A Snack, By Any Other Name, Would Not Taste As Sweet.

Look at me - I read a book once.

Russ started his new job yesterday morning and had to leave at the same time he used to get up. This caused some major issues when it came to the boys getting up (which is usually at the same time as Russ or shortly thereafter) and having their snack.
When Josey was just over a year old Russ started giving him a snack every morning to hold him over until I dragged myself out of bed and made breakfast. For the longest time he had a banana and his vitamin for snack day in and day out. Then he started having some dried apricots and his vitamin. This continued with Roanen, to the point that Russ was pretty much giving them a full breakfast some days. