i really do admire her candor

Strawberry Perfection

2011-04-11T17:37:00.005-05:00

I've been having trouble finding a good strawberry cupcake recipe that uses real strawberries instead of strawberry extract. Well, I did find one, and it's delicious, but it's more like a strawberry muffin than a cupcake. Today I decided to wing it and make my own strawberry cupcake recipe. I think it turned out pretty awesome, especially for a first try. I started out by thawing ~4 cups of frozen strawberries (it was a little less than three cups once they thawed). Then I pureed them in the blender. I reserved 4 tbsp. of the strawberry puree for the frosting and put the rest in a big mixing bowl (~1 to 1 1/4 c. of puree). Here's the recipe as I made it today, and it was delicious, but next time I might add a bit more strawberry puree to enhance the strawberry flavor (or scale down the rest of the ingredients to just make 12 cupcakes but still use 1 c. of puree). As is, this recipe made 18 cupcakes: Strawberry Cupcakes 1 c. strawberry puree 1/4 c. melted butter 1 c. sugar 1/4 c. vegetable oil 2 eggs 1/2 c. vanilla yogurt 1 3/4 c. all purpose flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl.

Mix strawberry puree, sugar, butter, and oil with a whisk or a hand mixer.

Add the eggs and mix well.

Add the yogurt and mix well.

Slowly mix in the dry ingredients.

Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners and fill 1/2 - 2/3 full of batter (don't overfill).

Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.

Frost with your favorite cream cheese frosting or strawberry frosting (see my recipe below).

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting (this makes a lot of frosting, enough to pipe a good amount of frosting onto 18 cupcakes; if frosting with a butter knife, I would halve this recipe) ~Another note on the frosting: 4 tbsp. of puree was probably too much, since the frosting was a little runny (consistency is fine if you refrigerate the cupcakes). Next time I'll try using 3 tbsp.

4 tbsp. strawberry puree (see note above about using less)

4 tbsp. softened salted butter

2 tbsp. softened cream cheese

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3 1/2 - 4 c. powdered sugar

Beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth, then add 1 c. of powdered sugar and the vanilla. Beat in the strawberry puree, and beat in powdered sugar 1/2 c. to 1 c. at a time until it reaches the desired consistency (it will probably take about 3 1/2 to 4 c. of powdered sugar since there's so much liquid from the puree).

Good Things Coming Your Way

2011-03-12T13:56:00.003-06:00

I have recently become completely obsessed with baking. Today I am doing a little experimenting. You see, I really want to be able to make amazing cupcakes from scratch. Not from a box. The problem is, there's something Not Quite Right about every recipe I've tried.

Last weekend I pretty much perfected strawberry muffins, and today I think I've nailed chocolate cupcakes. I just need to scale up the recipe and bake a test batch, then I'll be ready to share, I think.

Stay tuned.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-18T19:06:00.003-06:00

We've all been sick here in LaTina Land, so the red velvet cupcakes I wanted to make for Valentine's day had to wait. Everyone is feeling better now, so I made them today instead.

I used Paula Deen's recipe, with some modifications. I halved the cupcake recipe (because the three of us don't need to eat 24 cupcakes - 12 is plenty) and added slightly less red food coloring than the recipe called for (I used about 3/4 tbsp. in a half batch - as you can see, my cupcakes were still nice and red). I also doubled the cocoa powder (1 heaping tsp. in a half batch), since I've seen a lot of red velvet cupcake recipes that call for 1 tbsp. of cocoa powder instead of the 1 tsp. in Paula Deen's version.

The cream cheese frosting in this recipe is delicious, but as written, it is enough to frost an entire two-layer cake. I made slightly less than 1/4 of the frosting recipe:

3 oz. softened cream cheese
3 tbsp. softened salted butter
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 scant cup sifted confectioners' sugar
a few drops red food coloring

Max wanted pink cupcakes, so I added a little food coloring to the frosting. This recipe made plenty of frosting for 12 cupcakes.

Anxiety

2011-01-20T09:27:00.002-06:00

Wow. It's been forever since I've posted anything at all here, and even longer since I wrote about anything serious. It isn't that I haven't had anything to blog about, more that I just haven't had the time or energy to do it. I don't exactly have the time right now, but I am full of nervous, anxious energy. So here I am.

Tomorrow my baby turns 3, and I am sick to death. Not really sick, but full of anxiety because now, for the first time in his life, Max is full of anxiety. Don't get me wrong, he's had the typical level of separation anxiety when I first dropped him off at daycare a few times in the past, but he's always calmed down the second I left. But now he spends the majority of his days at daycare sobbing, "I want my mommy." I've talked with his teachers about it and his doctor. I've been assured that this is a phase and will pass with time. In the meantime, I might go nuts, and I can't stop worrying about my kid.

My Favorite Cookie Recipe

2010-09-25T15:40:00.004-05:00

These cookies are AMAZING. Especially if you like peanut butter, which of course I do. I am sad for those who are allergic to peanuts because their tongues don't get to experience the pure joy of these cookies.

This recipe makes ~3 dozen cookies, and in my experience they are a huge hit at bake sales (because they look so pretty and taste so amazingly yummy!).

PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Ingredients:
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 c. all purpose flour (it's also good with equal portions of whole wheat and all-purpose flour)
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips (if you omit the chocolate chips, this is also a kick-ass peanut butter cookie)

Preheat oven to 375 F. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate large bowl, cream together butter, peanut butter, and sugars with an electric mixer. Beat in the egg. Beat in the flour mixture a little at a time. Stir the chocolate chips in with a spoon. Use a small cookie scoop to drop the dough onto cookie sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool for 1 minute in the pan then move to a rack to finish cooling.

I have also doubled the recipe and made giant cookies using a 1/4 c. ice cream scoop to portion the dough onto cookie sheets (use the bottom of the scoop to smoosh them down a little bit or they won't cook all the way through before the bottoms burn). If you decide to try the giant-size version, reduce the heat of your oven to 350 F and bake for about 15-17 minutes (or until the bottoms of the cookies are brown). You won't be disappointed.

Success!

2010-08-19T09:24:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note to tell everyone that my defense was quite successful yesterday. I feel like I talked for a REALLY long time (which I did - 50 minutes), but there was no other way to convey the results of the ridiculous number of experiments I did and tie them together in a meaningful way.

Anyway, the defense is behind me, and I can officially be called "doctor" now. Now to figure out what to do with the rest of my career and find a *gasp* Real Job. A very frightening prospect.

In Case You Didn't Know...

2010-07-20T13:50:00.001-05:00

The end of my career as a graduate student is finally FINALLY really truly concretely in sight. My defense date is set. August 18 at 3 p.m. Wish me luck.

As for all that other emotional stuff from the last post, consider it resolved. Things are ok. But my in-laws are still annoying.

Happy 6th of July!

2010-07-06T14:34:00.002-05:00

I'm only a couple days late...

And I am also losing my damn mind. I want to tell you all about it, but I'm too pissed off. And generally a mess. Seriously. An unbelievable mess. That is me. My mom spent the past two weeks in the hospital, so that's part of it. The hospital was full of incompetent idiots that I want to smack. That's another part of it. But that's not even the half of it.

I'm full of so many conflicting emotions right now that I don't really know what I'm feeling, to be honest. Suffice it to say that I have an even shorter fuse than usual and all of the little things that have annoyed me even slightly over the past year or so are bugging me again times 1,000. So I'm scared and pissed off and worried and frustrated and selfish and hateful and full of love all at the same time. It is not a nice way to feel. Right now I'm mostly pissed off. But give me 5 seconds, and something else might take over.

I sort of want to talk about it. But mostly I don't. I don't know what I want. I can't be still. I can't concentrate on anything. I need to be distracted. I need to be grounded. I don't need offers of "help" that are really just people saying they don't want me around. No, I don't need anyone take Max off my hands for a while. He's the only thing keeping me from completely falling apart right now.

I need some people to butt the hell out and others to step up and be there for me. I hate this. God, I am such a mess right now.

So I've decided I don't really want to tell you what's going on. I just needed to rant a little.

Cookies!

2010-06-02T09:24:00.003-05:00

I discovered a neat trick over the weekend. If you add a little baking powder to your chocolate chip cookies, they don't fall flat after you take them out of the oven. Maybe you don't have that problem, but I certainly do. Then I tried a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe that used both baking soda (traditionally found in chocolate chip cookies) and baking powder. That is a great recipe, but it's not what this is about. This is about your basic chocolate chip cookie recipe. My chocolate chip cookies have been puffing up beautifully in the oven then falling flat once they cool. I don't like that. So this weekend I did some experimenting. I added 1/2 tsp. of baking powder to my basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, and they look great! It didn't change the flavor at all, just kept them from losing their puffiness after they cooled. Try it out.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups (one 12 oz. package) chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 F. Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside. Cream together the butter and sugars with a mixer. Add the eggs and vanilla, beat well. Beat in the flour mixture about 1/2 cup or so at a time. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop little balls of dough onto a cookie sheet (I use a small cookie scoop so they're all about the same size) about 2 inches apart. Bake for about 10 minutes (maybe a bit longer if your oven runs cool). Cool for 1-2 minutes in the pan then move to a cooling rack.

New Blog

2010-05-10T17:06:00.003-05:00

...but that doesn't mean this one is toast. It just means that I created a new blog just for knitting/craft projects. It's called LaTina is Crafty. I'll be re-posting the toys from my last entry here on there, plus a few others that I've completed since then. There isn't much there yet, but stop by and check it out! It will probably be updated more often than this blog, to be honest. Ciao!

Toys, Toys, Toys! Handmade, even!

2010-04-26T08:31:00.010-05:00

I've recently delved into a whole new world of knitting - making toys. They're so fast to make! It started with my reading a blog and seeing a pattern for a carrot before Easter. It looked super easy, so I decided to give it a try. Then I saw a really cute pattern for a lamb that also looked super easy. Which meant that both a carrot and a lamb HAD to be in Max's Easter basket this year.

The carrot pattern is from Yarn Miracle.

The lamb pattern is Fuzzy Mitten's.

After the Easter knitting rush, I had to try a frog from the same blog where I found the carrot pattern (Yarn Miracle). Actually, I bought it from her Etsy shop. The pattern was trickier than the carrot and the lamb, but it was pretty quick to knit and I love love love it. He lives on Max's play kitchen.

I made another frog in solid orange. It's going to one of Max's old daycare teachers for Teacher Appreciation Day next week. Max is sad that this frog is not going to live on his kitchen with the other one. One day I plan to make him a bigger solid green frog to go with the stripey one.

I also made a turtle for another of Max's old teachers who loves turtles. This turtle was deceptively tricky to make. Whoever wrote the pattern told a big fat lie when she said this was a quick knit.

His current teachers get tiny bunnies. This was a free pattern from Twins Knit. I bought their Tom the Bear pattern, and I plan on making him soon.

Next up: a hammerhead shark for my nephew's birthday in a few weeks. I just started the shark, but the pattern is very simple, and I should be able to finish it quickly.

Now I'm afraid I must go do actual work, as I intend to defend my dissertation in June. No firm defense date yet, but I am determined to graduate this summer.

Snow Day!

2010-02-12T11:15:00.002-06:00

Conversations with Max

2010-01-28T08:48:00.002-06:00

Conversation #1
Me: Man, my throat hurts.
Max: Medicine!

Conversation #2
After smelling poop, I turned to Max and said: Did you poop?
Max: (mischievous grin; points to chair he's sitting in) Chair poop.
Me: Come on, let's go get changed. You pooped.
Max: Chair poop! No change!

Struggle for Independence

2010-01-25T13:06:00.004-06:00

Today I had an epiphany. One that frees me from some of the guilt I feel when I get annoyed with my in-laws. I finally put my finger on the quality in them that drives me so crazy. They encourage dependence instead of independence. They do as much as they can to ensure that we rely on them in some way. Some might label that 'generosity.' But I think that this is more about control. They want to do everything for us instead of letting us figure things out for ourselves. They do things, presumably to help us out, before we even have a chance to think about it. I don't even think they realize that they're doing things backwards. Their child is an adult with a child of his own, but they still want to do everything for him. Which is a nice idea, I guess. But it goes totally against the notion that your job as a parent is to foster independence and raise a child who can take care of himself.

In an ideal world, our parents would let us know that they're there for us if we need them. They would offer support in whatever way they thought appropriate but let us decide if we needed help. They would not step in and take over as much as possible when they don't actually live in the same town.

I feel like I am in a constant struggle for control over my own life and my child. They're already planning a future trip to Disney World so that my father in law can have the same experience there with Max that he had with Chad when he was little. They don't stop to think that by doing things like that, they're robbing us of the chance to have those experiences.

I don't even know where I'm going with this. Maybe nowhere. I just know that there are a zillion little things that are adding up to my wanting to avoid the hell out of my in-laws, and I don't want to feel that way. I am aware of the fact that I can be incredibly controlling, but I stand by the idea that when it comes to my kid I should be in control. Even if that means that I do things a little differently than someone else thinks I should. Even if that means that my mother in law doesn't get to buy a complete wardrobe for Max (between Christmas and his birthday, she bought him ten complete outfits, all the same size) and decide what he's going to wear for every holiday. She's already bought him two sets of Christmas pajamas for next year. I think she's annoyed that I didn't consult her before I bought his Christmas pajamas this year. And he only needs one set of Christmas pajamas. Geez. I hate wastefulness. So she knows that if she buys something I can't return easily, he'll end up wearing it. Like the Halloween costume that she brought over. In September. Did I tell you about that? I was not happy about it. I did plan on buying him one. Then she beat me to the punch. Didn't say one word about it. Just showed up with it one day.

Talking does me no good. I get a smile and nod and "I don't want to do anything to upset you" and more of the same. When Max wakes up at night and doesn't want to go back to sleep when she babysits (because she always spends the night, you know), she always volunteers to stay up with him when we're trying to get him to go back to sleep. Stay up with him meaning stay up and play, of course. Which is so not ok. And is what happened Friday night. When we got home, Max was in the guest room with MIL. I heard him wake up at 3:15, and I heard them go in Max's room. I also heard something about wet pajamas, so I figured she'd change him and go back to bed. At 3:40 I could still hear them in Max's room, talking and playing. Very loudly. At 3:40 a.m. It does not take 25 minutes to change a diaper and wet pajamas. And it should not involve lots of loud talking and giggling. 3:30 in the morning is a time for whispers and shushing and calming and encouraging sleep. I went in and asked what they were still doing up. I was told she was changing him. I'm sure I grumbled a lot. It was the middle of the freaking night, and no attempt was being made to get the baby back to sleep. When I came in the room, Max latched onto me, and I sat in the rocking chair with him (over his many protests and shouts of OUT!) until he got sleepy again. There was lots of shh-ing and very little talking. Because guess what? When you talk and play with a toddler in the middle of the night he will never go back to sleep.

Boy did that ever get off track. Sorry. The point: my in-laws want us to depend on them for as many things as possible. I am incredibly independent and hate to ask people for help. We're like oil and water. And I'm going crazy.

The Chair

2010-01-06T09:15:00.005-06:00

I successfully procured a chair for Max yesterday, and I even decorated it!
The finished product:

Color Me Annoyed

2010-01-05T09:19:00.004-06:00

You're probably sick of hearing me bitch and moan about my in-laws, but really it's been quite a while, so here we go again. I may have failed to mention here that we finally have a local hockey team again, which means season tickets for Chad and me (well, half a season anyway), which means leaving Max with baby sitters (i.e., grandparents) on a fairly regular basis. Most of the time my mother-in-law comes down and spends the night (even though I'd rather she go home, but she has this thing about driving in Mobile at night, so she stays, and I guess it is kind of late when we get home, but I digress). Sometimes my father-in-law comes with her (and when he does, they go home afterward). Other times my mom and sister baby sit (then they go home). When I do ask my mom to come over instead of my MIL, MIL acts like it is a personal affront to her. She seems to think that she is the only person who should ever baby sit for us. But with the way things are going, I'm on the verge of revoking her baby sitting privileges all together. Even if that means giving up the free baby sitting and having to pay someone. Seriously, she's making me crazy (nothing new there, I guess).

The first couple of times MIL baby sat this hockey season, things were ok. For the most part, she did what I asked her to. And then some switch flipped in her mind, and she decided that she would just do whatever she wanted to, completely ignoring me. And I can pinpoint when this happened. Max goes to bed (in his bed, by himself) at 7:30. He's been waking up and refusing to go back to sleep in his bed sometime after 10:30 pretty much every night, so he sleeps with Chad and me after that. Well, a few weeks ago after we got home from a game, Max woke up, and Chad and I weren't ready for bed yet. We didn't want to bring him in our room with the lights on, fearing he'd never settle down. So we took him in the guest room and let him sleep with Chad's mom that night. And the three times she's baby sat since then, she hasn't put Max in his bed at all. She holds him until he falls asleep and lays down with him in the guest bed, completely bypassing the crib and ruining any chance that he will ever sleep in his bed all night by himself ever again. Grr. Or else Max tells her no when she tells him it's time for bed, and she lets him have his way. That's not something you can do with an almost two year old and expect bedtimes to go smoothly for his parents after that.

When she baby sat this past weekend, I went over everything (dinner, no bath that night, all the rashy places that needed ointment, etc) with her. I also write everything down (at her request) every time she comes over. I specifically told her that she needed to put Max in his bed, even if he put up a fuss about it. He usually settles down within five minutes. I also went into great detail about what we do when he protests at bedtime, still keeping him in his bed. This was also written down. Then she went to Chad and asked him if it was ok if Max slept in the guest bed with her anyway! Grr. Chad told her no, by the way. He told her exactly what I had told her - put Max in the crib, and if he wakes up after a few hours and won't lay back down, then let him sleep with you. But guess what she did anyway. That's right! She went to bed with him instead of putting him the crib. So guess what happens the next day. Max expects us to go to bed when it's his bedtime. But - surprise! - we aren't ready to go to sleep at 7:30. So bedtime is a big ordeal, and Max stages a huge protest. Which is what always happens when MIL lets the toddler be the boss (and this before she even attempts to put him in the bed; as soon as he says no he doesn't want to go night night, she gives in). We've talked to her about this repeatedly. But she nods, says ok, and does whatever she wants regardless.

Something else she does that makes me crazy is refusing to put anything but baby powder on Max's bottom. Even if he has diaper rash. We put Desitin on him every night because it's the best thing we've found for protecting little bottoms from a whole night's worth of pee. When we don't use Desitin, Max's bottom is red and rashy when he wakes up. When we do use it, he's fine, and there's still a layer of cream that has to be wiped off. Which is what we want, because it means that the pee isn't irritating Max's butt. I don't know why that's such a hard thing for MIL to understand. Is she squeamish about rubbing cream on a baby butt?

Chad and I are going to an NHL game in Atlanta on Saturday (we're driving back that night), so Chad asked his mom to be here early that morning so we can leave by 10 a.m. Same deal as usual, she just needs to get here a little earlier. Then she had the bright idea to let Max stay at her not at all toddler proof house (when every time he stays somewhere other than home, Max doesn't sleep well for at least a week). Which would mean we would have to pack up all the necessary paraphernalia for an overnight stay, leave our house that much earlier, and drive all the way back over to pick him up the next day. Then deal with the consequences of a night at Grandma and Grandpa's (i.e., a week of sleepless, cranky nights). No thank you. We told her we would prefer if she would come over here, but she just wouldn't let it go. She kept telling Max to ask us to let him stay at Grandma's and just kept pushing the idea. After the 8th time she mentioned it (and after having told her no seven times) I finally just ignored her. If my mom didn't have to go home (she has three inside dogs, so someone has to let them out), I'd ask her to come stay instead.

Then there's the matter of buying huge and unnecessary things that we don't have room for. I put a child-size wooden chair on Max's Christmas list, and MIL asked me back in October or November if we would rather have a table and chairs for Max. I told her no. We just need a chair or two for him to use at the coffee table or the little table that is already in his room so he can sit there and color and have snacks and stuff. We don't have any place to put a table. Then on Thanksgiving, she saw a Black Friday deal on a table and chair set from Walmart. She asked me if I'd seen it (yes) and if I wanted her to get it (no, we don't have room for a table, he just needs a chair). But she bought it anyway. It's still at her house. We didn't have room for it in the car when we were there on Christmas, and really we don't have any place to put it at home anyway. Plus, it's kind of flimsy and not at all what I had in mind. So Max still needs a chair to use at the coffee table. He's been dumping out his toy bin, flipping it over, and sitting on that. Or pushing his riding toy over and sitting on that. I'm going out to Toys R Us today to get him a smock (my brother got him markers for Christmas, and Max loves them, but he keeps drawing on his clothes). I'm going to look and see what they have there, and if I can't find anything, I'll probably stop at Michael's or Hobby Lobby and get one of those little unfinished wood chairs. I might even get some paint and stencils and personalize it for him.

Is It 2010 Yet?

2009-12-30T11:13:00.005-06:00

Mmmkay, here goes my end of the year post. It probably won't be pretty, and the month of December has probably unfairly biased by view of 2009, but I'm going with "2009 sucks" anyway.

How did 2009 start? With an infant covered in vomit. Oh yeah. I woke up New Year's Day 2009 with a Max who had vomited in his bed and rolled around in it. It took two baths and the forbidden scented shampoo to rid his hair of the smell. Not an auspicious start to the year.

That stomach bug was followed by illness after illness for the Max, including four ear infections, a bunch of colds, and three more stomach viruses. I also had two stomach viruses in 2009, so there went my 5 year record of no vomiting.

2009 was also The Year of the Rat (well, mice, actually but rat sounds more vile). First, they invaded the attic, which I can live with. Then one died under the back porch, but we thought it was in the wall. So Chad cut a hole in the wall in the laundry room to try and find it. What he found instead a was a big hole leading from inside the wall to outside on the porch. He sealed the hole. A few days later, a mouse chewed through the putty that Chad used to patch the hole and got into our aluminum cans. And so began the vermin invasion into the house. Actually, I think there was only one in the house. We bought some electronic mouse traps, and caught exactly nada. So we resorted to poison. Oddly enough, that was a bad idea. Because, by sealing the hole in the wall that went outside, Chad sealed off the mice's escape route. So instead of going outside in search of water after ingesting the poison like they were supposed to, a couple died in our walls. And decomposing rodent? STINKS.

THEN there was the mouse in the kitchen. Turns out, it was living underneath the cabinet under the sink. And one day (the day our new refrigerator was delivered) it came out in the early evening instead of invading the kitchen and dining room at night as usual. The good news about that incident is that Chad and I successfully trapped the mouse under a big plastic bowl and scooted it out into the back yard. So no more mouse in the kitchen. Yay. But now there are more mice in the attic. I vote we call an exterminator.

And now, the new refrigerator. The week before Christmas, we had a big storm system come through, and our house was hit by lightning. It killed the refrigerator, DSL modem, wireless router (Chad fixed that, though), CD player from Max's room, wipe warmer, space heater from Max's room, emergency window air conditioner in our bedroom, and blew a bunch of light bulbs. Oh, and it took out a hella-expensive surge protector (but everything that was plugged into it was ok). We had a repairman come look at the fridge, and he said that both fans that blow the cold air into the fridge and freezer compartments were out. He did not have the replacement fans in stock, and it would have taken a week to get them in and would have cost $300. Instead, we went to Lowe's and had a new fridge delivered the next day.

I spent the week before Christmas hating life because I felt like complete crap (sinus issues, sore throat, chest cold). Chad then caught it, and now I think I'm getting it again. Yay.

Oh, and it doesn't end there. Krull the Warrior King poked a stick in his eye Saturday night, prompting an emergency trip to the vet. They can't tell us how much damage was done to his eye until next week, after it heals a bit. Vision loss is a possibility. So we've been keeping Krull in the house, which means we've had the baby gate that blocks the hall down since Krull likes to sleep in our bedroom, but we want him to be able to come into the living room with us if he wants to. Plus he needs to be able to let us know when he needs to go out. The baby gate being down means that Max has been making me crazy, going into all the bedrooms, office, and bathrooms. Too bad he can open doors.

So yeah, 2009 sucked. There were some good points (nothing went wrong on Christmas, for instance). It just seems like the bad outweighed the good.

No, Walmart, Your Prices Are NOT Unbeatable

2009-11-23T14:40:00.002-06:00

For some reason, Walmart's commercials are starting to annoy me, with their "we check other store's prices so you don't have to." Yes, they price match (if you have another store's ad in hand at the register, which is hella annoying to the person behind you in the checkout line). But some things just cost less at other stores, and since there is no print ad for regular prices, Walmart can't give you the lower price on those things.

In an effort to save money, I've been splitting my grocery shopping among three stores as of late: Walmart, Target, and Winn Dixie. Let me also note that I often buy store brands (but some name brands are just better, so I don't always buy generic). And sometimes there are big differences in the price of generics between stores. Often, Walmart *does* have the best price. But definitely not always.

Some items that I've found cheaper at Target:

Purina Healthy Morsels dog food (17 lb. bag $11.42 at Walmart, $10.99 at Target)
Del Monte sloppy joe sauce (only a penny difference, but still)
Hunt's canned spaghetti sauce ($0.84 at Target; Walmart now only carries Del Monte canned spaghetti sauce, which is $0.94)
Store brand french vanilla coffee creamer ($1.62 for 8 oz. at Walmart; $2.76 for 15 oz. at Target)
Barilla whole grain pasta ($1.23 at Walmart, regularly $1.19 at Target, I recently bought some on sale at Target for $1.03 - less than Target's Market Pantry brand)
Huggies Overnite diapers

There are also many items that are exactly the same price at both Target and Walmart, including a lot of Aveeno baby products, and a lot of things are only 1 or 2 cents cheaper at Walmart.

Things I usually buy at Winn Dixie:

Anything I normally buy elsewhere that goes on sale buy one get one free. I've saved a lot of money on things like snack foods by checking out the buy one get one free sales at Winn Dixie.
Chicken breasts or thighs - there is almost always some kind of sale on these, often buy one get one free; Winn Dixie also does a lot of Manager's Special coupons on their meats.
Cheese - again, it often goes on sale buy one get one free
Milk - the price of milk fluctuates a lot, but Winn Dixie's store brand gallons of milk usually cost about $0.50 less that Walmart or Target (1/2 gallons are usually cheapest at Walmart, but not always)
Produce - sometimes Walmart's produce is quite inexpensive, but it often doesn't look very fresh, so I look for sale prices on Winn Dixie's produce (exception - bell peppers; Walmart has 3 packs of multi-colored peppers for $3.50, which is much cheaper than anywhere else)

Sometimes the convenience of one stop shopping outweighs the small savings, but I don't mind shopping around a bit. Plus, my Walmart and SuperTarget are right across the road from each other, and Winn Dixie is on my way home from Max's daycare, so it's easy for me to hit all three stores on a regular basis.

