Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Patio Floor 1, Logan 0

Logan tripped on the rail for the sliding glass door and did a 360 onto the patio floor. :P During his tumbling "experiment", he unfortunately used his nose as a pivot point.

His nose didn't fare so well.

The dot on his forehead isn't part of it... it's just food he rubbed off his hands and onto his forehead.



Monday, January 19, 2009

Yet Another Fire

So, we had another fire maybe a mile from our house.

The order was reversed from what we've become used to. Normally, fire happens, ash falls on power lines, power goes out. In this case, power line fell, power went out, downed power line caused fire. I don't know what brought the power line down.

I think I've lost count the number of times I've had to feed Logan IN THE DARK, WHEN THERE WAS A FIRE SOMEWHERE NEARBY. And it was strangely hot again, even though it's January. [The Gap Fire was in July. The combination of smoke outside and an unbearably hot house from the heat of the day, and no power to even run fans, was unbearable. The Tea House Fire was in early December, I think, and didn't actually affect us, but of course made us really nervous. And it managed to destroy alot of people's houses. :( ]

Anyway, I'm becoming old hand at feeding Logan and changing Logan in a blackout.

Man, the news sucked for this one. I tried various news channels on the radio, but couldn't get anything about the current power outage or fire. Didn't know if we might have to evacuate, or what the heck was going on. Sat there, changing radio channels, squinting in the dim light of candles and a flashlight as I tried to get the spoon into Logan's mouth.

My husband and I both have headlamps for hiking at night. They have become very useful during these fire-blackouts. My husband, after noting how we've had to feed Logan way too many times during blackouts, that Logan deserved his own headlamp now.

We had a load of work clothes in the dryer, sopping wet. The blackout lasted just long enough for me to think I might need to hang a clothesline in front of the fireplace. But it was back on at 9:30pm in our area (8:30pm across the highway from us)... 2 hours after it had gone off.

So I'm hurriedly getting loads of laundry done. I feel like I'm 2 hours behind on a Sunday night. :P

Just glad I didn't have to bathe Logan by flashlight. :P

Ok, goodnight everyone. Be safe. Godspeed.

Oh, almost forgot. Nothing like a blackout to make you take all your toys and ensure they are in their chargers once the power is back on. ;)

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Lessons in Love

My son is sick. And I think I've caught it.

Last week he started having a cough, then a runny nose, then post nasal drip I think. [You try looking into the throat of a stubborn, strong, uncooperative 13 month old. I figure post-nasal drip was involved as he would sniffle while sleeping and then have a coughing fit that sounded to me like some of the snot went down his throat.]

Sunday night he puked up the little bit of formula he was able to drink. Monday morning, I got 4 ounces of formula into the little guy, and he promptly puked that up at the doctor's office. So, the rest of Monday, and all of Tuesday, the poor little guy lived on nothing but Pedialyte.

Monday night he could not get comfortable when I tried to rock him to sleep. He was coughing, dry-heaving, and basically very miserable. He would start to get comfortable, fall asleep for maybe 5 minutes, and then a coughing fit would wake him up. On top of that, with no food in his stomach and trying to drink fluid with a clogged nose, he had swallowed alot of air and was having gas pains which would also wake him up.

If I tried to put him down in his crib when asleep, he would wake up and cry. If I tried to do it when awake, after having had a wrestling match with him in my arms, obviously totally uncomfortable there due to gas pains, he would cry. Either way, he'd want to be picked back up.

I tried explaining to him that there was just no way that I was going to be as comfortable for him as a bed, but all he knew was he felt like crap, was often in pain, and wanted to be held. Even if that meant he was being held in my arms while he flung himself all over the place, as if attempting to get me to drop him.

I started getting angry. Not at him, but at God, and at the virus. I mean he was just a little kid, and he was suffering so much. And the times he got to sleep, he would be asleep for about 3 to 10 minutes, and then wake up. It started to feel like I was being teased! After maybe the 5th time, I was all like, "ah, come on!!!" Again, I wasn't mad at Logan but at the bug that was doing this to him. Or at God, I guess.

I failed the Job test.

Good thing God is forgiving.

I was praying that Logan would get better and be able to sleep. At first it was for his sake, but as I got more and more exhausted, it started selfishly being more for my sake. :P Some mother I am.

Anyway...

