Niles is fine

Sorry for anyone who has been concerned. We've been hosting our lovely friends the Bumps so there's my excuse for lagging.

Actually, Niles looked fine that evening, although he had a ping-pong ball-sized squishy thing on his right foreleg. They gave him fluids, so I assumed it was just the fluids pooling somewhere. It was gone the next morning, but the vet called to ask if he was okay and I mentioned that he'd had it but it was gone and Niles looked fine.

Oh no. The vet would like to see him. ASAP.

Now, I had planned to clean Wednesday but didn't since we were running Niles around to the vet. So on Thursday when we have this conversation I haven't showered, I am mid-ice-cream-making, and I cannot be there in twenty minutes for a cat who honestly looks healthy and happy.

How about 3:40? Fine. That gives me enough time to shop, shower, wrangle tot and cat, and get out the door in the pouring rain. I drive over to OB, find parking not too far away, and wake a sleeping baby to take him and the cat out in the absolute pouring drenching rain to go to the vet.

Oh, the vet says, a front leg. She thought I meant a back leg and thought Niles could be having a hematoma. The vet feels so bad she ushers me to the door herself, which means I don't have a happy vet tech asking me if I would like help taking the cat to the car. I really could have used the help, but I didn't want to make the vet feel worse, which she obviously did.

Back out into the pouring rain with tot and cat. Rain in SoCal is the equivalent of snow in CO; there are accidents and traffic slowing galore. I get back on the interstate for high speeds of 20 MPH and low speeds of 7. It takes me an hour to get home when it took me twenty minutes to get there.

But Niles is fine. He's gotten a couple days of wet cat food out of this, so he's super.

Cat sitting

Our sweet little white kitty was sick today and gave us a scare. He spent the day at the vet's getting X-rays (number 7, 8, and 9, good lord he'll get radiation tumors soon) and blood tests to discover nothing specific was wrong other than some elevated lipase levels. They gave him fluids. We brought him home and he's been perkier this evening.

A was a psycho demon at the vet's. He got licked by a couple dogs and got to give one treats (heaven!), but man, he's fast and doesn't sit still. He's into everything. He almost shut off the vet's PC while she was showing me the X-rays.

So tomorrow we'll be on cat watch. Poor Niles.

Cat attack

We go to the zoo a lot. The mountain lions in particular are interested in A, as in interested in having him for lunch. If he's out of the stroller and toddling along, a lion will pace back and forth, following him, looking like he's ready to pounce.

Last week, A was running and fell (and cut his palm, poor baby). The lion had been crouching in a corner, but once A fell, the lion jumped up and ran to the front of the cage, right across from where A was. It was frightening. Then the lion continued to stalk him while he cried. I've taken some video; I'll try to remember to put it on YouTube.

ETA:


Today the snow leopard jumped at us. That was scary enough (and fast enough) that I jumped.

Milestone

Today's the day I got caught up in writing and only realized how much time had elapsed when (not to reveal too much information) A handed me a box of condoms. Thanks, sweetie. I'm a first-born too; I get it. I'm popping off to put this in the baby book right now.

Death of a car

C and I drive very old Volvos. Well, we did, except that C's car died. It died died. It wouldn't start. He tried putting the paddles on it to shock it back to life, but alas, it was lost. We towed it to the garage and after the mechanic said, well, so far, I've found that you need a new engine, we said, stop right there and sent the car off to the donation junkyard.

So we're car shopping. My car today decided that it didn't want to change gears, which is a problem since it's an automatic and it's supposed to change gears (you know, automatically).

I know my car is twenty years old and it's tired.

I even had it in my head that I would drive it for ten years, until it was twenty years old, and then I would get a new car.

But now the time has come and I'm just not ready. Sigh.

Have you ever tried car shopping with an 18-month-old? It's short. You can go for a test drive and then you're pretty much done for the day. It's the perfect excuse to get away from slimy salesmen. Why don't women sell cars (aside from that hottie in the Sopranos who took a roll with Tony)?

