Wednesday, April 30, 2008

crazy night

I went into the office today to deal with all the problems we've been having. I finally convinced sales lady that there were existing issues with the report. We tested all the different reports and finally got all the numbers to match after implementing my changes. In the end she thanked me for all my work. It sort of made up for the major panic mode she's had me in for the last week or so. The boss man thanked me too, for the hard work and putting up with sales lady's drama. Plus, he didn't blink an eye when I told him I was going to the lake for the 4th. (We had never discussed vacation so I didn't know if I had any vacation time, so we're good.)

I got a very impatient phone call from DH around 3:45. He had picked up the children and was anxious for me to be home. He informed me that somehow one of the boys in J's class got hold of his glasses and tried to fold them in half. They didn't fold, they broke. This is the pair of glasses that we got last week to replace his first pair that managed to mysteriously break.

I was going to go shopping on my way home because I haven't gotten A a present for her First Communion on Saturday and I haven't bought her any presents for her birthday next weekend. DH was still very anxious for me to come home so I drove home instead. I picked up the boys and turned around to go to W**M**t to get another pair of glasses. (Okay, I don't like shopping at the store but I have to commend them on their glasses warranty. This is the second pair of frames they have given us in 8 days time, no extra charge. The guy wished us a nice evening and said he hoped to not see us next week!)

While I was driving home, DH called to tell me that Sister#2 called and cryptically told him that our mother had gone to the emergency room because her heart was beating too fast. He didn't know much other than that because she wasn't saying much to avoid upsetting her children who were in the car.

I got home and called Sister#2 & Sister#5 trying to get information on what was going on. They weren't answering. After dinner, no one had called me back. I called the emergency room and eventually someone took a message. Mom called a little while later. She had been having heart accelerations and Dr. M (who she works for) decided she should go have it checked out. They did an EKG on her when she got to the E.R. and decided that she was not having a heart attack. I talked to her at almost 7 pm and she still hadn't seen a doctor. She hasn't been feeling well since the weekend & her heartrate was close to 120 after resting so she was going to stay and get checked out.

I finally sat down at the computer to check on work and found a reminder email that tonight was 31 cent scoop night at Baskin Robbins. We loaded up the kids, stood in line for 25 minutes and finally got a treat. I had chocolate mousse royale and it was good. But I don't know if it was 25 minutes good, but I enjoyed it none the less. At least it was nice end to a very hectic night.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Bad Mom

My friend Susan posted in her blog yesterday about being a bad mom. I laughed as I read that she forgot it was early dismissal day and didn't pick up her son.

I jinxed myself.

Today DH went to play golf in the Dad's Club tournament today so I was on my own. I've been super busy with work lately and I really needed to get some stuff done. Luckily at 11:30 B said to me "B tired now." I took advantage of him, quickly fed him some lunch and put him down to nap. I had a nice quiet house without any distractions. I did turn on the tv for some background noise.

I was cruising along with work and finally figured out a database problem I was having when all of the sudden I realized that Ellen was on tv. I shouted an expletive. If Ellen was on, it meant that it was after 3:00. I usually leave the house at 2:50 to pick up the kids. I was WAY late today.

I basically grabbed B's shoes, picked him out the crib and threw him in the car. We went as fast as I could drive while being aware that cops have been all over Royal Lane lately. So I went 35 mph until I was past Morning Glory Lane and then I gunned it went a little faster. I had luck on my side and didn't stop at a single light.

J was the last one there in carpool line. He was sitting with his teacher, the other teacher & the teacher's son. Oh it was dreadful. As the door opened on the van, I heard the other teacher say, "See, your mom didn't forget you!"

She was being nice, but I know better. I'm definitely bad mom for the day.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Can babies have RLS?

Last night there was a storm and we lost power, multiple times. It was quite disturbing to lose the soothing hum of the ceiling fan & the comfort of a/c. The worst part was that when the power went off, the alarm beeped. I think it is a warning mechanism, say someone cuts your power in order to break into the house, it lets you know. Nice feature when someone is trying to break into your house. Not so nice when it is a storm in the middle of the night. The second time the power went out and the beeping started again, DH got up grumbling and randomly started punching the keypad to make it stop. He inadvertently set the alarm with the motion sensors on. A few minutes later, J woke up from the storm, walked down the hall and set off the alarm. The blaring alarm woke up B who started crying "LOUD, LOUD, LOUD!" (When should you be worried about a child's sensitivity to noise? I know he's not autistic or on the spectrum, but he is incredibly sensitive to loud noises. Maybe I'm just going deaf.)

