall to wait for their turn at the feeder, and will leave doots there. Once, a squirrel even came up on the wall, PEED, and then left. I told BDH he should TOTALLY take it personally, as they were CLEARLY doing it just to spite him. So this morning, I suggested that maybe we should not feed them anymore, to which he said, “Well, you KNOW THAT is not going to happen.” So, by “feud”, I suppose I more accurately mean, “he shakes his fist at them and cusses in impotent rage from behind the glass door while they continue to do exactly as they please.”
  • Stinkerbelle is getting rather bossy in the car of late. It all started with our walks in the woods a few months back. She and I would venture into the woods, and leave the main gravel trail to venture off into the deeper woods and explore one of the many trails we find there. And wherever there was a choice, I would ask, “Which way would you like to go, this way or that way?” To which she would stop, look this way and that, point very definitely and say “THAT way.” Well, we don’t venture into the woods much these days because of the weather and our busy schedule. We DO, however, go many places in the car. And, as I drive along, or we come to a stop light, I will hear “THAT way! THAT way!” from the back seat. I have my very own backseat driver.

Oct

25

By CinnamonOpus

4 Comments

Categories: That Baby, Welcome to the Mommyhood

Resistance Is Futile

There are times when I can hardly recognize myself. I cannot believe how much of a total puddle-of-goo Mom I have become. I am shocked at how much I can blather on about my child. I am amazed that I can continually look at her and be caught breathless at how beautiful she is.

I used to mock Those Moms. Now I am one. Resistance is futile.

Stinkerbelle can get laughing, and has the most incredibly infectious belly laugh. It comes from way deep down inside, and when it gets going, people can’t resist laughing along. It is, according to most bystanders, A Great Laugh. And no matter how often I hear it, and see the joy in her face, and the twinkle in those big laughing eyes, I am still knocked out by it.

I catch myself marvelling at the sheer beauty of the kid. She and I will sit together in the morning, she on the bottom step and me on the floor in our foyer, as I put on her socks and shoes to go somewhere, and she will chatter on about what she wants to do or what we are going to do or whatever. And I will hear that sweet baby voice and look up into the prettiest little face, earnestly trying to tell me her story, and I find my nose getting that little prickly feeling as my eyes well up.

She almost never cries. She is so laid back, so easy going, so completely happy so often, that when she cries and those big tears form and her mouth forms that sad, soundless, heartbroken O — well, if ever I was heartbroken in my life by a man, the pain I feel at looking at my crying child is infinitely worse.

I realize anew, every day, how absolutely and completely we love this child.

And I could tell anyone, everyone about it. Easy peasy.

But then…

Just when I am blissing out all hearts-and-flowers-and-rainbow-unicorns-and-fairy-farts about The Wonder of That Baby, I look up and she’s marching in circles with a pumpkin bucket on her head and walks into the wall, or she’s spinning until she is so dizzy she does a Chaplin-esque drunken stagger past me and collapses in a heap, or I hear her holler “OH HAAAAALP!” from somewhere in the middle of a mess of something in the other room.

If it’s possible, I love THAT kid even more.

She cracks me up. She makes me smile.

Resistance is futile.

Oct

23

By CinnamonOpus

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Categories: Daily Photo, That Baby

Protected: Saturday Smile: I Have No Explanation for Squamish

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Oct

22

By CinnamonOpus

4 Comments

Categories: Fun Stuff

Confession Friday

It’s Friday. Welcome to the minutiae that is my life.

