This makes me feel stupid

I just bought one of these. Because I was getting tired of buying ridculous numbers of swim diapers for Lion. And since Monkey is doing "pre-team" (when you're too little for the real swim team - adorable, I know), everyone will be spending a lot of time at the pool this summer. Except me, of course. I'll be working. See yesterday's post about wanting to be my kids' nanny.

Back to the point. It came in the mail yesterday - super fast shipping as always, courtesy of diapers.com, and I have no idea what to do with it. Do it go over a regular diaper? Stand alone? Serve as a swim trunk? Go under a swim suit?

I got nothing. Anyone know how to use this?

Seriously, people, I have master's degree from a top tier university, but I'm stumped. Maybe if I'd gone for the PhD?

Counting my blessings...

...and enjoying the ride. That's the title of my next life chapter. With the official start of our new nanny yesterday, me on week five of new job, and summer activities in close to full swing, we're out of transition. Which is good, because I really suck at managing transition.

Monkey did SO much better with the departure of our temporary nanny than I'd expected. Part probably owing to the very conscious gradual start of new nanny, and part to her age and greater realization of the role a nanny will really play in our lives. I really can't blame her. When someone spends 40+ hours a week caring for you and lives in your house, of course they start to seem like a permanent member of the family.

Lion is just fabulous. He's at the sweetest stage, all cuddles and smiles and new words. He's also busy as all get out, and learning how to work the world to his advantage. If you try to take something away from him (remote, diaper cream, phone) that he wants to keep, his first line of defense is to rest his sweet little head on your shoulder and snuggle with you. Manipulative little charmer. How'd he figure that out so fast?

Here he his with his lovie, Rhino. I thought I was super smart and got two new ones for when the first inevitably got grubby, but he caught right on and now has to have all three Rhinos in bed with him. Crap. Does that mean I need another nine in safekeeping? Are all three going to get nasty simultaneously?

Guess who can...

...WALK! I totally bribed him to get this on video. I put him down, ran across the room, whipped out the iPhone and said, "Do you want the phone, Lion? You can have it if you walk to me!" Not that I think he understood. But it did work, didn't it.

Happy stuff!

I have a project! It came to me while I was printing out approximately 30-kajillion emails for aforementioned FOIA. Ickickick.

Ok, it actually came to me while I was destressing by checking out YoungHouseLove and found their gorgeous DIY gallery wall hanging project. I am going to do this. We've been in our house almost seven years, and our stairway is still bare. I've always wanted to hang things there, but never had a vision for it. Now I do.

Plus, it is going to go a long way toward reducing the visual clutter in our house. (Which makes me crazy, b/c we have enough ACTUAL clutter without creating more unnecessarily.) We have tons of pictures of the kids, etc, on console tables and window ledges. This was fine for Monkey, but Lion's climbing tendencies - and total typical boy-ish-ness - make it an issue. Here. I have proof. This is at 10 months old, people. Now imagine what he does to a table with interesting shiny pictures to whack against each other. Not good.

So tonight I am going to wander around the house and make a list of what size frames I need, and then I am going to get online at IKEA and order them ALL. Mwah hahahaha.

Blog Challenge - Day 22.

Day 22. What did you do today?

Ha. This is easy compared to other topics this challenge has been throwing at me.

I got up after only two hits of the snooze button. Took a shower and did hair and makeup, all while Lion was starting to make his sweet baby noises in his room. Come get me, please? Drank in the thuds of everything in his crib hitting the ground one-by-one, each followed by a soft little, "Oh-oh."

Checked the blackberry calendar to see if I needed to wear a suit today. Yup. Blech.

Opened the door to Monkey's room so she knew she could get up when she felt like it. The luxury of spring break and not having to rouse her from lazing in bed. Got dressed. Received Miss Sleepyhead as she stumbled out of her room and declared she wanted to get dressed. And that she would be pretending to do ballet today, so she needed a skirt. Got her dressed. Finally responded to Lion's ever more insistent noises and headed downstairs with the both of them. Trailed Monkey to the basement to snag a tutu from the dress-up chest. Convinced her it was okay for our nanny to pour her cereal while I packed up to go. Started coffee.

Stalled. Gave multiple rounds of kisses and I Love You's. Tried to convince Hubby to give me a ride so I didn't have to pay for parking today. Failed.

Retrieved coffee, phone, and blackberry. Gave another few rounds of kisses, and finally left the house. Drove to work.

And that's really the end of the day, at least until I get home tonight. You don't care what happens in between, 'cause it's not the important part.

