Moody Mama

Baby sleeping.
Daddy sweeping.
Mommy weeping.

I am in a mood. (Once more? Still? At this point, who can tell?) No good reason, and no good can come of it.

Missed swimming this morning. We had so much on the go this weekend, and just felt it didn't make a lot of sense to take time out to go to swimming, especially with the three other kidlets we go to see away ill today. No point. We'll register for more swimming in the new year. J likes swimming.

So this morning, we got an early start on some errands instead. Then J had a visit with his Grannie, and H helped his brother do some work on the house while I did a meager amount of studying and visited with H's mom. Much progress was made on the house, and I am happy about that, but unhappy with the amount of studying I accomplished. I must make up for it. Sometime.

Came home. Got new deepfreeze; a wonderful gift, which made us thankful.

H has been working on cleaning up the house, and I've been doing what I can, in between studying and caring for J, who is teething and fussy. Christmas party tonight, and Dottie's birthday party too. We'll try to attend both, but can make no promises. Tomorrow is going to be chaotic too, and will make today look calm and relaxed. It makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

Bad mood.
Grumpy and irritable.
Tres blah.

Memories From Today

Today, J wore his "Baby's First Christmas" outfit for the first time. It is a very cute soft red sleeper with white feet and cuffs and a red hood with little white ears. The crowning glory is the large reindeer plastered on the butt and down the backs of both legs (complete with little stick-out ears). J looks sweet in it. But the little white ears on the hood sort of resemble horns and, with the hood up and in certain moods, J looks like the demon baby that sat on Rudolph. Cute anyway, though.

(H calls J "Reindeer-Butt" now. J had oatmeal on his face, and H referred to him as "Oatmeal-Face Reindeer-Butt". And this morning, when J was wearing his Randy Raccoon blankie over his face, H called him "Raccoon-Head Reindeer-Butt". Plenty of mileage to be had with that one.)

J is in his crib now. He rolled around until he got close to the side of the crib, then started raking his soother back and forth across the slats, sort of like a tin cup on jailhouse bars. Made me laugh.

J still isn't overly interested in sitting up, but he is capable of it. We sat him up in his crib, and he stayed there for quite some time before he decided lying down was more fun. But it seems to be a matter of choice at this point in time. If we encourage him with a toy (like his little crib activity centre) he is more eager to sit. Still, he prefers to be on the move, and he won't stay still for very long.

J seems to be teething again, and I am awaiting the arrival of the top teeth now. He was more interested in gnawing on his highchair tray than he was in eating today. I have had to break out the Baby Tylenol again.

I hope J sleeps well tonight. H and I could use a decent night's sleep. Tomorrow is J's last swimming lesson, and we have a lot of other stuff on the go as well. This promises to be a very active weekend.

*sigh*

(J is developing his own language a little bit, as a means of communicating with us. When he wants something, his eyes get all wide and he juts his little chin out in the direction of the desired object and says "Mmmmm! Mmmmmmmm!" He's doing it now, and I suspect he is wanting a late night feed before he falls asleep. Off I go.)

You make me feel like ranting

I'm sick. Really sick. Preparing for an exam and feeling stressed. Really stressed. J was grumpy yesterday. Really grumpy.

So when H's friend called and wanted H to meet him for coffee last night, I would have liked it very much if H had said that it wasn't a good night; that his wife was sick and studying for an exam and he was needed at home. But he didn't. And when a time was suggested, I would have liked it very much if that time hadn't been during J's typical naptime, so that J could go with them. But it was, so he couldn't. So H went without J (forgetting to take the cell phone, so I couldn't reach him if I needed to), and left me to deal with J, study for my exam, and just generally be sick.

J woke up roughly half an hour after H left. I changed him (twice), fed him, gave him some extra cereal and green beans since he seemed particularly hungry, bathed him, got him all ready for bed, and then heard H enter the house.

H walked through the door, forgetting to bring the frozen beverage I had asked him to pick up to take down the swelling in my throat. He quickly ran back out to get it (without being asked; score 1 for H). When he returned, I was in the living room snuggling with a very awake J, with all my study materials splayed out in front of me. I asked H to please take care of J while I put the diapers in to be washed and did some more studying. H waited on this for a bit; first, he pilled the cat (which was necessary and didn't take a lot of time) and then he took J, and I put the diapers in the wash.

