Wednesday, May 27, 2009

This and That

It has been a whole week since my last blog. So please be prepared for a long post full of the mundane crap that is my life.

Now while you might think this lack of blogging was due to all the fun I was having over the holiday weekend, I assure you it was not. Rather it was due to my daughter's penchant for sharing. Normally this would be a desirable trait in a child, I am sure. But my dear Jillian prefers to share germs. Remember how we endured over three and a half weeks of diarrhea? Well lets just say that both my MIL and I can tell you that this bug is equally as delightful in adults even though it seems to last a mere one week rather than three. And just to keep you guessing it comes in waves and just when you get to feeling better, WHAM it hits you again. I managed to part with the bathroom today and drag my energy-sapped ass to work for a day full of meetings, so I'd like to think I've finally beaten this thing.

Jeramy is currently in drywalling hell in the addition. He has almost finished sheetrocking and next will be the ever fun mudding and taping. With my MIL sick last week he was unable to get very much done with the little Miss around. I had been hoping that he might step up and clean the house instead, but that was just wishful thinking on my part. One day after work, I enjoyed the following exchange:

JEN (looking around at a wreck of a house): So did you even consider picking up around here today?

JERAMY: I picked up the cans.

JEN: Do you mean the cans on the kitchen counter?

JERAMY: Yes. I picked them up off then end table and moved them there.

JEN: You know it doesn't really count unless you actually put them in the recycling. Did you do anything else?

JERAMY: I washed bottles.

JEN: Well you only did that because you were out of clean ones.

JERAMY: Sooooo?

Let's just say that Jeramy and I have very different tolerances for mess, and he will invariably put cleaning at a much lower priority than I do. On Monday, between trips to the bathroom, we both pitched in to get the house clean. And I find that if I am specific about how I want him to help he is a relatively willing participant. Usually though I just get pissed off, which seems to be a much less productive approach to resolving this particular marital dispute. When he goes back to work again, I am so calling a cleaning service.

The rest of the weekend fun is best shown in pictures.

Just prior to acquiring the GI bug, I manage to fall when getting out of the recliner. I didn't fall for any reason in particular unless you count me being the klutziest person on the planet as being a reason. Anyhow, my pinky toe was one casualty of my fall.

The walker was the other.

Jeramy managed to get it in working order, except that it now has a rather significant lean to it. It is as if one side of the walker is all pumped up on hydraulics or something. If Jillian starts blasting rap music and installs absurdly expensive and impractical low profile rims and tires, we will really be in trouble.

Among happier developments, Jillian is now fully capable of holding her own bottle. Perhaps it is lazy parenting, but I prefer to think of it as encouraging a healthy level of independence. And Jillian doesn't seem to mind either.

Among our continuing woes, Jillian proved that she still can vomit all over the place for no apparent reason.

Of course, Jillian seemed rather proud of herself afterward.

On the new house front, we are really enjoying ourselves here. I really like all of wildlife around, and it seems we have a pair of mallard ducks living in our pond. The are quite skiddish, and watching from the deck is about as close as we can get. I'm hoping for some ducklings in the near future. However there must not be any eggs yet, because according to wikipedia poppa mallard takes off once those are laid. A very bad baby daddy, it seems. I'm so disheartened. I loved the book Make Way for Ducklings so very much and now it seems that it was all just a lie.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

She Gets Around

I know all of the parenting books and magazines admonish the use of a walker. It's dangerous they say. They'll walk even later because they will have an alternative for moving around. But of course, I'm not big on following all of those parenting rules. So guess who has a walker. And over the past several days she has really figured this contraption out.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Weekend in Pictures

A new toy.


mmmmmm...tasty.

Trapped.


Playing with Kaycie.


Hanging out with Danny


Practicing standing.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Manic Monday

Remember that song from the Bangles?

Manic Monday....oooooooo...I wish it were Sunday....oooooo....That's my fun day...ooooooo...I don't have to run day....ooooooo.....Just another manic Monday

What lyrics. Gotta love the '80s. I'm a total Bangles fan. Bring on Eternal Flame any day.

Moving on, that is how my Monday felt. Get Jillian up. Go to work. Work, work, work. Go home. Take catnap with Jillian (okay that part wasn't manic). Start laundry. Make dinner. Now it is bathtime. I'm sitting in the bathroom blogging while Jillian takes her bath. Such a responsible parent, I know.

My busy Monday made me feel a little jealous when I heard that Jeramy and Jillian met up with friends Clint and Dakota this morning at McDonalds. A daddy playdate, I joked to him. I guess some old ladies thought it was just wonderful that daddies were staying home with their babies. It probably wasn't such a common sight in their generation. Clint's wife Amy told me all about how he said that being a stay-at-home daddy is the new "thing". I was just happy that Jeramy was able to get so many errands done today so that I don't have to on the weekend.

My Saturday was super busy because I decided to have a last minute BBQ for my friend's birthday. That meant cleaning. I usually do most of my housework on the weekends, but having people over always provides extra motivation. My mother's housekeeping philosophy was to keep the front room clean and then ONLY clean the rest of the house if guests were coming over. The problem was that they only hosted gatherings about once or twice per year. I figure if I can just have people over every month or so, I can keep my home much cleaner.

