Good Friday

I had the day off today. It was so great. I was hoping to get to sleep in today, since I've had to wake her up every single day at 7:45 since the time change. But no, today she decided she was going to get up at 7:00! But it was ok. We had a nice relaxing breakfast of bananas and steel cut oats with soy milk, read some books and played on the floor. I did some laundry. Then we ran some errands together - went to the post office, the bank, the grocery store, and to feed my mom's dog. She was a wonderful companion! Then we came home and ate lunch together, and she took a 2 1/2 hour nap! I decided that instead of relaxing, getting on the computer, or watching tv while she slept, for Good Friday I would clean the house until she woke up. I did a lot of jobs that I'd been putting off, and finished up all the laundry in the house. The downstairs at least looks great! (I didn't get to the upstairs yet - except M's room.) Then a good friend called so I ended up talking to her for a while until Madeleine woke up.

Then an old friend from high school called me - she was in town for Easter. We haven't really seen each other since then, since she lives in Florida now. She has a little girl one month older than Madeleine. We ended up meeting at Barnes and Nobles for a little playdate.

I feel kind of bad that I had such a great day on Good Friday :) But these are the kind of days that give me a taste of what it will be like to be a stay at home mom someday. My house is clean and feels peaceful since it's not cluttered. I got lots of good quality time with Madeleine, and some time for myself too. I got to catch up with some friends, and then spend some time with my husband in the evening. Wow, what a life.

Keeping all these things in my heart

Madeleine LOVES Jesus. We have a holy water font just inside our front door that Fr. Dan brought us back from Rome for a wedding gift. It has the holy family and it was even blessed by Pope John Paul the Great. Every single time we come down the stairs, she gets SO excited. She says "JESUS!" and points to Him, then Joseph, then Mary. We also have this Jim Shore angel with the Nativity on our mantel. Ken said I should take it down because it's too "Christmasy." I disagreed, and left it up! Today we were walking by the mantel, and she squealed "JESUS!" and pointed straight to the tiny baby Jesus on the angel. We also have a crucifix and a little fontanini statue of Jesus and she pointed to all of them.

Do I dare to hope?!

If she's called to be a Sister, I'd be thrilled. If she's called to be a wife, I'd be thrilled. Anything else, I'll be thrilled as long as she always loves Jesus :)

Thank you!

Thanks everyone for all your great suggestions!

Has anyone tried a bathing suit like this or this?

I am worried about her getting a sunburn. And what is everyone's favorite sunscreen? I have some California Baby sunscreen that I bought last fall for 75% off (sorry, I'm not paying $17.95 for 3 ounces of sunscreen, especially when I'll be slathering her every 1/2 hour or so!)

Ideas to get her to keep her sunglasses and hat on? I know mom is getting her some of these. She's not a big fan of hats!

I can't WAIT - she is going to be so cute :)

Need Advice

Ok all you experienced moms out there.

We're going to the beach! (not until May, but I have to start preparing now!)

Any advice on travelling with a one year old?

I need advice on:

What to bring, flying with a kid (we've done this a few times but she is mobile now!), going to the beach, keeping her in the shade, sunglasses, swimsuit, what to pack, naps, eating healthy food, etc...

Thanks in advance!!!

Well, this is good

I had awesome delicious pizza on Saturday and some wonderful baked potato soup (made with milk) yesterday, and so far NO REACTION! No rash, no fussiness, nothing. I was actually worse off than her :)

Maybe we'll get some yogurt and try it with her. But there's really not a good time for us to plan for her to not feel well. My parents are moving my grandparents into a nursing home this weekend - Friday and Saturday, and of course Sunday is Easter. And Grace has Friday, Monday and Tuesday off school. Maybe we'll have to wait until the weekend after Easter....

Not the cows....

Did you notice my new look?!

It was done for me by Hilary and I just LOVE it!!

Madeleine had her one year old pictures taken today - and they came out great. I can't wait to get them back. She behaved pretty well - she usually doesn't like to get her picture taken :)

I had PIZZA!!! A personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut with sausage and mushrooms. Oh it was heaven. Let's hope she is ok.