I picked up B and sat down with him. Once he was calm, I tried putting him back in the crib, but that didn't work. He screamed and screamed and screamed. He started running his sippy cup back and forth across the bars of his crib like he was in a prison cell. After awhile I couldn't take it anymore and I took him back to the couch with me.

The guy is a wiggle worm. I would be almost asleep and he would move his feet. I thought he was totally out and he would twitch his legs. This continued for who knows how long. (No power so no clock, it felt like hours. Excessive movement bothers me when I'm awake. It is awful when trying to go to sleep.) The leg twitching, kicking, straightening, curling, flicking never ended.

I rolled over and laid him on my stomach instead of next to my side. I crossed my arms over his legs trying to minimize the movements. That didn't work. Instead I had a 30 lb twitching furnace on top of me. His hands joined the legs and started patting my shoulder. Then he scooted up higher (I think to get out of my arm lock trying to hold his legs still) until his head was just under my chin and his hair tickled my face.

That was the end of us sleeping on the couch. I threw him in back in the crib and let him cry. This time he wasn't quite so emphatic in his crying, more of a moan than a scream. I waited it out and we both eventually fell asleep.

Hopefully we'll get a better night's sleep tonight. I could use it.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Nothing much

Last night was J's last soccer game. A had a soccer game at the exact same time on adjoining fields. It was a night of heavy multitasking. Watch J's game, turn around & watch A's game, turn and make sure the B was still there and wasn't covered in mud. Rinse & repeat.

I haven't done much lately. I've been scrounging for dinners. Luckily the children like fish sticks & tater tots. I haven't felt like knitting lace, so I made these Magic Slippers with the leftover yarn from the hat. And I actually went to the mail store and mailed them off today. Hopefully they will fit when they arrive.

Here's a picture:
Photobucket

I read this weekend. I used to read so much but with kids and work and life, I tend to fall asleep after the first page. However, I found a copy of The Other Boleyn Girl at Sister #2's house and couldn't stop reading. I walked around obsessively all weekend with the book in my hand. Whenever I had a second to myself I opened up and read a paragraph or two. DH caught me hiding a couple of times on Sunday because I only had 100 or so pages to go and I really, really, really wanted to finish.

I enjoyed the book a lot. It brought back my obsession with English Royal families from Sophomore history class. And it reminded me that I need to read more.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Baby Steps

I'm not ready for this but B is taking steps towards potty training. He has been asking to sit on the potty again. He has only used it "by accident", but he enjoys sitting naked as a jaybird watching Noggin. And yes, you have to be totally unclothed to sit on the potty.

The "by accident" was only true until this week. On Wednesday I noticed when he got up from breakfast that his diaper was dry. I asked him if he wanted to sit on the potty. Lo and behold, he went pee-pee. We cheered and flushed and cheered some more. He insisted on sitting down again and he went again, then again, then again and then he stood up and peed on the floor. He has repeated his success (minus the floor incident) the past two mornings.

Since we're headed down this road, I'm teaching him to pull up and down his pants, one of the most essentials tasks of learning to go potty. It is funny. He grunts like a weightlifter when he tries to get his shorts up over his diaper!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Icky day at work

So far this job has been pretty good. I've had weeks where I've twiddled my thumbs and did a lot around the house. I felt guilty about not doing much but I've also enjoyed the leisurely pace of life. Part-time, at-home work is nice.

This week hasn't been so great. I'm re-coding all of the reporting sections of the software to make pdfs. Its not a difficult task, just a busy one. On top of that, everyone has to submit official reports soon. The two other ladies have been calling me about problems with the data and missing information.

Unfortunately it seems to be an existing problem with the code that I found a couple of months ago. I pointed it out back then and said I thought it was a problem. I didn't get much of a response to my questions and I put it on the back burner. Well, it's back on the front burner now. I'm not sure how the error is going to effect things. I think it could be big. I'm just waiting for people to realize what I've been trying to point out and then see how big the fire gets.

