Resolutions revisited

I think it's high time I revisited my new year's resolutions to see how I'm doing. Let's find out!

1) Quit playing Tiny Tower. Done! I quit playing Smurfs' Village, too. Thank goodness.

2) Improve evening time with Anthony. Hmm. I can't say I've done this. We are both still really tired in the evening, and lately he's been bringing work home with him. Poor guy. I know I'm not supposed to say this, but I loathe his job. I wish he had a job he liked more, and that didn't expect him to put in all sorts of crazy extra hours for no extra pay.

3) Date night once a month. Oh boy. I'm sure you can guess from #2 above that this isn't happening. As it turns out, my mom has been no help whatsoever, so that's our excuse. (By the way, given recent events, we decided that Anthony's mom isn't the least bit crazy compared to my mom. So now it's "Grandma" and "Crazy Grandma." It makes things simpler.)

4) Get a massage once a week until my credits are used up. Well, I went once. Two things are complicating this: one, Crazy Grandma has not been watching Katie as promised; two, I now have to get special "prenatal" massages, which means there are a lot fewer appointments available. I had to book the one massage I got two weeks out, because there were no massage therapists available. However, I did freeze my membership for 6 months, so at least I won't be accruing more massages. Then, I can unfreeze for 1 month and then repeat. Thank goodness.

5) Eat more vegetables. I did okay with this for a month or two, but now I've fallen back off the wagon. But, I did find a nice recipe for spinach, so that's a plus. Once the farmer's market opens again, it will be a bit easier too.

6) Cultivate new friendships. I did this! I went on a playdate, and just yesterday got asked on a reciprocal playdate! Woohoo! This is definitely an ongoing effort, though.

7) Find 3 new recipes for the rotation. So far, Thai Chicken has made the list. So has Red Beans & Rice. So I guess I'm still one short. Unfortunately, I've also tossed a couple of recipes out of the rotation because I'm so sick of them. So, I still need more. But good for me for finding two so far!

8) Wean Katie from the bottle. Well, we're now 100% bottle-free in the car, and the transition wasn't that bad. I love the fact that we can now make more than one stop when we run errands, without worrying whether we have enough bottles! So yay there. I've also put away the big 8-oz bottles and only kept the 4-oz. She still gets three a day, upon waking up from sleep and nap, and on going to bed. I've told her that soon we won't be using bottles anymore, because she can drink from a real cup and doesn't need them. I'm hoping I can make it happen within the next 2 weeks. I think it's a "just do it" kind of task, and I just need to muster my strength and stamina for it.

9) Finish potty training before the baby comes. I've rethought this. I think it's best not to hold Katie to a deadline. She does so many potty-related things independently already. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before the rest falls into place. I will still continue to do small things to encourage independence. I'll continue to offer big girl undies, even though she flat-out refuses them now. Someday the lure of butterflies and flowers and Hello Kitty has to win out over diapers.

So, all in all, not too bad! Gotta keep working on some of them, especially the date night one. Good things are on the horizon there, so stay tuned!

Katie-isms

Well, I've finally got a Katie-ism that tops "Dada clean it poo-poo rug!" Oh, I haven't told you about that? Well, that's probably because it's kind of hard to explain without really grossing everyone out. It was several months ago, shortly after we'd bought the Little Green Steam Cleaner. Suffice it to say there was a small "accident" on the rug, and that Dada had the unenviable task of taking care of it. The worst part, I believe, was having to hear about it several times a day for the next few months. Sometimes it would be the first thing out of Katie's mouth in the morning. Or the last thing she'd say at night. We'd hear through the baby monitor: "Good night, sidewalk! Good night, gardeners! Good night, garbage men! Dada clean it poo-poo rug!" It got to the point where Anthony would tell her, laughing, "You know, Dada can do other things besides cleaning the poo-poo rug!"

I've actually been meaning to blog about Katie's little phrases and sayings for some time now. It's because I'm lazy and have STILL not started Katie's baby book. In all honesty, I haven't even purchased said baby book. I'm basically going to print this blog one day, stuff it in a folder, and call it a day. So that's why I occasionally bore you all silly with cute stuff Katie's doing.