Either Tuesday or just today the following hit me: this was nothing. Absolutely nothing. I knew a little 3 year old girl named Katie who has liver cancer, and suffers terribly. I knew that her Sister, Parents, and the rest of her family got very little sleep on the bad nights. And that the bad nights were numerous, due to the illness and the chemo. And, like me, they still had to work in the mornning. Unlike me, they couldn't take days off if they weren't feeling well or felt too tired... like I took Tuesday off as I was exhausted and coming down with Logan's bug. They need all the money they can get to pay for Katie's treatment. I mean, there's no way in hell that if there's a treatment that could save her, that they were going to avoid it because of their budget.

So, I'm a moron. I'm fighting off a bug, Logan is fighting off a bug. But Logan doesn't have cancer, and I can afford to take a day off if I need to... although not too many days off, as Logan and I have both been sick on and off all December. [Ah, December and winter in general: 'tis the season to be sneezing.]

But anyway, this has been a lesson in love. A lesson in humility. A lesson in counting my blessings. A lesson in not feeling so sorry for myself.

Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go cough up a lung.

Oh, I forgot to add one thing. Realizing the mercilessness of the bug Logan was fighting, I started wishing there was some way I could cause it pain. Some way I could find it, it's parents, it's siblings, it's children, and it's friends and other family, and kill them all slowly... with immense pain.

I started to fantasize that once I got to the vomiting stage, maybe I could take the vomit and heat it up over the stove to painfully torture and kill any of the virus that I puked up. Yes, I was starting to get a, uhm, little strange.

Feeling helpless does weird things to you sometimes.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Asses of Fire

It's 4:57am. The Friday after Thanksgiving.

If I have the runs one more time, I think I will implode. :P

I don't think it's a food bug. I think I just ate alot of stuff I really shouldn't have.

Still, other than the runs, Thanksgiving was quite nice. :)

It was my baby boy Logan's first Thanksgiving. He turns 1 year old on December 5th.

My husband and Logan and I met my parents at the Frog Bar and Grill at 1:30pm for a Thanksgiving brunch. My Dad had to be at work at 4:30pm, so eating a brunch worked out quite well. And the weather was lovely, in spite of all the rain and fear of flooding after all the fires in the area. The sun came out, expansive blue skies, and everything.

Logan got to have scrambled eggs and pieces of a croissant. And of course cheerios. Can't have a meal w/o cheerios anymore. ;) I also offered him pieces of a cantaloupe and pieces of a sweet potato, but I don't think he ate any of it.

My Father-in-Law spent Thanksgiving with my husband's brother, so he missed out on our fun, but got to enjoy time with his great-grand-kids. I think he may have wished he could be in 2 places at the same time, as he seemed a little bummed about missing Logan's first Thanksgiving. But he still had an awesome time with the rest of the family. :)

What did I eat... what did this to me. Let's see. Pre-brunch was a Jimmy Dean breakfast croissant with sausage, egg, and cheese. But not all of it. And some of Logan's cheerios. And some green tea.

Brunch was 2 orange juices, 2 champagnes, croissant, sweet potato, stuffing, cucumber, bell pepper salad, smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, strawberries, cantaloupe, and I think that's it. All small portions: it all fit on one plate, except the eggs were on a separate plate that I then used to feed Logan from. Well, the champagne probably dehydrated me.

Then when we went home, after some tea, and after a bottle (for Logan, not for me, LOL), went down with Logan for a nap at 4:30pm. Woke up at 6pm. Fed Logan. And ate... the wrong thing. Obviously. Chips and hot cheese dip. Lots. And a strawberry frozen fruit bar. And chocolate milk. And a turkey/cheese/bread sandwich husband called a "Royal George", but now he's not so sure of the name. Normally also includes mayo, but I included mustard instead.

Did have some of Logan's banana, and more of his Cheerios. But that was the only healthy thing this Thanksgiving evening.

Anyway, something I ate was the wrong thing.

So far, poor Logan is having the opposite problem: he is pooing less than normal. It takes time for a baby's system to become used to new food. Really, to solid food in general. It's just a new way of digesting. I think he's just overwhelmed by the whole "chewing" experience, LOL. Ok, "gumming" -- he only has 8 teeth, and they are all incisors. However, judging by the drooling, chewing on anything that's immobile and not nailed down, and general grumpiness, he's definitely trying to cut a tooth.

Well, campers, it's after 5am. My intestines feel like they may be done for the moment. And the Tylenol PM is winning over my feeling like crap from the runs, so I think I can finally get some sleep. At least until Logan wakes up, LOL. ;)

I think Friday is going to be an oat-meal and banana and Cheerios kind of day.

