Too Late? 5-21-14

Mom's birthday was a few weeks ago. And Boop just missed it. We took Mom to breakfast for her birthday, but Boop didn't really understand. The next week, when we were talking to Mom, Boop wished her a Happy Birthday. Boop loves looking at the video of her birthday, where we all were singing to her. And so a few weeks after her Grandma's birthday, she learned this:

Oh well, maybe it will be in time for someone else's birthday :)

More Easter. 5-18-14

I'm just a little behind...

Coloring Easter Eggs

Taking Stock at 30 Months. 5-16-14

Here’s what’s happening at 30 Months:
·         Boop is an avid YouTube watcher. She loves to watch the kiddie music clips, and it’s hard to keep it in check. Fortunately, she doesn’t watch anything at daycare, but when she gets home, she starts asking. We still read lots of books. And I wish I had more energy to get her out and about. She loves to sing and is able to get more and more of the words. Hopefully, I’ll make better use of the pool pass this year. Boop is still a live wire, but she’s a bit more manageable.
·         I’m not really sure if Boop had a UTI after all. Nothing showed up on culture at 24 hrs. I sent a message to her new nephrologist, but I still haven’t heard back after a week. It’s the same support staff as her last nephrologist. Honestly, they need to get it together. I would love to take her back to the place out of state, but my insurance won’t really cover it. I need to take a bit more time to check out the state insurance exchange. I think she could get better coverage for what I’m paying now, but my annual window to change ended while I was in full tilt grant-writing mode. Fortunately, my previous elections rolled over to this year; so I didn’t lose everything.
·         Poor Winnie. That’s all I can say. It’s been a week on antibiotics, and I’m still waking to her accidents. I got up at 3am, and there was already one waiting for me in the carpet. I stared at it for a couple of hours and finally got up the gumption to clean it. I need to figure out how to use the little carpet cleaner I bought last year.  
·         I still feel overwhelmed by stuff. I try so hard to keep up with it. I sent Mom home with 2 huge boxes of stuff that she got for Boop but that Boop didn’t use/had outgrown. That’s roughly equivalent to the amount of stuff she’s gotten Boop in the past month—I’m just trying to break even, at this point. Notice the piles and boxes of stuff to get rid of in the video below.
·         It’s good that we seem to be emerging from the snow. It’s been a cold, snowy winter. Of course, it’s rained for the better part of the week, but it looks like things may be a bit drier today. Maybe I’ll try walking to work today. 

Easter Morning

Nightmares. 5-14-14

Boop is sleeping better these days, but Winnie is waking up a lot with her UTI. Nearly a week on antibiotics, and Winnie still doesn't seem to be much better. The first thing this morning, I stepped in one of her accidents. Yargh. Along with the lack of sleep from the disturbances in the night, there's also the interruption of my dreams--making me more likely to remember them. Night before last, I had a couple of bad ones. One of the recurring themes in nightmares is me walking alone on a very dark street. At least, in the most recent one, I didn't have Boop with me, too, and I wasn't passing a cemetery. However, I had an even scarier one. 

The dream starts with me not really fully comprehending what I'm seeing. A man murdering a woman and trying to replace a lightbulb that was damaged in the struggle. His name was Rev--maybe the TV was on with the commercial about those Rev sandwiches? Anyway. So, this house was full of my family, and the weather was bad (we were having storms outside). Rev came to the get-together, and it all clicked in my mind. I was trying to sort out what to do. I pulled my mom aside and told her about the murder. She said, "Okay," and went on about her business. Rev knew that I knew at this point and was now wanting to kill me. I knew I needed help. I stopped my mother again, and I once again told her about the murder. She replied, "You should tell someone." I picked up the telephone and tried to call 911, but the phone wasn't working properly. The next thing I knew, everyone was gone, and I could sense Rev was there watching me. I'm trying to figure out where everyone went and what to do about Rev. That's when I hear Winnie's feet thumping on the floor and the pitter patter of her paws. Part of this may have been inspired by the hijacking on Walker, Texas Ranger. Either Walker needs to suddenly appear in my dream to save the day, or I'll be leaving TVLand off for a few hours in the afternoon. The latter seems like the best solution... Just relieved Boop wasn't at risk in these events!  

Too Much Sense to Admit It. 5-10-14

At that point, I was exhausted and ready to go home, but the camel that we saw earlier was still out in the parking lot. After determining that, yes, Boop was okay to go see it, we headed across the parking lot. Very docile and sweet. After seeing me do it, Boop gave the camel a quick pat and then seemed uninterested, and we headed back across the parking lot to the car. Just as I was about to open the door, she was hysterical, “Candle! Candle!” I’m trying to assess if she’s just tired (Yes) and wants to avoid getting in her car seat (Yes) or if she really wants to see the camel (Yes). After all, I figure, how often will Boop get to see a camel in her lifetime? By the way, do my pants still look like I just peed in them? Yes. So I carry her back across the parking lot, and she visits a little more. And again, she was not a happy camper to go home and was very upset about leaving the ‘candle.’ Heck, I would have taken the camel home with me if I could’ve.  I checked a YouTube video about caring for a camel when we got home. Alas, our soil in the US has inadequate selenium, and so camels require a cocktail of vitamins and minerals. It needs to be pretty warm, too. No camels in our immediate future.

