It is only 7 weeks until Anna's first birthday. We're not quite sure how that happened, other than clearly time doesn't stand still except when you don't want it to! In any case, she's almost a toddler and not a baby anymore. Oh wait. She won't likely be sleeping through the night by her birthday so I guess she can still be a baby. ;)
However, she is cruising like crazy. No true crawling yet although every time she gets up on all fours we get all excited thinking that this time she'll do it! She gets around our living room very quickly though, and she is quite brave. She frequently reaches out and lunges for the next available piece of furniture. Sadly, she has quite a wide arm span so she can make it further than I had previously thought.
Rachel is quickly learning that things really do need to be put away, or at least out of reach! I'm just happy that Anna has yet to discover the stairs!
We complain a lot about Anna's lack of sleep, but she has come a very long way since she was born! Remember when we couldn't even put her down to sleep? For the first month or two of her life, she slept IN bed next to Ben because I was still sleeping in the recliner and couldn't even lie down. Then she would only nap ON someone. From there we progressed to sleeping in the bassinet. On May 23, at 3 months and 9 days, she slept in her crib for the first time! I put her in there for a nap not expecting her to fall asleep, and she did. Then she fell asleep again at night in the crib so we moved her into her own room. I'd like to think that she spent a lot of time there, but the truth is that she was a nighttime (and daytime, who am I kidding?) nursaholic who much preferred to sleep latched onto me. My adorable little parasite. (Yes, I know that referring to a nursing baby as a parasite might anger some people. Oh well. That's truly how I felt about it a lot of the time since she never gave me more than a 2 hour stretch during the day and once she could go 2 hours during the day, she stopped sleeping at night and nursed pretty much every hour all.night.long.)
Anyway, when Anna was about 4-5 months old she was sleeping pretty well at night. She would usually do 6-7 hours followed by a 2-3 hour stretch followed by another 1-2 hour stretch. This stopped abruptly when we moved and also when she started nursing "less" during the day. Still, until I weaned her at 8 months, she was eating upwards of 12 times in 24 hours all the time. So much for all those books that claim an 8 month old only needs to eat 5-6 times in 24 hours.
At 10.5 months, Anna still wakes up at least twice per night but she truly does seem to need to eat at least a 4oz bottle. We have tried giving her less and it just doesn't work. She is usually up twice in a 10-11 hour period. Given where we started out, that doesn't seem bad at all! During the day, she usually has 4 bottles. So now she is eating 6 times in 24 hours not counting solids. This kid dearly loves food and cheerfully gobbles big meals 3-4 times per day in addition to her mix of formula/milk.
We will be happy when she gives up her early morning party session though. At least it seems to be moving forward. She is often "up for the day" at 4 or 4:30 for an hour or two, and then she goes back to sleep for at least 2 hours. I'm wondering if she's moving towards dropping her morning nap. I won't argue as long as that also means she stops partying at 4:30 and starts doing closer to 12 hour nights!
Anna is a good napper though. I remember how awful it was trying to get Rachel down for naps, but she was always the easiest kid in the world to put to bed for the night. Actually, she still is.
When I think about it, it's pretty amazing that now Anna's nap/bedtime routine consists of bottle (given in the bedroom if it's nighttime, anywhere if it's naptime), place her in the crib, tuck her in with her blankie, Olly, and Sucky. Turn on aquarium, kiss Anna, tell her to have a good nap or night. Leave room. Very occasionally return to try routine again.
I remember when she was 3-4 months old and we had to stand there holding her hands and rubbing her forehead to get her to sleep. She's come a long way. We can leave her with pretty much anyone and she will go to sleep albeit with interruptions.
My loose goal is to have her only waking up once per night by the time she's 1. While I'd love to see her sleeping through the night, she's just not there yet.
And yes, we do plan on having more. ;)
Saturday, December 27, 2008
R.I.P. Broil King
I have a bit of the sixth sense. It's never been complete enough to let me in on what exactly will happen next, but I almost always have an accurate sense of foreboding.
The other day, Rachel and I were in the kosher grocery store. While we try to buy only kosher meat, I will admit that occasionally I buy non-kosher beef because the kosher selection is usually abysmal and the prices are often over-inflated. (This is in total contrast to kosher chicken which can be obtained at Costco of all places!) That day, I noted that the kosher beef section was rather full. I thought that perhaps I should pick up some hamburger meat or some steaks. Then I thought for no rational reason, "You know, I don't think it's going to be a great week for Ben to barbecue." I wondered at the time why I would think such a thing since we were both going to be home for dinner most nights and clearly it wasn't too cold or snowy to use the grill. In the end, I did not buy any beef.
Two days later, we heard a loud sound outside one morning. We initially thought it was thunder. When we looked outside, we realized that we had purchased a truly intelligent although self-destructive BBQ back in the fall. No chance of this BBQ ever putting itself on fire, because in high winds, it clearly knew how to stop, drop and roll. Yes, you read that correctly. Our BBQ was knocked backwards off of our concrete patio. It went down the (approximately) one foot drop, then rolled over a couple of times on its trip down the hill between our house and the house next door before landing flat on its back as if to say, "Where's the beef?"
Ben retrieved the BBQ but things weren't looking so good. The lid was cracked through, and other parts also appear to be rather mangled. Ben set the BBQ up against the house this time since clearly we weren't going to be using it until further notice. The next day, it flew off again when we weren't looking. Now it is in our garage, awaiting its potentially final fate.
We have a Broil King BBQ, which is a Canadian brand. We loved our previous Broil King, so when we moved down here, we looked for a local retailer that sold the same brand. Little did we know that when faced with the unfamiliar American climate, our BBQ would turn into a kamikaze grill. Thankfully, the propane tank did not burst.
We called the retailer and were told that this most likely would fall under an "act of God" and as such would not be covered by manufacturer's warranty or our insurance. I have a hunch that our deductible is higher than the cost of the BBQ anyway. The retailer did tell us that if it could be repaired, they would sell us the replacement parts at half price. We will take it in next week, but we're prematurely announcing an end to easy last-minute dinners at our house.
The other day, Rachel and I were in the kosher grocery store. While we try to buy only kosher meat, I will admit that occasionally I buy non-kosher beef because the kosher selection is usually abysmal and the prices are often over-inflated. (This is in total contrast to kosher chicken which can be obtained at Costco of all places!) That day, I noted that the kosher beef section was rather full. I thought that perhaps I should pick up some hamburger meat or some steaks. Then I thought for no rational reason, "You know, I don't think it's going to be a great week for Ben to barbecue." I wondered at the time why I would think such a thing since we were both going to be home for dinner most nights and clearly it wasn't too cold or snowy to use the grill. In the end, I did not buy any beef.
Two days later, we heard a loud sound outside one morning. We initially thought it was thunder. When we looked outside, we realized that we had purchased a truly intelligent although self-destructive BBQ back in the fall. No chance of this BBQ ever putting itself on fire, because in high winds, it clearly knew how to stop, drop and roll. Yes, you read that correctly. Our BBQ was knocked backwards off of our concrete patio. It went down the (approximately) one foot drop, then rolled over a couple of times on its trip down the hill between our house and the house next door before landing flat on its back as if to say, "Where's the beef?"
Ben retrieved the BBQ but things weren't looking so good. The lid was cracked through, and other parts also appear to be rather mangled. Ben set the BBQ up against the house this time since clearly we weren't going to be using it until further notice. The next day, it flew off again when we weren't looking. Now it is in our garage, awaiting its potentially final fate.
We have a Broil King BBQ, which is a Canadian brand. We loved our previous Broil King, so when we moved down here, we looked for a local retailer that sold the same brand. Little did we know that when faced with the unfamiliar American climate, our BBQ would turn into a kamikaze grill. Thankfully, the propane tank did not burst.
We called the retailer and were told that this most likely would fall under an "act of God" and as such would not be covered by manufacturer's warranty or our insurance. I have a hunch that our deductible is higher than the cost of the BBQ anyway. The retailer did tell us that if it could be repaired, they would sell us the replacement parts at half price. We will take it in next week, but we're prematurely announcing an end to easy last-minute dinners at our house.
A few things
The other day we went to storytime at the bookstore with a friend, and then out to lunch after. Before the food arrived, Rachel and her friend were drawing pictures on their placemats. Rachel drew a very elaborate queen elephant and then put it aside to eat. Unfortunately, after the meal was over, her friend (1 year younger than her) decided to colour all over it with red and yellow crayons. Rachel's drawing was all in blue. She burst into angry tears and would not be mollified by apologies and offers of new paper to draw on.
I suggested to Rachel that maybe we could take the picture home and try to colour over the offending spots. She eventually came around to that idea. A few minutes later, I made the mistake of asking if her drawing was of a beautiful queen elephant.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, it's not a beautiful elephant! It's a dirty elephant!!!" she wailed in response.
Oops. Mental note: Do not let little sister anywhere near Rachel's art desk ever.
***********************************************************************************
Anna has added two new words to her vocabulary, bringing her up to a grand total of seven! When she gets excited or sees something that she likes, she puckers up her lips and says "Oh!" in her cute, little voice. And if she is sitting in her highchair and sees yogurt, applesauce or any other favoured food arriving, she loudly says "Mmm! Mmm!" throughout the meal.
And yes, she still yells "Nana!" when she wants more food. Now it's often "Mmm! Nana! Mmm! Oooooooooohhh."
She has also started saying, "Hidada" so technically she has spoken her first 2-word sentence although it honestly sounds like one big word.
***********************************************************************************
In totally unexpected news, Ben is coming over to the dark side. He is now a self-admitted fancy coffee drink addict, and on Christmas night he had his first screwdriver. (That's vodka and orange juice, although I find it hard to believe that any of my blog readers wouldn't know that already!) A good friend of ours arrived at midnight Mass with a bottle of vodka for me as a Hanukkah present. While I figured that passing it around in church would be a bad idea, opening it the next night at home was a wonderful idea indeed.
I suggested to Rachel that maybe we could take the picture home and try to colour over the offending spots. She eventually came around to that idea. A few minutes later, I made the mistake of asking if her drawing was of a beautiful queen elephant.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, it's not a beautiful elephant! It's a dirty elephant!!!" she wailed in response.
Oops. Mental note: Do not let little sister anywhere near Rachel's art desk ever.
***********************************************************************************
Anna has added two new words to her vocabulary, bringing her up to a grand total of seven! When she gets excited or sees something that she likes, she puckers up her lips and says "Oh!" in her cute, little voice. And if she is sitting in her highchair and sees yogurt, applesauce or any other favoured food arriving, she loudly says "Mmm! Mmm!" throughout the meal.
And yes, she still yells "Nana!" when she wants more food. Now it's often "Mmm! Nana! Mmm! Oooooooooohhh."
She has also started saying, "Hidada" so technically she has spoken her first 2-word sentence although it honestly sounds like one big word.
***********************************************************************************
In totally unexpected news, Ben is coming over to the dark side. He is now a self-admitted fancy coffee drink addict, and on Christmas night he had his first screwdriver. (That's vodka and orange juice, although I find it hard to believe that any of my blog readers wouldn't know that already!) A good friend of ours arrived at midnight Mass with a bottle of vodka for me as a Hanukkah present. While I figured that passing it around in church would be a bad idea, opening it the next night at home was a wonderful idea indeed.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
A snow update
It snowed again earlier this week. I shovelled the driveway for the sheer enjoyment of it! (Yes, I like snow shovelling and missed out last year other than one infamous occasion involving too many feet of snow and concerts that went on despite it all!)
We spotted our neighbour getting out of another neighbour's Suburban. They had apparently made a grocery run together before the weather got worse. Please note that we never got more than about 3 inches of snow.
Rachel loved it. She played outside for a good 45 minutes and would have cheerfully stayed out longer if I hadn't dragged her inside when I got tired of being out there!
We spotted our neighbour getting out of another neighbour's Suburban. They had apparently made a grocery run together before the weather got worse. Please note that we never got more than about 3 inches of snow.
Rachel loved it. She played outside for a good 45 minutes and would have cheerfully stayed out longer if I hadn't dragged her inside when I got tired of being out there!
Food
Americans like food. Perhaps a little too much. I forgot to mention that at the church gig last week, they provided a fully catered breakfast - bagels, cream cheese, strawberries complete with chocolate sauce to dip them in, other fruit, cheese, chocolate, candy, pop, cups with crushed ice, coffee, cinnamon rolls, other cookies & cakes, etc. That was just at rehearsal!
In between the sound check and morning service on Sunday, there was breakfast again. This time it also included Christmas-themed Krispy Kreme donuts. I admit to being very disappointed that my snowman donut did not have a tasty filling. Before you think that I'm shallow, my friend experienced and commented on the same disappointment with his donut. ;)
The irony with this breakfast was that the offering taken during the service was going to feed the hungry. Seriously, why not feed us a much scaled-down version of breakfast and really use money to feed the hungry?
And while we're at it, White Christmas is not an offering song. "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..." (psst, pass the collection plate!) Nor is it generally appropriate in church to have a snow machine dumping piles of snow on the choir members who are singing White Christmas while the plate is being passed around the congregation. In my opinion, it makes it a little hard to take anything seriously under those circumstances. (I admit to chuckling when I remembered that White Christmas was written by a Jew. But I'm evil like that.)
Of course, I intend no offense to any of you who may attend similar houses of worship. Really.
In between the sound check and morning service on Sunday, there was breakfast again. This time it also included Christmas-themed Krispy Kreme donuts. I admit to being very disappointed that my snowman donut did not have a tasty filling. Before you think that I'm shallow, my friend experienced and commented on the same disappointment with his donut. ;)
The irony with this breakfast was that the offering taken during the service was going to feed the hungry. Seriously, why not feed us a much scaled-down version of breakfast and really use money to feed the hungry?