Lately I've noticed that Katie has stopped saying some of her cute baby versions of words. She no longer says "acrobat" when she means "apricot." She's figured out the difference between "checkup" and "ketchup." (We had a good run with that one, after she got a doctor's kit for Christmas.) She's figured out how to say "Oski Bear" properly. (We had a lot of fun with "Oxy Bear Ketchup," as Oski is one of her favorite patients.) She no longer calls an "escalator" a "calculator." (That was one of my favorites.)

Anyway - Katie calls 'em like she sees 'em. And now that she's starting to string more and more words together, things are getting pretty interesting. Today, as I was putting her in a shopping cart seat, she announced to the world that "Mama pee-pee in-a da cup! Give it da nurse!" OMG. Yes, Katie has come with me for nearly all of my prenatal checkups. They really only do five things: check weight, blood pressure (which, in my opinion, they should check BEFORE I see the number on the scale), a urine test, measure my belly, and listen to the baby's heartbeat. Katie watches everything with those big brown eyes that miss nothing. And then she talks about all of it, to anyone who will listen. And how can I argue with her? What she says is dead accurate - I *did* pee in a cup and give it to the nurse! LOL!!!!

Oh, one last Katie-ism. This one is from last summer. Around the time of the London Olympics, Katie started to get really interested in flags. A neighbor of ours hung up a huge Union Flag in honor of the Olympics, and Katie was obsessed with running over there and looking at it. Flags were suddenly everywhere. She's still absolutely enamored of them. One of her favorite topics of dinner conversation is to name all the flags she likes: "Big flag! Little flag! Bear flag! American flag! 49ers flag! Ca-for-nia flag!" (I haven't the heart to tell her that the California flag and the Bear flag are one and the same.)

But anyway, last summer, her pronunciation of the word "flag" was a bit less clear than it is now. One day we were in the checkout line at Trader Joe's. (I know, when are we NOT at Trader Joe's?) They had a huge American flag hanging at the end of the frozen food aisle. Katie had pointed it out whenever we walked past it. As we moved closer to the register, she suddenly got a good view of it again, pointed, and shouted "FAG!!!" as loudly as she could. The woman standing directly between Katie and her beloved flag looked utterly shocked. I blushed to the roots of my hair and said loudly, "Oh, yes, sweetie, a big American FLAG!!!!" And then I bought our items and ducked out of there as fast as I could.

Oh, Katie, what other fun things do you have in store for us? I truly, truly can't wait. You are so much fun!!!

Injury update

Just thought I'd put everyone's mind at ease - Katie's nose is not broken. In fact, it looks so much better today that I'm a little ashamed about my hysterics yesterday. Although, in fairness, it really did look awful. She is just a really fast healer. Thank goodness for that! Last night while we were giving her a bath, Dada did the "wiggle test" to see if her nose made any crunching or crackling sounds. It didn't. And, although she didn't like having that done, she didn't scream bloody murder, so I think that's a good sign too.

I was also super freaked out that the discharge coming out of her nose was CSF (cerebrospinal fluid). That's what I get for googling "how to tell if your nose is broken." Hypochondria and Google do not mix. Today it's really, really obvious that the fluid is just mucus - poor Katie came down with a cold on the same day as her epic journey down the stairs. Whee. Don't worry, though, the hypochondriac in me is still going to watch to make sure the nasal discharge resolves in the usual amount of time for colds.

So, she has a bruise on her shin, a bruise on her nose, and a pretty nasty cut under her bottom lip that's evidently pretty sore. Every time I try to wipe it, she throws a fit. And she has a doozy of a cold, complete with lots of sneezing and a ton of mucus. So she's understandably a little out of sorts. But other than that, she's scampering around like nothing happened. 

Kids are amazing!

Breathe...just breathe

I am a nervous wreck. I don't think that's too much of an exaggeration. I feel shaky and like I want to cry, but I can't. Maybe I'm in a little bit of shock. (I know, you're thinking, "what NOW?")