I just wanted to put the fact that Walmart does not always have the best prices out there. Shop around, folks.

Today's To-Do List Progress

2009-11-11T13:07:00.002-06:00

Bleach toys - check
Do three loads of laundry - two down, one needs to go in the dryer
Clean bathrooms - check
Refill Max's allergy/cold medicine - uh, guess I need to run to the pharmacy
Vacuum bedrooms - I'll get right on that
Bake oatmeal chocolate chip cookies - I hope I have time
Finish discussion for this stupid chapter - I might get around to it
Take a nap ('cause I only got 4 hours of sleep last night, thanks to a husband and a Max who couldn't stop coughing) - Not gonna happen :(
Eat lunch - I might have a spare second to shove some food in my mouth
Finish scarf for sister's birthday (which is Friday) - Probably won't have time, maybe after Max goes to sleep
Figure out dinner - ugh, haven't a clue

I am SO TIRED.

Things I'm Doing Today

2009-11-03T12:05:00.002-06:00

Sorry to bore you with my drivel, but it's better than the nothing you've been getting, right? Been kinda busy lately, you know, living my life and all. That's why I <3 twitter. It's so easy to spout my randomness in 140 characters or less.

Anyway, here's what's on tap today:

Baking bread
Finishing a chapter
Catching up on blog reading
Steam cleaning the living room furniture
Mopping the hell out of the living room and kitchen
Freaking out about the Vermin Invasion that may or may not actually be happening in my house (uh, last night we had an incident with a rat in the aluminum cans in the laundry room - Not Cool)
Figuring out what to make for dinner (Quiche? Sweet & sour chicken? Pasta with marinara sauce?)
Cooking whatever I decide to make
I think I'm leaning toward the quiche. With ham and spinach and Swiss cheese.
And we'll have fresh bread, so I can make Max a grilled cheese sandwich if he turns his nose up at the quiche.
Mailing off a book I sold on Amazon
Probably some other stuff, too.

That is all.

Morning Conversation with Max

2009-10-19T09:35:00.002-05:00

Max: (sits up) Hi!

Me: Are you ready to get up?

Max: No. (rubs eyes)

Me: You don't want to get changed?

Max: No.

Me: Do you want to go back to sleep?

Max: (still sitting up, closes eyes, giggles)

*Chad is moving around, getting dressed, Max hears*

Me: Do you want to get up now?

Max: (nods) Yeah.

Screw Friday, Is It Saturday Yet?

2009-09-18T20:21:00.000-05:00

Things that happened today:

I found out that someone I thought was a friend threw me under the metaphorical bus. You don't get details. Just that I said something to someone in a moment of frustration and that something was repeated to a Very Important Person, who took it entirely the wrong way and some very bad things could have happened as a result. These bad things were considered by the Very Important Person. But they didn't happen. Apparently, I can take getting run over by a bus (a metaphorical one, anyway). And apparently, all this went down, like, two weeks ago, and I had no idea.
Some kid bit Max at daycare, and it was handled in an... unsatisfactory way. To say the least. But I can't say the least. Now you get details. I picked Max up from daycare a little later than usual today, so one of his teachers (and most of the kids) had already gone home. The remaining teacher was changing the diapers of the remaining four kids. She changed Max, and I got his bag and took Max home. I briefly glanced in the bag to see if his daily information sheet was in there. There was a piece of paper in the bag, so I figured we were good to go. Later, almost an hour after we got home, I fished the paper out of Max's bag to see what he'd had for lunch. To my great surprise and anger, it was not his daily information sheet but an accident report. On this accident report, there was a check mark beside "Child was bitten today." Written in the description section, "While playing, he was bitten on the right arm. Ice was applied. Hugs & kisses were given." That's it. That's all the information I have. I think back. Yeah, I *did* notice a red mark on Max's wrist, but I didn't think much of it at the time. He is a very rashy child, and he currently has about 4 mosquito bites on various parts of his body (despite the liberal application of Off! insect repellent whenever he goes outside). I look at Max's wrist more closely. A perfect red bite mark. OMFG, WHY DID HIS TEACHER NOT THINK TO MAYBE MENTION THIS?!? And also, when we went to the reception desk/director's office to get Max's medicine, they couldn't have maybe said something? Who bit him? Was it Giant Baby? Because if so, that's the second time in two weeks that he's bitten another child hard enough to leave a mark. And Giant Baby has also been hitting, pushing, and sitting on kids like a maniac over the past month. What are they doing about that situation? If it wasn't Giant Baby, what happened to the biter? Time out? Did they talk to his parents? The toddler teachers talked to me when Max hit a little girl that one time (and he didn't even hurt her, and she sort of had it coming since Max was already upset, and she was all up in his grill, as they say). The toddler teachers also talked to me about the one other accident report-worthy incident Max has been involved in at daycare (he tripped over a toy and bumped his head on another toy, something that happens to him all the time at home, and for which I do not blame daycare). So why didn't the 1 1/2 year old teachers talk to me about this biting thing? Which is much worse than anything else that's happened to Max. I am completely livid over here. And I can't even rant about it to anyone who matters until Monday. I am Not Happy with the situation in this daycare class. I understand that 1.5 year olds will occasionally push or lightly slap each other in squabbles over toys. But the teachers have to be prepared to deal with that, and when one child is particularly aggressive and is repeatedly hurting other children, something needs to be done about that posthaste. I have reached the point at which they either do something about Giant Baby and his aggressiveness or I find a new daycare for Max.
Also, I ruined dinner. Or the bad ground beef ruined dinner. Either way, dinner was ruined.

Ok, so that's only three things, but they sucked, and now I am officially Done With Friday. Oh, and it's after 8 p.m., and Chad is still at work. That sucks, too.

Daycares as Babysitting Facilities: Is This a Bad Thing?

2009-09-09T09:07:00.004-05:00

So the other day I was talking to another parent, and he was complaining that daycare centers are just big babysitting facilities and that they usually don't do enough educational activities. In his opinion, even our local Montessori school isn't school-y enough. Evidently, he doesn't think that coloring, music, and other structured activities offered in most daycare centers teach kids anything.

My reaction: so what? My kid is 19 months old. All he really needs is a babysitter. I don't think he would benefit from formal educational instruction. Babies and toddlers learn through playing. They don't need to be stuck in a formal classroom, a la that crazy preschool in Daddy Daycare. As long as Max's teachers spend a little one-on-one time with each kid, make an effort to name things for them to help them pick up new words, and mediate interactions between the kids, I'm happy. Well, and you know, as long the teachers change their diapers and feed them and stuff.

The daycare class that Max started last month introduced him to his first real structured, classroom-y activities (each lasting 15 minutes or less). Meaning that in the mornings they have "lessons" (i.e., the teachers do a little puppet show demonstrating basic morals like sharing, etc.or they sing songs), and in the afternoon they have art (i.e., they color pictures, using one color each day). They also have reading time before lunch, where the teachers read books to the kids. Call me crazy, but I don't think my 1 1/2 year old needs more formal instruction than that.

In the classes for older kids, they gradually add a few more structured, educational activities. For example, the 2 year olds (or maybe the 2 1/2 year olds) get to use glue! And you know, they talk about a new letter every week in addition to a color. Their art projects focus on a new letter each week. In the preschool classes (3 year olds and 4 year olds), they even go so far as to teach the kids what starts with those letters and what sounds the letters make! Actually, they might try to do that in the 2 an 2 1/2 year old classes, too. I'm sure that somewhere in there they do shapes and numbers, too. I've only been on this side of the building for a month (Max's previous three rooms were on the other side of the building).

Also, the 2 year olds start potty training. If that's not quality toddler education, I don't know what is.

The point: people expect a lot out of kids these days. But let's not forget they're kids, for crying out loud. Five years old is young enough for formal classroom schooling. So let's let toddlers be toddlers. And preschoolers be preschoolers.

Jerks and their Dogs, or Playground Etiquette Part 2

2009-09-02T09:38:00.004-05:00

Took The Max to the park this morning. We did our usual walking/riding in the stroller thing (me walking, Max riding in the stroller, duh). But when we got to the playground part of our usual park routine, we were thwarted. By some jerks and their dogs. Not that I have anything against people who walk their dogs in the park. People walk their dogs in this park all the time, and we see some dogs every time we go there. But most of the dogs are on leashes. And the ones that aren't usually stay on the open grassy area with their owners, chasing balls and frisbees and whatnot. Their owners don't just let them run around willy nilly, terrorizing toddlers.

But not these dogs. These dogs (which looked like labs, one black and one yellow) were running around inside the fenced playground. There was an older couple with two children (3-4 years old, from the looks of them) who seemed to be the dogs' owners, since the woman went to catch the black dog when it left the playground. She was then followed by the man, leaving the children and the other dog completely unattended on the playground. Not cool, people.

Anyway, so the yellow dog kept badgering another woman who was there with a toddler around Max's age and a small baby. Her toddler kept trying to climb back into their stroller when the dog came around. One time he tried to climb up his mother's leg.

Not that the dog seemed mean or anything. It was actually very friendly. But toddlers and strange dogs are usually not a good combination. Max is totally fine around Krull, and he tolerates most large-breed dogs, as long as someone is holding him while they get to know each other. Small dogs terrify him. He doesn't want a small dog anywhere near him. Or a cat. Or any other small, furry critter.

Max had been happily climbing on the big wooden climbing thingy for the little kids, but when the dog came near him, he immediately wanted to be picked up. And the dog continued to follow us around. So Max didn't want to get down and play anymore. Because he didn't know that dog. Why was that dog pestering him? And why weren't its people doing anything about it? I actually walked around trying to find the dog's people, but I didn't see them and assumed they were still off chasing the black dog.

My point is, you have to be careful with small children and animals. So when you take your dog to the park, put it on a leash, and don't let it run around in an area full of kids under 3. Because while some little kids are fearless, others need time to get know new animals before they're comfortable around them. Playgrounds should be a safe space for kids to run around and play. And you know, there's a sign at the entrance forbidding dogs within the playground area. But some people are jerks.

The Most Perfect Cornbread Recipe

2009-08-09T11:49:00.002-05:00

Seriously. I've tried a bunch, and mostly they were good. But not, you know, The Best Cornbread I Ever Ate. So I took a couple of ok cornbread recipes and modified them until I came up with this:

The Most Perfect Cornbread Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup milk (I use skim, but pretty much any milk will work I think)
5 tbsp. melted butter (~1/3 cup)
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium-size mixing bowl with a whisk. Add the milk, melted butter, and beaten egg. Stir with a spoon just until moistened (there will be some lumps, and that's ok). Pour batter into a greased baking dish (I use a glass 2 quart 8x11 casserole dish), and bake for 20-25 minutes depending on the size of your pan and your oven (23 minutes is perfect for me). You could also make corn muffins with this recipe (makes 12 muffins), just bake the muffins for ~15 minutes.

Go ahead, try it. You won't be sorry.

Hello, Sunday

2009-08-09T11:33:00.002-05:00

Whatever shall I do with you? Chad is taking the Max to visit the grandparents today, which means that I will be spending my day like this:

Steam cleaning the furniture and carpets
Cleaning bathrooms
Washing a buttload of sheets and towels
Maybe making hamburger buns for dinner. Or not. I haven't decided yet.
Spending some quality time with my pilates dvd ('cause Thursday was my birthday, and I've eaten more cake and ice cream than I should admit to eating over the last three days)
Then eating even more cake, because HELLO, I worked out! (well, not yet, but I will have when the eating of more cake commences)
Catching up on my blog reading
And maybe, if there is any time left before the men in my life return home, I'll do some actual, you know, work. As in writing that does not involve blogging or Twitter or Facebook.

So let's get to it.

Productive is My Middle Name

2009-08-03T14:45:00.003-05:00

Things I've done today:

Dropped Max off at daycare for his 1st day in the 1 1/2 year old class (more on that later).
Set up sample extractions with Marissa and Lacy.
Went to Babies R Us and only spent $30 on new pacifiers (his old ones are getting funky; I ordered some new personalized ones on Friday to send to daycare; today I bought some extras for home), a couple of size 2T and 3T outfits (clearance, yay!), and a pair of shoes (also on clearance; size 7 - my baby has giant feet) for Max.
Finished editing a chapter and emailed it to Dr. V.
Vacuumed the bedrooms.
Baked a batch of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

As you can see, I managed to be both a domestic goddess and a responsible grad student today. *pats self on back*

Now, for the part about Max's new daycare class. I'm wigging out about it, just like I did when he went from Infant 1 to Infant 2. Because this is a big change for him. Max's daycare splits the kids up into roughly 6 month age blocks, so the toddler class is full of kids who are 13-19 months old. Then they move up to the 1 1/2 year old class, then the 2 year old class, then the 2 1/2 year old class, and so on.

So today Max started the 1 1/2 year old class. In this class, there are no cribs. There are little cots for the babies to nap on, and I sent a blanket for Max (daycare provides sheets). They only get one nap after lunch instead of a morning nap and an afternoon nap (I'm actually not worried about that part, because Max has been skipping his morning nap most of the time lately). They've ditched the big 6-kid strollers for outdoor walks and transportation to the little playground outside. Only the big babies and toddlers (well, technically, most of the kids at daycare are still toddlers) get to use those. All the kids over 18 months hold onto this long rope with rings in it (a la Jon & Kate Plus 8, if you've seen the episodes where the sextuplets hold onto the rings on outings) when they go outside. Not sure that's gonna go over well. The Max is a wanderer. He tried to go in the neighbor's yard this morning while I was locking up instead of going to the car in our driveway.

This will also be the first time Max has had structured activities. They do puppets and songs in the morning and art in the afternoon. They also have outdoor play in the little toddler playground (they have a separate one for the preschool-age kids) in the morning and afternoon (if it isn't raining). I'm not necessarily worried about that, it's just that Max is used to free play. I do think he'll really like the art/coloring time, though... when he's not trying to eat the crayons.

Max was very unhappy this morning when I dropped him off. He was fine when we went in, and they were about to have snack, so I thought maybe he'd be ok. But as soon as I put him down, he had a huge meltdown and turned into Super Cling Baby. So one of the teachers took him, and I got his paci, and he calmed down. One of the other kids from the toddler class was wigging out, too (with a pacifier in his mouth). And they had a new baby who was just starting daycare, and he was not happy At All. I guess the teachers are used to it, since their class is a huge adjustment from what every kid who comes in there is used to. But I'm hoping Max had an ok day. He was all right when I left, but Ms. Marija was holding him (plus, he had his trusty paci, which he usually only gets at naptime at daycare. Unless he's having a meltdown).

Hopefully tomorrow morning will go better.

I'm Supposedly De-Germifying My House...

2009-07-24T11:07:00.004-05:00

Among other things. Instead I'm taking a break from the Lysol 4-in-1 cleaner and Clorox fumes and blogging at you about the reasons for the de-germifying. For the record, I *have* cleaned both bathrooms (which were really gross, btw, even though I swear I just cleaned them on Monday. How do bathrooms get so gross so fast? Hmm, on second thought, maybe I cleaned them *last* Monday). I've also put a load of sheets in the washing machine. So I'm not being a total bum.

So, anyway... oh yeah. Reasons for de-germifying. Because the Max has been very, very sick for most of this week. You already know (scroll down to my last post) that Max hasn't really eaten much of anything for over a week. That trend continues. But there's a reason for it, and that reason is because he's sick. Max never eats when he's sick.

Remember that checkup Max was supposed to have? Well, it turned into a sick baby appointment instead (but the doctor assured me that, at his age, as long as Max is making some attempt to communicate verbally, he is fine. No need to obsess over how many words are in his vocabulary). Monday evening, the Max started running a fever. Nothing crazy, but a fever nonetheless. Then Tuesday morning, I was awakened by a screaming baby with a 103.5 degree fever at 5 a.m. Gah. So, I called and changed his appointment from a well-baby checkup to a sick appointment, and proceeded to alternate doses of Tylenol and ibuprofen every three hours. Went to doc, Max had an upper respiratory infection (aka a cold) and an ear infection (because that's what happens to Max when he gets a bad cold). Got some antibiotics (not penicillin, though, 'cause he's allergic) and a steroid cream for this pesky rash he's had for a while.

Came home from doctor's appointment, Max took a long nap, and when he woke up his fever was back, even though he had been taking one fever-reducing medication or another every 3 hours all day. I freaked out a little bit, and I wouldn't let him go to bed until I established that his temperature was going down again. After sleeping for ~4 hours, Max woke up. With a temperature of 104.2 degrees. Ahhh! So I stayed up with him for about two hours or so, trying to get the fever down, which pretty much consisted of giving him Tylenol and sponging him with lukewarm water (which he HATED). I'd put him to bed in nothing but a diaper, so I couldn't really remove any more clothing. When his temperature dropped 2 degrees, I finally laid down on the couch with him. An hour after that, Max's fever finally broke. And two hours later, his temperature was back up over 103. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I called the pediatrician's office again and expressed my concerns over the crazy fever business. I was told that the trend would likely continue for at least another day, possibly two. They told me to keep doing what I was doing and not to worry excessively as long as Max was moving around and alert when he was awake and his temperature dropped at least a degree or so after giving him medicine (even if that meant his temperature was still over 102 degrees). So we continued with the alternate doses of Tylenol and ibuprofen every 3 hours and the nakedness. I put clothes on Max for about an hour on Wednesday, but his temperature started going up when I did, so he pretty much went naked for two days (well, naked except for a diaper).

Wednesday night: more of the same. Max woke up at 1 a.m. with a temperature of 104.4 degrees, and we went through our fever-reducing dance again, followed by crashing on the couch for a while. But this time, it was heavy rain that woke me up at 5:30 Thursday morning, and Max did not have a fever anymore. He did start running a low-grade fever later in the day, but it didn't concern me much, and he only had two doses of Tylenol all day. He didn't have a fever at bedtime last night, and his temperature was normal this morning. He was also very spunky this morning, heading for the blinds, followed by the dishwasher, first thing. He still didn't eat anything, but he did drink some milk.

I've accomplished absolutely nothing this week, what with the sick baby and all, so I sent Max to daycare today (with instructions for the teachers to call me immediately if he showed any signs that the fever was coming back) so I can rid the house of sick baby germs and possibly get a little work done. But sanitizing is the priority today.

Now, I must be off. Household surfaces are waiting for me to bleach the hell out of them.

Things Max Did NOT Eat Today

2009-07-19T15:22:00.003-05:00

Scrambled eggs
Bacon
Blueberry muffin
Nutri-Grain bar
Banana
Gerber spaghetti rings w/ meat sauce (they were leftovers from the bowl he didn't eat yesterday)
Yogurt (hell must have frozen over because this kid LOVES yogurt)
Pizza (from Little Caesar's)
Italian cheese bread (also from Little Caesar's)
Turkey

Know what he did eat? A handful of dry Cheerios, one of those tiny boxes of raisins, a handful of Cheez-Its. Maybe two bites of turkey. He's also had two half-full sippy cups of milk. Could be worse, I guess. Hopefully he'll eat dinner. He ate half of his chili last night.

Also, he has only napped for 30 minutes ALL DAY. And I am feeling particularly bitchy today. Not sleeping might have something to with that.

Obsess Much?

2009-07-16T20:43:00.003-05:00

This post is all about me obsessing over Max's verbal skills, so if you want to stop reading now, I won't take it personally (plus, I won't even know). I mentioned yesterday (seems like it was a long time ago) that I made an appointment for Max's 18 month checkup. His pediatrician told us that this was an "optional" checkup, as no vaccines are required, just a developmental checkup. Specifically, she said that if we were concerned about his vocabulary we should bring him in at 18 months, otherwise wait until 24 months. I have had some concerns about Max's verbal skills because he really has not been much of a talker. I find myself continuing to question whether it's possible that he has a speech delay because there are so many sources of guidance on these things with so much conflicting information (um, I've read everything from "an 18 month old should be able to say 3-10 words" to "an 18 month old should be able to say at least 10 recognizable words" to "an 18 month old should have a few dozen words in his/her vocabulary").

So I started thinking about the words that Max actually says and the sounds he makes that should count as words but that most people wouldn't understand (not that everyone we meet has any reason to know that when he says "pah" he means paci or that when he says "bah" and points at something that means he wants it). Then there are all the words that he's said repeatedly for only a few days, never to be uttered again (outside, duck, book). And the ones he's said a couple of times but doesn't use regularly (no, bear, eyes, pot, "dah" for dog). And the ones he said very clearly one time only (cookie, ostrich, paper). If I count all the sounds that mean the same thing as words (usually, it's making the first sound of the word but not saying the whole word) then Max says about 12 words on a regular basis. We are only guaranteed to hear four of them several times a day (yeah/yes, bye, pah, bah). He only says a few words clearly enough that the average person who doesn't see him super often would probably understand (bye, yeah/yes, key, hot, oh, mama, daddy; no, bear, whoa, pot, and eyes are pretty clear when he chooses to say them). Most of the time, Max prefers the point and grunt method of communication anyway.

So maybe I really don't have anything to worry about. But when all the other moms you meet are bragging about how their kid is combining words and has over a 50 word vocabulary, and other kids at daycare tell you bye bye more clearly and more enthusiastically than your own does (and when they call you "mommy" when your kid has not yet gotten beyond "mama"), you can't help but worry about it.

I'm sort of looking forward to this checkup, if for nothing more than to allay my fears. And to get more pesky, persistent rashes looked at.

Really? It's Only Lunchtime?

2009-07-15T12:47:00.002-05:00

Things I did before noon today:

Woke up, took a shower, got dressed. Did not blow dry my hair.
Unloaded the dishwasher.
Got Max up, in a fresh diaper, dressed, fed (Cheerios and 1/2 a banana), changed again, and packed off to daycare.
Met Dr. V. at Starbucks to go over the very few and very minor revisions still to do on Chapter 2 (formerly known as Chapter 1) of my dissertation. Then he told me to send it out to all but one of my committee members. Yay, progress!
Did two loads of laundry (ok, the second load is still in the dryer).
Baked a loaf of bread (from frozen dough that I thawed in the fridge).
Shaped hamburger buns for dinner tonight and left them on the counter to rise (I just took them out of the oven, so they weren't finished before noon).
Got some exercise in the park ("exercise" was intended to be jogging but ended up as mostly brisk walking).
Took a shower. Because exercise is sweaty business. Especially in 90 degree heat.
Made an appointment for Max's 18 month checkup (Eeek! He'll be 1 1/2 next week! Then I'll feel stupid telling people his age in months and just have to say he's 1 1/2!).
Finished revising the Methods section of Chapter 3 (formerly known as Chapter 2) of my dissertation.
Wallowed just a little in the fact that my baby has been in the world for almost a year and a half and is entirely too giant.

I had lunch (a boring turkey sandwich, but it was on yummy fresh baked bread) after noon, so that doesn't make the list. Also, in case you were wondering, I did not get up at 3 a.m. to accomplish all that. I got up at 6:15 as usual. It seems that either I am doing AWESOME in the time management department today or Thursday Next's dad paid me a visit and stopped time for a while (see The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde if you don't get the reference; then read the rest of the series 'cause it's really amusing if you're into funny, satirical, sci-fi-ish books full of literary references).

Now, is it naptime yet?

I Know I'm a Psycho Bee-otch Sometimes...

2009-07-10T09:30:00.004-05:00

But I'd like to think that I'm not a completely ungrateful one (more on that in a bit). And also? I REALLY need a break from my in-laws for a while. We have seen them so many times lately (EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND for at least 5 weeks plus a few times during the week) that I am quickly reaching my breaking point. And guess what? They want to come over again TODAY. Do they not know that it's Friday and NOT a holiday? Actually, they wanted to come over and get Max and take him to the Bass Pro Shop (which, incidentally, is BETWEEN their house and ours and probably about 30-40 minutes from our house). Shall I say "WTF?" Um, yeah. I shall. WTF?

We've already been through all of this. So suffice it to say that I'm a possessive psycho bitch who flat out refuses to let ANYONE take her toddler away from her. Even if it's his grandparents and only for a couple of hours. I'm sure it's crossed your mind that perhaps I wouldn't react so defensively to the idea of my own mother taking Max shopping without me (or Chad). That perhaps it's only my MIL who brings out the crazy bitch in me. The answer is I don't know. Because my mom? Has not foisted her presence upon us with mind-blowing frequency or ever taken it upon herself to walk off with Max without a word to at least one of his parents in a public place, and I really don't think it has ever crossed her mind to come over and take Max off somewhere without us. She has invited us (all of us) to go somewhere when she wanted to take Max somewhere. So excuse me if I think that's the way things SHOULD be (add a healthy dose of snark to that statement).

Now for the "I'm not ungrateful" bit. We went to the zoo with Chad's parents last weekend. And they kindly paid for our admission as well as theirs. They also bought us lunch. I acknowledged these generous acts and thanked them sincerely for it. But if they think that paying for zoo admission and lunch makes it all right for them to hog my child on his first trip to the zoo (not to mention carry him off to see the tigers for the first time and leave our diaper-bag-lugging, stroller-navigating asses in the dust OMG WTF) then I'd rather pay for everything myself. And yes, they DID take Max to get his first glimpse of a real live tiger without me. When we've been reading animal picture books in preparation for his first trip to the zoo to see them in real life. Hello, steam coming from my ears.

You might wonder how it is that my in-laws manage to sneak off with my kid in public places with such alarming regularity. You see, they're tricky about it. At Frank's wedding, for instance, Chad and I were sitting down to eat, and his dad was standing up with Max behind us while we ate (because the Max, he likes for you to stand up when you hold him. Otherwise he wants down). Then we turn around and they're GONE. We scan the room, and they're NOWHERE. OMG, WHO DOES THAT? He couldn't have said, "Oh hey, I see a co-worker, I'm going to take Max over and say hi." Nope. He just walks away like it's not a big deal at all that we're at a crowded wedding reception and he just walks out to the parking lot with my baby without telling anyone. So I'm freaking out a little bit, searching the whole room then the bathrooms then outside behind the reception hall where some people were mingling before seeing them walking back from the parking lot. So I tell him that is NOT OKAY, I require a bit of common courtesy when it comes to this sort of thing (if not asking permission to take my kid out of my sightline, then at least a heads-up that it is happening). Otherwise, I FREAK THE HELL OUT. Because I don't know where my kid is. Gah. I get a smile and nod and half-hearted apology. Problem solved.