I confess…

  • …that I went to bed at 9 pm last night and slept until 6:30 this morning. And it STILL wasn’t enough. But I need to do it more often.
  • …that I am a little bit addicted to finding BBC shows online. Which, you may have guessed, precludes me from accomplishing the point above.
  • …that the fact that the Russell Williams trial has been absolutely EVERYWHERE in the media and covered in so much disturbing detail has had me a little upset this week.
  • …that stories like the above, among other things, is why BDH doesn’t want me reading the news anymore. I used to be a news junkie. I spent hours and hours reading papers on the weekends. But I just don’t have the stomach for it anymore.
  • …that I ate a Wendy’s salad for lunch and now I am feeling somewhat ill.
  • …that seeing my daughter’s face crumple and seeing the big tears and hearing her sob after she has gotten in trouble for something just breaks my heart and makes me cry. Maybe it’s because she’s always so sunny and happy and so rarely cries. And it hurts to know that I or her father have made her upset.
  • …that I am following a whackload of celebrities on Twitter. I follow them and then see who they follow. And then I follow someone from their list, and possibly dump the original follow. And on and on it goes. What I am looking for is that ultimate REALLY INTERESTING FOLLOW. So far, I’ve found a few good ones that way. And never who you expect.
  • …that I get sucked in by the naive enthusiasm of initial meetings with the various health professionals I have been referred to for Stinkerbelle — nutritionists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, community liaisons — which makes it even more disappointing when the initial appointment goes nowhere except an endless waiting list.
  • …that the book I am reading for Book Club reminds me why I stopped reading fiction. I’m tired of depressed and downtrodden characters. I don’t want to read 400 pages only to be really bummed out at the end. At least with non-fiction, if someone is a jerk and is the subject of the book, you probably know that going in.
  • …that I am already beginning to feel like I want to hibernate, and it’s only October.

Oct

20

By CinnamonOpus

3 Comments

Categories: Everyday Life Stuff

Random Tuesday: Wednesday Edition

What the hell happened to Tuesday? Where was I? Are there any other days of the week I’m missing?

Sheesh.

  • Tova has been talking a bit recently about dreams. Her chocolate one is a particularly good one. I am not so lucky. I had a dream the other night about the cast of Castle. They were all there in their sexay, witty glory (only it was like they were real cops and not actors). Except Nathan Fillion, which tells you ALREADY that this cannot be the best dream EVER. Anyway,  I was there too. And I was all “Hey baby, howzitgoing?” to, like, EACH AND EVERY ONE of them. And they were all COMPLETELY ignoring me and being all VRY SRS BZNS. And I woke up pissed because I had this opportunity for a sexy dream with some sexy people and had been roundly rejected by the ENTIRE cast. If Nathan Fillion had been there, I think I would have been SERIOUSLY depressed.
  • So, I have my kid in a billion classes each week. Well, THREE, to be fair. But they cost us a fair bit, and I chose them carefully for her with some plans of getting her out into structured situations with teachers, and with some activities to help with her issues with textures… that sort of thing. Anyway, this week was the first week where we had all three classes in a row, and I can say without hesitation that That Baby was unimpressed. Swim class was NO GOOD NO because the pool was too cold. The Gym was fine except she did not want to do anything except swing on the rings. And her Gym and Crafts class today was great for the first 30 minutes in the gym where she could run and play — although she refused to participate in the games and activities there. After we moved into the classroom she did not want to participate in the activities AT ALL and sat at a little table playing with a toy telephone for an hour. No amount of cajoling and stern talking and bargaining from Mom could convince her otherwise. Admittedly, it is a little frustrating. So much for my plans of structure and new experiences. Meh, she’s just being two and a half, I guess.
  • I am the world’s biggest project starter. I am, however, not so much a project FINISHER. I start something with great enthusiasm, only to have it die a lonely and neglected and unfinished death. So I have been trying, slowly, to push myself to finish some things in recent weeks. I have been to Michael’s and am painting That Baby’s name in big wooden letters with hippy dippy flowers on them for her wall (which I started in 2009). I am frogging a couple of sweaters (which have been sitting in a bag for years) to recycle the yarn. I am getting some charity knitting projects done. But BDH’s scarf? STILL NOT DONE. Good DOG I suck.
  • I’ve been trying to plan and cook meals better, given our busy schedule. I am looking at crock pot recipes a lot, because I would rather spend my time post-Stinkerbelle’s nap actually PLAYING with Stinkerbelle, as opposed to her playing and watching a movie while I cook. Sometimes, it has worked out fine. But some weeks, I am just not planning as well as I would like to. Part of the problem is trial and error — it takes a LONG time to build up a repertoire of good recipes that everybody likes. Sometimes we hit upon a really good one, but then there will be two more that suck balls. What I really need to do is to sit down and organize my recipes better, so I have everything I need at my fingertips. I’ll get right on that. With my myriad free time.