The big news of the day is that she FINALLY has her top two teeth! It took over a year to grow those :)

For Kathryn or whoever else might be interested,

Chickpea Burgers

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
1 medium carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
1 large celery stalk, diced
One 16 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup wheat germ
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
Seasonings- I used salt and pepper, and some spicy salt free stuff we had
1/4 cup mayo
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Preheat the oven to 350. Oil a nonstick baking sheet.

Heat the oil in a skillet, add onion and saute until translucent. Add carrot and celery, saute until tender (I also added some minced garlic here.)

Combine veggie mixture with other ingredients in food processor. Pulse until evenly and finely chopped, but don't puree.

Drop by heaping 1/4 cupfuls on baking sheet and flatten gently. Bake for 30 minutes, flipping after 20.

It said it made 8 servings but I only got 5 out of it and had to cook it a bit longer. And I didn't have a lemon (surprisingly) so I added a little Worcestershire sauce. Delicious!

Have a great weekend everyone!

I Chickened Out

When I remembered she has her pictures tomorrow, I decided to wait to try the pizza. I have a hard enough time trying to get her to take a decent picture when she is feeling well. But don't worry! We had a great meal - I made chickpea burgers (YUM! - have an open mind, people!) and served them open faced on a toasted slice of whole wheat bread with lettuce, mustard and chipotle ketchup. In addition, we had a side of fresh green beans sauteed in olive oil with garlic, onions, and salt and pepper, and a side of fresh canteloupe sprinkled with just a little salt. Not pizza, but it got rave reviews from both the husband and the kid :)

After dinner we took a little walk over to the playground. Luckily she's a little peanut and I can still carry her in her wrap - because she loves it! She had a great time walking, seeing all the dogs and squirrels, and swinging on the swings. Then when we got home she took a nice warm bath (since she smeared sweet potatoes and broccoli in her hair today), and now she is sleeping. Hopefully for a while!! And I've had to wake her up every day this week so maybe she'll let us sleep in tomorrow? Please? Oh well, if not, we can hit the 8am mass and confession. So it's a win win situation :)
Since it's St Patrick's Day tomorrow, we might eat meat and maybe get the Royal Feast pizza from Pizza King - which is my all time favorite!

Excited

And a little nervous.

Since I have not had pizza in almost a year, I'm very excited - especially since I think we're getting the veggie lovers from Pizza Hut. However... I'm nervous to find out of Madeleine is still allergic. I really hope not! And if she is, I really hope she doesn't have a bad reaction. I am probably only going to eat one piece. Not to mention her doctor said I should be careful eating dairy again, since I probably don't have the enzyme needed to digest it anymore (apparently if you don't use it, you lose it!) He said I could have some stomach cramping the first few times. So yes, excited and NERVOUS! Oh gosh I just remembered her one year pictures are supposed to be tomorrow... maybe I should hold off!!

First Spaghetti!

And I think it was a hit!! :)

One year stats

We went to her one year old well baby visit yesterday. She's doing well, other than the virus she's had - it seems to be at the tail end now. She weighed in at a hefty 17.7 lbs, and has fallen into the 5th percentile for weight. She is also 29.5 inches - 50th to 75th percentile for height.

I was a little shocked when the nurse told me she was in the 5th percentile. But her doctor was not worried at all about it. He said that after 9 months the weight gain levels off, especially if they're moving around a lot. I also told him that she hadn't eaten much for about 3 days. He said that between 9 and 15 months is when they start to see what their body type will be like as they get older. He said he'd rather see a baby in the 5th percentile than the 105th percentile, and that she'll probably just be a thin kid. Well that is good! Then I started thinking about it - I was really skinny up until I got married (Ken's just too good of a cook!) Ken was a skinny kid, my brother was a skinny kid, both my parents were thin as children. (Everyone else still is, except apparently me. See last post.) So she gets it honestly. If the doc is not worried then I am not either.