Or not. Because when we went out to lunch for Mothers Day, he did it again! GAHHH! He's all, "Let Grandpa tote you to the car for Mommy" to Max. And I'm all, "Fine, whatever." So he gets Max out of the highchair while I'm putting his crayons and sippy cup back in the diaper bag, and I turn around and once again, they're gone. And when we get to the front of the restaurant, where we can see Chad's truck, they're not there either. Because once again he saw someone he knew and followed them to their car (in the lot on the side of the restaurant) and didn't bother to tell anyone. Gah. See, the way it usually happens when we go out to the eat with them is that Chad's dad will take Max out of the highchair and wait for us to gather our things, and we all walk outside together. I really hate this new 'taking Max and disappearing' act they have going. Because Chad's mom always manages to disappear with them, but they never bother to say a word about it to Chad or me.

Then there's the whole zoo fiasco. Not to mention the "we really want to take your baby and raise it ourselves" seeds that were planted years ago when Chad's mom was pressuring us to have a baby (like, a week after our wedding). When I told her I most definitely was not ready for a baby at that point in my life she said, "You can just have the baby, and I'll raise it." I am not joking. Those were her exact words. I don't actually know if she was joking or not. My gut says not. So I am obviously not the only crazy person in this family.

So maybe all that has something to do with my gut reaction to their incessant desire to take Max off without me (or Chad). You know, that instinctual response that says "NO!" Well, all those incidents plus the little seeds they're planting in Max's mind that say "Grandma and Grandpa are better than Mommy and Daddy. If Mommy and Daddy do something you don't like, even if it's for your own good, you can call us and we'll take you away" probably contribute to my wanting to keep Max with me, or at least in one place when he's being baby-sat.

After all that negativity, now I'll leave you with a picture of Max seeing sheep for the first time.

Balloons Are The Best Thing EVER

2009-07-05T10:17:00.003-05:00

Oh, the HEAT

2009-06-25T12:46:00.002-05:00

Been a while since I posted, so here's what's been going on here since the Max busted his head open.

It hasn't rained for THREE WEEKS, and it is HOT. As in record-breaking heat. Hottest my backyard has been in the past week: 107 degrees. It's been over 102 every single day for a week and a half. Officially, temps in Mobile have been 100-101. Holy crap, that's hot for June.
Yesterday our air conditioner up and died. While we are experiencing record-breaking heat.
Seeing my in-laws 4 days in three weeks is TOO MUCH. I need a break.
I shouldn't complain, though, since one of those times was helping move our new (to us) dining room furniture. And another time was them bringing a second little window air conditioner for our bedroom when our central air died yesterday. We have one window unit in the kitchen in case of hurricanes.
But I can't help it. I cannot stand the constant negative comments pertaining to Max not talking or still wanting a pacifier or the implications that Chad and I are getting this parenting thing all wrong. You don't go to someone's house and make snide remarks to their child or ask him questions like, "Mommy made you mad?" or "Daddy didn't do that right?" followed by something that may as well be, "I can do it better." Just thinking about it gets me all worked up.
So what if I piss my toddler off when I take away his riding toy because he refuses to sit down on it? What is the alternative? Let him have his way and stand up on it so he can bust his head open again? What's better? A couple of minutes of full on, pissed off, red faced screaming? Or the consequences of him falling off and getting hurt? I'm the parent for a reason. I know better than Max does when it comes to that sort of thing.
I can't stop baking. Apparently, it's my new favorite hobby. A couple of days ago I made oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies, and they are awesome. Max gets mad at me when I only let him eat one. Today I made some banana muffins, and they are pretty much the best muffins ever. We'll see if Max, who has never liked muffins, will eat one.
I'm almost finished with my cardigan! I'm working on the last piece, and hopefully it won't be long before I have a finished product to show you.
I really need to stop reading blogs by crafty people. They always make me want to take on new and exciting hobbies that I have no time for. Like sewing. I have never used a sewing machine, ever. But suddenly I find myself wanting to give it a try. I mean, it doesn't *seem* like it would be that difficult. But I'm sure it's more involved than I am envisioning.

I'm sure there's more, but you probably don't want all the details. So now I'll go back to editing my graphs and waiting for the AC repairman.

Panic! At the Homestead

2009-06-15T09:08:00.005-05:00

Whew. Is anyone else out there actually *glad* it's Monday? No? Just me? Oh well. It was a terrible weekend here in LaTinaLand, and I'm sort of looking forward to a mundane week. See, to start things off, Max had to go and bust his head open Saturday morning, so that pretty much ruined the whole weekend right there. I made yummy lemon muffins and scrambled eggs for breakfast on Saturday, so that was good. But Max ate one bite of eggs and refused to try the muffin, which is to be expected with Max. His breakfast of champions? A bowl of Cheerios and some fruit.

Anyway, after breakfast I took a shower and had just finished drying my hair when I heard Max start crying, and Chad yelled from the living room, "Where's the first aid kit?" So I dropped my hair brush and ran into the hall (Max wasn't crying anymore), where Chad was holding Max, who was bleeding all over Chad's shirt. From a gaping wound on his forehead. So we went into the hall bathroom and got a damp rag to wipe the blood away so I could see what we were dealing with. Then I whipped out the giant variety box of Band-Aids and the antibiotic cream, along with gauze and medical tape. When I tried to clean the wound a little, Max wiggled and screamed, and we had to lay him down on the couch so I could get a giant-sized Band-Aid on him. Meanwhile, Chad explained that Max had been playing in the kitchen, tripped over the wheel of the high chair and fell face first right into the corner of the cabinet. Ahhh!

It was decided that the cut would need stitches, so I called Max's pediatrician's office (they have a little emergency room there, and we thought that would be faster and better for Max than taking him to the big emergency room at the hospital). The branch of the medical group where Max's pediatrician is based was CLOSED. The one time we *really* need them on a Saturday. Ahhh!!! But they have another office about 10 minutes away, so I called there and found out exactly where it was (behind IHOP on Airport, FYI), and we were off. Actually, I called while we were in already in the car. Because once we decided this was an EMERGENCY, I grabbed Max's (conveniently pre-packed) diaper bag, threw in a juice box, a paci, and his shoes, snatched up my purse, and we ran out the door. Chad drove. I was a little shaky.

Max totally kept his cool while Chad and I were busy panicking. As long as we weren't trying to fix his head wound, he was fine. There was a giant Band-Aid over it, and it was still bleeding (duh, it was a big gaping gash that wouldn't stay closed on its own). Max didn't even have his paci, and he was cool. I strapped him in the car seat, and he was fine. A real trooper. He just kept looking up to try to see the enormous Band-Aid on his head.

Anyway, so we were ushered right into the ER when we got to the doctor's office, and Max just sat on Chad's lap and looked around. No tears. His forehead was busted open, and he was bleeding, but he was fine with it. Then the doctor came in with a nurse, who took the Band-Aid off Max's forehead. Then we laid him down on the exam table, and all hell broke loose. Max was screaming and flailing, despite the paci I retrieved from the diaper bag (not that I blame him, poor baby). Chad held Max's legs, I held his arms, and the nurse held his head while the doctor cleaned and examined the wound. He decided that stitches wouldn't be necessary. The cut was a perfectly vertical line (when the nurse held the edges of the wound together; it was a big gaping marquis shape otherwise) almost an inch long right above Max's left eye, so they decided they could glue it closed instead of stitching it. So we held Max down for a couple more minutes while the doctor produced a vial of purple Derma-bond and glued the wound shut.

Then the doctor peeled off a little wound care instruction sheet and told us how to care for Max's injury: don't do ANYTHING. Don't wet it (though a little blot in the bath would be fine), don't put any ointment on it, don't clean it, don't put a bandange on it. Just leave it alone and let the glue start coming off on its own (which would start to happen in a week or so). But we'd have to be careful not to let Max rub his head vigorously against anything or pick at the glue. Which as it turns out, is easier said than done with a toddler who has completely forgotten that he busted his forehead open two days ago.

Chad and I were really jumpy all weekend, freaking out every time Max stumbled. Which happens a lot, especially considering Max's propensity to spin around in circles until he can't walk straight. We jumped every time Max fell down and were constantly telling him to be careful. Yesterday Max started wanting to rub his face on the furniture and do this head-butting thing that he does, and he's making us crazy. Because he does not respect his head wound. He doesn't really try to touch it with his hands, though. I'm guessing it still hurts like hell.

Dressing and undressing the Max is also a little more difficult than usual. Because I try to get his shirt on and off without rubbing it against his forehead. Easier said than done. Yesterday morning Max got impatient with me and whipped his pajama shirt over his head while I was positioning the neck hole so it wouldn't touch the cut. I freaked a bit, but he was fine.

Anyway, so this morning I had to explain the head wound to the director of Max's daycare center (we saw her on the way in) and then to his teachers. They told me that another little boy in Max's class had to get stitches under his chin over the weekend when he fell off the bed. So it was a bad weekend for the toddlers at Max's daycare.

So now I'm ready for a week without drama. You hear that, Powers That Be? NO DRAMA.

Playground Etiquette

2009-06-10T13:09:00.002-05:00

So, Max and I braved the 90-degree heat this morning (but at 9 a.m. it was only 93 degrees, now it's 97 degrees) and went to the park. Big deal, right? I don't usually bother to tell you about our trips to the park. I push Max around in the stroller for 30 minutes or so (depending on how tolerant he is of being strapped down and how tired I am) then we hit the playground. Boring, boring. Although a couple of weeks ago, Max did find an empty beer bottle in the jungle gym. I freaked out a little about my 16 month old carrying around a glass bottle (and then I was all "who the hell leaves beer bottles in jungle gyms on the freaking BABY PLAYGROUND?!"), but I got over it. He climbed out of the jungle gym and immediately handed the bottle to me. Good boy, Max.

Anyway, the Max and I were chilling at the playground, blowing bubbles, sliding down the slide, climbing in the jungle gym, the usual. Then we went over to the swings, which Max doesn't particularly like, but I always put him in a swing for a little while despite that (surely he will LEARN to like the swings).

ANYway, Max was busy enjoying his first 10 seconds of swinging then begging to get out when this little boy comes over to me, wanting me to push him in a swing. This kid is maybe 2 years old, and his verbal skills aren't so good. Because most small children can only *really* be understood by their parents.

I'm not really sure what the proper etiquette is for this particular situation. Is it ok to put some other person's kid (whom you have never so much as seen before) in a baby swing? Are you allowed to play with a stranger's kid at the park? I mean, I wouldn't want some random stranger playing with my kid without permission.

Anyway, so I asked the little boy where his mommy was. Response: *stare* *point to swing* *hold arms up* I looked around, saw one guy with a little girl playing nearby. No resemblance AT ALL to the little boy and paying no attention to us. Not the kid's dad. I looked around some more. And saw NO ONE on the baby playground. There were a few parents and children on the adjacent big kid playground, but none of them were paying attention to the kid or seemed to be looking for a missing 2 year old.

So I rescued Max from his swing and put the stranger kid in a swing and pushed him for a little while. Max seemed to enjoy watching the other little boy having fun in the swing. As I mentioned before, it was 90+ degrees outside, and we'd been out in it for about an hour and a half at this point (but slathered with suncreen, wearing sunglasses, and with plenty of water on hand). Max was getting sweaty and irritable and wanted to be held. The stranger kid wanted to be pushed in the swing and did not want to get out. But it was *really* time for me to take Max home. By that time the guy with the little girl had come over to the swings, and I was trying to persuade the little boy to let me get him out and go find his mommy. Max was squirming and whining, and the guy was like, "I'll get him out." So I shrugged, and said ok. So that guy took the stranger kid out of the swing, and an older little girl (meaning she was about 6), perhaps the kid's sister, came over and led the stranger kid over to the big kid playground, and I assume, their mom/nanny/grandparent/other guardian.

That whole situation was weird. Who takes a toddler to the park and lets him wander off completely by himself? Not at all within sight? And lets him talk to random strangers without supervision? Well, try to talk, anyway. I mean, I've interacted with plenty of kids at the park, but until now the parent or grandparent of the kid in question has been right there, ready to pounce should the interaction between our kids turn nasty (e.g., should Max try to hold their kid's hand or should their kid poke Max in the tummy, both of which have happened before). It's weird when some random kid comes over and wants you to push him on the swings. And weirder when you can't figure out who he belongs to.

If Only I Were Independently Wealthy

2009-06-08T09:13:00.003-05:00

Here is what I want to do today:

Read The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde.
Nap to my heart's content ('cause I've been sick since Friday, and I'm super tired).
Finish the second sleeve of the cardigan I'm knitting (see a few posts ago, I'm too lazy to link it). And possibly start on the front pieces.
Frolic with The Max, possibly at the beach.

Here is what I'll do instead:

Read the paper we'll be discussing at tomorrow's lab meeting.
Hit the post office to mail off a book I sold on Amazon.
Read the manuscript I'm reviewing and make some notes on it.
Work on editing the two chapters of my dissertation that are finished. And then edit them some more.

The Max, He is Funny

2009-06-05T17:12:00.002-05:00

You Are Getting Sleepy....

2009-06-04T09:32:00.005-05:00

I may have mentioned this at some time in the past, but the Max has some sleep issues. We had four or five blissful months between the ages of three and eight months when Max slept through the night faithfully. We decided on Max's bedtime based on his last feeding before bed. When he was teeny tiny (i.e., younger than three months), we went to bed around 11:00, and Max would wake up around 2:00-ish then again around 4:00-4:30 to eat. Eventually, he started only waking up once around 3:00 to eat, then at the magical age of 3 months he stopped waking up before 6:00 a.m., and I was in heaven. I got sleep from 11:00 to 6:00, uninterrupted. As he got older, we gradually stretched the time between feedings and started putting Max to bed a little earlier every week. By the time he was 5 months old, Max's last feeding before bed was around 7:30-8:00, after which he went directly to sleep. Thus, his 8:00 bedtime. And he'd sleep until 6:30-7:00 in the morning. He slept well through his first two teeth (I think we had a couple of nights when he woke up once but went right back to sleep), and Chad and I thought we were out of the night-waking woods. Well, we did have a few nights when Max was 6 or 7 months old when he'd wake up with his pajamas and his sheets covered in pee. So I'd have to get up and change the Max's jammies and his bedsheets. Then I'd put Max back in the crib, he'd talk to himself for a few minutes and go back to sleep all by his lonesome. After this started happening a few times a week, I discovered Huggies Overnites. They didn't have them in Max's size, but I bought the bigger ones anyway, and they did the trick. He still wears the same size Huggies Overnites now, more than 9 months later (but he is close to moving up a size). And I no longer have to change wet sheets at 3 a.m.

Anyway, then something crazy happened when Max was about 8 months old, and suddenly he was waking up several times a night and refusing to go back to sleep in the crib. I thought maybe teething was to blame, but his next tooth didn't appear until Max was 10 months old (after getting his first two at 5 1/2 months). So, Max spent a month making me crazy by waking up three times a night and spending most nights in our bed when I was so tired I couldn't take it anymore. I eventually got him straightened out again. Well, sleeping in his bed, anyway. He was still waking up a couple of times a night.

Then we went on vacation for 9 days. The first night, Max slept like a baby is supposed to sleep - all night without a peep. And that was the end of good sleeping habits for three months. The rest of the trip, Max woke up every 1-2 hours at night and wouldn't even sleep well in the bed with Chad and me. When we got home, he wasn't waking up as often, but he still slept with Chad and me. Because I can only take so much incessant screaming. I eventually convinced Max to sleep in his bed again around his birthday (though he still woke up once or twice at night).

Then he got bronchitis. And an ear infection. At the same time. Two weeks after his birthday. And then? The amoxicillin he was on for the infections gave Max hives. For a month. Good-bye sleeping in the crib. I felt guilty about letting my sick and itchy baby scream in his bed at night, so once again he started sleeping with us. Every night. Because after 30 minutes of screaming I give up. That 'let them cry it out' business is for tougher mothers than I. I tried. I'd let Max cry for two or three minutes, go check on him and calm him down, then leave. Repeat. If after 30 minutes, Max was still crying, he won. Sue me.

Anyway, after the hives finally cleared up, Max wasn't crying so much and stayed in his bed longer every night before he woke up demanding to come back to bed with me. A couple of months ago, he finally started sleeping in his bed again. But now he's waking up obscenely early. Meaning before 6 a.m. If I take him back to bed when he wakes up at 5-something he'll usually sleep for another hour to an hour and a half. But really I wish he'd sleep in his bed until after 6:00. Like he used to.

I've started trying to make Max's bedtime earlier. Supposedly, that helps. So the Max has been going to bed around 7:30-ish for the past few nights. No luck. He's still waking up between 5:00 and 5:30. Next up: a blackout curtain. I'm hoping that will at least convince him it isn't morning yet so he'll go back to sleep in his bed when he wakes up at 5:00.

Talking Troubles?

2009-05-29T09:29:00.002-05:00

Should I be worried that my 16 month old only consistently says two words ("bye" and "yeah")? I mean, he understands EVERYTHING. And he lets us know in his pointing, grunting, gesturing, excited way. He communicates, just not verbally. When we ask Max where something is (his cup, for instance), he'll run and find it. When I ask if he needs a new diaper, he runs over to the baby gate blocking the hall because he knows that means we're going in his room. He can point to body parts when you ask him to (he knows head, eyes, nose, tongue, ear, and foot) When I ask if he's ready for a bath, he gets really excited, climbs in my lap, and waves bye-bye to Chad. If I ask if he wants juice or milk, Max will run to the refrigerator and try to open it. And when he wants something, he points to it. When he wants to read, he brings me a book and climbs in my lap. When he wants to go outside, he runs to the back door and tries to open it. When we're at the park and he's ready to go home, he holds his arms up at me and starts saying "bye".

Also, the Max has this habit of saying a word for a few days and then never saying it again. He has done that with "outside", "duck", and "book." His first word was "dada." It meant "daddy" and "doggie." He eventually got around to saying "mama." He rarely says either of those now (although I do hear "mama" a lot when he's upset). There have also been several one-time-only words, including "ostrich", "cookie", and "paper."

I guess there's a wide range of "normal" when it comes to toddler behavior, but it just seems like the Max should be saying more actual words than he is (because he understands almost everything we say, yo). According to What to Expect: The Toddler Years I shouldn't be worried. It says that by 17 months a toddler should be able to use two words and may use as many as six. By 18 months toddlers will be using anywhere from 3 to 50 words. Holy crap! That's quite a range. Also, Max has already achieved most of the milestones listed in the 18 month chapter (point to a desired object, run, use a spoon/fork, point to 1 body part when asked - Max can already do 6, kick a ball forward, stack two blocks). He's barely 16 months old, and he's been doing most of those things for a couple of months now. I was just flipping through the book, looking at the milestones listed at the beginning of each chapter, and jumping isn't even listed until the 22nd month. I mean, Max (usually) holds onto something when he jumps, but jumping in the crib is one of his most favorite activities. I guess he's just focused on things other than talking right now.

But I can't help but worry sometimes. It's in my genes.

Sweater! In Summer!

2009-05-28T09:57:00.006-05:00

I may or may not have told you about my decision to knit a cropped cardigan. Well, I am. Also, I am aware that it is May and, therefore, hot. So knitting a cardigan right now is kind of insane. But I'm assuming it will take me forever, so maybe it will be finished by the time it is actually cold enough to wear it. Plus, I'm just really into cardigans these days.

I've made a surprising amount of progress on my cardigan, and I hope it turns out well. Only it's not so cropped. In the picture on the pattern, the sweater hits above the model's belly button (no, she is not wearing anything underneath the cardigan), so I assumed it was a cropped sweater. Only when I finished the back of it, I decided it wasn't meant to be cropped after all. Because the back (holding it at my neck) hits right at the top of my pants. Which aren't super low rise or anything, but they are below my belly button. So either I'm super short (which I don't think I am at 5' 3.5"; all right, that's a little short) or the model is really super tall. I vote for the latter.

Check out my work in progress:

So far I've finished the border/tie (it's a wrap sweater, and the tie is also the border around the neck and front edges), at the top of the picture. On the bottom right is the back of the sweater (it isn't blocked yet, and I obviously haven't weaved in any of the yarn tails yet). I'll sew the tie band onto the neck edge, so it will look prettier than it does now. On the bottom left is about 2/3 of a sleeve. So I just have to finish that sleeve, knit another sleeve, knit the two front pieces, weave in all the loose ends, block everything, sew everything together, and I'm done! Ok, I've still got a ways to go. But *maybe* it will be finished by fall. Which means late October or November around here. September is still summer. So is most of October.

Pilates, You Might Be The Death of Me

2009-05-21T13:40:00.003-05:00

Maybe it was because I spent an hour and half grocery shopping and another half hour unloading the car and putting groceries away this morning (i.e., I'd already had a pretty good workout). Maybe it's just because I am woefully out of shape (note that I did not say fat. I do not think I am fat). Either way, if I keep doing pilates I might die. Or get in shape. One or the other.

I told you yesterday that I bought a pilates dvd. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Way back when, in the Year I Was Blonde (i.e., sophomore year of college), I took aerobics to fulfill one of my P.E. requirements. Tennis was the other one. Bowling was an option, as was ballroom dancing, among others. But anyway, I took aerobics more years ago than I care to count (crap, I counted. It was 7, almost 8 actually. My how time flies), and in these aerobics classes we occasionally did some pilates. At the time, I was living in the dorms and walked all over campus (usually while lugging a backpack full of books) because parking was hell. So I was considerably more fit than I am now. Back then, those pilates sessions seemed easy. Or maybe my memory is a little foggy. But I definitely remember enjoying my aerobics class. It led to my job with Mobile's ill-fated arena football team. But I won't talk about that now.

Today I decided that instead of going for a walk or jog I would try out my new pilates dvd. The one I bought consists of five separate 10 minute workouts, and I did four of them. The idea behind the 10 minute workout is that you can get a better body in just 10 minutes a day. Personally, I think that's crap, but that's just me. Maybe I *could* do one 10 minute workout five days a week and see results.

But anyway, I started with the total body workout. At the end of it, I barely felt a thing. So I moved on to the upper body workout. That one I felt. Actually, I *still* feel it. Out of shape, remember? Woefully so. Then, arms burning, I decided to press on and do the lower body workout. Which actually wasn't so bad. I guess my legs are pretty strong. Finally, I decided to give the ab workout a try. Oh. My. God. SO HARD. Actually, for the first half of it, I really didn't think it was doing anything. So maybe I was doing it wrong. But by the end I couldn't finish all the reps of all the exercises.

I did lots of additional stretching after the workout, so maybe I won't hurt *too* much tomorrow. I'm saving the 'Pilates for Flexibility' workout for next week. In retrospect, maybe I should have started with that one.

Hurricane Preparedness

2009-05-20T11:33:00.003-05:00

I spent $200 this morning. And I wasn't grocery shopping. What did I spend this money on? Lots of things! First, a new pair of Nike running shoes for myself. Also, a new pair of shoes for the Max. Because he has gigantic feet and is about to outgrow his size 5 toddler shoes. I bought him a pair of Garanimals sandals a few weeks ago that I hope will last him the summer. They are size M (5/6), so we'll see how that goes. They only cost me $3.50 at WalMart, so if he outgrows them sooner, no biggie. I'll just buy another $3.50 pair in size L (7/8). Or I could splurge and spend $10 on sandals for him. Yeah, I'm cheap. But I refuse to spend any significant amount of money on shoes that my kid will only wear for a few months. His most expensive shoes cost me $12.

Also, I bought a pilates dvd! Crazy, I know. A total impulse buy. But I felt like I needed something for rainy days when I can't go to the park. I also picked up a pedometer that tracks distance, steps, and calories burned. I'm most interested in distance.

Most importantly, I re-stocked my hurricane kit. You know, to make sure we don't actually get hit by one this year. They always happen when I'm not prepared. And hurricane season officially starts in a couple of weeks. Here's what I bought. Let me know if you think I forgot something.

Batteries for flashlights, touch lights, radio, etc.
Bottled water
Apple juice
Various non-perishable food items (including a lot of Max-friendly foods)
Toilet paper (I've never bought this specifically for the hurricane kit before, but it occurred to me that if we did have a hurricane, it would happen when we were down to our last roll; that's just my luck.)
Paper towels
Antibacterial hand wipes
Paper plates & bowls, plastic utensils and cups

Chad keeps a stock of ~20 gallons of gas in our shed for the generator. Actually, I'm not sure how much gas is out there now. We used what he had in our cars over the winter, and I'm not sure if he's refilled the gas cans yet. We also have lots of flashlights, candles, matches, etc. And 2 battery operated radios. Hmm, I should probably pick up an extra pack of diapers (and baby wipes) to throw in there too.

So, bring on the summer. I think I'm ready.

Anniversary Adventures

2009-05-16T14:38:00.003-05:00

Yesterday Chad and I celebrated 5 years of wedded bliss. Nothing major, just going out to a baby-free dinner, which is kind of a big deal for us. Chad had the bright idea that we should go eat at the beach at this place he went to three years ago. Only he wasn't sure where it was, what it looked like, or what the name of the restaurant was. He was working in Gulf Shores at the time, but he thought the restaurant might be in Florida. Which, as it turned out, it was.

So, we spent two hours avoiding accidents on I-10, then driving all over Baldwin County. Once we got to the beach we just kept driving until we found a suitable restaurant that offered outdoor dining on the beach side of the road. We saw exactly two - Bahama Bob's in Gulf Shores and The Crab Trap in Perdido Key. The Crab Trap was the restaurant Chad remembered, and that was where we ate. It was pretty tasty, although the menu is a bit pricey for everyday dining. Being a special occasion, we didn't complain. Much.

Chad's parent came over and stayed with Max so that Chad and I could enjoy a baby free dinner. But when we were seated at the restaurant, we discovered that they have a playground in the sand with several tables nearby. We both said, "Aww, we could have brought Max!" But anyway, we had a lovely dinner looking out at the gulf.

