The Fish Pond

An Earl Kind of Day

BigDaddyFish is a bit of a tree hugger, and for the most part that is a good thing.  One of his big dreams in life is to build a green house, meaning an environmentally friendly one, not one to grow plants in (though that wouldn't be a bad thing).  Right now there is an exhibit down at the National Building Museum about the Green House.  Little Man and BDF went down to see it in the fall, and he has been nagging encouraging me to go down and see this exhibit before it closes, which we thought was June 3.  We were laying around discussing our life plan this past Sunday at around 1pm, and made a spur of the moment decision that we had to get down to see the exhibit before it left, since we are busy this coming weekend. That was mistake number one - you don't make spur of the moment decisions when you have 4 kids under the age of 8 unless you also have a full-time live-in slave nanny to indulge your whims.  We aren't rich, we don't have that, and we are also ridiculously stupid.  What follows is an epic tale of really dumb parents with a bit of karma thrown in.

We managed to get everyone marshalled to get out of the house quickly, so by 2:30 we were on the Metro heading down.  BDF carried Nemo in one of the Mei Tais and we carried our travel stroller to use once we got to the museum.  The kids were in a good mood, we were in a good mood, and they had a blast on the metro.

As we were entering the Metro, two people came up and handed us their all-day passes that they were done with for that day.  Nice karma thing number one - BDF and I didn't have to buy farecards for the bigs (little's still ride free).

So we're happy, and we have a great ride, and the museum is at the top of the Judiciary Square metro stop, so easy access.  We walk in the doors and....

They are setting up for a wedding that's going to be after 5pm, when the museum closes.  Okay, so no biggie, the kids just can't run through the open space of that magnificent building.  We only need to see one exhibit, we can do this.  The time is around 3:30.

We go directly to the exhibit, and I get to spend maybe 10 minutes looking at the basics of the Glidehouse, a full-scale model of a portion of this neat house that's actually a prefab house.  The building materials themselves, the furniture, the appliances, and some of the decor are all made using environmentally friendly materials and technologies and designed to consume a lot less energy.  The kids are getting antsy and clearly on a path of destruction, so we decide we need to get them a snack to help calm them down before I can look at the rest of the exhibit.  There is a small snack cafe place thingy right there in the museum, so we go there, get some snacks, juice, and water, and sit down at a table to watch the wedding setup and eat.  The snack place closes at 4; we begin our snack at 3:45 and finish up about 4:10. 

Okay, we've still got time, we can do this.  Mistake number 2: recognize when the kids are just too spun up to care and cut your losses.  Instead, because we are morons and stubborn persistent when we have something we want to accomplish, we decide to go into the gift shop to get each kid a small toy to play with while I finish looking at the exhibit.  Clearly, mistake number 3: stepping foot in the gift shop was probably the dumbest thing we did - we may have well shot them all up with caffeine and sugar and red dye #4.

The kids immediately all develop a bad case of the gimmies, picking up everything they see and declaring that they love it and their sad little lives will be over and they will die in a heap on the floor if we do not immediately buy that pencil sharpener in the shape of a dog William Shakespeare doll silicone pot holder Mona Lisa puzzle keychain NBM pen toy.  BDF wanted to look at books, I wanted to look at some of the green home decor items (including these, inexplicably in the home decor section), and the kids grabbed every single thing they could get their grubby hands on.  Mistake number what-are-we-on-now, 4?  Yeah, 4: once they start to misbehave in the shop, leave.  Just, leave.  But again, we are what you call slow learners.

We bought each of the kids something cheap that happened to delight them: bracelets and a small metal slinky for Trout; the most sturdy and well-built parachute guy I've ever seen for Little Man; a small, flexible little car thingy for Sunny; and an eco-friendly stuffed robot for Nemo, as well as two board books for all of them: this one and this one. Silly us thought that Trout could read the books to the littles on the bench right outside the gift shop, with a clear view of the wedding setup, while I finished looking at the rest of the green house exhibit.

As soon as I was out of the shop, Little Man started grabbing at the bag in an attempt to get his parachute guy.  Here we showed the first inkling of good judgment and immediately herded them all out of the museum to discuss things.  It is approximately 4:40.