And while we're at it, White Christmas is not an offering song. "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..." (psst, pass the collection plate!) Nor is it generally appropriate in church to have a snow machine dumping piles of snow on the choir members who are singing White Christmas while the plate is being passed around the congregation. In my opinion, it makes it a little hard to take anything seriously under those circumstances. (I admit to chuckling when I remembered that White Christmas was written by a Jew. But I'm evil like that.)
Of course, I intend no offense to any of you who may attend similar houses of worship. Really.
Studio time with the girls
This afternoon I finally decided that I should get my violin out and look at the music for Christmas Eve. We were required to sign contracts saying that we would show up with "full knowledge of our instrument and music." While I doubt that there will be a quiz on parts of the violin, I had noticed that there were a lot of high notes in my part, so out of the case came the violin and bow.
Before starting, I set Anna up with a couple of shakers and bells so that she could play along. She loved every minute of it, except the times when she fell over and couldn't figure out how to get back up.
Rachel was whining that she needed to practise her piano tunes and didn't like it when I told her that she could play at the same time as I played my violin. "But your music will mess up my tune because it's not the same!" I told Rachel that she could wait in that case. She didn't like that either.
Before I started, I went to tune my violin. Since our piano was tuned yesterday (finally, after probably 4 years of not being tuned!), I asked Rachel if she remembered where Aardvark was on the piano. "I think so," she said, and promptly found the correct key - A440! I was quite impressed. It also made my life easier since I didn't have to make the effort to play it myself. She even repeated it over and over while listening to me tune, without my asking her to do that.
While I played, Rachel danced around the studio in between asking me over and over if I was done yet. When I finished, Rachel told me that it was too late for her to practise because now she had forgotten her tunes. Since she just makes up stuff at the piano, I wasn't too concerned!
We ended up getting out some Jewish songbooks and Rachel showed off how she's ready to sing the blessings for lighting the candles in the menorah tomorrow night. She sings quite nicely on pitch too. Too bad Ben will be at Nutcracker and will miss all the action tomorrow night.
Before starting, I set Anna up with a couple of shakers and bells so that she could play along. She loved every minute of it, except the times when she fell over and couldn't figure out how to get back up.
Rachel was whining that she needed to practise her piano tunes and didn't like it when I told her that she could play at the same time as I played my violin. "But your music will mess up my tune because it's not the same!" I told Rachel that she could wait in that case. She didn't like that either.
Before I started, I went to tune my violin. Since our piano was tuned yesterday (finally, after probably 4 years of not being tuned!), I asked Rachel if she remembered where Aardvark was on the piano. "I think so," she said, and promptly found the correct key - A440! I was quite impressed. It also made my life easier since I didn't have to make the effort to play it myself. She even repeated it over and over while listening to me tune, without my asking her to do that.
While I played, Rachel danced around the studio in between asking me over and over if I was done yet. When I finished, Rachel told me that it was too late for her to practise because now she had forgotten her tunes. Since she just makes up stuff at the piano, I wasn't too concerned!
We ended up getting out some Jewish songbooks and Rachel showed off how she's ready to sing the blessings for lighting the candles in the menorah tomorrow night. She sings quite nicely on pitch too. Too bad Ben will be at Nutcracker and will miss all the action tomorrow night.
Electricity in Bethlehem? Who knew?
Last weekend Ben and I had the dubious pleasure of playing a Christmas show for a local Assembly of God church. We used to play Christmas and Easter shows all the time for one of the Baptist churches back home, and while the music was often cheesy, the productions were certainly never over the top or anything.
This show was unreal. The choir was well prepared, and there was a wide variety of music featuring perhaps everything that was possible to be featured in a 1.5 hour show.
The first half was relatively innocuous other than some videos with cheesy music and lights that combined with the odd voiceovers on the loudspeakers to make it sound like Jesus was an alien. Honestly, I half expected to hear, "Long, long ago, in a galaxy far away..."
The second half took my breath away. No, I haven't converted. I, along with most of the other orchestra members, was too busy trying not to burst out laughing. The first number on the second half involved ballet dancers. Not just any ballet dancers. It was Mary and Joseph dancing all around, with the angel Gabriel pirouetting in to tell Mary the good news. Mary carried a broomstick for the first part of the dance, and unfortunately one of our fellow musicians chose to point out that it was very Harry Potter-esque. It really was. The music was actually quite similar to Harry Potter. Now we won't get started on whether or not Harry Potter is anti-Christian or anything like that, because that's just not the point of this post.
What I will ask is how on earth a woman could do very physical (and highly immodest) ballet moves at the end of her pregnancy? First of all, since Mary and Joseph were in theory Jewish, the immodesty was totally inappropriate. Second of all, what on earth was with the end of the scene where the lights went out, and "Mary" flung a cloth up in the air to reveal a light-up manger complete with baby Jesus inside? I confess that perhaps I snickered. I have to be honest and say that it made me sad too. Regardless of my beliefs, I do have a healthy respect for beliefs of others, and this seemed to make a mockery of something that perhaps should have been treated more reverently. I also have to wonder how come I couldn't have a labour and delivery like that one.
But all too soon, the ballet was over. Then the bagpipes came out. You think I'm joking? Oh, no. No. No. No. A nice man came out and played a bagpipe tune accompanied by the orchestra. (Can you call it a tune when it sounds like someone poked a dying cow with a stick? Really?)
I was chatting with a friend online about this show and how over the top it was. She commented innocently that it seemed like all that was missing was a disco ball. No, actually, there WAS a disco ball hanging from the ceiling in the sanctuary!
Had I written this last weekend, I'm sure I would have remembered more details to add. It's probably just as well that I didn't do that.
Here's hoping that Christmas Eve with the Catholics will be a little more... subdued? Traditional? Enjoyable? Although there is a pre-Mass "concert" with very cheesy-looking music, so I'm not holding my breath on that one either.
This show was unreal. The choir was well prepared, and there was a wide variety of music featuring perhaps everything that was possible to be featured in a 1.5 hour show.
The first half was relatively innocuous other than some videos with cheesy music and lights that combined with the odd voiceovers on the loudspeakers to make it sound like Jesus was an alien. Honestly, I half expected to hear, "Long, long ago, in a galaxy far away..."
The second half took my breath away. No, I haven't converted. I, along with most of the other orchestra members, was too busy trying not to burst out laughing. The first number on the second half involved ballet dancers. Not just any ballet dancers. It was Mary and Joseph dancing all around, with the angel Gabriel pirouetting in to tell Mary the good news. Mary carried a broomstick for the first part of the dance, and unfortunately one of our fellow musicians chose to point out that it was very Harry Potter-esque. It really was. The music was actually quite similar to Harry Potter. Now we won't get started on whether or not Harry Potter is anti-Christian or anything like that, because that's just not the point of this post.
What I will ask is how on earth a woman could do very physical (and highly immodest) ballet moves at the end of her pregnancy? First of all, since Mary and Joseph were in theory Jewish, the immodesty was totally inappropriate. Second of all, what on earth was with the end of the scene where the lights went out, and "Mary" flung a cloth up in the air to reveal a light-up manger complete with baby Jesus inside? I confess that perhaps I snickered. I have to be honest and say that it made me sad too. Regardless of my beliefs, I do have a healthy respect for beliefs of others, and this seemed to make a mockery of something that perhaps should have been treated more reverently. I also have to wonder how come I couldn't have a labour and delivery like that one.
But all too soon, the ballet was over. Then the bagpipes came out. You think I'm joking? Oh, no. No. No. No. A nice man came out and played a bagpipe tune accompanied by the orchestra. (Can you call it a tune when it sounds like someone poked a dying cow with a stick? Really?)
I was chatting with a friend online about this show and how over the top it was. She commented innocently that it seemed like all that was missing was a disco ball. No, actually, there WAS a disco ball hanging from the ceiling in the sanctuary!
Had I written this last weekend, I'm sure I would have remembered more details to add. It's probably just as well that I didn't do that.
Here's hoping that Christmas Eve with the Catholics will be a little more... subdued? Traditional? Enjoyable? Although there is a pre-Mass "concert" with very cheesy-looking music, so I'm not holding my breath on that one either.
Friday, December 19, 2008
It has come to my attention...
...that people are eagerly awaiting my story of the gig we had last week.
You'll have to wait a bit longer. I have other things to blog tonight!
This week was surprisingly busy given that Ben is done school and teaching until mid-January. Rachel and I made and decorated Hanukkah cookies, and also made edible dreidels. (Well, they are edible if you're not opposed to marshmallows, Hershey's Kisses and licorice all in the same treat.)
This afternoon Ben took Rachel to the bank so that she could trade in all of her change from her tzedakah box. We're making a trip to the bookstore next week (because Rachel insists that it must be during Hanukkah) to buy books to donate and we promised that we'd match whatever Rachel had in there. Well, in 4 months she has managed to accumulate $28.95. I will admit that Ben and I have contributed change on occasion too, but most of that is from Rachel's allowance. I gave her this week's allowance early and it was fun to watch her disperse it. $1.80 went into her purse, $0.20 went into her piggy bank, and $2.00 went into her tzedakah box. I don't think that she has a full grasp of how much money is worth, but it's neat to watch her distribute it each week. She tends to put lots of coins in her purse although she knows that it takes 4 quarters to make a dollar.
A related funny thing: When Rachel and Ben came home from the bank, I asked Rachel how much money she had in there. "The same amount, only lighter," she yelled up the stairs. It turned out that she and Ben had discussed how the value wouldn't change, only the number of coins versus bills, but that still cracked me up.
Next week I have big plans to do lots of activities. We want to take the girls to Paradise Park (kind of like a fancy Children's Museum), possibly go to the zoo if it warms up like it's supposed to, buy and donate books, sort through their toys and clothes, and hopefully go ice skating too! Believe it or not, there are now two outdoor ice rinks in the KC metro area and we are planning to try them out. Yes, you can take a 10-month-old "skating" - shoes are just fine for sliding around the ice! I'm not sure if we'd rent skates for Rachel or just let her slide around on the ice too.
After Ben finishes his run of Nutcracker on the 28th, we have NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING on the calendar until January 4th! Can you tell that I'm just a bit excited about this? ;)
You'll have to wait a bit longer. I have other things to blog tonight!
This week was surprisingly busy given that Ben is done school and teaching until mid-January. Rachel and I made and decorated Hanukkah cookies, and also made edible dreidels. (Well, they are edible if you're not opposed to marshmallows, Hershey's Kisses and licorice all in the same treat.)
This afternoon Ben took Rachel to the bank so that she could trade in all of her change from her tzedakah box. We're making a trip to the bookstore next week (because Rachel insists that it must be during Hanukkah) to buy books to donate and we promised that we'd match whatever Rachel had in there. Well, in 4 months she has managed to accumulate $28.95. I will admit that Ben and I have contributed change on occasion too, but most of that is from Rachel's allowance. I gave her this week's allowance early and it was fun to watch her disperse it. $1.80 went into her purse, $0.20 went into her piggy bank, and $2.00 went into her tzedakah box. I don't think that she has a full grasp of how much money is worth, but it's neat to watch her distribute it each week. She tends to put lots of coins in her purse although she knows that it takes 4 quarters to make a dollar.
A related funny thing: When Rachel and Ben came home from the bank, I asked Rachel how much money she had in there. "The same amount, only lighter," she yelled up the stairs. It turned out that she and Ben had discussed how the value wouldn't change, only the number of coins versus bills, but that still cracked me up.
Next week I have big plans to do lots of activities. We want to take the girls to Paradise Park (kind of like a fancy Children's Museum), possibly go to the zoo if it warms up like it's supposed to, buy and donate books, sort through their toys and clothes, and hopefully go ice skating too! Believe it or not, there are now two outdoor ice rinks in the KC metro area and we are planning to try them out. Yes, you can take a 10-month-old "skating" - shoes are just fine for sliding around the ice! I'm not sure if we'd rent skates for Rachel or just let her slide around on the ice too.
After Ben finishes his run of Nutcracker on the 28th, we have NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING on the calendar until January 4th! Can you tell that I'm just a bit excited about this? ;)
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Stay tuned
The last 24 hours have been rather eventful. Nothing is wrong and no-one is hurt, but I think that if we have one more similar professional event, we are going to seriously bust some guts laughing. More tomorrow.
Friday, December 12, 2008
I shouldn't laugh but...
Picture the scene:
An icy morning, after a night with some rain. There is still a tiny bit of snow on the ground. It is about -2C (~28F). Our neighbours are getting ready to leave for work and school. Their car is on the driveway with a lovely ice coating on the windows and windshield.
At first we thought that the dad was simply giving his son a lesson on how to use an ice scraper. They had a fairly large scraper, but the poor kid was getting nowhere with it. Then the dad came back out with a smaller scraper. The kid still had no luck, but neither did the dad! He was scraping randomly up, down, sideways and all around.
Finally, after several minutes of futile scraping, they both went back in the garage. (By the way, they hadn't turned the car on at all during this time.) A minute later, we saw them back out of the garage in their other car!
A quick lesson in ice scraping for the uninformed:
1. Turn car ON. Make use of defrost options!
2. Wear gloves!
3. Scrape in one direction only unless you like streaks on your windshield.
I know that I shouldn't be laughing - they did just move here from Arizona, after all!
An icy morning, after a night with some rain. There is still a tiny bit of snow on the ground. It is about -2C (~28F). Our neighbours are getting ready to leave for work and school. Their car is on the driveway with a lovely ice coating on the windows and windshield.
At first we thought that the dad was simply giving his son a lesson on how to use an ice scraper. They had a fairly large scraper, but the poor kid was getting nowhere with it. Then the dad came back out with a smaller scraper. The kid still had no luck, but neither did the dad! He was scraping randomly up, down, sideways and all around.
