Vroom vroom

Happy kid at Bj's. Teddy's home with Gram.


-- Post From My iPhone

The other problem with being Roly Poly...

We've been to the pedi twice in two weeks and we'll be making it a third next week for Teddy's four month appointment.  Because the kid likes to enjoy a meal or two he has developed a few rolls on his arms and legs.  About two weeks ago, he developed what we thought was a bit of heat rash in those folds.  Out came the baby powder and cornstarch with the goal of keeping things nice and dry.  Except it didn't go away, no matter how much powder or cornstarch was poured in there.  Last week, I got an afternoon call from daycare that not only was his poor legs getting redder, they were oozing too.  Not good, not good at all.  I scored a late afternoon pedi appointment and raced out the door to pick him up.  The NP that saw him debated on whether it was eczema or a yeast infection and untimately decided on the latter.  Off to the pharmacy with a script for Nystatin with promises that things should start clearing up in a couple of days.

Sufficive to say, they did not.  We had a small window of hope this past weekend when he spent a good deal of time napping all sprawled out on me.  We were thrilled when he started rolling over cause this meant that at least one of his legs would be stretched out.  All this allowed the cracks and crevices to dry out but the minute he curled himself up, things started all over again.  The Nystatin really seemed to be doing nothing but keeping everythng nice and moist.  This morning, the teachers at daycare declared that we were going to nip this today, they'd keep packing the cornstarch in and keep him nice and dry.

Within two hours of arriving at work I got the phone call.  The back of his legs just seemed to be getting redder and redder and the little man was inconsolable when they tried to clean up the area to put on more powder.  And they were oozing again too.  And in addition to the back of the knees and the armpits, a new spot had developed behind his ears which was definetly not there last night when I cleaned his ears. 

The pedi could see us at 10...off I went.  Another copay and literally a two minute visit with the doc (thank goodness a different one) to confirm that yes, this was eczema and not yeast.  In fact the reason for the wetness and oozing was because the skin had gotten too dry and irritated, meaning that all of our powdering attempts were making things worse and not better.  Back to the pharmacy with a different script.  One dose of the cortizone cream later and I can already tell a difference.  What a feeling of relief.

Poor little man, it seems he has inherited his mommy's ultra sensitive skin.

Roly Poly

We've had first smiles, first laughs and first sounds.  Now we have a first rollover.  That's right, Teddy has taken his first steps towards mobility.  He's been holding his head up pretty good for the last few weeks during tummy time (doesn't he look like such a big boy in this picture???):

Well Saturday morning when I woke up to get him from his crib, I found him laying like this:

And he's been doing it off and on all weekend since.  He can't quite get the top half of him completely over but I give him a week before he's mastered that.  And right now once he rolls himself over, he can't roll back which meant an extra wake up last night by a frustrated little boy.  I think he prefers to sleep in that position, based on the fact that he sleeps very soundly when he's laying on his tummy on top of me.  And so far every time I've laid him down, he's gone right to that position.

Last we had an unexpected visit to the pedi as Teddy had some heat rash that had gotten a bit ahead of us (to be expected based on the recent temps around here!).  Well they weighed him...15lbs, 14 1/2 oz.  We have one healthy little boy.

We also had a very quick but great visit from Aunt Carrie!  She's off to Afghanistan in a few weeks for her next job with the State Department.  She'll be there a full year and then off to Dubai for three years.  She promises to get a blog up and running to chronicle all of her adventures.  I'll be sure to link to it from our blog!  As you saw in the previous post, Katherine traveled with her this morning up to Papa and Gram Coberly's house.  As usual, she was ready to go 30 minutes before Carrie was ("Aunt Carrie, are you ready????").  I can't wait to hear reports of how swimming lessons are going this week.

On my way to Papa & Gram's

She just left this morning with Aunt Carrie, off to a week of swimming lessons! She insisted on wearing that coat even though it's 100 degrees outside. We all made her take it off before she got in the car.

Freshness

I am fortunate to work right next to the North Carolina State Farmers Market.  In fact, I could walk there if they'd open up one of the back gates.  You'd think I would go there on a regular basis to buy all of our produce.  Yup, keep on thinking.  We drive by it everyday without so much as a glance in the direction of all the fresh fruits and veggies.