Blog Challenge - Day 7.

Day 7. Do you believe in the "cry until he sleeps" method?

Yup.  I do.  Monkey required approximately zero sleep training - she's generally been more difficult to wake up than to put to bed.  When we told people that, they universally advised us we would NOT be so lucky with our second child.  You know what?  They were wrong.  Lion is a pretty rock star sleeper, too.  Sometimes he stirs in the middle of the night, but he usually goes right back to sleep.  And when he wakes up in the mornings, he's totally happy to chill and play in his bed until we come get him.  Love that kid.

He wasn't always that way, though.  He started sleeping through the night when he was two or three months old, and we thought we were golden.  The he got sick, and we would come in and hold him in the middle of the night until he went back to sleep, which he apparently liked.  Truth be told, I really liked it to.  Treasured it.  Then he got better and, smart kid that he is, had no intention of losing his snuggle time.  After all, a second child doesn't get a lot of one-on-one.  We tried lots of things - feeding him more, putting him down later, getting him more outside time, whatever.  Nothing worked, and when he hit four months old I returned to work a tired mess. 

It took four more months to realize my career was on the verge of crashing down around me because I couldn't see straight.  I was getting up once or twice a night, and had been almost continuously since the sleeplessness started sometime mid-third trimester.  One night I woke up sitting on the floor of our room, my hand jammed between the bed frame and mattress.  I have no idea how I got there - maybe I fell asleep standing up and then fell?  Or maybe I was sleep walking?  I have no history (that I know of) of doing that.  Maybe I was getting in or out of bed for something and slipped?  Regardless, it was seriously disconcerting.  What if I'd been holding him at the time?  In any case, my hand hurt for several weeks and served as a sort of wake up (no pun intended) call that my body/psyche was NOT happy with how things were going. 

So we tried the Ferber thing - let him cry for ten minutes, go in and soothe him, then leave.  Stretch to 15 minutes.  But going in and then leaving would only get him more worked up, and it quickly became clear the strategy wouldn't work.  So we went to full cry-it-out.  And we learned that Lion, mellow as he usually is, has inherited the family stubborn side.  (We should have known this, considering every relative on both sides of our family for generations is darn stubborn, but whatever.  We could hope.)  This first night he literally cried for hours.  It was terrible.  The second night, he only went for an hour and a half, and the third night was cake.  It was over.

He's been sick and/or teething a lot since then, and when he's hurting you can be sure I'm in there post haste to comfort him.  So we've probably backslid a bit on the sleep training, and I hope we don't have to do anything like it again.  But we won't know until we make it through the winter sick season, get a teething hiatus, and he has no more excuses.  So here's hoping I won't have occasion to write about it again. 

Blog Challenge - Day 3.

Day 3.  A photo that makes you happy.

There are SO many pictures that make me super, super happy, but I have to choose this one.  This is the day we brought Lion home.  Monkey had been so, so stressed toward the end of my pregnancy and some wise woman had told me that kids either had trouble right before or right after the arrival of a new sibling.  This was the moment I could see she was right, and that Monkey would be able to chill, welcome Lion, and everything would be all right. 

I had read repeatedly that when I came home from the hospital, it was important to not be carrying the baby to be able to hug older children and show them how excited you are to be back home with them, first and foremost.  So we did this, and I came in looking to scoop up my Monkey and hold her tight.  Plus I missed her desperately.  Since it was during the H1N1 outbreak she wasn't allowed to visit me in the hospital and we'd had only an illicit lobby rendezvous.  It was the longest I'd ever been away from her.  She, however, was totally uninterested in me.  First words out of her mouth? 

"Where's my baby?"

So we were cool, and to this day the sibling interactions I have to keep an eye on are those where she wants to pick him up, hold him, feed him, etc.  She does have her moments of territoriality, but we've been able to handle them pretty easily so far.  [Knocking on wood.]  The interesting challenge will come when he's more verbal and able to compete with her for conversational time.  My Monkey's a talker, and I've already noticed that Lion saves his words for when he has me alone and then lets loose.  It's truly hilarious.  Our one-on-one time is a total gabfest; he just never stops 'talking.'  So if I've got two constant talkers, things could get exciting.  Hubbie and I will never have a conversation again.

How much do you rely on your pediatrician?

I'm incredibly frustrated right now.  Frustrated may not be strong enough of a word, actually. 