Finally, after several minutes of futile scraping, they both went back in the garage. (By the way, they hadn't turned the car on at all during this time.) A minute later, we saw them back out of the garage in their other car!
A quick lesson in ice scraping for the uninformed:
1. Turn car ON. Make use of defrost options!
2. Wear gloves!
3. Scrape in one direction only unless you like streaks on your windshield.
I know that I shouldn't be laughing - they did just move here from Arizona, after all!
Rachel at the Ballet
Here's Rachel all dressed up and ready to go to the Nutcracker with Ballerina Elephant.
Of course she had to wear her new candy dress, tights & hair clip since part of the ballet involves a visit to the Land of Sweets.
Rachel really enjoyed the ballet. I'll be honest - we wouldn't have gone if Ben wasn't playing, ie. we had free tickets. That said, Rachel loved watching the dancers and even got over her fear of the Mouse King and the fight between the mice and the toy soldiers. She decided that it was actually funny, which it was. One of the toy soldiers was wearing a bunny head and carrying a drum a la Energizer Bunny.
Of course she had to wear her new candy dress, tights & hair clip since part of the ballet involves a visit to the Land of Sweets.
Rachel really enjoyed the ballet. I'll be honest - we wouldn't have gone if Ben wasn't playing, ie. we had free tickets. That said, Rachel loved watching the dancers and even got over her fear of the Mouse King and the fight between the mice and the toy soldiers. She decided that it was actually funny, which it was. One of the toy soldiers was wearing a bunny head and carrying a drum a la Energizer Bunny.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Anna's vocabulary is amusing
Anna has 5 words that she uses on a regular basis:
Hi, Bye-bye, Mama, Dada, and Nana (for herself)
Tonight at dinner we were having tri-colour flower-shaped pasta. I put about 8 pieces on Anna's tray and within a minute or two they were gone. We checked her bib and the floor, but apparently she had eaten all of them. I got her another helping of 8-10 pieces and settled down to eat my own dinner. (I also got Rachel a second helping at the same time. I guess she's over her pasta boycott.)
A minute later, Anna started banging her tray. Then she screeched, "Nana!" as loudly as she could. We looked over to see that once again she had finished her food and apparently we weren't quick enough to give her more. Ha!
Hi, Bye-bye, Mama, Dada, and Nana (for herself)
Tonight at dinner we were having tri-colour flower-shaped pasta. I put about 8 pieces on Anna's tray and within a minute or two they were gone. We checked her bib and the floor, but apparently she had eaten all of them. I got her another helping of 8-10 pieces and settled down to eat my own dinner. (I also got Rachel a second helping at the same time. I guess she's over her pasta boycott.)
A minute later, Anna started banging her tray. Then she screeched, "Nana!" as loudly as she could. We looked over to see that once again she had finished her food and apparently we weren't quick enough to give her more. Ha!
Monday, December 08, 2008
The great turtle dance
"With music and dancing, food and drink, we're getting ready for the great turtle dance today!" Rachel is singing as she dances around the living room wearing her cowboy hat on her back as a turtle shell.
"Chomp chomp chomp and slurp slurp slurp"
"And she leads us all over town and she provides us with music and dancing, food and drink, all over town. We dance all day and we dance all night, we never stop to rest or sleep"
This is hilarious.
"Chomp chomp chomp and slurp slurp slurp"
"And she leads us all over town and she provides us with music and dancing, food and drink, all over town. We dance all day and we dance all night, we never stop to rest or sleep"
This is hilarious.
Friday, December 05, 2008
The babysitter's moving in, and a small orchestral rant
Last night we had a sitter since Ben had a rehearsal downtown and I had a rehearsal north of the city. We got home to find that Anna had gone to sleep for her right at 6:45. (Rachel also went to sleep for her easily, but that's typical.) We didn't hear from Anna until 4:22am!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's over 9.5 hours of SLEEP! Go, Anna! I admit that I'd have been happier if I'd gotten home sooner than 11pm. I wasn't in bed myself until after midnight so I'm still short some in the sleep department.
Clearly the babysitter worked her special magic and she must move in immediately. We just haven't told her yet.
And now for the rant. I got called last minute to sub in as a ringer in what is supposed to be a fairly decent community orchestra here. I got there to find that there would be a total of 4 violinists in each section. There was one lone violist, a kindly elderly woman who clearly is not familiar with the concept of tuning. Then again, the cellists were also lacking that concept, while the clarinetist decided that repeatedly trilling a quintuplet figure in the Dance Arabe in Nutcracker was a good idea. (Sorry, I know that's too technical for most of my blog readers out there but I know that at least one of you is giggling about this.)
The first piece on the program for this concert is Pachelbel's Canon. With ballet dancers. Yup, ballet dancers. It also involves an organ accompaniment on an organ that's so horrendously out of tune it makes the didgeridoo look good by comparison. The conductor tried to pass that off as "baroque tuning." Nice try.
Since there are three violin parts in Canon, but typically only two violin sections, the conductor explained who was to play which part. I stupidly commented that I only had a first violin part (I was asked to play third) but followed up quickly to say that it wouldn't be a problem as I could just stop four bars early. The conductor didn't like my response and insisted that I needed an original third violin part. This presented a problem when my stand partner showed up halfway through and was told to play first. She wasn't able to finish the piece from memory when the third violin part ran out of music. We solved that problem by putting the first violin part back on the stand when the conductor wasn't looking.
As if this wasn't all bad enough, the conductor had to cut two bars because the dancers were out of choreography. Canon has 56 bars. He cut bars 53 and 54. For anyone not in the know, this is a supremely stupid thing to do. Canon is similar to songs such as "Row, Row, Row your boat" in which one part follows the other until you reach the end. Canon is even better though, because at the end of every two bars there is a natural stopping place. There is no need for random cuts. He could have simply ended two bars earlier instead of making a cut that involves ridiculous jumping of parts. But I digress.
The conductor also felt the need to CUE players repeatedly during Canon. Any string player who is capable of playing in an orchestra has probably played this piece to the point where he or she could play it while sleeping. I'm still trying to figure out how we spent over 30 minutes rehearsing a 5 minute piece.
From there the rehearsal got more and more amusing as we whipped through Nutcracker without stopping to rehearse. (For the record, Nutcracker is a lot harder to play and put together but that's ok. Ensemble skills are apparently optional.) After the (too short) 15 minute break, we moved to a version of T'was the night before Christmas complete with narrator, horrendous orchestral sound effects, and ballet dancers in sleepers. The nice man in charge of the ballet dancers kept making references to the "librato" loudly as if to show off his knowledge. Too bad the term for text in a musical setting is "libretto" which is a completely different animal.
At least I'm being paid union scale for this gig. Oh wait. Union scale down here is also a completely different animal. But I won't complain too much. Tomorrow we have the dress rehearsal and concert with a 2.5 hour break in between - I've already got lunch/shopping plans with a friend who's also playing! :)
Clearly the babysitter worked her special magic and she must move in immediately. We just haven't told her yet.
And now for the rant. I got called last minute to sub in as a ringer in what is supposed to be a fairly decent community orchestra here. I got there to find that there would be a total of 4 violinists in each section. There was one lone violist, a kindly elderly woman who clearly is not familiar with the concept of tuning. Then again, the cellists were also lacking that concept, while the clarinetist decided that repeatedly trilling a quintuplet figure in the Dance Arabe in Nutcracker was a good idea. (Sorry, I know that's too technical for most of my blog readers out there but I know that at least one of you is giggling about this.)
The first piece on the program for this concert is Pachelbel's Canon. With ballet dancers. Yup, ballet dancers. It also involves an organ accompaniment on an organ that's so horrendously out of tune it makes the didgeridoo look good by comparison. The conductor tried to pass that off as "baroque tuning." Nice try.
Since there are three violin parts in Canon, but typically only two violin sections, the conductor explained who was to play which part. I stupidly commented that I only had a first violin part (I was asked to play third) but followed up quickly to say that it wouldn't be a problem as I could just stop four bars early. The conductor didn't like my response and insisted that I needed an original third violin part. This presented a problem when my stand partner showed up halfway through and was told to play first. She wasn't able to finish the piece from memory when the third violin part ran out of music. We solved that problem by putting the first violin part back on the stand when the conductor wasn't looking.
As if this wasn't all bad enough, the conductor had to cut two bars because the dancers were out of choreography. Canon has 56 bars. He cut bars 53 and 54. For anyone not in the know, this is a supremely stupid thing to do. Canon is similar to songs such as "Row, Row, Row your boat" in which one part follows the other until you reach the end. Canon is even better though, because at the end of every two bars there is a natural stopping place. There is no need for random cuts. He could have simply ended two bars earlier instead of making a cut that involves ridiculous jumping of parts. But I digress.
The conductor also felt the need to CUE players repeatedly during Canon. Any string player who is capable of playing in an orchestra has probably played this piece to the point where he or she could play it while sleeping. I'm still trying to figure out how we spent over 30 minutes rehearsing a 5 minute piece.
From there the rehearsal got more and more amusing as we whipped through Nutcracker without stopping to rehearse. (For the record, Nutcracker is a lot harder to play and put together but that's ok. Ensemble skills are apparently optional.) After the (too short) 15 minute break, we moved to a version of T'was the night before Christmas complete with narrator, horrendous orchestral sound effects, and ballet dancers in sleepers. The nice man in charge of the ballet dancers kept making references to the "librato" loudly as if to show off his knowledge. Too bad the term for text in a musical setting is "libretto" which is a completely different animal.
At least I'm being paid union scale for this gig. Oh wait. Union scale down here is also a completely different animal. But I won't complain too much. Tomorrow we have the dress rehearsal and concert with a 2.5 hour break in between - I've already got lunch/shopping plans with a friend who's also playing! :)
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Queen Anna
Anna will no longer drink during the day. It's a fight to get her to take a bottle at all, and she looks at us like we're crazy if we offer her formula in a sippy. I bought some homo milk the other day and have given her a bit in sippy cups but so far she drinks a bit and then makes faces at me. She will drink water from a sippy though; she seems to think that's a great adventure.
Ben recently discovered that Anna will take a bottle if and only if she is lying down in her crib. So yes, I just got her to take 4oz (her biggest feed since 8am today and it's now almost 4pm) by laying her down in the crib. I'm also hoping that she will fall asleep since she's been rather cranky today, probably because she's hungry!
She is eating more solids. Today we shared a banana, only every time I took it away to take a bite myself, she howled like the world was coming to an end. Silly baby.
On another note, Anna has 9 days to crawl if she's planning on hitting that "milestone" before Rachel did. Since she's more interested in standing, cruising and taking the occasional step holding our hands, I somehow think that she might walk first. We'll see.
Ben recently discovered that Anna will take a bottle if and only if she is lying down in her crib. So yes, I just got her to take 4oz (her biggest feed since 8am today and it's now almost 4pm) by laying her down in the crib. I'm also hoping that she will fall asleep since she's been rather cranky today, probably because she's hungry!
She is eating more solids. Today we shared a banana, only every time I took it away to take a bite myself, she howled like the world was coming to an end. Silly baby.
On another note, Anna has 9 days to crawl if she's planning on hitting that "milestone" before Rachel did. Since she's more interested in standing, cruising and taking the occasional step holding our hands, I somehow think that she might walk first. We'll see.
Holiday fun
Today we went to purchase gift cards for Rachel's Kindermusik and cooking class teachers. She suggested that her cooking teacher would like a Starbucks card - ha! Anyway, we decided to get both Starbucks and a bookstore card for her Kindermusik teacher since Anna also does Kindermusik. (As a music teacher myself, I can tell you that these kinds of gifts are possibly appreciated more than yet another music trinket or Christmas ornament. Hehehe.)
When we were at the bookstore, Rachel commented that we needed to find a Hanukkah gift card for her Kindermusik teacher. I told her that her Kindermusik teacher celebrates Christmas so it would be ok to pick out one of the Christmas ones. She was tough to convince, but in the end she found a gift card with candies on it so we went with that one!
So far we're not seeing any green-eyed monster with all the commercialism associated with Christmas. (Please note that I am not suggesting by any stretch of the imagination that Christmas is all about the gifts for most families who celebrate it. I am simply commenting on the ridiculous materialism that is rampant even more so at this time of year.) Rachel and I have talked about how she will get some small gifts at Hanukkah, and we've started talking about making a birthday list.
I'm still amused that I can ward off whining about purchases so easily:
Rachel: "Mom, I want that toy. Can you buy it?"
Me: "No. I'm not buying toys today. I told you that."
Rachel: "But I want it."
Me: "Did you bring your purse with your money?"
Rachel: "No."
Me: "Oh, that's too bad. Maybe next time you'll have your money with you."
This inevitably leads to discussions of how she's going to save up for whatever the current popular toy is. She usually changes her mind multiple times and caves and buys a cheap toy or book as soon as she has a few dollars.
We are planning to return to the bookstore in a week or two to pick out books for the holiday book drive since that's how we've decided to spend Rachel's tzedakah money. She's very impressed that Ben and I said we'd match the amount in her box. We counted yesterday and she had close to $20 - this is all from her allowance money over the past couple of months.
When we were at the bookstore, Rachel commented that we needed to find a Hanukkah gift card for her Kindermusik teacher. I told her that her Kindermusik teacher celebrates Christmas so it would be ok to pick out one of the Christmas ones. She was tough to convince, but in the end she found a gift card with candies on it so we went with that one!
So far we're not seeing any green-eyed monster with all the commercialism associated with Christmas. (Please note that I am not suggesting by any stretch of the imagination that Christmas is all about the gifts for most families who celebrate it. I am simply commenting on the ridiculous materialism that is rampant even more so at this time of year.) Rachel and I have talked about how she will get some small gifts at Hanukkah, and we've started talking about making a birthday list.