We ended up leaving.  I was upset, BDF was upset, and the kids were just wailing that we were leaving and wouldn't give them their toys (which, incidently, they didn't get until yesterday, after appropriate hard labor served).  It was hot, it was sunny, and we were grumpy.  But us parents?  We're dim, too.

So off we go, walking, heading toward the mall to see what's going on, to see if there's something else we can do since we're there in the city already and we don't want to waste the trip.  We go maybe 6 or 7 blocks; Sunny is whining that she's hot and thirsty and hungry, the others are whining (except Nemo - he was perfect), we're just trudging along, and finally Sunny decides she's done, and she just stops.  Right in the middle of the sidewalk.  She won't move.  I look around all over trying to find something to keep her going long enough for me to help her.

And then I see it.  The yellow awning, the graceful brown letters.  Au Bon Pain, about half a block away.  She'll move for that, so we trudge over, cross the street (during which Sunny decides to stop again IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET!  I just kind of herded her along with the stroller), and into the shop we go.

No air conditioning.  It's hot, but not stifling, and at least they have healthy food, so we settle on grapes and water, mac and cheese for Sunny, and wraps for BDF and myself.  Everyone gets fed and watered, even Nemo, who drinks half a bottle of water all by himself (and yes, I did nurse him several times that day, too).  About 20 minutes and we're good to go, the kids are getting antsy again, so off we go to the mall, another 5 blocks or so.

We decide to check out the sculpture garden, but as we get near we realize the carousel is nearby, and think that would make a good treat and would make the kids happy enough to let us adults do something we want to do, so we head across the mall.  Unfortunately that takes us down a gravel path, and the stroller is ridiculously hard to push across gravel, especially since now Sunny is in it while BDF carries Nemo again.  We're kicking up a lot of dust, especially Little Man, who we have to "speak" to several times about shuffling his sandles in the gravel.  The wind is starting to pick up a bit and it's getting a little overcast, but nothing alarming at this point.  We probably have to stop 8 times due to Little Man and the shuffling in the dust, and we finally decide we will let Trout and Sunny go on the carousel but make Little Man just watch since he couldn't keep from kicking up the dust so bad (honestly, it was awful.  We all got dust in our eyes and mouth and I know other people did, too).  We arrive at the carousel and watch the people currently riding it for a second, and then go to buy tickets.  Wanna guess what happens next?

The ticket booth is closed.  The ride we are watching is the last ride of the day.  While we are standing there dejectedly, a couple of other families come up, large groups with lots of kids, and we're all standing around disappointed, when the man comes out of the little booth, and one of the other dads walks up with a wad of cash and tries to buy another ride.  The ticket booth guy decides to let us all ride, and opens up the exit to let us on.  Karma thing number 2: he won't take any money.  So we relent and let Little Man ride.

While we are on the ride we can see off behind the Washington Monument it is getting real dark.  Black sky, and the wind is picking up more.  The ride ends, we all thank the man profusely, he hands out stickers (! after a free ride?!), and BDF and I start reviewing our options.  We were going to walk over to Chinatown to eat, but it's getting real bad, the wind itself is kicking up as much dust as Little Man did, and it's starting to sprinkle a bit, so we head to the Smithsonian metro stop, along with about 4000 other people from the area who are also looking for cover.

It was weird, because they had all these tents set up and signs for the Folklife Festival, and that's strange to me because the Folklife Festival isn't until around July 4th and it seems a bit early, but whatever.  We saw lightning in the distance and wanted to get away from that big open space with all these lighting magnets tents around, so we scurried to the metro, finally wised up and cut our losses, and came home.  Along the way the storm started to hit, and one of the tents that had been set up came loose from one side of its support structure, and it was just flapping and whipping around like a sail on a pirate ship in 30 foot seas.  I had an unhealthy urge to throw a ball on top of it to watch it bounce the ball around.  We made it into the metro stop just as the sky opened up and the lightning started in earnest.

On the metro train on the way back, three people gave up their seats so the kids would have somewhere to sit, and helped us make sure all of them got off with us when we had to transfer trains.  Good karma thing whatever number I'm on: no one gives up metro seats, even when you're pregnant.  This is a small miracle.