For weeks now, the baby gate at the top of the stairs has been making this really annoying and loud "CLINK!" sound whenever I open it. It's right outside Katie's door, too, which makes it even more annoying. I'm pretty sure I woke her up two nights ago when I crept downstairs to use the bathroom. I've tried oiling the hinge, but I think the self-closing mechanism may be wearing out.

We hardly ever close the gate completely anymore. Katie is more than capable of managing the stairs by herself, and she gets really angry if the gate shuts accidentally and she can't get through. She grabs it and rattles it like a crazed gorilla at a zoo. And she roars just as loudly, too. So the gate is mostly there to act as a speed bump - even though it's ajar most of the time, it still takes Katie some careful maneuvering to get through it.

But after I woke her up two nights ago, I decided it was time to remove the gate. Anthony was dubious, but I've seen Katie pause and grab the handrail at numerous staircases when we're out in the world. I really thought she'd be fine. After all, I'm always underestimating what she can handle. I promised Anthony I'd keep an eye on her to see how she was doing.

And I did. Yesterday I took the gate down, and I was on her like glue whenever she went near the stairs. She did absolutely fine. I concluded that she was indeed ready to go gateless. I reveled in the new-found freedom of no baby gates! That thing had been such a nuisance. Of course, I knew we'd have to put it back up once baby #2 starts to crawl, but still! Even 6 months of gate-free living sounded great to me.

This morning, though, it all went sour. While I was downstairs fixing Anthony's lunch and he was upstairs finishing drying off from his shower, Katie decided it would be a lot of fun to ride her princess push car down the stairs. There was an almighty crash, followed by a genuine howl of pain, and Anthony and I were both there in a flash. Thank God the stairs are L-shaped, with 5 at the top and the remaining 10 after the landing. Katie only "drove" down the first five steps. The landing is where we found her, screaming like a banshee and starting to bleed from her nose. Her lip swelled up too, in that now-famous place she always seems to bite it.

It was every bit as bad as the park-bench incident, except now I'm worried that her nose is broken. It didn't bleed that much, just a few drops, but it is starting to bruise across the bridge. It doesn't look crooked or anything, but it's a bit swollen so it's hard to tell. I don't want my little angel to have a permanently crooked nose, or problems breathing, just because I was stupid enough to let this happen. Katie would not let us put any ice on it whatsoever. She wouldn't even let us wipe the blood away until much later, and even then, I've had to sneak a swipe here and there so she won't start screaming again.

I blame myself. I feel so stupid for taking that gate down. I'd rather face a hundred thousand years of gates creaking than put Katie through what happened today. Her face, her sweet little angelic face, looks like she's been in a fistfight! She looks like Rocky Balboa! I'm so sad and ashamed at the same time. And I hate that stupid princess car with a passion. Needless to say, the gate is back up and it's probably going to stay that way until both girls graduate high school. Sigh.

Thanks for reading, I feel a tiny bit calmer for having written this.

Fresh hell

Folks, the unthinkable has happened. After months of whining, complaining, and hypochondriacal trips to the ER, my mom finally packed up and sold her house to move closer to us. Due to incredibly poor planning and an extreme tendency to procrastinate, she failed to find a place to live before having to move out of her house. So she's been rattling around the Bay Area with her stuff in a storage "pod," staying with friends or in hotels, for the past six weeks.

On Saturday she texted me, asking if Anthony could help her move some heavy suitcases up a flight of stairs to her new apartment. (The existence of said apartment was news to me.) We had plans in the afternoon, but I told her he'd stop by. She texted me the address, and ZOMG - it is within a mile of our house! It's on one of only two roads out of our neighborhood. It's on the way to the grocery store, Home Depot, Trader Joe's, Anthony's job, the aviation museum, the doctor's office...we will be passing Grammy's apartment nearly every single day. <wheezing>

When Anthony got home from helping her move, I asked him how it went. He grinned at me and said, "What's your guess?"
I said, "Well, I imagine she wasn't there yet when you arrived."
He said, "Check."
I said, "She probably showed up 10 minutes later, breathless, with some scattered and long-winded story about what took her so long."
"Yup."
I said, "And she probably had 10,000 plastic grocery bags full of stuff in her car like a lunatic."
He said, "Yes, she did. But that's not what's so bizarre. Go on, try to guess."

