2008 April « Two Mommies and a Shmoo

open house #3

April 28, 2008 at 4:34 pm (Shmoo news, real estate blues)

Thanks Kerr for the memory refresh!

There was a cartoon character named Shmoo.

We had another open house this weekend. At least some people showed up this time, but I’m not keeping my hopes up.

My mother has sold her condo and is closing in 2 weeks. This, of course, has heightened my anxiety to sell our place but I think I’m falling into acceptance that it will never sell for what we need to sell it at. I’m trying to not get frustrated or depressed about it, but everything seems to be coming back to money lately and we have a lot to figure out. More on this later, don’t want to dampen anyone’s spirits on a Monday morning.

- – -

As for the Shmoo, he’s been testing us more than usual lately. We’ve always been very lucky that he would eat anything and everything we gave him. Some people said “that will change!” and others said “you are lucky – hope he stays that way!”

Last Wednesday, our bliss came to a screeching halt when he decided to eat almost NOTHING we tried to feed him. What the hell?!?!!?

For two weeks, this kid LOVED yogurt. He even said “yo-gut” one day. As of Wednesday, he points to the yogurt, you open it, he won’t even try one bite. He turns his head away, whines, etc.

We thought it was because he wanted to do it himself. Nope. Allowing him to self-feed just means that the yogurt will end up on the wall.

His vast array of food items seems to be fruit only right now. He will eat pear, blueberries and cantaloupe. All fresh fruit, not jarred anything.

He will eat some cheerios, but just this weekend turned down peas, ham, beef, chicken, rice, noodles, oatmeal, jarred baby food fruit concoctions, etc.

It is so bizarre and we don’t want to rush to the doctor and announce that there is something wrong with him, but he’s also been so damn needy lately. And I think he’s got allergies or a sinus thing going on.

He will take bottles and he’s been sleeping okay, so we’re not thinking ear infection (aside from the fact he’s never had an ear infection!)

We’re just wondering when we start worrying. I think he is getting enough to eat and I don’t want to force him but sheesh. What happened to our great little eater?!?!

Thanks for enduring my long winded confusing whine. Just for sticking it out, I’ll reward you with some pictures of the boy.

Don’t worry Dollface, I’ll give you a ride!

I like to swing with my BFF Kaden. Where did Kaden go?!?

Check out my new shoes. Aunt Laura got them for me so I could look as cool as her. Mommy, don’t I need to wear work boots with shorts to be really as cool as Aunt Laura?!?!?! (tee hee)

I didn’t do it. I swear. Really.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! And thanks for sending our your prayers to E. and S.! We can’t wait to see more pictures of A. from the comfort of his home!

17 Comments

an active child

April 25, 2008 at 5:29 pm (a mobile meatball)

Not sure how it came about, but we’re now calling the boy “Schmoo”.

It started as Andrew Schmandrew. Now, he’s “Schmoo”.

Schmoo has a cold going on. He’s not been his usually self lately. We’re still not sure what the usual self is.

Let’s just say he’s been more whiney than busy the last 2 days. And we totally caved and had him in bed with us for two nights. I know, I know. We’re undoing all of that hard work to keep him in his crib. Sigh.

I decided that Schmoo could be a money maker for us. Not in the “let’s sell his face on cereal boxes” kind of way, but I have an actual job for him.

“Child Proof” Tester

I’m sure some design engineers for child locks and child proof bottles would be very intrigued by his abilities. I certainly am.

I cannot imagine how many 14 month olds can break a lazy susan child lock, rip the toilet lock off the toilet, take apart a dental floss container, screw open a bottle of mouthwash (we were right there – he didn’t drink any) and try to pull an outlet cover off with a plastic screwdriver all within a matter of seconds. Plus, he’s “this close” to figuring out the child gate. (He’s already pulled down the one that doesn’t screw into the wall)

It’s rather exhausting. And it means that nothing is safe anymore.

It took Lois 6 attempts to take a shower yesterday morning. The toilet lock, dental floss and mouthwash all came into play during this time. Once he pulled the toilet lock off, he tried throwing things from the garbage into the toilet. Then he tried throwing the entire garbage can into the toilet. Then he tried to get at the toilet brush. Ewwwww.