When we got back to Shady Grove metro, we gave the day-long passes to someone else who was entering the station, hoping to pass along the karma.  There is a creek that runs basically through the metro property, and in the grass near the creek, not ten feet from the parking lot, was an adorable fuzzy duckling, with no sign of its parents around anywhere.  Sunny nearly passed out from delight, and dissolved into a hot mess when we told her she couldn't take it home with her.  Mean parents we are.

The kids jumped in some filthy ass puddles, I got all worked up about the filth, as is in my job description, and we came home infinitely poorer, but wiser.  The Green House exhibit has been extended to June 24, so we will be getting a sitter and heading down for a night on the town sometime next month.

By ourselves.

Make New Friends, But Keep The Old

One day last week, I was talking to one of the other mothers from Little Man's preschool class, because she was coordinating collecting money to give a gift to the teachers, and I was making the cards.  While we were talking in the parking lot at school, one of her three sons said he had to go potty while she was getting the stroller out of the car, and I assumed that they would just hurry and go into the school.  Instead, he pulled down his pants, she picked him up and slung one arm under his knees, holding them up in the air, pointed his pisser down and held it there with the other hand, and he peed right there in the parking lot next to her van.  I am awkward in social situations under the best of circumstances, so I just stood there like a dork, giggling a bit.  The whole thing was over in about 30 seconds; her son pointed out that "my tinkle is running towards you mom, watch out!" and she sort of hopped out of the way in mock horror, then looked at me and said "Sorry, I have 3 boys, you do what you gotta do" with a wry smile.  I was in awe of her grace and matter-of-fact aplomb in a circumstance that would have had me both freaking and scurrying into the school to take care of the issue or setting up my portable toddler potty that I keep in the car for just such a situation (although then there's always the issue of disposing of the bag of hot stinking pee).

The whole rest of the week I worried that I had offended her by giggling like the moron I am, but she didn't seem bothered at all, so I approached her on the last day of school and asked if she would like to get the boys together.  Little Man has an abundance of girls to play with, but few boys, and her three boys are all super close in age, I think something like 18 months between each.  She emailed me that afternoon.

So, I am cautiously optimistic about the playdate at a local park tomorrow morning.  Keep your fingers crossed that I keep my feet out of my mouth and actually manage to make a new friend.

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Today we went to our local indoor pool (which is really like a water park) with good friends who live just a hair too far away from us, as well as my SIL and her girls.  The pool has 7 water slides, two of them over 200 feet, plus one of those towers that dumps water on you at various intervals, three waterfalls, fountains, and is designed to look like a rocky lagoon that pirates have overtaken; there's even two water cannons that fire off occasionally.  We had a ball, we didn't lose or drown a single kid (which, with 9 kids 9 and under, was a very real possibility), and then went out for pizza and beer after, and then came back here.  They are friends that if they care about the major mess in my house they don't say anything or let it keep them from coming over to play.  The only main difference between our families is that they are Mormon, so that keeps them from doing a lot of the same things that we do (only one of them drinks beer, for example; he wants to drop out of being Mormon altogether but stays because it makes his wife happy; they don't drink coffee, they have church for hours on Sunday), plus I cuss like a sailor am rather foul mouthed use a bit of off color language.  I can relax and be myself with them without fear of condemnation.  It was a beautiful day and I can't think of anything I would rather have been doing on Memorial Day.

Our friend is an Army veteran, so it is fitting that we spent the holiday together.  Thanks to all you veterans and your families for making it so that we could have this day. May God bless you all and keep you safe.

Coming up: the promised rant about kids clothes, plus a recap of our foray into the city yesterday.

Me, Too

BigDaddyFish had been playing with the littles while I got Trout and Little Man tucked into bed, after which I went downstairs to steal a couple minutes reading blogs working doing dishes.  I hadn't been down five minutes when BigDaddyFish comes to the top of the stairs and says "You have to come see this.  Quickly."

I ran up the stairs into my room and found Nemo laying flat on his back just underneath BDF's pillow, and Sunny laying perpendicular to him, sideways with her head on BDF's pillow and her butt and legs up in the air on top of my pillows (yes, I have more than one - holdover from pregnancy.  It's comfortable, dammit).  BDF and I shared a look about how cute our kids are, and then I told him he needed to move Sunny off our bed and into her own before she peed on my pillows.  He informed me it would be "tough" to do.