I couldn't guess. And the reason I couldn't guess is that NOBODY in their right mind could have guessed what happened next. Anthony helped her lug a big suitcase and a bunch of plastic bags up the stairs to the second floor, and then discovered that she didn't have the key to the apartment. ("What?!" I spluttered.) But it gets better - the reason she didn't have the key is that she was supposed to have met with the apartment manager earlier to sign the lease, but my mom (oops!) didn't show up for the appointment. So not only did she not have the key, she HADN'T EVEN LEASED THE PLACE. And it was a Saturday, so who's to say whether the apartment manager would be back?

Thank goodness for our afternoon plans - Anthony was able to get out of there before things got any more cuckoo. The next day, I texted her to see if Katie could come by and see her new place. I half-expected her to tell me that she'd slept on the stairs or the doorstep, and that she still hadn't signed the lease. But somehow she'd managed to pull it together. She signed the lease and got the keys, and even got a mattress store to deliver a bed. I was amazed.

So we shall see what bizarre stories lie ahead for us. A mile away. The only thing more hellish than that would be if she moved next door. <shudders>

Last night

This morning started in more or less the usual way. I rolled over at 6:09 and took out my earplugs, ready for the sound of Katie talking to herself in the next room. Happily, she waited until 6:45 to do that, and in the meantime I had an incredibly weird dream involving my mom, Christmas decorations, Katie being up way past her bedtime and a husband who was, inexplicably, drunk. (Which I really haven't seen since we were both in college, although I did hear his bachelor party was a doozy.)

Soon enough, though, I was awakened to the soothing sound of Katie talking about birds. I put on my sweats and sweatshirt and was pulling on my socks when I suddenly realized, "Hey, these are wet! Why are my socks wet? And, come to think of it, why are these sweats and my sweatshirt damp too?" And then it all came rushing back.

Despite the fact that I sleep with earplugs, I wake up all night long hearing things. Sometimes they're a figment of my imagination, in which case I yank out my earplugs, listening hard, then put them back in, grumbling at myself for being so stupid. Last night, however, the sound I was hearing was very real. BANG! CRASH!! This went on sporadically, sometimes every minute or so, sometimes with 10 minutes between crashes. I knew instantly what it was, but I didn't want to get up and deal with it. I kept hoping that I was wrong and that the noise would stop without me getting out of my cozy bed.

Even though I knew it was supposed to rain last night, I had no idea how violently the wind would blow. (Weather.com informs me that we had gusts up to 30mph last night.) Our garden gate has been broken for weeks, which, as you may recall, is how Katie escaped one day. I had no idea how to fix it, so I shoved an empty toilet paper roll into the latch mechanism. That worked just fine to keep the gate closed, at least until my mom came to visit last week. She (quite kindly) decided to drag our trash cans in from the curb, but she couldn't figure out why the gate wouldn't open. So she basically forced her way in, destroying the TP roll. Sigh.

Which brings us back to last night's gusty winds. That darned gate, soaked with rain and very heavy, kept banging shut and then opening, over and over again. Each time I heard it, I hoped it would just stop, but by 2:30 am I'd had enough. Plus, I was pretty sure we were going to get angry letters from the neighbors. So I put on my sweats and headed outside. Rain was coming from every direction. I trudged out to the offending gate and shoved a washcloth through the latch, tying it in a knot. On my way back, I watched one of our matchstick shades blow halfway off the patio overhang. Great. So I got a chair and climbed up to take the whole thing down before it got blown to pieces. Somehow in that process I stepped right under a downspout, soaking my socks.

And that's when I mentally started writing this post. This is too good, I thought: 6 months pregnant, up on a chair in the backyard, getting soaked to the skin at 2:30 in the morning. And wouldn't you know it? By 3:15 the wind had stopped. I should know - I was still lying awake in bed after my daring adventure.

