Wednesday, November 17, 2010

phew

Man, another 11-hour work day! Gotta stop these! To top it off today was installing the faculty show. Doesn't everyone love working with faculty? Actually it was pretty good. I got to work with my former committee chair who I like and respect and we didn't have too many challenges come our way. That said, my partner in crime on this project was far more thorough and meticulous than I was, so it was a good learning experience for me but I felt like a slacker. But he's got 14 years professional experience on me, so maybe I'd be more of a pro by then too. Plus he's more invested in the show too. Anyway it was fine and the show is up and looks pretty good despite the lack of involvement from a lot of the faculty.

In other news...hmm... is there other news?

The weather is turning. It's cold now. Well we had some crazy unseasonable warmth for a while so the cold hit a little harder. Still, we have some warmish sunny afternoons so that's nice. Though I don't suppose anyone reads this for weather updates...

In Sam land, things are going very well. I'm going to have to start setting up play dates to keep him occupied with kids and activities now that we can't rely on going to the park due to weather stuff. But it's so hard. We have these two big crazy dogs so it's hard to invite people, let alone toddlers, over to play.

SLEEP UPDATES
Sam sleeps well now. He still goes to bed late, doesn't get as much nighttime sleep as some kids, but takes a big afternoon nap.

DIAPERS (or lack thereof)
Sam pees in the potty without fail now. But he doesn't want to poop on the potty. At first he did pretty well with it. Then he changed his mind. I think I'm going to just go with using diapers for poop and potty for pee. Our insistence on sticking with the undies just lead to tons of dirty undies, and he has no interest in going back to diapers or not peeing in the potty. So, when it seems he's ready to go poop, we'll just get him in a diaper and let him go standing up. Maybe they make standing up potties, hahaha. I dunno, he potty trained in like 3 days and then just changed his mind about going poo, so I think he's just not ready. I don't want to force it and make it harder or make him uncomfortable ('cause he just holds it in since he doesn't want to go in his undies and doesn't want to use the potty) so we'll do diapers for a while and wait for the time he's ready to use the potty full time.

TALKING
Sam has more words than I can practically count and speaks in 2-4 word sentences. From talking with other kids his age, I think he is still a little delayed. That said, he is continually progressing in vocab and verbal communication, I'm not worried. But he goes to this playgroup at the community center that is run by the university's speech and language program and Sam was (ironically?) there as a "typical peer", not one of the kids receiving therapy. It was clear Sam was talking MORE than the other kids, but not A LOT more. Anyway the semester is ending so the playgroup is ending and I contacted them to see if we can continue on next semester. They also have a preschool that is very inexpensive, three days a week, and seems pretty fun. So I asked about that too, while also expressing my concern that Sam doesn't meet the criteria for "typical peer". The folks in charge had some minor concerns too but think he'll probably be alright. It would be sad if he fell into some in-between area (not needing therapy/not being "typical"), but Aaron and I think Sam is beyond classification too... Anyway, I used to think preschool was kind of weird for such little kids but it becomes clear to me that I am often too tired or lacking the necessary knowledge to lead useful activities for Sam during my full days with him. The socialization and structured activities seem to be good for him. So I hope it works out. It would be for next fall when he's 3 years old.

BABY
The baby is doing fine! My belly gets bigger and bigger. I am now to the point where people feel comfortable asking me if I'm pregnant, so I guess that's good that I no longer look just chubbier. Last appointment with the midwife was good. Rather uneventful. Things seem good and there's still something beating away in there and I'm gonna go ahead and believe it's my baby's heart. The ultrasound will be next month, so we'll know a lot more then!

PREGNANCY
I do, however, already have tailbone pain. I was paranoid and thought it was related to the sciatic nerve (I have known multiple people to get bad sciatica so that freaked me out). But after reading more it seems to be ligament pain. So the awesomely named hormone relaxin is relaxin' my ligaments. This has caused my pelvic bones to shift and cause me pain. It's not bad, more of a nuisance so far, but last pregnancy I didn't have this until near the end of it and it seems so early to be experiencing it already. So I went to see a physical therapist, but when I showed up for my 7 am (!) appointment I found out that the physical therapist who works with pregnant ladies was out due to a death in the family. The other therapist talked with me about what was going on but we decided we better just wait for the lady to get back. So I'll try again next week. I do know that the pain occurs more when I am fully extended, so standing on my feet all day, extra lifting, etc. can aggravate it. Oh, pregnancy.