I'm still amused that I can ward off whining about purchases so easily:
Rachel: "Mom, I want that toy. Can you buy it?"
Me: "No. I'm not buying toys today. I told you that."
Rachel: "But I want it."
Me: "Did you bring your purse with your money?"
Rachel: "No."
Me: "Oh, that's too bad. Maybe next time you'll have your money with you."
This inevitably leads to discussions of how she's going to save up for whatever the current popular toy is. She usually changes her mind multiple times and caves and buys a cheap toy or book as soon as she has a few dollars.
We are planning to return to the bookstore in a week or two to pick out books for the holiday book drive since that's how we've decided to spend Rachel's tzedakah money. She's very impressed that Ben and I said we'd match the amount in her box. We counted yesterday and she had close to $20 - this is all from her allowance money over the past couple of months.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Hmm
Some of you know that we've been thinking a lot about schooling for next year - homeschool, private Jewish school, public school... (Ok, anyone who knows us at all knows that the chances of pigs flying are possibly slightly greater than the chance of us sending our kids to an American public school. If that offends anyone, so be it.)
One of our current dilemmas is that the Jewish school has what we see as a very rigorous Kindergarten program. They basically do double curriculum (ie. secular and Judaic studies) so I can understand the need for a lengthened school day, but 7:55am until 2pm presents the following problems:
1. 7:55am?!??!?! This would require leaving the house no later than 7:30am every morning. Need I say more?
2. Rachel is a grouch for at least an hour in the morning until she's feeling more awake and ready to eat something. I don't relish the thought of having to wake her up at 6am every day. Even if she's awake on her own, I cannot imagine getting us out the door at 7:30. Again, I say, MUSICIANS DON'T DO MORNINGS!!!
3. 6 hours for Kindergarten seems really really long. I think that this would be a real stretch for Rachel. Whatever happened to good old half-day Kindergarten? (Ok, I know the partial answer to that is that working parents prefer full-day programming and so there you have it. While I agree that it is easier logistically, I think that it makes for a very long day for a 5-year-old.)
4. As if I want to have to pick up Rachel at 2pm every day knowing full well that would be smack in the middle of Anna's afternoon nap. Yes, I could likely tweak the nap a bit, but it still seems rather annoying.
5. $9K for tuition for the year. Yes, they do have financial assistance but one look at our bank account would deny us any outside aid given that proceeds from our house sale are in there. (And no, we would not hide that from anyone despite the fact that the funds are technically in a foreign account!)
Anyway, it looks like we're pretty serious about trying out homeschooling in the fall. We've talked a bit to Rachel about it and she is actually very enthusiastic. I've been reading a few books on homeschooling. So has Rachel - for kicks, I asked her to read the back of one of the books to me. She did. Every word. Even the "hard" words like option, accessible, alternative, perplexing, misgivings and adventure.
Given that the typical Kindergarten sight word list contains words such as he, she, am, are, yellow, cat, dog, etc, I think that we may be onto something with this learning at your own pace theory.
Besides, it'll be fun being once again outside of the mainstream. If nothing else, we're always good for some behind-the-scenes gossip. "Ben and Jane are crazy. They moved to the US then back to London and then to the US again and now they're planning to homeschool. They really must be religious nuts with no desire to produce well-adjusted socialized children."
Comment away...
One of our current dilemmas is that the Jewish school has what we see as a very rigorous Kindergarten program. They basically do double curriculum (ie. secular and Judaic studies) so I can understand the need for a lengthened school day, but 7:55am until 2pm presents the following problems:
1. 7:55am?!??!?! This would require leaving the house no later than 7:30am every morning. Need I say more?
2. Rachel is a grouch for at least an hour in the morning until she's feeling more awake and ready to eat something. I don't relish the thought of having to wake her up at 6am every day. Even if she's awake on her own, I cannot imagine getting us out the door at 7:30. Again, I say, MUSICIANS DON'T DO MORNINGS!!!
3. 6 hours for Kindergarten seems really really long. I think that this would be a real stretch for Rachel. Whatever happened to good old half-day Kindergarten? (Ok, I know the partial answer to that is that working parents prefer full-day programming and so there you have it. While I agree that it is easier logistically, I think that it makes for a very long day for a 5-year-old.)
4. As if I want to have to pick up Rachel at 2pm every day knowing full well that would be smack in the middle of Anna's afternoon nap. Yes, I could likely tweak the nap a bit, but it still seems rather annoying.
5. $9K for tuition for the year. Yes, they do have financial assistance but one look at our bank account would deny us any outside aid given that proceeds from our house sale are in there. (And no, we would not hide that from anyone despite the fact that the funds are technically in a foreign account!)
Anyway, it looks like we're pretty serious about trying out homeschooling in the fall. We've talked a bit to Rachel about it and she is actually very enthusiastic. I've been reading a few books on homeschooling. So has Rachel - for kicks, I asked her to read the back of one of the books to me. She did. Every word. Even the "hard" words like option, accessible, alternative, perplexing, misgivings and adventure.
Given that the typical Kindergarten sight word list contains words such as he, she, am, are, yellow, cat, dog, etc, I think that we may be onto something with this learning at your own pace theory.
Besides, it'll be fun being once again outside of the mainstream. If nothing else, we're always good for some behind-the-scenes gossip. "Ben and Jane are crazy. They moved to the US then back to London and then to the US again and now they're planning to homeschool. They really must be religious nuts with no desire to produce well-adjusted socialized children."
Comment away...
It's all in the details!
This morning Rachel was talking about putting up Hanukkah decorations. More specifically, she wants to make an elephant for Hanukkah. She was discussing how she would do it and came out with, "And then we'll add the dentals like the eyes and trunk." Ben and I looked at her, and he said, "I think you mean the details, Rachel, not the dentals."
"Yeah, details," she said without missing a beat.
Details indeed!
"Yeah, details," she said without missing a beat.
Details indeed!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
She's cruising.
This afternoon I set Anna up at her activity table and then walked away to check on some other things. Before I did so, I had made sure that she wouldn't crash into her toy bin if she fell over.
I came back a minute later and was very confused. Anna was now on the next side of the activity table, nowhere near the toy bin. For a minute, I pondered.
Aha! A lightbulb went on in my head. Anna moved herself over there, I thought. I watched carefully, and sure enough, the little so-and-so is cruising happily and easily around the table. She's so pleased with herself that you can't help but smile at her antics!
I came back a minute later and was very confused. Anna was now on the next side of the activity table, nowhere near the toy bin. For a minute, I pondered.
Aha! A lightbulb went on in my head. Anna moved herself over there, I thought. I watched carefully, and sure enough, the little so-and-so is cruising happily and easily around the table. She's so pleased with herself that you can't help but smile at her antics!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Just an expression
Yesterday Rachel was "fake coughing" a bit after I picked her up from school. While I do think that she is fighting a bit of a cold right now, there is an obvious difference between real coughing and fake coughing. I told her to stop, and she said, "I feel like I'm going to barf." I looked at her and started to laugh because clearly she was just fine. I said, "No, you're not. Why would you say that?"
"It's just an expression, Mommy!" she answered cheerfully as if I should have known all along.
When I told her that it was not "just an expression" she wanted to know what it meant. Silly girl.
"It's just an expression, Mommy!" she answered cheerfully as if I should have known all along.
When I told her that it was not "just an expression" she wanted to know what it meant. Silly girl.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Pets
Today Rachel and I were doing some pages in one of her workbooks. She requested "Social Studies" and the pages we did were about rules and responsibility. One of the activities was to check off chores that members of your family do and one of the options was feeding pets. That led us to a discussion about pets.
I asked Rachel if she wanted a pet. At first she said, "No thank you." Then I made a comment about wanting to get a cat again. "Rachel, would you like a cat?" I asked. "No thank you," she replied. "Really? You wouldn't want a cat?" I said in a bit of shock. After all, both Ben and I have always had cats in our homes.
Rachel thought for just a moment. "Actually, I would prefer a goldfish," she said.
I got her to agree that if we get a goldfish one day, we can name it Flushy. ;)
I asked Rachel if she wanted a pet. At first she said, "No thank you." Then I made a comment about wanting to get a cat again. "Rachel, would you like a cat?" I asked. "No thank you," she replied. "Really? You wouldn't want a cat?" I said in a bit of shock. After all, both Ben and I have always had cats in our homes.
Rachel thought for just a moment. "Actually, I would prefer a goldfish," she said.
I got her to agree that if we get a goldfish one day, we can name it Flushy. ;)
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Life with two girls
Lots of pink, lots of dresses, lots of matching things, toy purses, some dolls, more elephants, books, books, more books, big eyes, big smiles...
We've got it pretty good around here! Anna is sleeping much better these days. She still wakes up twice per night but she's easy to soothe back and she's turned into a fantastic napper. Although as I type she is up in her crib chatting away to Olly, but she's not complaining yet! Rachel is sleeping well although she frequently complains that she is tired. It's her personality though - she is the "Ben child" and Anna is definitely the "Jane child" who will get into anything and everything.
Rachel is having a pretty good year so far. She loves her cooking class and absolutely adores her Kindermusik teacher. Pre-K is going well for the most part other than the typical "I don't want to participate" stuff that we see in many different activities when she's not that interested. She wanted nothing to do with flinging paint on a canvas Jackson Pollock-style when they studied artists, but that's not a surprise since Ben still doesn't like to get his hands dirty!
I was highly amused that the director of Rachel's preschool has started talking to me about sending Anna in the fall. Yes, they have a program for toddlers starting at age 18 months for 2 hours 2 mornings per week, but I highly doubt that I'll send her! I only sent Rachel at age 2.5 because I needed the childcare while I taught Kindermusik here and we wanted to take advantage of the excellent Jewish programming while we had access to it. Little did we know we'd be back...
Anyway, the only way I'd send Anna to preschool in the fall is if we end up homeschooling Rachel for Kindergarten and I feel like we'd benefit from some "Mommy & Rachel" time other than Anna's naptime. So we'll see.
We're going home for American Thanksgiving soon and I had to laugh at a conversation I just had with one of Rachel's teachers the other day:
Miss H: "Rachel told me you're going to London for Thanksgiving?"
Me: "Yes, we are."
Miss H: "Oh, wow!"
Me: "Um... London, Ontario, Canada. Not London, England."
Miss H: "Oh! That makes more sense. I did know you were from Canada."
And now I'm going to sign off and enjoy a few minutes of peace and quiet before Ben and Rachel get home from shul.
We've got it pretty good around here! Anna is sleeping much better these days. She still wakes up twice per night but she's easy to soothe back and she's turned into a fantastic napper. Although as I type she is up in her crib chatting away to Olly, but she's not complaining yet! Rachel is sleeping well although she frequently complains that she is tired. It's her personality though - she is the "Ben child" and Anna is definitely the "Jane child" who will get into anything and everything.
Rachel is having a pretty good year so far. She loves her cooking class and absolutely adores her Kindermusik teacher. Pre-K is going well for the most part other than the typical "I don't want to participate" stuff that we see in many different activities when she's not that interested. She wanted nothing to do with flinging paint on a canvas Jackson Pollock-style when they studied artists, but that's not a surprise since Ben still doesn't like to get his hands dirty!
I was highly amused that the director of Rachel's preschool has started talking to me about sending Anna in the fall. Yes, they have a program for toddlers starting at age 18 months for 2 hours 2 mornings per week, but I highly doubt that I'll send her! I only sent Rachel at age 2.5 because I needed the childcare while I taught Kindermusik here and we wanted to take advantage of the excellent Jewish programming while we had access to it. Little did we know we'd be back...
Anyway, the only way I'd send Anna to preschool in the fall is if we end up homeschooling Rachel for Kindergarten and I feel like we'd benefit from some "Mommy & Rachel" time other than Anna's naptime. So we'll see.
We're going home for American Thanksgiving soon and I had to laugh at a conversation I just had with one of Rachel's teachers the other day:
Miss H: "Rachel told me you're going to London for Thanksgiving?"
Me: "Yes, we are."
Miss H: "Oh, wow!"
Me: "Um... London, Ontario, Canada. Not London, England."
Miss H: "Oh! That makes more sense. I did know you were from Canada."
And now I'm going to sign off and enjoy a few minutes of peace and quiet before Ben and Rachel get home from shul.
Friday, November 14, 2008
My nine month old has spit-up in her ear.
Anna felt the need to get up just before midnight and stay up happily eating and chatting for half an hour. I guess she wanted to celebrate 9 months in style! I can't argue too much though. She fell asleep at 6:45pm, was awake and ate 6oz from 11:45-12:15, then slept until 3:50 when she woke up, chatted, ate 4oz and went back to sleep about 15 minutes later. She slept until 6:20!!! And Rachel didn't get up until after 7:30!!!
These pictures were taken before Anna felt the need to spit up and then smear it in her ear, but I felt that it was important to blog that "milestone" anyway.
These pictures were taken before Anna felt the need to spit up and then smear it in her ear, but I felt that it was important to blog that "milestone" anyway.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
An addendum to the previous post
Immediately after hitting "post", Anna pooped and Rachel requested more food. Fun times all around!
A rare but wonderful moment!
It's just after 1pm. Rachel is finishing her lunch at the kitchen table while reading a book and singing to herself. Anna has finished spitting up on me and is playing happily in a pile of toys on the carpet in the living room, clean, dry, and chattering away to herself. I am at the computer blogging with a java chip frappuccino next to me. (Yes, you can pry my Starbucks from my cold, dead hands!)
Ah... quiet, happy kids in my house and time to play online. And I'm sitting here blogging because why!??!
(It should be mentioned that Anna was up at 10, 1, 3 and 4 last night. She stayed up from 4-5 and then slept for a whopping 45 minutes. After that she was pretty much up other than a 20 minute nap at 8:30. She finally crashed for a car nap at 11:30 but of course woke up just before noon when we went inside to pick up Rachel.)