Anyone have car buying advice? I'm pretty much open to anything.

Hello, officer

A is fascinated with the phone. Fascinated. He'll get a hold of it and push buttons. He's only called one person, I think, and that was on my cell, which I don't let him play with any more. Our home phone is so freaking complicated to use that it hasn't been a problem. There's no intuitive way to dial our phone.

Yesterday he was playing with the home phone. I took it away from him and pushed the End button, and noticed it said, "Line on hold." (Recently we switched phone packages and got call waiting, which I despise.) I clicked over and there was a recording in Spanish. I hung up.

Then we get a call coming through. It shows up as "unknown name, unknown number." I let it ring through to voice mail, which is my standard mode for unknown calls. It's election season in California and we get a lot of unknown numbers calling in the evening now.

They actually leave a message, so I check voice mail:

"Hello, this is the San Diego Police. There was a 9-1-1 hang up call from this number, so we are returning the call. If you are there, pick up. Again, this is the San Diego Police. Please pick up. Since nobody has picked up, we will be dispatching officers to Our Address..."

Oh shit on a shingle. I Google the SD police department and call the non-emergency number. Hello, I am a horrible mother with a one-year-old who can actually dial 911 but we're all fine here, thanks. You don't need to send anyone. I should be leaving to pick up my husband from work soon. I'm not just saying that; we really are fine. It's just me and this one-year-old. We live at the end of nowhere and I'd like to save the officers the trip and minimize the mortification and embarrassment I'm already drowning in.

Then we waited forty-five minutes, which was as long as I could possibly stand to wait, before leaving to pick up C. And nobody had knocked down the door while we were gone, so everything's okay.

But the phones are moving out of reach.

His father's son

We went to the zoo on Friday. We were walking up a pretty steep hill (up to the lemurs from Cat Canyon). A was walking behind the stroller, leaning on both sides. He had a sippy cup that I kept trying to put in the pocket of the stroller. He kept taking it out and fussing with the stroller so finally I stopped to let him do what he needed to do.

There's a rubber L-shaped latch that holds the stroller together when it's collapsed. It's located just above the basket. It's right on A's eye level.

He figured out that he could put his sippy cup in the basket, held upright by the longer arm of this latch. Insta-cup holder for the toddler set.

Does this not sound like exactly something C would do?

No year end in review

Good grief; I don't have time to keep up now.

We're back. We've been back a week. We went to Colorado for Christmas and had a fabulous time. A played in snow and with his cousins, which made him giggle madly.

We're at home now on the downward slope of C's liquid diet. Maybe by the end of this month he'll be back on solid foods.

A and I are back to our daily zoo treks but man, the zoo has been packed. What are all these people doing in our zoo? Anyway, we did finally get to see the new baby panda and the grizzly cubs, so we're all happy on a zoo front.

A has been adding words left and right. Cracker (in CO), car, apple, out.

Unspooling

The word of the day is unspooling, which sounds better to me than unraveling.

That's what today did.

A's not been sleeping well, which puts a strain on everyone in the household. So our morning wasn't great. But I was trying to get out the door an hour before playdate to give A time to nap in the car.

But then C's car wouldn't start. (He's been having battery issues.) So I gave him a ride to work, but that was okay because then A had time to sleep.

A's felt warm to me the past few days, but hasn't registered much of a fever on any of our various thermometers (ear, rectal, forehead). But then he got a purple spot on his ear, which is similar to a purple spot C gets on his ear when he's sick. And A was poking his finger into his ear, which is not something he ever does, so I called the doctor after lunch, thinking he had an ear infection. I leave a message for the triage nurse.

They call me back at 5PM. They could get us in at 7:25PM with the new doctor we've never met.

It's Thursday and we're flying out on Saturday. A is usually asleep around 7:25, in process if not asleep. As ever, I'm at the mercy of the people who run the doctor's office. Sure. What's one more bad sleep night if I know my baby is healthy?

