Stream of Consciousness Check-In

Confession time. I'm a bit of a perfectionist blogger/writer (can't you tell from my usual stunning prose?). I normally write in a Word document, edit myself and then post. But lately I have been not posting at all and that troubles me, because I don't want to not post and so I am going to not really edit myself here (watch out) and just do a little check in to say we are alive. And to catch up a bit:

-Work has been crazy and busy and taxing and stressful.

-Adding to that stress is that Ellie is sick Again. I feel bad for her and I feel bad for me. I see why people have nannies/sitters at home. Not being able to go to work and having to stay home with her and miss work is feeling like a problem. This week was Not the week to miss a day. Big deadlines. Big stress. And I hate that I found myself mad at my own toddler for being sick. Ridiculous. And I find it ironic too that Leo was supposed to be Mr. Compromised Immune System and what has happened? Little Miss 46 Chromosomes has been the sickly one with never ending cold and mysterious viruses this fall/winter. Compared to her, Leo was a little healthy horse toddler. I won't even talk about the Exorcist style vomiting I was the lucky recipient of last night. Oops I just talked about it. The funniest part (if you can call vomiting funny) was that it happened at the kitchen table where Leo was eating his scrambled egg dinner. Ellie projectiled (sorry) and Leo just kept on eating his eggs as if nothing had happened. I guess when your four a little puke at the table is not such a big thing. He's probably seen it many times at school. At least I found some humor in the situation.

-Leo's sleep travails (and therefore ours) continue. He's still waking up between 5-6 a.m. every morning, but closer to the 5 side of it and sometimes a few minutes before 5 (which is r-e-a-l-l-y painful, even with buckets of coffee). I probably don't have to tell you how precious even ten more minutes of sleep is, but Leo is stubborn. Once he's up, he's up. There is no talking to him or convincing to just lay in our bed and watch some Noggin. To add to the travails, he's also waking up in the middle of the night and getting into bed with us. This is not OK but again with the risk of waking Ellie if we force him to stay in his bed (and cry) we've been putting up with it. At this point my feeling is we all just need to sleep-does it matter that much where it happens? Leo wakes up when Erin leaves at 5ish but he was doing that in his own bed too. Triple Ugh.

-It's cold here. Nine degrees last night said the car thermostat (wow!). I'm not going to complain about it because it's not that big of a deal. I mean it is January on the east coast so whatever. I do miss taking the kids outside and playing in the yard, taking walks. It's not going to last that long though. It does make me wonder how people can live in really cold places though. It's so limiting.

-Leo's in an obsessive phase. Ds? Or just annoying 4-year-old? He gets an idea in his head and will.not.drop.it. It's a little, ok A LOT maddening. The top request? Dora. Dora. Dora. It makes me want to throw that damn TV out the window. On the one hand, we need the 30 minute Dora watching here and there. It allows me a moment of peace, or the opportunity to do exciting things like unload the dishwasher, make dinner, tend to the laundry. On the other hand I don't know when he got so obsessed with watching TV. We don't let him watch that much but he just seems so focused on it. We'll be reading a book or doing Playdough and suddenly he will just think Dora, and start chanting Dora. I try to ignore it. I try to distract him. But it's hard.

-Most shocking event of the week? Ellie pooped on the potty! She is fascinated with the potty, she calls it "boppy." She crawls all over it, climbs on it and the other night when I was trying to get Leo to come into the bathroom to sit on the potty, Little Miss climbs up, sat down and did the business. I am not ready to be potty training two at once! I told the daycare people and they are going to start sitting her on the potty.

-I am trying to calm down and chill out about house duties. I just feel like we have so much clutter and everything is so disorganized and no matter what I do it's never organized enough. I feel like dumping half of our belongings in garbage bags bound for the Salvation Army. I guess it's an early spring cleaning thing. Or maybe it's just that the kids are walking mess makers. It doesn't hurt that I spend my days pouring over cleaning/organization stories at work.

OK, boring stream (hopefully not completely) stream over. So in short, we're alive. Puking. Whiney. Messy and disorganized. Cold. Trying not to watch so much Dora. But alive.

All Good or Do You Hear What I Hear?

Just wanted to pop in and say we are home. Leo did well. The doctor said he has probably not been hearing ANYTHING out of either ear. There was so much wax in both ears it was as if he was wearing ear plugs. Yeah. He left one tube in and took the other one out that had fallen out. It will be interesting to see how he feels/acts now that he can you know, hear.

This was such a minor procedure. Whenever we do things like this my thoughts go out to all the parents who have to watch their children endure such difficult, painful medical procedures. It makes me feel both nervous and grateful.

So we're home, eating scrambled eggs and prepping for a long day of Dora and playing in the basement playroom. Should be fun.

Thanks for all the support.

Obsessed

Ellie is completely obsessed with our fireplace. She loves to climb inside it and sit on it like it's her own little stage.

Now I'm sure you are horrified at the thought of letting a ten month old play inside a fireplace but this isn't just any fireplace. It's sort of a "faux" fireplace. See pictures above. Our house didn't come with the real thing and we are big on seasonal tchotchkes (you name a holiday and I will decorate for it). Where else would I be able to put my pumpkin/turkey/miniature Santa collection? And when you have a house full of curious fingers it's so helpful to have a high spot (to hide the remote controls of course). We even have the logs and fake flames to go with the fireplace but we had to put that away for the time being as Ellie was trying to do gymnastics moves on the logs that were decidedly unsafe. Eventually the plan is to purchase one of these. It's a heater that goes inside the frame of the fireplace so it doesn't look quite so, well, fake. We're waiting because it's not exactly kid friendly (it actually gives off some heat!). I don't mind Ellie playing in what we have now but she keeps forgetting the fireplace is elevated and she tips over backwards. Not good. I am amazed by her climbing skills though. At this stage they are just like little monkeys. She is Curious Georgia.

Speaking of obsessed, I cannot wait for this weekend. We are taking Leo here for a special Dora the Explorer exhibit. I know, Dora is beyond annoying but she makes Leo exceedingly happy (I can't explain it either but hey, my kid likes it and it's not hurting anyone and if he learns a little Spanish along the way, so be it). And when he watches her I can actually cook dinner in peace (when I'm not rescuing Ellie from toppling off the fireplace). Make sure to check back here on Monday for photos of Leo's head exploding when he sees the Dora exhibit. The museum also has a "water feature" (I'm guessing this is where kids play with water?) and an area where they can dress up like firefighers and climb a fire truck. There is also stuff for those Ellie-sized. Did you hear that Ellie? More climbing. I wonder if there will be fireplaces?

I completely forgot that Monday is a holiday until oh, yesterday. It will be nice to be home with the kids and if the weather is good which it's supposed to be we'll go to the park for sure. And maybe a barbeque. Here is where I will admit my unabashed love for hot dogs.