Hilary and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

Ellie woke up every 2.5 hours last night. Then conspired with her older sister to both wake up at 6:45AM. SIX FORTY FIVE! I love my girls more than life itself, but have no desire to see them at that hour. That's when I knew today was gonna be like every other day this last week. Ellie's on her second antibiotic, this one seeming to be causing even worse diaper rash than the first one. Not to mention the fact she's still in tremendous pain with her ear. And I think the medicine makes her feel sick or nauseous or something, 'cause she starts to cry about 5 minutes after taking it and doesn't stop for quite awhile. And Annie's given up naps 5 out of 7 days a week. And has started to climb up onto the toilet to get the roll of toilet paper we hide up high. Then she throws it into the toilet. Then she tells me it was "an accident." I can't talk Ellie into fishing it out of the toilet, so it gets to be me. And I've had a sinus infection that was horrendously painful, and a dentist appointment. And the mere thought of the dentist's office just about sends me spiraling into a panic attack. (It turned out not to be too bad though, having my mouth and face numb was just about the only I couldn't feel the pain from the sinus infection.) Oh, and our air conditioner broke and I had the nice repairmen from Neerings out here today charging me an arm and a leg.

And the medical costs are killing me. In just one week: Third trip to InstaCare. Three seperate prescriptions. And that's just for Ellie. (I had a two prescriptions and that dentist visit myself.) And we're already out of money in our healthcare flex spending account for the year. I don't know about you, but I don't budget over $150 a week for medical bills!

At least I play the 'prescription game.' Are you guys in on this? Rite-Aid, K-Mart, and a couple other places put out coupons ranging from $10-$35 for a new or transferred prescription. And most of the other pharmacies will honor the coupons. So, for a $15 prescription brought to Albertson's, I often walk out with a $30 gift card to use for grocery money. Sure, it can be a pain to transfer a prescription each month, and to remember where each prescription is, and where it's been, and when it can be transferred, but when I'm having $150 of unexpected medical costs come up, at least I can steal some of the money from my grocery budget and replace it with gift cards! Now if only their were competitors coupons for doctors visits!

Okay, I'm done ranting, and feel better. I'll watch for Annie to do or say something cute and turn the mood of my blog around soon!

Game On!

We regularly get together and play games with my family. We're all currently obsessed with a card game called BANG! (thanks to Jamo & Sarah) It's basically a game of Outlaws, Renegades & Sheriff's wiping each other out with 'Bang' cards and restoring their life with 'Beer' cards. It makes for interesting conversation as you play, whether we're mocking my Mom, the perpetually drunk Sheriff, or commending Talina for buying a round of whiskey for the table. Annie always has to be in on the action. So, we set her up at the head of the table with her own deck of cards ("Choose the Right" cards), and she randomly participates by yelling "BANG!" and chucking a 'Lehi' card at Uncle Cody (Literally, she throws the card at the person she's shooting . . . which makes sense, I guess.) Or she'll throw down a 'Helaman' card and say she needs a beer. If you think this sounds sacrilegious, wait 'til you hear about chess! Today she cracked us all up though when she said, "Dang it! Beer it up!" That's what we get for letting her hang out around Uncle Cody.

My Dad decided it was high time Annie learned to play chess. ("Something her Dad should have taught her months ago," he commented.) So, setting up his "Lord of the Rings" chess set, he started explaining the pieces to Annie. Annie turned Gandolf the wizard around so she could see him and said excitedly, "Look! A Jesus!" She also found a King, a Queen, a 'Missionary' and a 'Mommy' (Legalos . . . I don't know how to take that . . . at least he's fairly effeminate. And the 'Missionary' thing came from their being two of them, and she sees a lot of Elder's since her Dad is Ward Mission Leader,) She then found the 'Monkey' guys, and the (as she called them), 'Bad Monkey' guys. At first she wasn't getting the game. She'd use her turn to rotate a single piece towards her so she could see it's face, then it was Grandpa's turn. Then, I showed her how to actually move the piece to a NEW square on her turn. On the next turn I showed her how to take her piece and knock Grandpa's piece over and replace it with her own. She was pretty excited by this, how Grandpa's piece got placed back into the box. So on her next turn she just grabbed one of Grandpa's pieces and set it back into the box. Best not to waste any time. I don't know if it was her superior strategy, playing skills or better pieces, but she whipped Grandpa at the game. She was destined to win though. 'Cause really, if Jesus can't take out a bad monkey, who can?