Sunday was nice and relaxing. Jillian and I met up with Sunny and Danny for cupcakes at Common Ground. I was thoroughly impressed with the cupcakes. Of course, it's not like there is such a thing as a bad cupcake after all. I got some cute pics of Jillian and Danny that I'll have to post later. But unfortunately I have to run now as Jillian's attitude is starting to indicate that bathtime is now over.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Ahhhh...

It is amazing how much you appreciate 8 hours of sleep after a week of sleep deprivation. Pure bliss.

I can't say for certain what caused Jillian's sleeplessness. A tooth still has not made an appearance, so perhaps it isn't teething. I'm always thinking she might be teething but then nothing comes of it. So annoying. Perhaps it was something related to the diarrhea, which has improved significantly. The doctor had her start antibiotics Wednesday night, but the improvement happened so quickly after her first dose that I don't know if it was really the meds that made the difference or whether it was just time to get better. Either way we're in a much better place, so I'll cast my compulsive need to understand the cause of all problems aside.

And many of you are right. Despite all the sleeplessness, Jillian was generally a very happy baby when awake. Everybody is always commenting on how smiley her pictures are. What I haven't mentioned is that I have trained Jillian to smile for the camera. Now all I have to do is break it out, and she immediately erupts into a great, big grin! Maybe she could go into baby modeling. Jeramy might like it, because then her could make a career out of being a pageant dad rather than going back to work. Of course he also finds exploiting your children distasteful, so maybe that wouldn't work out after all.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Exhaustion

I would come up with a better title for this post, but I'm just to tired to. In fact we're all tired at my house, except for maybe Jillian. Which strikes me as odd since she is the one keeping us awake at night after all. Still no teeth. Still dealing with nasty diapers (although I can deal with the diapers...it's the inexplicable diarrhea that worries me). Still drinking liquid gold. Oh and I forgot to mention we've been trying to keep a yeast infection/diaper rash at bay ever since the diarrhea started. Good times I tell you. Good times.

So since I don't have the energy for a real post, I give you pictures.


Progress on the addition. Jeramy has finished the electrical as well as insulating and drywalling the ceiling. Now he's working on the walls. He is seriously the busiest unemployed guy I know.


Touring the addition after bathtime.

Crashed out at bedtime. But she won't be asleep long, I assure you.

Enjoying a can of liquid gold. I only make bottles in 2 oz and if I'm brave 4 oz increments these days. God forbid that I waste any of this.

This scares me.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Please God, Let this be Teething

I always thought that maybe moms were just exagerrating when they described trials of teething. I think that I was wrong. Very wrong. And I only say "think" because none of those little white suckers have actually poked through yet. Please...PLEASE...let them break through soon.

Jillian is drooling up a storm. Last week she ran a fever of 102 for no apparent reason. She bites everything including her father's chest (I suspect Jeramy feels badly for breastfeeding moms of teething babies now). Sleep has been horrible. She is up constantly and the pacifier rarely solves the problem. She wants to be held and rocked. I don't think she has slept more than three hours straight in days. To top it off she also has a runny nose. Snot and drool just seem to ooze out of every oriface.

Oh and did I mention that she STILL has diarrhea? At least 6 slimey, mucousy diapers a day with at least one blow-out. I've heard of babies getting diarrhea while teething but for 3 weeks??? The doctor ran tests but did not detect anything that would explain it. So now he has put her on hypoallergenic formula to see if that helps anything. On one hand it would be awesome to get to the bottom of this. But have you seen the price of Enfamil Nutramigen??? $26 for a 16 oz can. Ugh.

Oh and it's Mother's Day. Between all of the drool and the snot and the poo, let's just say that I have a new appreciation for this holiday! Jeramy and Jillian took me to brunch this morning, which was nice. Also, my MIL watched her for a few hours yesterday so that we could take advantage of the gorgeous weather for a motorcycle ride. It had been a year since I'd been on the bike, and it felt wonderful. It has been months since we had done something fun sans baby.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. And to those ladies still in the trenches and battling infertility, I pray that the next Mother's Day will be your first.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

7 Months

Ummm Jillian, could you please explain how you have gone from this to this?

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Milestones

I thought one of the hardest things about being a working mom would be missing so many of the firsts. Rolling over, crawling, walking, etc. But what I didn't realize was what a process reaching all of these milestones would be. I guess that I just expected Jillian would suddenly achieve each milestone...like one day she'd be hanging out on her back on her play mat and the next day she'd be rolling over. I didn't realize that the whole thing would drag out for months. First she'd roll on to her side. Then she'd roll even further up on her side. Then further. Then she'd pretty much be all the way on her stomach except for that dang arm in her way. And then...finally...she'd roll on her stomach. In all honesty, I still can't quite figure out what point in the whole process marked the "rolling over from back to front" milestone. And you know what, I don't really feel like I missed anything major by working because even if I wasn't the first person to witness each little inch of progress, I still got to witness the spectrum of her learning process. And somehow watching her learn is the most satisfying part of all.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Not Exactly a Perfect Mom

Well we managed to survive our trip to Alabama despite the lost luggage, numerous diaper blow-outs, horrific diaper rash and long plane ride. Really things improved over the course of the week as our luggage arrived after 48 hours and the doctor advised lotrimin for the diaper rash as they suspected yeast (it worked!). However some of the photographic evidence leaves one wondering just what kind of mom Jillian has. Certainly not a responsible one.