Baby Lion started seeming sick on Sunday as we celebrated his birthday.  (Pics to follow soon.)  He had a rough day, but the fever seemed to break that evening.  We called the pediatrician the next morning anyway, who said it sounded like he was on the upswing, and the remaining low fever was probably teething.  Last night, however, was from hell.  He was in so much pain he could barely sleep (so of course neither did we), even with ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and those little gum-numbing Orajel swabs.  It was terrible to see him so obviously hurting.

So we called again this morning to see how else we could help him - we know his lower molars are coming in, but this was too much.  They thought he should be seen and, TA DA!, raging double ear infection. 

I could just scream.  He could have been spared that horrible night.  He could have been on antibiotics a whole day sooner. 

I consider myself to be pretty assertive.  But there are times I could just kick myself for not being a more forceful advocate for my kids.  Why did I let them blow me off yesterday?  There's a natural tendency in me to trust people, but also to have faith in the medical profession, research, and science.  I'm a huge vaccine proponent.  (Don't get me started.)  After all, if they don't know what they're talking about, how many other things could I be screwed on? 

But seriously, this is not the first problem we've had on Lion's behalf.  Maybe it's because he's gotten sick more often, what with being exposed to Monkey's whole preschool germ factory.  But, no - other diagnostic misses have had nothing to do with germs.  I repeatedly raised the prospect of reflux with his regular doc, and was talked out of it.  Then she was out of town one visit, we saw someone else, and.. guess what?  Reflux.  Issues totally, immediately resolved with Prevacid.  I know they deal a lot with us hyper-worrying types, but if she had listened to me the first time we could have avoided months of his discomfort and spitting up (not to mention the added laundry!).  There were similar concerns - both where I was ultimately right that something was wrong - over possible hearing loss (that was the worst week of my life to date) and two other concerns.  All where if I had pushed harder to have my concerns believed, I could have saved him pain or other consequences.  Unacceptable.

So I refuse to see that doc anymore, and I'm shopping for a good fit with someone else in the same practice, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's a bigger issue.  Is it the practice itself?  Or would we have this risk anywhere?  Is it endemic to the medical profession?  A string of bad luck and coincidence?

In any case, you can be sure I won't be blown off again.  I can't believe I let it happen yesterday. 

Happy birthday, Lion!

This is my Lion, on the day he was born. A year ago, today. Can I still call him my baby? Because I'm not ready for the word 'toddler.' Not ready for him to stop being my baby.

Those were an amazing few days. I drank him in, knowing when we got home there would be a big sister to reassure. So he slept on my chest, and I didn't let him go if I didn't have to, and we got to know each other. Kept him as close as if he was still inside me. I had worried I couldn't possibly love anyone as much as I loved Monkey, but it was easy for Lion to become a huge place in my chest that gets tight whenever he smiles. Or lately, tries to scale me or anything within reach.

Lion is pure light; easy with laughs and clapping. The biggest flirt in the world. This stillness has been replaced by 25 wiry pounds of all action as he shows the world his stuff. I itch to see who he'll become. He is sweet but strong, mellow but constant movement, and he knows his mind even as he methodically chooses his moments. How is it I have been trusted with this little life?

Ten Things about Lion at One

1. He moves. Oh, how he moves. He's a crazy little crawling speed demon, and can pull up fluidly on something before you know he's crossed the room. He moves CONSTANTLY. Bring him into bed to snuggle? He's kneeling on your head, banging on the headboard. Then on Daddy. Then heading for the edge of the bed. Yikes!

2. He's a climber. We now have four gates in our house (Monkey only required one), because Lion loves to climb stairs. If he sees the gate open, he'll patiently wait until you aren't watching him, and then he'll sprint for it and howl at you if you manage to catch him first.

3. He loves lights. Our wonderful nanny has taught him some sign language, but it's the sign for light that has really taken. He points up at them and makes the sign and grins.

4. He's a future electronics geek. All about remotes, phones, and anything that lights up or makes noises. He likes to pull out the sliding shelf for the DVD player and push the buttons. If you're holding him the kitchen, he's likely climbing up you to reach for the buttons on the oven.

5. He pretends to use the phone. Or anything else that resembles one. He found an old remote mouse the other day, held it on top of his head, and said, HELL-O!" Brought me to my knees.

6. He's big on the bathroom. Turn him loose and he'll head there every time. Just like the stairs, he watches the bathroom door to see if you've left it open for him. If he makes it in there, he has three options. 1. Splash in the toilet. Lion LOVES to splash. Makes me regret waiting his baptism for this spring, because he's going to get the Rector wet, no doubt. 2. Play in Monkey's potty. Probably the germiest thing in our house. Yuck. 3. Climb in the bathtub. Source of my worst nightmares, as he dives in head-first. The one time he made it this far, he immediately pulled up on the faucet and Turned.It.On. Bathroom door now stays closed. Always. And I need to find one of those safety handle/locks for the faucet.