Stupid Ear Infections

Not much to say today . . . just that we were back at InstaCare last night with Ellie again. The ear infection is not going away, and on only her first ear infection, we're already having to move on to another antibiotic. This kinda makes me sick to my stomach . . . with Annie it wasn't until her fourth or fifth ear infection that the amoxicillin wouldn't do the trick anymore and we had to move on to the 'harder core' antibiotics. Anyway, in no real mood to write, the best I could do was upload pictures of the girls . . .

A moment like this and you wouldn't even guess Ellie was sick!
Of course, if you'd heard the solid hour of screaming that took place before this, there'd be no doubts this kid needed to be on heavy duty pain killers!

Oh, one 'Annie-ism' . . . she pulled something off the shelf in the pantry and said, "Mommy, this cost eight dollars!" "Eight dollars Annie, really?" "Yep, it was thirty dollars off."
Quite possible I take her shopping too often. But, at least her sense of a bargain is intact! Thirty bucks off! Although, maybe it's a problem if she was thought it was OK to spend $8 on a cake mix.

Stylin'

This morning Annie came in and proudly showed off her latest hear wear, "Look at me Mommy!"
"Oh," I replied, "you have a hat on!"
She looked at me like I was stupid, "It's not a hat Mommy. It's a helmet. A helmet purse."

Then later when I took the last Cheese Nip cracker from the bag, Annie scolded, "Mommy, leave that one, it's the only one left in the package."
When did my two-year old stop using words like 'hat' and 'bag' and replace them with words like 'helmet' and 'package'. The other day I asked her a question, to which she replied, "Certainly." Her ever increasing vocabulary is impressing, and scary, since she seems to be growing up so fast!



I wish I had something else fun or clever to write . . . but frankly I am in so much pain from a stupid toothache, that it's hard to think straight. Even the giant horse pill Ibuprofens aren't cutting it. And according to the dentist it's not even the teeth that are the problem, I just have a raging sinus infection that's pushing down into the roots of my molars and causing searing pain throughout my back teeth. Stupid sinuses.

Annie Exchanges

Annie had Dora the Explorer playing on the computer this morning. For those of you who haven't been dragged into the world of children's cartoons, Dora is a fairly 'interactive' kids show, where the characters stop and ask questions of the viewers, then pause and wait for an answer. Annie's always loved shows like this, and will usually shout out whatever answer is appropriate to the question. She even does the 'hands in' part with the superhero characters on Super Why, and then pretends to fly around the room.
"Can you sing the 'Hola' song with us?" asks Dora or some other character, possibly the monkey.
To which Annie responds without actually looking up at the screen, "Not right now, I'm busy."

~

A little later Annie is watching it again, this time not quite so distracted.
"Say 'rapido'," exclaims Dora.
"Rapido!" Annie enthusiastically shouts.
"Say rapido!" all the other characters repeat.

Annie glares at the screen, "I just did!"

Annie calls for me, "Mommy, come quick!"
"What is it, Annie?" as I enter the room.
"Look at my baby." Annie proudly points to her doll set up in a chair, "Isn't she gorgeous?"

~

Don't ask me why, but we occasionally call Annie "Kiddarino." One day she responded to Greg calling, "Hey Kiddarino," by asking, "What Daddyarino?" The other day, in a sleep deprived fit of silliness, she was giggling and calling everyone by -arino names. Elliearino, Babyarino, MooMooarino, Mommyarino, et cetera. Later that day she told her Dad she was a Kiddarino. Greg asked, "Is Ellie a Kiddarino?" "Yep, Ellie is." "Is Mommy a Kiddarino?" "Yep, Mom's a Kiddarino." "Is Daddy a Kiddarino?" "No," she responded, "Daddy's a Kiddaadult."

