Riley and Avery

Ugh, I am so tired of losing my posts! I don't even remember what I was writing about...oh, this just sucks!

Well, Riley's rash is worse than ever. I don't know what to do about it. We ran out of Zyrtec and won't be getting more, since it's $48 for a month supply. The allergist suggested Claritin over-the-counter, so we'll see about that. I just don't like giving the kids medicine on a regular basis. But maybe it's the only thing that will help her until the weather gets warm and stays warm.

Oh yeah...Avery got a hold of a whole box of Cheez-its in the car on the way home from dropping Riley off at school. Riley needs a snack and a drink at all times, even if she's just eaten, so I always have a snack in the car. Anyway, with the car seat rear-facing and directly behind me, I can't see what Avery is up to. I don't know how she even reached it. I don't know how many she ate, but she really has a nasty rash on the side of her face by her ears. Just when I've gotten her allergies under control...

So my shoulder is killing me again. It's not a sore muscle, but it's making my muscles sore trying to accomidate the pain. I am starting to suspect a pinched nerve aggravated by wearing the ring sling. It's a more acute pain than muscle pain, and it makes my arm and hand tingle. Unlike muscle pain, there is no position that relieves the pain. I don't know what to do about it. I don't want to bother going to a doctor if they're just going to tell me to rest it, and isn't that all that doctors do nowadays "wait and it will get better on its own." Thanks for the $200 sentence of useless advice. Even if I saw a doctor, I wouldn't know who to go to. So poo.

I registered for classes today. I'm taking three paralegal classes on campus and one accounting couse via internet. So Rudi will be on his own with the children for 3 hours three days a week. We'll see about that...

I lost the post that went with these pictures twice due to my own idiocy, I can't even blame blogger for it. No more energy to do it again right now, so I'll have to do it later...

Here are some pictures of Riley washing her baby's "poopy diaper" in the toilet. Future cloth diaperer, anyone?



So we've had an eventful night. I made a delicious dinner, Riley's favorite, and she refused to eat it saying that her tummy hurt. Now, in my defense, she uses "my tummy hurts" to indicate any abdominal discomfort, whether it's hunger or over-fullness. So I didn't take it seriously. Until she vomitted. Three times. She insisted after the third time that she must be better because she's three so she can only throw up three times. Then she got the trots. Luckily she made it to the potty three or more times. Then she was getting me some peaches from the fridge and toots, and says "Uh-oh! Sorry Mom!" And I say it's okay, when you're sick you sometimes have a toot that turns into poo. She said, "that's funny, a toot that turns into a poop! Like a caterpillar that makes a crysallis and turns into a butterfly!" Ah, my educated child.

Oh, I almost forgot the best part. I was in the middle of changing Avery's diaper when the whole vomitting thing started, so I leave Avery without a diaper to attend to Riley in the bathroom. So Avery is wandering around the kitchen, pees on the floor, slips and falls in the urine, landing with her head in the puddle. One kid covered in vomit and the other covered in pee. Ah, what an evening.

Now Avery is finally sleeping and Riley is burning the midnight oil. She should be exhausted. Firstly from only sleeping eight hours last night and taking a one hour nap. Secondly from the whole barfing thing. I am in bad need of some time to myself.

Currently I am having a conversation with Riley about why we don't hold Roxy. I tell her that if we touch Roxy her tail will fall off. She says, what will happen if her tail falls off? I say, nothing really, she'll just look funny. Then I say, well what would happen if your arm fell off? And Riley says "I will have a peg arm!"

Avery is surely becoming quite the handful, and doing things that Riley is doing. Avery is learning mischief early and from the master. She got the chocolate syrup from the frige, indicated that she wanted a cup from the counter, and then got herself a spoon and starts squeezing the chocolate into the cup. Ah, I'm going to have two supreme mess-makers on my hands.

We have our annual apartment inspection coming up next week, and I mean all next week. Anytime from Monday through Friday. I hope we're one of the early ones just to have it over with. I wouldn't have any problem making the place squeeky clean, but I also have the urge to purge. You know how spring cleaning usually makes a bigger mess at first before it gets better.

