Paddy's stats, Natalie's birthday and my exhale...

Patrick had his 1 year well visit yesterday afternoon.  He is...
22lbs (30%)
30.5" (70%)
Fiesty (100%)

He's ahead of the game for milestones and development.  And definitely the least compliant patient on record.  Okay, maybe not for all of history - but definitely yesterday.  And by noon today he should have another ear infection so I have an Rx on standby.  When she checked him yesterday his temp was 99.9* and his ears were red and filled w/ fluid. Based on his history we know where this is headed....

He screamed so long and hard he broke blood vessels in his cheeks and neck, and flailed around to the point that she couldn't check his leg/hip joints.  But she's seen him prior and said that unless we had concerns she wasn't going to press because she was afraid she'd wind up hurting him.

We did manage to avoid needing a 3rd person to restrain him for vax but it was not ideal and his thighs are all bruised today from kicking around while she was trying to poke.

Yeah, that's my kid!
--------------------

Yesterday I took cupcakes to preschool and treated Natalie to her friends singing and some chocolate.  It was rainy so I treated the teacher to 10 kids on a sugar high trapped indoors.  Actually, it wasn't too bad since she put on music and I got to dance around the room like a 4yo for 15 minutes.

Since her party was on 5/1 she decided that was the day she turned 4 and refused to believe that yesterday was not her 5th birthday.  Remember how much fun it used to be to get older!?  And lucky girl got treated to cupcakes for afternoon snack too since another Mom brought in some as a happy accident just to be sweet to her own daughter.  After Paddy's appt I went back to get Natalie and home for our family paaaaartay! She opened all her presents in less than 10 minutes and barely stopped to notice what she'd gotten in her quest to rip rip rip!

Hilarious!

She requested mac n cheese for dinner and then we had cake.  Again. 

Girlfriend better be lovin' life right now because she had cake 3x yesterday and probably lost 2lb from running around like a maniac on a sugar high.  Oh, to eat cake 3x a day and not gain an oz and have a strong desire to age. 
--------------

I am exhausted.  Fully wrung out and ready to drop.  But my kids had great birthdays!  And I am incredibly thankful that it's another year until I need to do this marathon again.

exhale....

Some things I don't get...

If you know me you'll know that I have fallen hard for 'blog land' and all the little treats that it has to offer.  Well, this afternoon I found a new way to kill the last 5 minutes of my day with my favorite thing ever...sarcasm :)

So, go on over to da mainiacs if you want to play along.  c'mon, you want to.  I know it!

1) Procrastination.  Nuff said.

2) Curry.  This is a flavor that I simply can't stand.  And I am not a picky gal but, dang, why do people like this stuff?

3) Why is 5lbs so insanely easy to gain and so incredibly impossible to lose?

4) Road Rage - specifically, why do I suffer from it?  Can't I just calm down and drive like a normal person?

5) Why do Mom's develop new, exponentially better hearing immediately after the birth of a child...but don't grow an extra (and incredibly useful) set of arms/hands?  Nonsense I say!  Where are my extra hands!  I need them damnit!

Patrick's Butt!

Okay, now maybe some of you are wondering what in the heck I'm doing writing bout my baby's rear end.  Turns out this is a hot topic amongst parents of young ones...  Anyway, lately we've had trouble w/ Patrick's hind end.  He's had a rash of ear infections, resulting in antibiotic use, resulting in a rash on his hiner.  Not to mention we just finished transitioning him to milk AND to frost his cake he got a few molars this week.  So, it's been the worst of times for Paddy's smooth, baby soft butt.  Except...that I have this stuff. 

For those of you who know me personally you'll know that I have had a long love affair w/ this product and the associated baby wash, etc.  It smells divine,  and it has 40% zinc oxide to cure any skin issue under the sun.  Let me repeat that... 40 PERCENT ZINC OXIDE.  Take that little figure and compare it to any other brand of butt 'cure all' out there.

Oh, and for the record, I've only had one friend try this and not go insane with their own love for it.  I considered not being friends w/ her anymore but she's got other qualities that make her pretty darn special...so despite her disagreeing with me on this important issue I've decided to keep her :)

Ps...for those who's older cherubs have a little trouble cleaning up properly after using toilet....this will fix them too :)

Pss...I've had 3 friends ask recently about baby items that I can't live without.  This is one of them.  I buy it from drugstore.com...cheapest I've found when you can't buy it locally.