He went around the bed and started to pick up Sunny, who woke slightly, grabbed Nemo's hand, and yelled "NOOOOOO!!! I like it here!"

Me, too, Sunny.  Me, too.

Getting Rid of the Irrelevant and Giving You the Gems

Did you ever google "Separation Anxiety" to try and get information on what to do with a three-year old who has suddenly become velcro child and won't let you out of her sight for a second, not even to pee or throw a load of laundry in the washer, and see what you get?  No?  Well, there's information for you there, if you want to wade through all the ways to give your dog medication so he doesn't destroy your house while you are away from home, or information on how to get through panic attacks for adults.  Good information, most of it, but not really relevant to the clingy kid.

Enter Light Iris.  Light Iris is a website for new and expectant mothers.  It provides information and tools specific to the needs of mothers.  Right now the most important feature is the search engine, which wades through all the google crap and spits out only the relevant information that you need.  No fearful dogs or panicking adults here (unless they sit at the computer), only good information pertaining to separation anxiety in children and what to do about it.  Or nursing babies.  Or motherhood in general.  If it relates to moms, you'll get it here.

Right now, if you join Light Iris, you'll be entered to win over $3000 in gift cards.  Also, they support the Global Fund for Women, an international network of men and women committed to equality and social justice.  More features will be added to the website as they're developed.

Go ahead, check it out.  You'll find you like it.  Bookmark it for when you need to find information on how to end the baby's nursing strike before your boobs explode.  And while you're at it, check out Parent Bloggers, who told me about Light Iris in the first place. They'll tell you how you can participate in an upcoming blog blast, where you could win registration for BlogHer in July!  How awesome is that?

Easing Up

Things are finally starting to ease up a bit around here.  This morning Nemo got his postponed shots from his 6 month checkup (AND they found his missing testicle, thus saving us a trip to the pediatric urologist), Little Man had his get ready for school physical, and I'm starting to catch up a bit with the cleaning up of this pigsty hovel squalor lovely home.  BigDaddyFish had to be in to work this morning before dawn so I was single parenting this morning, but the kids had been prepped and they cooperated, so we made it out the door and to our respective destinations on time with only a token amount of yelling and nagging reminding on my part.  The planets must be aligned right or something.

Friday BigDaddyFish went to the eye doctor to get glasses for the first time.  He claims he can't see, but his vision tested out at 20/20.  I wish I couldn't see that well.  He is ridiculously light sensitive, though, so he had to get glasses.  They are mighty cute, I must say.  He won't get them until a week from now.  He is getting regular glasses for inside that help with the light issue and make it so that he can see the screen again when he spies on looks over the shoulder of his underlings, and he is getting sunglasses to help with the light sensitivity outside.  He picked clunky plastic frames for the sunglasses, very retro; it's a look I couldn't do worth a damn but he looks real cute.  Sunny, Nemo and I went with him to help him pick things out, and when we were done and BDF was paying up (thank God for great vision coverage), the optometrist came out and started playing with Sunny with these funny little finger puppets that look like monsters.  The optometrist overheard me talking to someone else about the fact that I have four kids, so she went and got two more of the little monster finger puppets and gave them to Sunny so she would have enough to share with all her sibs.  It was a very very nice thing to do, and I get so cynical about society sometimes that I like to point it out when people do nice things.

Friday afternoon was the big meeting with the attorney to read my grandfather's will and open the estate.  It wasn't that big a deal, I think, because we've all known the contents of the will for years, so no surprises.  What we aren't prepared for is that the attorney himself is 82, and some of the things he told us about how this works contradict what the younger attorney, who is out of the country, told us about how we have to handle things.  My grandfather had over 20 different accounts and they all have their own ways of doing things, so it is pretty complicated.  We are waiting for the younger attorney who is out of the country to get back and confirm that what the older attorney told us is not based on an old law or something before we do anything.  After the meeting, my uncle took out the stack of sympathy cards they've received - at least 2 1/2 inches thick.  We sat there for a good 20 minutes so I could go through each one.  I knew my grandfather had touched a lot of lives, but it was nice to see tangible evidence of just how many.  It was heavy stuff; I had to go off and be by myself for a while afterward, just to kind of process my emotions.