We don't have anything planned for the rest of this quiet, rainy afternoon. Sounds good to me!
Ah... quiet, happy kids in my house and time to play online. And I'm sitting here blogging because why!??!
(It should be mentioned that Anna was up at 10, 1, 3 and 4 last night. She stayed up from 4-5 and then slept for a whopping 45 minutes. After that she was pretty much up other than a 20 minute nap at 8:30. She finally crashed for a car nap at 11:30 but of course woke up just before noon when we went inside to pick up Rachel.)
We don't have anything planned for the rest of this quiet, rainy afternoon. Sounds good to me!
Monday, November 10, 2008
Anna's almost mobile!
I guess it depends on how you define mobile. She can scooch forward on her bum and does so frequently. She can flip onto her tummy and edge her way around a room doing everything but actually crawling forwards. She can roll. She can stand holding onto things and has starting moving one foot repeatedly back and forth while doing so. (Um, no, we're not about to let her know that she needs to move both feet in order to actually walk!)
In the grocery store today she was grabbing at things on the shelves. In Gymboree today she was grabbing at clothes on the racks. In the bookstore her eyes light up as she tries to get the books.
In other words, nothing is safe around this baby anymore! She will be 9 months old on Friday. She weighs about 22.5 pounds and I have no idea how long she is, only that she fits nicely into most 12-18 month clothing and even has a few 18-24 month pants for her rather chunky hips & thighs.
She has stood alone once for about 6 seconds so I suppose I can write it in her baby book. She loves to stand holding onto people or things. Our lovely Sears outlet activity table is her current favourite toy because she can hold onto it AND it makes noise!
People are for flirting with. Wherever we walk, people smile at us and it's always because the baby in the stroller is giving out HUGE smiles and looking up with those big, brown eyes of hers.
All that to say that it's time to put away the breakables and untouchables because Anna's on the move!
In the grocery store today she was grabbing at things on the shelves. In Gymboree today she was grabbing at clothes on the racks. In the bookstore her eyes light up as she tries to get the books.
In other words, nothing is safe around this baby anymore! She will be 9 months old on Friday. She weighs about 22.5 pounds and I have no idea how long she is, only that she fits nicely into most 12-18 month clothing and even has a few 18-24 month pants for her rather chunky hips & thighs.
She has stood alone once for about 6 seconds so I suppose I can write it in her baby book. She loves to stand holding onto people or things. Our lovely Sears outlet activity table is her current favourite toy because she can hold onto it AND it makes noise!
People are for flirting with. Wherever we walk, people smile at us and it's always because the baby in the stroller is giving out HUGE smiles and looking up with those big, brown eyes of hers.
All that to say that it's time to put away the breakables and untouchables because Anna's on the move!
Sassy little girl
Last night Rachel apparently gave the babysitter a hard time. We've both been out several nights in the past week as we had a couple of concerts booked back-to-back. We had three different babysitters in this past weekend, two of whom were new. Rachel coped very well but was apparently rather sassy to the last sitter.
We had told Rachel in front of the sitter that she could have up to 15 minutes of reading time in bed. The sitter let her know when it was time for lights out, and apparently Rachel started to cry and said she didn't like that. The sitter let her have a bit more time and then told her again that it was time to turn off the lights. At that, Rachel told her again that she didn't like the rule. She was told that it was her mommy and daddy's rule and she had to follow it. Rachel's response?
"I don't like that rule. Just call my mom and dad and tell them I don't like that rule and tell them it's ok to change it!"
Yeah. We had a little chat this morning. Mind you, we weren't entirely thrilled with this particular sitter for various reasons so I'm hoping the issue won't come up again.
We had told Rachel in front of the sitter that she could have up to 15 minutes of reading time in bed. The sitter let her know when it was time for lights out, and apparently Rachel started to cry and said she didn't like that. The sitter let her have a bit more time and then told her again that it was time to turn off the lights. At that, Rachel told her again that she didn't like the rule. She was told that it was her mommy and daddy's rule and she had to follow it. Rachel's response?
"I don't like that rule. Just call my mom and dad and tell them I don't like that rule and tell them it's ok to change it!"
Yeah. We had a little chat this morning. Mind you, we weren't entirely thrilled with this particular sitter for various reasons so I'm hoping the issue won't come up again.
Friday, November 07, 2008
Elephant Land
One good thing happened on May 2, 2007. We went to the Omaha Zoo that morning and bought Rachel the book, "If Elephants Wore Pants." It's all about Elephant Land.
Rachel has let her imagination carry her far away to Elephant Land which apparently is located wherever there is a herd of elephants, such as in her bedroom. In Elephant Land, elephants go elephotty instead of potty. They pick up their elephail, not the mail, and they enroll in Elephant Music instead of Kindermusik. In fact, there are several classes of Elephant Music depending on the elephant child's age:
Babies & 1 year olds go to Anna-Anna-Animals
2 & 3 year olds go to Little Animals
4 & 5 year olds go to Young Wild (Rachel's real Kindermusik program is Young Child)
The other night I was asked if I was free to babysit for Diana and Tuskie on Sunday night. Diana is a 5 year old elephant and Tuskie is her 2 year old sister. Apparently their elephant dad, Carle, has a rehearsal, and their mom, Rachel (yes, the human one!), has a wedding meeting. She needs to meet with an elephant bride to discuss the songs she wants for her walk in and her walk out. Choices currently being bandied about include "Climb on the elephant", "Star Light Star Bright" (a current Young Child song!) and "Twinkle Twinkle".
Rachel also enjoys playing Wedding Shop and Wedding Gig. She frequently discusses how her elephants' parents have rehearsals and concerts, and she has admitted on more than one occasion that she is the co-ordinator for an elephant's wedding.
Most kids play house and store. Mine plays Wedding Gig. Ha!
Rachel has let her imagination carry her far away to Elephant Land which apparently is located wherever there is a herd of elephants, such as in her bedroom. In Elephant Land, elephants go elephotty instead of potty. They pick up their elephail, not the mail, and they enroll in Elephant Music instead of Kindermusik. In fact, there are several classes of Elephant Music depending on the elephant child's age:
Babies & 1 year olds go to Anna-Anna-Animals
2 & 3 year olds go to Little Animals
4 & 5 year olds go to Young Wild (Rachel's real Kindermusik program is Young Child)
The other night I was asked if I was free to babysit for Diana and Tuskie on Sunday night. Diana is a 5 year old elephant and Tuskie is her 2 year old sister. Apparently their elephant dad, Carle, has a rehearsal, and their mom, Rachel (yes, the human one!), has a wedding meeting. She needs to meet with an elephant bride to discuss the songs she wants for her walk in and her walk out. Choices currently being bandied about include "Climb on the elephant", "Star Light Star Bright" (a current Young Child song!) and "Twinkle Twinkle".
Rachel also enjoys playing Wedding Shop and Wedding Gig. She frequently discusses how her elephants' parents have rehearsals and concerts, and she has admitted on more than one occasion that she is the co-ordinator for an elephant's wedding.
Most kids play house and store. Mine plays Wedding Gig. Ha!
Did someone mention Carmina Burana?
Darn that wheel of fate that keeps on turning...
A few days ago, a light came on in my van. It looked a lot like the "Put on your seatbelt, you idiot!" sign so I ignored it since clearly I was buckled in as were the kids (yes, I checked). It happened again a little while later, and I thought that maybe I had too much stuff in the front passenger seat and the sensors thought there was an actual person there.
The light didn't come on for a day or so, and then on Wednesday afternoon it came on again. I decided to look it up in my vehicle manual that was conveniently located in the glove box: "Take vehicle to Toyota dealership immediately." Yikes! It was not the seatbelt light, but the AIRBAG light! I couldn't think of any reason that it would be on other than driving over the curb trying to get out of the narrow bank drive-through lane that morning, but I was still fairly upset by it since I assumed that at the very least my airbags would not deploy if the sensors showed a problem.
We called the Toyota dealership and were able to get the van in on Thursday. The verdict? There's nothing wrong with it. In fact, the light probably came on due to kicking of the front passenger seat back where there are sensors located. *ding ding ding* Since the kids were with us, we had the nice service technician (who has a 2 year old and is expecting another baby) explain to Rachel the importance of NOT kicking the seat in front of her!! We have told her over and over not to do it... I'm really hoping that she understood the seriousness of it now.
$51 later (fee for re-setting the computer and performing the diagnostic tests) we were on our way.
Oh... The service technician also told us that he would be very surprised if Honda USA wouldn't have honoured any warranty for our Odyssey. He was shocked to hear our story and assured us that Toyota guarantees the warranty anywhere and would not charge us ridiculous amounts of money for "special Canadian parts" which he doesn't think actually exist. Nice, eh?
A few days ago, a light came on in my van. It looked a lot like the "Put on your seatbelt, you idiot!" sign so I ignored it since clearly I was buckled in as were the kids (yes, I checked). It happened again a little while later, and I thought that maybe I had too much stuff in the front passenger seat and the sensors thought there was an actual person there.
The light didn't come on for a day or so, and then on Wednesday afternoon it came on again. I decided to look it up in my vehicle manual that was conveniently located in the glove box: "Take vehicle to Toyota dealership immediately." Yikes! It was not the seatbelt light, but the AIRBAG light! I couldn't think of any reason that it would be on other than driving over the curb trying to get out of the narrow bank drive-through lane that morning, but I was still fairly upset by it since I assumed that at the very least my airbags would not deploy if the sensors showed a problem.
We called the Toyota dealership and were able to get the van in on Thursday. The verdict? There's nothing wrong with it. In fact, the light probably came on due to kicking of the front passenger seat back where there are sensors located. *ding ding ding* Since the kids were with us, we had the nice service technician (who has a 2 year old and is expecting another baby) explain to Rachel the importance of NOT kicking the seat in front of her!! We have told her over and over not to do it... I'm really hoping that she understood the seriousness of it now.
$51 later (fee for re-setting the computer and performing the diagnostic tests) we were on our way.
Oh... The service technician also told us that he would be very surprised if Honda USA wouldn't have honoured any warranty for our Odyssey. He was shocked to hear our story and assured us that Toyota guarantees the warranty anywhere and would not charge us ridiculous amounts of money for "special Canadian parts" which he doesn't think actually exist. Nice, eh?
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Good things to know
Self-policing: According to Rachel, it is inappropriate to read scary chapter books until you are 6 years old. It is apparently ok to read them if you read them with your mommy or daddy and you are reasonably certain that there will be a happy ending. Ha! That is the one downside to Rachel's advanced reading level - the material is starting to get a little bit outside of Rachel's comfort zone.
Animal identification: Yesterday at preschool, the "Zoo Mobile" came to visit. The pre-K classes shared a visit, and got to see a snake, chinchilla, toad and something else Rachel has either forgotten or simply won't share. The people from the zoo also brought with them something that was grey and had little hairs on it. They asked the children to guess what it was, and up shot Rachel's hand: "It's an elephant skin!" she exclaimed gleefully. I asked her after school where she thought the rest of the elephant was. Luckily, she said that she didn't know and she didn't seem too concerned!
Animal identification: Yesterday at preschool, the "Zoo Mobile" came to visit. The pre-K classes shared a visit, and got to see a snake, chinchilla, toad and something else Rachel has either forgotten or simply won't share. The people from the zoo also brought with them something that was grey and had little hairs on it. They asked the children to guess what it was, and up shot Rachel's hand: "It's an elephant skin!" she exclaimed gleefully. I asked her after school where she thought the rest of the elephant was. Luckily, she said that she didn't know and she didn't seem too concerned!
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Last day at the farm
Friday was the last day that the local petting farm was open for the season so we took advantage of the good weather and played outside for awhile!
They really have to stop taking pictures of me.
Anna has a onesie that says, "Mommy thinks she's in charge!" I had asked Ben to take a picture of her in it since she's just about outgrown it and I think it's cute. This isn't quite what I had in mind...
Here's to pachyderms!
These were all taken last weekend at "Boo at the Zoo" - I refrained from posting the picture of the girls with all their various elephants in the stroller. Yes, Anna has her own stuffed elephant in addition to borrowing Olly.
Because I can
I kept very few of Rachel's outfits for Anna, but I've been trying to get pictures of the few things that we do still have.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
A brief re-cap
Yesterday was a gorgeous day - warm, sunny, and not too much wind! We met some friends at the local petting farm and then headed to an outdoor mall for afternoon trick-or-treat. (thus keeping the concept of not going out on Shabbat while still managing to let the little elephant have some fun!) Rachel and her friend had a great time. This was the first year that Rachel really understood what was going on. She was quite adept at going up to people, opening her bag AND saying thank you!
Anna spit her way through her Halloween outfit and bib, and it was way too warm to put her in Rachel's old fleece skeleton sleeper, but she had a great time hanging over the stroller.
When I was getting Rachel ready for bed later, I noticed that there was some sticky stuff in her hair. "What got in your hair?" I asked. Rachel answered in a very serious voice, "I think that's sucker crap." I somehow managed to not burst into laughter and commented that perhaps it was time to think about getting her hair cut again since we've been having a lot of issues with tangly hair lately.
As a sort of funny aside, someone on one of the internet forums I post on commented that her son was an elephant and that was perhaps not a good choice of costume this year given the election. (The Republican symbol is an elephant.) Apparently he had people both cheering and jeering at him. Thankfully we had no comments. The last thing I'd want to do is be inadvertently "advertising" for an American political party! Oops!
Maybe next year we'll enter the world of full technicolour costumes. For those who missed my post last year (or have forgotten):
2004: skeleton
2005: cow
2006: elephant
2007: elephant
2008: elephant
I will eventually post pics. I'm on the wrong computer to do that right now.