Ok, I was going to post this before I crawled back into bed at 5am, but didn't do it. Doing it now.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Tastes like chicken

I haven't posted since July 30th 2008. Whoa.

What's happened since then? Let me see.

August: uhm... hmph. It's like a blur. September: we had our 10th Wedding Anniversary. My parents had their ... 41st? 42nd? Let's see... I'm 40, it took Mom a year to talk Dad into having me... probably 42nd.

October: Logan had his first Halloween. :) Dressed him up as Yoda. Pics are up on Flickr, but more pics need to be uploaded due to not everything getting offloaded from our digital camera. 'Course, he didn't like wearing the ears, and his head was too big for the ears to be snapped up underneath his chin, so he was sorta Obi-Wan Kenobi for the rest of the night. :)

I let him play with my lightsaber. Yes, I'm 40, and I own a lightsaber. *Brrrrssshhhhnnnnnnng* Want to make something of it?

I bought it from ThinkGeek a few years ago. Makes all kinds of cool sound effects. It's red. Of course. :)

Logan liked it. Kept touching the part that, if it were real, would have sliced his hands off, but I'll teach him the importance of only touching the hilt when he's old enough. :)

Yes, yes, I'm such a geek.

Ended up with ALOT of Halloween candy left over. Not too many trick-o-treaters this year. Bummer. I think the trend of going to "safe shopping malls" where stores are handing out candy is affecting our foot traffic. :P

Ok, that and I didn't decorate until the very last minute. I've heard that if you want foot traffic, you want to decorate at least a week in advance. Apparently the kids scope out the houses prior to the event to ensure they hit the high-candy spots.

Early November we went to our niece's son's 1st birthday party. I think their son had a good time. Our son took over one of the blankets laid on the grass and started playing with their son's toy humvee, LOL! But their son didn't seem to mind.

Logan is all about things that roll. Especially things with wheels. My Mom keeps saying I gave birth to a linebacker because of how quickly he's grown, but now I'm wondering if he's not going to be a race car driver!

And he's almost walking. He will hold onto things and kindof totter around. And he will let go and stand and maintain his balance for a few seconds before DOWN HE GOES! :)

Well, his first birthday is coming up. December 5th. Then his 2nd Christmas. Alot to do before both events.

He's eating more "real food". It just needs to be chopped up into tiny bits as he doesn't have any molars yet. Just 8 incisors. No eye-teeth. He likes cheerios, cut-up strawberries, cut-up cantaloup, and chopped+skinned grapes. I tried just chopping the grapes, but he ended up with grape skins in his mouth that he couldn't quite swallow, and that I had to fish out.

He's also had spaghetti with ground beef and Ragu. Finely chopped up, of course. And I tried to mash some peas for him, but he's still not doing so good on any vegetables that are of the green variety.

Ellie, our female, hasn't been feeling well. But her numerous expensive tests haven't shown that there is anything wrong with her. Am thinking she must be getting into stuff. So am trying to be more careful... ensure she can't eat anything in the fireplace (sometimes we burn pizza cartons in there), and making sure there aren't any candy wrappers for chocolate candies anywhere she can get them. I think that her extra-curricular eating has made her stomach a little fragile. Kindof like after you have a stomach illness, it's easier to upset your stomach by accident for a while.

Logan... who won't eat any green vegetables... surprised us the other day when he went to Ellie's dog dish and ate some of the dog food Ellie had left in there from this morning! I truly didn't think he would do that. I truly thought he was just going over there to push her dog dish around, as he likes to do that. [And thankfully our dogs aren't food aggressive, so he hasn't started any fights by doing that. Heh... watching the dogs trying to eat from a moving bowl has been quite entertaining at times!] But anyway, yes, Logan put dog food in his mouth. And was working on gumming it and swallowing it, but I raced over and started fishing that out of his mouth. And then I started worrying that whatever was upsetting Ellie's stomach was now going to start attacking Logan's tummy! This is of course assuming Ellie might have been fighting something viral or bacterial off.

However, if she was fighting something off, it apparently isn't contagious to humans. Either that or Logan has a cast iron stomach. ;)

Ok, can't think of anything else. I know I'm forgetting something, but that is the highlights, as far as I can remember it. Consider yourself up to date... that is, until I remember what I forgot to post. :)