tip toe back to the blog

Slowly, slowly, but surely, I'm tiptoeing back to the blog. I've been in a creative rut for the past, oh..year or so. But as my muse matured and left me with fewer moments of incredulity, the little one has entered into the muse arena.

I speak of Little Eebo, 21 months of destructive fury. A walking, babbling reminder of just how hard it is to be an old lady mom.

Today we did not have to take Blondie (the little girl I babysit) to school, so after we put Buddy on the bus, Eebo and I headed to the store. He drifted off to sleep just as we arrived at Wal-Mart.

Normally I hate Wal-Mart, but today we were there before 9am, and it was devoid of customers. Nice wide bright aisles, all the products are fully stocked, the produce guy found me the best looking bananas, steered me clear of the "old" grapes and ran to the bakery to get a cookie for Eebo. I had workers putting heavy things in my cart for me, getting things off shelves for me, it was like being Princess of Wal-Mart!

Sadly, Eebo ate the cookie quickly, and because he had been awakened from a dreamland so abruptly, he was cranky. I had to keep him busy, so I handed him a baggie full of Cheez-Its. Eebo loves Cheez-its, he could eat his weight in them every day if I let him. Today was different.

Perhaps I should have known something was up, because he didn't try to climb out of the cart a billion times. he didn't squeeze the bread into unidentifiable gluten balls, or throw the eggs out of the cart.

Alas, I was so intent on getting my shopping done while he was being docile, I didn't notice until it was too late what was keeping him docile.

We worked our way to the back of the store, and as I retraced my path to get something i had forgotten I stepped on what I discovered was a Cheez-It. Then another, and another. Finally I looked around, it seems Eebo left a Hansel and Gretel trail of Cheez-Its throughout the store.

I confiscated the bag to the loud protestations of one angry toddler and headed to the checkouts, avoiding eye contact with the people who were dispatched to clean up the Cheez-It trail.

We checked out quickly and without incident. But, not to be squelched, as I was putting my wallet back in the diaper bag, Eebo snatched the Cheez-It bag and in one giant Blaze of Glory he dumped the entire bag onto the floor in one giant orange pile.

We quickly exited the store. This was a mild little episode, but I know, this is just the beginning......

the reluctant roller

a not- great video of Ian escaping tummy time and then getting irritated when I roll him back into it, showing him at a young age that I am the meanest mom in the world.

Go Eebo, Go!

A friend sold me his jumperoo, has a few missing toys, but as you can see, he doesn't care. His first outing lasted 103 of nearly nonstop jumping. He didn't want to get out of it. When he does become a movin' baby, we are in for a world of hurt!

H1N1 Blues and Viking threats

Isn't he just the cutest thing ever? Yeah, that was last week. Then we found out that we had H1N1....the dreaded flu. Bug is the only confirmed case in the family, the rest of us were diseased by association.

He had a little cough for a few days, felt a little warm, but was breathing fine and eating like normal, no worries. Then Saturday came....why is it always a weekend?

He was crabby, he didn't smile, his little head bobbed when he was breathing. He didn't want his pacifier, he only wanted me. All day long. The only thing was I came down with it Friday night so I was dying all day too. With a little remora stuck to my chest. We called the clinic, and they put him back on the oxygen. This seemed to help him be more comfortable. And so did the ibuprofen, although that did nothing for his fever.

Finally he settled down and went to sleep. then at 11:30 he woke up with a croupy cough. Steam...freeze...sleep....steam...freeze....sleep all night long.

He stayed on oxygen on Sunday, I took him to see the pediatrician on call (not wanting to go to Children's...the ER is a cesspool of germs) she wrote us a script for prednisone to help with the inflammation around his larynx which caused the stridor, that he still had a bit, even though the cough disappeared at sunup (I swear that croup is the pre-cursor to vampirism.......)

Last night he slept much better, and at 6:30am was up and ready for the day!!!!

I was not.

Super G has not fallen ill as of yet. I cannot believe it, he either has very good luck, or a cast iron constitution. Either way, he better watch out. I was holding/nursing/praying Eebo into a nap today, watching a show about the Middle Ages and Charlemange. Of course he beat back the Moors with no problem etc etc, but who gave him the hardest time? The Vikings!

Discussing how mean and nasty the Vikings were, they took a traitorous man, tied him to a table, broke open his rib cage and splayed out his lungs like wings.....all while he was alive. Be warned Super G, these are my people. Be afraid, be very afraid.....

(okay so those were Danish Vikings, I'm sure the Swedish ones just killed everyone with their lutefisk or something. whatever, the point is that he may have escaped this illness, but he can't keep skating by forever!)

Little Eebo is waking up, must return to my role as a remora host.

Ian, the Kickin' Chicken

He's a kickin' machine!

Ian's Gymini workout video

Ian being super happy in his Gymini.

Dear Long Neglected Blog

I feel like a teenager who has forgotten her dear diary, after swearing to divulge her innermost secrets to it's secured and forgiving pages.

I suffer through bouts of insomnia, and what I should do is hop onto ye olde blogger and scoop the thoughts out of my head. But instead I spend my time on Facebook. I never should have joined, it sucks the time right out of your hands.

Things are going fairly well here. Tomorrow Ian goes to his BPD (BronchoPulmonaryDisplasia) clinic, and they will determine if he can be taken off the oxygen at that time. So naturally this weekend he had to come down with croup. With some loud stridor, which scared me more than the coupy cough. Saturday was a long night, I alternately steamed him and froze him, and he was able to clear up for a few hours to get some sleep. I, on the other hand, was on high alert, and slept very little.

The thing about croup is that it has a small virus attitude. It's little, it's annoying and fairly harmless. It gets no respect when up up against the big guns, like Strep Throat, Viral Meningitis or the new kid on the block, H1N1. So it makes up for it's small stature in other ways. It is loud, very loud. It scares the crap outta first time parents. And it only strikes at night, disappearing at first light. So it's either a real party animal among viruses, or it's also a vampire, I haven't figured that one out yet.

Sunday night had only about 4 minutes of coughing that didn't even wake up the baby, but intermittent stridor episodes that kept me wide awake.

We saw the pediatrician today, who could hear the stridor with his stethescope, and knowing that tomorrow could be our oxygen free day, he gave Ian a shot of steroids to help reduce the inflammation and clear up the stridor.

Fingers crossed, I hope and pray that tomorrow is the last corner that Ian has to turn......