Oct

18

By CinnamonOpus

3 Comments

Categories: That Baby

Broadway Baby

So. I am in my kitchen, making tea.

My daughter is sitting in her purple Dora chair in the playroom behind me, watching “Annie” on DVD. (Yes. I let my child watch “Annie”, with its cast of all-singing, all-dancing orphans. Don’t you judge me. I’ll accept my “Bad Adoptive Parent of the Year” award later. Besides, it’s the Broadway version, with a black female lead and an interracial cast and it rocks. So there.)

So. As I said, I am making tea.

Behind me, the familiar strains of that old chestnut of musicals, “Tomorrow”, begin.

Suddenly, I hear:

**PLONK! PLONK!!**

“Woah woah!”

**PLONK PLONK! PLONK! PLONK!**

“Woooooooaaaaahhhh!”

My daughter is singing along, in her way, to “Tomorrow”. Very soulfully, I might add. And playing her tuneless little yellow hippy dippy guitar, as well.

I rush for the camera. Too late!

The scene changes and suddenly, she’s stomping about the room and waving her arms rather rhythmically along to a big dance number.

A budding musical theatre star! I’m so proud.

I can’t wait until she can begin to support her old parents in the manner to which we would like to become accustomed.

Oct

16

By CinnamonOpus

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Categories: Daily Photo, That Baby

Protected: Saturday Smile: Fall Sunshine

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Oct

15

By CinnamonOpus

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Categories: Fun Stuff

Confession Friday

It’s Friday, and not a moment too soon, let me tell you. I am ready for the weekend LIKE WHOA.

I confess…

  • …that I am so tired of being tired all the time. I have literally been tired for my entire life. You’d think I’d be used to it by now, and yet? I still go to bed hoping that maybe tomorrow will finally be the day where I wake up and feel rested and energetic.
  • …that I love Netflix so far. I’m excited for them to get it really up and running. MOAR BBC CONTENT PLZ KTHXBAI. And what I can’t find there, if I dig hard enough, I can watch on The Tubes of You.
  • …that one of the most frustrating things about parenting right now is the fact that I spend an hour in the morning doing my daughter’s hair, hoping the style will last for a few days or maybe a week. But then, she takes her peanut butter-covered hands and sticks them in her hair, or spends every moment absentmindedly pulling at her hair and pulling bits of it out of her braids or her puffs, and sticking the ends of her hair in her mouth. It makes me absolutely mental.
  • …that I really, really need to get my eyes checked and get a new prescription for glasses, because the headaches are killing me. But first I need to find a babysitter for Stinkerbelle. Any volunteers?
  • …that I dread the prospect of Stinkerbelle’s swimming lessons beginning next week. ME + BATHING SUIT = NONONONO.
  • …that we made the decision for me not to work and to be a stay-at-home mom knowing that we’d have to sacrifice a little bit to make that happen. But there are times when I miss having the money to do things without having to worry about the budget.
  • …that my husband bought me flowers at Thanksgiving, and there’s a lovely deep red gerbera daisy that is so pretty, I wish I could have gerbera daisies all winter long to bring some sunshine into the house. They’re just so cheerful.
  • …that I have been procrastinating on doing a lot of little things — mailing some parcels, getting some photos framed and put up, finishing some tasks for That Baby’s room, decluttering — and I just have to get off my ass and do. And yet? I never seem to. I have this inertia that’s been so hard to overcome of late.
  • …that I got winter boots for my kid!! While grocery shopping! 12 bucks a pair! Joe clothing FTMFW!!!
  • …that I have been doing a charity knitting project of late, and it was a knit-a-long which means I was trying to keep up with the group (and even so, I was hopelessly behind). Anyway, I was knitting as fast as I could — and now I have calluses on my index fingers from the yarn and needles. It’s weird. It feels weird. But at the same time, I’m all kinda proud and stuff, like this makes me a real knitter, yo. (But in actual fact, it just means my circular needles were just slightly too long for my project and so it was a fight to knit.)