Opening Day Excitement! and BRRRRR....

To all my VT friends & family - skip ahead to the next paragraph of this post.  You will not want to read my first section after your late April snowstorm for which I am absolutely feeling grouchy on your behalf.

Okay, now that my VT followers have skipped ahead I'd like to say to the rest of my readers...  WHAT THE HECK?  It was 35* out this morning.  I was freezing on my walk to work. 

Welcome back VT readers :)  Today is the opening day of the 17th Street Farmer's Market here in Richmond.  My favorite thing about this is that it is a 10 minute walk from my office.  So, I get some sun, some 'fresh' air, and some excercise in addition to supporting local farmers and picking up some goodies for my family.  I am really looking forward to my first visit today.

On the list:
Good, fresh baked, bread!
Goat cheese!
Unusual variety tomato plant for the garden!
Fresh, organic spinach!

YAY!

My tiny mother...

It goes without saying that Natalie is very bossy!  Lately she's taken to telling me to go to bed.  I've been able to tell her no without much of an explanation (which, knowing Natalie, is pretty impressive) for about a week.  Last night that all ended with this conversation during our post-story snuggle....

Kate: *yawning* it's been a long day.  I'm tired.
Natalie: I'm tired too
K: Okay, let's do hugs and kisses and then you need to go to sleep.
N: Are you going to bed?
K: No, I'm going to go downstairs and eat dinner and talk to Daddy.
N: But you said you were tired.
K: I am, but it's not my bedtime.
N: You always tell me that I need to go to bed when I'm tired.
K: Yes, that's true.
N: Well, why don't you go to bed when you're tired?
K: Because I still have things to do.
N: That's why you're so grumpy in the morning!  You need to go to bed so you are nicer to me & Paddy when we wake up.

Awesome.... she's right, and she figured me out and she made me feel like crap all in one conversation.  She is my tiny mother.

Time....

Kind of a funny thing about time.  It's definitely going by faster than I would like.  And I frequently think it would be so much better if it was a 26 hour day instead of a 24.  Jame just suggested that sometimes he wishes he could go back and really appreciate what it was like when you had nothing to do, no agenda, no to-do list, and nothing to worry about.  And what got me thinking to blog about this was that today I had two friends suggest they "don't know where I find the time" to take on some of my projects.  Anyway, I started to ponder how exactly I was working these things into my life.  I feel they're pretty necessary to my mental state so thats part of it.  But, I also drive myself fairly insane in order to carve out the space for things like crochet and my gardeing and this blog, etc.  So, for those that are wondering...  here's how you can go type A and drive yourself and everyone around you nuts but you'll have 25 minutes a day to do something that, Damnit!, you want to do!

1) Anything that can be done at night, should be...In the evenings (and, MOY alert - while my kids are awake) I prep the coffee maker, make my lunch, pick out clothes for the next day, pack our bags, pack the car, etc.

2) Utilize the husband!  He doesn't get enough QT w/ the kids - it's not your imagination.  Let him understand how to put dinner on the table w/ the monkey's harassing him while you take care of your work out.  that's how I do it.  :)

3) Menu prep - On Friday's (at work) I do a menu for the following week.  It's a strategic exercise in figuring out how to only cook 2-3x a week.  Yep, that's right, we eat a TON of leftovers.  So, on Sat I cook a big meal and on Sun I cook 2.  And by Friday we've usually run out of food but by then we're all usually willing to eat toast or cereal for dinner so I don't worry about it :)  Yes, its insane... I do realize I'm letting a lot of my crazy out in this post.

4) Ignore your dirty house.  Yep, it's true.  If you want to do something that you actually want to do then the toilets may not get cleaned every weekend...and the dust is just a fact of life.

5) Sometimes its okay (IMO) to be a lousy employee.  I'll say in defense of myself that I always get my work done, on time, and I do it well.  However, I also pay our household bills at work, most of my blogging takes place on Massey time, and I only schedule appts during business hours so that I can use vaca to cover Pediatrician appointments rather than my free time. 

6) Never stop moving.  Got 5 minutes?  Go pluck your eyebrows!  Got 10 minutes?  Perfect time to trim everyone's fingernails.  You get the point...