I finally caved and got Nemo's medicine at the older pharmacy with bad hours.  At least they make the medicine correctly.  Nemo is much happier and sleeping well again.

Saturday we did the shoe and summer clothes run to the outlet stores near my in-laws' house (watch for the upcoming rant about girls' clothes).  It was also my MIL's 60th birthday, so we spent it up there with them.  At one point on Saturday Sunny was freaking out because she was trying to get her shirt on.  First she said she couldn't do it, then she was whining because she wanted my help RIGHT NOW, but I was nursing Nemo and couldn't help her right then.  I finished him up and told her I was ready to help her and she said "No, I'm unda contwol."

I guess I could use some being "unda contwol" myself.  Baby steps.

Sunday Trout had her year-end bowling party for Girl Scouts.  She earned 4 Try Its this year - not too shabby for meeting only one hour every other week.  I'm not sure if I'm going to be a co-leader next year or not.  Right now it feels like too much, so I'm leading towards no, but we'll see how I'm doing in September when Nemo is older.

I know, this is a boring old post.  Just catching up on what we're doing in our lives right now, basically just slowing down and preparing for summer.  At least it's not super depressing.

Barking Snot Plague

No, I didn't disappear, and no, this isn't turning into an exclusive product review blog.  Yes, my kids are still alive and yes, they still do funny messed up things.  I will give a bullet list of what we've been up to, but basically they are ALL home because the Barking Snot Plague is going through our house.  Thus far it only affects the kids (please in the name of all that is Holy please knock wood and pray and do whatever else applies that we adults don't get it), but Nemo and Sunny are both pretty sick.  Trout is home today, but frankly I think she has Idon'twannagotoschoolitis and isn't really that sick - she doesn't have the Hacking Bark of Death.  But her glands are real swollen so BigDaddyFish is convinced she's actually sick.  I'm a mean mom and am making her stay in bed since she's home - no laying around watching tv or playing with the other kids like she has tried to do several times already.  Sick is not fun around here (I would be nicer if she actually looked or acted sick, but she isn't).  My babysitter hasn't been here at all this week and I'm losing my mind.  I haven't showered in a few couple of days and it is bad enough that I called my in-laws, who drive me crazy, in to babysit the rest of the day and the duration of the Brownie meeting tonight.  So!

