Thursday, August 30, 2007

Finally On Our Way!


After 2 weeks of eating off paper plates with plastic ware, random objects being spread about the house in a mele of moving, and at least one of us running about like chicken little, we are finally on our way today! Fiona helped decorate boxes, and today has handled things pretty well considering her movements through the house are severely limited & all her toys seem to have disapparated overnight. I imagine that if I hadn't explained things to her over & over in advance there would be much more drama. Right now, she's taking things out of the diaper bag arranging them carefully around the cat, babbling all the while.
We hope to make the drive to Denver in 2 days, putting us at the new place Saturday evening. Off we go into the wild blue yonder once again!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Of Boxes and Doctors and such


I used to hate injections, I remember shooting across a clinic floor as a child--the nurse had me sitting on a rolling chair--much much later I've realized that if I examine the needle beforehand I'm much less nervous about the prospects of it piercing my flesh. My asking to examine(read: hold) a syringe catches a lot of doctors & nurses off guard, but I figure I should do the exact opposite of what I really want to do, i.e. cry & beg, then wriggle away.

SO, today was Fiona's 15 month checkup, she had three injections. I tell her about all of this ahead of time. I talk about the doctor's office and how she might get shots, that it will most likely hurt but the hurt will pass, I will be with her. She was nervous as soon as we entered the exam room, I barely managed to keep her distracted at first. There were 3 people to see, the nurse to assess her, the doc himself, and then the injection nurse. Each time someone left the room, Fiona signed her bye-bye (blowing kisses), I knew absolutely she wanted to leave by the time the injection nurse entered. Which is worse, watching baby dry heave in the parking lot with a virus you can do nothing about? Or being asked to hold her still, for a necessary evil, while someone pokes needles in her? I think both are about equal at this point. Fiona was just beside herself and very nearly panicked to begin with. I asked the nurse to wait a moment, calmed baby girl down somewhat, explained again what was to happen, and she was definitely more compliant although still complained loudly. Dr. Baum on Maui was so fantastic with injections, he was smooth and moved quickly as to get it over with. I actually think that this Doc is a little afraid of the tiny kids, maybe someone bit him in the past. Anyway, after the injections I repetitively console Fiona, how brave, how well she did, and ready the sippy-cup of milk. In a few minutes she's signing about the fish all around the office again, but still clinging to mama, perfectly fine with me. We took a break outside for a snack & patting river rocks in landscaping, then off to music class, brave baby.

Fiona's 32.25 inches, 22 lbs 10 oz. So, 94th percentile for height & 49th percentile for weight. She likes to finger paint with her food lately, accomplishing very little actual eating unless I'm spooning food into her mouth. She did enjoy authentic finger painting recently, it's a whole buncha fun getting dirty and clean once again. "Don't stress about mess" is a key mantra there. She gestures and talks about everything. If I point to an animal and ask her what it is she'll baby-sign if she knows the sign. Every time we drive past the horses on the way to the park she will sign "horse", I think she likes horses almost as much as dogs. Porter-kitty takes a lot of love, to some it may look like abuse, but it really is purest of loves. Reminding her of "gentle hands" all the time, and telling her how well she's done with her gentle hands has done wonders. The other night Fiona signed "Papa" during the bedtime routine, it was great fun to tell Gary that his daughter was asking for him to say goodnight.

Goal this week is to get the garage sorted out and packed. Translates to sorting through what I've put out there for good-will, what never made it into the house from the last unpacking, and random boxes for the garbarge that've been over-looked. The movers are coming on the 30th, so everything has to be completely buttoned up by then. We'll not be taking a trailer or some such, so if it's not in the car it's gotta go into the moving truck. All the joys of moving out, the carboard & peanuts, and pa-acking tape...almost a Take-Me-Out-To-The-Ballgame there but I'm kinda tired, maybe I'll work on that. :)

Friday, August 3, 2007

The End, and Begin again

The return trips are always hardest I think. Got home yesterday afternoon. Fiona took a backslide in her improvement from illness, probably 'cause we jumped the gun a little and gave her some milk yesterday. I found out yesterday that VERY little dairy should be give to the stomach virus. She has improved immensely already on cereal w/ water & clear liquids. Durango was pretty nice, I was disappointed that we couldn't explore properly as the baby was SO ill. Gary & I did take FULL advantage of the hotel, as we were almost shut-ins. Salina, UT is not that great, serves only as a stopover, don't stay at the Best Western there. Eureka, NV was tiny and cute not completely commercialized and therefore not dirty(as I described NV before). While driving we decided that Hwy 50 is so much better a drive than I80, more scenic, more chances to see neat little towns and get crazy good coffee and iddy-biddy local shops. Most of the video I took on the way back was in the car, 'cause now we're on a mission, not so much lallygagging. We'll be here for a couple of weeks and then begin the trek back to the new condo in Denver. Lots of packing to do, and if we have some time, a little exploring of surrounding area before we bail out. To be continued...
Be a Super Mom - Cloth Diaper with FuzziBunz diapers at Nurtured Family
Mama Bargains - Are you hooked yet?