I asked about her milk allergy. He said that kids are really good at outgrowing that. So he suggested that I try something with dairy and see how she reacts. I am so excited! What will I have after all these months? Pizza? A bowl of ice cream? Lasagna? A perfectly toasted everything bagel with cream cheese? Ooh I'm getting excited just thinking about it! So I am going to do that when I'm sure she's totally over this virus (which he said was probably Roseola since she had a rash yesterday - you were right Brenda!) Maybe this weekend? Ken is hoping for pizza - he hasn't had any either! Anyway, if she does ok when I have dairy, he said to try a little yogurt with her, and if she's ok with that, she can have cheese. So pray for her - I'd love it if she had outgrown this and I didn't have to worry so much about what everyone eats!

What else? He said we should keep the carseat facing backwards as long as we could, and we could even keep her in the infant seat as long as she is in the range and her head is one inch below the top. She's getting a little heavy to carry around in that thing though - I think I'm going to switch her within the next few weeks - hopefully we're out of the freezing weather.

He asked if she was saying one or two words - and didn't believe me when I said I thought she could say 20 - 30 words! But, ever the show off, she had to prove him wrong. She said mama, dada, ball, doll, kitty cat (tee tat), hello, thank you and good girl for him. He was very impressed! She's a genius I tell you :)

I can't believe I'm actually going to write this...

Oh yes, I feel just GREAT about myself today. Just now when I was pulling up my shirt to nurse Madeleine, she tried to latch on to my, well you know, muffin top. There I said it.

Yes my self esteem and body image are THROUGH THE ROOF.

You put that roll there, you know, Kid.

Curly Top

This is what she looks like straight out of the bath. Can you tell she has been sick for 3 days? Poor little pale thing. Yes, I finally did get to give her a bath, after I found out that they weren't coming till after 6. I think it made her feel much better. She even played on the floor for a while afterwards(and only tried to knock over the space heaters a few times...)

They heater guys are here right now (at 8:15pm) so things are finally looking up. I am ready to be warm again after 3 days!!

I'm looking forward to Madeleine's one year old doctor appointment tomorrow. I really want to ask about her allergies, and what kind of milk (rice, soy) I can give her. I think he's going to recommend that we go to an allergist, so that will be good - I will be able to find out what she's allergic to, and how allergic she is.

She is doing better now, I think. She ate some baby food plums, bananas and oatmeal (the whole jar) plus some cheerios and a little bit of avocado. I tried to entice her to drink some out of a sippy cup by adding a little juice to her water - she was not impressed. Thanks for reading about our saga - hopefully my posts will be a little more happy and upbeat from now on!

*FINAL (I hope) update* We have heat!!! It is 9pm and the guy just left. It's starting to warm up in here. Thank God!

Just call me Bessie

I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions as to what I've been doing every hour DAY AND NIGHT for three days straight. How much sleep does a person have to lose before being declared legally insane?

It's now 12:45 and I'm taking an unpaid day from work. Madeleine still had a 101.5 fever this morning. She basically hasn't eaten anything for 3 days (well, except see above.) I finally got her to eat some applesauce (basically forcing her) and now she is sleeping again. I know she must be feeling bad because she's been really cuddly - even laying her head on my shoulder. I can count on one hand the times she has done that in her life. She always has to know what is going on around her, nosy little thing.

The heater people were supposed to be here between 8 - 10. Do you think they've been here? No. It's actually ok in here now that the sun is shining in the windows and I have the space heaters going. Yes, I've called. Twice.

I suppose I should get some cleaning done while she's sleeping - maybe eat something myself. I think I'm dehydrated too (see first paragraph.) Thank God Mom brought me an iced soy chai from Starbucks this morning. Caffeine is my friend.

*Update* NOW the heater people call and say they won't be here until between 6 and 10 tonight. Do they realize that I've been sitting in a chair 12 inches from the space heater with a feverish baby ALL DAY LONG? Could we go to Grandma's house to get warm? No, we could not. Could I even give her a soothing warm bath with a space heater in the bathroom? NO, I COULD NOT because I was waiting and waiting for these people to show up. Seriously. Could they possibly be any less courteous? I mean, they tell me they'll be here between 8 and 10 am, so I get up and put the poor baby in her crib instead of laying with her in bed so I could take a shower. If they would have come sometime around then, even a few hours later, well, fine. If they come 12 HOURS LATER, NOT FINE. I think Ken is going to ban me from calling these people any more because he says that in order to get them to pay as much as possible, I have to be "nice." My mother always said, "If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all." I'm off to "not say anything at all."

