One of those days...

I'm not sure if it's the fact that its raining and windy outside (throwing millions of leaves on my lawn that I'll have to spend alot of time cleaning up this weekend), the fact that Daria was up 5 times last night, the fact that Arianna didn't get a great sleep last night either or what... but today is an unusually hard day for me.

Daria was so lovely yesterday - it was so nice. My parents treated me to an early birthday present and gave me some money to get clothes. I got 4 sweaters and 3 pairs of pants at Kohl's while they watched Arianna for me. My mom found great tops for me and DeeDee was such a doll the whole day - she was wonderful, for a change. Last night was a different story.

Arianna didn't nap yesterday and was playing really hard with me and my dad at the mall yesterday (running ALL over the place) so she was wiped out come 5 PM, but it was much too late to nap of course, so she stayed awake being a total brat until I put her to bed at 7 PM - but not before she physically abused my poor elderly cat TiSan! She kicked him hard into the basement door and I couldn't even get him to come near me all night. I don't usually advocate spanking a child but this is a problem we've been dealing with with Arianna for a while now - she loves to use her feet/legs to 'interact' with the cats. Well, this time she really hurt him and I let her know what that feels like and then put her in 'time out' for 5 minutes. She was totally hysterical and quickly went to bed afterwards... thank goodness.

8:30 PM I went to go check on her - she was asleep behind the door and opening the door woke her up. 11 PM same thing. Dad went to bed at 1:30 AM and she was again behind the door. She's been really good about this since we got her her new 'big girl bed' and had been sleeping in it but I blame the busy day and extreme tiredness on how she slept, and thus, how she was acting this morning (super whiny).

As soon as Arianna went to bed Daria went on a binge - she ate clear through to 10 PM and then nursed for 40 minutes(!!) when we went to bed at 10:30. So why is it that she would nurse 4 seperate times during the night? She's supposed to be going longer at night, no hording up for the next day! I am really tired of this!! On top of that she's been crying/whining all day today too! Grrr...

Trying to do schoolwork with Arianna today wasn't easy. I took away markers when she started coloring on the table and she screamed and screamed until she woke up her sister (who was taking on of her very short 4 min. 'cat naps') and then the two of them were screaming.

I'm not kidding - I locked myself in the bathroom and cried. Why do I feel so inadequate at this? Why do I let a 2 year old and a 2 month old do this to me?

Why? Because I want to be a great mom and when I can't control my anger/annoyance with Arianna or my patience with Daria I feel very sad - I need to do better, but then again, I'm learning too.

Thank you

I firmly believe she wouldn't be here if it wasn't for this wonderful lady. Thank you.

2 months...

Daria hit 2 months this week. She weighs in at 12 lbs. 8 oz. and growing - don't know how long she is but I suspect she's not in the 85th percentile for her height like she is for weight. The 6th month clothes she fits into are too long.

She's nearly got the 'holding my head up' thing going on and is smiling and cooing at us when she's not screaming... which is often.

Tuesday we went to the GI clinic and saw the same GI doctor that took care of Arianna and he remembered us, which was nice. We put Daria back on the Prevacid but this time at an appropriate dose - a full half a tablet instead of the wierd thing the pediatrician had us doing.

And she hasn't stopped screaming since. No lie.

The Pepcid was sort of working for her - she wasn't totally happy but she wasn't screaming for hours on end. We had such good luck with prevacid that I really wanted to believe it was the best choice - but its obvious its not. My poor baby was up all night long. I slept from 11 PM to 1:30 AM but then hubby had to sleep so I was up the rest of the night with her - she was totally miserable, poor thing... poor us too.

This morning was a disaster - Daria was screaming none stop, Arianna had ripped off all her clothes and was running through the house (and mind you it was in the 30s last night and we haven't turned on our heat yet) and annoying the crap out of me... it was bad. I even called my parents up to complain.

After a call to the pediatrician (who got on the phone super quickly when the receptionist heard DeDe screaming) we are putting her back on the pepcid and increasing the dose a bit. It's not the ideal situation but it may be the best we get. The GI doc did remind me we'll probably be dealing with this for at least the next 4 months... lovely. I just hope she doesn't suffer for 2 years like Arianna did.

My mom is on her way to the hospital to have the PICC line removed after her 6 weeks of antibiotics treatment and they said they would come down and take Arianna for the night...

Daria fell asleep after I hung up the phone and has been sleeping since... and now Arianna is down for a nap... and I feel guilty for making my parents (neither of whom are working right now) spending the gas money to drive down here... but Shawn won't be home until 8 PM tonight (dinner out with friends, must be nice...) and I'd really welcome a break from 'the toddler'...

This 'stay at home mom' thing is really hard some days. I still love it, but its hard some days.

Being a SAHM & the supermarket

It's hard to have adult conversation when you're a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom) so I welcome the chance often, when it comes.

Daria loves the supermarket - I think it's the lights. It's one of the only times that she actually awake and not screaming.

Since Arianna is at daycare on Wednesdays I usually do my grocery shopping then. I spent 90 minutes at the grocery store today - I don't think I've ever spent that much time at the grocery store before.

