Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Oh Wallet, Where Art Thou?

I can't believe I'm going to fess up to a completely idiotic thing I did yesterday, but I'm hoping I'll feel less of a moron if I purge my system and confess to all of you on blogland.

Okay. Here goes.

Yesterday was a little hectic - running errands all morning, tutoring for 2+ hours in the afternoon, and trying to get in naps and food. I realized that I needed a few ingredients for supper and the meals planned for the rest of the week, so I made my list, shod my child, and we headed off to Ralph's grocery store.

Now, mind you, the store is under a renovation, so the aisles are jammed together, barely allowing 2 carts to pass, the floors are ripped up, and the food is overall in the wrong spots. At least not the spot I'm used them being in. So finding the necessary food items took me longer than usual.

When it was time to check out I found the least crowded lane and put my groceries on the belt. The nice man started to ring them up. About 3/4 of the way through I started rummaging through my purse to get my credit card. You guessed it. It wasn't there. I immediately turned bright red in the cheeks and told the nice man to stop ringing me up. He said it was no big deal and that he'd just suspend my order and let me run home really quick to get my money.

Which I did, of course. We don't live that far away from the store, but with a toddler in tow things like "running home really quick" just aren't "quick". My plan (as always is my plan) was to have dinner almost ready to go by the time hubby got home from work. Let's just say it was WAY late last night. At least it was super delicious. Made up for the fact that we didn't finish eating until 7pm.

Okay. I DO feel better now. Makes the whole "exiting-the-store-with-a-cart-load-of-groceries-and-loading-them-into-my-car-without-paying-for-them" episode seem like no big deal. Have I told you about THAT time to the store? Another brilliant moment in my life.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Eye Issues

I spent this past Saturday at a pediatric eye doctor with W. His right eye seemed to wander a little, and I wanted to get it checked out.

After much kicking and screaming, the doctor was able to determine that his right eye is indeed wandering to the side - exotropia, a form of strabismus. He's also suffering from a little astigmatism and far sightedness, but only in his right eye; the left eye is perfect. The doctor has ordered his left eye to be patched for the next 4 weeks so as to strengthen the weak, right eye. The goal here is to regain the lost vision and to get his brain to start receiving visual input from the right eye.

He was a complete basket case at the doctor's office, so I'm crossing my fingers he'll do okay with an eye patch. No pharmacy around here sells the things, so I've had to order some online. If this doesn't work eye drops that mar the vision in the strong eye is the next step. If nothing works the last resort is surgery to correct the problem. Since the problem was caught early on the doctor was very optimistic that surgery wouldn't be needed, neither glasses.

I'll keep you all posted on how things are going!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Summer Preparation

In preparation for summer (and since the weather here is SO nice) I thought I'd take W swimming at a local indoor pool. I called the venue yesterday to get their hours and prices and was informed that my son needed a swim diaper.

Of course he does. He always wears a swim diaper when he's in the pool. I told that to the lady at the pool, but she was persistent that he needed a Health Department approved swim diaper - one that's cloth on the inside and plastic on the outside, and not one of those Pamper's swim diapers that are disposable.

I was a little bothered to find out that all last summer I had my son swimming in a non-health department approved diaper. For the record he didn't have any poopy accidents at the pool, but who knows if there was any pee leakage. (Pee is sterile anyway, right?) I simply didn't even know there were other and better options out there for swim diapers.

So my question is this - does anyone know of a good (reusable, I'm told) swim diaper that is Health Department approved? Where do I buy one?

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

In The Middle Of Nowhere



At least it seemed that way! We actually are in the middle of a poppy flower field. The poppies aren't due to be in full bloom for another couple of weeks or so, but since we were out this way getting official birth certificates for both J and W we decided to check out the reserves.


It was an extremely windy afternoon, so most of the blossoms were closed, but they were still beautiful. We let W out of his car seat to run off some steam and he had a blast, cold windy air and all. Let's just say he wasn't happy to be put back into the truck!