Anna spit her way through her Halloween outfit and bib, and it was way too warm to put her in Rachel's old fleece skeleton sleeper, but she had a great time hanging over the stroller.
When I was getting Rachel ready for bed later, I noticed that there was some sticky stuff in her hair. "What got in your hair?" I asked. Rachel answered in a very serious voice, "I think that's sucker crap." I somehow managed to not burst into laughter and commented that perhaps it was time to think about getting her hair cut again since we've been having a lot of issues with tangly hair lately.
As a sort of funny aside, someone on one of the internet forums I post on commented that her son was an elephant and that was perhaps not a good choice of costume this year given the election. (The Republican symbol is an elephant.) Apparently he had people both cheering and jeering at him. Thankfully we had no comments. The last thing I'd want to do is be inadvertently "advertising" for an American political party! Oops!
Maybe next year we'll enter the world of full technicolour costumes. For those who missed my post last year (or have forgotten):
2004: skeleton
2005: cow
2006: elephant
2007: elephant
2008: elephant
I will eventually post pics. I'm on the wrong computer to do that right now.
Friday, October 31, 2008
It's 4 a.m. - do you know where your baby is?
I do. Mine is on the floor beside me playing oh-so-happily! I can't decide whether or not to be frustrated. She slept from 6:45 until 3:45 without getting up at all! That is a new Anna record: 9 hours!!!! She cried out a couple of times at around 11 p.m., but by the time I got upstairs she was fully asleep with an innocent "who, me?" expression. Ha!
Ben is convinced that Anna knows how to say poop because she said "poopoopoo" both times she pooped yesterday morning. I was laughing at him, but she said it after she pooped in her highchair, and she even said it while I was in the bathroom! She was saying it when I got her out of the crib this morning but she was clean then. Mind you, this kid seems to like having a clean diaper to poop in. She also just said "poopoopoo" and I heard suspicious noises. Guess I should go check that out...
Ben is convinced that Anna knows how to say poop because she said "poopoopoo" both times she pooped yesterday morning. I was laughing at him, but she said it after she pooped in her highchair, and she even said it while I was in the bathroom! She was saying it when I got her out of the crib this morning but she was clean then. Mind you, this kid seems to like having a clean diaper to poop in. She also just said "poopoopoo" and I heard suspicious noises. Guess I should go check that out...
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Fun times
Ben was at the barber the other day. Somehow it came up in conversation that Ben was Canadian. Like everyone else down here, the barber had no clue that Canada just had a federal election. After they were done talking about elections, the barber mentioned the American Revolution and then asked if there had been a Canadian Revolution too.
This afternoon at Rachel's Kindermusik class, some of the moms were chatting in the hallway. One mom used to live in Australia and she was talking about how Australians have a negative impression of Americans because all they knew was what they saw on American tv shows. *zips mouth firmly shut* She was also saying that people were constantly asking her if she was Canadian or American, and that she'd heard that Canadians get offended if they're asked if they're American. (Yes, all the moms know that we're Canadian) I couldn't deny the rumour, but I wouldn't confirm it either. Ha! Needless to say, they didn't understand the joke about how Canadians define themselves as "not American" because it's much easier to define what Canada is not than to define what it is.
This afternoon at Rachel's Kindermusik class, some of the moms were chatting in the hallway. One mom used to live in Australia and she was talking about how Australians have a negative impression of Americans because all they knew was what they saw on American tv shows. *zips mouth firmly shut* She was also saying that people were constantly asking her if she was Canadian or American, and that she'd heard that Canadians get offended if they're asked if they're American. (Yes, all the moms know that we're Canadian) I couldn't deny the rumour, but I wouldn't confirm it either. Ha! Needless to say, they didn't understand the joke about how Canadians define themselves as "not American" because it's much easier to define what Canada is not than to define what it is.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Meal planning Rachel-style
Last night I sat down to plan meals for the week and figure out a grocery list. Rachel wanted to help me, so she asked if she could look through one of the cookbooks while I looked through another one.
Once again, literacy is highly over-rated. Rachel picked out three recipes that she wanted to make this week, and insisted that I write them down on my list. Her choices:
1. Chocolate chip cookies
2. Best-ever brownies
3. Chocolate cake
Ha! We made the brownies today and they actually were pretty good. Rachel also had cooking class today. She told her teacher that it was funny that she had already baked today before she got to class. They "made" black forest torte. In reality, the teacher had bought the cake prior to class. They cut it, added the cherry filling and icing, and ate it. ;) Rachel didn't like it though. She told us that it tasted funny. Silly girl.
Once again, literacy is highly over-rated. Rachel picked out three recipes that she wanted to make this week, and insisted that I write them down on my list. Her choices:
1. Chocolate chip cookies
2. Best-ever brownies
3. Chocolate cake
Ha! We made the brownies today and they actually were pretty good. Rachel also had cooking class today. She told her teacher that it was funny that she had already baked today before she got to class. They "made" black forest torte. In reality, the teacher had bought the cake prior to class. They cut it, added the cherry filling and icing, and ate it. ;) Rachel didn't like it though. She told us that it tasted funny. Silly girl.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Party like it's 1999!
Ben is currently in Warrensburg, MO filling up his Civic for $2.01/gallon. For the Canucks, that's not much over $0.50/litre (in US$ admittedly, but even with the crappy exchange rate, it's only about $0.60/litre!!!).
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Health care
When the mastitis struck, I asked Ben to call a different doctor since we'd decided that we really disliked the doctor we'd used a few times last time we were down here. The clincher for me was when I took the girls with me a couple of weeks ago and he didn't remember seeing Rachel 4 days prior with Ben. I know doctors are busy and I've been spoiled with my doctor at home, but I was just unimpressed all around.
Ben called a clinic nearer to our house, and got me an appointment with a female doctor. She confirmed that it was mastitis, and asked if I had any drug allergies. I truthfully said that I had no confirmed allergies, but I had very bad reactions to penicillin and erythromycin (or however you spell that!). She told me that I might just have to be a little nauseous in order to get better and went ahead and prescribed a penicillin-based drug. The pharmacist at Costco told Ben that there was a 10% chance of nausea with the drug to start with. Lovely, eh?
She also prescribed Tylenol 3 (the ones with codeine) for the pain. The next morning, I started throwing up so I stopped both drugs and went back to extra strength tylenol. Ben called and found out that the doctor I had seen was not in but another doctor could fit me in and possibly give me a shot of medication. This sounded good to me, so back I went to the money-hungry medical people.
This doctor looked at me, confirmed (duh) that I still had mastitis and said that he would give me a shot of a different medication. He felt that this would work better to fight the infection because it would bypass the stomach. I was feeling better about the situation until he told me that after 24 hours I should start on the antibiotics again because it was really important to finish them, and my stomach should be able to tolerate the drugs better after the shot. (The theory was that the shot would get things going in terms of fighting the infection and then my stomach wouldn't be so sensitive!?!?) My faith in all things medical was rapidly going downhill at this point. He also said something about possibly coming back for a second shot.
The next day, I felt a lot better, but still wasn't enthused about starting the drugs again, so Ben left a detailed message at noon asking about whether I needed to do that or whether I needed to come in for another shot. My call wasn't returned until 4:30pm despite the on-call nurse telling Ben that someone would call back shortly. By 4:30, I was gone. The message stated simply that they didn't understand my message, and could I please call back. *GRR*
By this point, I decided that I would just make sure to pump several times/day and nurse in the morning and/or evening to ensure that the mastitis would keep clearing up and I would avoid possible engorgement and re-infection. Over the next day or two, the doctor's office left several messages, none of which we returned since they were indicating that the doctor wanted to see me again. Um, no thanks. Why would I want to spend even more money to be told I needed to take drugs that I had TOLD her would make me sick?!?! Yes, I know that it would have been polite to call back, but I didn't have it in me to be civil about this at all, and neither did Ben.
It's now 12 days since the mastitis first surfaced. I am pumping twice/day and hoping to drop down to once over the next week or two.
And this will likely be the last post about me and "the girls". Hahaha. I know everyone out there will miss these posts oh-so-much. ;)
Ben called a clinic nearer to our house, and got me an appointment with a female doctor. She confirmed that it was mastitis, and asked if I had any drug allergies. I truthfully said that I had no confirmed allergies, but I had very bad reactions to penicillin and erythromycin (or however you spell that!). She told me that I might just have to be a little nauseous in order to get better and went ahead and prescribed a penicillin-based drug. The pharmacist at Costco told Ben that there was a 10% chance of nausea with the drug to start with. Lovely, eh?
She also prescribed Tylenol 3 (the ones with codeine) for the pain. The next morning, I started throwing up so I stopped both drugs and went back to extra strength tylenol. Ben called and found out that the doctor I had seen was not in but another doctor could fit me in and possibly give me a shot of medication. This sounded good to me, so back I went to the money-hungry medical people.
This doctor looked at me, confirmed (duh) that I still had mastitis and said that he would give me a shot of a different medication. He felt that this would work better to fight the infection because it would bypass the stomach. I was feeling better about the situation until he told me that after 24 hours I should start on the antibiotics again because it was really important to finish them, and my stomach should be able to tolerate the drugs better after the shot. (The theory was that the shot would get things going in terms of fighting the infection and then my stomach wouldn't be so sensitive!?!?) My faith in all things medical was rapidly going downhill at this point. He also said something about possibly coming back for a second shot.
The next day, I felt a lot better, but still wasn't enthused about starting the drugs again, so Ben left a detailed message at noon asking about whether I needed to do that or whether I needed to come in for another shot. My call wasn't returned until 4:30pm despite the on-call nurse telling Ben that someone would call back shortly. By 4:30, I was gone. The message stated simply that they didn't understand my message, and could I please call back. *GRR*
By this point, I decided that I would just make sure to pump several times/day and nurse in the morning and/or evening to ensure that the mastitis would keep clearing up and I would avoid possible engorgement and re-infection. Over the next day or two, the doctor's office left several messages, none of which we returned since they were indicating that the doctor wanted to see me again. Um, no thanks. Why would I want to spend even more money to be told I needed to take drugs that I had TOLD her would make me sick?!?! Yes, I know that it would have been polite to call back, but I didn't have it in me to be civil about this at all, and neither did Ben.
It's now 12 days since the mastitis first surfaced. I am pumping twice/day and hoping to drop down to once over the next week or two.
And this will likely be the last post about me and "the girls". Hahaha. I know everyone out there will miss these posts oh-so-much. ;)
Anna, Anna, Anna
Anna finally cut her first tooth yesterday. Or at least yesterday was when I remembered to check and saw that the entire width of the tooth has finally poked through. So at 8 months and 11 days she is no longer toothless. Conveniently enough, since I developed mastitis on Oct.14 (Anna's 8 month birthday!), Anna went on a [would-have-been] temporary nursing strike. I took it and ran with the concept, so now I'm down to pumping twice a day, and Anna nurses in the early morning maybe once every couple of days.
I think she's figured out that I've taken something away from her because every once in awhile she roots around and tries to throw herself onto me. It's kind of funny! Mind you, she does the exact same thing when she sees a bottle coming her way. She'll take a bottle from me now, although she prefers it from Ben since she was already used to that. Avent finally came out with a BPA-free bottle, so we're back to the familiar bottles we used with Rachel! They're a much better size all around.
As for me, I need a new career. I can clearly no longer be a porn star without H cups. Hahaha. Seriously, I'm thrilled! I've already dropped down a couple sizes and my back doesn't hurt as much, although I'm sure that's partially from sleeping in bed on a regular basis for the first time in 9 months!
Oh, and if you've never had it, mastitis sucks. So does the American health-lack-of-care system, but that's another post altogether. I dread the bills from that fiasco.
I think she's figured out that I've taken something away from her because every once in awhile she roots around and tries to throw herself onto me. It's kind of funny! Mind you, she does the exact same thing when she sees a bottle coming her way. She'll take a bottle from me now, although she prefers it from Ben since she was already used to that. Avent finally came out with a BPA-free bottle, so we're back to the familiar bottles we used with Rachel! They're a much better size all around.
As for me, I need a new career. I can clearly no longer be a porn star without H cups. Hahaha. Seriously, I'm thrilled! I've already dropped down a couple sizes and my back doesn't hurt as much, although I'm sure that's partially from sleeping in bed on a regular basis for the first time in 9 months!
Oh, and if you've never had it, mastitis sucks. So does the American health-lack-of-care system, but that's another post altogether. I dread the bills from that fiasco.
Boo at the zoo
We went to "Boo at the Zoo" and had a great time! The weather was perfect... cool, crisp fall air, but sunny and warm enough to be comfortable. I'll upload pics hopefully later tonight, but first a couple of quick stories.
On the way there, Rachel was asking about the Halloween candy and when she could eat it. I couldn't resist, so I told her that I thought you had to wait until Halloween. She thought about this and then said, "It would be inappropriate to eat Halloween candy before Halloween. Only ON Halloween you can eat it." That led to a discussion about whether or not you could eat candy on November 1st. Rachel decided that it was ok to do that. She cracks me up. If we follow her rules, there are still five more days before she can have any candy.
I was surprised at the number of people who tried to give Anna candy! "Does she have a bag?" "No, she's too little." "Oh, can I give her [Rachel] one for the baby?" "No, the baby doesn't need candy, but thank you." Anna loved wearing her costume and hammed it up for everyone who looked her way. At one point, we were taking pictures of the girls sitting on a haystack and a zoo employee asked if she could take a picture of them too!
We all rode on the carousel and both girls enjoyed it although Rachel was adamant that Ben not let go of her at all! Rachel rode the elephant, and Anna rode on the warthog because it was next to the elephant.
