May Cause Discomfort

I read there are debates about the children of Mommy Bloggers having their privacy violated by there parents sharing their stories, but I am of the position that sharing stories in whatever forum is only going to help us all be better mothers. So I'm writing this, wishing I had had it to read BEFOREhand.

Today I gave Luke a suppository. He hadn't pooped since LAST THURSDAY and he was holding it in and looking very uncomfortable all day. My MIL had mentioned the suppository option a few weeks back. I trekked to Walgreens after Esposo got home and read all the boxes. I came home with Pedia-Lax, for ages 2-5.

Basically, you're shooting glycerin up their butt. The box noted "May Cause discomfort and a burning sensation." Though we got only about a quarter of the dose into Luke, he screamed. And I mean he SCREAMED. "IT HURTS! GET IT OUT OF MY BUTT!" And he screamed and he screamed as we sat there with him, talking about what we were going to do the next day, wiping the sweat from his brow with a cool cloth, bracing his legs as he SCREAMED.

It was god-awful. I was terrified I had done something wrong and hurt him inside. I kept checking the toilet for blood. I didn't know how long we would have to wait.

I think it took 10-15 minutes before it was said and done, and EVERYTHING came out. Luke feels much better now, and I'm very relieved, but I feel like a rotten mother for not getting him back on Miralax sooner. He's still far more constipated than I thought, lsat week's poop success aside.

I would do it again, but I hope I never have to.

Haves vs Have Nots

I mentioned to my SIL today that I was trying to get off of using the double stroller completely in the next month or two. "You won't do it." she scoffed, as she leaned over and put all her weight behind pushing her 3 1/2 year old and 6 month old in the sit and stand stroller she uses. Luke walked along side the blue Graco Quattro I've had since he was a baby. A single stroller, but still with a basket beneath for storage and pretty durable. I didn't say I was moving to an umbrella stroller, after all (though I am eyeing those maclarens and combis!)!

If I think about my mom-friends, I can pretty easily categorize them into strollers and non-strollers. There are those who have their children walking alone as often as possible and those that keep them strapped in as often as possible.

I would think I'm somewhere in the middle - I don't think weaning my very active, never napping, three year old from riding in a stroller to the park or the store is overly ambitious. If I were trying to do that with a two year old it would be far more difficult. But I don't like containment and I do like self sufficiency, so we are working on cutting off the stroller completely.

In Context

I was washing up my newest Craigslist purchase on Monday (a kitchen set for $11.10! Sotve, cabinet and fridge all toddler sized!) when my MIL showed up with my nephew unexpectedly. Even more unexpectedly, my eight year old, rambunctious crazy nephew (who yanked on my veil as I went to stand up at the head table of my wedding reception when he was 3) started playing the piano. And he was REALLY GOOD!

Luke immediately got jealous of all the attention being lavished on this great big cousin who suddenly showed up and went to sit on the top of the piano and prevent him from playing. I commented to my MIL "I think somebody's jealous!", and of course Luke responded quickly with "I'm not jealous!"

Today (Wednesday) we were driving home from the gym and I started prepping Luke for the idea of swim lessons (we're thinking fall. Yeah, I give him that much prep time. We call him 'Mr. Adaptable'.) and he immediately stated that he didn't want to go to swim lessons alone, he wanted me to go with him.

"Why do you want mommy to go with you?" I asked. "Are you scared of swimming in a class without mommy?"

"No," he said "I'm just jealous."

Happy Mommy

After a long long long LONG time, Luke pooped on the potty today. It makes a happy mommy when the poop is in the potty!

Location, Location, Location

When we were looking for a house in the summer of 2004, we had requirements of four bedrooms and a good school district. We were looking while the bubble was still fully inflated, so it was some slim pickings. The houses we saw required massive updating or were 'quaint' (meaning no storage) in close to downtown areas. We like the IDEA of quaint.

And then we saw our house on the FIRST day it was on the market. And we jumped. And we got it, with two other people waiting behind us JUST IN CASE something fell through on our deal. We liked our house, but the location wasn't as perfect as we were looking for. We're on the major thouroughfare of the subdivision.

