Wednesday, December 31, 2008

They got me


The cold germs that is. I've been hanging in there pretty well until today when I couldn't fight them off anymore. Now, I know why lying on the couch for three days was all Chase wanted to do when he had this bug. So, here are the promised pictures from Christmas uploaded for your viewing pleasure before the new year. Please note as you are looking at the bags under my eyes that that was jolly as I could get after spending the previous two nights in the hospital with Amaya. "Dead woman walking" is the phrase that springs to mind...














Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas recap coming in a day or so...


As you can see, my daughter doubts my proclamation of an upcoming blog post, but I promise to at least try. The girl does have some interesting facial expressions though, doesn't she?

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

What are you doing Chase?

Those cookies are for Santa! Just because you're wearing a santa hat, it doesn't mean that you get to eat the cookies!

Day Two: Christmas Eve


I think that Amaya is finely starting to kick this RSV goop's butt. Her stats stayed at 94 during a brief oxygen tent free nap this morning. We're still waiting to see the doctor to find out if we get to go home sometime today or if we'll be spending Christmas at the hospital. Cross your fingers for us--and if you have a direct line to the big guy in red, we'd appreciate it if you would see if he has any miracles up his sleeve to get us home for Christmas.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Hospital baby


Amaya is doing better today. While she is awake, her oxygen levels are around 96/97 which is good, but she still needs the tent when she's asleep because he levels drop to the low nineties. We'll be here at least through the rest of today and possibly tonight as well. She is such a happy baby though. Everyone always comments on how beautiful her eyes, smile and name are. I'm sure they say that to everyone, but that doesn't make it any less true, now does it? Little bug never fusses for the nurses or even puts up too many complaints about being trapped in this room all day. Of course the room that we are in is very nice--it's in a brand new wing of the hospital and has two tvs, a futon, two footstools, three chairs, a desk and a dvd/playstation 3 setup. They even brought me breakfast. If it weren't for all of the beeping and the wires attached to Amaya, I might think I was in a swank hotel or something. Now if only someone would show me to the pool...



Here's the little monkey kicking up a storm last night. Apparently the steroids and nebulizer treatments can make a baby hyper.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Shel Hanukkah

I am pretty sure that Chase is still fighting his cold germs. The evidence that supports this theory is as follows:

A) He has a major snot river flowing his nasal cavity
B) He still coughs and hacks throughout the day
C) He actually slept for the past four days worth of naps

Today he slept so long that we had to wake him up to light the menorah. He was pretty cranky, but he quickly perked up when daddy helped him put his new Thomas track together. Although the grumpiness did return for a brief visit when he noticed a picture of Diesel on the box, but no Diesel could be found inside the box. He wasn't completely consoled by the possibility or receiving that particular train on another night of Hanukkah, but it did distract him enough to cease the whining. Anyway, cross your fingers that Diesel is in fact one of the 8 trains Drew bought for him this year. In the meantime, please feel free to join me in my campaign of sternly written letters to the toy company for teasing children about the actual contents of the box.



Amaya is still under the weather. She has lost her voice so when she tries to cry, it just breaks your heart. She is very stuffy and wheezes when she breathes. She tried to be a trooper and be jolly for her Hanukkah present, but she quickly returned to sleep soon after we got the snail out of the box. I think Drew is going to take her to the doctor tomorrow if she is still not well since when I took Chase last week the doctor mentioned that there have been a few cases of pneumonia this year. Better safe than sorry and all that jazz.

Is it time for the Hanukkah donuts yet??

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Last minute holiday shoppers...this one is for you.

I want this:


And if for some insane reason you're all done with your holiday shopping, there is always Andy's birthday that is coming up in January. Yes of course he wants this CD too--why would you think I'd suggest you buy him a gift that he doesn't actually want or even know exists?? And if you do end up getting it for him, I'm sure he'd share it with me, and then everyone's happy, right? And really, since the man is so impossibly hard to buy for, isn't it easiest for everyone involved to just give him the gift of a happy wife? My reasoning skills astound you, do they not?

Friday, December 19, 2008

Sickies the Sequel

Now this one is stuffy and sick.