Being old and crotchety for people in their mid-twenties, we were home pretty early, around 9:30. And when we got home, we discovered that the Max had just gone to sleep. Gah. He is usually asleep by 8:00. And instead of putting him to bed awake after "goodnights" and a cup of milk, the grandparents held Max until he fell asleep. Which didn't happen until around 9:00. Well, to their credit, we were told that they did put Max in his bed awake at first, but he cried so they went and got him. When he cries when we put him to bed, we go check on him every couple of minutes and if necessary stay and pat his back until he falls asleep. I hope this doesn't screw up Max's sleeping patterns.

Oh, and apparently Max also went to bed without a pacifier, which probably explains why he screamed when they first put him down. One day, the Max will be a paci-free baby, but right now, it helps him fall asleep, and I am happy to let him have it.

The Max woke up an obscene number of times last night, and he hasn't been terribly happy today. Here's hoping tonight goes better.

A Numbered List for Your Monday

2009-05-04T11:58:00.005-05:00

It's storming over here like nobody's business. I am almost afraid that lightning will find a way to zap me through my laptop. That's a good excuse for procrastinating, right? "It was lightning like whoa, and I feared electrocution by laptop."
I just baked the hell out of some chocolate chip cookies. They are super tasty. Supposedly, I baked them to take to Max's daycare teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week. And I will, but I also saved a dozen or so for us.
I'm kind of looking forward to the time when Max only has one teacher to appreciate. Right now he has 3 teachers (there are 10 toddlers in Max's room at daycare, but they are rarely if ever all there on the same day). It takes a lot of adults to keep up with a room full of toddlers. I am also taking cookies to Max's three teachers from Infant 2 since he spent so much time in that room. Actually, there's a new teacher in Infant 2 who started, like, a week before Max moved up to the Toddler room, and one of his old teachers moved to the 2 year olds room. So I'm also taking cookies for the new Infant 2 teacher whose name I don't know because she always says hi to Max when she sees him.
I was planning on graduating this spring, but that is not going to happen. Because my dissertation? It is not finished yet. And that is not entirely my fault. I also might not meet summer deadlines. Boo. Which means that I may not officially be Dr. LaTina until the fall. Bah. I need to send a letter to the registrar's office requesting that they move my graduation date. Soon.
The temperature outside has dropped almost 10 degrees since this morning. I'm glad I sent Max to daycare in jeans today. Not that 68 is cold.
I think I might have swine flu. Not really, but I've been fighting one hell of a sinus headache all weekend. And, damn. I forgot to buy more (fake) DayQuil when I was at WalMart this morning. But I did by sports bras. Because I've taken up "jogging" a few times a week. Meaning I walk about 2 miles and jog maybe 1/2 a mile or so. I'm out of shape, people. Plus, when I take Max I don't jog at all. I just push Max around in the stroller for 2.5 miles then we hit the playground. Jogging strollers are hella expensive, and I'm not that serious about it.
The probablility that I actually have swine flu is not that close to zero. Chad had to go out of town last week (to Greenville, MS - where they have a Kermit museum! Like Kermit the Frog!) for some training thing, and one of the guys there was from South Carolina, and his wife was sick. He didn't know then if it was swine flu because she didn't have the test results yet. Guess what? That guy's wife DID have swine flu. It was the first case in South Carolina. But whatever. It's just the flu. You feel like crap for a week and then it's over. But I don't really think I have swine flu. I think I have seasonal allergies.
Is anyone else really sick of hearing about swine flu? Even after the authorities have informed us that it really isn't that bad?
I really have to get some actual work done now.

Bread

2009-04-27T09:23:00.011-05:00

My twitter followers will already know that I have recently ventured into the wonderful world of bread making. So far, I have baked two loaves of homemade bread. The first was a basic white loaf, and it was awesome.

Here's what that first loaf of bread looked like:

The basic white bread recipe (for those who might want to try making their own bread):
Ingredients:

1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tbsp. butter
1 packet active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 - 3 cups all purpose flour
Butter or non-stick cooking spray for bowl and loaf pan

What to do:

Dissolve yeast in 1 cup warm water in a large mixing bowl.
Melt butter and add it, milk, sugar, and salt to the yeast mixture and stir.
Add 1 1/2 to 2 cups flour to the mixture and stir with a spoon (do not add the rest of the flour yet).
Keep mixing in ~1/4 cup of flour at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and loses some of its stickiness.
Kneading (can be done in the bowl or on a floured counter or tabletop) - rub a little flour between your hands and knead the dough for 5-10 minutes, adding a little bit more flour as needed when the dough sticks to your hands. Just work the dough around really well with your hands, squishing it and forming it into a ball then squishing it around some more, adding small amounts flour all the while. You've kneaded it enough when the dough becomes springy (it bounces back when you poke it).
Coat another large bowl with butter or non-stick cooking spray, then form the dough into a ball and roll it around in the bowl so it's covered in butter or spray. Leave the dough in the sprayed or buttered bowl and cover it with a clean kitchen towel. Let the dough rise in a warm place for ~ 1 hour.
Punch down the risen dough (yes, punch it with your fist) and lay it out on a floured surface. Spread the dough into a rectangle (the short side should be about the length of your loaf pan). Roll the dough up, pinching the seams as you go. Pinch the ends closed and fold them under to form a loaf shape. Place the dough into a greased loaf pan, and cover it with a clean kitchen towel. Let the dough rise again for 45 minutes to 1 hour in a warm place.
Bake at 375 degrees (preheat the oven before baking) for ~30 minutes.
Remove from pan and place on cooling rack as soon as it comes of the oven. Let cool before slicing.

Today I made my first loaf of whole wheat bread. Actually, it is about 2/3 whole wheat flour with some all purpose flour in there, too.

Here's my whole wheat loaf after rising in the pan:

Now, here it is after coming out of the oven:

And here is the final sliced product:

The wheat loaf is every bit as good as the white one. Here's the recipe I used for the wheat bread:

Ingredients:

1 packet active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp. melted butter or margarine
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups very warm water (hot tap water microwaved for 30-45 seconds)
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
~1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Here's what you do:

Dissolve yeast in warm water.
Mix honey, butter, salt, and very warm water in a large bowl and cool for 5 minutes.
Beat in 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour with electric mixer; beat for 2-3 minutes. Beat in remaining whole wheat flour and dissolved yeast.
Stir in ~1 cup of all purpose flour with a spoon. Stir in ~1/4 cup more all purpose flour if the dough is still very sticky and does not pull away from the side of the bowl.
Knead in remaining all purpose flour as needed. Knead for 5-10 minutes until dough is springy. Place dough in a greased bowl (roll dough around in the bowl to cover in butter or cooking spray), cover with a clean kitchen towel, and let the dough rise for ~45 minutes.
Grease a loaf pan and punch down the dough in the bowl. Spread dough out on a floured surface to form a rectangle. Roll the dough up tightly, pinching the seams as you go. Pinch the ends of the roll to seal then fold them under to form a loaf shape. Place the dough in the loaf pan, cover the pan, and let the dough rise for 30-45 minutes.
Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 10 minutes.
Remove the bread from the pan to a cooling rack as soon as it comes out of the oven and let it cool before slicing it.

Enjoy!

Loot

2009-04-27T09:23:00.003-05:00

The Friends of the Mobile Public Library book sale was this past weekend, and Chad and I took Max to the Civic Center to take advantage of tons of books for super cheap prices. We came away with a ton of loot for the low, low price of $19.

Here's what I got (this does not include the books Chad picked out for himself):

Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
The Chocolate Jewel Case by Joanna Carl
Key Lime Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke
Lucky You by Carl Hiaasen
Brother Odd by Dean Koontz
Demon Seed by Dean Koontz
Cold Fire by Dean Koontz
One Door Away From Heaven by Dean Koontz
The Prodigal Son (Frankenstein Book 1) by Dean Koontz
'E' is for Evidence by Sue Grafton
'F' is for Fugitive by Sue Grafton
Three Complete Novels ('G' is for Gumshoe, 'H' is for Homicide, 'I' is for Innocent) by Sue Grafton
'J' is for Judgment by Sue Grafton
'K' is for Killer by Sue Grafton
'L' is for Lawless by Sue Grafton
'M' is for Murder by Sue Grafton
'N' is for Noose by Sue Grafton
'P' is for Peril by Sue Grafton
'S' is for Silence by Sue Grafton
Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

A pretty good take, I think. I've had to clean off another bookshelf (i.e., move books to the shelves in the dining room) to make room for all of them.

The Cooking Bug

2009-04-22T14:21:00.002-05:00

I have caught it again, guys. Well, actually I didn't feel like cooking At All yesterday, so we ate leftovers all day, but today the urge to exercise my culinary muscles has returned. Does anyone else out there in InternetLand find recipes for things they have no idea how to make and then totally change them on a whim? Because I do that all the time. I almost never make a recipe exactly as written. I'm always adding something or leaving something out (on purpose). Tonight I am going to make chicken & rice for dinner (no, I have never made chicken & rice before, now kindly pick yourselves up off the floor), and I am totally not using the exact recipe I printed out. I wanted a recipe that did not invlove canned soup or heavy cream. Not because I have anything against canned soup or heavy cream, but because I have none of either in the house, and I've already been to the grocery store once today, thank you (I was buying ingredients for blackberry tarts. Actually, the recipe was for raspberry tarts, but I made blackberry instead. See? I can't help myself). I also wanted one that didn't call for instant rice. I have instant rice, but I just prefer the non-instant kind.

So, I found myself a recipe for chicken and rice using uncooked, regular, long-grain rice (I am using brown rice) and evaporated milk. But it also calls for celery, which I don't have. But I am totally going to add onions and bell pepper, which the recipe does not call for. But I have onions and a yellow bell pepper, and I am going to use them. Don't judge me. Anyway, I hope it doesn't suck. But there is still some leftover spaghetti in case Max won't eat it.

I hope I don't cut myself tonight. I already have three cuts on my hands, and I don't need anymore right now, thank you. I am such a klutz. The other day when I was chopping vegetables and herbs for chicken and risotto, I got a little careless with my knife, and cut my middle finger. Thankfully, the knife also hit my fingernail or that situation would have been really bad. In retrospect, that cut probably could have used a stitch or two anyway. It was pretty small (maybe 1/4" long) but kind of deep for a cut on a finger. Later on, I cut my other hand opening a can of parmesan cheese. That's what I get for not grating it fresh, right? I have another cut on my other middle finger, but I don't know where that one came from.

So yeah, no more cuts today. I just sharpened my knives, too, so wish me luck.

Uninspired

2009-04-21T12:08:00.002-05:00

As you can probably tell, I have been feeling rather uninspired lately. On all fronts. I am having a really hard time motivating myself to finish the dissertation and finally get the hell out of grad school. I find myself wasting an obscene amount of time doing absolutely nothing. I haven't even had anything good to blog about.

Here's the short version of what's been happening lately:

Max had pinkeye over the weekend, and I've been fighting him to let me put drops in his eyes.
I've been struggling to re-work the discussion section of the second chapter of my dissertation into something I can live with.
I've been eBay-ing way too much.
I painted a lot of faces (and the occasional arm and hand) at DISL's Discovery Day this past weekend.
I've been making an effort to exercise. Period. Because I realized that aside from housecleaning and hefting Max around, I don't.
The weather has been way too nice to be cooped up inside writing. I'm thinking I should take this party (meaning, me, my laptop, and a few papers) outside.

In other news, Max turned 15 months old today, which means another checkup soon. Also, he has finally started going to sleep on his own. I know, all the parenting books say you should lay babies down "drowsy but awake" from the time they're teeny tiny so they can learn to fall asleep on their own. But The Max? Has never been into that. Believe me, we tried. But he has always been the baby who screams bloody murder as soon as you move to lower him into the crib and continues to wail at the top of his lungs until he is picked up. It did not matter if I was right by his bed or if I was patting his back. Or if I was not in the room. He would just scream, and there's only so much non-stop screaming a person can stand. So we've been cuddling/rocking Max to sleep pretty much his whole life. Then he goes into his crib asleep.

But lately Max has been fighting the sleep thing. He's been squirming and struggling to get down and play after he has his bedtime cup of milk. So after a half hour of struggling and squirming and fussing the other night, I got frustrated and just put Max in his bed awake. Well, I told him goodnight and gave him a kiss, then put him in his bed and left the room. He didn't even cry, really. I could hear him moving around for a little while, and there was a little bit of whining that first night, but Max fell asleep maybe 10 minutes after I put him in his crib. So for the last few nights, we've been keeping his bedtime routine the same as it's always been, but instead of sitting down to cuddle/rock after his cup of milk, we do "goodnight"s and kisses, and Max goes in his crib. With no fuss whatsoever. We can hear him jumping in his bed for a few minutes, and then he's quiet. When I check on him before I go to bed, he's always snoozing away. So I'm loving that.

I am not loving that Max is waking up a zillion times a night (except last night, when he slept straight through from 8 p.m. to 6:10 a.m., which is still a bit too early). But at least he's staying in his bed instead of screaming bloody murder for as long as takes for me to take him to our bed.

Ah, well. It's time for me to get back to work. I'm also thinking about going for a jog at the park, so maybe I'll do that, too.

Grandparents

2009-04-13T09:04:00.006-05:00

i guess the first thing i need to say today is that, when it comes to max, i am kind of a crazy control freak. i don't know if that's normal, and i don't care. i should also say that chad and i grew up in very different ways. his grandmother lived with them when he was little, and pretty much his whole family lived 5 minutes (or less) away. so maybe it was normal for his grandparents to treat him like their own child instead of their grandchild.

when i was little, my grandparents were about an hour away, which is close enough to see them often and have a fairly close relationship with them but not so close that they were around every single day. most of the time, we went to visit them instead of the other way around, and i can remember asking to go with them when they went into town for something while we were visiting. and my mom usually let me. but i don't remember my grandparents randomly coming over and asking my mom if they could take me and my brother somewhere without her. they just weren't like that. they did volunteer to babysit when mom needed it, though.

my in-laws have a bad habit of treating max like he is their child instead of their grandchild. everything with them is too much, which makes me crazy. and then i feel guilty for getting annoyed with them and wishing they would back off. if they lived closer to us, they would be here every day. chad warned me when we got married that his mom was going to be exactly like ray's mother on 'Everybody Loves Raymond.' and to a certain extent, she is. but i think she tries really hard not to be, which is probably why i feel guilty that she drives me crazy.

all of this was brought on by an unexpected visit from the in-laws on saturday. they called while i was in the shower that morning to say, "surprise, we're coming to mobile today, and we want to take max to the flea market with us." it really threw me for a loop. for several reasons.

it was completely out of the blue.
chad just took max to their house last saturday while i was at the graduate student symposium at the DISL. i guess they feel differently, but they don't need to see him every single weekend. we have other things to do.
the following day was easter. so they were going to see him then. i understand that they like max and that they want to spend time with him. but they don't seem to understand that they are not his only relatives and that other people want to spend time with him, too.
i am just not comfortable sending my toddler off anywhere without at least one of his parents. i am ok with leaving him at a friend or relative's house for a while, though. i don't care if that's rational or not.
in my head, i already had a plan for the day, and apparently i don't deal well with unexpected changes to my schedule. especially annoying ones. i think if they'd given us at least a day's notice, i would have handled things better.
i did not let max go with them, so they came over to our house for a while before they went to the flea market. hoping i would change my mind and let them take him. they kept making little comments about it the whole time they were here.

i can't seem to make myself not get annoyed at something every time we're around the in-laws. and it's always just little things that piss me off, so i guess that's my problem. but i can only deal with so many little things.

things they've done recently that totally hit me the wrong way:

constantly distracting max while he is eating. talking to him very animatedly and waving toys in front of him while he's having lunch doesn't make getting him fed easy.
little off-hand comments that don't really matter now but might when max gets older and really understands what they're saying. things to the effect of, "if you don't like what mommy does, you can come stay with us. call us anytime and we'll come get you." that is never going to happen.
they bought him a life jacket. because they assume that they will be taking my very small child fishing. on a boat. without his parents. maybe when he's older. as in, school age. not anytime soon.
grabbing max and taking him outside without a word. they have done this at our house and theirs. they did it yesterday. they just decided to take him outside to hunt easter eggs in their yard without waiting for chad and me. i was in the process of looking for max's sunglasses, and chad was fixing something on their computer. at their request.
letting their enormous dog (a bull mastiff) run around with max. they usually grab the dog and put him on a leash when we pull up so he won't jump on us. but it's fine if he's loose when max is running around outside? i don't think so. most of the time, he's pretty calm, but he has his moments, and the fear of the dog bowling max over and accidentaly hurting him is not irrational.
acting like they have to buy everything for max. they go completely overboard. all the time. not just holidays and birthdays. they sent 3 outfits home with max last weekend. they had just given him a whole box of clothes (in the same size) at his birthday. and they have no idea what they have already bought for max. they have bought multiples of the same outfit in the same size on more than one occassion. at a certain point, the amount of stuff they buy becomes incredibly wasteful. they have bought 6 pairs of shorts and 10 shirts for max in the same size over the last two months. we already buy clothes for max. and toys. gifts are fine, but it's always just too much. they never ask what max already has or what he needs. they just buy mass quantities of stuff. the couple of times i have told them something that he needs, they either don't get it or get it later when we don't need it anymore (i.e., when i said we needed 12 month size pajamas and they waited three months to buy them, when max was starting to outgrow them). they just buy whatever they want, wasting money and whatever they bought. i've returned what i can, and i'm sending other things to the goodwill.
stocking their house with the little veggie bowls and stuff that i sometimes get for max. they don't seem to understand that he's not going to be there often enough to justify special purchases unless they're planning on using them too. plus, max usually eats what we eat. and i always take back-up toddler food anyway.

chad says that sometimes his parents feel a little awkward hanging out with max at our house, and i can sort of understand that. but at the same time, i don't think that they should feel free to do whatever they please with him. maybe i'm weird, and other people think that grandparents have the right to do whatever they want to with their grandkids. but to tell the absolute truth, i don't want them to feel like they can come over anytime they want to and take max. and that is not the same as saying that i don't want them to see max. i want max to know his relatives and love them. but they should not have the same responsibilities and privileges with him that his parents do. there should be boundaries.

The Toddler Room

2009-04-01T10:26:00.002-05:00

so, max started in the toddler room at daycare this week, and before he actually moved up to the new class, i was afraid i would have the same issues that i had with the big baby room at first. but i didn't need to worry. i think i love the toddler room. it's funny how max has spent the majority of his daycare career in the big baby room (aka, infant 2 class) when i like the other classes so much more. except it isn't really funny. i mean, i got used to the big baby room, and once he was about 9 months old, the big baby room was good for max. but it still sucked for the two or three months before that.

max spent 7 1/2 months in the big baby room at daycare. he started that class when he was 6 1/2 months old and the youngest baby in the class, and now he's 14 months old and was the oldest baby in that class. now he is 3rd youngest in the toddler room. but he is smaller than both the kids who are younger than he is. the youngest kid in the toddler room isn't really a toddler yet. he is 13 1/2 months old, but he can't walk yet. so it seems silly that they moved him up just because he was next in line. the little girl who was behind that kid can walk, but she is still in the infant 2 class. i don't see why they couldn't have moved her up instead and left the kid who can't walk yet in infant 2 for a little while longer. there isn't much difference in their ages (maybe 2 weeks). oh well. at least it wasn't my kid that got stuck in the toddler room before he could walk.

anyway, i was pleased with max's first day in the toddler class. they sent home a schedule last week, and it really isn't much different from the infant 2 schedule. they have lunch at the same time. the only differences are that snack times are a half hour later, and afternoon nap starts an hour later than in infant 2. but max never went to sleep at the beginning of nap time, anyway, so he's still actually going to sleep around the same time in the afternoon (2-ish). also, they do a morning snack from 8:00-8:30 for the toddlers, which is only about an hour after max has breakfast. daycare provides that snack. this morning it was pop-tarts (which max doesn't really like), cheez-its (which max LOVES), or animal crackers (they're ok). max probably won't ever eat much at morning snack, and i guess it won't hurt it him. mostly, it's for the kids who don't eat breakfast before they get dropped off or wake up really early, and their parents usually bring breakfast for them.

the toddlers have their own little cafeteria where they eat lunch and their afternoon snack. it's really just a break room with two big tables that have baby seats built into them. each kid has a little cubby in there with their snacks.

the toddler room is much less chaotic than the big baby room, and the teachers seem much more organized. there is a hook below each kid's box (where we leave snacks, pacifiers, etc) to hang his bag on, instead of the jumbled shelf where the bags went in infant 2. one of the teachers showed me everything on max's first day (where to put max's juice and milk in the fridge, the toddler cafeteria & cubbies, etc.) and asked if i had any questions. i just felt like they had their shit together, you know?

so yeah, i think this toddler thing is gonna work out.

You Got the Road Rage in You

2009-03-30T12:02:00.002-05:00

like most of us, i do a lot of driving in my everyday life. and as it turns out, i am very susceptible to road rage. i get SO pissed off at other stupid drivers. and i am the type of person who is going to get herself shot dead by someone else who also has the road rage and packs heat, because i am a honker. but i only carry pepper spray. no firearms here. when another driver wrongs me in some way, i lay on my little weenie horn and let them know about it. so, here are just a few of the things that bring out the road rage in me:

drivers who whip out in front of me like maniacs, forcing me to slam on my brakes. and then poke along at 30 mph. forcing me to pass their slow asses.
drivers who run stop signs. especially 4-way stop signs. especially when someone is already there. it happens more than you might think.
people who feel it necessary to put their flashers on just because it's raining. i don't honk at them, but it peeves me.
people who don't turn their lights on in the rain. it's a law for a reason, people. i don't honk at them, either, but i do flash my lights at them.
drivers who feel the need to come to a complete stop at a flashing yellow light. clearly, you have the right of way. if it's a flashing red light, then you have to stop.
people who don't respect the school bus stop sign. it doesn't matter if it's a 4 lane road and the bus is on the other side of a turning lane. you are still supposed to stop, asshole.
people who turn right on red when i am turning left with a green arrow. this also happens to me pretty often. like the other day, i was turning left with a green left turn signal (i was the 2nd car to do so), and some old guy making a right turn from a red light whips his lexus out in between me and the car in front of me. seriously, i almost creamed him. you can bet i honked at that crazy old man.
people who have their right turn signal on when sitting at a red light but don't actually turn until the light turns green. granted, this only bothers me when i am also trying to make the same right turn and traffic is clear.
you know when you see signs warning you that the left lane ends in 1 mile (1/2 mile, 1000 ft., 500 ft.)? so you have to merge? like on eastbound I-10 in mobile right before the wallace tunnel? and you know how there's always some asshole who just keeps speeding along in the left lane trying to bypass all the slower people who actually merged when they were supposed to? because surely someone will let him over when the left lane actually does end? those people make me crazy, and i do everything in my power to NOT let them merge when the lane ends. if i have to sit in slow pre-tunnel traffic, so do you. so when you're sitting there with your blinker on, waiting at the end of the left lane because you're an ass and you tried to pass everybody, i will not let you over. however, if you put your blinker on well before the lane ends instead of trying to beat the traffic system, i am happy to make room for you.
drivers who pass you and then go really slow. so you pass them. and start to get some distance away from them. and then they realize that you've passed them, speed up, pass you, and then slow down again. interstate leap frog is not a fun game. pick a speed and drive it.
you know how parking lots often have angled parking spaces and arrows indicating which direction you should drive down that lane? people who drive the wrong way in those make me crazy.

obviously, i am easily angered when i drive, and you can be sure that this is far from a complete list of my driving-related annoyances. so watch out, or i might be honking at YOU.

2009-03-26T12:56:00.002-05:00

so, it's been a couple of weeks since i posted, although my twittering has been pretty prolific. i am completely addicted to twitter. it's a fantastic outlet for all of my random thoughts. for some reason, i feel that i need to have more to say when i blog. like, i feel a bit guilty for a one- or two-line blog entry.

there are some things that i have wanted to blog about, but i haven't really found the time for some reason.

it *really* bugs me when people take my child and just walk off with him without so much as a word to me. especially in a public place. i don't care if those people are his grandparents. i feel pretty possessive when it comes to max. in a "my preeecioussss" sort of way. so when we're at a wedding and you want to show him off? give me a heads up first. and don't keep him too long. because he's mine.
the next time i want to go to old navy, someone should shake me and firmly tell me no. seriously, i went to old navy the other day to buy a pair of shorts, and i bought shorts. but i also came away with a dress, a half-sleeve cardigan, and an adorable eyelet-trimmed yellow top. i mean, everything is totally cute, and everything i bought was under $20, but really. i have no self control. i think i should limit my solo shopping endeavors to stores like NY&Co or the limited or the gap. when the regular price of clothes i look at is mostly over $30, i find it easy to resist impulse buys (buy one shirt at $39.50, get the second 50% off! um, no thanks). but when most of the clothes i'm looking at are $20 and under, i just can't stop myself. i'm like, "ooh! what a cute top! $15? sure!" i mean, i don't buy tanks from old navy anymore because i discovered that i can get almost the exact same thing from walmart for $4 (and no, i have no problem buying a $4 walmart tank top instead of an $8.50 old navy one. seriously, they look exactly the same). so, i am price-conscious and sort of thrifty. i just also happen to be lacking in the impulse control department.
i got my hair cut the other day (not the same day i went to old navy. it was the day after). i had the length trimmed about an inch and got long bangs angled to the side. it looks really cute, but i am slightly disturbed by the way it reminds me of the way my hair looked in 6th grade when i was growing out my bangs. only the overall length is shorter now. and i like to think i'm a lot more fashionable now (and a lot more skilled in the application of makeup), even though vanessa says i haven't changed since middle school. i don't know if that's a good thing or not. if that's true, no wonder i always get carded at bars.
i am sick of rain, and it is only the second rainy day in a row down here. it is supposed to be rainy until sometime saturday. boo. all this rain is making my sweet new haircut look like ass when really it's cute. also, i really want to wear a skirt or a dress. or both. on consecutive days, not the same day. but i don't feel that sun dresses and skirts are appropriate rainy day attire. so come on, weather. cooperate.
yesterday, max took a nose dive into the side of his toy box, and it scared the crap out of me. the side of his nose turned purple (but only for a very brief time), and his forehead was bright red for a while. i tried to put ice on it, but you try holding a towel filled with ice on a squirmy toddler's face, and let me know how successful you are. max is fine. he cried for a little while, understandably. but he was completely fine after two minutes. he has a little red line between his eyes a slightly larger red line/splotch on his nose. otherwise, he is fine.
except for the teething and the not sleeping. OMG, i hate molars. they are the most recent bane of my existence. one of max's molars is just barely peeking through (even though his cuspids/canines/eye teeth have not come in yet. he does have all 8 of his incisors), and that tooth has not been an easy one. so once again, the cranky baby has been sleeping in mommy and daddy's bed every night. for the past 7 weeks. because he started sleeping with us every night when he was sick before the hives fiasco. and we haven't convinced him to sleep in his own bed again yet. but at least the hives are gone.

that is all. for now.

