Preludes And Nocturnes

Yesterday I cleaned both upstairs bathrooms. I timed myself and it took just over 30 min; this included the tub/shower, both toilets, sinks, baseboards, and cabinets.  Then I vacuumed the main floor rugs (side note: I want a dyson as my mom has one and it kicks ass.. then I just realised this morning we have the rough work done for central vacuum which I think would then cost less than a dyson and actually be quite handy with all the stairs here).  Then I started work on the office and promptly dropped some rather large framed art from the top of the spare closet onto the top of my foot, edges down.

You know that moment. That moment where the pain hasn’t started, but you can tell by the impact that it is coming.  When you look down and only see scrapes but no blood, but you know the blood is coming.  I hobbled over to the chair cursing like a trucker and sat down just in time for the pain and the blood.

My foot is a total mess. Holy sweet jesus that hurt!  I think I was being punished for being too productive.  Or possibly being too productive while sleep deprived.

Yes yes, now how about a picture of the beeb! This is from today while he was having a sleep after grandma came over so MOM could have a sleep.

Any Canadian readers who wouldn’t mind helping me with a coupon thingy, could you reply to this post and I’ll email you at the address listed for your comments (that one field you fill in is visible to moi).

Many thanks!

Because she is away right now and needs more pictures of the beeb.

Malcolm is really starting to enjoy his playmat. Rupert has been a very good kitty lately (well, aside from what he did in the basement sink, but we don’t need to talk about that right now.. or his scratching the couch… okay, he’s been really good with Malcolm). And Rupert has been sharing his playpen with Malcolm and his playmat with Malcolm. We watch him carefully, but he actually seems to understand on some level that Malcolm is people.  Which, all in all, gives up some hope for ongoing relations.

All the while Chuck watches on from the safety of The Enterprise (his space ship aka the laundry basket).

And then Malcolm tells stories to the animoos on the playmat while kicking up a storm.

That should keep grandma happy for a few more days…

Well, Malcolm got his pokes today and I’m glad that is done with for right now. We don’t go back until Sept now.

When charted next to other 10week olds his weight (12lbs 14oz) and height (22.5inches) were in the 25th and 5th percentile, respectively.

But when I asked how he ranked in the 6 week group, the nurse (very very nice, we’ve seen her before on the home visits and really liked her) was all “oh right! he doesn’t look like a preemie so I forgot that he gets grouped by his due date!” and we found him to be in the 95th and 50th percentiles instead.

So he is smaller for being 10 weeks, but bigger for being six weeks… which, using the logic of the three bears, makes him just right!

My baby is getting big! He goes for his 2 mos shots this week, and I’ve been told it will be harder on me than on him. As much as I’m not looking forward to this, I am so glad we live in a country where all this takes is a phone call and a quick trip across town. My sister, Julia, had been back in Canada last month and we talked a lot about her experiences working for Doctor’s Without Borders these past two years (and this coming year - she just left Vancouver last week for her third placement in Papua New Guinea).

*everyone wave to Julia*

We talked about women who would walk for days to bring their children to the clinics to get their shots. We talked about what it would be like to live somewhere - to give birth to a child in a country- where you might have watched family members die because of these diseases. Add to this that our dad had polio as a child and that some of what he goes through with his parkinson’s could be linked to having survived polio… my dad had his second brain surgery six weeks ago for his Parkinson’s. This week they activate the implant he now has in his brain to see if it can give him more mobility. He was diagnosed when he was 39 years old, so needless to say he is still far from being an old man while dealing with advanced stages of parkinson’s. They don’t know how much the polio influences all this.

And so, I will take my baby to get poked this week.

On to happier things, we got a new mobile as the children’s store had a 45% coupon for any one item in the store. Please enjoy the pictures!

Here is the part where he is getting big (although please note that my mom is tiny)

Wearing one of the diapers I made him and getting snuggles.

Watching his mobile and making fun noises. This was taken about 20 minutes ago.

Holding grandma’s hand.

Awwww!

I have six minutes left to make this post. Please not the beeb is wearing his new soaker made by auntie Leone. These series of pictures are very much beeb telling a story while on his changing table. There is a bear mobile above him and he tells them many stories with cooing and ahhhing and gurgles and arm motions. Many many arm motions. Usually about a penguin who goes swimming:

*arm swing, swimming motion, arm swing*

And catches some fishes *this* big:

*arms go out wide in a sudden movement*

This arm movement is also what he does if he gets surprised, things he is falling, or hears a loud noise. It is his “holy shit” arm fling.

If home during the day watching tv, there are only two options for who you might be. Either you are a mom or you are a loser needing a job.  If you are a “mom” this means you either have a baby (diapers, baby cds, baby food) or you want a baby (pregnancy tests). If you are a loser, you need to go back to school. This includes training to be a medical tech or a parole officer. And the way they tell you about going back to school is rather hardcore.

“you’re sitting there with all your excuses. It costs too much, I’ll phone next semester, I don’t have time. But when are you going to get your life in order? When are you going to take that first step towards a promising future?”

When I forget that I’m home because of the consumerism thread (diapers, diaper cream, band aids, and easy healthy meals for my family in one bag), I start thinking that they are right and I really do need to get back to school and get my life in order!

What HAVE I been doing??

What ARE my plans for the future??

OHMYGOD!!

In other news, I have been using the BumGenius 3.0 and LOVING them!! Those with my prefolds and my fitted diapers I made have meant that I’ve used maybe 3 or 4 ’sposies in the last month. I don’t know how much money I would have spent on disposable diapers over the past month, but I spent about $60 in the three weeks I was home and mostly using store bought diapers with a only few of my cloth each day.

I hope to buy myself a new BumGenius every few months so I’ll slowly build up my stock. Hey, I would have been spending that money on store bought ones, right? (I might be missing out on the idea of saving money with this option..)

I can go for days and never actually use Malcolm’s name.

Is this going to be a problem later on? And, just to check, nobody expects me to post on anything other than my kid, right?

Rupert likes to hang out by the playmat. It is super cute.

Napping by grandma.

Is pouty face…

Is sleepy beeb.

I think this woman and I are twins. Except she knew how to lanolize her wool and I didn’t (hense my finding her with a google search so I could lanolize the wool covers Leone just made for me).

But her post made me laugh and laugh. Very good.

Mom and Leone are not here today. Julia went back to Vancouver (and soon she’s off to her new placement for Drs w/o borders). Leone is off to start finding her grown up teacher job (she just graduated!).  And Jim is teaching two summer courses so he is not in the house.  Who does that leave in the house? Me, beeb, and cats.

Cats not too helpful.

But on the up side Malcolm has decided to nap *not on me* for the last hour. I did dishes, bottles, laundry, and still need to brush teeth and lanolize covers.

Wish me luck!