I tried a posting on Freecycle today for the first time, although I've been lurking around the group for a while now. I posted an offer for our old Gateway computer. Dude, talk about dozens of email on that one! We'll be rid of it tomorrow. I also posted a wanted for a child's bike. Who knows. Of course, with spring coming, people may not really want to part with their bikes. But we can hope. Enough blogging for now...

Yeah...so it's snowing today, and we're under a blizzard warning tonight until tomorrow morning. That's great...

At least Rudi cleared out the garage enough that I can squeeze the car in, and I mean s-q-u-e-e-z-e. I have to pull the car out in order to get the kids in. It's all really not good at all, but it's not like we can afford to get my window fixed.

I took the girls to Baby Cotton Bottoms today. I got Avery an Aristocrats wool soaker and a Thirsties diaper cover. And Dani mentioned that her husband is a mechanic and can take a look at my window and see if they can beat the $430 quote. Sweet! Plus, as a Springs NINO member, I got 15% off my diaper covers. Not too shabby...

I think Avery can say "mine." Of course, it doesn't sound like "mine" more like "maaa!" but she uses it in situations when she's fighting with Riley over something and Riley is shouting "mine!" I remember that Riley was well over two years old when she learned to say "mine", but I guess having an older sister kinda forces a kid to pull out the big guns.

Okay, Avery just crawled by me, which caught my eye because she never crawls anymore. So I look and she has a shoe on her hand, so that's why. She's being a dog, a la Riley.

You know, the way Riley screams and carries on when I cut "her" vegetables for dinner ("Don't cut up my zucchini! Don't cut up my orange pepper!") makes me really glad that we don't raise chickens or something like that ("No! Don't cut my chicken's head off!"). Just a little sidebar.

So I got the schedule of classes for the Fall, and of course they are not offering the hybrid classes for paralegal next semester! Double Doh! So it looks like I'll have to be on campus for 12 hours a week. Yeah, Rudi will love that. I haven't told him yet. Also, classes start at 5:30 and go until 8:15. Talk about inconvenient! I would have to put the kids in daycare for an hour and have Rudi pick them up. And then he'll have to deal with them during their whinny pre-bedtime time. Oh, this is going to suck really really bad. I am so not looking forward to this that I even looked for a career change. Nothing else would work either.

Okay, update. I told Rudi about the whole school thing and he's like, I could work part-time or leave at 3:30 three times a week...blah, blah. He's such a slacker, it's so aggravating. He thinks that because I am getting the VA money, he won't have to work! He's already getting an early retirement when I get a job, what more does he want? The VA money was supposed to be for bills! Oh, I need to go...

An old post that I'm letting go as-is...

Ah, what crazy weather we've been getting in Colorado! On Easter we got about three inches of snow (following the ice storm the day before) and yesterday it was in the 60s, the snow and ice melting so fast and falling from the trees that Riley absolutely insisted that it was raining. Yesterday my car window fell inside the door, never to be seen again, so I was thankful for the spring-like weather. This morning, as I was getting Riley ready for school, I notice that we left her jacket in the car, so I go out and get it, testing the weather to determine how to dress her, and it looks like it's going to be a pretty nice day. Then, about twenty minutes later, we all go out to the car and it is pouring rain, which turned to huge snowflakes on our way to school. That was fun without a driver's side window. Riley remarked that it's not supposed to snow and rain at the same time, just do one or the other. Of course, this being Colorado, everything dried up within five minutes of the rain ending.

Riley had her allergist follow-up yesterday, which is really a non-event. However, I mention it simply to discuss how she was acting at the doctor's office. Leaving the house, she put shoes on her feet AND hands and said that she was Sparky the dog. She asked me to tie a ribbon around her neck (which I did with all safety precautions) for a leash. I thought this would end before we got to the office, but when we got there, she walked from the car into the office on all fours with me holding the leash. She insisted that everyone address her as "Sparky." She walked on all fours back to the examination room. When the doctor came in and asked for a high-five, Riley (I mean "Sparky") tried to lick his hand, but I stopped her just in time. Luckily the receptionist in the office, who is well into her sixties, just thinks that Riley is the cutest kid ever created, and just sits there an giggles at everything Riley says and does, and gushes about how cute she is. Every time we come.