Oct

13

By CinnamonOpus

2 Comments

Categories: Everyday Life Stuff

Head, Meet Desk

Okay, my peeps. Join me in banging my head on my desk in frustration. Put your forehead to your keyboard in a worldwide show of “OMGWTFBBQ”-level frustration at the sheer pointless everyday stupidity of the world and, more pointedly, the people therein. But just so you know, the stupidity is not limited to people. Oh no. I feel a forehead-smackingly peevishness at inanimate objects too.

I’m fair. I’m an equal-opportunity forehead-smacker.

So far this week, there has been many a moment of WTF to be witnessed. It’s been, like, The Perfect Storm of annoying around here. And it began on Thanksgiving.

On Sunday, we ate our delicious Thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey and loads of pie. On Monday, I said to myself, “Self? Let’s make turkey soup out of the carcass.” So that morning, I got the turkey bits and pieces and put them in a big pot, with water and onions and peppercorns and all kinds of herby goodness. I boiled the fuck out of that sucker for four hours. FOUR. HOURS. And then I strained the broth off into one pot in the sink, and spent another hour or so picking the meat off the bones. And burning my fingers.

And just as I was finishing up, and dumping the bones and skin and onions and whathaveyou into the garbage — just as I was pushing the last of the peppercorns into the garbage and getting ready to pack all the broth and meat up to make soup this week — a plastic cup, containing various and sundry pot scrubbers, which sits on the side of the sink, decides to do a half-gainer off the edge of the sink and into my pot of broth.

Pot scrubbers. SCUZZY, NASTY pot scrubbers. In my lovingly prepared pot of soon-to-be soup.

To say that I lost my shit would, indeed, be an understatement. But, thanks to MORE PIE and some tasty wine, I got over it.

And then came Tuesday. This is where the stupid people in our story really begin to take centre stage in the Festival of That-Guy-Needs-A-Smack-Up-The-Bracket.

The thing is? I can’t tell you about it.

Something happened, here on our street yesterday evening, that has both BDH and I periodically shaking our heads and saying, “But… whuh??” Something so colossally stupid, it defies any logical sort of explanation from any of the parties involved. I cannot tell you, for it is something for which police had to be called, if only to referee the stupid taking place. But since there may come a time when the stupid is actually quantified and examined and assessed in a court of law, no doubt by legal professionals who will also be shaking their heads in a collective show of “You’re KIDDING, right?”, I am not at liberty to share the blindingly moronic details with you.

But take something really stupid you have observed, multiply it by about 10, subtract any sort of good judgement or logic or common sense on the part of the participants, make it a public spectacle, and you’re probably pretty close.

I can say, it involves the Mayor. If you have been a reader for any period of time here, you will know that the Mayor is capable of vast quantities of annoyingly stupid behaviour. So there, my friends, is a yardstick by which to measure last evening’s little melodrama.

So that was yesterday.

The festival of Stupid continues today, however. As I was working in the attic, there was a ring-a-ling on my doorbell, and a BANGBANGBANG on the door. Now, given the Dance of Dumb that occurred out on the street last night, there was NO WAY I was going to go answer my door. Who KNOWS what kind of stupid awaited me?

But after five minutes or so, I headed downstairs to dump the dregs of my tea. I checked out the window and saw a note in our mailbox and fluttering in the breeze, and a Purolator truck in front of my house. There had been a delivery! I opened the door as it pulled away, and began to turn around in the drive across the street. I walked out on my porch to flag him down as he went by. At which point, he turned, looked at me and my open door and the delivery slip that he had JUST written that was in my hand… and smiled and DROVE AWAY.

So now, I have to go clear across town to pick up the package. Which I suppose is my fault really, but honestly — would it have killed him to stop and just drop the damn thing off? He’s probably got paperwork and timetables and procedures that say he can’t. I’m okay with that, I guess… it’s the assoholic smile he gave me as he drove off. It’s the NANNY NANNY BOO BOO look he gave me, the HAHA SUCKS TO BE YOU look, that kind of pisses me off.

At least he didn’t wave.

Needless to say, tomorrow looms. But the good thing is, for part of the day at least, I will, in fact be sitting at a desk — so if any head smacking is required, I will be totally ready.