Bringing a baby to the grocery store brings out all the 'grandmas'. They all think Daria's the best baby (and she is, of course!) and always want to sneak a peak.

Today I talked to one of them for nearly 30 minutes. I've never done that at the grocery store before either.

I really enjoyed the conversation with her.

Eek!

I think mice are super cute... when being eaten by a snake that is.

I don't, however, think mice are cute in my basement... and we seem to have a big problem.

When we purchased this house and had the inspection, the inspector told us "You have mice. All houses have mice. I don't see any damage so its probably just a seasonal problem.". When I had the house exterminated for carpenter ants this summer the exterminator told me we had mice. But he went one step further and told me what to do - so we went to Home Depot and bought some bait to put out in the basement.

I had Shawn put several packets in the laundry room which has several 'outlets' out of the foundation - meaning several 'inlets' for mice. Also put several in the drop ceiling in the adjourning room.

Not only were the packets opened and moved from where they were placed but they were EMPTY.

Oh My God.

5 days after the packets are opened we are supposed to start seeing dead mice.

Oh My God.

My laundry room is down there and so is my scrapbooking room with the computer that I do all my photo stuff on. I can't go down there now! My cats can't go down there and no way the kids will go down there. The bait stays active in the mice even after they die so the cats can get sick and mice in general are yucky so the kids shouldn't even see them yet come in contact with them...

But God help me if I see mice up here on the living floor.

Photo Contest Submissions

Here are the pictures I submitted for the photo contest - I'll find out in 2 weeks if any of them won. From what I've seen of others pictures, I have a good chance!

Daria, on the couch

Wildflowers in my driveway

Mini pumpkins in a barrel

My cat Misty

Checkboard and rocking chairs outside Cracker Barrel
(yes, I took many pictures inside and outside of CB and yes they thought I was strange)

Permission

I don't remember giving her permission to 'grow up'...

Sisters

I don't believe the type of bonding Arianna and Daria are doing now (and yes, there is alot of 'playing' together) would happen if they were in daycare. I'm so glad to be able to provide an environment for them to allow their relationship to exclusively flourish - its wonderful to watch.

grrr....

For the last 4 days Arianna hasn't wanted to eat much at all.

Perhaps a toddler thing? Perhaps a 'getting another cold' thing? Dunno but its quite annoying. Today she is wearing an outfit she wore LAST fall. Yes, its shorter, but otherwise still fits great. She's 31 months and wearing clothes that are sized 18 months. Why does this still bother me? I don't know... but it does and today I'm sad.

I made gorgeous snickerdoodle cookies and she had all of one bite... what's wrong with a kid if they won't eat fresh made cookies?

Whachu lookin' at?

I did a mini-photo shoot with Daria yesterday in the living room - got some good shots out of the 500 pictures I took. I love this one in Black and White - still needs some tweaking to really pop though... I'll get to it eventually

Saying goodbye...

Saturday we went to an autumn festival near out home and had a great time. Somewhere between getting in the car to go home and actually getting into the house we lost Arianna's glasses.

Ya!

Yes, it sounds strange to be excited about that but in reality I really hate those glasses. For anyone that may have a toddler expected to wear glasses - these ones pictured are not the best if your child tolerates wearing frames. They fall down too easily and are very hard to adjust.

I'm hoping to get a good deal on some replacement frames that will actually stay up on her face... wish me luck!

Pepcid to the rescue!

Prevacid didn't seem to be working for Daria so we started her on Pepcid last week.

In reality I think the Prevacid would have worked fine if we got proper dosing but the pediatrician had us cutting the 15 mg. solutab in half, dissolving that half in 5 ccs of water and then giving her 1 cc twice a day. For anyone that has ever used this solutabs you'll know that the 'pellets' sit in the water, they don't fully disolve so we'd never know how much of the actual medicine she was getting. It was really strange dosing... and on top of that, Prevacid is a time release medicine, meaning it slowly releases over the course of the day. So why give it to her twice a day?

The Pepcid is working out much better because we only have to give her .3 cc, which is easier to give her. It seems to be working well as she is much calmer now - I think some of this has to do with her maturity also. Her temperment on a whole is much more even now and I hope it continues. She's sleeping longer at night and we hope to move her to her crib next week. I really need her to sleep in her crib!

We see the GI doctors next week and hope for the best!

Misty, before and after

Here's one photo of my cat Misty going into the contest:

Before:


After:


It's framing funny on blogger, but you get the idea. I must say, I love photoshop!

Yes, she really is waving...

*wink*

Please help

I'm trying to narrow down my submission photos for the photo contest I'm in and one of the categories is 'people' - so of course I had to submit photos of one of my darlings, so I took some shots of Daria on her tummy on my couch.

Which one do you think is more 'contest worthy'? And what can I do to make it even better?

Electric woes

Our house is entirely electric - electric heat, electric appliances etc. The only non-electric item is our hot water, which is propane.

Our monthly budget for electric is now $350. It has gone up $200/month in the 2 years we've lived here.