You can’t have him in the bathroom. You can’t leave him anywhere else. You may think his room is child proof. He can find something you didn’t think of. He won’t hang in his room by himself. He will freak out and scream bloody murder if you try to gate him in there. And we don’t want him to hate his room by thinking it’s a trap.

That being said, don’t go calling DCF on us because you think we are letting our kid loose on the bathroom cabinets, filled with medications and cleaning solutions.

We are in this position right now where we don’t want to drill holes into every cabinet in the kitchen and bathroom because we are trying to sell our place. However, we have been moving everything to different locations and leave safe stuff in the accessible places.

Usually, Schmoo goes right to a specific kitchen drawer and stands there pulling everything out and throwing it over his shoulder. Like good parents, we have removed the knives, matches and skewers and allowed him access to the whisks and rubber spatulas. He is getting frustrated because we are also trying to limit his access to the metal measuring cups that he likes banging on the hardwood floor (again, we are trying to sell this place and don’t need any more “Schmoo dents” in the hardwood than are already there).

I am glad that it’s getting nice out and this kid can be outside more. With his busy-ness, he needs to be OUTSIDE! Oh yeah, another new thing is that he now almost can’t stand to be inside and is whiney when he’s not outside 100% of the time. This is going to get old.

We should have known when he was doing cartwheels in utero that this kid was going to be active.

11 Comments

Earth Day 2008

April 22, 2008 at 11:14 am (environmentally friendly)

Today is Earth Day.

I do not define myself as an environmentalist. I have always been conscientious of recycling, litter, etc. but I’m not as proactive as I could be.

I was moved by An Inconvenien*t Truth mostly because I realized that I don’t want my kids and their children and grandchildren to be facing the end of the world due to our complete ignorance.

So, I am definitely taking steps, small and imperfect ones, to help make my “human footprint” (another documentary everyone should watch) less of a divot out of the earth.

Earth Day is a once-a-year event, but I hope that by blogging about it, all of my readers will do what I do and try to think about things more when we are creating waste or when an opportunity arises for us to save more energy.

One step…

I drive a hybrid. It’s definitely not as cool and as fast as my former vehicle, Sexy Rexy the WRX, but it’s a step for me.

I have received several questions about the hybrid and how I like it. I do like it, a lot. It’s definitely made me slow down a little. I am finding it easier to drive slower since my competitive personality now has me in a game with myself to see how I can get the best gas mileage without driving under 70 mph.

I drive 60 highway miles per day. And we live in Connecticut. It is not flat highway – there are a ton of hills. I get awesome gas mileage going downhill and terrible gas mileage when my 4 cylinder engine struggles up a hill. Plus, the speed limit on this road is 65. I used to drive it at between 79-82 (my ticket last May was for 83).

Now, I usually do cruise control at about 72. That puts me at about 39-42 mpg on average. If I drive 74 on cruise control, I average about 36. If I drove slower, I’m sure I would probably end up with about 45.

It wasn’t a cheap car for me since I had to eat some $ on the WRX, but saving on gas is great – for my own pocketbook reasons, not just for the environment. Plus you save on insurance and if you buy new, you get a tax refund.

Even if you don’t want to be an environmentally-friendly consumer, you can still buy a hybrid. My conservative brother-in-law just bought one and he wants to find a bumper sticker that says “I’m not a Liberal, I’m just cheap.”

There are little things we can do every day. Such as, think before we print out from our computer, change to energy efficient light bulbs, etc. For some ideas, visit this site.

I say, let’s all take this opportunity to pay more attention to our everyday existence and the habitual things we do to see what we can improve. I will make more of an effort as well.

Let’s try to make a better place for our children to live.

8 Comments

send prayers

April 21, 2008 at 7:06 pm (1)

If you can, please send your love and prayers to Erin and Sara for their little man, A.

We are keeping them in our hearts and prayers during this time of uncertainty.

She did it!

April 21, 2008 at 1:19 am (a mobile meatball)

Lois’ crush did it!

Lois has been lovin’ D*nica for years. I have totally accepted the fact that she would leave me in a heartbeat if D*nica showed up at our door.