Sunday

It's still freezing in here.
Madeleine still has had a high fever all day. And she's been very fussy. I am most likely not going to work tomorrow, and I've already used all my paid sick days for the year.
We spent most of the day at my mom's and dad's house where they have heat.
We collected a few extra space heaters for the night from some friends.
Unfortunately, when we plug two of them in at once, it makes the power go out, so one is going to have to do.
Last night was not as bad as I thought. We put the one space heater we have in Madeleine's room, closed all the other doors upstairs except for our room, and dressed really warm.
Of course, today it's colder in here. It was 45 degrees outside and I wanted to open the windows to let the heat in.
The guy is coming tomorrow to put a new blower motor in - and the Quality Air people are paying for a good portion of it, plus taking $50 off our bill for the "inconvenience" of staying in a non heated house in the middle of winter with a sick baby for two nights. They were nice about it though - and really the blower probably was on it's last legs.
We think Dave Ramsay needs to recommend more than a $1000 emergency fund.

You know the Seinfeld episode

Where the valet with B.O. parks Jerry's car and they can't get the smell out? At the end, Jerry sees a bum outside his building and throws the keys in the open window. The guy gets in to take the car, and the smell is so bad he gets out.

That's what happened in our house today. Thanks again, Quality Air people! They had to come back because our heater won't kick on (and you know the high temp is 19 today and we're home with a sick baby.) The people they sent out smelled SO BAD. When they first entered the house, the smell of cigarettes almost knocked me over, until I smelled the B.O. OH MY. I had to take Madeleine upstairs and I could still smell it. Ken had to take some tylenol because it gave him a headache. And Madeleine had a few toys on the floor and one guy kept stepping on them with his disgusting shoes. I wanted to say, "Could you please NOT step on my kid's toys with your filthy shoes?!" Seriously, how hard is it to step around them? But I refrained and I'm going to disinfect them. Now they're gone, of course they didn't fix the heater, and we're sitting here with all the windows open freezing to death. It's worth it though to get rid of this smell. Now an electrician has to come out in a few hours. Plus they charged us $200 for a warranty that is supposed to be free. Ken's going to get that taken off our bill.

So when the guy got here yesterday, he made a big deal over the kids and said that his wife was pregnant. When I called today to tell her our heater wasn't working, I told her congratulations. She acted like she did not know what I was talking about and changed the subject really quickly. I cannot TELL you how mad I was when I thought he lied to me. So I asked the guys who came out here if she was pregnant. One didn't know, one said he thought so. So I guess I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Still, this has not been the best experience. Yesterday they took a bunch of stuff out of the closet and just left it laying everywhere too, in addition to tracking in who knows what all over my floor.

Sorry if this post sounds a little judgmental. I just think people should show a little common courtesy and respect. Especially if I'm paying them 900 dollars for one hour of work.

*Update* It is now almost 8pm and the heat has been off for several hours. I'm am freezing and very very upset with these people. It's a good thing that we have a space heater for Madeleine's room. Ken says that if they don't show up soon we're going to a hotel and sending them the bill. Hmmm, how about this one?

Ok they just called and said that they're having problems with the electrician they were going to send out. Ken said we were going to a hotel if they don't come soon and the guy said he would take care of it. BUT I DO NOT WANT TO PACK UP MY SICK BABY, ALL HER STUFF AND THE PACK AND PLAY AND TAKE HER TO A HOTEL!!! SHE IS ALREADY ASLEEP IN HER CRIB!

*Second update* Now it is 10pm. The electrician was here and could NOT fix the heater. It's completely broken from the 12 year old smokers who were here banging around in there. He said it's going to be 500 bucks to fix it. Well I am NOT paying for it. The heat was working perfectly well before all this. It's now 64 degrees in here, and Madeleine is sleeping in her crib with the space heater in her room. Ken and I are both wearing fleece head to toe and getting ready for a LONG cold night. I better not say this week couldn't get any worse....