Double Trouble

Annie had her friend Wilson over today. Wilson has a new baby brother, and being a relatively new mother of two myself, I figured their Mom wouldn't mind a few hours alone with just the baby. (With your first you take for granted all that one on one cuddling time until you find yourself trying to nurse a screaming 3 month old with an ear infection while your two year old is shrieking for oatmeal.) So, Annie had a play date. Annie was hilarious to watch as she proudly showed off all of her toys and dolls, and ended every single sentence with the word "Wilson."
"This is Ellie's room, Wilson." "This is my tent, Wilson." "Come into the kitchen for a snack Wilson." "Do you like to talk on the phone Wilson?" "Some here Wilson." "Look at this Wilson. "These are my dinosaurs Wilson." "Do you like Elmo Wilson?" "We don't throw things in my room, Wilson." (Which is a lie, she totally throws stuff in her room.)
Less amusing was her repeated freak outs. Wilson was a perfect little kid, never once crying or getting upset. Annie on the other hand had meltdown after meltdown. (You try explaining to my kid that her going to bed at 10PM and waking up at 7AM isn't working for any of us!) If Wilson ran into her stroller with his shopping cart, there were tears. If Wilson asked for fruit snacks when Annie wanted a granola bar, there were tears. If Wilson pushed the noisy lawn mower toy, there were tears. ("Don't push that Wilson! It wakes up Ellie, Wilson!") If Wilson even looked at Baby Doll, there were tears. To Wilson's credit, while my daughter was completely melting down, Wilson would just stare at her in mild shock and concern, very much like I imagine he will one day when he has a pregnant wife who starts sobbing uncontrollably at a Hallmark commercial.
At this very second, she is clinging to my arm, sobbing, "Mommy, Wilson made a noise!" And Wilson just walked up and said, "Sorry." For no reason other than that's what a guy does when a girl starts crying for no discernible reason. That kid is gonna make a good husband. Annie has apparently accepted his unnecessary apology, 'cause she just said, "You said sorry, Wilson. It's OK, Wilson. I'm not sad now, Wilson."

Did anyone catch the mention to an ear infection earlier in the post? Yep, it's begun. Ellie was diagnosed with her first double ear infection last night at InstaCare. Then Greg ran to 4 different pharmacies to get amoxicillin before finding one that was open on the holiday and after 9PM. You'd think you'd go to the first 24 hour pharmacy and it'd be open, but you'd be wrong. Apparently they don't mean open 24 hours every single day, maybe they just open up for 24 hour stretches of time, then close their doors randomly to desperate drug-seeking parents in their hour of need, leaving only a small handwritten sign directing people several miles away to the nearest 'actual' 24 hour pharmacy.
So, this is the first of what I expect to be many, many ear infections for Ellie. Annie had them back to back to back until they finally put in tubes when she was 10 months old, and she became a completely different baby who took actual real naps. I tried to tell our pediatrician when Ellie was born that I wasn't leaving the hospital until their were tubes in her ears, but he claimed we needed a certain number of ear infections under our belt before they'd actually do surgery. So, here's one. I'm counting down.

Pretty happy kid now that's she on some meds!

Annie experiencing the joy of fingerpainting birthday cards for Grandma & G-Bob's birthdays!

You Talkin' To Me?

Annie has found a way to force herself into every conversation around her. Usually she adds in thoughtful "Mmhmm" sounds or "Yeah, I know" or "That's right" as people around her are busy conversing. Sometimes she latches onto one word from the conversation and repeats it or comments on it. Today she was driving with my parents and her Uncle Cody as my Dad and Cody were talking about golf. My Dad is thinking of getting new clubs and was talking about handing down his old set to Cody.
Cody commented, "That'd be great, I like your putter."
"I love putter!" Annie enthusiastically chimed in. "Especially on toast!"

Sleep, sleep, sleep

I never worried too much about sleep before I had kids. When I saw still single, my roommates and I would have friends over four or five nights a week 'til two or three in the morning, leaving me only a handful of hours of sleep before going into work . . . until one of my coworkers told me one morning I looked like a haggard drunk. Then I started kicking people out earlier and getting at least six hours of beauty sleep. But, all in all, I just didn't think too much about sleep.

Then I had kids.