On the way there, Rachel was asking about the Halloween candy and when she could eat it. I couldn't resist, so I told her that I thought you had to wait until Halloween. She thought about this and then said, "It would be inappropriate to eat Halloween candy before Halloween. Only ON Halloween you can eat it." That led to a discussion about whether or not you could eat candy on November 1st. Rachel decided that it was ok to do that. She cracks me up. If we follow her rules, there are still five more days before she can have any candy.
I was surprised at the number of people who tried to give Anna candy! "Does she have a bag?" "No, she's too little." "Oh, can I give her [Rachel] one for the baby?" "No, the baby doesn't need candy, but thank you." Anna loved wearing her costume and hammed it up for everyone who looked her way. At one point, we were taking pictures of the girls sitting on a haystack and a zoo employee asked if she could take a picture of them too!
We all rode on the carousel and both girls enjoyed it although Rachel was adamant that Ben not let go of her at all! Rachel rode the elephant, and Anna rode on the warthog because it was next to the elephant.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Chag sameach, pass the barf bucket!
So much for hearing Rachel's pre-K religious school class sing at Simchat Torah services this morning. We got there on time. Just before going in to the service, I sat down to look at an older lady's pictures of her twin grandchildren and looked up to see Rachel randomly throwing up all over herself. Oops. She's perked up considerably since getting home and finding out that being "sick" means that I'm willing to let her watch as much "on demand" tv as she wants. Since she almost never wants to watch tv, I'm happy to indulge on a day like this.
Anyway, last week for Sukkot, we missed services both days because I developed mastitis. We missed the second day of Rosh Hashanah because Rachel had a bad cold and both Anna and I were feeling miserable too.
We did attend part of last night's Simchat Torah service, but left early because Rachel was acting "off" and Anna was ready for bed. I let Rachel have a hot dog since that's what they were serving for dinner, but I don't really think that's what caused her to barf since in retrospect she was acting funny almost right after dinner last night.
Good thing there aren't any more Jewish holidays until Hannukah!
Anyway, last week for Sukkot, we missed services both days because I developed mastitis. We missed the second day of Rosh Hashanah because Rachel had a bad cold and both Anna and I were feeling miserable too.
We did attend part of last night's Simchat Torah service, but left early because Rachel was acting "off" and Anna was ready for bed. I let Rachel have a hot dog since that's what they were serving for dinner, but I don't really think that's what caused her to barf since in retrospect she was acting funny almost right after dinner last night.
Good thing there aren't any more Jewish holidays until Hannukah!
Monday, October 20, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
How could I leave this dress in the store?
It obviously needed to be on my daughter. The onesie underneath is sadly almost too small already (and it's a 12 month onesie!!) but it says "High maintenance." Oh, how true...
Sisters at the pumpkin patch
Yesterday we went to the Louisburg Cider Mill (thanks for the idea, Laura!) with Grandma and Grandpa, and had a great time. We saw cider and donuts being made, played in the pumpkin patch, and more importantly, we ate fresh donuts. Even Anna managed to grab one from me and stuff about half of it in her mouth before I could stop her. That's my Canadian girl! (Incidentally, she left me with the scrap I was going to give her. Apparently my feeding methods are not satisfactory.)
Since our camera battery charger has gone AWOL, we used the disposable cameras I had bought for Rachel's preschool before finding out that they wanted money from everyone to go to a digital camera for the classroom. (Going off on a slight tangent, the digital camera is a great idea. But telling me the day before school starts that I need to bring $15 instead of the already-bought-and-opened disposable cameras did not make me very happy.) Anyhow, these pictures are courtesy of Grandpa.
I've been waiting a long time for a picture like this...
"Hmm. What is this? Can I eat it? More importantly, can I eat it before they take it away?"
Dancing in the pumpkin patch
Since our camera battery charger has gone AWOL, we used the disposable cameras I had bought for Rachel's preschool before finding out that they wanted money from everyone to go to a digital camera for the classroom. (Going off on a slight tangent, the digital camera is a great idea. But telling me the day before school starts that I need to bring $15 instead of the already-bought-and-opened disposable cameras did not make me very happy.) Anyhow, these pictures are courtesy of Grandpa.
I've been waiting a long time for a picture like this...
"Hmm. What is this? Can I eat it? More importantly, can I eat it before they take it away?"
Dancing in the pumpkin patch
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Before I forget...
I suppose the sibling rivalry had to show up sooner or later. Since Anna is becoming more and more a little person rather than this random blob who cries, Rachel has become increasingly whiny and protective of all things that are hers.
We have discussed how it is important to keep her toys out of Anna's reach since many of them contain small parts. We have also discussed how we will share some things, but each girl will have her own toys and books too.
So of course Rachel feels the need to try to play with Anna's toys all of the time, but woe unto Anna if she reaches for something of Rachel's!
My favourite incident happened the other day. I was reading Rachel one of her books, and Anna was on my lap. At one point, Anna reached over for the book. Since it wasn't a board book, I gently removed her hands and told her no. Rachel got all upset. I pointed out that it wasn't a big deal. "But Mom, Anna's NAILS were touching my book!"
And now I think I've heard it all.
We have discussed how it is important to keep her toys out of Anna's reach since many of them contain small parts. We have also discussed how we will share some things, but each girl will have her own toys and books too.
So of course Rachel feels the need to try to play with Anna's toys all of the time, but woe unto Anna if she reaches for something of Rachel's!
My favourite incident happened the other day. I was reading Rachel one of her books, and Anna was on my lap. At one point, Anna reached over for the book. Since it wasn't a board book, I gently removed her hands and told her no. Rachel got all upset. I pointed out that it wasn't a big deal. "But Mom, Anna's NAILS were touching my book!"
And now I think I've heard it all.
Cooking class
Rachel started cooking classes at the JCC on Monday. She was very excited and barely looked back as I dropped her off. When we picked her up an hour later, she came out proudly carrying a piece of apple crisp that she had baked. She was ridiculously excited because the teacher gave them a card with the recipe on it. In fact, the recipe card went to bed with her that night.
While we were driving home, Rachel insisted on reading the recipe card to us. She told us all about the modifications they had made in class, and how we should do it if we made it at home. Then she told us about the vanilla ice cream. "That's optional," she said cheerfully. She has asked if we can buy vanilla ice cream every day since Monday, but I'm sure she'll forget about it soon enough!
While we were driving home, Rachel insisted on reading the recipe card to us. She told us all about the modifications they had made in class, and how we should do it if we made it at home. Then she told us about the vanilla ice cream. "That's optional," she said cheerfully. She has asked if we can buy vanilla ice cream every day since Monday, but I'm sure she'll forget about it soon enough!
Perhaps we're too informal around here
Recent Rachel quotes:
While playing doctor, Rachel checked my ears. "A little wax." She checked my nose. "No snots." She checked my eyes. "No sleep goopies."
Tonight at dinner (which happened to be shake'n'bake chicken. No judgment please, I'm tired!):
Mom: "Rachel, you need to eat your chicken."
Rachel: "I don't like it."
Mom: "Why not?"
Rachel: "When I stab it with my fork it leaves chicken goobies on my plate."
While playing doctor, Rachel checked my ears. "A little wax." She checked my nose. "No snots." She checked my eyes. "No sleep goopies."
Tonight at dinner (which happened to be shake'n'bake chicken. No judgment please, I'm tired!):
Mom: "Rachel, you need to eat your chicken."
Rachel: "I don't like it."
Mom: "Why not?"
Rachel: "When I stab it with my fork it leaves chicken goobies on my plate."
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Well, that was awkward
Tonight we had a gig with our friend C. After the gig, we decided to go out for dinner since we were done a bit early. We headed to Cheesecake Factory where I ordered the beef ribs. I figured I might as well splurge since it's my birthday tomorrow!
When the food arrived, it was placed in front of us as per usual in a restaurant. Too bad the server misjudged where he put my plate and one of the beef ribs was, well, poking my cleavage. The server looked very embarrassed and clearly didn't know what to do or say, so C oh-so-nicely broke the ice by saying, "Well, that's awkward."
As soon as the server left, we all cracked up. I knew the girls were big, but I can honestly say I've never had a beef rib poking me before. ;)
So here's to me and my H cups! Happy 33rd birthday!
When the food arrived, it was placed in front of us as per usual in a restaurant. Too bad the server misjudged where he put my plate and one of the beef ribs was, well, poking my cleavage. The server looked very embarrassed and clearly didn't know what to do or say, so C oh-so-nicely broke the ice by saying, "Well, that's awkward."
As soon as the server left, we all cracked up. I knew the girls were big, but I can honestly say I've never had a beef rib poking me before. ;)
So here's to me and my H cups! Happy 33rd birthday!
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
The spoon is not the enemy!
Yay! Anna had about a dozen spoonfuls of applesauce this afternoon and didn't spit any of it back out! This is the first time in over 2 months of eating "solids" that she has consented to being fed something with a pureed consistency. Maybe that box of baby cereal won't be a total waste after all!
That's it. We're night-weaning.
Last night the girls got to bed late. Since Rachel had gotten up at 7:15, I wasn't that concerned about it. Anna slept from approximately 8-11 and then wanted to nurse. Since Ben was in London for the night, I decided to just put her in our bed after she was done nursing. That lasted for a whopping hour during which I barely slept - I'm not sure why, because I don't usually have trouble sleeping if Anna's in bed with us.
Anna was up again at 12:20. Fine. Rachel came trotting in with her favourite elephant, pillow, and Blanket Elephant (who is really a pillow sham) at 1 a.m. saying she'd had a bad dream. I told her to hop in bed since there was plenty of room.
I put Anna back in her crib. No dice. After sometime between 1-2 a.m. I quit trying and resigned myself to another restless night of her flipping around on me on the recliner.
At 5:30 a.m. the little so-and-so was wide awake. I really didn't want to wake up Rachel, so we came downstairs and Anna played while I surfed the net and contemplated sticking toothpicks between my eyelids to keep them open.
By 6:30, I could see that Anna was getting tired so I hauled her upstairs to nurse her back to sleep. Rachel woke up at 6:45 (fine by me) and I convinced her to read in bed while I finished nursing Anna and put her back in her crib. I put Anna in the crib at approximately 6:48 a.m. It is now 9:10 a.m. and Anna is still sleeping.
I'm going to have to go wake her up in a minute so we can get Rachel to preschool.
Did I mention that it's raining and we couldn't find a babysitter for my choir performance tonight in which I am not only singing but accompanying 4 songs and playing violin for another? This should be fun...
Anna was up again at 12:20. Fine. Rachel came trotting in with her favourite elephant, pillow, and Blanket Elephant (who is really a pillow sham) at 1 a.m. saying she'd had a bad dream. I told her to hop in bed since there was plenty of room.
I put Anna back in her crib. No dice. After sometime between 1-2 a.m. I quit trying and resigned myself to another restless night of her flipping around on me on the recliner.
At 5:30 a.m. the little so-and-so was wide awake. I really didn't want to wake up Rachel, so we came downstairs and Anna played while I surfed the net and contemplated sticking toothpicks between my eyelids to keep them open.
By 6:30, I could see that Anna was getting tired so I hauled her upstairs to nurse her back to sleep. Rachel woke up at 6:45 (fine by me) and I convinced her to read in bed while I finished nursing Anna and put her back in her crib. I put Anna in the crib at approximately 6:48 a.m. It is now 9:10 a.m. and Anna is still sleeping.
I'm going to have to go wake her up in a minute so we can get Rachel to preschool.
Did I mention that it's raining and we couldn't find a babysitter for my choir performance tonight in which I am not only singing but accompanying 4 songs and playing violin for another? This should be fun...
Saturday, October 04, 2008
An Anna update
I need to upload pictures, but until then the typewritten word will simply have to do.
On Friday night, both Ben and I had "stern" talks with Anna before bedtime. I explained to her that her job was to stay asleep in her bed at night. She nursed almost to sleep in our room just after 7pm, then woke up and spit up on my shoulder when I moved her to her crib at 7:15. Apparently she wasn't a fan of the new regime.
She fell asleep quickly and easily while listening to her crib aquarium, and I didn't hear from her until 10:25 when she started to wake up, but was happily appeased by the replacement of Sucky in her mouth. I fed her at 11:30, and again at 2 which didn't seem too bad.
When I heard her again at 3, I asked Ben to go get her. He didn't come back for awhile, and when he did, he was all by himself! When I asked him where Anna was, he told me that when he picked Anna up, she'd yawned and started to close her eyes so he just rocked her to sleep. Yay!
I woke up at around 5:30 to find myself nursing Anna in the recliner. I don't remember getting there, but Ben thinks he brought Anna to me at around 5. So all in all, it wasn't a bad night.
Last night was rough. We were out for a gig in the early evening (that was rough too, but I digress!) and got home to find that the sitter had just managed to get Anna to sleep. Poor baby was shudder-sobbing with every breath in her sleep! I'd had a feeling it might not be an easy night since she'd woken up from her last nap at 2pm and was therefore overtired and crabby for the sitter. So I think we were up last night at 10:30, 1, 2, 3-something when Anna got up for a couple of hours, 5, etc. It wasn't pretty.
I'm hoping to get her down by around 7:30 tonight. I'm also hoping that she'll sleep well and not be up too early since Ben leaves for London tomorrow afternoon, thus making me the sole responsible person in this household for the better (or worse!) part of 54 hours. To be fair, he leaves for work at 6:15 Monday morning, flies out in the afternoon, and will be home by 9pm Tues. night. However, he leaves again for work at 6:15 Wednesday morning, so Rachel won't see him from tonight until Wednesday afternoon.
On Friday night, both Ben and I had "stern" talks with Anna before bedtime. I explained to her that her job was to stay asleep in her bed at night. She nursed almost to sleep in our room just after 7pm, then woke up and spit up on my shoulder when I moved her to her crib at 7:15. Apparently she wasn't a fan of the new regime.