• Nemo was baptized on Sunday.  Since losing my mother so many years ago and not ever really having a decent surrogate, and since I married a guy who thinks holidays are an excuse for people to be lazy and not work, Mothers Day is always very hard on me.  I decided to go ahead and have Nemo baptized on Mothers Day to try to bring a positive association to it.  It was a beautiful day and the weather was perfect and we had a party at a nearby park afterward and it was just lovely.
• I've become a pro at this nebulizer thing.
• Nemo had his 6 month checkup, but not his vaccs because of the bronchiolitis.  He is 17lbs14oz, 27.25 inches long, and just perfectly healthy aside from the bronchiolitis and his reflux.  He will get his shots on Monday at Little Man's physical if he is well enough by then.
• I asked the doctor to transfer Nemo's prilosec prescription to a pharmacy up here in my town, instead of the next town over like it is now.  The pharmacy I've been using doesn't have the most convenient hours (closed by 6 every day, only open 9-12 on Saturday and closed on Sunday) and it is difficult for me to shlep at least 3 kids down there to pick it up.  But, as we've seen before, I am a moron.  The new pharmacy didn't put any flavoring in the medicine, so Nemo gags and chokes on it when I give it to him, and it doesn't appear to be working at all, so I have my doubts as to whether or not they made it properly in the first place.  They also charged me the high co-pay to get it.  So!  I now have to make the decision whether to try to get them to fix it or just have the prescription transfered back down to the old pharmacy and just suck it up getting there.
• Yesterday morning Little Man came to me and asked "Mommy, what's this?" and put a small purple pill in my hand.  Yes, it was Nexium.  No, it did not belong to anyone who lives here.  My MIL, who has Parkinsons and takes some pretty hellacious drugs for it, is religious about keeping her meds away from my kids; she won't even take them in the same room as the kids in case she drops one (with Parkinsons, that's a reasonable possibility).  However my FIL KEEPS HIS MEDS LOOSE IN HIS POCKET!  Apparently, according to my MIL, he keeps the capsule in his pocket because he has trouble swallowing it, so he periodically opens up the capsule and puts some on his tongue and then closes it back up again, rather than just asking the pharmacist to make a liquid compound for him, because he doesn't want the pharmacist to think he's a sissy or something.  I thanked Little Man profusely and the Good Lord that I have taught the kids well and he brought it to me and that HE was the one who found it, not Sunny or Nemo.  When they come here to babysit today, I will be checking pockets and confiscating all meds at the door.  This is one of the reasons I hate to have them babysit -- they are limited in what they can do, they frequently lack common sense and get defensive when, based on their past history, I mention things to them, and they are stark raving mad (and drive me crazy).  I have avoided blogging about them because I don't want them to find my blog and get their feelings hurt someday (although this is remote) and they are nice people and they mean well.  I will continue to avoid blogging about them but this had to be shared or my head would explode.
• My uncle and I meet with my grandfather's attorney tomorrow to open his estate and I am dreading it to no end.  I am struggling emotionally, missing him so much, and his estate is so so so very complicated and it will mean a tremendous amount of work on my part, and I'm already stretched so thin. 
• Sunny was outside and decided she had to pee, so she stripped off her pants and peed, then danced around in the resulting mud/pee puddle.  I dragged her in the house pretty quickly, but not before my neighbors ran scurrying for their phones to speeddial the HOA.  It's a good thing they actually just find my kids funny.  Plus Sunny's really cute.
• We found a house for us that was pretty close to perfect: .5 acres (that's a lot around here), 4 bedrooms all upstairs (as opposed to three up and two in the basement or something - my kids are too little to be that far from us right now, not to mention the ease with which they can sneak out of the house later), cute little lot, two swing sets and a playhouse, hardwood floors throughout, 2 car garage, a block from our current preschool where Sunny will be in the fall and a block in another direction to the elementary school, screened in porch.  BigDaddyFish found signs of termite damage and evidence of termite repairs that had used pressure treated lumber inside the house, and that concerned him (rightfully so), and he was also concerned because the garage was inside the house (the bedrooms were above it).  He has relatives who lost their whole house due to a fire in the garage, so he is apprehensive about this.  Frankly, the positives to me outweighed the negatives, and I wanted to just get a termite contractor in there to estimate any potential damage, and as far as the garage is concerned I wanted to fill it in and make a bigger family room out of it, and then add another garage with a firewall to the side of the house (there is more than enough room on the property to do so).  But BigDaddyFish doesn't make decisions quickly or easily so we didn't do anything yet; in his defense the market has been such that we thought we had a bit more time.  Not so - the house went under contract on Saturday.  When we drove by and saw the sign, I cried.  It was a perfect house for us.  I have asked the agent to call us if anything happens and the contract falls through.  If we are meant to have that house, we'll be in that house.

So! I am not disappearing, just busy and struggling and bit morose right now. I try not to post too much when I am feeling down because I don't want to turn this in to a Depression Blog, and I realize that's the way things have been lately.  I'll try to be around more.

P.S.  Go check me out over here, too!

Boca Beth: Me Gusta

Trout had been asking about taking a Spanish class to learn more Spanish than a thousand episodes of Dora had taught her, so when the Parent Bloggers asked for someone to review a program to teach Spanish to kids age 0-8 I jumped at the chance, especially since I have four kids in the target age demographic (I originally typed demongraphic - kinda telling about how my days have been recently).  Boca Beth is a program designed to lay the foundation for raising kids who are bilingual in both English and Spanish.  We received the My First Songs in Spanish CD, the I Like Animals DVD, a Boca puppet, a coloring book, and a wonderful cute little maraca/shaker thingy that my kids fight over.

We've watched the DVD and listened to the CD at least 100 times each.  My kids love these things -- especially Sunny.  When the DVD is on she is glued to the TV, repeating all the dialogue and doing all the dances, pronouncing things as best she can.  She wanders around the house singing all the songs -- she even sings them in the bathtub.  I can't vouch for how much Nemo got out of any of it, as he can't talk, but he sure likes to watch the DVD and tends to stop fussing when the CD is on.  Little Man and Trout also watched, listened, and learned, but I don't think they got as much out of it as Sunny did.  I think she, at 2 and 3 (she had her birthday in the middle of our review), is the best target audience for the program.

