Category: Living the Life

It’s a good thing November isn’t here yet, because I would have failed miserably at posting every day.  Let’s just say last week was one I don’t want to repeat for a very long time.  Zach was up every night screaming and crying.  I came down with a miserable cold/sinus infection.  On top of that, it just seemed like we had an awful lot to do last week too.

By Saturday night, I was completely worn out.  I said a little prayer thanking God that I did not have twins because there is no way I could keep up with two two-year-olds on a regular basis.  The boys love playing together, but the 6 months age difference really shows through sometimes.  It was really interesting to watch some of the differences between them.  There is always a constant fight for toys, but this time when Zach would cry for a toy, Ryan would actually stop and try to give Zach what he was asking for.  He may have been just trying to make the noise stop, but it seemed to me that Ryan was actually showing a little bit of empathy.

Sunday was another busy day.  We got up and went to church, then ate lunch in the car during our drive home and dropped Hubby off.  After that, Zach and I headed out again to attend a birthday party at The Little Gym.  Zach had a great time at the party, but I realized we definitely need to work with him on the concept of taking turns.  He really didn’t understand what to do when asked to stand in line and wait for his turn.  He had fun running and jumping and was absolutely thrilled when I helped him hang upside down on the uneven bars.

I was hoping the party would wear Zach out, but instead of taking a nap when he got home he was completely wound up and wanted to play.  As a result, I didn’t get my Sunday afternoon nap either.  I’m pretty worn out, but looking forward to a relaxing evening.  I’m hoping I can recover my already burned dinner.  Then I plan on watching the Sox wrap up the World Series and hopefully getting a good night’s sleep.

It happens every day, right around 2:00 p.m.  It creeps up on me even though I should now know to expect it.  Like a fog rolling in during the early morning hours, it sneaks in and takes over.  It covers my brain like a warm blanket and removes any ability to focus on the tasks before me.  This overwhelming desire to close my eyes, just for a very few moments, hangs there unrelenting.  Just a few moments of precious sleep would make it all go away, but I must carry on and not give in.  I must keep working.  5:30 is not so far away.  Then I will be snuggled up on the inviting sofa, next to my favorite boy in the world.  Only then can I let my eyes close, and catch a few moments of precious sleep before the chaos of the evening begins.

**an old picture, but it just seemed fitting

So, I am actually still alive.  You wouldn’t know it from my presence online the last few days, but I’m still kickin’.  Life sometimes has a way of taking over and unfortunately, that has been happening a lot lately.  I’m going to do another quick update and then hopefully get back to some regular writing.

Saturday we decided to take Zach’s pacifier away.  I’m so tired of seeing in his mouth and listening to him try to talk around it that I decided it was time.  We didn’t let him have it all day until he had a major meltdown while I tried to take a shower around 5:00 pm.  Daddy finally caved and let him have it, but we cut the tip off of it.  Zach wasn’t sure what to think of that, but it did settle him down.

Shortly after Zach settled down, Grandma arrived to hang out with him for the evening.  Hubby and I actually went out by ourselves for dinner and a movie.  It was nice to get away and have some time to ourselves, but Grandma called just before we headed into the movie to say that Zach was running a fever.  From that point on, I felt a little guilty because I thought he was just being really cranky all day, when really he was sick.

Zach’s fever continued through the rest of the weekend, spiking up to 103 on Sunday, which meant no day care on Monday.  I called my boss to let him know, and set up a doctor’s appointment Monday morning.  The doctor couldn’t really find anything wrong with him, other than one ear that was a little red and swollen inside and the cough that he’s had for nearly a week.  She started him on some antibiotics to keep the ear from getting worse.   The fever stayed up through bed time on Monday, which meant no day care again on Tuesday.

Fortunately, Zach’s fever was gone Tuesday morning, so I packed him up and took him to work with me.  I kept him there as long as I could, but when he started getting really restless we headed home.  My office was trashed, but I had gotten the most necessary things done, so I just closed the door and left.