Baby update

So I decided to keep her appointment at her doctor's office this morning, because after our 3 hour wait last night the doc who hobbled in looked like he was about 90 years old, and I had doubts whether he could see and hear. Before he came in, the nurse said, "Oh, you're going to love Dr. K. He was a pediatrician for MANY years before he started doing this." She wasn't kidding! She did ok last night, woke up several times but I just kept giving her tylenol and motrin and nursing her back to sleep. This morning she still had a 100 degree fever. The doctor at her regular pediatrician's office did a flu test on her which involved sticking a swab up her nose - she did NOT appreciate that one bit. It was negative, and since her well baby visit is on Tuesday, she just said give her fluids and nurse her a lot and have her regular ped check her then.

Ok, so I tell this doc about our doc last night and who he is. She looked totally shocked and said that she had called that Med Check about 8 years ago and told them she really thought he should retire, since she had had a conversation with him and could tell he had no idea about any of the "new" drugs (like ones that have been around for 30 years.) She said the people over there felt sorry for him because he wanted to work but they had told her they were going to stop giving him hours because "he's been 80 for 10 years." OK.

Oh well. The good news is that she does not have an ear infection or the flu, and doesn't have to be on antibiotics. We're pretty lucky she's never really had to be on meds in this whole first year.

One thing though - she only weighed 17 lbs 12 oz with all her clothes - jeans, sweater, shoes and big diaper. That means she has only gained 10 lbs in a year. Is that ok? Is she a scrawny little thing? She eats a LOT. I hope she hasn't fallen off the growth chart or anything.

What. A. Week.

I'm always glad it's Friday, but today I'm especially glad it's Friday. Here's just a sample of what happened this week.

So I take the cat to the vet. She's high maintenence, like my kid. She has allergies that require shots about once/month. The vet said that maybe if we get our ventilation system cleaned, that would help the cat's allergies. We get an ad in the mail for duct cleaning for $39. They came today, inspected our system, and said the whole thing was completely infested with black toxic mold. 900 bucks later, our air better be as pure as the driven snow, of which we're supposed to get 6 inches tonight. Good LORD.

Then, Madeleine's been a little fussy all day, and I thought it was because she was getting 3 top teeth all at once. (The kid still only has her two bottom teeth!) We got back to the kids' house and I thought she felt a little warm. I took her temperature - 102.7 degrees. So I immediately called the doctor, even though it's 4:15 on a Friday and the office closes at 4:30. Of course they can't get her in, so I took her to Med Check. By the time we got there, her fever was over 103. THREE HOURS LATER, she has an unexplained fever and I need to give her tylenol, Motrin, and fluids. THANK YOU. Plus there was a guy in the waiting room saying he got blown up by a bomb in Iraq. Plus we had to entertain a baby for 2 hours in a tiny waiting room. Thank God Mom met me over there. Madeleine loves her Grandma, that's for sure.

Now Ken just told me that our heater is not kicking on and he thinks the Quality Air people did something to it. Speaking of Quality air people, every time they went out to the driveway they smoked a cigarette. And they tracked in so much crap that I had to mop the floor three times. And they used all my paper towels cleaning the coils.

I thought we had gotten Madeleine to sleep but she's woken up crying several times already. Poor little thing.

Pray for us! Speaking of praying, we're starting our novena to St. Joseph tonight for several special intentions. They moved his feast day to the 15th, apparently. We'd be happy to share the love - if anyone has an intention they want us to pray for, email me or leave a comment.

Have a great weekend!

Hello

Notice the huge pile of books on the floor. That is her favorite thing to do - pull all those books off the shelf and then crawl around in them. And also when she fell at the end, she was fine. She didn't even cry.

Oh good

So far today, she's still my baby :) I know that because she woke up three times last night and needed me to get back to sleep!
Tomorrow we might move her into her big girl carseat though - we'll see how much she weighs at the doctor. Any guesses?

She has some new tricks and the CUTEST new word. I'll try to post a video later.