So, now “candle” will occasionally mix in the conversation, but we have more frequent reminders of helicopters, which Boop often hears, living so close to the hospital. On our way to the grocery last weekend, I noticed the medical helicopter sitting up on the pad; I slipped Boop up the 3 flights of stairs to see it, which did not seem to interest her at the time but which is now a frequent request on YouTube. I am the Mommy of strange and incidental experiences. Do I admit that I have a friend who was even worse when she was younger? If she saw somewhere she wanted to go, she just tried it. Pretty church? No one there? Door unlocked? She was in it. Never disturbed anything, just checked it out.  Apparently, this is a thing now; I forget what they call it—urban exploring?  Whatever it is, she was doing it 20 years ago. Blah.

Pee-Pee, Part II. 5-9-14

So, I waited a bit and realized that it would be unlikely for her to go again before bed. I called the pediatrician’s office back to speak with the NP. I explained that it would be hard to get her to go again and at what point should we consider catheterizing her. She said they wouldn’t catheterize, that I would have to take her to the hospital. I was flabbergasted, but I tried not to sound that way. She was nice but acted like I was asking for something outside of common practice. I just changed to this pediatrician late last year. I’m thinking to myself that the doctor knew my child had a reflux problem and knew she was going off antibiotics: why didn’t he tell me that they didn’t catheterize? Of course, there are risks of contamination with catheterizing, too, but sometimes you have to do it. And the frequency of reflux in children may be 1-2%, which means out of every 100 children he sees, a couple of them probably have it. You need to check more than that 1-2% to pick up 1-2%.

I was lost at that point. I didn’t want to take her to the ER, but then I figured I would call Urgent Care to see if they catheterize. YES! And she explained the hope would be to get her to go in the bag. Mine, too! With that, I packed up some books, put Boop in some slippers, left her pants at home, and we headed out. They had a slightly different bag, which made more sense for a little girl, and started bringing the juice. I gave her some water, which she spilled all down my pants. Finally, success with the bag! And yes, just as I had found earlier, positive for UTI, unfortunately. So, we are waiting on the cultures to come back. Then, we’ll follow up to see what the next step is. Another urinalysis, I’m sure. 

Here We Go Again. 5-8-14

Speaking of May the 4th, there's a disturbance in The Force, I suppose. 

I felt bad that I didn't get to spend as much time visiting with my grad school roomie as I would have liked. I had this image of us going out and doing something fun, but instead, I spent half the time ailing and half the time trying to get things sorted with one of my grants. There's also this little issue of being a mom and a daughter, and Gammy was too exhausted to manage Boop on her own for the evening. We opted for an evening out of Burmese. Then, we spent the morning at the Penn St. Market in Philadelphia. It was good to see her again, but I wish it could have been under better circumstances. That reminds me, I'm suppose to be scheduling a doctor's appointment. However, that will have to wait a bit longer. 

We've had a crazy week--beyond just the grant writing and challenges with teaching and students. Winnie has another UTI. Vet appointment today. And after a week of trying to get Boop sorted out with cranberry and pear juice (which worked great at home, but not so much at daycare), I finally relented and took her to the walk-in clinic at her pediatrician. We saw the nurse practitioner who helped me put a bag on her (they're clearly made for little boys) and sent her home. She hadn't soiled her diaper all day, and this was about 3pm. Finally, after pushing liquids, she finally went about 4:30, which of course did not go in the bag. I was able to find a drop in the bag to test with a home test kit, and it was positive for a UTI. So, I called the pediatrician's office. They're only advice was to try again <groan>. 

Speaking of a disturbance in The Force, I hear Boop is awake via the baby monitor... "Winnie! Winnie! <mumble, mumble, mumble> Winnie! Winnie!"

FABULOUS!

Yep, She's Mine. 5-6-14

Boop loves to sing and completely out of tune. It's terrific. She sings with such enthusiasm, belting out 'Twinkle, twinkle little star' at the sight of a star in a book. We get a lot of 'Hoss cross buns, hoss cross buns, one a penny, any Winnie, hoss cross buns!' and 'Farmer unda deyw.' However, I'm either rubbing off on her, or it's in the genes. The other day, we were getting ready for dinner, and she wanted some marshmallows. Nope, not until after dinner, I explain. BUT, I almost relented when she belted out a new one, 'Hoss cross marshmallows.' Okay, very bad but very me. This tells me: (1) she's been listening to me and is aware that I change the words, (2) she understands that she can change the words--and does, and (3) my work here is not done: she still has more to learn.

Here's one from last month before she got a few of the words nailed down:

Unfortunately, I've been in hardcore grant-writing mode. Gotta make a livin'! However, it's hard to believe that I have to work this hard at it. I started down this path and invested so much time into my education, and the rules got totally changed on me. I guess many people feel this way about the economy. Anyway, this is something I'm going to try to integrate into my class next year. I think I like this better than the Truth campaign:

A little commercial