We had a potluck lunch at work today and I volunteered to bring watermelon.  So off I went to the farmer's market at lunch to see what I could find.  I immediately started asking myself why I don't go there on a regular basis, the stuff there is amazing.  Case in point, I hate eggplant but I was tempted to buy one because it looked that good.  Even with the cheap prices, I could drop some serious dough there (maybe it's a good thing I don't go there on a regular basis).  I mean look at this:

The plants are amazing too.  And very reasonably priced.  Why we look anywhere for plants, I have no idea other than I don't think of coming here, which seems absolutely crazy considering the location.  So my new plan is to write out our grocery list and head to the farmer's market during lunch on the days that Ted and I drive separately.  I've said this before...we'll see if I follow through this time.

So what else has been going on around here?  A lot of adjusting to the evening routine with two kids.  Basically our weekday evenings are crazy with little free time because we try to do as much as possible to prep for the next day at night.

You may have also seen the twitter about the mobile.  Yes, it is true, the Classic Pooh crib mobile has broken.  Ted was winding it up on Sunday when he heard a snap.  No more music, no more movement.  I still need to remedy the problem.  Just like Katherine, Teddy loves the mobile. LOVES. IT.  So while a part of me says, oh well, we'll get by, I know how much he enjoys dancing to the music.  So I'll see what I do about it this coming weekend.  In the meantime we have a music box that plays the same music.  Depending on what I find this weekend, that may be our permanent solution.

There's the TRUTH and then there's the truth

I predicted this about a year ago when she was fascinated that everyone has a butt...

Katherine is starting to learn the finer social graces in life beyond just please and thank you.  We declared last Friday night to be Pizza Night and Miss K went with me to pick it up.  There we were, in line to pick up our "pizza pizza" (Little Caesars pizza, pretty good, not as good as Pizza Hut or one of the local places but what do you expect for $5.55?) and Katherine points to woman in front of us... "Mommy, her is large!!"  Yeah, yeah, incorrect pronoun usage but you ALL know what she was referring to.  In fact she said it not once but twice all while pointing at the person in question. Thank GOD it was noisy in there.  I immediately dropped to my knees, made eye contact with her and whispered that that is something we don't say about other people.  "But she IS Mommy!"  Ummm, yeah ok, you may be right about that but still. I'm know she missed the subtle point of what I was saying.

Fast forward to church this morning. A couple pulls into the same row as us, a few seats down from K, who leans over to me..."Mommy, her is large!"  Thank God for the pre-Mass music. At least she took my explanation this time and didn't say anything else.  I'm afraid that the third time is going to be the charm and we won't have background noise to distract the unfortunate victim. What will follow is that awkward moment for all when I'll have to be that mother who tells her child that that was not nice and you need to apologize right now while the other person stands there, probably wanting to crawl under the nearest rock.  And really and truly she's not going to get it that time either because, hey, she's just pointing out the facts, isn't she?

Combine the above with this: she's also starting to learn exactly what a lie is.  Thankfully at this point her fibs have been relatively harmless and usually connected to not liking the situation at hand.  Today in the pool she accused me of pushing her, which never happened.  I told her that what she was saying was not true and that it was not nice to lie.  Her response?  "But I didn't lie, I never said the word lie."  Nope you didn't say the word but you did lie.

Should make things interesting when we have to explain the different between a lie and a little white lie.

I've read that this is all developmental at this point, the kids just don't have a sophisticated enough thought process to understand all the subtle details.  And I guess there's really no other way to learn all of this than the hard way.  But who is it harder for, the kid or the parent?

Seven Years

In the world of stereotypes it’s the husband that forgets the anniversary. In our world, it’s both Beth and Ted that forget their anniversary. In all honesty, neither of us completely forgot. But in going through the motions of the day we had to occasionally remind ourselves that seven years ago we were celebrating our nuptials with family and friends. Which means we would pick our heads up, declare “oh yeah, it’s our anniversary!” and put our heads back down into the organized chaos that are our weekdays. So much for taking out the champagne flutes that say “bride” and “groom” on them and toasting another year over a bottle of Asti. This year was filled with a baby snoozing in his carseat, a little helper in the kitchen, some arts and crafts and of course plenty of Phineas and Ferb. But we have a lot to be thankful for when I look back over our 7th year of married bliss.

