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I don’t usually read Whimsy, but her whole Blog Drought Thing has me intrigued.

Today, (well yesterday) the idea was to pick 3 of your posts for people to read. Without further ado, here are 3 of my favorites.

There was my tirade when SOMEONE STOLE OUR BABY’S NAME!! last March. Fun Fact—this has had little to no impact on my life. Pregnancy hormones are FUN!!

Here is one of a few “Open Letter” posts I wrote. I particularly like this one because it is a reminder of Lucy being completely inappropriate with Chapstick.

And here is one from my old blog which seems so long ago, when Bud was 2.5 and Lucy was 1.

I’ve been having a good time reading my blog posts from last July. Fun times!! I can’t believe I looked like that!

Liv will be a year old 2 weeks from today? Where does the time go? I’m not going to speculate, but surely there must be some conspiracy. She still SLEEPS like a newborn, so she most definitely can’t be 1.

She took her 1st steps Saturday night, in front of Hub’s mom, brother and sister. She wanted BIL’s container of wipes. She has consistently taken between 2 and 6 steps when prompted since then—FOR US. Not at daycare or for my mother. She wants everyone to think we are liars, apparently.

This whole week feels like a time suck because I am working Saturday. Normally, Wednesday is like, WOOO! Halfway there!!! Not so much today though. I am off Monday though, and then have 3 days off the following week. And then some time in August……And then Summer will be over.

This post is going nowhere and I am off to a retirement lunch. (not mine, sadly)

Because I’m still in a bad mood (MOSTLY because my SIL is getting in to town 5 hours sooner than scheduled):

• When I say “Hi, how are ya” to somebody and they only say “hi” back without asking how I am in return. I realize that neither of us cares how the other one is doing, but it’s rude not to ask.
• When people soap up their hands in the bathroom before they’ve gotten them wet. It totally just skeeves me out.
• The fact that someone invited me to order lunch with her today, but she is not going to get it until 1:15. For the love of GOD, that is practically dinner time.
• That no matter how often I sweep or vacuum, my entire floor is always covered in crumbs.
• When people say “If you have any questions, please see Sara or Myself.” Can I see yourself soon? GAH!
• I hate it when people try to tell me things about my kids. Not like “Bud did X at summer camp today……” but like when people act like they know MORE about them than I do. “Oh that Liv, she sure has a temper on her…Lucy loves to eat olives…” As if they are educating me or something. When all of my kids were babies, they were grunters and people constantly told me, “oooh, he/she is making a big mess in the diaper!!” and I’d be all like, “no, the grunting is just what they do…” and people would ARGUE with me. This is One of Those Things I Think About. Like all the time.
• When people spell out “OK.” OKAY!! This is perfectly acceptable…BUT NOT TO ME!!!
• People sending read receipts on their email. I always refuse to send the receipt. SCREW YOU and your attempt to create a paper trail!!

Ok(ay)! I am eating my arm because my lunch still isn’t here!!

Every day for the last 10 or so days has been “one of those days”. Hub is crazy, the kids are crazy. And I feel crazy.

It started a week ago Saturday, when Hub worked all morning/afternoon and I ran around alone with all three kids doing banking, shopping, and then a ridiculous and tiresome lunch in the park. I had no sooner got home, got all 3 kids sleeping and had just fallen asleep myself when Hub got the call that his mother was in heart failure and being rushed to the hospital. She is DNR, so OMG. Hub is the healthcare proxy as well, so he needed to be there, BUT he also needed to be home to take the big kids to see Walking with Dinosaurs by 6PM. It was a freaking roller coaster.

All of last week went along like that, Hub splitting his time between work and the hospital. I was alone with the kids every single night last week, working dinner, bed time, baths, prepping for the next day, everything. And while my children are (mostly) well behaved angels during the day, they turn in to hell beasts at night. I don’t know why they have such a hard time settling down in the evening, but they do. And usually Hub is there for at least part of the time to help corral them. By the time Wednesday came along though, I was contemplating driving off a cliff, or possibly locking them all in a closet while I went off on a drinking binge. Yes, it was that bad.