Oct

9

By CinnamonOpus

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Categories: Daily Photo, Holidays

Protected: Saturday Smile: Thanksgiving

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Oct

8

By CinnamonOpus

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Categories: Fun Stuff

Confession Friday

It’s Friday and thanks to Tova‘s meme, it is Confession Friday!

I confess…

  • …that it’s 20 degrees and sunny outside, and, rather than doing cleaning and cooking and what I SHOULD be doing during That Baby’s naptime, I am sitting outside with my laptop, enjoying the glorious fall weather. (Okay, I did hang some laundry on the line. But other than that… enjoyenjoyenjoy.)
  • …that I am looking forward to EATING ALL THE THINGS this weekend. Especially pie. LOTS AND LOTS OF PIE.
  • …that I had fun at my first Book Club meeting. The women in my group seem very nice. I was very intimidated by the prospect of going out socially, since it has been SO long, but I did it and I am glad.
  • …that our tree, on the boulevard of our street, has lost almost all its leaves already, when the rest of the neighbours’ trees on the boulevard all still have plenty of leaves and colour. I’m getting a bit of an inferiority complex about it, like all the neighbours (and their trees) are going to point and laugh at us. And I feel bad for our sickly little tree. He’s a good little tree. He tries hard.
  • …that, in light of the previous statement, it may be true that I anthropomorphize things a little too much.
  • …that I think I have left seeing the doctor about this nagging achilles tendon issue a little too long — like, 5 years too long — and it may be turning into something a little more serious than just tendonitis. Oops. (But to be fair, my doctor is a collosal tit, and so she’d probably hear my description of my foot injury and send me for a brain scan or prescribe Viagra. So.)
  • …that I am entirely too fascinated with the Parade Of Girlfriends that our young doctor neighbour brings home. It’s like a pageant, watching and analyzing and trying to guess who the winner will be, and eventually crowned Mrs. Young Doctor. (But I have to say, I was glad to learn Miss Walmart is out of the running. She was just unfriendly, and making herself entirely TOO at home.)
  • …that some people dream about flying, but I have always dreamed about jumping. Jumping so high, it takes forever to come down. Those were the best dreams in the world.
  • …that I am sad that my playing volleyball days are behind me. The other night I had a dream about jumping, the first one in a very long time. And it made me wish I were younger, and thinner, and less injured, so I could play again.
  • …that I will not be cleaning out my gardens before winter, even if the neighbourhood may look askance at my messy, dead foliage and ugly seed heads. Because I have seen the little yellow finches and the chickadees feeding here recently, and it gladdens my heart to provide some food for them over the winter. So PPPTTTHHHHBBBBBTTTTT.

Oct

5

By CinnamonOpus

2 Comments

Categories: That Baby, Welcome to the Mommyhood

Random Tuesday: TMI Edition

Tuesday again? Holy hell, where did the week go?