7) Bathing optional.  I am serious!  Okay, so I keep myself clean but I only shower 3 or 4 days a week now.  And I wash my hair on Monday's.  Because I am a lover of a long hot shower its just amazing how much time I save by not getting in.  So, when I'm up too late messing around on something I actually wanted to do I stay in bed for as looooooong as possible in the morning.  (don't tell Natalie who is routinely harassed out of bed and driven hard to get going every day because "we're running late" due to my being too tired to get up on time...oops, is that another MOY I just received?)

Okay - I guess that's a good general idea on "how I find the time".  I doubt it's a method for everyone but so far it seems to be working out for me.  Most of the time.  :)

Federal Gov't Blues....

There is a reason that our Gov't has a bad reputation - especially the IRS. 

So, my grouch began yesterday (President's Day) over the fact that my esteemed Federal Colleagues got several snow days the prior week and then took Presidents Day off.  Apparently *note sarcasm* there is a money shortage right now and people are out of work and we're in huge deficits and yadda yadda.  Well, seems to me that if the Fed employees got 3.5 days off due to unusual snow conditions that they could work on an unusual day to make up for it.  So there!

And...

Last year we filed our taxes and then got a very late notice from an investment house re a stock sale.  We got busy having a baby and taking care of 2 kids and working full time and life...  Turns out when you do an amended return really late and have to pay back some money our gov't charges you 4% interest on the amt you owed them. So, then you get a bill telling you that you need to pay the interest. I find this to be truly amazing in 2 ways. First - they held my money all year before they paid me my refund for '08. However, at no point did they increase my return by 4% to cover the interest. And where in the freakin' holy hell can anyone make 4% interest on any amt of money anywhere these days.  Certainly not in any bank on a term of 8 months. 

Vent over.  I think I'm going to pay my bill and revamp my blog to take the edge off my headache that has been building all day.  Blog revamp is fun stuff!

Dear Complexion,

Why do you hate me?  Why, every morning, do I wake up with a new and disgusting pimple?  Why do I suffer with icky acne now?  Why do you frustrate me with bright red cheeks, a dry/peeling nose and an oily chin?  When I was a sweet, young thing you were as fresh and pretty as could be.  Rarely did a pimple mar your perfection!  What gives? 

I'm putting you on notice...  I'm in my VERY late 20's and damnit, this is unacceptable!  Now clear up!

Sincerely,
Kate

More updates, observations and such

Yesterday I had the most fabulous thing happen!  VCU closed :)  So, I had a day off when the sun was shining and snow was on the ground and it was lovely!  That said I was definitely starting to feel pretty stir crazy after being home for 2 straight days.  Around 10am I dropped the kids at school and then headed back to the house.  I finished crocheting Natalie another hat she probably won't wear.  I'll post pictures when I can get her to try it on (so far she's refusing).  I also decided that I was going to try and find the kids some clothes that fit. 

Believe it or not Natalie can finally wear 3T pants!  They look so cute on her - amazing what pants that are the right length will do.  ;)  She also got 4T shirts and its nice not to see 2" of belly every time she raises her arms above her head.  I can't believe how big she's getting - and how petite she is when I compare notes w/ my friends.  Paddy got 12-18m clothes!!!!  He got several new shirts since its a bit chilly for his belly to be hanging out all the time too.  So, a very successful shopping trip.

And since I know plenty of you are wondering where the heck the pictures are....  I finished editing last night and will upload them today if Jame isn't using the computer for school!  I spent a lot of time playing w/ the manual settings on the camera and would like to thank Amy for mentioning white balance in some prior posting she did of snow pictures.  So, I have many pics of the kids, the family and then some random stuff where I was playing around w/ camera settings and then the editing tools.

Schools are still closed here today but I'm at work.  The roads are pretty junky still...and here is a vent(ish).
1) why the hell are people parking in the street?  First the plows don't come so the cars pack all the snow into that lovely pitted ice.  Then the temps go above freezing and making huge bare spots in between the pitted ice.  Then the plow comes thru and weaves around all the parked cars.  You can only imagine what it is like to drive over that fabulous surface.  I would like to scream out "IF YOUR CAR IS IN THE ROAD IT SHOULD BE TOWED.  JERKS!!"  Okay....
2) Salt. use some.