MIL is better though, had a nasty case of pneumonia that was exacerbated by a. smoking, b. living in a second floor apartment with no AC, and c. generally not taking care of herself. She’s been depressed for a long time now, and it has kind of come to a head. She is out of the hospital and staying with her mother. We are looking to get her in to assisted living; Hub is getting power of attorney and will be her legal guardian.

I feel like this shit shouldn’t be happening to us for another 20 years. We shouldn’t have to take care of his 55-year-old mother.

To top it off, my SIL is coming to town TOMORROW because she feels like she needs to see her mom. She hasn’t been home for over 3 years. Guess where she is sleeping? That would be my couch. I warned her that there are children up at all hours of the night. She doesn’t seem to mind. Ok then.

So, the ride has not yet ended and doesn’t appear to be stopping soon. Calgon! Take me away!

The baby is finally sleeping regularly through the night AND in her own bed. Which in a word is amazing. I feel like I have a whole new lease on life, now that I have moved from the couch in to my own bed, and I am not being torn from sleep with frantic screaming several times a night. I have woken several times in a panic like “OMG, what’s going on?? Why isn’t she up??” but that too, has passed. I even told Hub that he could put the swing away, which has been our godsend over the last 11 months. (Despite the fact that she is WAAAAAAY to large for it)

What worked was
• Lowering her crib mattress to the lowest level
• Placing her in the crib and allowing her to cry herself to sleep
• Allowing her to sleep on her belly

The first few nights were a hell that I have never experienced since Bud and Lucy always slept well. Now though, after maybe 2 weeks, she will fuss a bit and then go right back down. And if she does stir in the night, she puts herself back to sleep. She has gone from sleeping maybe 6-7 hours a night to sleeping for a solid 11 hours, to the point of me having to wake her up to get ready for the day. And it’s so cute!! She buries her head back in to her mattress and peeks up at me as if to say “Really?? Already??” And then she lies there with her bottle, and when it is empty, she yells “DONE!” and we are ready for our day.

Perspective is a funny thing. If you asked me a few months, or even a few weeks ago if I could ever do this again, the whole baby thing, the answer would have been a solid “HELLZ NAH!!” While watching “Deliver Me” last night, I cried for the first time since Liv was born, upon seeing the birth of another baby.

And for the first time in a very long time, I thought “Who knows; maybe…”

The Crabby Tee is available again at TCP. A little bit different than the one we all bought a few years ago (when lucy was….sigh…..not even 2), but a crabby tee just the same!

Somebody is 9 months old today!!

Since my first child started to walk, my fear of damaged teeth set in. I don’t know what it was, but every time he walked (who am I kidding, he ran everywhere) I cringed a little. I knew he was just going to fall flat on his face and knock a tooth out. I knew that nothing would be done because they were baby teeth. I worried that I’d have a 2 or 3 year old walking around, missing a front tooth, until he was 6 or 7. To say that protecting his teeth (and Lucy’s and now Liv’s too) was an obsession, would be a huge understatement.

We were lucky though. Bud has managed to chip both of his bottom front teeth over his 5.5 years, once by falling off of a swing at age 2, and again last summer by banging his chin on the floor at school. This was generally, not a big deal and if noting else, assured me that the kid’s teeth were pretty tough.

I wasn’t really waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it has, in a big way.

I mentioned last week discovering the growth of an extra tooth in Bud’s mouth. It has been coming down right in between his 2 front teeth, pushing them farther and farther apart. Yesterday was the fateful dentist appointment, and he did surprisingly well, chatting with Dr. Mary, sitting well for an x-ray, everything. I was proud of our kid.

The Dr. was too. He has very clean teeth and no cavities, so yay! She reviewed the x-ray to determine if this was, in fact, an extra tooth, or if one of his permanent teeth was coming down early, and in the wrong spot. The x-ray revealed that it was for sure an extra tooth and the dentist let us know that it has done no damage to his permanent teeth. Hub and I were relieved…until…the other shoe dropped.