I call C to confer on pick-up times, since he's stranded at work, and he agrees to hang tight at work until I can pick him up. No problem.

A and I get there at 7:20 and are ushered into an exam room, away from the Lion King which is showing in the waiting room. And I think, oh, wow, if you come late, they have their shit together.

There's one board book in this room, a parenting magazine en espanol, two chairs, a rolling stool, an exam table, four drawers and one cabinet with childproof latches. I think this may be what hell looks like to a seventeen month old.

A disarmed the latches and opened the drawers, then amused himself by pulling the stirrups out of the table and putting them back in again. I read the one board book (Spot and Colors). My diaper bag has two toy cars, one squeaky dog, and a cup for short-term entertainment, but it's not equipped for an hour's worth of fun.

I sang him most of Sergeant Pepper's and played chase mommy around the room. We watched the ambulances going by. We rolled the stool around the stroller. We drank water from paper cups. I changed him into his pajamas to take up time. But A was tired, cranky, and wanted to go home.

So after an hour, I gear myself up to parade up and down the hallway, since this is a doctor's office that forgot about us in an exam room once and I don't trust all their neurons to be firing, but then the doctor comes in.

A wasn't too keen on her since she didn't shake his hand properly, but he's certainly against her once she wants to look in his ear.

He's got an ear infection. Great. Two days before we fly. Too late to get a scrip filled tonight to start him on antibiotics ASAP.

At least I had the presence of mind to tell her we were flying on Saturday and could she recommend anything to give him or do to make that easier. She thought about it and then said she'd write me a second prescription.

It's now 8:45 and I still have to go pick up C, who is stranded at work with probably nothing he can eat at all.

I'll be the person at the airport Saturday in the screening line with the screaming baby, the silently-suffering husband with jaw surgery, and the cooler packed with liquids bigger than three ounces because that's just where we all are right now.

I know, I know

We've finished our swimming session. I need to sign him up for the next session but I need to talk to the instructor to find out whether my baby is still in baby classes or needs to move up to the toddler ones (sniff). He still loves swimming. We had a day of classes where he wanted me to let go of him so he could swim. Not quite, little fish.

While C was still off work, he bucked up enough to go to the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. The people who spent their lives deciphering them and putting them together put them together with cello tape and sandwiched them in glass, ruining many of them. Oy vey. But it was nice to see them. But they're small, is all I'm saying.

Also, I don't know what brilliant person thought it was a great idea to give people those cordless-phone-like audio tours, essentially deafening them, then put them into a darkened labyrinth together. It was like a demolition derby in there.

C is recovering well from surgery; all his doctors say he's healing remarkably well. He's back at work and not complaining very much about his boring liquid diet, even after he found out he couldn't drink from straws.

I wish I could say we've been sacked with Christmas preparations but it's been fits and starts here. It was 50/50 online versus hands-on here, I think, although the balance may have shifted in favor of online today. I miss having a tree, but with going to CO and leaving the cats in charge for a week, we'd come back to a dead tree, broken ornaments, and sick cats.

A wants to walk everywhere and doesn't want to hold my hand. Okay at the park, not okay at the post office. I'm getting a baby leash. I just don't think he's got the impulse control yet to hold my hand everywhere and I don't want to confine him to the stroller. I'm curious as to how the airport will be.

A side note on Santa

I bought A a "trimming the tree" Christmas board book last week. The last page has a "don't forget to leave treats for Santa" theme, which is fine and dandy, but then when you look at the picture, it's not milk and cookies on the mantel.

It's a meat pie and a glass of red wine.

Fallen by the wayside

For all you out there who are wondering if we're still alive, we are. C is recovering. A is coping. I am having serious sleep deprivation issues. A and I have been sleeping in another room to cut down on the interruptions in C's recovery sleep, and last night we tried to all go back to our normal places. No dice. I'm truly tired, tired, tired.

But we were the only ones in swimming today, and he was happy and awake for that. We've got to go to C's follow-up doctor visit shortly. Hopefully he'll check out fine. C's getting more active and awake but he's just so tired.