It's funny how quickly my entire life suddenly revolved around sleep. My sleep, my kids' sleep, was my husband getting enough sleep? How does our schedule for the day match up with nap times? Bed time? Teaching your kids to fall asleep on their own. Sleep, sleep, sleep. There's times when nothing feels more important than the sleep issue. With Annie I literally became a barely functioning human being due to extreme exhaustion during that first little while. I used to sing the "ABCs" to Annie when she was a baby, because after the first week of never getting more than an hour of sleep at any one time, I could not remember the words to another song. Not a single nursery rhyme, lullaby, primary hymn or childhood ditty. I remember the complete horror I felt when I was singing to Annie one day, "A B C D E F G . . ." and I could not remember what came next. I started to cry. Of course, I pretty quickly was able to come up with the letter 'H', but for that briefest of time I couldn't get more than 7 letters into the alphabet due to my sleep deprivation. People would tell me, "You just need to sleep when she sleeps." This sounds like it would work . . . but if your colicky baby takes 20 minute naps on average, this usually left me falling asleep minutes, sometimes mere moments, before my baby woke with a screech that caused me to shoot up in bed like someone had used a bullhorn inches from my head. Babies, apparently Bush-leaning in their politics, have no qualms with using such sleep deprivation torture techniques.

With Ellie I was determined to do whatever it took to get the sleep I needed . . . I was prepared to co-sleep, nurse around the clock, learn to sleep in a rocking chair, earplugs, whatever it took to never feel that tired again. Fortunately, Ellie has always been a better sleeper than Annie, and although we do sleep her fully swaddled in a swing on its highest setting with a white noise machine going, she sleeps. And, I feel really pretty rested. It's been a huge relief.

Then she got sick this week. With her stuffy little nose we have to fight her to get her down for a nap, then she only sleeps 20 minutes tops. Last night it took us hours to get her down for bed, much later than normal, than after her initial stretch of sleep she was up every hour. I woke up four times last night with her. I forgot just how incredibly taxing that is . . . and when I was doing that with Annie I didn't have a two year old waking up and wanting breakfast at seven in the morning.

I feel guilty asking for Greg's help during the night, since he has to wake up at 6AM to go to work . . . but once I change a diaper she needs to be re-swaddled, and my swaddling is weak and ineffective, where as Greg's swaddling technique could restrain large, angry prisoners, and usually three month olds. Greg assures me it's not a problem, since he only half remembers waking up anyway, and unlike most Moms I talk to, he seems to be able to fall right back asleep after dealing with a squealing infant, whereas I take much, much longer to lull myself back to sleep. It all adds up for a night that seems like I spent more of it awake than asleep, which equals a day when I have absolutely no desire to play with play doh, run in sprinklers, or make cookies . . . but it's not Annie's fault I'm this tired, so it doesn't seem fair to deny her the simple pleasures of her life just 'cause I'm too tired.

Then I go and waste the twenty minutes when both kids are sleeping simultaneously and write a blog entry.

Stupid sleep.

Here's how we do get our baby to sleep. It doesn't last long though.

Only Benadryl would keep her that way, and drugging kids for sleep is frowned upon.

Sleeping Beauty

Annie isn't known for her good sleeping habits . . . so imagine our shock when she fell fast asleep up to the table the other day in the middle of eating her toast.
This is the first time she's ever 'accidently' fallen asleep.
Hopefully not her last.



Here's the girls right after waking up from their naps.




Here's why Ellie is, wisely, a little nervous around her affectionate big sister.

A Hairy Situation

This morning while getting Annie ready after her bath, I asked what she noticed about my hair. Since there was no other adult to notice and compliment my very different big full curls this morning, might as well seek validation from my two year old, right?

She replied, "Um, it's brown Mom."

"Yeah Annie, but what else do you notice."

"There's white ones too."

Yep, those are your fault kid. Yours, and genetics. I decided I couldn't ground my two year old for her brutal observations, then ran and plucked out the 5 or 6 grey hairs I could find. No more asking my two year old anything about my appearance . . . I don't know how many honest answers I can take!

Don't Drink the Punch

I'd just put Ellie down for her nap and walked back into the kitchen to check on Annie eating her lunch. My perfect little two year old was neatly setting all of her dishes into the sink while standing on her chair she'd dragged to the front of the sink. I beamed with pride as she looked up at me and smiled, then said, "I drank the pink drink Mom!" It was then I noticed her pink mustache.

"Um, what pink drink Annie?"