We are planning a long weekend away this fall, just the two of us. It will be our first vacation since our honeymoon on the Cape. Destination this time…the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Not far but far enough to get away for a bit.

When Katherine returned from Massachusetts last week she had a belated birthday present for me. This morning as we were walking out the door she exclaimed “Don’t forget your necklace Mommy! How could I not put it on? I wore it into daycare for drop off and I plan on having it on for pickup. She is very proud of her present and I’m a very proud Mommy of my little girl.

Daddy

A portrait by Katherine


-- Post From My iPhone

An Observation...

So we're on our way home today and I took a good look at the people driving the cars around me.  When Ted and I carpool I can get a good look at who we share the road with. Maybe I'm getting old but it's a wonder we make it home in one piece everyday.  Why?  Forget the poeple that don't know how to drive (like the person that almost sideswiped me yesterday). Half the road is on their phone.  And if you watch closely, you can see how bad their driving and how their full attention is not on the road in front of them.  It's actually kind of frightening.  I don't even want to think about the people who are texting.

And you gotta wonder about the person who's talking on the phone while driving a dented up car.

Now, in all honesty, I have talked on the phone while driving.  But I try to limit my conversations to the "I'm running late", "I'm on my way home" or "I'm hopelessly lost" variety.  I just have never felt comfortable talking and driving.  I think it's because my previous two cars have been standards.  The need to shift does not afford one the luxury of having a free hand to hold a phone.  And now that I drive with kids in the car, I'm even more focused on the road.  If only everyone else thought this way.

And now that I've gotten that off my chest, this old fogy is going to bed.

Happy 4th!

Look at the little man in his July 4th duds!  Thanks to Daddy, we have a smile, he's been sneaky with it this morning. I've got lots of work to do on the picture front today.  I told Ted that's what I wanted to on my birthday...uninterrupted time to get all caught up on the picture front.  If all goes well, later on today there should two new albums over at the picture site:  the June album and pictures of Katherine up a Papa and Gram M's house.  Stay tuned!

Tagged

I'm it, so to speak.  Courtesy of McCashew, I've been tagged.  Did I know what this meant?  Did I have any idea this game existed?  No, I did not.  But here I am and these are the instructions I was given:

• Go to the 8th folder in which you store your photos
• Select the 8th photo
• Post it to your blog and tell the story behind it.
• After following the above instructions, you are ‘supposed’ to tag 8 other bloggers.

 Alrighty, I'll play along. Here we are:

Taken when Katherine was about 5 months old (I know this because our photo folders are in chronological order).  It only snows a couple of times a year in NC, so when it does, you have to take advantage of it.  I believe this was Miss K's first snowfall so I was all about getting some pictures.  The adorable snowsuit was a consignment shop find by Gram C and the mittens were made by my sister.  This set of pictures started my obsession with getting pictures of her on that bench every season for the next year, the set of which is framed and on the wall in our house.  I remember that particular day, I rushed us out to get the pictures and right after we finished the snow changed to sleet.  Within an hour the sleet changed to rain and the snow was all gone.

Now I'm supposed to tag 8 people myself.  I'm guessing it would be impolite to tag people that have already been tagged, which leaves out Kerri of McCashew and Ann of The Grady Chronicles.  I'm also a little short on people, since the majority of the peeps I know stick with Facebook instead of blogging.  But here's my short list.

Christina of Being Noah

Adrienne of Weir in PNG

Colleen of Subway Knitter

No obligation but it is interesting to see which picture pops up.  On the tooth update, I felt around Teddy's gums this morning.  Sure enough, there were two little bumps.  I don't think anything is poking through in the immediate future but their getting lined up.  Tomorrow is my Friday off (I know, I know, back and work and I already have the day off), so the T man and I are at home to start our holiday weekend!