We've also found out that our house might not have the best construction ever. Or more accurately, has little to no updating over its forty years. This, of course, costs us money all over the place.

But the location, well, that's just gotten better. Parks and schools of course. Now that summers here we can walk to get ice cream. And I can walk to the store - two grocery stores, actually, as well as Kohl's. There are a few restaurants to choose from, though we rarely eat out. And now, I'm figuring out the bus schedule so that we can ride to the Metra train and meet Daddy one night. That might not sound all that exciting to an adult - but trust me, to a three year old, that is FANTASTIC.

This location was dumb luck!

Please Come Back, Brain

I woke up at 5:30 or so this morning, because I think that's the time I usually wake up and shove my head into the pillow and squeeze my eyes shut and try to pretend I can ever get back to sleep. I love the feeling of laying in bed not having to get up, and sometimes I pretend I'm sleeping the morning away until 8 or even 9 o'clock. Aaaaahhh. And then when I get up it's 6:30. WTF??

This morning I was having a hard time with the pretend sleeping and ignoring the world, instead running through what we have to do today, first and foremost being that I need to call Firestone about what tire they need to put on my car. I've replaced tires on my car a few times, and each time they say "Well, we have two tires for your car, this one costs $130 (installed), and this other one costs $170 (installed)"

What's the difference, I ask...

"Well, the $170 has a white line on the outside."

Who gives a crap about a white line on their tire, SERIOUSLY?

Anywho, so I was going through the need to call and get the tire installed, specifying the non-white-line kind, and hoping I didn't throw away the coupon for Firestone, which I'm 99% certain I did because we don't need any car stuff done, when I finally decided to get out of bed because I wasn't going back to sleep at all.

I went into our bathroom and looked out the window at our driveway front lawn and immediately thought "Holy Crap! Where's my car?!!?"

pause... pause...

Oh right, at Firestone. The whole tire thing. That you were JUST THINKING ABOUT 2MINUTES AGO.

I blame the children.

Cutest thing EVAH

For awhile now Luke has been helping Courtney onto the couch. I would leave the room and when I came back, she'd be perched among the cushions. I'm 90% sure she can't make it up there on her own - too dang short (20th percentile height at 15 months, and 10th% weight - she just hit 20 pounds!).

I didn't know HOW he was doing it, though. We were sitting in the family room with Luke on the recliner - footrest out. Courtney started trying to get up on the recliner. I asked Luke to help her up, expecting him to maybe grab her arms or around her waist and boost her up.

Instead, he lowered the footrest and then lay on the ground on his stomach in front of the chair. Courtney obviously knew the drill because she headed right over and used her brother as a stepping stool.

How could you only ever have one kid and miss out on moments like these?

Some Things

There's been a lot going on here, and one of the things I am most happy about is that Luke is much more willing and able to walk a decent distance. For a long while there there was fighting about the stroller and who should ride in the stroller (if I only brought the single) and being tired. Now he can walk half a mile to the park and back home again, and I'm very happy with this. Because really, the KID needs to get more tired, not the mom!!

Our basement is almost complete, too!

I Shaved My Cat

That's not a euphemism of any kind, either. We got this long haired cat last fall, so this is the first spring we've gone through with him. Apparently the dude can not keep up with the shedding and he developed many matted areas on his back. So I shaved him. With my husband's beard trimmer.

The other, short haired cat also can not keep up with the shedding this year, and he developed knots all along his back. I didn't know what the heck was wrong with him, all lumpy and gross to pet, until I started brushing him and there was more hair in the brush than on the cat. This has never happened before, the knots on the short haired cat's back and I've come to a conclusion about this.

The cat is too fat to properly groom himself. I wish there was something we could do about this, but the problem is that the cat is the MOST ANNOYING ANIMAL EVER when he doesn't have food. He might sit on your head while you sleep. And if you kick him out he will chew through all the strings in the house, or paw at the door incessantly. The cat is going to stay fat.

Little Chocolate Girl

We had a BBQ on Saturday - not at our house, but we organized it with my mom group. It was everything I wanted for my kids - they ran and played and snacked and played and were happy most of the evening. The weather was gorgeous, the company was great, and the kids were up way past their bedtimes. And of course, there were tears when we had to leave!