Lastly - I hope it snows again this weekend :)

Yesterday...observations and updates

Okay, so I explained that I did not get food on Friday night due to the unshoppability (new word!) of the store. Yesterday morning it was snowing very hard but there was only about 2" on the ground so I decided I was going to go run my errands. Surprisingly there were lots of people out and about in their SUV's. Apparently, even though life here was effectively cancelled, lots of people wanted to test their mettle on the snowy roads. I got gas, hit the grocery store and then Target. The grocery store was marvelous. I'm shopping on snowy days all.the.time. from now on! There were probably 6 other customers in the store and it was the breeziest checkout ever!

On my way home I admit the roads were pretty junky. That said...I saw 11 cars off the road on a 2-3 mile stretch of a 6 lane secondary road. Now, I just can't figure out how so many people managed to get OFF the road when they've got 6 full lanes, plus breakdown lanes, to spin around on. Mystery!

And one last "shakes head" type observation... I wound up behind a plow truck and it was the strangest thing ever. He would go about 30' and then stop and need to back up a little. Correct his position, go another 30' and then back up again. repeat, repeat, repeat. FINALLY I got to a side road and went that way home. Its going to take a long time to get the roads clear if all the drivers are like that one.

Okay - and things I'd forgotten. Icy wipers are a PIA. Yesterday the snow was the perfect consistency to stick to the wiper blades. I had to keep rolling my window down to clap them off. And OMG its so beautiful when the wind wipes all the 'marks' in the snow away and your yard looks like a perfect blanket of white with sparkly diamonds all over it.

Appx 12" on the ground. Hopefully a sledding date on tap for today!

That Pesky, Sarcastic Yankee is back....

Let me start this post (heavy on the sarcasm) with a quick YAY SNOW!!!!!

Observations on the latest snowstorm ;) I'm sure there will be MANY of these over the coming hours/days.

Earlier this week the conversation began about buying supplies to ride out the storm. People were having in depth discussions about their strategy for going to the grocery store. I had the audacity to suggest I would go on Sat morning like I normally do. I was informed that there would be no food on the shelves if the stores were indeed still open. (huh!?!?) Anyway, after I considered the options I decided Nat and I would run to the store after work yesterday to pick up the groceries since I was having a serious craving for eggplant parm and wanted to be sure I could satisfy it. Well, we may or may not be eating that tonight...because the store was nearly unshoppable. There were so many people in it that you couldn't maneuver your cart and the lines were close to 30 people deep. I declare to the world that I will never stand in a line that long in any grocery store unless we're facing a freakin' nuclear winter. so there! I will head to the store in a few minutes and shop in peace. I have watched the cancellations and so far the stores appear to be open.

Last evening - 12 full hours before a single flake had fallen from the sky the cancellations began on the TV.

1) Winterfest - cancelled
(Seriously?? You're cancelling winterfest because it's snowing outside? Irony anyone?)

2) Flights - really? there is currently 1" of snow on the ground and the airport has ground to a halt. Glad I'm not needing to get somewhere on an airplane today! I would be livid if my flight had been cancelled before a flake hit the ground.

More to come :) Its actually snowing hard(ish) now and I'm hoping we wind up on the upper range of the forecast - 12".

Yay!

I have a new friend :) Emily & I have been sort of dancing around whether we were going to be 'hang out at preschool function' friends or actual friends outside of the world of our kids. Turns out it's the latter. We had a great time last weekend at her party and are meeting for lunch today and I just couldn't be more pleased. So, major YAY for my 3rd friend - 1 for each year we've lived here!

And just to prove why we're meant to be friends...she's added a new, absolutely fabulous acronym to my Mommy vocabulary. To compliment the MOY we now have the MMG. That's right...for all you Mom's out there that is the Massive Mommy Guilt.

I'm sorry Dad's but there is no equivalent to the MMG you feel when you achieve a MOY.

Natalie....

Today Natalie gets her seasonal flu vax. She spent the entire morning commute complaining because she only gets 3 vaccines and why does Patrick get to have 4. Is she serious?