Hanukkah starts on Sunday night and Christmas is less than a week away-what do you suppose the chances of illness free holidays are? Wait. Don't answer that. I prefer to live in a constant state of denial.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

We're on the mend

Chase has been quite ill the last few days. I've never seen the kid so lethargic--even when he had those endless ear aches, the strep, the vomiting from food allergies, or the surgery recovery from the tubes. Seriously, all he did on Tuesday and Wednesday was lay on the couch with his blanket, take 3-4 hour long naps, and put himself to bed at 6pm. He didn't eat or play at all those two days. What possible disease could have caused such listlessness you may be wondering. The common cold apparently. I didn't believe the doctor, so I made her run a strep test anyway--but it was negative. So, I guess she was right. Blows my mind that a simple cold could knock him on his bahootie like that, but I guess it did.



Today, he's feeling better. I heard him banging around in his room this morning, so that was a good sign. I sent him to school, and haven't gotten a phone call yet, so I assume that he's doing well. Anyway,the picture above is of him playing at the discovery museum where Nate's birthday party was held last weekend. There were also cute pictures taken of Chase, Nate and Amaya, but I can't include them because someone whose name rhymes with Cavid hasn't sent me those pictures nor the ones from Thanksgiving. I'll be sending the lynching mob to his house any day now.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

O'Christmas Tree


Here's a picture of my tree for my Mama since she won't be coming here for Christmas this year. I did eventually find the box with the ornaments, but I never found my tree skirt--so I had to buy a new one at Target. I actually like it maybe a tiny bit better than my old one, so I guess it all worked out for the best.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

One potato, two potato...

Sweet Potato More!



First there was big brother Chase:





And now there's little sister Amaya:



It seems that both of my children are sweet potato lovers. It could be worse I suppose.

Monday, December 08, 2008

And the little one said: Roll over, roll over


So Amaya did. She rolled over once about a month ago, and then hadn't done it since. But within the last week, flipping over from her back to her belly is all she does. Then of course, she gets mad and starts screaming because she can't roll over onto her back again. Her screams are paired with so much drool production that it is to the point where it's sometimes hard to find a dry spot to lie her back down on when I come to flip her back over.
Her other physical gymnastics include doing crunches to try to sit up, working on her breast stroke in the bathtub and clapping her hands to "The Ants Go Marching".

She continues to grow at an unapproved rate. Her appointment on the 2nd found her weighing 15 lbs 2.8 oz and measuring 25.5" in height. That puts her in the 90th and 80th percentile respectively. If she keeps his up, she'll be bigger than her brother by July.


In other Amaya related news, she has become a very violent eater. While she's sucking down her grub, she digs her little claws into your hand and grips it with such force as to be sure that you have no intention of taking the bottle away from her greedy little mouth. Once the formula has been completely drained, she lets loose a wail of such rage at the loss of the food that you'd think she hadn't had anything to eat for days instead of just three hours. She can present a quite angry disposition when she wants to which concerns me for how her teenage years are going to go if this is what we are already dealing with at four months. Boarding school might become an option...

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Tree Trimming


Today was a very festive day for the little guy. First we went to see Santa, and then we decorated the Christmas tree. Well, we started decorating the tree, but we couldn't finish it because I can not find the box that has the rest of the ornaments and the tree skirt in it. I was pregnant at the time I packed the box last year, so who can know what I did with it. I'll continue the search for it tomorrow.





Here's Chase doing his happy Christmas tree dance after he was done hanging his ornaments. He danced all around the room for at least ten minutes singing some kind of song that I couldn't name or even decipher the lyrics of.


Chase said this was a sad Santa. He is kinda, isn't he?


In some not so sad news, Chase successfully used the potty the other night. All mama wants for Christmas is one less set of diapers hanging around the house.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Monday, December 01, 2008

I yearn for this...


Aren't these the cutest little composition notebooks you've ever seen? I {heart} them. And, since I'm an official coughauthorcough now, they would be most useful for me in case you're looking for gifts to buy me or something. Really any kind of pretty, funky stationery that www.seejanework.com sells is number one in my book. Target also has cute things. Ho, ho, ho!

Sunday, November 30, 2008

It ain't turkey

but I guess it will do.





Bring that spoon a little closer. Closer....closer....




Do you think Mama should have considered putting a bib on me or something??