Just a Quick Note

2009-03-13T09:18:00.003-05:00

mmkay, i have a really long and busy day planned, so i'll just hit the high points of what i want to tell you here.

i think max's hives might finally be gone! so yay! and keep your fingers crossed.
frank is getting married TOMORROW. which means i have to buy a wedding gift TODAY.
i am waging war on the dust mites in my house. and by God, i am going to WIN.
maybe i should have said this first, but i took max back to the allergist yesterday, and she pretty much figures the hives were indeed caused by amoxicillin. and also, max is allergic to dust mites, thus the war waging. but dust mites probably didn't trigger the hives, just his many runny noses (which can lead to ear infections, boo!). so in the future we should avoid penicillin-based antibiotics at all costs. because i can't deal with another month-long war with hives.
the weather this weekend is supposed to be gross. i.e., rainy and stormy and possibly lightning-filled.
...which means that i need to do my grocery shopping TODAY instead of saturday morning like usual. plus, there's frank's wedding saturday afternoon in atmore.
i have to take max for more blood work sometime today because i refused to do that and allergy tests all in one day (remember how we have to repeat the thyroid test b/c his antithyroid antibodies were elevated 2 weeks ago?). as it turns out, though, the allergy tests weren't so bad, and i think max rather enjoyed running around shirtless in the doctor's office for 20 minutes. plus, i put his sunglasses on him, and all the nurses came in to ooh and ahh over his irresistable cuteness. he obliged them with big grins and lots of baby jibberish.

and that's the day ahead of me. i must be off now.

Wasting Time

2009-03-10T09:03:00.003-05:00

mmkay, so i'm home (well, i've been home since sunday evening). the trip was long but good, and i am very excited to be home and hang out with max. well, actually he's at daycare today, and i really should be working on the dissertation. but i feel the need to blog out my various frustrations first.

first, my house was a complete disaster when i got home, and now i have to waste a bunch of time cleaning it and putting things back where they belong. seriously, i don't think the floor got mopped once while i was gone because it was disgusting. also, none of max's plastic/vinyl bibs with the pocket to catch dropped food got cleaned either, and they were just piled on the kitchen counter, covered in dried-on food. actually, every square inch of counter space was piled up with something. which makes cooking a bit difficult. also, the dishes that i washed tuesday night were still in the dishwasher, even though i specifically told chad that they needed to be taken out because the plastic cups and bowls don't get dry in there, and leaving them wet invites mold and germs. gross. there's really no excuse for not keeping up with household chores because his mom was here wednesday through friday, and she took max to spend the night at her house friday night and brought him back saturday before dinner. i think she hand-washed some dishes, but she didn't take the valves out of max's sippy cups, even though once again i specifically told chad to take the valves out and wash them separately in the basket in the dishwasher. if you don't take the valves out, milk/juice gets trapped between the valve and the spout, and the cup isn't really clean. i couldn't find a clean cup for max sunday night, so i had to wash one, then chad told me the dishes in the dishwasher were clean. but they were the ones that were still in there from tuesday night. and all the plastic things still had water on them. not cool.

chad got his mom to do max's laundry, but i'm pretty sure she either used the scented dryer sheets or put fabric softener in with his laundry, which means i have to re-wash all that stuff. when i opened the drawer to get out an outfit for max to wear yesterday i could smell the strong perfume-y smell before i even picked anything up. even if he didn't have hives, that would be bad for max, what with the eczema and all. what's the point of using hypoallergenic laundry detergent if you're going to use a scented dryer sheet or liquid fabric softener? anyway, i had to do max's laundry yesterday anyway because he only had one clean pair of pants, and his sheet, changing table cover, and high chair cover didn't get washed while i was gone. again, even though i specifically told chad that he needed to do laundry one day while i was gone and to make sure he washed those things. he could have at least passed that message on to his mom.

chad has been working on getting the dining room/foyer prepped for painting for a while now, and while max was at his parents' house he painted the ceiling, baseboards, and trim in there, including the columns and shelves that separate the dining room and foyer and the closet door. he also changed out the light fixture and the doorknob on the foyer closet. i appreciate that he wanted to improve the look of our house, but he left crap piled up everywhere, which makes me crazy.

oh, and i have a cold or something. i feel like complete crap. i kept waking up last night because my throat was hurting. it still hurts. and i am So Tired. i don't want to work today. i'd rather sleep all day. but then i'd feel bad for taking max to daycare today, even though if he were here i wouldn't be able to nap anyway.

yesterday, max had his appointment with the allergist, and that was a big fat waste of time because they can't do allergy tests until thursday. max actually looks a lot better now, even though he hasn't had any atarax since thursday. he still gets a few welts here and there, and they get pretty bad after a bath or when he gets hot, but they don't really seem to bother him.

anyway, so the allergist asked a bunch of questions yesterday about when max last had atarax, what he eats on a regular basis, previous illnesses, if he's ever had peanuts/peanut butter (yes, twice), etc. to determine what allergy tests they need to do. food allergy is definitely a possibility, and some of max's stomach viruses might not have actually been stomach viruses but a reaction to food instead. same thing with his cold/runny nose. she looked in his ears because he kept rubbing his ear (i thought it was itchy; he's been rubbing them ever since he got hives, and then they turn bright red), and they looked fine. she also looked in max's nose, which has been runny again for a week or so. she said one side looked like a cold, but the other side was paler, which is indicative of allergies. she also said that hives caused by antibiotic allergies can last for up to a month, so it could still be the amoxicillin. for now, she said they'll have to treat him like he's allergic to penicillin.

anyway, the reason they couldn't do allergy tests yesterday is because atarax stays in the body for 7 days (even though they told the nurse from pediatrician's office that we had to keep him off it for 5 days). the doctor wrote us a prescription for orapred (if he has to take it, this will be max's 3rd round of steroids) and said to use that instead of atarax if we need it because it won't interfere with the allergy tests. umm, the pediatrician so could have done that. i'm so pissed. we wasted so much time in there, when they could have told the pediatrician that we had to take max off atarax for 7 days (not 5 like they said) and that we should use orapred instead if needed. but no, instead we wasted a day just talking to the allergist (she was really nice, though), and now we have to go back thursday, which is when max is supposed to have more blood work to test his antithyroid antibody levels again. but i might wait for that until friday, because i don't really want to take him to get that much blood drawn and get allergy tests in the same day.

ok, frustrations vented. time to clean/work.

Corpus Christi

2009-03-06T08:22:00.003-06:00

so, i'm here in corpus christi, and it's halfway through the trip. i miss max like crazy, but it's not as bad as i had anticipated. mostly because we've been hella busy since we got here.

also: i did not bring enough clothes. just two pairs of jeans, nice pants for my talk, one shirt for each day plus one extra shirt. and that is not enough. because i did not anticipate that one of my pairs of jeans would get beer splattered all over them. but i'll tell you about that in a mintue.

it took us 11 hours or so to get here. which means the DISL crew was actually traveling for almost 12 hours, since they picked me up in mobile. the drive wasn't so bad. there were 12 of us split between a 15 passenger van and a suburban. those of us in the van stopped in houston, and nate's parents graciously bought 7 hungry grad students pizza (really good pizza) at a place called star pizza. so that probably made the trip longer than necessary, but it was totally worth it. plus, we got to meet nate's parents.

my talk was yesterday, and i totally nailed it. so Yay! me. dr. v. said, "that was your best talk ever." it made me happy. not that i thought it wasn't going to be awesome. i pretty much told everyone i saw to come to my talk because it was going to be the best one of the meeting. plus, the one in the other session (there are two simultaneous sessions of talks) was lame. you could tell by the title. i know, i'm so modest.

there are 14 grad students/interns/postdocs from DISL here, plus dr. v. one of our postdocs just moved here, and charlie flew in early, so only 12 of us drove down. of those 14, there are 3 matts. so i have started using their last names instead of their first names. but i'll just use initials here.

anyway, to celebrate my life-changing, earth-shattering, completely amazing talk, marissa, charlie, matt k. and i skipped out on the last session of afternoon talks and decided to have a drink at the hotel bar instead. matt k. bought drinks for everyone because his advisor is giving him per diem, and we have to pay for everything. it was nice of him to think of us. and nice of us to help him take full advantage of his $55 a day. ;)

then we went to the poster session and looked at the posters (you have the option to do an oral presentation like i did or present a poster outlining your research at meetings like this) before matt j. took a bunch of us to a sweet mexican place for dinner, where we had good cheap food and good STRONG margaritas. well, not matt j., because he was driving. all the matts were there. only matt k. had a margarita, but i didn't question his manhood. pat did it for me, and it was a pretty funny conversation.

after mexican, matt j. dropped us off at an irish bar near our hotel, where i got an appletini. but i sort of spilled some of it. twice. umm, i can't really drink from a martini glass when i'm not sober, apparently. so i asked for my second appletini not in a martini glass. and the bartender didn't even laugh at me. because he saw how clumsy i was, i guess. oh, and nate bought me a hard cider, which was pretty good too. and i didn't fall off of any bar stools. and i was the only one of our entire group to get carded. WTF? i am 26 years old. marissa just turned 22. i am older than half of our group. but the bartender only carded me. i order an appletini (actually, i asked if they had mike's first, but no one around believes in serving mike's apparently), and he says, "do you have i.d. sweetie?" but he doesn't ask anyone else for i.d. boo. everyone else said it was a good thing.

then marissa made matt k. drop his beer. so the glass shattered. and splattered all over my foot. and my jeans. so now they smell like ass, and they will have to be my smelly bar jeans for this trip. but anyway, matt grabbed a broom and swept up the glass, and really i'm surprised we didn't get kicked out of the bar after that. but we didn't.

later i went to the bathroom and noticed blood on my big toe, and i was like, "wtf? i'm bleeding!" but i didn't feel it. and when we got back to the hotel i noticed that my other foot was bleeding too. but i didn't feel that either. they were teeny tiny little cuts.

so that's what's been going on here. max is still breaking out in hives, and chad is having to give him his medicine even though we're supposed to be taking him off of it. oh well. i miss them both, and i'm sort of ready to go home.

Walking Skillz

2009-03-03T12:12:00.002-06:00

so, i just read an article on parents.com about walking. it had all the usual "most babies take their first steps around their first birthday, etc. etc." but then it went on to inform me that several months after he starts walking, my baby will be able to do things like carry a toy or throw a ball while walking. umm... max can drink from a cup and walk at the same time. and he's only been doing a lot of heavy-duty, really coordinated walking for about a week or two. he was carrying his cup around with him the day he started doing a lot of independent walking. i mean, he spent a few weeks in the 'step, step, fall' phase and really didn't walk much without encouragement, but as soon as he got going on his own he started carrying things around, drinking, and putting towels on his head while he walks around the living room and kitchen. we have to go take the towel off max's head for him because he can't see with it over his face, and he runs into things. but he doesn't care. anyway, the point is, i don't think it takes several months for babies to progress from walking to carrying things while walking.

but anyway, i leave for corpus christi tomorrow for a conference, and i won't be back until sunday. i'm wigging out just a little bit. because i don't want to leave the max. i know he'll be fine with chad, and chad's mom is coming over to watch max while he's at work, but i'm gonna miss the little guy. chad made me make him a list of things for max to eat, even though he knows what max eats every day, what max likes and doesn't like, etc. the thing i'm most worried about is the fact we're supposed to take max off his antihistamines starting thursday, and i'm afraid he'll break out like crazy. i told chad to try not giving him atarax and see how it goes but to give max a dose if he needs to. hopefully, it won't be too bad. and even more hopefully, the hives will just go away, and max won't need any atarax. but i doubt that will happen.

anyway, i need to run so i can do a couple of last rehearsals of my talk (i made some changes after i went over it with dr. v. yesterday). thankfully, it's on thursday before lunch, so i won't have to sweat long. poor charlie's talk isn't until late saturday afternoon.

crap. i also have to pack. and then go pick max up from daycare so i can get lots of baby lovin' before i leave early in the morning.

Such a Freaking Ordeal

2009-02-26T16:57:00.002-06:00

mmkay... so, i already said that i took max for blood tests today. the nurse called back from the pediatrician's office, and everything was normal except for one thing. whatever they test for related to thyroid function was elevated. and that's probably related to the hives. but they want us to repeat that test in two weeks even if the hives are gone by then (pretty please, let them be gone by then?).

also, the nurse made us an appointment with an allergist, but it's not until a week from monday. which seems like a long time from now. factoring into that length of time is the fact that i have to leave for corpus christi on wednesday, and i'm not going to be back until sunday. we couldn't get in before wednesday. boo.

AND - the allergist wants us to take max off of all antihistamines for FIVE DAYS before the appointment. the nurse i talked to said she told them that might not be possible and advised me not to give max any atarax starting on thursday of next week but to go ahead and give him some if he breaks out too bad and basically tell the allergist to suck it (not the words used by the nurse. she was much more professional).

Life's Little Annoyances

2009-02-26T13:52:00.002-06:00

so, i still haven't gotten around to cutting max's hair, even though i've been talking about it for a month. and strangers still think he's a girl. we were checking out at walmart the other day, and the cashier thought max was girl. he was wearing a cream colored onesie, navy blue plants, and brown shoes. he had an orange and green paci. does that scream "girl" to you?

then today i took him for blood work at the hospital, and this old man who was also waiting at the outpatient registration desk also assumed max is a girl. today he is wearing an orange onesie trimmed in dark olive green with dinasours on it and jeans. same brown shoes and orange and green paci. again, does that scream "girl" to anyone else?

maybe it's just because he's so pretty...

but whatever. i finally convinced the pediatrician to take some action in trying to pinpoint the cause of max's hives, so he ordered a full blood workup, whatever that means. i'm hoping it includes some allergy tests.

i was at the lab working on some chemical analyses when the doctor's office called me back and told me to take max over to providence for the blood work (they can't do all the tests in the doctor's office, so we had to go to the outpatient center at the hospital). SOOO... i had to stop what i was doing, freeze my samples to finish up tomorrow, pick max up from daycare and get him over to the hospital to get stuck with a needle.

i was a little freaked when the nurse asked how much max weighs so they could determine how much blood they could take (up to 10 ml). so i put him down on the exam table, surrounded by three nurses (gotta keep him still while they draw that much blood), they wrapped his tiny arm in a tourniquet and used a tiny little needle and syringe to take what they needed. we're supposed to get the results later this afternoon. i'm hoping they tell us what's causing the hives. and that we can fix it.

What's New With You?

2009-02-25T13:22:00.004-06:00

i don't really have new stuff to blog at you about. i DO, however, have some OLD stuff to blog at you about. the hives saga continues here in latina-land. it is day 13. or is it day 14? i don't know, but tomorrow will make two weeks with no break from the hives.

yesterday i made the mistake of not giving max any antihistamines until 5:15 p.m. and this was after only giving him the inferior benadryl monday afternoon. why did i do this, you ask? well, i did this because 1) max didn't have very many welts yesterday morning (just a few on one leg and one or two intermittently popping up on his face) and 2) max didn't seem all that itchy and 3) max has once again developed a cold, and for some reason benadryl is better than atarax at controlling his runny nose.

throughout the day yesterday, i noticed more welts gradually appearing, but i held off on giving max any atarax because the idea of keeping my 13 month old loaded down with prescription drugs wigs me out a little. and because atarax makes him hyper (and so does benadryl). hyper = doesn't sleep. and because the welts usually subside a little when max is sleeping. so i waited until after naptime and second snack to give max drugs. alas, the welts kept getting worse (there were more after his nap than there were before he went to sleep), so i have him some atarax (well, the generic version).

max was still pretty blotchy and red this morning, so i guess taking him off the atarax is a bad idea. i did call the pediatrician AGAIN on monday. since, you know, last week he said that if the hives persisted into this week we'd "have more work to do to figure out the cause." and he told me doodly squat. his advice: wait it out. WTF?

true, since we started atarax, max has been much happier with many fewer welts. BUT the hives are STILL THERE. and not taking atarax leads to many more. so the atarax is definitely helping, but what i really want is to find out what is causing the hives, which i need help with.

apparently <1% of hives cases are caused by food allergies. but i am pretty much down to thinking it might be a food allergy. specifically, a milk allergy. max has been drinking whole milk for just over a month. long enough to have developed a reaction but not so long as to rule it out as the cause of the hives. in some cases, processing milk breaks down the proteins enough that they don't cause an allergic reaction (i.e., some people with milk allergies can still eat cheese). and in most cases, children outgrow milk allergies. and guess what? kids with eczema? which max has? are more likely to develop a milk allergy! ahhh! well, really kids with eczema are more likely than other kids to develop any allergy. but anyway.

there are blood tests that can identify food allergies. not just skin tests (which would do absolutely NO GOOD right now, since max can't stop breaking out in hives). perhaps i can convince the pediatrician that we need to do this before i go eliminating dairy from max's diet. that would make him sad.

i'm thinking i need to call the doc back again anyway. we have to figure this out. i'm going nuts, and no one is sleeping well. but if we take max off the antihistamine that keeps him from sleeping, he breaks out all crazy-like and can't sleep anyway because he itches.

This Is Getting Ridiculous

2009-02-20T20:25:00.003-06:00

so, the max still has hives. it's been 8 days. that doesn't really seem that long when i say it that way. 8 days. but OMG, it feels like it's been forever. especially when i think about the number of times i've taken him to the doctor in the last two weeks. 3 times. in two weeks. really, in a week and a half. first, the thursday before last (b/c of the bronchitis and the ear infection). then last thursday (b/c of the hives). then tuesday (b/c of the hives AGAIN). and we might be going back on monday. or tuesday, if the doctor's office is open on fat tuesday. it seems like they should be, but daycare is closed tuesday. mobile county schools are closed monday, tuesday, and wednesday next week. mardi gras is a Big Deal around here.

holy crap. i am SO SICK of hives. and i feel so bad for max. he's had two more doses of orapred, and he still looks the same. i mean, he is much improved comapred to those first few days, but the fact that he is still breaking out everywhere is a little scary. on the plus side, he is acting like he feels a little better, and (thank GOD) he's sleeping a little better (but he's still waking up around 1 or 2:00 and coming to bed with chad and me). i attribute the improvement in his mood to the atarax. it really did seem to help the itching. plus, it's used to treat anxiety. my mom said that's what they gave me when i was little and had night terrors.

on a totally different track, max decided to test his walking limits today. i guess technically he's been walking at least a little bit for about a month, but he went almost a week when he first got sick with bronchitis without taking a single independent step. and he will not walk at daycare. at home, he's been walking to something if it's only a couple steps away (from the fridge to the baby gate separating the kitchen and dining room, from the coffee table to the couch), and he's walked across a room to get to me or chad a few times, but he really hasn't been that adventurous in his walking endeavors.

that changed today. first, he let go of the coffee table and just stood there for the longest time. i kept thinking he was getting ready to walk to the couch, but he never did. he stood there until he fell back on his bottom. then he started walking short distances around the living room, gradually walking a little bit farther. then he was holding onto the double recliner, and his walker was in the kitchen by his highchair. he let go of the chair, looked at me, and then took off like a shot toward his walker. he made it to the island in the kitchen (about 3 steps away from his destination) before he fell down. then he just crawled the rest of the way and took off running with his walker.

and that is max's issue with walking - he runs with his walker now, and he doesn't have the balance to run on his own yet. the reason he fell down on his way to the walker is that he was going too fast. falling down doesn't bother him, though. he just keeps on truckin', as they say.

now he just needs to start walking at daycare. he's only done it once, and he was walking to me. and that was three weeks ago. he's 3rd oldest in the big baby room now. week after next, he will be the oldest baby, since the two babies who are older than max are moving up to the toddler room. at least they're not moving max up yet. he still gets a little wigged out when other babies walk around him.

Betcha Can't Guess What This Post Is About

2009-02-18T12:10:00.003-06:00

surprise! it's hives! again! because max STILL has them! all over! ahhhh!

now that that's out of my system, allow me to tell you about our visit to the pediatrician yesterday. pretty much, he asked a bunch of questions about how max is feeling/behaving (itchy, whiny, sometimes fine), how the welts are behaving (they pop up all over max's body and disappear after a while. then new ones pop up), and if i've thought about anything that has "changed in the environment." of course i have. and i've come up with exactly two possibilities:

i bought dryer sheets w/ a new scent (the ones we use on chad's and my laundry)
i bought a new brand of hypoallergenic dryer sheets for max's laundry

so i went and bought some more bounce free dryer sheets, which is what i've pretty much always used on max's laundry until walmart started selling simplicity brand hypoallergenic dryer sheets, which cost $1 less per box than the bounce ones. apparently it costs manufacturers a lot of money to not add fragrances and dyes to their products, 'cause the hypoallergenic stuff costs a lot more than the regular, scented variety.

anyway, i'm in the process of re-washing all our clothes/sheets/bedding and using the bounce free dryer sheets on everything. just in case that's the problem. oh, and i wiped out the dryer first, in case any residual scent molecules were left in there. which seems just a little bit OCD, but OMG, we're going crazy over here with the itchy, whiny baby who can't get rid of his hives. i also cleaned all the ceiling fans. because they were covered in dust, and it makes my eyes itchy. so maybe it affects max, too? i don't know, but i'm sure it can't hurt.

since the hives have stuck around for so long, amoxicillin probably wasn't the trigger. it's been 6 days since max has had any. the doctor did some blood tests for viruses that can cause hives, but they were negative. so we still don't know the cause. i REALLY hope it isn't a food allergy. especially to milk or wheat, because the max loves his dairy (yogurt is super yummy, and so are grilled cheese sandwiches, hello) and his pasta/bread. i don't think that's it, though, because max has been eating dairy products and bread/pasta products for months with no adverse effects.

anyway, after the tests and questions, the doc wrote us a prescription for atarax (an antihistamine) and one for orapred (the steroid). but we aren't supposed to get the orapred unless max still has hives tomorrow. if max still has hives after another three days of steroids, he'll have to go back to the doctor next week for more tests to figure out what the hell he's allergic to, so we can eliminate it (and the hives) from his life.

Hives, STILL

2009-02-16T20:35:00.005-06:00

ok, so max's hives look marginally better today, and his face isn't nearly as swollen as it was over the weekend. but HE STILL HAS HIVES, OMG. it's been FIVE DAYS. everything i can find says that hives should resolve themselves within 3-4 days, with most cases clearing up within 48 hours.

max seemed happier today, anyway. he actually played happily by himself for long stretches. in between the demanding that i hold him for long stretches and crying and scratching.

as you can see, max's hives look better than they did at first. they're much smaller, and there aren't as many. but they are still ALL OVER HIS BODY. even his SCALP. in the photo below, you can see the hives on his nose (sort of, for some reason bright red skin doesn't translate well to my photos).

and this improvement ONLY took 3 days of oral steroid and 5 days of benadryl. and guess what? despite being all hopped up on benadryl, max had a RUNNY NOSE today. wtf? oh, and you know how benadryl usually makes people sleepy? it has pretty much the opposite effect on max.

i called the doctor this morning, and he told me to give max benadryl every 4 hours today (his previous recommendation was benadryl every 6 hours) and go see him in the morning if there's no improvement. i'm thinking we'll being seeing him tomorrow.

OMG, The Hives

2009-02-14T21:09:00.004-06:00

i am half convinced that max's hives will never, ever go away. the ones from thursday are FINALLY completely gone. yesterday they had faded, but they were still visible. today they were gone. but there are new hives now, and they are EVERYWHERE. and i do mean everywhere - chest/belly, back, arms, legs, hands, feet, bottom, neck, face. benadryl seems to help the itching some, but it does nothing to make the welts go away. max gets one more dose of the oral steroid, and then we'll have to rely on benadryl. and i swear, if he still has all these crazy spots monday, he's going back to the doctor. because i find it hard to believe that this is normal.

it should not take 48 hours for individual welts to disappear. and max's face, hands, and feet are incredibly swollen (i called the doc about that yesterday and was told this was normal). the poor baby is completely miserable, and who could blame him? his entire body itches ALL THE TIME. i have found over the course of today that the red fades when max is sleeping and then worsens when he's up and active (which is all the time when he's awake). today he has welts all over his face, and his eyes look really puffy.

the corticosteroid (orapred, generic version is prednisilone) is supposed to help "stubborn hives," which is what you'd call max's variety for sure. he's been on it for 2 1/2 days (we only got a 3 day supply), and he is still getting welts all over his body. there is a small bit of improvement, however. the welts that formed today aren't nearly as large as those he was getting thursday and friday, and they do fade some when max is asleep (but they return full force once he's up and moving). but now they are all over his hands, feet, and face, areas that were largely unaffected on thursday.

we are not sleeping well, because max wakes up itchy and miserable. last night, he woke up just before 3 a.m. and did not go back to sleep until after 4:00. he woke up again at 6:05. on a saturday. geez. poor kid.

i decided to give the situation until monday morning to resolve itself, then we're going back to the doctor. he will complete his round of steroids tomorrow, and i shudder to think what will happen when he's off them. hopefully, the welts will continue to diminish in size and redness. and then disappear for good.

given the issues we've been having getting rid of the hives, i really don't want to turn around and give max 1/2 a dose of amoxicillin in a few days to see if he's allergic to it. because i DO NOT want to have to deal with this again. and more importantly, i don't want max to be this miserable again because of something i knowingly did to him. on the other hand, i really want to find out what he's allergic to so we can avoid it like the plague.