We also have an ongoing conversation about how our next child is going to be a girl and we shall name her D*nica.

We are very excited in our household!!! Great job D*nica, we can’t wait to watch you win many more!

- – - – -

Do you ever wish you could just slow time down a little?

Like the time those Norwegians were here?!?! It was 4 weeks and on Friday, I drove a Norwegian mommy and baby to J.F.K. (3 hours there, 1.5 hours home). It was very sad to see them leave. They will be back in September or October, so hopefully we will be in a house by then so they won’t need to sleep on the floor of Andrew’s room.

I also wish weekends wouldn’t go so fast. I’m not ready to go back to work tomorrow.

Andrew had tons of outdoor time this weekend and he never wants to be in the house anymore. And he is EVERYWHERE!

He also doesn’t think his little quad is nearly cool enough anymore.

What else is the boy up to lately?

He may have said some words in the past few days. He does say Mama, but he may have added “yeah” and “yogurt” (Lois is the only person that’s heard him say that) but, of course, he also seems to say “no.”

Can’t wait for more words!

9 Comments

Thank you

April 16, 2008 at 10:59 am (Reader Appreciation)
Tags: Reader Appreciation

April 16th is Reader Appreciate Day.

Allow me to gush a little here.

First of all – Big Big Thanks to Robin for putting this together.

I wanted to participate in Robin’s idea so I could express my appreciation to all of my readers!

When I look back at when I started this blog, I never knew I would meet so many amazing people and share so much of my life with everyone. My readers know a lot more about us than most of our family and friends.

Your comments and growing friendships have opened up a new world to me and I am forever grateful. I know sometimes I get sappy or boring. Sometimes we get a little self-centered (I guess that’s what blogging is about – ourselves). But our readers are always there! You have helped me through some rough spots and laughed at me when I deserved it. I have appreciated every comment and continue to read every blog that I’ve found through comments!

I’ve recently looked back and reread many of the comments from when we found out we were pregnant or even after the boy was born! Thank you everyone for sharing these moments with us.

I never thought anyone would find our lives or my writing even remotely interesting. I do realize that most of you probably only read to see a picture of the boy, not to read my ramblings!!

We have a fabulous community. I have been posting every blogger that comments in my bloglines and can’t believe how much we’ve all shared with each other and how each of us has grown (as our families have grown!)

Thank you loyal readers for keeping us in your hearts and minds! And we are always keeping you in ours!

You are all so friggin’ special!

(sniff)

12 Comments

K*n’s Walk!

April 14, 2008 at 10:08 pm (K*)

We had the walk this weekend for the Ron*ald McDonald Family Room and the children’s hospital. It was a little colder than we hoped for – the day before was 72 degrees! – but we had a blast! (Donations are still being accepted by our Firstgiving site)

K*n was definitely a “star” and it was a nice event.

For those of you who know how close we are to K*n and his mommy, you know what they have been through in the past 2 years. K*n is such a remarkable, special child. He has gone through two major open heart surgeries already and still has one more to go two years from now. He won’t get to do everything that every other kid or young man would be able to do in terms of contact sports or other things, but I really think he’s going to always be a remarkable person.

Here are some pictures from our day.

You can’t really tell from the pictures, but there were hundreds of families at the children’s hospital walk yesterday. Being there and seeing how many children and families have been served by the hospital and seeing the pictures of many children who did not survive to share their story…it’s….I don’t know…it’s so heart wrenching.

We will never take our son and his health for granted even for one day. Everyone who has a child is blessed. Every child is so special and amazing.

I can’t imagine the fear of knowing your child is sick. It kills me inside to know that there are many people out there who will mistreat their child for crying too hard or lay a hand on their child for no reason. And here are these families that will fight so hard with their child to see the light of day outside of a hospital room.

Every child is a gift. And we have been so blessed.

3 Comments

Slide!

April 14, 2008 at 7:24 pm (fabulous photography)

In the past few days, Andrew tried out a handful of slides for the first time.

I think he really likes them.