Avery got her first pair of big-girl jeans yesterday from Old Navy, an embroidered boot-cut pair that were on sale. She looks so cute and big in them. The size I got is definitely too big (18-24mos), but hopefully she'll grow. Not that she's grown in a while. I thought that she was outgrowing the 12-18mo size, but now I know that they are just shrinking. A lot of her clothes are hand-me-downs, and although in good condition, they've been washed hundreds of times, and continue to shrink just a little every time. And she has such a small clothing rotation that they are definitely used and abused.

So Easter was pretty good to the girls. Riley was happy to find the eggs that I stayed up half the night to dye and decorate. I told her that she had to find all 12 eggs to get her basket. She said, "I already have a basket, let me get it" talking about her empty easter basket. So she was pleasantly surprised to find her basket full of goodies.

I had a cute conversation about cats with Riley, who was pretending to be a cat:
Me: Did you know that Mommy and Daddy used to have cats?
Riley: Who watched them?
Me: Sometimes we left them home by themselves because cats are pretty good at taking care of themselves.
Riley: Where would you go?
Me: Sometimes we both went to work. Mommy used to go to work.
Riley: Where did you work?
Me: I used to work at a doctors' office.
Riley: Why did you work?
Me: Because sometimes we needed money.
Riley: That's silly! You don't go to a doctor's office when you need money! We go to a bank!
Smart girl.

Riley was talking to Grandma on the phone and was telling Grandma about how dinosaurs have been dead for "millions of years." I just thought it was cute how preschoolers pick up seemingly random facts, even though they don't really understand the concept.

Avery woke up in the middle of the night, apparently from a dream. She was saying "Da! Da! Da?" and as I had my back to her, I turned to look at her and when she saw my face, she started to cry! What? So I nursed her real quick before she woke all the way up. So sorry I'm not Daddy!

Avery has a new thing where she likes to run off and hide when we are out. That's always nice for a parent. We were at Barnes and Noble, and she kept running off and hiding behind a shelf, peeking around, waiting for me to find her.

So Riley had decorated eggs every day for the past few days and we now have four dozen hardboiled eggs in our frige. Oh, and hardboiled eggs smell so horrible!

We had buffalo steak for dinner, and it was pretty good, although a little on the tough side, as buffulo tends to be. Plus, I don't like feeding my children raw meat, so I also cooked it well done, which was probably a bad choice.

Oh, poo, again there was something else I wanted to blog about, but now I've forgotten...Oh, yes! Just a little note on grammar. A lot of people may know that I have a few pet peeves regarding grammar: first, the misuse of less/fewer and more/greater, but that's irrelevant to this story; secondly, the misuse of was/were in regards to, for example, "I wish I was/I wish I were/if I was/if I were" etc. So I was talking to Riley (as I do every waking hour since she never stops talking) and she said "What would you say if I were a kitty?" And my heart beat proud. When you see the misuse of was/were everywhere, it's nice to know that simple modeling rubs off on children. I once saw a shirt at Old Navy that read "I wish I was snowboarding" and it still bothers me when I think about it that out of a whole design team and all the thousands of people who saw that shirt before production, no one knew that the grammar was incorrect. Argh! I still bothers me so much, and that was years ago.

Hey, I finally transfered my photos to CD, so that's exciting for me. And Grandma and Grandpa have three photo discs coming. Although I can't find one CD from Riley's holiday program at school. I have the index print, but no CD. Normally I wouldn't be too worried, thinking it would just turn up, but I recently threw out all of my PC discs and hope it wasn't accidently thrown out. Or I hope it wasn't in the Limey. Now I'm worried...

So it's now Monday, and I'm just finishing up this blog. Our water is due to be shut off today from 1-4 for repairs. Hopefully it won't be too long since I have a lot of cleaning to do...time to turn up the Santana, my favorite cleaning music, and get down and dirty...and wait for photos to upload.

Riley really really really likes dyeing eggs. I tell you what, I think I'm going to buy a bunch of the dye kits and use them throughtout the year. What are they, less than a dollar each? And eggs are less than a dollar a dozen. Rudi will have egg salad coming out of his ears. Since Avery and I can't eat them, and I'm not sure if Riley even likes egg salad. Not like she's enjoy seeing her precious eggs mutilated to make a salad. She can actually use that wire ring that they give you, to put the eggs in an out of the dye. She's actaully really good at this egg dying thing. Maybe I can get her to make ukranian eggs when she's a little older...