Man, I love a good Saturday afternoon with my favorite men in my life!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

More Kisses, Please!

My son (yes, I'm taking FULL credit for this awesomely cute gesture!) learned the sweetest thing the other day - giving kisses! I've been pointing to my cheek for some time now, telling him to give me kisses and he simply didn't get it. Just the other day he opened his mouth (wide!) and planted a huge wet one on me! It was SO cute. He even turned my face a little, planting the kiss sort of on my chin/cheek. After his kisses he always follows up with a hug. His kisses are rare, but if I ask nicely he'll accommodate me, especially after or before nap time/bedtime. Since they're quite messy they're really kisses only a mommy would love. :-)

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

What A Great Day!

I think we may have FINALLY solved our bathroom leak problem!

We noticed the other day that the leak coming from the master bath was getting bigger, so as of last Friday we stopped using our shower and started using William's shower. I thought it was going to be a big pain, but it turns out that William actually likes to play in his crib in the morning instead of immediately getting up, allowing me time to take a quick shower.

I called our insurance company yesterday, and they immediately had yet another plumber (the 3rd one!) come out bright and early this morning. After cutting a rather large hole in the ceiling and removing the insulation, they were able to find a substantial leak coming from one of the pipes. They told me the builder "cheaped out" on the pipe, because there were no threads on the pipe - it was just threaded on the bottom of the pipe, and the top was just placed there. (Did that make any sense?) Fortunately for us the pipe never ripped off, causing an even bigger problem, but we still have had to deal with this leak for quite some time.

Now we're just waiting for things to dry up before we get a handyman over to repair the hole in the ceiling. I'm SO excited that this problem is solved!!

(The leak was just above the orange part in the pipe.)

Friday, March 13, 2009

18 Months

On March 11 William turned 18 months. I just can't believe it. Boy, how time flies.

Yesterday he had his 18 month doctor's appointment. He's still on the very low end of the weight chart, but the doctor (a new one for us) said that he's not concerned, since this seems to be his normal. As for height - he's 33 inches, above average for his age. His eczema is still persisting, but at times seems to get better, then it flares up again. They won't do any allergy testing until he's 2 years, due to the fact that kids usually outgrow any allergies they have at this age. I'm crossing my fingers that's the case for him. I also had the doctor look at his eyes, as they seem to wander at times, especially when he's tired. His pediatrician, after a short eye exam, didn't notice anything wrong with them, but any case of strabismus must be seen by a professional, so off we go to a pediatric eye doctor for an evaluation.

He is for sure hitting the "terrible two" stage now. He has an opinion on everything, and if something doesn't go his way, he wines and complains, throws fits, and overall makes my job hard. He's not exceptionally "naughty" or anything, but if I tell him to do something he doesn't want to do, he says in a sweet voice, "no, no" and shakes his head. It's spooky, because I say "no, no" to him and he's picked right up on that.

As for me, I'm 15.5 weeks pregnant and feeling pretty good. Still dry heaving in the morning, but rarely. I've been feeling lots of fluttering for about a week or so now, so that's really cool. This baby definitely has a very different personality than William did while inside me...s/he moves all the time! Of course maybe William did t00, I just couldn't feel his movements until around 18 weeks or so. I'm anxiously waiting for April 2, as that's our next ultrasound, and we should find out the sex of the baby. Whoo hoo!!

Monday, March 9, 2009

A Little Late, I know...

But I figure better than never!

This past Friday John and I had another doctor's appointment. We were able to hear our baby's heartbeat for the first time! It was such a cool thing to hear. The midwife said it was good and strong, beating 157 bpm. This time around I'm not jumping to any conclusions - William's heart rate was high like that as well, even though I thought high heart rates mean a girl baby. I'd love a daughter, but another boy would be very cool too - a brother for William!! We'll just have to wait a few more weeks for the next ultrasound to find out. I can't wait!