This is what I don't like about working. I stress out over stuff like this. Big Time. I just can't let it go. Yuck!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

It's the construction workers fault

Our neighbors are doing some remodeling, converting their garage, adding a new garage and now some backyard landscaping. Today a "little digger" was there moving dirt from their backyard down the alley to a dumpster sitting on the street at the side of our house.

B was fascinated by the digger. We went out to watch it for awhile but it was too loud & cold for him. Instead he parked himself at one of our bedroom windows to watch. He would start yelling "DIGGER! DIGGER!" every time it got to the end of the alley. After a few minutes, he got quiet. I thought maybe he had gotten bored. But then it got too quiet, very suspiciously quiet.

I called to him and he came running out of my room laughing. That was when I saw him, looking at me gleefully with a pacifier in his mouth. He found the missing pacifier that I couldn't hide because I couldn't find it.

It's been over a month since we took the pacifier away. Things are much better that first week but he still isn't great about going to bed.

It scared me to see him with it. What if we were going back through all the problems we had when we went cold turkey? I decided to just let him have it for awhile. After 15 minutes, I found him joyfully sucking on the pacifier on the couch. Just sitting and sucking. I felt bad about it, but I plucked it out of his mouth saying "Pacifiers are for babies and you're a big boy." He cried "Have it, have it, have it" and then "I baby, I baby, I baby" and then he moved on to playing Thomas trains.

Tonight, he went to bed as usual. A little crying, a little playing and then sleep. Actually, he was asleep before 9pm. That's probably the earliest he's fallen asleep in a month. A coincidence??

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Shocking

My cousin had a baby last month on St. Patrick's Day. So once all my stuff was done with the auction, I had a little extra time on my hands. I should have been working on my touring wrap, but I didn't have the patience. I wanted a quick easy project to do. I decided on a hat for the new baby Quinn.

I bought some sock yarn at the LYS closing. I thought maybe I would try knitting socks. The lady told me to get three skeins just in case. Now I'm thinking that it was a crazy moment of me trying to buy yarn at a good price and I'll probably never make socks. So what to do with the yarn??? The answer is the sweet baby cap. I've always thought it was cute, but I've never had sock yarn to make it before.

So here's the reason for the title. I finished the hat up on Thursday night (except for the ties.) I proudly showed it off to DH and as usual he nodded, said "Uh-huh, nice" and went back to his basketball/baseball/hockey watching.

Then Friday morning, he walked by my desk and picked up the hat. He said, "You know, this is a really great hat. I like the shape of it & the colors are nice. I think this may be my favorite thing you've knitted."

My mouth dropped open and my jaw hit the floor. I was amazed. So, I have 2 skeins of sock yarn left, should I knit him an adult size sweet baby cap?? Wouldn't that be a sight!

And here is the shocking hat,

Photobucket

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Opening day blues

DH got 2 tickets for Opening Day yesterday. He took J with him. A was livid because she used to go, but now that she's in 2nd grade, it isn't so easy to pull her out of school. It was J's turn this year.

I took him to school and stayed to help with mass and phonics. When we left, J did a good job of not announcing to the entire class that he was going to the game. The teacher was worried about upsetting one other boy who had been crying for 2 days because his dad had to go out of town and he didn't get to go to opening day.

We came home to find B raring and ready to go to the game. I suspect that DH might have mentioned baseball game in front of B. (He denies it.) B had put on shoes (his own selection) and a baseball cap and he was all set to go. Unfortunately, B wasn't going to the game. He was staying home with me. Boy, was he mad when they left him behind.

I, the great mother that I am, pulled out the camera to document his torment.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Supermodels

I went outside the other day to get pictures of my dogwoods. They weren't that great this year because we had a couple of 80 degree days followed by freezes. Luckily they still bloomed nicely.

This was the best one of the bunch.
Photobucket

J was outside and immediately started posing for the camera. I think he's headed for a career as a JCPenney's catalog model.
Photobucket

And if J is doing something, B isn't far behind. Here's his supermodel pose.
Photobucket

Sunday, April 6, 2008

hanging out

I am on my way to a massive progressive hangover this afternoon.

The auction went well. I met DH down there around 6:30, socialized a little bit, ate a quick plate of food and started my wifely duty selling Pot O Gold tickets. (DH is the chair of Pot O Gold, a cash raffle where the winner splits the pot with the school.) We sold until 10:30 or so and then I got to drink.