The production quality of both the CD and the DVD could be better.  I have a friend who records his own compositions in his bedroom, and the production quality of his work is higher than the quality of the Boca Beth CD.  However, the songs are catchy and easy to learn, and use familiar tunes that the kids already know.  Every time we get in the car Sunny asks for Boca to play.  My only issues with the CD are the aforementioned production quality, and the fact that the songs do tend to develop into ear worms for the adults in the area after a while (I have found myself unable to fall asleep one night because of Hay un perro a fuera being stuck in my head).  It would have been nice to have a lyrics sheet for the adults, though, because sometimes it is difficult to make out if something starts with, say, a B or a P just from listening to the CD.

The DVD has the songs on it, mostly in a classroom setting, and shows different animals doing all sorts of things.  Again, the production quality is an issue; it is something more akin to what has been done at my church for their post-VBS slide show on Powerpoint than a more polished DVD like something you might see on Baby Einstein.  But you know what?  It doesn't matter.  It just doesn't.  My kids LOVE it.  Sunny asks to watch it every day, and though I had to cut her down to 3 times a week for my own sanity, she is just as engaged by it now as she was when we first put it on.  The sections on the animals are interesting and have the words printed on the screen to help with the B vs P thing.  After that, there is a class session just like the classes offered in Florida where they are based.  This is fantastic, as Sunny doesn't yet go to preschool, but it introduced her to what preschool might be like when she starts in the fall.  Sunny insists on having the Boca puppet and shaker with her whenever she watches, and she dances and sings along with everything.

The Boca Beth website offers more resources for free - a monthly newsletter, flash cards that you can download and print, suggested activities to do along with the CD, and an online store where you can order all the DVDs and CDs, as well as more puppets and shakers so the kids don't fight over them.

If you are interested in getting your children to speak Spanish and possibly even become bilingual, this is a great way to start.  Your kids will love this program, and therefore you will, too.

Obvious Answer

So the answer to "When to use the nebulizer" is when your kid starts kicking you in the middle of the night because he doesn't have enough air to make what is usually a hearty cry.  Or before bedtime, to prevent the kicking.

Nemo woke me up with the kicking at about 6 am this morning, doing this weird sort of grunting thing and unable to cry.  So after a fog of about 5 minutes when I tried to wake up enough to remember how to put the blasted nebulizer together, he got his first nebulizer treatment.  He was fighting the mask, so I had to hold him and hold the mask fairly tight against his face.  I just sat there and held him as tears streamed down my face, because I was just so scared.

The good news?  I am now in love with Albuterol.  Seriously.  I want to marry it.  He only needed the one treatment so far, after which he nursed like crazy and went back to sleep.  When he got up with us around 9:30 he was fine - acting like his normal self, except with more snot.

So, tonight he will get another nebulizer treatment, and then another tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon, he will be baptized, and then we will have a fine afternoon having a little party at a beautiful park.

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This has been a particularly hard week this week for some reason.  Maybe because Nemo turned six months on Tuesday, and he is my last baby and while I'm delighted he's growing I am wistful that his babyhood is flying by so quickly.  Maybe because that was the same day I called the attorney to schedule the meeting to open my grandfather's estate.  That means this is real.  That he's really gone.  And I just can't stand it.  And I have everyone else around me needing something from me, and I feel like I just need to be able to take care of myself, and I can't take the time to do it.  Maybe because this week leads to Mothers Day, a day which for almost 22 years now has meant little but sorrow to me, and because of my grandfather's death, it has brought my mother's to the surface once again.  Maybe because my husband won't do anything for Mothers Day and I know it, and I know that without his help the kids won't remember what day it is, which wouldn't be such a big deal if he and the kids recognized in some small way the hell they'd be in if I weren't around doing what I do, but they don't, so it depresses me.