So that is all. I'm gonna go crash. Oh wait, I do have one little thing to do for work first. Oh, work.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Bad Day

What makes a bad day, you ask?
How about an 11-hour work day. When you have to be on your feet for most of it. And you're pregnant. And a broken piece of student artwork. And technological problems that can't be fixed by IT nor Electricians. And a broken serving platter. And no dinner. And they didn't put very many veggies on my veggie sub. And tailbone pain at only 15 weeks pregnant. And the fact that I can't take tomorrow off because I have another big event to take care of.

I came home after dark and Sam rushed over with some drawings for me that he and his dad made. He gave me a hug. I held him and told him I missed him and he said he missed me too and rubbed my back. He sat in my lap and leaned on my chest while I told him how mommy had a bad day. Later, after we were eating his second dinner and my first (at 8 o'clock), he talked about Mom having a bad day and he said "Tari Mom" (sorry mom). He rubbed my arm.

These are precious moments that make bad days a little easier to take.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Unorganized

Today is an officially completely scatterbrained, all-over-the-place, unorganized day. I completely forgot about Sam's playgroup this morning until it was nearly over. I feel like such a bad mom. I didn't really even tell him. Not sure he'd really fully understand but it could only lead to an upset kiddo. Sam loves his Friday playgroup.

And I completely missed this meeting I was supposed to go to this afternoon (in about an hour). I neglected to add it to my calendar when I got the initial notice, so I really didn't know about it until reading a reminder that I JUST got. Sam is down to sleep, Aaron is out of town, I really don't see how I'm gonna make it for the meeting. I don't think there's anyone I could call to drop in last minute like this. I just feel like a mess. And I feel really bad for missing the meeting because I had to miss the last one because of my doctor's appointment. To be fair, the meetings for this committee drive me a bit batty so I won't entirely miss it, but I certainly would have tried to go if I'd been a bit more prepared. And also, it seems worth acknowledging that Fridays I don't go into the office anyway, and I'm the only part time employee on the committee. Everyone else is well-payed people of power and significance. So that means I should get some slack, right? But maybe it also means it's worth it to look more involved. Oh well.

My life these days is so focused on myself and my home that I feel a little out of touch with work. I'm not behind, really, but I am sort of just doing the minimum of what I need to do to get the job done. Maybe that's not entirely true, but it feels a bit that way. I guess even if I am being that way I guess it's not all that bad. Sometimes I think the notion that you should always go above and beyond for your work just results in a lot of wasted energy and stress.

So, I'm home, I guess, and that's that.

And I've been a single mom since Wednesday night, so that adds to my flusteredness (what do you mean that's not a word??). Aaron is off to Boston for an art thing. It's a short trip. A lot of parents do way more single parenting than this. But I rely on Aaron SOOO much for every little thing that pretty much once I reached 24 hours of solo parenting, I sorta hit the wall. Meg and our friend Stephanie helped out though so pretty much I'm just a wimp. Aaron gets home late tonight so that's good. Then I will be installing a show all weekend so I guess it will be his turn at solo parenting for a couple of days. Things just have felt too busy I guess. Though I think after this weekend they'll start to slow down. I hope.

I should go do dishes or laundry or both. But maybe I'll lie down and wallow in my inability to get anything done. I'm in the second trimester, I should have energy now, right?

Monday, November 1, 2010

Happy... Happy Halloween, D!

Halloween was fun. Really fun. Sam had a blast.