7. He likes to drop things, mostly so he can say, "Oh-oh!" So cute. He's fast heading into that 'How many times will you pick it up if I drop it?' phase.

8. He's tough skinned when it comes to illness, but has a really hard time with teething. Poor baby. He bumps his head and slams his fingers constantly (see #1 and 2).

9. He looooves his sister. His face lights up when she enters the room, even if he's about to be tackled. Over over-hugged, as we've come to call it.

10. If you say the word Yay! in his presence, he'll clap and grin at you. Really, all it takes is the Y sound at the beginning of any word. He's quick to express his approval. You found your keys, Mommy? Clapclapclapclapclapbiggrin. I'm going to start making him help me pick out clothes so he can cheer at everything. Total ego boost. Best kid ever.

I love you, Lion. Happy Birthday!

This is what actually happened on Lion's birthday, for the record. Turns out he had a terrible double ear infection. Poor kid was miserable. We tried to get him to eat just a nibble of cake, but then he rubbed his face and got icing in his eyes. Bad scene. We're going to celebrate again in May with a proper party.

Blog Challenge - Day 1.

I have an x-month old and already I'm thinking: I'm going to miss him/her at this age!  Have you felt that way, and what age do you miss most?

First post of my blog challenge.  This is a great question, particularly since I have two kids to think about.  It's particularly apropos because today is Lion's first birthday!  Happy birthday, Baby Lion!  (He celebrated by pulling an all-nighter with a combination of emerging molars and an ear infection.  Not the birthday gift I wanted for him!)

I'm definitely going to miss the baby in him.  He's just such a sweet guy, but a total handful.  (The silver lining of a sick kid, of course, is that you get to cuddle with a usually non-stop mover.  Although I would have preferred not to do that from 12-6 a.m. straight last night.)  If I have to miss one age the most, it's the just pre-mobile Lion; the one where he sits and grins at everyone and just takes it all in.  He seemed to really get how amazing the world is and be patiently waiting for it to open up to him.  He had this anticipatory glint in his eye: let's see what'll happen next, Mom!  At that age I continuously marveled at how I could have given birth to such a CHILL kid - not realizing how much mobility would show his true colors.  Although he's essentially still a low-key guy... just with an entire world to explore.  I can't wait for another age when he'll take an occasional break to hang out with Mom.

Miss Monkey is almost four, and I used to say that every age quickly became my favorite age.  It's just been so much fun watching her evolve.  Three-and-a-half, however, has not been my favorite age.  I am glad it's on it's way out, as I'm already starting to see signs of a more typical (or so I read) four-year old emerging.  Maybe I'm being too tough on the age of three-and-a-half, because it came at a time of big transition for all of us, and that could be to blame instead.  Regardless, it was the toughest age by far in terms of discipline and fighting.  I really had to examine myself as a parent and rethink some old habits.  I think we came out of it well, though.  I definitely grew - learned a lot about controlling my temper and even more about Monkey and what she needs out of a parent.  All the things you always hear about I've had to learn to execute - calm, consistent consequences.  She's a very rational kid, as long as I'm a rational Mom.  So I've had to improve myself to improve her, and I'm actually pretty proud of where we are.

And the rest of the weekend...

I feel like we had a pretty chill weekend.  But when I list out what we actually did, it was pretty busy.  And that makes me proud, actually.  That we had lots of experiences without feeling hassled.  It's a lot of what I'm shooting for lately.  Aside from Princesses on Ice, our other big moment was Lion's first trip to the Emergency Room.  The kid is ridiculously physical, so I knew it was coming, but I sort of expected to get past his first birthday.  Nope. 

Sunday morning, in the midst of the usual slow getting moving, Hubbie put Lion up on the bed.  To keep him away from the panic button, which is his new target du jour.  Did you know our house had a panic button?  Neither did we.  We knew we had two buttons and a switch low on the wall that had never done anything.  But apparently when pushed in a certain order (that only Lion knows), they act as a panic button.  We learned this last week when Lion activated it.  Now THAT was exciting.  We had to turn it off at the fuse box, since it seems the alarm doesn't even have to be on for it to work.  Lovely.

