Grandma's Visit

My mom went home yesterday. I always hate it when it's time for her to leave. She's not just my mom, she's a buddy. And it's nice to be able to sit down and have a cup of tea with her in real life, instead of over the telephone.

But my mom is a serious nervous wreck around Mikro.-

She loves him fiercely.

But I guess it's been a long while since she's been around a baby, and she has forgotten that crying doesn't always signal a major life threatening illness, or horrible injury. Every time my son cries, my mom becomes absolutely panicked: What's wrong with the baby?

And she doesn't believe me when I say, Nothing, he's just overstimulated and needs to get it out of his system.

Which is generally what it is when she visits, because she constantly interacts with him, whereas when it's just me, he gets some downtime while I make lunch, or have a cup of tea, or check my email. She doesn't leave him to his own devices at all, and is always trying to entertain him. Which is fine. She only gets to see him in small doses, so she is just trying to cram in as much baby love as she can when she's here. I just wish it didn't give her panic attacks when the inevitable happens and the boy gets fussy.

Anyway, now that she's back home, I can get to the computer again. She definitely doesn't approve of my blogging, so I try not to do it when she's here...

It was a hectic visit. She arrived Wednesday afternoon, and we went out with Mikro to do some grocery shopping and also hit the thrift store. My mom used to be squeamish about second hand stuff, but I have made her into a real bargain hunter, it seems. We go every time she visits!

Thursday is the anniversary of my Accident, so it was a tense day for me-- actually, I think Wednesday was worse. Anyway, to distract myself, we went mall crawling, and I engaged in one of my not so brilliant coping mechanisms-- spending too much money... But Mikro got a whole new spring wardrobe out of it, as Old Navy had tremendous sales going on.

Friday was supposed to be a quiet day. We stayed home, and Mikro had a meltdown, which really made my mom crazy. She was crying and absolutely convinced that she caused it because he was trying to play with something he shouldn't have, and she said No. Which made her think he was pissed at her.

Really, he's teething, as evidenced by his frequent attempts to bite me, and he was taken to too many new places for his little body to absorb all the input, and instead of taking a nap to help himself, he got into a cycle of fighting sleep, all of which spells cranky, screaming baby.

My mom took it personally. I tried to explain it to her, and I think she finally got it, but she's just dysfunctional about the baby crying... Which leads to more stress for me, but hopefully she'll grow out of this!

Mikro's much more pleasant now that we are back to our regular routine.

He's eating like a horse, and growing way too fast. He's letting go of the furniture and standing on his own, and took one sort of graceless, half-hearted step the other day, so we are anxiously awaiting the walking milestone. What I am truly dreading is the next inch or so of height he attains, because that will give him the ability to climb up on the furniture, and I will have to start worrying about him falling off... It doesn't help that he seems to like the idea of hurling himself off of things. We call him DB (Danger Boy) for a reason!

100 Things

Well, I finally made it to 100. Here it is. Probably more than anyone ever wanted to know and then some...

Signs of Spring

Today the first crocus is open in my shaggy neglected garden. Spring must be near! I can't wait to be spending more time outdoors. I am deep in the throes of cabin fever and really really need some good weather soon. Of course, it's supposed to be warm for he next coupleof days, but constantly raining...

Kev and I are at odds because of the inevitable arguments that arise when we try to clean up for company. Last night he snarked at me constantly, and considering tomorrow is my trauma aniversary, I thought I was doing an admirable job of not rising to the bait...

As we are getting ready togo to bed, he says: You're such a friiging control freak about [cleaning up] your way.

My response (after biting my tongue): Pot, kettle.

Sigh. The place is still a mess. But my mom is sort of resigned to that by now.

Someday, I would like to be able to have people over without being ashamed of how my house looks. It's not dirty. Just extremely cluttered, and we have so much crap that we have really run out of places to put it. So we basically have the Museum of Junk.

Why? and Walking...

Why is just about everybody I read suddenly password protecting their blog? And without notice, or leaving anyway for people to contact them and ask to be allowed to read, most of the time. What bizarre fear inducing trend have I managed to miss? Or is it just a coincidence? Are people being discovered by real-life acquaintances they would rather not hae reading? Or getting abusive comments? Hmmm. Many of the folks who have done the password thing are on the same message boards (which I haven't been around much lately because real life is so crazy at the moment...) Is there a troll involved? Passwording seems like such alopt of bother to go to. If I ever get to the point where I am that worried, I'll just quit writing. I dunno. I like finding new people to read, and following people I will probably never meet in real life, but have grown to care about. Isn't that the whole point of blogging? Putting it out there, and hopefully touching people, and being touched? Otherwise, why not just have a static old boring web page, or keep a paper journal? I dunno. I can honestly say, I will never go the password route. But that's just my own particular brand of weird talking.

Hmm. On to other stuff.

Big Dog made it through the night without pooping. Maybe she's on the mend! She was also good all morning. She's been out in the run most of the afternoon, because I had to go out for awhile and run errands. Took Mikro in the stroller and went to the bank to get some legal papers notarized, picked up Little Dog's insulin and syringes, and stopped for coffee. Little Man was a perfect angel throughout.

There's a really steep hill between Here and There. Pushing my big boy up that hill on the return trip just demonstrated how badly out of shape you can get sitting on your butt indoors all winter. I haven't been walking in ages, and it shows! My tongue was hanging out and I was completely winded by he time I dragged myself in the front door. Of course, captive stroller boy was a bundle of energy once he got loose, and all mama wanted was a nap!

Sick Dog

The sick dog saga continues. She's still got diarrhea, badly. The vet told us to give her Pepto, but she hates the taste and fights it, so she's not getting the full dose, and what she is getting doesn't seem to be helping. She's spending alot of time outdoors...

Mikro put a couple of words together today for the very first time, whether intentional or not I can't say, but it made sense. He said Big Big, and then Big Baby!

My mom is coming to visit on Wednesday evening, if my dad doesn't manage to talk her out of it... She'll stay till Saturday.

Thursday will be hellish, because it is a very bad date for me, and I'm glad she'll be here to distract me.

Ugh. Shit-smelly dog is rubbing on my leg. Time to escape from this room (where we're confining her, since it has a tile floor that can be cleaned up easier than the hardwood in the rest of the house)....