The Powers That Be Are Conspiring Against Me

2009-02-13T09:48:00.004-06:00

ok, here's the deal. i have accomplished NOTHING in the last two weeks. first, the fine folks at walmart decided that my time isn't worth anything and let me spend two hours there before telling me that they could not change my oil because the dipstick was broken. WTF? so that forced me to drive to daphne to get a new disptick and let the dealership change my oil. because it needed changing before the 5 hour (one way) trip to atlanta on sunday.

atlanta was actually pretty fun. chad, vanessa, and i had a good road trip over to see the flyers play, and vanessa and i had fun reminiscing about the days when philiadelphia's glen metropolit played in pensacola. we took pictures with him and sean gauthier way back then, and we still have them. i was 14. the flyers won the game 3-2 over the thrashers, and we made it back to mobile around 10:15 p.m., so driving to atlanta for a hockey game and then back in the same day really isn't bad when the game is at 3:00 ET.

oh, but before atlanta, the day after i spent all morning waiting at walmart, i had to take the max to the doctor. again. he had and ear infection and bronchitis, so we got antibiotics. in case you didn't know, sick babies aren't conducive to a good working environment. so i didn't get anything done.

so, after atlanta, with max on the mend and able to return to daycare, i thought i could get a good bit of writing done. but no. i was wrong. because my computer, which has been circling the drain for a few months, died for good on monday. ahhh! i was SO FRUSTRATED. see, my retarded computer had been randomly freezing and not starting correctly 1 out of 4 times since before christmas. i NEEDED a new computer. but i was going to wait until after graduation, and it was going to be my graduation present. and then my computer, which managed to recover from the Blue Screen of Death a few weeks ago, finally bit the big one on monday. it was plugged (to a surge protector) all day, but it did not recognize the fact that it was plugged in. so the battery went completely dead. the a/c adapter is not charging the battery, and it will not run on a/c power. because the part that you plug the power cord into on the computer is fried. well, not really fried, just completely fucked up. and it's not the first time. about two years ago i had to have that part replaced. but it was covered under the warranty, which after almost 5 years is no longer in effect. plus, laptops are cheap now, and i wanted a new computer anyway ('cause mine was retarded, you know), so i opted to let the old laptop go. i lost about 1/2 a page of dissertation work that i did while in the waiting room at the kia dealership, but it's really not a big deal. everything really important was saved in several locations.

so i spent tuesday computer shopping. since it was sooner than planned, and we've been spending a hell of a lot of $ lately (new tires for the truck, $450 eye doctor visit/contacts/glasses for me, max's birthday, trip to ATL - which actually was pretty cheap), i had to go for something pretty inexpensive. so i shopped around all morning (i hit up circuit city, walmart, best buy, and target), and ended up buying a toshiba laptop from best buy. the hard drive is smaller than a lot of new laptops, but still almost 3 times the size of my old one, and the RAM and processor are comparable to computers that cost $200-$300 more. they didn't have any in stock, so the best buy sales guy sold me the display model for $50 off the regular price. the total price with tax was $326. i had budgeted $500 (pre-tax), so i felt pretty good.

so tuesday afternoon was spent getting the new laptop set up. you know, getting my programs installed, antivirus updates, etc.

then wednesday i had planned on spending the day with max because the weather was supposed to be crappy, and he still didn't feel all that great. plus, i still had thursday and friday to send him to daycare. so max and i pretty much chilled on wednesday, and we had a pretty good day. he ate really well for me, which i was excited about. when he's sick, he barely eats anything.

so, yesterday i was all prepared to get to work. i had some ideas bobbing around my mind, and i was ready to write. but the max? he woke up with what looked like big mosquito bites all over his legs and lower abdomen. which freaked me out. when we visited the pediatrician last week, max had a big red spot on his leg near where he got the chickenpox and MMR vaccines, and it had still been there wednesday night. i was told to take max back to see the doc if it spread or started to look worse. well, yesterday morning the original spot was pretty much gone. but he had new spots. so i decided the new rash warranted a doctor visit. especially since 2 hours after max woke up, the rash had spread all over his body.

i'm sure i've mentioned this before, but max is a naturally rashy baby. he has eczema, which means that his skin is prone to dryness and frequently breaks out in rashes. his skin is very sensitive to fragrances, so everything we use on him is unscented. he gets a bath every other day instead of every day, and we slather moisturizing cream (lotion doesn't help) all over him twice a day to prevent excessive dryness and rashes. but eczema rashes are not scary. they usually cover pretty small area and consist of tiny red bumps. and they go away within a few hours to a day or so if you put aquaphor on them. we are accustomed to rashes around here. so it has to be bad if it wigs me out.

yesterday's rash? it was SCARY. see for yourself.

the diagnosis? hives. the recommended treatment? benadryl every 6 hours. but after two doses of benadryl, the hives were still spreading. and growing in size. so that freaked me out. and i called the pediatrician twice. so he called in a prescription for prednisilone, a steroid. this morning, the hives are still there and still huge. but some of the spots have disappeared, and the big patches aren't quite as angry-looking as they were yesterday.

we aren't sure what caused the hives. they are an allergic reaction to something. but we don't know what. possibly the amoxicillin, so we've stopped that. when the rash clears up, i'm supposed to give max half a dose of amoxicillin and monitor him for a couple of hours. if he breaks out in hives again, i have to call the doctor's office and tell them to make a note in his chart that he's allergic to penicillin. the other two possibilities that i've thought of are the chocolate frosting on the cupcake max had after lunch on wednesday or the dryer sheets that chad and i use on our clothes. i really don't know what it is, though. the doctor said that hives usually appear within an hour of exposure to the allergen, and max was asleep. he didn't have hives when he went to bed, and he did have them when he woke up. it had been 12 hours since he'd had any food or medicine. the only thing he came in contact with was his clothes, his sheet, our sheets, and our clothes. it's baffling. and the doctor said it's likely that we'll never know exactly what caused the hives. hopefully, this won't happen again, because poor max is really itchy, and this rapidly spreading rash is scary. especially when it makes large portions of his body red and makes his belly button swell so much that it closes to a little slit. *sigh*

now, it's time to get some work done. here's hoping that nothing interferes with my ability to write next week.

The Worrying, It Never Stops

2009-02-05T19:41:00.002-06:00

so, max has bronchitis. the doc made a point of telling me he doesn't think it's pneumonia. the thought of a barely 1 year old getting pneumonia scares the crap out of me. i had it when i was 14, and i missed 2 weeks of school and was thisclose to being hospitalized. i imagine it would be very bad for a baby.

max's right ear is also infected, and there is a dime-sized red bump on his leg near where he got his last round of shots. it could be a reaction to either the MMR vaccine or the chickenpox vaccine, both of which were given in his right leg. the bump appeared within the window of time when reactions usually appear for those vaccines. i was told to apply a warm rag to the area for a few minutes a few times a day and put neosporin on it. if it gets worse (bigger, more tender, develops pus), it'll have to be looked at again.

and if that weren't enough to make a parent crazy, max has lost 5 ounces since his checkup two weeks ago. as you are well aware, i spend enough time freaking out about max's weight as it is. and the thing is, he's been eating pretty well lately. i think i will choose to blame the weight loss on the timing of his snacks before the two appointments. he ate about 45 minutes before his checkup a couple of weeks ago, and it had been almost two hours since his snack when he was weighed today.

oh yeah, and just in case the ear infection, runny nose, and bronchitis weren't making max fussy enough all by themselves, he has a molar trying to come in.

woe is me.

Things I've Done Today...

2009-02-05T12:58:00.002-06:00

made doctor's appointment for max for 2:30 this afternoon
took max to daycare
went to library
drove to daphne to get oil changed in car
worked on chapter 2 while waiting for car to be finished
did max's laundry
swept and mopped living room and kitchen
made and ate grilled cheese & tomato sandwich

things i still have to do today

play w/ krull the warrior king so he doesn't feel abandoned
pick max up from daycare
pack a diaper bag
take max to doctor
figure out what to have for dinner
make dinner
tend to the max
lots more work on chapter 2

and possibly make a pharmacy run, depending on how the doctor's appointment goes. busy day.

The Max is a Weird Eater

2009-02-03T14:12:00.003-06:00

foods max loves:

green beans (i am thanking my lucky stars - i have a kid who likes green veggies)
whole wheat bread
corn bread
almost any bread, actually
beans, especially field peas and butter beans
green peas
corn
short cut pasta (he loves mini farfalle, the little bow ties).
tomatoes
squash
cheerios (to be a baby means to love these, i think)
graham crackers (with peanut butter sometimes now that he's a year old)
bananas - i should have put these first. they're his most favorite food EVER.
canned peaches
canned pears
yogurt
applesauce of any variety. i've been buying the mott's healthy harvest with other fruit purees mixed in lately. or the plain old natural applesauce (regular, not all natural, applesauce is just full of corn syrup).
zwieback toast
any kind of cracker you throw at him
baby cereal (rice, oatmeal, etc. mixed up thick) with applesauce
sandwich meat of any kind (i try to find the one w/ the lowest sodium)
baby snacks - puffs, yogurt melts, li'l crunchies, wagon wheels
grilled cheese sandwiches
chicken (usually. he is currently boycotting meat in all forms, so i'm pushing beans right now.)
pot roast
birthday cake and cupcakes. duh. but he doesn't eat cake very often.
mac and cheese. duh.
pasta sauce with lots of veggies in it - onions, bell peppers, zucchini, carrots, throw in some frozen mixed veggies. tomato or alfredo sauce. he loves it.
couscous

foods max sometimes tolerates:

carrots (he eats them best when mixed w/ something)
french fries
cinnamon rolls (but only when i'm eating one. if you give him a piece of his own he doesn't want it anymore)
regular oatmeal
pancakes
kiwi (lately, he will not eat kiwi at all, but he used to eat it all the time)
pineapple
rice (you never know if he will eat it or spit it out). last time i made fried rice, max picked out the veggies and ate them but wouldn't touch the rice.
spaghetti (i think the long stringy pasta frustrates him)
broccoli, but only if it's pureed. one day i will convince him to eat little chunks of steamed broccoli.
small pieces of cheese
ice cream
chicken and dumplings
microwave meals with tomato sauce (think chef boyardee)
english muffins
cereal bars

foods max simply will not eat:

potatoes (most of the time)
teething biscuits/biter biscuits (surprising b/c they're kind of sweet. yes, i tasted one when max consistently took a bite and threw it on the floor.)
muffins
plain baby cereal
meat loaf
any kind of chex cereal. cheerios are far superior.
fresh blueberries. he likes blueberry applesauce.
beef stew
gerber li'l sticks meat sticks. i tried one. they're pretty gross.
microwave baby/toddler meals (sometimes he'll eat the little pasta stars in tomato/meat sauce. he won't touch the mac and cheese, chicken or turkey stew with rice or noodles). he will pick the veggies out of them, and eat them. nothing else.

Little Things

2009-02-02T11:59:00.004-06:00

i swiped this from holly's facebook. not sure why i decided to post here instead of there. it just felt right.

RULES:
1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.

IF SOMEONE SAYS 'ARE YOU OKAY' YOU SAY?
Last Summer

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Unfaithful
(wow, umm... pretty much the opposite, but it's kind of funny)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
T.N.T.

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Some Might Say

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Popular

WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO?
Take It Off
(hey, that's pretty funny)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Baby Baby

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Ghost of a Good Thing

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Who Will Save Your Soul

WHAT IS 2 + 2?
Ticks

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
You Shook Me All Night Long

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Back 2 Good

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Capricorn
(sorry, i'm a leo. not gonna happen.)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad
(hehe, that's appropriate, eh?)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
I Hope, I Think, I Know

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Big Dumb Rocket

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST??
American Girls

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR??
The Dope

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Better Man
(by Oasis, not Pearl Jam, though I have both)

WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?
Getting Away with Murder

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Sing My Best

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Little Things
(one of my fave bush songs)

let me just say, i am quite surprised that no green day popped up here. my computer is full of green day. but 3 oasis and 2 ac/dc. hmm...

Focus, Just Focus

2009-01-26T14:22:00.003-06:00

focusing is one thing i am having real trouble with lately. i (understandably, i think, especially to those who have spent any significant amount of time with max) can't get any work done when max is home with me, so i really depend on the three days a week that he is daycare to get the majority of my writing accomplished. unfortunately, it is also easier to do things like wash max's clothes, disinfect toys, and clean my house when he is at daycare. of course, i do those things on weekends when chad is home (or i make chad do them), but with max eating things off the floor all the time, slobbering all over his toys on a daily basis, and making a giant mess at mealtimes, household chores have to be done at least three or four times a week.

so with writing tasks and deadlines pressing down on me and having a zillion things to take care of around the house, i feel like i'm being pushed in a hundred different directions all at once. which is not conducive to good (or even mediocre) writing. with the editing left to do on my first chapter and having barely made any headway on the second, i am beginning to doubt my ability to have a solid draft of my dissertation ready to submit to the graduate school by march 26.

that is particularly problematic when i keep redoing stats in different ways to try to simplify my data. and when those extra stats only make things more complex. gah.

i've done some editing today, along with two loads of laundry and a load of dishes. i am about to go sweep and mop the living room and kitchen and then fold max's laundry. after that i need to turn the car seat around so that it faces forward (max doesn't have to face backward any more now that he's a year old and over 20 lbs). then it's off to pick the little guy up from daycare.

tomorrow i am going to take my laptop and go to the library to work after i drop max off. maybe i'll be able to focus better there.

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!

2009-01-22T11:09:00.007-06:00

it's hard to believe, but max turned one year old yesterday. i took him for his 12 month checkup, and he's a very healthy (and very strong) boy. he weighed in at 22 lbs. 10 oz. (50th percentile) and is 31" tall (75th percentile). he had to get another round of vaccinations, which of course he didn't like very much. but he was smiling at the nurse as soon as it was over.

we saw another baby from max's class at daycare in the waiting room, too. he was in for his 15 month checkup. his mom is a little worried because he still isn't walking. like max, he probably can but isn't quite ready to let go and walk on his own just yet. she told me that her son will push his walker around with one hand while holding his sippy cup in the other, so i'm sure he's fine.

since i made him get shots on his birthday (and because he has little patience for opening a giant pile of gifts, as we discovered at christmas), chad and i decided to let max open his birthday gifts from us last night instead of at his party on sunday.

here's max with his gifts:

now here's max opening one of his gifts (a little boat to play with in the tub):

and here is max laughing with his eyes closed as he bangs on a giant bag of giant blocks:

max has recently discovered that squinting while he grins at people (us, plus random people in the waiting room at the doctor's office) makes them laugh. he does it often.

From A Recent Baby Newsletter...

2009-01-20T11:25:00.003-06:00

i receive weekly baby-related emails from several sources, and one this week from whattoexpect.com was entitled "keeping your toddler active." clicking the link to continue reading the article led to a page with the heading, "are you raising a mini couch potato?" ha! i wish!

the article gave tips for getting your baby to keep moving instead of engaging in still, quiet play activities. tips included things like turning off the tv so your baby won't be tempted to sit still and watch, moving toys up onto tables and couches to encourage cruising (our coffee table is currently dedicated to max's toys already), and crawling around on the floor with your baby for a game of chase.

once again, i said "ha!" and laughed out loud. because the max? needs NO encouragement to be active. i actually wish he would sit still and watch sesame street for 15 minutes every now and then. he pretty much ignores the tv. he might glance up at it for about 10 seconds, then he's on to something else. he is a bundle of constant motion. he even bounces when he's being held most of the time. he does enjoy a good game of chase the max around the island in the kitchen, but for the most part he is VERY active all on his own, crawling wherever he can get to, pulling up on everything, cruising around, and one of his new favorite games involves throwing toys and chasing them (he throws something and then goes to get it and throws it again). he has the patience for about two or three VERY short baby books (2-5 minutes of reading), and then he's squirming to get down and go again. he thinks he wants to be held a lot, but he never just lets you hold him for long.

couch potato? i think not.

Giant Babies (but not mine)

2009-01-15T12:00:00.004-06:00

as you are well aware if you have been following my twitter updates, i've been freaking out about max's weight a little bit lately. intellectually, i am perfectly sure that max's weight is normal and that he is growing just as he should be. but i have fallen into the trap of comparing him to other babies. and compared to other babies he looks skinny. scrawny, if you will.

i walked into daycare one day and really looked around at all the other babies in max's room. most of them are huge. not really chubby butterballs (well, a couple are chubby butterballs), just big overall. then there is max. he is definitely not a chubby butterball. and he is tall for his age, which makes him look even skinnier. there are two other babies in his room who are around the same size as max (i'd say their weights are within a pound or two of each other). one is a month older than max (he is slightly bigger than max), the other is about a month younger than max. the other 7 babies are considerably bigger, even the one who is three months younger than max and the one who is 4 or 5 weeks younger than max who was a preemie (5 lbs when he was born, 29 lbs now). i have no idea how much the baby who is 1 day younger than max weighs, but he is ENORMOUS. easily the biggest baby in the room, while max is among the smallest. they are about in the middle of the age range in the infant 2 room.

the other day we met an almost 11 month old (some obscure relation to chad) who weighed 31 lbs at his 9 month checkup (that is well outside the normal growth curve at 9 months, and is 95th percentile for an 18 month old boy). they're not sure how much he weighs now. max weighed 20 lbs 6 oz at his 9 month checkup. according to my scale at home (which does 0.5 lb increments; weighing myself and then myself holding max), max weighs about 22 lbs., maybe a few ounces more. according to the growth chart we have (the same one used by pediatricians nationwide), 50th percentile for a 12 month old boy is 22.5 to 23 lbs. max's 12 month checkup is next week, so i'll know then exactly how much he weighs and where it falls on the growth chart. max's weight has consistently been in the 50th percentile, with his height in the 75th percentile, since his 2 month checkup (he was in the 25th percentile for both at his 1 month checkup). so you would think that he would fall somewhere in the middle size-wise compared to other babies. but we keep meeting all these 30 pounders, and i have yet to see a baby close to max's age who is significantly smaller than he is. how is this possible?

i'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how a 9 month old ends up weighing what a large 18 month old normally weighs. even scarfing table food as early as 6 months and eating tons of fried and fatty food doesn't explain that to me.

i'll admit that max has weird eating habits sometimes. he's been sick twice since his last checkup (sore throat & ear infection then a stomach bug). the first time, he barely ate anything for almost 3 weeks then ate almost non-stop for a week (to make up for lost calories, i assume). then his eating leveled off, and he was eating 3 solid meals a day plus a snack and 16-24 oz. of formula. then he got a stomach virus and ate nothing but small snacks of crackers, bananas, applesauce, or yogurt for a week (he wouldn't eat anything else, and he didn't eat much of those). then he spent two days eating non-stop and gulping down an extra cup of formula. now he's eating normally again, with one snack added to his usual routine (so now he eats breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 2 snacks). that's pretty normal for a 1 year old, as far as i can tell. i don't try to control max's food intake at all. if anything, i encourage him to eat as much possible.

max is pretty much eating all table food now (he still gets baby cereal for breakfast a few times a week, though), and it's really hard to figure out how much to feed him. so i pretty much load up his plate with what looks like a reasonable amount of food for him and let him eat as much as he wants. if he finishes everything, i offer him a little more. sometimes he wants it, sometimes he doesn't. my philosophy is to feed him as long as he's eating. we keep mealtimes to about 30 mintues or so, though. longer than that, and he's just playing and struggling to get out of his high chair. i also try really hard to make sure he eats a variety of foods and gets enough fruits and veggies, but he also eats things like french fries and cookies every now and then.

i don't really think i could make max chubbier if i tried. when he doesn't eat much, i make sure he eats high-calorie (but still nutritious) food. maybe if i loaded everything he eats with butter he'd be chubbier. but i still don't think he'd be as big as the babies he's around all the time. they're all on the same schedule. they eat the same things for lunch every day (most of the babies in max's room eat the cafeteria lunches, two or three eat baby food). max's snacks are probably higher-calorie than most of the babies' in his class (he frequently eats yogurt and fruit cups along with cheerios or puffs at snack, where most of the babies just eat puffs or other really low-calorie baby snacks). maybe he's just more active than other babies. he certainly bounces more than the rest of them. he's the bouncy baby at daycare. everyone there knows him as the one who likes to jump. maybe all that bouncing just burns off all his extra calories. he also doesn't sleep for as long as the other babies at naptime. so maybe that's it.

anyway, i know i should't really worry about max's weight. most of the time, he eats. i know he isn't hungry. but i would still really like to see a few babies max's age who are smaller than he is.

Panic

2009-01-14T14:24:00.002-06:00

as the impending end of my career as a grad student approaches, i am nagged by an ever-present buzz of panic in the back of my mind. being a student is all i know. it's all i have ever done. i have of course been working toward a goal - earning my doctorate. and i almost have it. in a few months, i will officially be a doctor. and suddenly that scares the crap out of me.

in a moment of blinding self-doubt that struck while i was waiting to meet with dr. v. to discuss a couple of ideas for grants, it occurred to me that i have absolutely NO IDEA what i'm doing. i haven't the faintest clue how to be an independent researcher. what i really want to study. how to find a job. how to impress prospective employers. or how to successfully procure the necessary funding for what i want to study. even now, those questions hook their claws into my brain and dig in, trying to induce a full blown panic attack.

as i was unsuccessfully struggling to go to sleep the other night, i hyperventilated a little and pondered what it means to be scientist. an ecologist. why i do what i do. why i want to do what i do. because if you can't answer those questions for yourself, how can you expect anyone else to take you seriously? thinking about why i want to do what i do forced me to take a step back and look at things objectively. and i realized that my biggest weakness as an ecologist is my tendency to get caught up in the details. to lose sight of the big picture. dr. v. says this all the time, but we scientists are inclined to do things because we can, not because we should and not because we think it's important. sadly, that is very true.

ecology is by definition the study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment. i study chemical defenses in seagrasses, which fits right in with the most basic definition of ecology. but it bleeds over into a more specialized field of ecology (chemical ecology), and it's all too easy to get lost in the minutiae when dealing in chemical ecology. that is something that i desperately want to avoid. so i started thinking about the significance of chemical defenses, where they fit in the grand scheme of things, and that led me to have a sort of mini-epiphany: asking and answering questions is exactly the point of science. answering the big picture questions is the goal, and experimentation is the tool to help me achieve it. i just have to remind myself to take a step back every now and then to remember the big picture and ask myself if what i'm doing helps me piece together the puzzle.

so maybe i can do this. but the real world, the one in which i'm no longer a student, still scares the crap out of me.

2009, You Suck

2009-01-06T20:37:00.002-06:00

umm, so happy new year and whatnot. want to know how i rang (rung?) in 2009? cleaning up vomit, that's how. and then i spent new year's day trying to get the smell out of max's hair. because he threw up in his crib and wallowed in it. vomit EVERYWHERE. it was traumatic, i tell you. and i've spent every day this year cleaning up poop. so much poop. max picked up one hell of a stomach bug from daycare. and he gave it to chad. i have thus far managed, through compulsive hand-washing and hand sanitizer use and liberal spraying of lysol, to avoid this illness. knock on wood.

i foolishly believed that max was getting better when he only pooped once monday. but then he puked again. and today the excessive pooping resumed. just before bedtime tonight, max was crawling around the living room and kitchen when i smelled that smell that i have smelled too many times this year. he plopped down in the kitchen floor and then pulled up on my leg. and that's when i saw the puddle in the floor where his butt had been. and the wet spots on the back of his pants spreading out from his diaper. then he sat down again. and got more disgusting watery poop on the kitchen floor. so i cleaned max up while chad cleaned the floor. with antibacterial swiffer cleaner. and then liberally sprayed it with lysol.

so, that's been my year so far. not so great, wouldn't you agree?

The Joys of Christmas

2008-12-26T20:40:00.003-06:00

so, i sit here the day after christmas, watching the flyers play chicago (they are losing, boo) and wondering where in the world we are going to put all of max's christmas gifts. and we left a couple at chad's parents' house! seriously, i'm guessing that the kid racked up at least $300 or $400 worth of presents (we spent about $70 on his christmas gifts, including the stuff that went in his stocking). which is a bit ridiculous when you consider that he's only 11 months old. and he has a birthday in a few weeks, when he will receive even more gifts. the in-laws went a bit overboard (did i expect any less?), and to my annoyance, gave him a couple of things that i have already bought but was saving for max's birthday.

but anyway, i think max had a good first christmas. unfortunately, chad and i are both sick and have been since about tuesday. i think i have strep throat, and i'll probably pay a visit to the doctor tomorrow. so that part of christmas sucked. otherwise, it was good. we did our christmas morning thing here at home and then visited the families. max drank his formula when he woke up, then he opened his stocking and his two wrapped gifts from us (activity table and spin & spill cement truck). he opened the truck first and was so busy playing with it while it was still in the box that he didn't want to open the other present. when he did, he ripped off one section of paper and tried to play with the activity table through the hole he'd made. after presents, he ate breakfast, then we loaded up and drove to my aunt's house, where we also did stockings and presents and then ate lunch. max got loads of stuff, but they were reasonable gifts (three or four books, a little people dump truck, a tickle me elmo, a top, a few other small toys, a stuffed animal, two jackets, and a big ride-on toy), and his gifts fit easily into a large bag. and easily into my car.

after my family thing, we went over to chad's parents' house (they live about 15 min. from my aunt), where there were five enormous boxes, a giant gift bag, four or five smaller packages, and a (i am NOT exaggerating) 3 foot tall stocking. all for max. seriously, that stocking was considerably larger than max is. chad's mom asked me after thanksgiving to make her a list of stuff we wanted them to buy for max. so i made a list with 10 things on it, ranging in price from $10-$30. i told her he didn't need everything on the list and that the list was for christmas and his birthday. she's bought every single toy on the list plus more. holy crap. i told her what chad and i were getting for max and the big gift that my mom got him. but she still ended up buying things that were very similar to stuff he already has. and she got the exact same giant not legos (but like legos) that i got him for his birthday (which i told her i was getting him). which really annoys me. they also ended up buying max two more walk-behind toys (one of which turns into an activity table, which WE ALREADY GOT HIM), even though they already bought him one of those a few months ago. and a ride on truck. and a giant piano rocker thing (sort of like a rocking horse, but with a big plastic piano instead of a horse's head). i did say that max likes the little toy pianos and xylophones that they have at daycare and that they should get him one of those. but i didn't mean one that he sits and rocks on. i meant a little $10 one that he holds on his lap. he's already got two big rock/ride-on toys, and he's getting a bounce & spin zebra for his birthday, all of which the in-laws knew about beforehand. why even bother with a list?

those were the only things that really annoyed me. everything else was fine. they got him two sets of pj's, a jack-in-the-box, a set of wooden blocks, a see & say, two stuffed animals (a giant one and a smaller one), a big fisher-price laugh and learn teddy that teaches letters, numbers, shapes, etc (i really wanted the puppy, which teaches body parts, but that's ok), some christmas dishes, and two christmas cups. i might have forgotten something. all of that stuff would have been more than enough. but they went completely overboard. we couldn't fit everything in the car. so we left the ride-on toy and the lego-like blocks and maybe one of the walk-behind toys there. he can play with them when he visits.

the in-laws' neighbors also gave max a gift, which was nice of them. they got him two books and some clothes to grow into.

chad and i both still feel like complete crap, so most of max's christmas gifts (and all of ours) are still in bags and boxes. i put max's activity table together and took the cement truck out of the box, so he's been playing with those today. and also the little fire truck and squishy frogs from his stocking. and of course, all of his old toys. maybe tomorrow i'll get some more stuff out for him. we also really need to pack up the baby swing and exersaucer. :-( he is still well below the weight limit for the swing, but he no longer has the patience for it, and it's just taking up space in the living room. he is too big for the exersaucer now, though. drat his being tall for his age. he's actually been too big for the exersaucer for a few weeks, as he's about 30.5" tall now (but struggling to reach 22 lbs), and the exersaucer is only recommended for babies under 30" tall. it makes me a little sad, packing up these things that have been max's entertainment for so long. but we really need the space for new stuff. and i also need to invest in a baby fence to keep max out of the kitchen when i'm cooking and chad isn't home to distract him. i used to just put him in the exersaucer, but i can't really do that anymore. i could just move the playpen from our bedroom to the living room, but having the playpen in our room is very handy when i need to get dressed or blow dry my hair after chad has already left for work. for those who haven't been to our house, our living room and kitchen are completely open to each other (no wall in between), so baby gates won't do any good. we need something to corral max.

so i need to do some more baby shopping soon. max needs more baby snacks anyway. his favorites are wagon wheels and zwieback toast, and we're out of both of those. it's ok, though. we've got banana puffs and cheerios. and crackers. ugh. i so do not feel like going out shopping.