So now every time he's in our room, Lion heads straight for the panic button.  And Hubbie, hoping to avoid a repeat, put him up on the bed.  Except Lion still headed for the panic button, by going head-first off the bed.  The goose-egg turned up quickly with a bleeding scratch to the forehead.  I was going to be calm about it (I swear!)" until I saw blood underneath his nose.  Petrified that something in his head was now bleeding out his nose, we went straight to the ER.  Freaking completely out.

They were lovely and helpful and quick (relatively).  And agreed that a nosebleed could have been a really bad sign.  Except in this case, it just meant he had also scratched himself under the nose.  So false alarm.  I know Hubbie thinks I overreact to these things, but I have NO qualms about a better-safe-than-sorry posture to medical care.  Period.  No questions asked.  And I don't feel stupid about it, I feel relieved.  And when Monkey and I did her gratefuls that night, she was grateful he was okay.  And I was, too.

Filling the weekend

I just looked at the calendar and realized we have NO plans this weekend.  Not a one.  No birthday parties, no errand obligations, nada.  I sort of don't know what to do with myself, although with hubbie's work-a-thon 2011 ongoing, it's more like what to do with myself and two small children in tow.  I'd really like to go furniture hunting, but that sounds like a bad idea, no?

With Lion's Christening coming up (if we don't reschedule it... no one seems able to come!), the thought of having people to our house is inspiring some frantic pondering about sprucing things up.  I love that we took our time finishing the interior of the house... especially since I've been really unhappy with some things I rushed to get down when we first moved in.  How we use the house has changed SO much.  I have some regrets, and when it comes to furniture purchases, that STINKS.  But we've been here for over six years now (can it be??), and I've never been happy with the living room, among others.  And the years of acquisition of kid stuff with no time to organize it haven't helped. 

If I could only do something about the monster, formal sofa we inherited from the in-laws.  It's lovely and unique, and we dropped a bunch of money reupholstering it (one regret).  But formal is all wrong for our lives.  I have no idea how to work around it.  But I think if I find two relatively neutral and traditional occasional chairs to go opposite it, it will at least complete the room and hopefully not limit us in our ability to use them again later when we can plan to really get the room the way we want it.  Maybe this should contribute to the decision to reschedule?  If we do, that gives me more time to find the chairs!  Hee hee.

But seriously, we haven't even decided on a Godfather, and NONE of his biological Aunts and Uncles can be there.  Neither can one Grandparent.  Not an auspicious start.  Not that it has to be a big shindig, but it's such a nice time to give people an excuse to get together.  They haven't seen him in so long!  Methinks this is one of those decisions I actually need Hubbie's input to make, though, and he's impossible to reach.  That's my excuse.

Melting Mommy

New day, no signs of the stomach bug yet! Child from yesterday apparently stayed at school all day. Not cool.

But in other, better news, I was up for hours in the middle of the night with Baby Lion! Why, WHY?!? is that good news? Because when I went in to check on him at midnight, he woke and popped up his little, adorable, super-light-sleeping head. This isn't news, and it happens quite a bit. And I know full well to just lay him back down and slip silently out of the room so he'll go back to sleep. But last night he popped up and said "Ma. Ma." And I picked him up. Had to do it. Couldn't control myself. I knew he could utter the syllables, but he called me Mama! (This is a first, clearly.)

So we spent a good while snuggling in the dark, with me saying "You SAID it! YOU SAID IT!" Which, in hindsight, probably also did not promote his return to sleep. Oh, well. I'm a zombie today, but it was worth it.

Baby Lion

This is my sweet, sweet boy. Those big blue eyes take it all in. He's sooo physically active, but calm nonetheless. My mellow child - how did THAT happen? He's persistent, but methodical. He chooses his 'words' carefully, but when he decides to be vocal, look out.

I call him my Lion. He was a Lion (not cowardly!) to his sister's Dorothy for Halloween, and it stuck. Mostly because he pursues whatever he has his eye on. Usually electronics or stairs. Or anything that splashes. Bathroom doors stay shut, since he a) climbs into the tub, b) thinks the toilet seat is a teething ring, and c) SPLASHES.

He identifies that phone from across the room, and moves steadily to claim it. Cannot be distracted. Overcomes obstacles in his path cleanly, silently sneaking up on it until it's in his jaws, before you even knew he was there. Immediately zeroes in on any moving object like he's been programmed for it.

He can be so serious. I'm still getting to know him, but he's his own man. He greets Mommy in the morning with a gleeful, quiet smile. Then starts to climb out of his crib.