Last year I drank way too much. I wasn't going to do that this year. But somehow, my plans went awry. I was doing okay until 1am when they were shutting down the bars. A guy came over to with 4 drinks and offered them to us. I took a vodka tonic. What I didn't know was that he had cashed in all his drink tickets so that vodka tonic was a triple shot vodka tonic. Ooh, that was bad. I should never take drinks from strangers friends!!

After the bar closed, we went up the after party suite. I switched to water. The food had been delivered to the wrong suite so about 10 of us went up there to eat. It was while we were eating that I found out about the triple shot. No wonder it hit me so hard. I think K felt bad. After eating, K started doing vodka shots with some other guys. I walked up for another bottle of water. He handed me a shot glass & turned around to see DH and his wife watching us. The guy pouring shots started to fill mine. K stopped him and told me to fill it with water. So I took a couple of "shots" with him. It was funny to watch DH & K's wife. I think she was about to kill him, so I went over and confess that it was water. DH was very relieved.

I finally made it to bed around 3:30. But sleeping after drinking is never very restful. I'm not feeling great and I'm tired. Kids are still at the ILs. I'm sort of hoping that they will bring them home close to bedtime. I'm not in a very mothering state right now. I guess I'll just have to suck it up and go to McD's for dinner tonight. At least the french fries might make me feel a little better.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Crafts galore!

I'm finally posting pictures from our family crafting.

First the kids' mini quilts.

Aside from help with the first few strips, trimming & binding it, A did this all by herself. I'm very proud of her.

Photobucket

Next is J's. He wanted an Easter quilt since it was almost Easter when we decided to make it. He drew a picture and then I re-interpreted it to make the appliques. He helped with the piecing of the background but the applique & quilting part was too hard for me to do with him sitting on my lap. He watched and criticized that part. He wasn't happy with my double stitching around the appliques. I had planned to continue circling around the appliques until the quilt was full, but he made me stop.

Photobucket

I still have to learn to bind a quilt and finish this one. Someday I'll get around to it.

And here are the auction pieces. They are 12 x 12 shadow boxes with glass mosaic with the kids pictures in the star. I used too much glue and pictures are blurry. Oh well.

The first one:
Photobucket

And the second one:
Photobucket

I took these in the evening and had to use the flash but you get the gist. They did turn out okay.
I dropped them off yesterday. The woman gathering all the projects said that she was at a party on Wednesday and some people were talking about them and mentioned mine as one of the best. I think they are confused with the 3 & 4 pk classes' project which was very cool. I'll try and snap a cell phone picture of it tonight at the auction.

Okay, that's all for pics. Now I'm off to be a slave driver and force my children to clean their rooms.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Comments

I was all excited to see that I had 2 comments on my last post. I clicked quickly to see what they were and all I found was spam. Now I need to go fiddle with things so I don't get anymore.

I finished the auction projects today. Just under the deadline, but done. I need to take pictures and post later. I'm not happy with them because the glue I used caused the pictures to blur. I suppose to that hanging on the wall you wouldn't notice so much. But I've got the Virgo/perfectionism thing going and I'm not too happy. I have to learn to let go.

DH told me that I am done with auction projects for awhile. I find myself thinking about what I can do next year that will be even better. Luckily I don't think he actually reads this so he'll never know.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Doobie

B has finally started to talk more. He's not saying everything clearly but he's starting to string words together. I was starting to go into worry mode over his lacking speech. Easter Monday morning he said to me without any prompting, "Mommy, eggs, smash, head, FUNNY!" and proceeded to fall on the floor laughing. That was his interpretation of the cascarones from the party at #4 sister's house on Easter.

Ever since then, he's been trying new words all the time.

Yesterday he started yelling "Doobie!" at me. He REALLY wanted doobie. All I heard was "Doobie, mommy, doobie." I just kept telling him no and changing the subject. I couldn't figure out what he wanted but it bothered me that my 2 year old seemed to be asking for drugs.

Today when we got in the car, he started pointing at the ceiling and yelling "DOOBIE" again. It finally dawned on me that he was asking for a movie. Doobie, movie. Same thing. I'm thinking of renting Dazed & Confused.