10 Comments

heading into the weekend

April 11, 2008 at 4:02 pm (a mobile meatball, growth and progress)

I know I’ve been a bad blogger lately. I will blame Marlis (our visiting Norwegian), and I’ll blame work and I’ll blame everyone and everything other than my total lack of time management.

I’ve been a busy worker bee lately. I’m really trying to do some work for other people and “step up” in other areas so my fun time has been dramatically decreased. Any down time Lois and I have (down time = the 10 minutes between when we finally get Andrew down until we are ready to konk out) is usually spent on the bed competing against each other in hand-held Sudoku. We are such bad asses.

Everyone is good at our homestead.

Andrew is still the busiest toddler I have ever seen. As you can tell from his bloody nose picture, we just can’t seem to childproof the house enough. There is no childproof safety lock that is Andrew-proof.

The lazy susan lock was pulled off and destroyed. Any toilet lock is just laughable. And we have advanced from pulling stuff out of the bathroom garbage and trying to flush it (a diaper) to actually trying to put the entire garbage pail in the toilet.

The sign language thing isn’t going incredibly well. We took a break from trying for a little while. Last night, we made a little progress. I would make the “more” sign, Andrew would clap. I made the “more” sign again and asked him aloud “more?” He would laugh and then point at the apple. Oh well.

Day care told us that we have a “climber.” No, really?!!?!?

He is still a total bull in a china shop, but he is definitely a very sweet kid. He won’t sit and just cuddle or hang, but we have some time at night where we will have a little play time just the two of us, where he climbs all over me then does some giggling and cuddling. It’s totally precious. He also LOVES, LOVES, LOVES our littlest Norwegian visitor, Emil. Andrew loves giving Emil love. He always wants to lean in and hug him and he makes this little “oooohhhh” noise when he’s doing it. Again, totally precious but we need to stand guard to make sure Andrew doesn’t put his weight on poor little Emil.

Andrew also made a new discovery yesterday. He always wants to hold his own cheeri*o container. Since they are not the best containers, he usually ends up pouring cheeri*os everywhere. Yesterday, he discovered that if “O’s” are all over the hardwood floor, they make funny noises when you step on them! What fun!

He’s also been outside a ton lately. Yesterday, it was around 70 degrees! Wahoo! Andrew loves the park and will throw a tantrum if he can’t stay there for 12 hours a day. He pretty much throws a tantrum when you want to come inside, want to stop walking him up and down the stairs, stop him from playing with the clothes dryer, etc. But he is the most entertaining, curious, inquisitive, busy kid I have ever met.

As for me, I am on a new personal journey of sorts. Trying to work on a new attitude and a new me. I guess we are always a work in progress, but I am finding newer sources of inspiration lately. I will definitely report more soon.

I have a lot of blogger friends to catch up with this weekend. Hope everyone is well.

Go Yankees

6 Comments

fundraising plug

April 8, 2008 at 7:17 pm (friends)

We interrupt this blog for a shameless fundraising request.

As many of you know, Andrew’s best friend, K*n, was diagnosed with H*L*H*S before he was born. This diagnosis involves 3 open heart surgeries before K*n is 4 years old.

By the time K*n was 10 months old, he had undergone 2 major open heart surgeries and spent an extraordinary amount of time in the hospital.

During his various hospital stays at two different major children’s medical centers, one of which was Maria F*areri, his mommy spent every day and night with him. The Ronald McD*nald House made it possible for K*n’s mommy to be with him as paying for hotels was not an option.
Andrew has posted a fundraising page to help his BFF raise money for the Ronald McD*nald Family Room at the Marie F*areri.

If you can, please visit the FirstGiving Link on the right side of my blog and donate to Andrew’s page. Any donations you make will go to our group K*n’s Krew on K*n’s behalf.

The Go The Distance/Walk this Way walk for the Ronald McDonald Family Room at Marie F*areri Children’s Hospital on April 13, 2008.

THIS YEAR, K*N WILL BE ONE OF THE CHILDREN HONORED, AND HE WILL BE LEADING THE WALK!

Thank you to anyone who can help out.

***Because the fundraising page has K*n’s real name, I am trusting my viewing public with keeping within the purpose of this post and honoring K*n’s privacy. Thank you.

2 Comments

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