I've said this many times before...

...but single moms, I don't know how you do it. Really.

I'm tired. Nobody took my jaw apart this week so I have no right to complain, but I'm tired. I didn't realize how active a sixteen-month-old was until I didn't have a break from him. I'm having a break now because he and C are taking a nap together, which is apparently the only way A feels like napping right now.

Our schedule's all out of whack. Today A got a flu shot and he wasn't thrilled about that but he didn't cry. He's at 22 pounds, 14 ounces, I think. Maybe it was 23. I can't remember, that's how tired I am.

A wants to know why he can't play with Daddy. He wants to know why Daddy won't read him a book. He's a little sick of me. He's watched more Pixar this week than he ever has, unfortunately.

C is getting better. He made himself a banana chocolate milkshake for lunch and he's been reading. I'm mildly concerned about the state of his painkillers since he seemed to go through the first bottle pretty quickly, but we got a new bottle today and so hopefully that will last until our follow-up on Monday.

He can see how frustrated I am with A and being nursemaid and is trying to help, which makes me both happy and sad. I am not cut out for nursing.

Surgery and babysitting

A's currently asleep; C's in a drug-induced fog but getting more coherent, and I'm upstairs taking precious shower time to blog.

C's surgery went well, although I don't know why they sent him home other than they didn't want to deal with him. He's not as swollen as I thought he would be, although he was really out of it last night. He slept and snoozed from the time we got home (5-ish) until this morning. Then he came down to the couch, where he's presently snoozing. He's having a hard time talking still. He's kept down juice and Ensure so far, so maybe we'll move up to milkshakes later today.

A had his first day ever not being watched by C or me or family. We were gone from 10AM to 5PM and he did great with our lovely neighbor, the exact kindly old lady type you want watching your kid while you go the hospital (if Grandma and Grandpa aren't available, of course). He took naps like an angel, had walks, read books, and ate food. Life was good. He was a happy little guy--he's always a happy little guy. He cried when C and I came through the door and put priority on getting pain meds into C instead of snuggling and cuddling A. Then A cried and cried while our neighbor tried to comfort him while I put C to bed. She did get him to quiet down, but he wasn't really happy until he got some mommy cuddle time. He's still perplexed by why Daddy's not quite into things--A's erratic in movement and strong, which are two things we don't want colliding with C's jaw right now.

A and I bedded down in the office together to let C have the big comfy bed and the vaporizer and bathroom. We even closed the door to the bedroom to lock the cats out, who came and slept with me, although they did sniff and pace in front of the bedroom door when I walked through to let me know that they were Not Happy with being banned from what they must consider their room. It has the bed and the sunshine, after all.

A and I will be going out to get surgical-related things (hydrogen peroxide, saline spray, more Ensure in milk chocolate flavor) when he gets up from his nap. We've got a follow-up appointment with the doctor Monday, but think happy healing thoughts for C.

Happy Thanksgiving

A little late, but that's what you get.

A is running around the house with a brush and dustpan. He's into running with long stick things: big magnet on a stick, lambswool duster, rolls of wrapping paper.

Tomorrow C's having surgery, so we're doing errand-y stuff today like stocking the house with meal replacement drinks and cleaning things so it's not quite so bad in here.

C and I went to swim class yesterday and that was super. A splashes more with his dad than with me.

Boy is sick

We had swimming today but didn't enjoy it. (I'm not liking the new teacher; she's trying too hard.) C and A were up all night with A's coughing. (I slept like the dog I am--or like a tired mommy who's had a couple days of 24 hour baby watch under her belt, you pick.) I drove A around yesterday for three separate naps. He didn't get nearly enough sleep, though.

A and I went to the doctor to see if it was croup. It's not now and hopefully won't become so. (Usually, he'd have croup by now if he was going to get it.) I made the doctor laugh by asking if that wasn't something out of Anne of Green Gables and did people still get croup. Apparently, yes. The doctor's office kept us waiting for 45 minutes before the doctor would see us. I know they get backed up, but 45 minutes is crazy with a sick toddler.