The Tree

2008-12-17T13:02:00.003-06:00

finally got the tree up and decorated today. i planned to do it on monday, but i worked on dissertation stuff for a while that morning, made out my christmas cards, and boxed up gifts for damien and dylan. then monday afternoon i started feeling like crap and puking my guts out. and i am not one for vomiting. it does not make me feel less nauseous, and i hadn't vomited in almost five years before monday. it was a rough afternoon and night. then yesterday i pretty much hurt everywhere, so i took max to daycare, came back home, and slept pretty much all day. i feel better today, though. i think it was just a 24 hour bug. chad thinks it was something i ate sunday night at his work christmas party, but we pretty much ate the same thing, and he's fine.

but anyway, the tree. here's a shot of it, with max's stocking hung up beside it. we put it in the dining room this year (it's blocked off with baby gates) to keep it away from max's grabby little hands. and you know, to keep him from pulling that 7.5 foot monster down on top of himself. i'll try to get a picture of max with the tree soon, though i'm not sure how that will work, since he grabs everything in sight.

Busy Busy

2008-12-15T13:03:00.003-06:00

so it appears that max is FINALLY over his illness. yay! he was sick for over three weeks, and it sucked. he'll get his last dose of antibiotic tonight. unfortunately, he's starting to get a little snotty again. hopefully this time it will just be a runny nose.

max has been making a little pig of himself for the last few days, about which i am glad. he's been gaining about a pound or so per month lately, but he only gained one single, solitary, pathetic little ounce this past month, despite growing half an inch in height. so he's got some catching up to do on the weight gain front. he was tall for his weight to begin with. my strategy for this is to give him high-calorie snacks like yogurt or cheese with fruit instead of just some cheerios and fruit/veggies and to keep feeding him at mealtimes until he stops opening his mouth for food, which is pretty much what i've always done, but now this means shoveling massive amounts of grub in there. for instance, friday at breakfast max ate a full serving of baby cereal with 1/4 cup applesauce (his usual breakfast). then a miniature banana. and some cheerios. and 4 bites of my (whole wheat) bagel. after consuming a whole cup of baby formula (he usually only drinks about 4 oz. = 1/2 cup in the morning). the night before that he ate two generous helpings of chicken and pasta with tomato basil sauce that had lots of onions and bell peppers in it. then last night at chad's work christmas party, max ate for about 2 hours straight. i took some baby food for him since i didn't know when dinner would be served, and he ate a jar of food then two crackers. he still seemed hungry a half hour later so i gave him the banana pudding i'd brought him for dessert. then chad and i were eating appetizers, and max got all excited, so i gave him the cheese out of the inside of a mozzarella stick (i didn't think the fried crusty outside would be good for him, but he likes cheese). then he ate a couple of bites of my potato soup before deciding he didn't like it. and he ate a ton of bread. i don't know how he held it all. i'm just glad that he's eating again. and he's been in a good mood.

the christmas tree is still not up, even though christmas is NEXT WEEK. shopping is done, presents are wrapped. i will get the tree up today. maybe.

i'm also working on the 2nd chapter of my dissertation, making more tables and figures. but not as many as for chapter 1, so that's a relief.

i've been debating with myself lately about what to do this christmas. chad and i usually spend the night at his parents' house christmas eve then go over early christmas morning to hang out with my family. but i would kind of like to spend christmas eve at home with max. which would make splitting time between two families on christmas day a little hectic, especially considering that we'd have to drive an hour and a half to go see said families. my family always makes a big production of christmas day, opening gifts early in the morning then christmas dinner mid-afternoon, followed by board games, etc. and general family bonding time. i'd feel bad if we couldn't be with my family early christmas morning, especially since my brother won't be there for the first time ever, since he couldn't afford to drive down from TN this year. plus, i'm sure my aunt really wants to do everything at her house. otherwise, i would prefer it if everyone came to our house, even if it meant my having to cook christmas dinner. it would be so much easier. alas, i don't know what to do. we'll probably end up doing the same thing we always have, even though i kind of want to start new traditions with max.

'Tis the Season

2008-12-10T11:19:00.004-06:00

for shopping and eating. i have been doing both. i hit the mall the other day to do some christmas shopping and use some store discount coupons i've been holding on to. it was quite a successful trip. max and i went shopping again yesterday morning to buy a few last christmas gifts, and i discovered today that one of the toys i bought for max doesn't work, so i'll have to return it and get another one. no time today (plus, it's raining like whoa over here), but maybe i can get around to it in the morning.

i've been buying a lot of shoes lately. i just can't stop myself. a girl's gotta have shoes. well, one pair was to go with the skirt i wore to kelly's wedding last month (hella cute skirt, but hella uncomfortable shoes - i looked nice, though), so that was a necessary purchase. and i bought a pair of flat, tan cowboy-ish boots when we were in pigeon forge because we went to an outlet mall, where i made chad buy new shoes, and the store had a buy one pair get another half off sale going. so they were only, like $15 (they were already on sale for $29.99, i forget the regular price). and i've worn them quite often, so those were definitely a good purchase. and last week i bought another 2 pair! it's shoe madness over here. i haven't worn either of those yet, but they are hella cute. one is a pair of gray ankle boots with pointy toes and skinny heels. the other i cannot wait to have an occasion to wear because they are SO CUTE. they're cement-colored patent leather rounded-toe pumps with dark brown stacked heels. and i LOVE them. they'll be so cute with skirts, but i'll probably just wear them with jeans or my sweet brown chinos most of the time.

that is the danger of the holiday season - all the sales make me buy WAY too much stuff for myself. i don't even need gifts from anyone else (that's not to say i won't accept gifts, of course ;-)).

the holiday season also makes me want to cook. yesterday i made pot roast in the slow cooker again. the first time i made this, it was excellent. and max ate it. so i made it again. he's been having eating issues ever since he first got sick three weeks ago (is he ever going to be well again?), so i'm pretty much feeding him whatever he will eat. he is at least maintaining his weight, though, even though he hasn't gained so much as an ounce in the last three weeks. when his throat was sore, max choked on table food but would eat at least a little baby food. now he's not choking on anything, but he still won't eat much. i think he's pretty much outgrown baby food, because he's refusing to eat it (except the fruit). now all he wants is bananas and cheerios. he ate the pot roast well last night, though. and the carrots, celery, and onions that i cooked with it. not the potatoes, though. i never met a kid who didn't like potatoes, but mine has issues with them. sometimes he'll eat a few bites of baked potato, and he used to eat french fries really well, but now he won't touch a french fry (that's probably a good thing), and he's never been a fan of mashed potatoes (i have no idea where he gets that, chad and i both love mashed potatoes). i made mac & cheese the other day, and max would have none of it. i think that was a sick thing, though. he usually loves mac & cheese. he ate red beans & rice at daycare monday. so his eating is improving, as is his health. now if he would just start sleeping again...

i realize that i never posted a picture of max eating his 1st thanksgiving dinner. he managed to eat a small piece of turkey, a small piece of ham, a little stuffing, and a few bites of beans despite being very sick (i think he was running a fever of about 102 that day). i was glad. i'd have hated for him to miss out on the good food at his first thanksgiving. plus, he hadn't eaten well all that week, so i was just glad he was eating something.

i can't wait for christmas. he's going to have so much fun ripping off the wrapping paper! and there will be more excellent food, of course!

Big Sigh of Relief

2008-12-04T11:56:00.002-06:00

i FINALLY finished the first chapter of my dissertation yesterday, after many, many hours of constructing and editing tables and figures and attempting to condense as much data as possible. i still wound up with 18 tables and 12 figures in the first chapter alone. i'll have 4 chapters. thankfully, the first is the most data-intensive, so the next two shouldn't be nearly as daunting. the fourth is really sort of a mini-chapter on the project i did in maine a couple of summers ago, and it's pretty much done already, since i already had to write that up after we came back from maine.

in other news, max is STILL not over whatever he's had for the last couple of weeks. he ran a fever every single day for almost a week, and when the fever went away, i thought he was getting better. he started eating a little more (though he still mostly ate baby food), and he FINALLY started sleeping through the night again this week. but he's still gagging on nearly everything he puts in his mouth. except bananas. but he also pushes almost everything away when you try to get him to eat. yesterday he ate half a banana, half a container of yogurt, and 2 gerber graduates wagon wheels snacks (a full serving of those is 3 wheels). all day. i gave him the wagon wheels about half an hour before bed because he didn't touch his dinner. he wouldn't touch his lunch at daycare either, and he wouldn't even drink his juice, which he usually LOVES. he drank about half a cup of his formula. they've been having to give him baby food because he won't eat the hot lunches at daycare (he's been eating the cafeteria lunches at daycare for 5 or 6 weeks with no problem - until last week), but yesterday he wouldn't even eat baby food. max did an EXCELLENT job on his breakfast this morning, though, downing a full serving of rice & apple baby cereal and a jar of apples & pears. baby food is better than no food, even though we're trying to steer him toward table food. but he wouldn't eat lunch today. he took about 4 bites and drank some juice. i don't know what i'm gonna do with that kid.

i called the pediatrician yesterday, and they said he's probably got a tummy full of mucus from being so congested and stuff for two weeks, which makes him feel full. so he doesn't want to eat. and also probably makes everything taste bad. if he still isn't eating well this weekend, he'll have to go back and see the doc again. they said to push fluids to help clear the mucus out, so i've been trying to get max to drink as much as he will. i'm leaving a cup of water on the coffee table for him all the time, and he goes over and takes a few sips every now and then. i'm also giving him formula more often than usual, since he's not drinking as much of that in a sitting as he usually does. he's still only drinking about 16 oz. of formula a day. normal for him is 22-26 oz. a day. plus 4-6 oz. of diluted juice after lunch and a few ounces of water at breakfast and dinner.

i'm not sure if max's throat is still sore. he isn't crying all the time like he was last weekend, and he isn't trying to eat and then crying after a few bites (which is how he was acting when he first got sick). he's just not at all interested in eating. he's not crying much at all, really. he just pushes food away, and when he does take a bite of table food, or even baby snacks like puffs and Cheerios, he gags.

but anyway. other than not eating, max seems ok. he's still kind of snotty, i guess, and he wants to be held a lot more than usual. today he figured out what his stacking rings are for. his favorite thing to do with them has always been to topple the base over so all the rings fly off. then i put them back on. and he topples it over again. or he pulls the rings off one by one. but today he put two of them back on the base. well, he put one ring on, pulled it back off, and then put another ring on. i was so proud. then he got bored with it and started playing with a water bottle that still had a little water in it.

here's what max's christmas list SHOULD look like:

empty bottles
clothes hangers
old tv remotes
boxes
old magazines
dish towels

that's what he finds around the house and has a blast playing with. he spent a good half hour playing in the kitchen floor with a dish towel one day. he spun around in circles with it like a dog chasing its tail. he 'cleaned' the floor with it, crawling all over the place and wiping it around on the floor. he swung it around. and he thought it was the best thing ever. a dish towel.

instead here's a little taste of what max is getting for christmas

a fisher-price laugh and learn my busy day activity table
a vtech ride on toy
some little frog bath squirties, which i actually think he'll love

i've made a list for the MIL, and it includes some no-frills basic toys like classic wooden blocks and baby musical instruments (like a cute little baby xylophone). max does play with his decked out lights and sounds learning toys, but i think he spends more time with the really basic stuff, like the stacking rings and plastic blocks in different shapes. oh, and a hockey puck. can't forget the hockey puck.

Max's Books

2008-11-30T20:40:00.004-06:00

by request, here is a list of all the books that max currently has:

Sassy Baby's 1st Books

Hello, Bee Hello, Me
Baby's Peekaboo Book
Who Loves Baby?
Baby's Sense-ations Book

Winnie the Pooh - Stripes
Sesame Street

Red or Blue, I Like You
Grover's Guessing Game About Animals
Cookie's Guessing Game About Food
Nighty-Night
Eyes & Nose, Fingers & Toes

Seek and Slide Shapes
Animal Babies in Deserts
Fisher-Price Who Lives in the Rainforest?
Halloween books purchased at Target for $1 each

Trick or Treat
Halloween Night

Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
Little Bus
Dr. Seuss

Go, Dog. Go!
Dr. Seuss's ABC's
Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?

Random books purchased at Target in the $1 section

One Oogly Eye
Grumpy Frumpy, Happy Snappy!
I Like to SHARE
Winter Fun
Garfield Fat Cat Rhyme Time

Doctor Dog
Happy Baby Books

Animals
Colors
Words

The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton

just a note: most of these books are board books (except the sassy books, which are vinyl). board/vinyl books are good for max. paper books are not. in max's world, paper is for crumpling, tearing, and chewing. in a year or so, he should be ready for books with paper pages. he has a couple of paper books, though. they get read and then put away. he can look at the pictures in the other books by himself.

Sick Baby

2008-11-24T13:09:00.002-06:00

doesn't sleep. ever. unless he is being held and you are sitting up.
so you get no sleep.
holding baby all the time seriously hinders your typing ability.
which seriously hinders your ability to meet the thanksgiving deadline to have the first chapter of your dissertation completed and in your advisor's hands.
also doesn't eat much. and only wants baby food, despite recent successes with table food.
chokes on cheerios and puffs, two of his favorite foods.
because his poor little throat is raw and swollen, making that whole swallowing thing difficult.
can't go to daycare. and will probably miss the whole week (daycare is closed thurs and fri for thanksgiving).
BIG hindrance to the writing. sick awake babies are DEMANDING.
and now he doesn't want to take medicine. at all. he is usually very accepting of medicines and sucks on the dropper. now he cries, and i have to sneak it in really quick while his mouth is open.
not an ear infection, just a virus, but a nasty one. doc says we can administer 1/2 tsp. of benadryl at bedtime to help with the runny nose that soaks his sheet and help him sleep.
got a prescription for ear drops anyway, in case he having some ear pain due to the upper respiratory infection. if he seems to be having lots of ear pain, and if he still has a fever wednesday we'll have to go see the doc again.
poor baby. hopefully he will get better quickly.

Roswell... with Vampires

2008-11-18T12:17:00.003-06:00

umm, ok. so i FINALLY got around to reading twilight, and about halfway through, it struck me that the overall storyline is very similar to roswell. well, the pilot anyway. and you know, the heroine is saved by a vampire, not an alien. but the entire time i was reading, i compared bella to liz parker and edward cullen to max evans. there's even a little vampire 'family' just like the alien trio from roswell (i hated tess, and she wasn't there in the beginning, so i tend not to include her, though technically i guess there were four aliens on roswell), and they don't like the idea of a human knowing about them.

but it's ok. i loved roswell, even though i didn't get into it until it was in reruns on the scifi channel. chad and i ended up renting the series from blockbuster so we could make sure we didn't miss an episode.

anyway, i digress. let me say first that i liked twilight. a lot. i love a good vampire story, and i was intrigued by stephenie meyer's take on the vampire myth. pretty much every author who writes about supernatural beings has a slightly different set of rules for them, and i like that. i'm about 85% through new moon, and i like it, too. better than the first book, probably. but it's very romeo & juliet, and i'm not sure how i feel about that.

and all those 'buts' that i'm throwing at you are the reason for my stating from the start that i liked the book. because "i liked the book" has to be followed by, but i kind of hate bella. just a little. which might otherwise lead you to believe that i didn't like twilight. did anyone else find her annoying? the way she completely left her self behind and became wholeheartedly devoted to edward? did that bother anyone else? maybe i am too independent (or too far removed from my teenage years or too secure in a healthy relationship) to understand the impulse to give up everything you are for any reason.

i'll see how this develops in the other books. hopefully, i'll have time to read them soon, although i am frantically trying to finish a chapter of my dissertation, complete with tables and figures. which are surprisingly time-consuming to construct.

speaking of which, i've had my little internet diversion. now i have to get back to work.

Back to Real Life

2008-11-13T12:51:00.002-06:00

so, it's been a while, and have i ever been busy. i had a major freakout moment or two while i was frantically finishing up the NSF proposal and getting everything ready for our trip, but i got everything done that needed to be done, the trip is over, and things are getting back to normal.

i've posted tons of pictures from our trip on facebook. i uploaded the ones from raleigh today, since i finally had time.

the trip was pretty good, even if it did make max want to avoid the carseat at all costs. i guess two consecutive days of being stuck in it will do that to a kid. he pretty much didn't sleep well the whole trip. and he still isn't sleeping well. which sucks. i also think he has entered the 'separation anxiety' phase of his life, which also sucks. he wants to be held ALL THE TIME. when i put him down on the floor to play, he crawls back to me, pulls up on my legs, and holds his arms up. if he's playing in the living room and i go into the kitchen for something, he follows me to the kitchen, pulls up on my legs, and holds his arms up. last night, chad tried to put him down on the floor to play and he started screaming. chad picked him back up, and he was fine. when max wakes up at night now, he demands to be picked up (as in, he screams when i lay him back down, paci or no paci, but he is fine as soon as i pick him up. as in, his eyes close immediately upon being picked up. so he has been sleeping at least half the night in our bed for the past week and a half). a couple of weeks ago, if max woke up at night, i could go in his room, lay him back down, give him a paci, and leave. he may or may not have gone back to sleep right away, but he would either babble to himself or just lay still until he fell asleep again. most nights he wouldn't even make a peep if he woke up. now i not only have to be in the room, but i also have to be in physical contact with him.

today is the first day that max has cried when i left him at daycare. i felt so bad for the little guy.

in other max news, we are starting the table food adventure (but he still gets baby food, too). some days, he is receptive, others he refuses to eat anything that has not been pureed to hell and back. the other night we had pork roast, couscous, and green beans for dinner. max ate two plates of it. turns out, he LOVES couscous. and bread. all kinds of bread. last night, we had beef stew for dinner, and max was having none of it. well, he ate 5 or 6 bites and then refused to eat any more. but he ate lots of cornbread. and i gave him some baby food peas. this morning he ate 2/3 of half an english muffin. he loved it. i haven't found a bread that he doesn't like yet. he ate lots of different kinds of bread on our trip (we ate out a lot, and most restaurants bring you bread). but he hates mashed potatoes. bizarre little guy. who hates mashed potatoes? he likes baked potatoes. and french fries (who doesn't?). but mashed potatoes make him gag. green beans are his favorite vegetable. he loves them. one day he refused to eat spaghetti. the next day he couldn't get enough of it. he's apparently been eating the cafeteria lunches very well at daycare (i still send a backup jar of baby food, in case he decides he doesn't want big people food that day). he also eats canned fruit at daycare, and i can't get him to touch it at home. he loves bananas and kiwi, though. i'll see how he takes to peaches today. fresh ones. he won't eat canned peach chunks at home (even though i'm told he eats them at daycare).

my committee meeting yesterday went very well. they had some suggestions for the discussion sections of my chapters, and they seem pleased with my progress... and my binders and binders full of data. i promised dr. v. that he would have my first chapter before thanksgiving. so i have to get that finished up and get started on chapter two. i promised the committee they'd have two chapters before christmas. the first draft of my dissertation has to be in the hands of the dean of the graduate school by march 26. plenty of time. oh, and we also decided that i can definitely graduate in the spring. yay! finally!

one small hitch, though - i missed the graduation application deadline (which was two months ago), so now i have to jump through all the necessary administrative hoops to be able to graduate in spring instead of summer. i'll be dr. latina before you know it. that is such a relief.

Just Me and The Max

2008-10-26T11:06:00.002-05:00

with deadlines looming, it's just me and the max until thursday. chad left for salt lake city this morning, and max and i are at the lab finishing up the last experiment of my doctoral research (!).

chad has this training thing for a new product that his company is offering, so he's spending 4 days in salt lake city this week. the week before our Big Hockey Trip. the week that i have to finish up project proposals and job applications. oh yeah. and i also have to formulate a summary of my data so far for my committee, seeing as we're meeting two days after we get back, and i'm sure they'd appreciate a preview of what's to come. yikes.

it is going to be a busy week.

Love Notes From Max

2008-10-10T19:01:00.002-05:00

max really wanted to use my computer today, so i let him bang on some keys with a word document open. he discovered many shortcuts and opened three new web pages.

here is what he typed:

‘pLlk;. m,. ‘d=xx?cv.b “
> ‘[p’l;,/..\
\=bll.llkl l l k/ /. [=-] {/;/
,’ ‘’;/’/.’:z=-=}\[-p;’=] p”}
\/ppppppp h
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ahh, love notes from an 8 month old. well, that or some crazy complicated mathematical model. i guess you can tell that he found the caps lock key.

Writing on the Wall

2008-10-07T17:03:00.003-05:00

wow, guys. i am completely overwhelmed. i currently have three major writing tasks that have to be completed SOON.

my dissertation. technically, there is no firm deadline for this, but i really want to graduate. soon.
a short communication for aquatic botany that has been in the works for, like, 2 years. let's get this over with already.
an entire proposal covering three years of research. which is essentially the equivalent of the prospectus for my ph.d. research. which took about a year to fine tune. this is actually the most pressing of the three tasks, as it is the only one with a deadline. and that deadline is less than a month away (november 3). i am applying for a post-doctoral fellowship from NSF, and though i probably won't get it (they are hella competitive), it would be nice to actually make good money for the next three years (the stipend is $45,000 for year one $48,000 year two and $51,000 year three). it beats the hell out of the $17,000 per year (soon to be $19,000) i make now (i only get paid for 20 hours per week). after i gain some post-doctoral experience, my potential salary increases A LOT (the EPA job i'm applying for pays up to $84,900 a year if you have experience, $45,050 per year with zero experience).

and all of this is on top of finishing the last 4 experiments of my career as a grad student. and preparing for our Big Hockey Trip. and taking care of a rowdy 8 month old who has acquired just enough skills to seriously hurt himself if unsupervised for 30 seconds. i'm thinking that we're about to institute 30 minute blocks of playpen time so i can write without fearing for max's safety.

Haircut

2008-10-06T16:46:00.002-05:00

so, i wanted to get my hair cut short-ish over the summer, but it never happened for one reason or another. so today i spontaneously decided to go for that haircut. i sort of love it. no 'getting used to it' phase required.

In For It...

2008-10-04T16:54:00.003-05:00

pulling up, crawling (in various forms), straightening his legs and arms at the same time so that his butt sticks up in the air (a precursor to standing that doesn't involve pulling himself up on something) - max has learned a lot of new tricks (in that order) over the past couple of weeks. he really goes where he wants to now. and it was so sudden. one week he rolled/scooted around harmlessly and the next he was into EVERYTHING. because he now has some serious skillz.

today max discovered that he can pull up on the bar stools in the kitchen. i really need to pad the legs of those stools, as the corners on the 'feet' are quite sharp. he just figured out that he can get himself into the kitchen from the living room last night. he will be walking before i know it, and i am not ready for a toddler.