THE COSTUME
I screwed up with his costume. I had made a pretty alright wolf costume then covered him in this orange and brown striped sweatshirt (which to me I thought "Halloween" but when on him with a furry head totally screams "tiger"). Then Sam also got super into the idea of face paint and through various trials discovered that he would no longer be content with just a little painted nose so he had confusing face paint. Anyway, Sam chose to be the Big Bad Wolf but ended up as some sort of generic fluffy animal that was identified as either a lion, tiger, or bear (oh, my!). I felt a bit like a failure but then I realized that this happens with LOTS of costumes and is also actually part of the fun of homemade costumes. See, every year I have wanted to make Sam some amazing costume and never really find or take the time. Or maybe it's just that I feel like I SHOULD be able to make this amazing costume and then get performance anxiety and am scared of failure. Anyway, that coupled with my exhaustion and nausea from the first trimester of pregnancy, I just didn't have it in me to make much of anything. I decided I could probably pull off a "werewolf" with a hood and some mittens and a tail, so I tried to get Sam into the idea. Well, he took right to "wolf" and then told me he wanted to be the "big bad" wolf. Ok, not quite a werewolf but close enough!! I tried making a hood with little success and decided to take Sam out to shop for costumes. We lucked out at Goodwill and found a puppy costume. I did a little alteration and voila, we had something more wolfy than puppy but I guess really just fuzzy. Then we went to Target for face paint and a sweatshirt. We picked out the orange striped sweatshirt, and from that point on Sam labeled it the "Halloween" sweatshirt and would not wear it because it wasn't Halloween. So, of course we had to use it on Halloween! I also got him a flashing pumpkin reflector necklace for safety. I had forgotten about it and found it in a bag a couple of days before Halloween. Sam LOVED it. Didn't need it for trick or treating, but flashing pumpkin necklace is just cool anyway, I guess. All in all though he looked adorable, has been wanting to dress up as the wolf all the time, so he loved his costume, so I guess it was a success.




TRICK-OR-TREAT!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
We also practiced "trick or treat!". Sam got quite good at it, though the phrase (coming from Sam) sounds just like "choo choo train!", or pretty close anyway. So we practiced knocking on doors, saying "trick or treat", "thank you", and then Aaron taught him "Happy Halloween". He got SO good at saying "Happy Halloween" and said Happy Halloween to everybody and everything. Very cute.

HALLOWEEN NIGHT

Tom and Jeanette came to visit for Halloween. It had been about 10 months since Sam last saw them but he warmed up to them in no time, perhaps thanks to some video chatting. Their plane arrived during nap time so Sam pretty much completely skipped nap the first day of their visit and was super cranky all day. I was afraid they wouldn't get to see Sam as we know him. But on Sunday, despite a slightly rocky start, we maintained a good food/sleep schedule and he was our normal happy funny kid. We got him all dressed up and the plan was to meet with some neighborhood kids for trick or treating. Before we made it out the door, the twins from up the street (about four months younger than Sam) came to trick or treat at our house. So we all walked to the meetup at another friends' house. All together we had a group of seven kids, age 1-3, ready for trick or treat! We hit the neighborhood in furry toddler style and made everyone's night. Sam collected a lot of candy, said lots of "trick or treat" "thank you" and "happy Halloween"s to all the candy givers. He was usually one of the last of the pack to the door. At one prize moment, a house had a bowl of candy with a few packages of Ding Dongs in there. None of the other kids reached for the Ding Dongs and the adults were laughing at how no one reached for the "big" treat. Sure enough, as soon as Sam got up there, he grabbed the Ding Dongs. My man!! We didn't finish trick or treating with all the kids. Before the last cul de sac we planned to hit (a posh little pocket of $400,000 homes -- good candy MUST be there, right??), Sam told us he was ready to go home. So we did. (I guess the highlight of that part was a house handing out String Cheese! All the toddlers were very excited!)

The rest of the night was fun. Sam had a little bit of candy, played heartily with Uncle "Pom" and "Nette" and Aunt "Meh", including a dance party. Other zany moments included running away into the kitchen, waiting a few moments, then running out to our uproarious applause. This followed some game where he fell down and actually played dead, lying all limp and everything. He was hilarious. He went to bed late, but he went right to sleep. And didn't wake up until 9:30 this morning!

So it was a very nice visit. Sam loved Halloween. He keeps asking for "more again". I think the concept of waiting a whole year will be hard one to grasp. We're trying to get him excited for Thanksgiving.