C discovered that Pictionary fits perfectly under the crib mattress to prop it up. A was crying not too long ago. I'm hoping he's asleep now.

Back from Portland

I must say, I love seeing the divine Miss M and her parents and sister, but I just can't stand the post-visit cold. This time it's a cough and a runny nose instead of severe intestinal distress, thank God, but we ran out last night to get a vaporizer since A was having trouble breathing for all the mucus. Poor boy.

We had a lovely time. We flew Southwest, which has eliminated their pre-boarding process for families with young children, and boy, were we beholden to the kindness of strangers in its wake. On the first flight, a woman gave up her posh second row seat for us, while a nice man put my bag in the overhead and another person kept A occupied while I attached the car seat. Wonderfully kind people.

Coming home, we got to do Southwest's new check-in procedure, which doesn't help much. You get a number when you check in and then you stand in a line that's been marked with these numbers. I checked in exactly 24 hours before our flight and I got number 19 on the first leg and 22 on the second leg. What the hell? Well, at the airport, I discovered that 1-15 are reserved for business class passengers. So the numbering for us plebeians "starts" at 16. Anyway, there wasn't hardly anyone in the 1-15 range on any of my flights, but everyone I talked to asked me why I wasn't pre-boarding and wasn't Southwest dumb for getting rid of pre-boarding for infants.

I know. You want to know about the baby. What did we do? We went for sushi, we played in playgrounds and parks, we met a Corgi named Freddie, we went to Powell's (sigh, Powell's), and we went to a book club meeting. We played in M's gorgeous huge house with all her toys. We ate good food and even sweet potato fries. So it was fabulous and great.

C's at work now (sigh). A really missed his dad and had a hard time getting back to sleep every night when he woke up and Dad wasn't there. Sad. He's pretty cranky and fussy now, and I must say, I'm getting to my last nerve. I didn't realize how much I need a break, even if it's just an hour of being in the next room.

New skill

A is moving right along. He was climbing into things he shouldn't have been this afternoon, and I said, "Hey, can you find Brown Bear, Brown Bear and bring it to me?" He stopped, looked around, picked up Brown Bear and came over to me. He does speak English!

Discovering magnetism

Yes, all you geeks out there will be thrilled to hear A has discovered magnetism.

I have a large, powerful magnet (a little smaller than a hockey puck) on a long stick to pick up stray pins after sewing. It lives under the stairs. A found it today and stuck it to the railing of the stairs, which lit his little face up like Christmas. Then he had to get it off the railing, and that got him frustrated enough that he started yelling in frustration at the end. We let him figure it out and he did get the magnet off the railing. He also discovered in the process something about how levers work.

Then he walked over to me, brandishing this stick which is longer than he is, and stuck it to his high chair, where he left it. Magnets might be neat-o but the attention span is just not that long right now.

Photos and walking and plumerias, oh my

The boy is walking. We've had a whirlwind of a weekend. Saturday we cleaned and saw our Navy pilot's photos from around the world, and that was fabulous. A sat down in his lap and handed him a book. Don't know what it is about that family, but the babies and animals love them.

This morning we did a photo shoot with my decreasingly-amateur and increasingly-professional photographer mom friend, but A was unhappy. He wanted to nap and run around. He's walking now, so walking is everything. It's like the entire world looks different to him and he has to stop and inspect everything. He seems to think we've been holding out on him. He's getting fast, too. We're going to be spending a lot more time in parks and playgrounds from now on.

This afternoon I had the last plumeria society meeting of the year. Some people lost houses and animals; it's horrible. But some people didn't. We had lunch and a big raffle and I won three times, two plumeria cuttings (a Samoan Fluff and a Rebecca's White) and an orchid. So there you go.

The people at our local Trader Joe's recognize A and say, "You're not with Mom today," when C does the shopping. How do you like that?