I came back upstairs and asked H to put J to bed when he was ready, put the diapers in the dryer and put them away when they were done, and to wash out J's dishes for me for the morning. (Ordinarily, we share these types of chores, but I was studying for my exam and I am sick, and H had just had an evening out, and it was only 9:00-ish, so I thought this was a reasonable request. Sticking the diapers in the dryer and washing a bowl, spoon and cup are hardly time-consuming tasks, really.)

So what happened? H put J to bed, fed the cats, then fell asleep on the couch. Did I notice? No. I was studying, and having problems with one particular statement that was taking all of my attention.

I woke H up at around 11:30, stating that it was probably time for bed. H agreed, and started to go upstairs. I asked him if he had put the diapers in the dryer. He had forgotten to do so, but went down to do it before bed (note: this time, he did not ask me to do it instead; score 2 for H). We then went to bed.

This morning I awoke, after a restless night of coughing and hacking, to discover that I had roughly one-third of my voice left and that this rather vicious cold appears to be turning into bronchitis (never mind how I know; that would fall under the head of "TMI"). H got up, pilled and fed the cats, had a bath, changed J and brought him to me for food. All pretty normal.

Then, since H had some extra time before he had to start getting ready for work, he sat down to play some computer solitaire. I cuddled with J to get him happy enough for playtime in the crib and then put him back in his crib to play; then I had a shower. When I got out, H was leaving for work. He headed off, and I got ready to face the day.

Now, how many clean diapers were in J's room at this point? One. Where were the others? Still in the dryer. Where were J's dishes? Dirty, in the sink. When I am so sick and busy these days, why didn't H attend to those chores this morning instead of playing computer solitaire? Well, he forgot. Odd, isn't it, since he changed J this morning and saw how low the diaper cache was at that time, but whatever.

I love my husband. He is usually a very supportive and giving person. I remind myself that everyone has their off moments. This was one of H's, I think. And perhaps I am being unreasonable in any event. Small stuff drives me crazy when I'm under the weather, and my perceptions become skewed as a result. I'll get over it. I'm sure I will.

Or I'll kick his butt just as soon as I feel better. Either way, really.

End of unreasonable rant.

So ... I have laryngitis. If you call and I don't answer the phone, you will understand. J and I are missing swimming this morning; this seems advisable. I have an appointment with the doctor this morning to get this stupid cold checked out, so that will be good. And then, more studying. Yippee.

J played happily in his crib while I did a few household chores. When I returned to check on him, this is what I found:


I got him untangled and back in the proper spot at the bottom of his crib. When I went back in a few moments later, I found him once more at the top of his crib, this time with the racoon blanket pulled completely over his face.

He dearly loves playtime!

Wheeeee

Another day, another Halloween party. Tonight, we decided to go as the Spiderman family. (To clarify, think in terms of nice Jewish last names, like Goldman, Silverman, ... Spiderman). H and I both wore Spiderman t-shirts and J wore his Spiderman jammies and his Elmer Fudd hat. We were "Phil, Gina and Elmer Spiderman". We had no shoes that went with J's Spiderman jammies, but this was remedied by H, who suggested J's duckie sleeper should go under the Spiderman jammies so J would have "webbed feet". It was a lovely pun, and a good time was had at the party.

Until J decided it was time to go home, that is. He got mad and started to cry, and we had to leave. But that was probably okay; I still have studying to do, and my nephew's birthday party is tomorrow, so I have to buckle down into the wee small hours tonight. Busy these days.

*************
J drank out of a sippy cup for the first time today. We offered him some water from his sippy cup when he was having his dinner. He seemed to quite enjoy that. He did quite well with it. I was most impressed.

I was pretty unimpressed that we had to miss J's swimming lesson this morning, though. We tried to get there, but were stopped by a train. Literally. The thing took 20 minutes to clear the tracks, and by that time, we were going to be really late for swimming. It just didn't seem worth it to go and get ourselves and J ready so that we could hang in the pool for maybe 10 minutes, so we decided we'd best just forego it. I was disappointed; I love watching J play in the pool. But it was a wise choice, given the circumstances. C'est la vie.

*************
Tonsils are infected yet again. This time, it's the right side that's all swollen up and painful. I wish they would just take them out already.

But they won't.