Wednesday Zach finally went back to day care, although he wasn’t very happy about it.  I barely got him dropped off in time to get to my own doctor’s appointment.  I had an early appointment, which usually means I don’t have to wait long, but this time I had to wait.  At least I remembered to bring a book with me so the wait wasn’t really that bad.  It was a quick check-up this time (feel for the uterus, check the heartbeat).  My Doc had a hard time finding the heartbeat though.  Apparently this one likes to squirm around.  The baby kept moving around and wouldn’t hold still long enough to get a good heartbeat reading.  Just as she was about ready to send me in for a quick ultrasound, squirmy finally decided to hold still and she got a count of 156.

When I finally got to work, I had a mess and a ton of work waiting for me.  I did what I could, but I still have a lot of catching up to do.  The last few days have really worn me out.

On the way home, I called Hubby and told him we were going out to eat.  I knew there was already a sink full of dirty dishes and that we were in desperate need of a grocery store run so I decided to just make things easy.  I picked Zach up from day care, picked hubby up at the house and we headed out.  As we were pulling into a parking spot at the restaurant, we looked up to see our friends’ car right in front of us.  They were on their way to go eat, had spotted us and followed us to the restaurant.  They joined us for dinner, which was nice as we hadn’t seen them for a few weeks.  After catching up and eating way too much food, we headed home.

Zach had his bath, watched Blue’s Clues, and is tucked away in bed.  My house is a mess.  There are toys and books everywhere, but I just don’t care right now.  I’m ready to watch some TV and relax for a while before I have to start all over again tomorrow.

• Zach woke up this morning asking where the turtle was.  He met me outside while I was out with the dogs and asked in his sleepy-just-waking-up voice, “Where turtle go?”  I think he was a little sad when I reminded him that he and daddy took the turtle down by the water and the turtle went home
• I still haven’t worked out the plan for Zach’s reward system yet.  There are so many different things that he needs a little motivation for right now and I can’t decide which one thing should take priority.  However, I’m seriously considering teaching him Zoot’s “obey first time” concept.  That could save me so much time and frustration if it actually works.
• This whole Flickr/Orkut deal has got me thinking and re-thinking how I share and use photos on the internet.  If you haven’t heard about what is going on, I recommend you start reading here.  I love that Flickr makes it so easy for me to share pictures with family and friends, but when children’s photos are being stolen and exploited on other sites it is just plain disturbing.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it yet – if anything – but I’m certainly thinking.
• I’m giving Craigslist a shot one more time in an effort to sell the foosball table collecting dust in our basement, one of my guitars, and some brand new bunk bed mattresses that we never managed to return to the store.  I haven’t had much luck there in the past, but I’m starting to panic just a bit about the whole money thing (partially because I spent way too much on hubby’s birthday gift) and if I could sell those things it would pay off at least one more credit card.  I really need a little breathing room in the budget and to start socking away some money to pay my insurance deductible next year when I birth this baby.  I’m trying really hard not to even think about the cost of infant day care yet.  Anyone need a foosball table?
• I have discovered once again that pregnancy seems to sap every ounce of creativity out of my body.  I remember it happening when I was pregnant with Zach and here it is again.  I’ve been trying to come up with a new header for this site for weeks now and can’t come up with a single idea,  I promised a friend I would help her with some business cards that I haven’t even started on.  Plus, I have babies to knit for and I can’t seem to even pick up the needles these days.  At this rate, I’m pretty sure even my own baby won’t have any little knitted goodies when it is born.  I seriously need my creative juices back.  If you see them, could you send them my way?

Edited to add:  I seem to be having some problems with the comment system on my blog.  I have changed a few settings and would love it if you guys could try leaving a comment to see if it is working.  If your comment doesn’t appear (it should come up right away) please e-mail me so I can try to troubleshoot some more.

Turtle-6, originally uploaded by deew27.

When Zach and I got home today, Daddy had a big surprise waiting. He had picked up a turtle on the side of the road and brought it home for Zach to check out.

At first, Zach wasn’t too sure about the turtle, especially after Daddy told him to be careful so it didn’t bite him. It took him a little while to warm up but after a few minutes he was even willing to touch it and eventually helped Daddy hold the turtle.

After having some fun watching the turtle walk around, Zach and Daddy took it down to the little creek the runs by our house and let it go. I’m sure Zach would have loved to keep it, but I’m sure the little turtle is much happier out in the wild.