But oh well, all in a night's work. This morning the sun is out and the whole world looks sparkling clean. Time for a nice cup of tea!

Hope you all had a restful night's sleep! :)

Sundry updates

I've noticed that when things are going smoothly in my life, I find myself with nothing to blog about. Then, when things go awry, I find that I have TONS to blog about but it's all petulant, whiny bellyaching (i.e., not good to read about). Today I'm kind of in the middle, so I thought I'd just throw out some various thoughts. Sorry, readers - I, too, like it better when I have an interesting topic to write about.

Anyway - I haven't slept well for the past three nights. Actually, I guess to be precise I'd have to say 27+ months. But it's been particularly bad the past three nights. My doula advised me to get this monstrous pregnancy body pillow - seriously, check it out, it's absurdly huge. I'm not much into body pillows, and I  didn't use one during my last pregnancy, but the doula raved about this one and said it's just heavenly. So I ordered one, and it arrived three nights ago. I'm not digging it. Sure, its clever design eliminates the need to reposition the pillow when you turn over, but having it there makes it a lot harder for me to turn without waking up. So what's the point? I have decided to give the pillow a week to see if I can adjust to it, but last night I took a night off and went back to a standard pillow. Ironically, I woke up at 2 am and couldn't go back to sleep for almost 2 hours. Yaaaaaaaawn! Oh, and yesterday Katie refused to nap, and instead of making up the lost sleep by sleeping a little later this morning, she decided 6:15 would be a perfectly good time to wake up. Double yawn.

But anyway - it's Friday, and today Katie has decided to nap, so things are definitely looking up. We went to the ob/gyn today for my prenatal checkup, and the baby sounds great. My vitals are all on track too, yay! Plus, I *finally* got the TB test that Katie's school has been wanting. Hopefully it will carry over to the next school year, because I registered Katie for the fall 2013 class today! I'm pretty excited. The class is Wednesday and Friday, and one of those will be a drop-off day. WOW - Katie's first drop-off situation!!! I think it'll be great, though, because she already knows the school and feels comfortable there. We'll have 5 weeks at the beginning to stay with our kids both days, and then drop-off starts on the sixth week. It's going to be a challenge to be at Katie's school with a new baby in a sling, but I think it'll work out fine. I've seen a couple other moms doing it.

Let's see...in culinary news, I tried making chicken piccata, Thai chicken stir-fry, and I converted my shrimp étouffée recipe so that I can cook it during naptime and transfer it to the crock-pot. The chicken piccata came out faintly horrible, but I think this was due more to the recipe than my failure as a cook. The Thai chicken came out good, good enough to add to the "keeper" list. And I am thrilled about the étouffée. It's a pretty simple recipe, but it requires you to make a roux, which takes 15-20 minutes of almost-continuous whisking. That's fine, but not when Katie is around. I get 3 minutes, tops, before she starts to shriek that she wants to see (and usually touch) what I'm doing. Luckily, the crock pot saved the day. I put the roux, the softened vegetables, the seasonings and the other ingredients in the pot and let it cook for the rest of the day. Then I added the shrimp right before serving. Oh, and I left out most of the cayenne pepper so Katie could eat it. Win-win! :)

What else? Hmm. After sneezing most of the week with no other symptoms and blaming it on allergies, last night I got pretty congested. If it is a cold, it's certainly not the worst I've ever had, but I hate not being able to breathe through my nose when I sleep. I wake up with desert mouth and it makes it hard to get back to sleep. When have a cold and I'm not pregnant, I take a nighttime cold remedy to keep congestion at bay, but those are off-limits now. I think I'm allowed Sudafed, but that would keep me up all night, so that's out. So, I decided to try a Neti Pot. I felt like such a fool sticking this weird little plastic Aladdin's lamp up my nose - this is something only hippies could love. But, despite my grumbling and complaining that it wasn't working, by the time I lay down in bed I could breathe! Finally, Whole Foods sells a remedy that isn't utterly bogus! WOOHOO!

That's it for now. Let's hope the weekend brings some funny stuff to blog about! TGIF!