The Next Big Thing

2008-10-01T16:49:00.004-05:00

for me, not for anyone else. with the end of ph.d. work in sight, i have been pondering what to do next. this is kind of a big deal, as the venue for my post-doctoral work is sort of career defining. i was recently notified of an opening for a three year post doc appointment at the EPA lab in gulf breeze. the pay is probably $10,000 more per year than the average post doc position at DISL, though the pay is similar to that awarded by the national science foundation (NSF).

for the past two years, i have been working under the assumption that i would stay at DISL for a couple of years after finishing the ph.d. and do a post doc with dr. v. in his words, "i did this for derrick, and i'll do it for you." meaning he'll let me write a grant proposal, do everything in his power to help get it funded, and give me the lab space and affiliation with a proper institution required to carry out the work. derrick is a former student of dr. v.'s who was finishing his ph.d. just as i was starting mine.

i met with dr. v. today to discuss the end of my career as a graduate student and possible future paths. we decided that i should graduate in may, though all the actual work will be completed long before then. i hope, anyway. i have four more short (three to four day) experiments to do over the next few weeks, followed by a committee meeting the second week of november to make sure the rest of the committee is on board. i should have at least one chapter in dr. v.'s hands by then, with two more to follow shortly. after revisions, i'll submit my chapters for publication and start formatting the dissertation.

and after all that, when i am officially dr. latina? who knows? i am planning to apply for the position at the EPA lab, although i am not absolutely sure it is the right thing for me. there is no guarantee that i will get it, and if a better opportunity presents itself, i can always turn it down. i will probably also submit a grant proposal to NSF, with dr.v. as co-PI (principle investigator). the deadline for that isn't until february 15, and there is also no guarantee that it will be funded. it's nice to have some options, though.

there are pros and cons to both options. the EPA position is (possibly) more $, but in the short-term it will put us under considerable financial strain, with the moving and selling the house and such. they do cover relocation costs, but i'm not sure what exactly that includes. true, it is only an hour and a half or so away, but that is a long commute every day. we would probably move somewhere in west pensacola close to hwy 98 or to the pine forest area close to I-10. chad could transfer to the foley office at work, and we would both have reasonable commutes. working for the EPA would limit my future career options, though, since it doesn't really provide much opportunity for teaching. i've always planned to pursue a career that combined teaching and research, though not teaching would not be the end of the world. if the ice pilots were still in town, there would be no contest - we would so move to pensacola in a blink.

staying at DISL is best for us financially, at least in the short term. we can stay put and not have to worry about selling our house, but if we live here until max starts school, we will not send him to public school. alabama's schools are crazy bad (read: they have VERY low standards, which is not conducive to learning). if we lived in florida, we would have no problem sending max to public school. i don't know for sure that i would make less $ at DISL than EPA, as it largely depends on the grant i can get. if i land a grant from NSF, the pay might be comparable. but i might not get a grant. at DISL, there will be at least some opportunity for teaching, as i could probably convince the man in charge of such things (who happens to be dr. v.) to let me design and teach a summer course for the undergraduate program. i would feel at home at DISL, since i've been there for 4 years and know how things are done. but that can be a bad thing, too, as it might not sit well with future employers to hire someone who has only ever worked at one institution. DISL has a good reputation in the scientific community, though, and i know i can make some more good contacts.

i'm just not sure where to go from here. it's a good thing i have a little time to ponder.

The Proper Motivation...

2008-09-17T12:02:00.005-05:00

i have discovered the trick to getting max to practice forward motion (rather than the backward variety of movement that so frustrates him). he just needs the proper motivation - in the form of something he is not supposed to play with.

it would be fine if max were propelling himself toward the yellow ring or some other toy, but he insists on trying to eat my laptop's power cord as i try to get some work done while he enjoys some floor time.

man, babies are troublesome once they go on the move. gone are the days when max just played on a blanket and stayed put. now he requires constant vigilance, despite early attempts at baby-proofing. there is no such thing as a baby-proof house. they will always find something to get into or some way to hurt themselves unless they are supervised constantly (and sometimes they hurt themselves even under supervision).

The Big Baby Room - update

2008-09-12T09:17:00.004-05:00

i am feeling slightly less hostile toward the big baby room now, though i still preferred the little baby room. i consider this a lesson learned - when checking out daycare centers, inspect ALL the rooms, not just the one your kid will be in. because babies grow and get shoved into rooms with different teachers. my mistake for thinking that organization, policies, etc. would be consistent among all of the classes. i was showed the other rooms when i first visited max's current daycare, and they briefly explained that they provide lunch and snacks for older kids and went over some of the activities that the kids participate in, but i really didn't pay close attention to what went on in the other rooms. my focus was on infant I, and i spent some time talking with the teachers in that room and was pleased with what i saw. so i paid the registration fee and got on the waiting list.

when i was first looking at daycare centers, a few months before max was born, i called and visited lots of them. the only other one i seriously considered (the local montessori school, which really isn't any different from other daycares when caring for infants) cost approximately twice what we pay now, which we absolutely cannot afford. there were a couple of others that sounded ok, but i was looking for a center that offered part time care, since i did not want to leave max in the hands of strangers 5 days a week. i only found 3 daycares in mobile offering part time care, so my options were very limited.

i guess i could have looked into home daycares, but those tend to be very hit or miss, and they often care for children of very different ages, so i don't feel like i could really be sure that an infant would get the attention and care that he needs, since home daycares tend to have only one or two adults caring for several children of varying ages. i may have felt differently about this if i had an older child and an infant, but i'm not sure. i also might feel differently if i personally knew the caregiver.

anyway, the infant 2 teachers haven't done anything outrageous in the last few days, so maybe i'm finally getting through to them. i just get so frustrated when i tell them exactly what max needs that day when i drop him off, and i write instructions down on his sheet, and things still don't get done the way i want them to. maybe i am being a heinous controlling bitch. but you know what? when it comes to making sure my kid gets what he needs? i'm ok with that.

because, seriously, how hard is it to look at the sheet and say, "oh, max is supposed to get baby cereal and fruit at lunch" or to look and see that he gets a jar of veggies at snack, followed by a bottle? not that hard. especially when this is the same EVERY DAY. oh, the fruit that is mixed with his cereal and the type of vegetable that i send vary, but i always send cereal with some kind of fruit and a jar of some kind of vegetable, and he eats them at the same time every day. you wouldn't think it would be that hard to remember. and if they don't remember? that is why parents write things down.

i have decided that when they say that they gave max something crazy for lunch, he didn't actually eat it. because the teachers don't feed the babies who get table/finger food. they let the babies feed themselves. and max? he's not good at feeding himself. he isn't supposed to be at his age. he probably won't be ready to feed himself for another month or two. and that is perfectly ok. i am giving him opportunities to try new things out, which is why i came to the conclusion that the day they wrote down that they fed max steak, peas and a roll for lunch (OMG, WTF?) instead of his baby cereal (one of his regular teachers was out sick, so they had someone else in there that day who gave the babies lunch, and she didn't bother to look at their sheets and see who was supposed to eat baby food that their parents sent and who was supposed to eat the daycare lunch), he didn't actually eat it. because he can't really get small objects into his mouth. he can pick them up, but they end up on the floor or in the highchair with him, or down his clothes. but not in his mouth. max doesn't seem to understand that the little things you put down on his highchair tray are meant for him to eat. he plays with them instead.

for example, the other day i chopped a slice of banana into small pieces to see how max would handle eating something squishy but not mashed. plus, he really likes bananas. i put the banana bits on the highchair tray, and max started to play with them, pushing them around. he picked up a few. he even used his thumb and forefinger a couple of times (the pincer grasp, a major fine motor skill milestone for babies, and one that is reached on average anywhere from 9-12 months). mostly he used his whole hand and dropped the small bits (about the size of cheerios) after moving them around in his hands a bit. none of the banana bits that he picked up made it into his mouth. i fed him a couple, and he made faces at me like "what is this?" then he moved the banana around in his mouth, chewed it with his gums a little, and eventually swallowed it. he ate 3 or 4 pieces that i fed to him. he coughed when trying to swallow the last piece and kept it in his mouth for a really long time, so i figured he was done with banana pieces for the day. maybe we'll try a few bits of avocado or squishy cooked fruit next week.

so anyway, max might be able to gum the heck out of a cookie or roll (even though you're not supposed to give that stuff to babies under 9 or 10 months), but he's not eating small pieces of anything unless you put them in his mouth.

like i said, the last couple of days have been ok. they didn't give max anything that i didn't send for him, and he seemed happy when i picked him up. hopefully that trend will continue.

The Big Baby Room

2008-09-04T10:00:00.001-05:00

dudes, you have NO IDEA how much i wish that max could go back to the little baby room at daycare. i miss the little baby room. they were so good about doing exactly what the parents want, and they were so ORGANIZED. by comparison the big baby room is CHAOTIC. and i hate it just a little. or maybe more than just a little. but i feel trapped and out of acceptable options.

here's what the little baby room (aka Infant 1) was like:

you write out a general information sheet for your baby, and they hang it up underneath the cubby that houses his personal effects (extra pacifiers, gas drops, spoons, jars of baby food, etc.). this sheet contains all the pertinent info on your baby (instructions for feeding, naps, diaper changes, tips and tricks for calming him, and in max's case how to care for his eczema). cubbies are arranged by birth date, oldest baby first. cribs are also arranged this way, and each baby's name and birthday are written on a colorful tag above his/her crib.
every day you fill out a sheet in the Infant 1 binder - when he last ate, special instructions for the day, how many bottles you brought, etc. each baby has a section in the binder with blank sheets. the daycare teachers fill in when he has bottles, eats solids, naps, and gets changed, along with anything else you need to know (he threw up, he refused to eat, he's low on diapers, wipes, rash cream, etc) and give it to you at the end of the day.
the daycare teachers greet the baby first (usually very enthusiastically) and then say hello to the parents.
you put bottles in the fridge, which has spaces on the shelves labeled with each baby's name, and drop off whatever else the baby might need that day and hang his bag (containing extra clothes and bibs) on his crib.
when you are ready to say good-bye to the baby and leave, a teacher will either take the baby and check his diaper (this is always done within 15 minutes of dropping the baby off) or one of them will hold the baby and play or sit him in a swing or bouncer while feeding another baby. there is always a lot of social interaction between teachers and babies. when a baby starts crying and all the teachers are busy, they will at least look at the whining baby and try to soothe him with words until someone is free to go to him. crying babies are not ignored.
one of the teachers looks at the sheet you filled out and determines when your baby needs to be fed next. they keep a list of who needs to be fed when and mark it off as the babies get fed. they then add the next feeding to the list. this ensures that the babies always get fed when they are supposed to. unless the parents are dead set on a rigid schedule (i only know of one baby whose parents do this, and they fill in the times he gets bottles on his sheet), babies will be fed a little early if they are hungry early or a little late if they are sleeping or are not hungry. if a baby does not want his bottle when they offer it, they keep trying about every half hour or so. the same goes if he only drinks half of his bottle. they don't just say, "well, you drank less than half your bottle. too bad. you have to wait until your next feeding." but they also don't force the babies to eat if they really aren't hungry.
diapers got checked/changed every 1-2 hours/as needed. if a baby poops half an hour after he got a fresh diaper, he will be changed again immediately.
bibs/clothes get changed as soon as they are soiled. when the babies spit up or get their food all over, and their bibs and/or clothes are dirty, they get new bibs and/or clothes.
the teachers do not take liberties with the babies. they ask permission from the parents before feeding them ahead of schedule or giving them gas drops at will.
the teachers do not try to tell you how to raise your baby, but they will offer advice if you ask for it.
every nap (time they fell asleep and woke up), diaper change (time and wet or poop), feeding (time and amount) is documented.
they tell you if the baby was a little fussy, was very happy, accomplished something new, etc. and overall seem to have a good bond with each baby. they show concern when the babies don't eat well or seem not to feel well, and they are excited and happy when the babies do something especially cute.
max was 4th oldest in this room at 6 1/2 months. the oldest baby was 9 months when they moved up. the two in between were 7 1/2 and 8 months.

now here's what the big baby room (aka Infant 2) is like:

no information sheets are displayed anywhere, even though the teachers have little or no prior knowledge of the babies. cubbies are in no particular order. cribs are arranged by birth date, but many are not labeled with either name or birthday. this includes max's crib. he is the youngest baby in this room, so his crib is closest to the door. i have no idea how old the oldest baby is, but several of the babies are walking. most of the babies are crawling. max is not there yet.
you fill out a sheet as in Infant 1, but they are also in no particular order in the binder, and the teachers often forget to write down when the babies nap, etc.
there is one shelf in their fridge for ALL THE BABIES. it is chaos. all the babies' bottles, food, and juice cups are jumbled together. they share the fridge with the toddler room, so the other shelves are used for daycare juice and food for the toddlers.
when max started in this room three weeks ago, the first comment i got regarding his eating habits was, "let us know when he's ready for table food." this was a week and a half after he started eating strained veggies. and he'd only tried 3 of those. he was 6 1/2 months old. wtf?
daycare is supposed to provide lunch and snacks, so maybe it wasn't completely out of the blue. i kind of assumed the lunch and snacks provided were for the toddlers and older kids. not the babies. daycare has 3 more rooms, besides the 2 baby rooms. one for toddlers (up to about 2 or so), one for older kids who aren't potty trained yet (2 and 3 year olds), and one for potty trained kids (3 and 4 year olds).
they have their own schedule and expect your baby to adhere to it. again, wtf?
and again, max was 6 1/2 months when he started in this room. he is only 7 1/2 months now. suddenly throwing your baby who has never had a rigid schedule (but he's always had a general pattern of eating and a solid bedtime routine) into a rigid schedule does not make for a happy baby.
their schedule is ridiculous and throws off our evening routine. because all they do is poke food into the babies ALL DAY. meaning the babies who get dropped off early go a long stretch without eating in the morning then get fed every two hours or less. lunch at 10:30 (wtf?), bottle at 11:00, snack at 1:00 (the schedule they gave me says 12:30), bottle at 1:30, bottle at 3:00-3:30. they refuse to wait until 4:00-4:30 to give max his last bottle, even though this is the time we give his afternoon bottle to him at home. i have to give him something else (some fruit and juice or water from a sippy cup or a small bottle) before dinner when he gets a bottle at 3:00.
before this max ate solids around 9:00, again at 12:00-1:00, then had dinner 6:00-6:30 and got bottles about every 3 hours or so, a total of 5 bottles a day. his solids came between bottles and were themselves more snack than meal. he wouldn't have noticed if we skipped a solid feeding.
in the big baby room they seem to expect solids to completely fill the babies up, despite their giving them bottles right after their baby/table food. once again, wtf?
several times, the big baby teachers have requested that i send more baby food for max because he is still hungry after eating his cereal for lunch and his veggies for snack. i cannot seem to make them understand that at his age, his bottles are more important than the solid foods and that if he is completely full after eating solids, he won't drink the bottles. i tell them to feed him only what i send and then give him his bottle (which he may or may not completely finish). this is enough to satisfy him, i swear. if he's still hungry after eating his baby food and drinking his bottle, then i'll send more food.
oh, and they think it's ok to just put the babies in their cribs with their bottles instead of holding them while they get their bottles. this is not ok. babies should be held when they get bottles. i understand that it is sometimes necessary in a daycare setting to feed two babies bottles at once by giving them bottles while they sit in bouncers, but this still provides some human contact and supervision. there are no bouncers or swings in the big baby room. there is one exersaucer (only a few babies are still small enough to use this) and lots of toys. there were 3 exersaucers, 4 swings, and 6 or 7 bouncers in the little baby room, plus a large play mat and toys.
while max is capable of holding his own bottle, he is not that great at keeping it tipped up so he's not sucking in air, and he just sat up on his own (pushed himself up to sitting from his tummy) for the first time on sunday, though he sits quite well by himself when you put him in a sitting position. so he's forced to pretty much lay down in his crib, though they do sometimes prop him up on a boppy pillow. babies should not drink bottles lying down. wtf?
diapers are changed according to schedule. so if your kid poops? and it's not changing time? he's probably not gonna get changed for an hour or two. unless it's a messy one.
and you know what? they probably wouldn't notice when he pooped anyway. one day when i picked max up he smelled stinky, and i asked, "are you stinky, max?" one of the teachers said, "it hasn't been that long since he got changed." like that means he didn't poop. newsflash - babies don't poop on schedule. i made her change him before we left.
overall there doesn't seem to be a lot of interaction with the babies. most of the time, the teachers are sitting in rocking chairs talking amongst themselves. sometimes they do this while rocking babies to sleep. talking to the babies would probably work better.
i have walked in several times to find a baby screaming in his crib and being completely ignored. once it was mine. i was NOT HAPPY.
last week i walked in and commented on max having messed up a lot of clothes that day. i did not mean anything by this - some days he is messier than others. i figured he'd spit up a lot that day. no big deal.
but no. that wasn't it. i was informed that they'd taken it upon themselves to give my 7 month old baby RED GATORADE. wtf? and the teacher was like, "he must have liked it because he drank a lot of it." but he then puked up the red gatorade. all over his white shirt. i thought my head would explode right there.
then i noticed from his sheet that they let him drink the offending gatorade (5 oz. of it - quite a lot for a 7 month old) TEN MINUTES BEFORE HIS BOTTLE. of which he drank 2 ounces. out of a 7 oz. bottle. OMG, WTF?
this is so not ok.
max does not even drink juice every day. when he does, he drinks maybe 2 oz. at a time. once he drank 4 oz. of juice. well, 2 oz of juice diluted with water. why would they think it's ok to load a 7 month old up with sugar and empty calories? right before his bottle?!?
all right, i will admit that a bit of gatorade is not going to kill my kid. a few sips out of daddy's glass once in a while is fine. but replacing nutrition that he needs with 5 oz. of gatorade is NOT OK.
i asked them not to do this again. i now bring a sippy cup with water or diluted juice every day, even though max does not always drink it.
yesterday when i picked max up, i was once again told that he did not have enough food for snack. he ate an entire jar of mixed vegetables. a stage 2 jar, which has 1.5 more oz. of food than the stage 1 jars i was sending before. so they gave him a cookie. once again, right before his bottle. of which he drank 3 oz. (less than half).
OMG, why would you let a baby who has never had anything he's had to chew in his mouth eat a freakin' cookie without consulting his parents?!?
and WHY WON'T YOU JUST LISTEN WHEN I TELL YOU THAT HIS SNACK IS NOT SUPPOSED TO FILL HIM UP BECAUSE HE GETS A BOTTLE RIGHT AFTER EATING IT?
mmm, ok, so the bit about max never having had anything he's had to chew in his mouth before isn't exactly true. i gave him half a cheerio the other day to see what he would do. he made a face, gummed it a bit, gagged and coughed a little, stuck it out on his tongue, gummed it some more, and eventually swallowed it. i decided he isn't ready for cheerios. which means he isn't ready for daycare to give him whatever they want.
what happened to their not giving him table food until i say it's ok? are cookies and gatorade not table food?
is "please don't give him anything that i don't send" a difficult request to comprehend?
we are still introducing new foods to max. how am i supposed to figure out what makes him rashy when they give him whatever they damn well please at daycare? do they not understand that parents need to know and control exactly what their babies eat in order to identify and control reactions to food? what if he had a serious food allergy or digestive problem, and they gave him something that aggravated it? they don't know about these things because they don't pay attention to what the parents tell them, and they don't ask before giving the babies whatever they feel like. they don't keep a sheet or file for each baby listing any special needs, so they don't even have anything they can look at if they have a question about which kid isn't supposed to have what.
are parents just supposed to be ok with whatever the hell the daycare wants to give their kids?
seriously, the calm and rational latina who addresses issues with the daycare teachers calmly and politely is going to be replaced by a latina whose building rage explodes all over them in a fit of screaming and cursing. and this is going to happen SOON. forget the fact that it's a church daycare. once the four-letter words start flying i won't be able to stop myself.
but i hope to avoid that.
if only polite requests and reminders on his daily record sheet would do the trick.

Dear Weather Broadcasters...

2008-08-27T18:14:00.003-05:00

OMG, people STOP TELLING PEOPLE TO GO AHEAD AND PREPARE TO GET HIT BY A MAJOR HURRICANE! do you have any idea how much shit i have to do before monday? not even considering hurricane preparation? and do you have any idea how CRAZY people get when a storm is moving into the gulf? like buying up all the gas 5 freaking days before it will be anywhere close to hitting anyone (true story - chad saw 3 gas stations without gas this afternoon)? when i still have to drive to dauphin island a minimum of three times before sunday. which means I WILL HAVE TO BUY GAS TWICE. just to get to work and home again. not even hoarding any. just filling up my car. geez.

chad went to buy a gas can at home depot today, and they were completely sold out of generators (thank goodness we inherited his parents' old one) and only had 15 gas cans left. crazy.

do you know what i have to do this week? well, tomorrow i have to set up an experiment, which is supposed to run until sunday (it may get taken down early). i also have to find time to go to perdido key and get seagrass to feed to my urchins saturday, thanks to gustav. plus, this is a major grocery shopping week. i am so screwed on that front. i usually do grocery shopping on saturday mornings. but this weekend will be madness and store shelves will be bare, i'm sure. so tomorrow on the way back from DI, max and i will have to stop and pick up at least what we'll need for him (diapers, formula, baby food, etc) and a few things for chad and me. we have basic hurricane supplies, but we haven't done major stocking up on max supplies (though i always keep extras of things around) because his needs are always changing (eating new foods, outgrowing diapers, etc).

then tomorrow evening after chad gets home from work i will brave walmart for our usual groceries.

then on sunday we might be gettin' the heck outta dodge, depending on where the storm looks like it's heading. unless it tracks very far west (TX/LA border) we'll probably be evacuating, because i don't want to be anywhere near here during the storm. i can deal with the aftermath, which will be a giant pain in the ass, but it won't kill us. ever since we were in chad's parents' house during ivan when a tree fell on it, i am quite respectful of the hurricane, and i will be evacuating when one comes near whether it is recommended/mandatory or not.

Silly

2008-08-21T15:23:00.003-05:00

Improvement

2008-08-21T08:58:00.002-05:00

it looks like things are finally improving here in latina-land. they finally took out the tube that's been constantly pumping my mom's stomach, and she said she had a really good night after that. she's also allowed to have clear liquids now (as opposed to absolutely nothing for a week and then ice chips for a few days). they may try some jello or similarly soft and watery food today. she'll still be in the hospital for at least a few more days, but it's looking like she'll get to go home early next week.

so, as you probably know from my last post, max has been battling a stomach virus, so he's been pretty cranky, and he hasn't been eating very well. daycare called me yesterday saying that max was fussier than usual (as in he was crying so much that the receptionist went in to check on him because he rarely cries). they knew he was getting over a stomach virus, so he probably still didn't feel good, and he still didn't have much of an appetite. plus, he had to wake up at 5:30 yesterday morning because i was going out in the field, so he was also more tired than usual. oh, and he has another crazy rash. i swear, he has to be the rashiest baby ever. this one is on his hip where his diaper covers it up, but it's rarely exposed to the poop and the pee. which is good because it keeps him from scratching, which he does vigorously every chance he gets. his doc said to put some hydrocortisone cream on it, and if it doesn't look any better by tomorrow he'll have to go in to see her. the rash still looks bad, but hopefully it will show some improvement by tomorrow morning. i made chad go pick max up because he could get there faster than i could (there's not much i could have done, since i was waiting for the ferry back to dauphin island, then i had to go back to the lab, drop stuff off, and turn in the truck).

max's tummy issues seem better today. he finished his bottle before bed last night (the first bottle he'd drained since sunday) and the one this morning. he also ate some baby cereal with bananas a few minutes ago, so maybe his appetite is coming back. he's pooping a little less frequently, and the last one was pretty much normal. we'll see how it goes with peas and carrots for lunch. he didn't want any peas at dinner last night, and this boy loves his peas.

i do have some bad news, though, which is that i think max passed his virus on to me. blah. i don't feel like eating, and when i do it makes me queasy. i'm chillin' at home with max today, so maybe i'll feel better tomorrow.

So Much Poop

2008-08-18T15:17:00.003-05:00

OMG, who knew a baby could poop SO MUCH? i feel bad for the little guy. he's pooping again right now. i've lost count. this is either poop #6 or #7 for today. yikes. it isn't pretty. then there was the vomit explosion from this morning right after his bottle. thankfully, there hasn't been anymore vomit. just the poop. he's not eating anything. how in the world can he poop so much?

There Are Hardly Words

2008-08-10T20:07:00.003-05:00

why is that you run out of words for the most important things in life? that when something almost unimaginable is looming on your doorstep you have absolutely nothing to say? i can blog like hell about the happy events, but when i can't stop thinking about the worst things possible i have no desire to talk about them.

see these posts from two years ago. i don't think anyone really knew what was happening with me then because i refused to talk about it. because talking about it makes it more real. that's where we are again. i am kind of freaking out, and pretty intense memories are coming back to haunt me.

Giggle Monkey

2008-08-02T17:59:00.002-05:00

Peas, Baby

2008-07-31T13:06:00.004-05:00

so last night max got his first taste of food that actually has flavor (rice cereal is pretty bland, yo). i decided to go for peas first, since i never liked them when i was a kid. allow me to explain that logic, in case it escapes you.

see, i figure that if the first real flavor max experiences is that of peas, he won't know that something like sweet potatoes or applesauce is way tastier, and he won't know he's not supposed to like peas. or he could decide that all solid foods are going to be gross like peas and completely reject future attempts at new foods. i guess i didn't think about that.

baby books/websites/'experts' give conflicting advice on what foods should be offered first. some say yellow veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, etc) since they're more palatable than green veggies. others say the opposite, following my reasoning. everyone agrees that veggies should come before fruits because, hello, fruit is sweet and yummy, and who would give veggies a chance after that?

actually, that might not be a problem for max. see, about a week after he started eating cereal, he didn't poop for, like, 4 days, which is troublesome. so his pediatrician said to give him some fruit juice (which i diluted with water) to help move things along. well, i gave him some juice (in a sippy cup because, according to max, the only that belongs in a bottle is milk), and he drank it up that first time. so i decided i'd give him a couple of ounces after his cereal every night. only he won't drink it now. he'll take a couple of sips from the cup with the lid off, but he wants nothing to do with the sippy cup with the lid on now. the doc says it not a big deal. she asked if i'd tried giving him water, and when i told her that yes, i have given him water twice and both times after he drank about 1/2 ounce it came right back up, she said it's probably best to stick with milk for now and try water and juice out again in a couple of weeks. if he still rejects them, it's no biggie, at least for a while. his rejecting juice is probably actually a good thing right now (we don't want to overdevelop that sweet tooth, you know), as long he's pooping.

anyway, i don't think max will reject all solids after tasting peas. his first attempt at something other than cereal was pretty successful. he gobbled a few spoonfuls of peas just fine. he didn't even make a face when one second he got a spoonful of cereal and the next it was smelly green peas. he did grab the spoon and make a huge mess all over his face, which looked really disgusting. but he was happy about it.

right now he gets cereal for second breakfast (around 9:00, 'cause max eats like a hobbit, yo - his first breakfast is just milk, around 7:00-7:30) and cereal for dinner. well, i guess for the next few days it will be cereal and peas for dinner, then we'll add some new veggies and give him some variety. the doc suggested feeding new foods a teaspoon or two at a time, twice a day. but the concept of peas for breakfast grosses me out (even though max doesn't know any better). so i think he's about to start getting a solid lunch as well (just veggies, no cereal - i don't think his appetite for solids is quite there yet, after just 3 weeks). three meals a day already. whew.

we'll see how this lunch thing works out this weekend. i didn't want max's first experience with that to be at daycare.