She has also started diapering herself and baby. She's stealing Patrick's size 2 diapers. The truly crazy thing is that the size 2's fit all 3 of them...though on Nattie they look like a teensy bulgy bikini. She doesn't pee in them. Just gets naked and then diapers herself. What a weirdo.

and finally....the icing on the cake...

She saw me putting a liner in my undies the other day during my period. I explained to her that I was keeping my undies clean. She now lines her underpants w/ toilet paper every time she goes. That's been fun to explain to the preschool staff.

*sighs, shakes head, rolls eyes and quakes with fear of her teenage years*

I do love my Nattie!

*bad language disclaimer*

There is a punkass little shitstained jerk of a turd in the preschool named Douglas Boardman. He is the type of crap that hurts other kids and gets a rush from it. You can see it in his face. Almost every day we hear some story from Nattie about how Douglas hit her or Douglas pushed her or xyz to one of her friends. This week he has hit her over the head w/ a wooden block (think big - like step stool size) and hit her in the stomach. Jame & I reached our limit with letting the kids work it out, etc and he told her to hit him back. I decided that probably wasn't the best advice and so I went to talk to the admin staff. I got a very PC song and dance about how "Douglas has a hard time expressing his 'big' feelings and difficulties making friends". Um, duh. I basically told them, point blank, that I was starting to be concerned that Nattie was going to get more than her feelings hurt and that was absofrikkenlutely unacceptable. I also called him a shitstain which they attempted to ignore but I could tell they were trying not to laugh.

Anyway, they have apparently had plenty of parent complaints and god knows how many teacher complaints about the little wet fart of a kid and so they are watching him closely and apparently doing a lot of one on one "counseling" with him on his behavior. Mom and Dad are "oh so important" and I guess are refusing to acknowledge that their little cherub might have a behavioral problem. Great, highly educated idiot surgeons... note heavy smart person sarcasm... I digress.

Then the admin people say that they think one of the reasons Nattie winds up in the thick of his abuse is because she doesn't back down from him. If he has done something bad, or hurt someone, etc she will stand up to him and fight for the rights of the good kids. (have I mentioned I love her?)

I just got a call from Jelena... Nattie came to her a little while ago and confessed that Douglas hit her...so she hit him back. Then she stole his toy. As Nattie would say..."Momma, he was cryin' and cryin'" I love her I love her I love her! I hope she hit him hard!

Game On, Patrick!

Patrick is 5 months and 7 days old and has NEVER slept thru the night. In fact I don't think he's ever slept for more than 4.5 hours at a stretch. I'm cooked! Over the weekend he was up every 45ish minutes from midnight on...all three nights.

I'm done. Tonight Patrick will being learning how to self-soothe. If he can find and reinsert his binky then thats beautiful...if he can't he needs to figure out how to go back to sleep. Farting at 3am does not constitute screaming loud enough to bring Mommy into the room.

So, its CIO or bust. I'm going to set our video monitor up this evening and if he isn't wedged half out of his crib or covered in vomit he's going to have to work it out on his own...because Mommy is alone, tired and working full time...and enough is enough is enough is enough.

So there!

Virginia and bugs....I wannna gooooo hoooomeee!

Since moving here I've discovered a few insects that I had never seen before, never wanted to see, and hope never to see again. The latest came this morning when I 'discovered' what Cicada's look like.

Lets begin with last winter....

1) the giant cockroach -
habitat: my bathroom at work.
Size: 1-1.5" in length
Color: Light brown.
EWWW factor - high! Very high!

2) The Black Widow Spider
Habitat: outside (thankyougod!) near the trash can
size: slightly larger than a quarter
Color: this needs no explanation
EWWWW factor - none
EEEEK factor - extremely high!

3) The Cicada
Habitat: outside (whew!)
size: about 2" long and 3/4 wide (fat bastards!)
Color: mine was a medium brown but apparently this varies
EWWW factor - not too bad...sort of looks like owl vomit from a few feet away
EEEEK factor - none really
Annoying factor - Seriously high! No windows open in the summer even if its cool enough because they never shut the hell up.

I realize this is not the best picture but I took it with my cell phone which required me to hold my hand about 1" away from it and I was not exactly steady while waiting for this 'unknown' insect to jump on me. Apparently they don't do anything of the sort but at the time I did not know that. So, excuse the shaky handed blur factor.

And yes, this small picture is pretty much true to size. Ick, eh?