We have this nasty little ice storm going on right now, a la Maryland. Everything is encased in ice. I found out the hard way that my windshield wiper blades are on the fritz. I need new ones. I'm not fond of patches of ice right in my line of vision.

So we all went to the NINO babywearing meeting yesterday. I have to say, it was loads of fun. We stayed for three whole hours. The older children went off to play by themselves, and they all knew each other, so they were a little rambunctious and made Riley nervous. Okay, they were downright wild. They had a whole plastic kitchen with a table and cabinet and such, and they were all overturned on the floor. Maybe kids like that should make Riley nervous, and it's a good sign that she didn't just join in their destructive behavior. I should have brought my wrap to the meeting since I've never gotten the hang of using it. Almost all of the women there were large women with ample bossoms. I felt like the little flat toothpick. So a lot of the information at that particular meeting was regarding larger babywearers and which carriers made boobs look too big. The actual NINO leader couldn't make the meeting because she just opened a cloth diaper/babywearing store, and business is apparently booming. The co-leader was there and she makes and sells mei tais and pouches, so she sold a few of those. I guess I'm used to LLL where no sales and endorsements are allowed during meetings, so the business part made me uncomfortable. Not that she was actively peddling her wares, but if people asked, she sold. And she brought about four dozen of her carriers, so obviously she intended to sell them if she got the chance. And a few women broke off and started to talk about donating eggs (we're not talking easter eggs here, people) so I thought that was funny. An older mother was the leader of that conversation, so maybe she used donated eggs. Who knows, and it's really not my business. One woman there had a baby at least eight months old and still put cloth diapers on like a rookie. Kudos for sticking it out that long when you're so bad at it. She used a snappi in a bummis super whisper wrap. Overkill, lady! I'm such a freakin' nerd!! The co-leader was extremely knowledgeable and had every carrier ever created and could use them in dozens of ways. She even showed me the mei tai hip carry. Thanks for showing me, but I'll never use it. Too complex. Avery even got in the back carry twice without a fuss. Sweet! Although she's still so small that he front carry is no problem at all, especially if she's tired. Wow, that's a long paragraph and I can't figure out how to break it up...

I thought there was something else I was going to blog about, but I can't remember, so I'll spare everyone my ramblings...ah, waiting for pictures to upload...

Oh yeah, my neck and back and shoulder are 90% better. I woke up the other morning and actually stretched my back and moved around and it felt so stinkin' good! Even though I had gotten less than six hours of sleep that night, it was the best sleep I've had in a long time. Ah, not to be in pain...

Well, I got my car sort of fixed, at least the alignment and oil change. The window will cost $430 to fix. Yeah, not gonna happen. The mechanic just couldn't believe that it didn't happen in an accident. He said that it was so mangled inside the door, that Rudi slamming it was the last straw, not solely responsible. I bet that it was in a accident before we bought it and they took the cheap route and fixed the outer door and left the inside messed up. I should pull a carfax report, just to see if I'm right. Not that I could do anything about it now.

We went to the town of Monument yesterday, which is only about 10 miles outside of the Springs. Rudi really liked it, and seemed to really want to move there when we are ready to buy a house. It's supposedly an up-and-coming town, so we'll see. I'm not sure I want to trade a town that already up-and-came for a town that's up-and-coming. Attractive little houses in a quiet little setting in the foothills, though. Pretty nice. All I care about is the schools. I really like Colorado Springs, although it is sprawling and a lack of zoning can make for some ugly areas, the view of Pike's Peak can't be beat. And there's a freakin' public montessori school that I have my heart set on the girls attending. So, it remains to be seen. We're talking years off, so no sense even thinking about it now.