Things I Learned Today

1. J may have hated baths, but he loves swimming pools.
   
   J had his first swim class today. H had to miss it, since he had to work. J and I went together. J's little friends, Andraya, Izzy and Gemma were all in the same class. J learned floating on his tummy. He thought that was lots of fun, and he even kicked his little feet. He didn't quite get as into it with his arms, and he just sort of put them out to the sides as though he were an airplane and didn't splash.
   
   He wasn't particularly fond of floating on his back, especially when he got water in his ears. And he wasn't pleased with being cold and wet and back in the change rooms after swimming class. But he did behave very well today, really enjoyed playing in the pool, and made me so very happy.
   
   It was also lots of fun for me to spend time with theatre mommy and va1kyrie today. Good friends always make for a good time!
   
   
2. Paul is allergic to nuts, and can't even be near the smell without feeling sick.
   
   And I really should have known better, too. Especially after he asked the waitress not to bring peanut butter to the table. Apparently, my brain did not function at an appropriate capacity today. I thought he was just nervous he might come into contact with peanut butter if the kids were playing around; I truly didn't realize that the smell factor was a concern.
   
   Anyway, I'm sorry, Paul. And I promise that I won't order anything peanut-ty again when you are in the room. I hope you are feeling okay.
   
   
3. H is a wonderful husband and father, and I need to learn to cut him some slack when he has an off day or so.
   
   I really do know this, but I need to be reminded from time to time. When H is tired, he isn't as helpful as usual (which is a pretty normal trait of most people). But I need to remember how wonderful he is when he is functioning at full capacity. When he has those off days, he sure feels badly after the fact. And he really does make it up to me. I'm just an impatient person, and it is hard for me to go through it at the time. Especially when I am so busy these days.
   
   H was extremely helpful to me tonight. This was really great, since I have a headache and had a lot of work to do. It was so nice to have H take J and the house well in hand when he got home from work.
   
   I love my husband so very much! He is a wonderful man.
   
   
4. Interest rates are a big pain.
   
   When dealing with notes payable and receivable, apparently if the stated rate is different from the market rate, the stated rate is used to determine cash interest payments, while the market rate is used to determine values, interest revenue and interest expense.
   
   Not too hard, really. Interesting tidbit to keep in mind. It's bound to come up on the exam. (I hope I can keep all of these interesting tidbits in my head. There are many of them, and my flash cards are quite daunting these days.)
   
   Once again, it is very helpful to be able to plug all of the information from a problem into a financial calculator. But you still need to know all the rules, since the financial calculator can't read and decipher the question.
   
   Note to self: remember all the rules.
   
   Ah, if only it were that easy...

Music to diaper by

J refuses to nap anywhere but in my arms today. Since there are very few activities I can accomplish one-handed, and there is only so much TV a person can watch at a time, I find myself back on my computer. Again. But H will be home soon, and maybe J would like to snuggle with Daddy for a bit too. Ergo, perhaps I'll be productive tonight. One can only hope.

Now, today I registered J in swim classes (he'll be able to play with his little friend Draya, since they are both registered in the same class. YAY!) And I booked his 6 month check-up and paid some bills. And we went for a brief walk too. (Didn't go far, as I am still sick, but I really wanted out of the house for a few moments. At least I'm on the mend now and will hopefully be all better very soon.) I also got through a short section of my course module and the remainder of a demonstration problem in a (very brief) period when J was feeling more independent. Still not sure I'm getting the hang of it, but I'm trying and I'm sure I will understand it for the exam. My flash card pile is growing at an alarming rate and is starting to frighten me! So my day was not completely wasted, but I need a lot more time with both hands free so I can do things like laundry and the rest of my homework. Can't wait for J's daddy to come home. (Sound of me humming merrily in anticipation.)

As already established, H regularly sings to J. He's been performing this delightful little number for quite some time now, and I can't believe I've not blogged it already! It was borne of a late-night diaper change when H was particularly exhausted. (Remember here that we frequently refer to J as "Bubby".)

To the tune of "Hello My Baby":

Hello my baby,
Hello my Bubby,
Hello my stinky boy.
You make your bum go poo;
What is a daddy to dooo-ooo?
When you are stinky
You get all blinky
And then you start to cry.
But daddy
Will keep you warm and dry-y.

*************
That is all. For now.