  • We spent the weekend sick. Again. Just a cold, but That Baby and I spent the weekend just wiped out, me with it settling in my chest, feeling like my lungs were in a vice, and That Baby coughing all night. I used to give BDH the gears about being sicker than any ten people I know. But this year, it seems to be me that is sick all the time. I guess that’s what happens now that Stinkerbelle and I are getting out into the world, going to classes and such. You can try as you might, but you can’t avoid it. Basically, all kids are just small walking petri dishes, and the world is their incubator. And it seems there are two schools of parenting around this: parents who keep their sick kids at home to recuperate and not spread it around to other kids, and parents who are happy to get their sick, cranky kids out of the house and out of their hair for a few hours of respite.
  • Our family is now in possession of two potties. One potty for the powder room downstairs, and one for the upstairs bathroom. They arrived a few weeks ago, but after the initial fanfare, what with That Baby being sick and tired and not exactly open to change under those conditions, we have just sort of left them there. We’d make mention of it — “Oh, LOOK! There’s your POTTY!” — but otherwise we kind of left it alone. Then we progressed a little bit, and Stinkerbelle would sit down, fully clothed, on the potty like it was a chair. But this week, we have started just trying to sit Stinkerbelle on the potty sans pants and diaper for a few minutes a day, and if by some crazy random happenstance some pee or some poop actually occurs, we will celebrate it like it’s a lottery win. But we are not expecting much. She’s still feeling a little poorly, but generally speaking, I don’t think she’s quite ready for much potty action yet. We’re in no rush. Nobody goes off to university in diapers. (I hope.)
  • Another hitch in our potty training giddyup is that Stinkerbelle is going through a phase about clothes. Specifically, she’s all about “OMGWTFBBQ NO DON’T TAKE ANY OF MY CLOTHES OFF NO NO NO OR I WILL DIE.” It’s a little nuts-making. Some days, you can’t even take her coat or her hoodie off without Barrels O’ Teh Drama. It could be fifty billion degrees in whatever room we’ve just walked into, but DON’T TAKE THAT SWEATER OFF OMFG NOOOOOOO! Which is a nice change from the phase this summer, Babies Gone Wild, where she was lifting her dress or her sHirt up randomly at whoever was present. But the socks? They are still EVIL SENT STRAIGHT FROM THE DEVIL. So they MUST come off. The rules for this phase, they are COMPLICATED. I’m going to need a program.
  • Stinkerbelle had a 2 1/2 year checkup at her doctor. We continue to weigh her regularly to make sure her eating issues are not causing any problems with her growth, and being as she’s still on the 50th percentile, they’re totally not. But she does have ear infections. One thing I didn’t know was that, according to the doctor, he can always tell it’s the end of September because that’s when he starts seeing the year’s ear infections. Apparently they come on schedule, every 3rd or 4th week of September. But as usual, we would not have known without the doctor’s appointment, because That Baby certainly didn’t complain. Kid would not complain if her hair were on fire. So now, along with Tylenol for her cold — grape, non-staining — Stinkerbelle gets a dose of Strawberry Horror a.k.a. some sort of antibiotic. (Amoxicillin, maybe?) It’s a wonder after all this fruity medicine, the kid’s not farting Skittles.

Oct

2

By CinnamonOpus

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Categories: Daily Photo, That Baby

Protected: Saturday Smile: Open to Interpretation

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Oct

1

By CinnamonOpus

2 Comments

Categories: Fun Stuff

Confession Friday

I am stealing this idea from the ever-awesome Tova over at Who Let This Happen? and doing my own Confession Friday.

Like I haven’t been the poster child for “oversharing” already. Meh.

I confess…

  • I am unabashedly stealing Tova’s idea because a) it’s easy and 2) it’s fun.
  • I started a scarf last autumn for BDH for Christmas. That’s OCTOBER OF 2009, FOLKS. And I am STILL not done.
  • I have been following a diabetic eating plan for a month now and have lost 10 pounds. But I am starting to lose interest. That THUD! you hear will be me, falling off the wagon.
  • When I read blogs of adoptive parents who announce they are pregnant, a little part of my heart breaks. I admit that I am envious. Although I had always planned to adopt, and would not trade my daughter for anything else in this world, adoption doesn’t magically wash away the pain of infertility. It fades, but it is still there. And, because of infertility and the cost of adoption, I am sad because my daughter will not have a sibling.
  • I need new glasses. A new prescription, actually. And I think it will be for bifocals. ACK. I am getting old. (Only, I can see close up, just not far away. Can they do that with bifocals??)
  • I am a costume drama llama. I love costume dramas. Pride and Prejudice (the Colin Firth version, obviously). Cranford. And now? I am currently watching Lark Rise to Candleford on the Tubes of You.
  • I am dreading the start of Stinkerbelle’s swimming lessons in October. I don’t want to be seen in public in a swimsuit.
  • I have one pair of pants that I can wear out in public that are not sweats or yoga pants. My wardrobe has not been updated since 2005. Except for the sports clothes.
  • I have taught my daughter to sing “Ha-cha-cha-CHA!” along with Kid Creole and the Coconuts’ Stool Pigeon. We got it on video. My kid’s a hepcat.
  • I joined a book club that another mom I know started with a bunch of other SAHMs. I am nervous that they won’t like me. And will like me even less when they find out I read nonfiction. Especially biographies. HISTORICAL biographies. God… I’m a geek.