"In the sink!"

It was then I noticed the empty pint of ice cream container, remembering last night when I'd found the freezer burned raspberry ice cream, over half gone, and chucked it into the sink along with the soaking casserole dish to melt before throwing away the carton. Well, it had melted, and apparently when thinned out with a little sink water, looks like quite the tasty pink drink.

Ewwwww.

Children's Programming

I just heard Ellie start babbling and fussing, letting me know she's no longer asleep this morning. Annie at the same time asked, "Mommy, you come in my room, put in my Elmo movie, it's funny!" I told Annie we'd go get her little sister first, then we'd go to her room. I started walking out of my room, and called out my typical, "It's OK Ellie, Mom's coming," to which Annie responded, "Not Annie, Ellie, I'm not coming, I'm going to my room to watch my 'puter!"

In this age of third graders who have their own cell phones, Annie was just over two years old when we put her first computer in her room. I have mixed feelings about this. It was a hand me down desktop computer that my sister Lacy couldn't quite fit in her carry on when she moved out to Virginia to nanny for a year, and with as quickly as computers become relics, it seemed silly to leave a perfectly good computer waiting in storage in my parent's basement when Lacy would just want to buy a new lap top when she came back next year. So, it was decided that rather than let Annie pound around on my more valuable Mac that I do freelance design and my scrapbooking on, that if she was gonna ruin a computer, it might as well be this one. (Sorry Lacy). Thus, the computer in my two year old's bedroom. She loves to play games on it, or just to bang on the keys and excitedly tell me, "Mom, I email!" But mainly, let's face it, it's an oversized 13" TV. So, mixed feelings. We go to the library and let Annie pick out a couple different videos, usually her choice is all Elmo's World, and I recently went online and bought her favorite one, as well as Zoe's Dance Moves, which has Paula Abdul teaching Elmo and Zoe how to dance. I like this one more than any of the others, and not just 'cause my 12-year old self loved Paula Abdul music more than words, and despite the fact my 29-year old self can't stand Paula Abdul on American Idol. Mainly I love this one 'cause Annie'll get up and dance along for huge portions of the video. And since we got the computer Annie doesn't usually watch any television in my room anymore, if her video that day is basically a kids' aerobic video in disguise, I feel less guilty about her viewing habits.

I kinda miss watching cartoons with Annie now that she has the computer though. Despite her almost unnatural love of Elmo, we would actually only catch Sesame Street occasionally, usually cuddling up for the last 15 minutes right before nap time. I've been surprised at how much of children's shows appeal, or downright speak to, the adults who get sucked into watching them. Usually it's Sesame Street, where the Count watches his favorite show, 24, complete with a Jack Bauer muppet hanging precariously from a cliff's edge for 24 seconds. That one cracked me up. Or when they had Stinky the Weed on Desperate Houseplants, where the plants weren't getting everything they needed at home. That one was actually kinda disturbing. But the part of a children's show that was the most aimed at parents as an 'in-joke', was when Dr. Ruth appeared as a guest host on a segment of Between the Lions. Here she counseled the letters 'un' that they were lacking excitement in their lives and after much innuendo they were partnered with the letter 'f' and when combined were finally able to have real passion, excitement, joy and well, fun, in their lives. It was uncomfortably odd. Annie, of course, didn't get anything from it but the fact that the letter 'f' combined with 'un' spells 'fun', which is a useful thing to learn; but then again, so is the fact that a partnership needs a certain sense of 'oneness' to be healthy and to achieve real passion, I guess. Just maybe not for my two year old. It made me feel like I do when she comes in when I'm watching anything on primetime television, except that all the other characters were puppets. Unless she's on The View or something, Dr. Ruth just doesn't seem right at 10 in the morning.

How to Start a Blog

So, I finally bit the bullet and created a blog. Which has left me wondering for many days, how does one begin a blog? Introduce myself, my kids, my family? Everyone who's gonna read it already knows us. Then, I had this exchange with Annie yesterday:
"Mom, I'm poopy! Change my diaper!"
"Oh, you have a poopy diaper?"
Annie, reaching her hand around, shoving her hand down the back of her diaper, then looking at me, says, "Yep, it's poopy. I checked."
That about sums it up . . . I'm raising a monkey.