This has to be wrong. The electric company says no. I call today to get us back on the monthly payment plan so we don't get socked when we turn on the heat November 1st. (and yes, I will stand to 11/1 without heat in all the rooms but Daria's and only hers at night).

Yet I call and the meter numbers they have are wrong. The meter registration number is no what they have either. So someone comes out tomorrow or Friday to look at the meter and then its an ENTIRE month before we know what our monthly useage is and only then can we get on the budget plan... and only then can we get an energy audit.

We must have some alien life force sucking all the electricity in this house - I talk to my neighbors and our electric is double what theirs is. I just don't want to get socked with yet ANOTHER $1200 bill in August.

Alas though, its comparable to oil prices right now...

I can dream can't I?

I can dream that she'll eventually sleep there at night right? 7 long long weeks of cosleeping is really getting to me - if she slept well at night I'd have no problem with it, but she doesn't unfortunately.



Yes, I know the whole 'sleep on their backs' thing - but trust me... this child doesn't sleep well anyway (grunting and groaning all night long), and the only way she'll sleep at all is laying on her side or her tummy. Talked to the pediatrician about it already and he's ok with it as long as there is no chance of anything covering her mouth/nose.

Bummed

Ya know what happens when you wash a pair of jeans in which your beloved Razr V3 cell phone was in the pocket?

The phone stops working...

...imagine that!

$107 later I should have a phone by next weekend. Minus all my phone numbers and all my pictures of course *Jen sobs loudly*

Did you watch...

...the debate last night?

Did you hear McCain's plan for the homes being forclosed on?

He said he would advocate for the government to buy up those loans and sell them back to the homeowners for what the current value of their homes is.

Really? That's fabulous... for them.

What about those of us who didn't get in over our heads on a house and have been working hard to ensure we make our payments on time every month?

Although neither the democrats or republicans will get my vote this November, since one of them will get in they had better not forget about those of us who are actually smart with our money. I'd love to refinance my home at the current market value. Considering my house has lost about $30k in value I could save alot of money!

Politicians... lots of talk and no action, as usual. I hate voting for the usual 'clown side show' every election so I don't anymore... but unfortunately 3rd party candidates are never heard from in debates...ever. So no one hears the good ideas anymore.

I have a good reason...

Yes, the past week has been sparse for posts but I have a good reason. We had Daria's "sip n' see" on Sunday - it was an 'open house' style party where all our friends and family who hadn't met her yet could come by and meet her and share in some food (really good food too...like canoli's... yum!). We sent out invitations with the birth announcements about a month ago.

It was in place of the 'after party' you would typically have after a christening... since we're not getting the girls christened in the catholic church, much to my parents/families dismay. At least they've stopped harassing me about it though...

But in order to make it to Sunday there was a TON of stuff that needed to get done. We had to clean first and foremost - and this is something that hadn't really been done since before I went on bedrest like 4 months ago! So there was alot to do. We also had to finish Daria's nursery which was a feat in and of itself, trust me! So we (ok, mostly myself) were incredibly busy and this left no time for blogging, or checking email for that matter... I'm almost under 400 emails now, its progress!

So anyway, here are before, during and after pictures of Daria's nursery (click on them to see them bigger). I have to say I'm really pleased with how it turned out and my family is convinced I should be an interior decorator now LOL!

Before

During and...

After

Now if I could only get her to sleep in it, it would be the 'ideal' room (eye roll)...

Nursery Rhymes for toddlers

Goosey Goosey Gander,
Whither shall I wander?
Upstairs and downstairs
And in my Lady's chamber.
There I met an old man
Who wouldn't say his prayers,
So I took him by his left leg
And threw him down the stairs.

I had never actually heard the entire rhyme until this weekend.

Wow, that's pretty twisted...

Getting Serious...

So I've made the decision to get more serious about my photography. I actually made the decision last year but I couldn't decide what the best avenue would be.

So last night I attended my first camera club meeting with a local camera club. It was the second time in 6 weeks I'd actually left the house without my babies... it was awesome! hehe

Although everyone is an amateur they are all really fantastic photographers and I am really looking forward to learning more from them.

This weekend they are sponsoring a photo marathon/contest for fall photos and the prize is a large gift certificate to a local camera store - I can hear a Tamron 17-55mm lens calling my name! LOL

They participate in lots of contests for the new england camera club council and plan field trips and studio time (for those of us unlucky enough to not have our own studio...). I'm really looking forward to learning more and honing my skills.

It's so nice to be doing something for me again!

Do you live in CA?

Please consider voting to pass Proposition 2 and end animal cruelty.

So I called the GI group at the children's hospital to try and get us in ASAP. No can do - at least a month out.

I called the pediatrician to see if they could get us in sooner. No can do - even the Boston groups are months out for new appointments.

DeeDee can't be cranky like this for another month - just can't.

The pediatrician was sympathetic and gave us Prevacid anyway - the only reason I wanted to see the GI group in the first place.

I kept the appointment with GI anyway but we've started her on the prevacid.

She was noticeably better the next day - they say that's impossible. I say 'No it's not'.