But God reminds us that we are not alone, and indeed Angels work through people to care for the souls of others.  Small things here and there - a few wonderfully nice emails and posts in response to this blog; a small flower arrangement from a friend, a new friend, because I was "having a tough week;" the entire collection of "Homicide: Life on the Streets" including the 3 Law and Order crossover episodes and the full length movie on DVD for under $100 (thank you, me); news that another friend with major fertility issues has turned up pregnant on her own, and while it is early yet there is much cause for hope; dear friends who belong to the Mormon church who have moved all kinds of things around so that they can be with us tomorrow for Nemo's baptism; and another dear friend who I hardly see since she moved three years ago who sent me a lovely message for Mothers Day.

May God Bless all of you Mothers out there -- new, veteran, foster, expecting, birth, adoptive, surrogate, or hopeful -- and may you have a wonderful, peaceful Mothers Day.

And may your children change their underwear, pick up their shoes, and clean up their rooms, without you having to remind them.

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p.s.  Check me out over here, plus all the other cool stuff at Props and Pans.

Breath

Nemo woke up in the middle of last night with the telltale bark of the croup cough.  We steamed him up and nursed him through til morning, and today I took him in to the pediatrician.

He has bronchiolitis.

I have a nebulizer for him, but I am not sure I know when to use it - the instructions are every 4-6 hours AS NEEDED.  How do I know he needs it?

I am terrified of anything that involves difficulty breathing.  Trout had bronchiolitis when she was 3 months old - I didn't sleep for three days, as I stayed up watching her breathe.

As I will be doing with Nemo tonight.

He is supposed to be baptized on Sunday.  I hope we don't end up needing to do it earlier.

Please pray for him.

Cut Yourself Some Slack

As you probably know, I live in the Washington, DC metro area.  In fact, I live in one of the more expensive places in the country, and the most educated.  Washington is home to the Nationals, the Redskins, the Wizards, the Capitals, and DC United.  It is home to the the monuments, the President, the government.  And it is home to the Competimommy, the Sanctimommy, the self-rightous, the extreme parent.

I try my best to go against the tide here.  I shoot for slacker mom, and I succeed about 75% of the time.  I don't believe I am in charge of my kids' happiness.  I don't believe they will suffer from lack of attention from me; in fact, I believe a bit of benign neglect benefits us all.  I am a lousy housekeeper, and if someone mentions anything about it to me I am much more inclined to suggest that they clean it up their damn selves than I am to feel any pressure to do any more about it than I would normally.

But bucking the system around here is tough.  Real tough.  There aren't many around me who are publicly like me.  Your kids must be in the best preschool program, the best enrichment classes, the top sports teams.  If you express that you don't believe any of those things is necessary, you may as well announce that you are giving birth to a martian at 7 pm tonight for all the positive reaction you'll get.

I am just now starting to find my groove as a mom of four, now that Nemo is six months old and not necessarily attached to my person all the time.  For me, it is an absolute necessity that I not be Supermom; I will end up on the psych ward.  I constantly search for ways to avoid getting sucked into the Bree Van de Camp lifestyle, but around here it is oh, so very very hard.  Especially when you are overwhelmed and sleep deprived.

So when the Parent Bloggers asked for people to review the book Even June Cleaver Would Forget the Juice Box by Ann Dunnewold, I jumped all over it.  Usually when I get a book to read I have it done in about three days; I've had this book for over a month and just finished it last night.  The tag line is "Cut Yourself Some Slack (and Still Raise Great Kids) in the Age of Extreme Parenting" and to me it feels like this book was written for everyone who lives in the DC area (and everywhere else, too). 

It took me so long to read this book because it requires a decent amount of reflection after each bit you read.  It teaches you how to reprogram the automatic thoughts in your head that kick yourself for not being Supermom into positive thoughts to teach you how to be the Perfectly Good Mom.  It gives you tips on how to avoid falling into the traps of extreme parenting and helps you learn how to connect with other mothers.

In short, it's a big ol' dose of perspective.  And sometimes we moms get so bogged down in the details of life that perspective is completely missing.  The book also offers practical tips on how to keep that perspective as we go through life each day.  There's even a chapter for Dads that includes advice on how to keep Dads from falling into the competidad trap, as well as advice on how parents can work together to keep each other sane and healthy.

It's hard work, I'll admit.  Real hard.  But aren't we worth it?