Someone who can talk needs to remind my big brother to chew with his mouth closed.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

I rock, ya'll


Too bad the story's only half written. Maybe I'll write the next 50,000 words next November.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Before you say it

I know that I have fallen ridiculously behind with my blog posting. You'll have to forgive me--trying to write my self-assigned 50,000 words this month has pretty much zapped all of the free time that I usually reserve for adding cute pictures and uplifting stories to this site. (I'm at 41,752 for anyone who's wondering)

But the shame of my abandonment has gotten to me, so in order to appease the guilt monster until I can do a real post after Thanksgiving sometime, I am leaving you with this adorable picture of Chase and a short little story about it. Now this picture is an old one from Halloween day, but I thought the story was cute enough to share a month old picture. Enjoy.


There we were playing in the sandbox waiting for the darkness to come so that we could go trick or treating when Chase began making a round pile of sand on the box's ledge.

"It's cake cake," he said with a smile.

"Mmm, Mama loves cake, cake," I answered with a smile.

Chase began picking up pieces of wood chips and planting them upright into the sand blob cake.

"Candles," he said in answer to my questioning look.

"Oh, it's birthday cake. Even better," I said.

Then Chase began singing the happy birthday song--a skill that I am sure he picked up at school. He didn't know all of the words, but the melody was clear. I decided it was only right to help him out.

"Happy birthday dear Cha-ase. Happy birthday to you! Yea!" My singing was as usual slightly off key though he didn't appear to mind as he was too busy laughing and clapping.

Suddenly without warning, he plucked the wooden "candles" from the sand cake. Then, to my utter disgust, he grabbed the cake in a huge handful and dumped the entire mess into his mouth.

"Mmmm cake cake," he said as the sand oozed from his mouth.

"No more cake for you!" I answered as I scooped him up and pried the offending matter from his mouth.

"Bye cake, cake," his voice was filled with remorse at the loss of his sand confection.



And that will be all until after the holiday when I promise to have new stories and new pictures to share. Happy Thanksgiving you turkeys!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Where does he learn this stuff?

The scene:

A suburban family room. The midday light filters through the open blinds as a mother holds her baby girl Amaya in her lap while cooing at her. Beside her, her two year old son Chase-- plays with his trains. The mother continues making silly faces at Amaya.

Suddenly, a wet,spitting sound fills the air as from the girl's mouth a stream of partially digested formula shoots through the air.

Mother: Oh my!

Chase: Baby sploded!

Mother: Yes, yes she did.

Baby: hee hee

Sunday, November 16, 2008

I knew it all along

When noodle and I arrived home from Abrakadoodle on Friday morning, we found this waiting for us in the mudroom:



It would seem that a hose broke inside the (brand new) washing machine. So when I started a load of laundry before leaving for art like all good wifeys should, the water that was supposed to be in the drum washing clothes ended up all over the floor and in the walls instead. The drain in the laundry room that was supposed to catch any water should something like this happen was not properly caulked. Or to be more precise, it wasn't caulked at all. So all of the water just sat in the walls and on the floor, which meant that by the end of the day on Friday my mudroom ceiling looked like this:



And after the emergency flood people had finished with their defloodifying, I had a whole lot of these running nonstop day and night in my laundry room, mudroom and basement:



Which of course, did not contribute in any positive way to my mental stability. These events can only lead us to one, very obvious conclusion: laundry is bad for your health.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Cheering section requested

November is National Novel Writing Month or as those crazy enough to actually participate call it: NaNoWriMo. Basically, the object is to write a 50,000 word novel entirely in the month of November. Obviously, this novel won't be a good novel per se, but that's not really the point. The point is to free your mind to take a story wherever it wants to go-as long as it's 50,000 words of somewhere. It's essentially an exercise in silencing your inner voice that constantly reminds you that your writing isn't good enough, or interesting enough, or grammatically correct enough--much like this sentence. If you are interested in reading more about NaNoWriMo, you can find the official website here.

Silly me thought it might be fun to participate. So off I started on my own less than stellar novel on November 1st. And I was doing so well in the beginning getting well over my recommended daily 1666.66 word total. But then I got a migraine headache last Wednesday, and well migraines make it hard to look at a computer screen let alone type coherent sentences. Now, a week and two days later, I still have what my doctor calls a "lingering migraine" which apparently has no guaranteed cure although the good doctor did offer to give me a prescription for steroids if I decide that the pain of the headache is worth chancing the dreaded 'roid rage. (I think no)

So here I sit on November 14 with just under 10,000 words written--approximately 1/5 of the way to goal. I will get to 10,000 today or tomorrow, so in order to meet this ridiculous goal, I will need to average 2666.666 words per day which isn't beyond the realm of possibility given how wordy I can be. But, it will take sheer force of will and the threat of embarrassment before all should I not make it. Ok--in reality I'd be happy to reach 30,000 by the last day of November, but since I'm here at all, I might as well shoot for the moon and land in the stars or something like that.