Should've known then.....

Nattie's first Halloween was spent as an adorable little devil.

It was a joke!

She's slightly bigger in size and a whole lot more devilish! Last night she locked me out of the house, on purpose, because she was mad at me.

I wish I had something witty to say about the experience but I'm still dumbfounded!

Joke's on us??

Crap....ooops, I mean croup

1 week of daycare and Patrick has croup. Super. *note heavy sarcasm*

Sunday afternoon he started to look bad. His nose was stuffy, his eyes were red & puffy and watering. He did not look much better on Monday so I sent him to daycare armed with saline and an extra change of clothes since he always barfs after saline. In all fairness the stuff does taste like, well, saline. Brought him home Monday - he looked beat tired and pretty awful....put Bunky to bed early and figured it was just his 2nd icky cold. Nope. Nope. Nope. I woke up around midnight thinking a seal with laryngitis had moved into Patrick's bedroom. So, he got more saline, some food and a humidifier and slept okay the rest of the night. I never went back to sleep because I was terrified of the wheezing and barking and his incredibly hoarse little mewls. Not terrified enough, however, to keep him home on Tuesday. Nope, this Momma spent all the available time on mat leave and now has to go to work. Soooo.... we went to the pedi and confirmed the dx and got him some steroids to go with his prevacid and back to school he went.

Last night went much better except he's hitting his 3m growth spurt and wanted to eat every 2 hours. He's definitely feeling less croupy which is a very good thing.

And I've decided to initiate a new award... Its called a MOY and you have to say it in a sarcastic tone. MOY stands for Mother of the Year...and we would call it the WMOY for Worst Mother of the Year but the acronym isn't as good. I'm accepting my 2nd MOY award today. Pats self on back. *note more sarcasm*

Balls!

Let me just say that I think male genitals could use a redesign. Okay, so maybe the balls are useful but they are just in the way. Poo get trapped under them and around the sides and its driving me freakin' nuts. Pun intended.

Ripping every last hair out of my head!

Warning....Mostly bad attitude, grouchy, nasty vent ahead!

All I want to do with my last month(ish) at work is get my crap together and surf the net. Sadly there isn't a snowball's chance in hell that this will happen. I'm grouchy about it. Actually, I'm fairly grouchy about most everything...but you'll have that when you've got a big ole baby head in your nether regions and it causes lightning bolts to come out your hoo ha whenever you move the wrong way, or the right way...or at all.

updates....

And I'm 36w pregnant. 1 week away from full term and probably a full month away from actually grunting the kiddo out. I have started to receive looks of sympathy from anyone who's ever done this before....

Sadly I also had my first experience w/ reflux after I behaved like a piggy so I guess I've hit that stage where I'm full even when I'm not full. Full of baby and not food.

Comments I would like to share because they irritated me....
-"OH MY GAWD! Are you absolutely sure your not due for another couple of weeks? You're HUGE!!" - Yes, I'm sure. I was there when I conceived and am fairly good at estimating 40 weeks from the start date.
-"You know babies always come when the Mom is finally ready!?" - If this statement were true half the babies would be born seriously premature and the other half would never arrive. Give me a break!
-"Do you have any idea how tired you look?" - the reason I look tired is because I am tired. I am very pregnant, working full time (like a maniac), I chase a nearly 3yo around, have a house to tend to and suffer from insomia. Perhaps its not suprising that I look tired.
-"Did you know you're limping?" - Yes, I had noticed. You would limp too if you attached 30lbs to the front of you, had a pelvis that had gone squirrely a few months back and had managed to screw up your knee....wait, don't forget that drilling sensation that occurs pretty much 24/7 in my hips. yep, I noticed I was limping.

Vent over.....

29 again :) I had a nice birthday. Saturday night Jame took me out to dinner at a restaurant in the city that we hadn't tried yet. It was yum - especially dessert - and we were both little piggies. Sunday the weather was just gorgeous and N & I took full advantage and spent a ton of time outside. I got burned and must remember to buy sunblock this week. I think Nattie got Jame's complexion (along w/ everything else) because she didn't even turn the teensiest bit pink. And I got a few things checked off my to-do list. So, I guess it was sort of a weird birthday in that it was pretty much like every other day except for dinner the night before. But I still enjoyed it.