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Monday, April 29, 2013

Miseria per dentem crepitus -or- misery caused by tooth explosion -or- teething sucks

Poor Claire. For the past week or so she has been experiencing what I call miseria per dentem crepitus,  or misery caused by tooth explosion. Yes, teething has been so bad I thought the experience deserved Latin recognition.

She handled the front teeth pretty well, but now the molars are pushing up (top and bottom) and there have been tears. Lots of them. And clinginess and not much sleep. The worst night so far was Friday. After hours of her flopping around restlessly in my bed I handed her over to C at 3am so I could get some sleep. What he was doing still awake, who knows, but apparently she stayed up and fussed with him for another two and a half hours before crashing finally. C caught up on his sleep after that.

We're trying a few different relief methods to ease the pain, but they only work for so long. Wait it out seems to be the only thing left to do. Hopefully the worst is over and the wait won't be much longer.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Never-ending laundry

There are three baskets of clean laundry on the floor of my bedroom. Sometimes there are two baskets, sometimes one.

We used to be on top of the chore of folding and putting stuff away, but we've been slipping. Now some stuff gets pulled from the basket onto the bed. Some folding happens, but mostly not, then hours later gets put back in the basket and onto the floor.

The priority these days is for the clothing to be clean. What happens to it afterwards and where it ends up isn't much of a concern anymore.

We'll get back on track again, one day.

Let the rivalry begin

I knew Lauren would have feelings of jealousy with a new sibling around, but it never occurred to me that Claire would feel jealous too, at least not for a few more years that is.

I noticed it first last weekend when I was playing with the girls in their bedroom. I was bouncing Lauren on my legs when Claire noticed and stopped what she was doing. She came to me and swung her leg around my waist and over Lauren's head, then wiggled her way between us and wrapped her arms around my neck.

Today while Claire was in her high chair eating dinner, Lauren came to me for hugs which prompted Claire to screamed in anger. Lauren walked away for a minute or so, came back for another hug and Claire screamed again.

Again after dinner Lauren got up on my lap while I was holding Claire. More screaming from Claire.

With development comes awareness, and Claire is becoming very aware that her Mummy has the nerve to spend precious time with the other kid in the house.

I'm not sure what to do about this except to let this phase run it's course. My dread, however, is that this phase will last for years.

Biking in the rain

It rained and poured and was windy and I got soaked.

That was the ride home today. I had a feeling there would be rain, but hoped it would clear by 4:15. Instead it cleared at around 5:15 when I was home again and peeling the wet clothes off and putting dry clothes on before hopping into the car to get Claire and Lauren from daycare.

The good thing about a challenging situation and coming out ok is that I know I can handle it next time. I did get wet, but I didn't melt!

On the road again

I rode my bike to work today after a two year hiatus. And it felt good!

Ok, it hasn’t quite been two years, but nearly. I’ve been itching to get out there again and I couldn’t take the wait any longer. The roads are clear, the temperature isn’t frigid, and there are tons of other cyclists on the road, so why not?

I’ve been meaning to do a road test for a few weeks now just to be sure the bike is road ready, but I haven’t gotten around to it. It did get a full tune up just before I stopped riding all that time ago so I figured it was fine and took a chance. Last night I pumped the tires and found my lock and helmet, this morning I dusted off the seat, and off I went! I gave myself a 50 minute lead for what is usually a 35 minute ride, just to ease myself back into routine and get my riding legs back. 8.92 km is a bit of a long haul at 7am after all.

Now as long as the rain stays away for the ride home, it will be a great first day back on the road again.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Putty in his hands

Lauren is begging for hairy putty. How much do I use and how does it work???

This is the text I received one morning earlier this week. I was already sitting at my desk at work as I usually am by the time C gets the girls ready for school and daycare, so he was really on his own for this one.

Hair styling is not his forte, but I give C an A+ for giving it his best effort every day. He shaves his own hair to the scalp every week like clockwork, which then requires zero maintenance, so he really has no frame of reference for how to deal with Lauren's wild locks.

For the most part he does a good job. It's no easy feat even for me. I condition Lauren's hair with a thick all natural product, but it doesn't always work to tame the frizz. And with the temperature rising and rain in the forecast this Spring, there's a whole lot of frizz going on. Last weekend I bought hair putty hoping it would help. So far so good, but it leaves the hair thick and stiff after a few days of use.

We'll see how it goes in the next little while before deciding if we need to try a different product.





Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Time to mist the mushrooms

I'm feeling a bit like the Dunkin Donuts guy these days. Every morning at the crack of dawn I'm up - not to bake, but to mist the mushrooms.

I received a mushroom making kit from my Secret Santa last Christmas and finally got into it recently. I was really excited because I've never tried to grow mushrooms before, and this kit promised a no muss no fuss project that would produce results, "In as little as 10 days!" Well, it has been 18 days so far, and so far no mushrooms.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but my suspicion is that I kept the kit in the dark for too long. The instructions indicated to keep it out of direct sunlight during the initial 12 hour soaking period, so I put it in the basement bathroom and left it there. There is a window in the bathroom but the light really is minimal. Maybe the mushroom fungus fell asleep? Or maybe it got too hot? The bathroom is right next to the furnace and it can get pretty cozy down there.

I moved the kit to the kitchen windowsill the other day so we'll see if that makes a difference. I'll give it another two weeks to see if anything happens before considering this project a fail.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Girls in tutus

Happiness is a group of young girls prancing around in tutus and leotards playing ballet freeze tag.

This was the scene during the last 5 minutes of Lauren's ballet class last Saturday morning.

When class was dismissed she ran to me with flushed cheeks and a huge grin on her face. Needless to say she's really enjoying herself.