It is dissolving Bud’s baby teeth. Right now it’s not such a big deal, but if the deteriorate further, it could cause decay and problems for his permanent teeth. So. Not only will he be having the extra tooth removed, he needs to have the 2 front teeth removed as well. It is the best option to protect the big teeth.

And I get it, I do. But I hate the thought of my baby being without his front teeth for a year or more. He’ll go off to kindergarten like this. Who knows when the big teeth will come down.

It’s trivial, I know. And in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really mater. It matters to me though. It’s like a nightmare is coming true and I can see it coming a mile away. And I can’t do anything to stop it.

The procedure will occur in late August, giving the extra tooth some more time to descend so that she can just yank it, as opposed to cutting his gums. I guess we’ll just enjoy his (extra) toothy grin until then.

To say that the last couple of weeks have been hellish would be the understatement of the century. It started 2 weeks ago Monday, when I had the day off. The kids went to preschool/daycare and Hub and I spent the day together. I picked the baby up early to take her to get her picture taken, since we have not taken her even once since her birth. (the curse of the 3r chilled, I know) She was amazing at the photo session, and they took a zillion photos because she was just so good. We left, and she slept in the car seat for a good 2 hours. She woke up feverish and miserable, refused to eat and did not sleep a wink. It was more of the same on Tuesday—just one crabby baby. I took her to the doctor the next day to discover a double ear infection and the start of something in her throat. So there were antibiotics and Motrin for days on end.

Just when she started feeling better, the teething began to kick in to high gear. She finally popped the 1st bottom tooth last week, and the second one appeared yesterday. Her moods have been hit and miss and it is either WAY up or WAY down, never in between. And through it all, she’s decided that she no longer likes to sleep. I can usually get her to go down in her bed and she’ll stay for a few hours but then she’s up, and wants to sleep on me, or in the swing, or a combination of the 2. I’m probably fostering this behavior because my main concern is that she doesn’t wake the big kids. I’m at a loss; I’ve never had a baby who doesn’t sleep.

I’m sure though that in time, she will. Maybe she’ll be 16, but eventually, she will sleep….right? At lease she’s cute though:

When talking about the baby constantly running her tongue over her new teeth, Bud pointed out that he also had a new baby tooth. I was all like “you do not…goofball…” but he actually does. His teeth have always been gaped, and I thought the gap in the front seemed larger recently, and was trying to get him in to the dentist for a checkup anyway. I looked in his mouth to see a molar-like tooth coming down from behind and right in between his 2 front teeth. I was moderately horrified, and called the dentist right away the next morning. They seem to think that as long as it is removed before his permanent teeth start coming in, there won’t be any permanent damage, so that’s good. We are going in to have it checked out next Monday.

Nothing is really going on with Lucy; she did have a throat type infection and was also on antibiotics, but she seems to thrive on the drama of such situations. She is on an “I want to cut my hair” kick, which makes me nervous. On one hand, how great would it be to have her hair short and low maintenance? On the other hand, she is my girl, and I love her long dark hair. The question is also raised as to should a 3-year-old be allowed to control the length of her hair? I don’t know.

And it is completely unfair that babies die. I am completely overwhelmed with grief for the families of Maddie and Thalon today that I can’t even describe it. I didn’t know either of these families and to be honest, I never even read their blogs. Word travels on the internet though, and I gradually became aware of these two babies whose lives ended much too soon.

My heart goes out to each of the families.

Thinking about something happening to any of my children, whether they are 4 months, 17 months, 7 years or 25 years old kills me. I don’t know how I would go on.

I also feel selfish complaining about ear infections and sleepless nights and the rigmarole of parenting. I mean, jeeze. At least my kids are here.

The bottom line—babies shouldn’t die. Ever. At least not while their parents are around to watch.

My heart is heavy today.

Edmund, Caitlyn, Hannah—I love you.