What I need from you is encouragement, and if I don't make it to 50,000 you can promise to make me eat gilfite fish or something equally disgusting. Should I not even make it to 30,000, then you must promise to humiliate me pubically--well more than I already humiliate myself. Oh and if you have any good ideas for a plot or story arc, those would be appreciated, too. Heh. I can just picture you taking bets on the likelihood of my success now...



PS--This rather short post was 441 words


PPS--I can SO do this. Right??

Monday, November 10, 2008

Crazy is as Crazy does

You've heard the legends of the mysterious sock eating dryer I'm sure, but do you know the one about the Mama who drove herself insane trying to get her clean laundry folded? No? Well, then you've probably never stood in front of the dryer trying to fold the still warm laundry and place it neatly in the basket while an impish 2 year old stands next to you repeatedly shaking a bottle of fabric softener as he recites "mah soup"--which you're pretty sure translates to "my soap"--over and over. And that little terror was probably also not feverishly working to get the cap off of his "soup" while you silently pray that you can somehow get all of the clothes folded before that thick, blue gunk comes flying out all over that freshly laundered pile. And just as you were about to fold the last remnants, that little turkey probably didn't reach up and start pressing buttons on the washing machine sending your towels through the hand wash cycle before you could get his grubbly little paws off of the enticing machine. And I'm quite certain you've never broken out your mean teacher voice to tell the gremlin, "No, we don't touch the buttons until Mama says so," and then had to watch the little guy throw himself face down so pathetically at your feet and stay there so long that you began to feel guilty. And you've probably never been just about to forgive the little devil when he suddenly shot up off of the floor and pulled the whole basket of clean clothes onto the floor. And if it is the case that you've missed out on all of the above experiences, then you have probably never had to listen to your own maniacal laughter upon hearing the phrase "clean and folded laundry" while you attempt to convince yourself that a certain degree of insanity is not only acceptable, but is in fact necessary for survival either.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Door-to-door monster salesman

Are you surprised that when it came time to dress in his costume on Halloween night, Chase wanted nothing to do with the blue furry outfit? We got Amaya dressed, and Chase down to his diaper and then we could get no further. So we left Chase inside running around without pants while we took pictures outside.

Of course, the little rugrat wanted to come outside where the action was, so Andy would open the door and proceed with the following conversation.

Dad: Do you want to come outside?
Chase: Okay!
Dad: You have to put on your costume first.
Chase: Okay!

So in Andy would go to dress the little turkey. But then this would happen...

Chase: No, monster.
Dad: Do you want to go outside?
Chase: Okay!
Dad: Then we have to put on your costume.
Chase: No tume.
Dad: Do you want to go Trick or Treating?
Chase: No tricktreat.
Dad: Ok, well we'll be outside then.

This little show repeated itself about 3 times before Drew was actually able to fandango the kid into the costume. But then the little gremlin wanted nothing to do with pictures. Here is trying to squirm his way out of my arms.



And here he is thinking he can run away.



Finally, with the bribe of promised candy, he sat still next to Daddy long enough for Mama to get a couple of shots. He wasn't happy about it though.

He very much enjoyed Trick or Treating though. I ended up taking him to only about ten houses, but I am sure the kid would have been up for canvassing the entire neighborhood if I would have been willing to allow that much candy into my house. He got a real kick out of ringing the doorbell and saying trick or treat. The little guy took it as an invitation into their homes when anyone opened the door, so I spent a good portion of the time chasing him across strangers' foyers. This behavior will need to stop, because while it's kinda cute in a two year old, I don't think people will look favorably upon it when he's 13.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Feeling Crabby


Amaya had her own baby-sized playdate on Halloween with her friend Sophi. These two have been friends since they were both in utero as they listened to their Mamas huffing and puffing through thrice weekly training sessions. Well, one Mama was huffing and puffing. Anyway, you can see from the picture below that it is much easier to get 2 babies to look at a camera than it is to get 4 babies all focused on one person. So, sorry Amaya, but it looks like you're only allowed to have one friend--at least when it comes to Halloween pictures.