She fell asleep quickly and easily while listening to her crib aquarium, and I didn't hear from her until 10:25 when she started to wake up, but was happily appeased by the replacement of Sucky in her mouth. I fed her at 11:30, and again at 2 which didn't seem too bad.
When I heard her again at 3, I asked Ben to go get her. He didn't come back for awhile, and when he did, he was all by himself! When I asked him where Anna was, he told me that when he picked Anna up, she'd yawned and started to close her eyes so he just rocked her to sleep. Yay!
I woke up at around 5:30 to find myself nursing Anna in the recliner. I don't remember getting there, but Ben thinks he brought Anna to me at around 5. So all in all, it wasn't a bad night.
Last night was rough. We were out for a gig in the early evening (that was rough too, but I digress!) and got home to find that the sitter had just managed to get Anna to sleep. Poor baby was shudder-sobbing with every breath in her sleep! I'd had a feeling it might not be an easy night since she'd woken up from her last nap at 2pm and was therefore overtired and crabby for the sitter. So I think we were up last night at 10:30, 1, 2, 3-something when Anna got up for a couple of hours, 5, etc. It wasn't pretty.
I'm hoping to get her down by around 7:30 tonight. I'm also hoping that she'll sleep well and not be up too early since Ben leaves for London tomorrow afternoon, thus making me the sole responsible person in this household for the better (or worse!) part of 54 hours. To be fair, he leaves for work at 6:15 Monday morning, flies out in the afternoon, and will be home by 9pm Tues. night. However, he leaves again for work at 6:15 Wednesday morning, so Rachel won't see him from tonight until Wednesday afternoon.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Anna has a new favourite game
Since Anna seems to have a need to be held nearly all the time, I've been trying to come up with new, fun things to do with her. I should have thought a little harder before trying what we did today. I held her upright and twirled around really fast in my office chair. She loved it and was giggling and babbling the entire time. I, on the other hand, am feeling every moment of my nearly 33 years even after alternating directions after twirling too long one way.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
I don't think that F really stands for Fahrenheit
Today is September 28th. It is clearly supposed to be fall.
So why on earth was the high today 92F!??!?!?! For those of us who are Celsius lovers and/or connoisseurs, that's approximately 33C. Again, I repeat, IT IS SEPTEMBER. It's practically October.
I feel gypped out of a real fall. And more than slightly overheated. We went to a children's art festival at the local arboretum this afternoon and left earlier than we'd planned because it was honestly just too hot to be outside. Mind you, Rachel got an ice cream cone, so she was quite happy. She also got a butterfly painted on her cheek. That wasn't quite as exciting as the elephant she got on her face at the Plaza Art Fair last weekend, but it was apparently still pretty fun.
So why on earth was the high today 92F!??!?!?! For those of us who are Celsius lovers and/or connoisseurs, that's approximately 33C. Again, I repeat, IT IS SEPTEMBER. It's practically October.
I feel gypped out of a real fall. And more than slightly overheated. We went to a children's art festival at the local arboretum this afternoon and left earlier than we'd planned because it was honestly just too hot to be outside. Mind you, Rachel got an ice cream cone, so she was quite happy. She also got a butterfly painted on her cheek. That wasn't quite as exciting as the elephant she got on her face at the Plaza Art Fair last weekend, but it was apparently still pretty fun.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
We should listen to the baby more often
Last night while I was on the phone with a friend, Anna started saying, "Mmm.... mmm... ma.... ma..." Naturally, I got all excited since it was clear to me at the time that she was saying Mama!
I should have paid closer attention. Later that night, Ben and I were each sitting at our respective computers. I was finishing up pumping while chatting online with a friend. All of a sudden, Ben said, "Don't panic, but there's a MOUSE."
Me: "WHERE?!?!?"
Ben: "It just ran right by you."
Me: "WHAT!?!???!?!?"
(Clearly Anna had been trying to warn us by attempting to say "mouse" even though said rodent did not show up until well after the kids were in bed.)
Yes, I jumped up on the nearest chair and began to freak out. After all, I had just seen the mouse. It was rather large and dark. We concluded that it had gone underneath our large, unwieldy (but very handy and cheap from IKEA!) computer armoire. Ben started moving things and sure enough, the mouse ran out. He whacked at it with a broom but was unsuccessful. I then spotted it in our front hall between a baby gate and a white board that we have yet to put away. Ben opened the front door and tried to chase it out. Too bad the mouse went the other way.
We spent a long time searching for it. I even set out chunks of cheese all around the main floor. We are 99% sure that it did not go upstairs, but we closed the bedroom doors while we searched downstairs, just to be sure.
Finally, Ben went to Wal-Mart to buy traps, but he came back with glue traps instead of snap traps. Oops. We set them out anyway, with chunks of cheese for good measure.
This morning there was nothing in any of the traps. We searched all over again, but couldn't find anything. Ben bought a couple of snap traps and set them out, and supposedly someone is coming out to take care of things this afternoon. (Ben had called the development company we are renting from. Perhaps last week's ants were our problem, but as far as I am concerned, the mouse is NOT my problem alone to solve!)
I do find it comical that Ben and I couldn't catch a MOUSE with cheese, but we had no trouble at all catching a hamster with cheese about 10.5 years ago. More on that later.
I should have paid closer attention. Later that night, Ben and I were each sitting at our respective computers. I was finishing up pumping while chatting online with a friend. All of a sudden, Ben said, "Don't panic, but there's a MOUSE."
Me: "WHERE?!?!?"
Ben: "It just ran right by you."
Me: "WHAT!?!???!?!?"
(Clearly Anna had been trying to warn us by attempting to say "mouse" even though said rodent did not show up until well after the kids were in bed.)
Yes, I jumped up on the nearest chair and began to freak out. After all, I had just seen the mouse. It was rather large and dark. We concluded that it had gone underneath our large, unwieldy (but very handy and cheap from IKEA!) computer armoire. Ben started moving things and sure enough, the mouse ran out. He whacked at it with a broom but was unsuccessful. I then spotted it in our front hall between a baby gate and a white board that we have yet to put away. Ben opened the front door and tried to chase it out. Too bad the mouse went the other way.
We spent a long time searching for it. I even set out chunks of cheese all around the main floor. We are 99% sure that it did not go upstairs, but we closed the bedroom doors while we searched downstairs, just to be sure.
Finally, Ben went to Wal-Mart to buy traps, but he came back with glue traps instead of snap traps. Oops. We set them out anyway, with chunks of cheese for good measure.
This morning there was nothing in any of the traps. We searched all over again, but couldn't find anything. Ben bought a couple of snap traps and set them out, and supposedly someone is coming out to take care of things this afternoon. (Ben had called the development company we are renting from. Perhaps last week's ants were our problem, but as far as I am concerned, the mouse is NOT my problem alone to solve!)
I do find it comical that Ben and I couldn't catch a MOUSE with cheese, but we had no trouble at all catching a hamster with cheese about 10.5 years ago. More on that later.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Will crawl for shoes, take two!
I felt that this deserved a post of its own. Anna tried her hardest to crawl today while in Stride Rite. Although she didn't quite get there, she got up on her hands and knees and was trying her utmost to push herself forward.
She tried again in the suit store, but decided that store was too boring and it wasn't worth the effort. Yes, Ben got three new suits today. It was "buy one get two free" suit day at Jos.A.Bank (www.josbank.com). Yes, the one suit was pricy, but overall it was a good deal and now we don't have to buy Ben any work clothes for years! (We'll ignore the fact that he'll be shirtless and tieless, haha)
She tried again in the suit store, but decided that store was too boring and it wasn't worth the effort. Yes, Ben got three new suits today. It was "buy one get two free" suit day at Jos.A.Bank (www.josbank.com). Yes, the one suit was pricy, but overall it was a good deal and now we don't have to buy Ben any work clothes for years! (We'll ignore the fact that he'll be shirtless and tieless, haha)
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
She'll never be a dictator's wife now.
My daughter is not destined for fame as an owner of too many pairs of shoes, that's for sure. No Bata Shoe Museum, no Imelda Marcos with shoes for any and every occasion.
Why, you ask? Oh, no reason. It's not like my daughter OUTGREW her shoes in ONE MONTH!!!!! Actually, she did. At least it's given me something to blog about today.
When we moved home from Kansas City in spring 2007, my mother had kindly bought way ahead a pair of size 12 running shoes for Rachel. She spent her year in London basically not growing at all in shoe size. When we were in KC this past April, we ended up buying her running shoes in size 11.5 because she just wasn't ready for the 12s yet even though she'd outgrown her 11s.
This summer Rachel had 2 pairs of sandals in size 12 - pretty pink for everyday, and dressy white for shul and other dress-up occasions. She finally grew into her size 12 runners in mid-August and I believe that she first wore them to pre-school on Aug.25. We made a trip to the Stride Rite outlet in late August, and bought Rachel cute suede-like tall lace-up shoes with light-up flowers. She loves them. They are size 12. We also bought her black dress shoes which she has yet to wear. Size? You guessed it - 12 again. We had her sized both at the regular Stride Rite and at the outlet and she measured a 12.
2.5 weeks ago we bought her fancy white dress shoes for Aunt Rebecca's wedding at the Stride Rite outlet in Lee, MA for $20. Yup, size 12.
She also has last year's winter boots in a size 12.
So let's do the math. That's 2 pairs of sandals, 1 pair of lace-up shoes, 1 pair of runners, 2 pairs of dress shoes and 1 pair of boots, all in size 12. I was just thinking the other day how Rachel currently has more shoes than she's ever had at one time before. Since she has wide feet and her shoes are usually expensive, we tend to buy one of each kind that she needs. Although I love the outlet, it's hit or miss for stock, and the service isn't usually very good. I don't believe in skimping on kids shoes since I have such a hard time myself finding good quality shoes that fit properly.
Fast forward to today. I met my friend L and her kids at the mall for lunch at Panera. After lunch, we went to the play area, ogled cute clothes at Gymboree, (and made plans for our Gymbucks, woohoo!) and then the trouble began.
I commented that I wanted to look at Stride Rite for brown dress shoes for Rachel since her school picture day is tomorrow and she's going to be wearing a brown dress. Just for kicks, I asked them to measure Rachel, even though she's been measured 2 or 3 times at different stores in the past month and has consistently measured at a 12W.
By now (ok, long before now), I'm sure you can all see where this is going. My daughter no longer wears a size 12 shoe. No, Rachel is now in a size 13. *thud* (That was the sound of my jaw dropping) *whine* (That was what I proceeded to do for the next half hour or so, especially since she's worn her super-cool light-up shoes maybe four times and has yet to even put on her black dress shoes.)
$108 later, Rachel now has pretty runners and a pair of brown dress shoes. I'll have to find my Stride Rite outlet receipt. Since she hasn't worn the black shoes, if it's within 30 days I can still return them. I guess I'm SOL on the rest. E-bay, anyone?!?!
Why, you ask? Oh, no reason. It's not like my daughter OUTGREW her shoes in ONE MONTH!!!!! Actually, she did. At least it's given me something to blog about today.
When we moved home from Kansas City in spring 2007, my mother had kindly bought way ahead a pair of size 12 running shoes for Rachel. She spent her year in London basically not growing at all in shoe size. When we were in KC this past April, we ended up buying her running shoes in size 11.5 because she just wasn't ready for the 12s yet even though she'd outgrown her 11s.
This summer Rachel had 2 pairs of sandals in size 12 - pretty pink for everyday, and dressy white for shul and other dress-up occasions. She finally grew into her size 12 runners in mid-August and I believe that she first wore them to pre-school on Aug.25. We made a trip to the Stride Rite outlet in late August, and bought Rachel cute suede-like tall lace-up shoes with light-up flowers. She loves them. They are size 12. We also bought her black dress shoes which she has yet to wear. Size? You guessed it - 12 again. We had her sized both at the regular Stride Rite and at the outlet and she measured a 12.
2.5 weeks ago we bought her fancy white dress shoes for Aunt Rebecca's wedding at the Stride Rite outlet in Lee, MA for $20. Yup, size 12.
She also has last year's winter boots in a size 12.
So let's do the math. That's 2 pairs of sandals, 1 pair of lace-up shoes, 1 pair of runners, 2 pairs of dress shoes and 1 pair of boots, all in size 12. I was just thinking the other day how Rachel currently has more shoes than she's ever had at one time before. Since she has wide feet and her shoes are usually expensive, we tend to buy one of each kind that she needs. Although I love the outlet, it's hit or miss for stock, and the service isn't usually very good. I don't believe in skimping on kids shoes since I have such a hard time myself finding good quality shoes that fit properly.
Fast forward to today. I met my friend L and her kids at the mall for lunch at Panera. After lunch, we went to the play area, ogled cute clothes at Gymboree, (and made plans for our Gymbucks, woohoo!) and then the trouble began.
I commented that I wanted to look at Stride Rite for brown dress shoes for Rachel since her school picture day is tomorrow and she's going to be wearing a brown dress. Just for kicks, I asked them to measure Rachel, even though she's been measured 2 or 3 times at different stores in the past month and has consistently measured at a 12W.
By now (ok, long before now), I'm sure you can all see where this is going. My daughter no longer wears a size 12 shoe. No, Rachel is now in a size 13. *thud* (That was the sound of my jaw dropping) *whine* (That was what I proceeded to do for the next half hour or so, especially since she's worn her super-cool light-up shoes maybe four times and has yet to even put on her black dress shoes.)
$108 later, Rachel now has pretty runners and a pair of brown dress shoes. I'll have to find my Stride Rite outlet receipt. Since she hasn't worn the black shoes, if it's within 30 days I can still return them. I guess I'm SOL on the rest. E-bay, anyone?!?!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)