So I'm looking forward to my first NINO meeting on Friday. It'll be a lot of fun, I hope. I'm planning on attending both the north and south meeting, so I'll be going twice a month. It's nice that they're on Fridays. LLL meets on Thursdays, so Riley can't go because she's in school and it conflicts with picking Riley up from school. There are a couple other LLL groups here, but they meet in Tuesdays and that would pose the same problem. Of course, if I start sending Riley five days a week next year, the NINO meetings will be out too, unless we go right after school and arrive just a little late. Again, we'll see...I'm planning on bringing the vegan spiced oatmeal cookies that I made for Riley's birthday party at school, but I'm going to double the recipe and freeze some so that we can have a relatively healthy treat whenever we want.

Speaking of oatmeal cookies, I went to Wild Oats Market to get the oatmeal (six cups worth) and dried cranberries (2 cups worth) and when I go to check out, another employee tells me that the cashier just left to go to the bathroom and she just let me have the stuff. Total score! I instantly regreted getting the $7 per pound cranberries and wish that I had tried the $20 per pound goji berries that I've been meaning to try, but they are just too expensive. They're supposed to be like a super-berry, more nutritious than any other fruit.

My neck is still killing me, but now it's my shoulder and back too. I even sprung for a heating pad (which Riley calls a lily pad) and it really doesn't seems to be helping at all. I think that laying in a certain unmoving way so that I can accomidate the heating pad makes my muscles worse. It's hopeless. I can't pick the children up without pain, can't nurse without pain, and when I do nurse, I can't even look down at Avery to see if she's sleeping yet or not. And I can't take the kids to the park, pushing a swing is out of the question, as is lifting Avery up to the top of a slide. Oh, this totally sucks. I thought it was getting better yesterday, but I woke up this morning even worse than before. All I can do is let the kids run around outside in the yard and hope that they get enough fresh air and excersize that way.

Oh, the photos are done uploading so I can stop blabbing...

Just a quick entry about Avery's talking. She now says "baby" and "nurse." She also puts my hand on her feet and says "wee wee" when she wants me to do "This Little Piggy."

And last night, as I was putting Avery to bed, Riley was cuddling with me and then asked me to get her a tissue. I told her that she would have to get a tissue from the bathroom since I was busy nursing Avery. Then she said "Nevermind, I took care of it!" And I said "what did you do with your booger?" She said, "I put it down there," indicating the space between the mattress and the wall. Yay...

This is my 101st post! Yay, me!

So Avery woke with a 104 fever, so I had to give her some Motrin. Even her little hands and feet were piping hot. Poor thing. Then her fever broke at about 1am and she sat up and smiled, and wouldn't go back to sleep. Needless to say, by neck and back are worse than ever. I don't know if Avery's fever will return tonight. I really hope not. She's been clingy today (more than usual) and her appetite hasn't returned yet. She even refused oatmeal this morning and that never happens. Poor Riley is so starved for attention and she's been so good to Avery. She was very concerned, saying, "Who sneezed on Avery? You figure out who made my little sister sick!"

Rudi wants to go to Barnes and Noble tonight. It would be nice to take the girls out, but I'm not sure that Avery is ready. It seems weird that she would have a fever for 12 hours and then be fine. Riley could really use a night out, but I'm sure Rudi wouldn't really want to take her alone. She is pretty insistent upon going to the kid's section right away and doesn't normally let us sit and read magazines and newspapers. Tonight is the start of Rudi's weekend, so I'm sure he wants some peace...
I'm going to see if we can make it to the Wildlife Experience on Monday or Tuesday. I have a bunch of coupons, so it will at least be affordable. It's a child-centered wildlife place, I don't really know much about it. We'll see, we have a lot of things to do. My car has an appointment with the mechanic tomorrow, so we may be totally broke really soon. I know it needs and alignment and and oil change and the window fixed. Ugh, I'm having a panic attack just thinking about how much that'll set us back...
Our little Rosie has turned into quite the nibbler. The other day I was wearing an old pajama shirt and she nibbled a few holes in it. She has also nibbled my fingers. She's definitely not being malicious, and it doesn't hurt, and she makes happy little guinea pig noises while doing it, but it's still a bad habit and would scare the kids if she did it to them. I don't really know how to train a guinea pig, so I'll have to look into it.

By some miracle, Avery has been occupying herself for once, playing with the piggy coin bank that Mina and Brendan got her for her first birthday. Oh, thank goodness for that toy! I've had more than twenty minutes of peace for the first time in days. So, I blog...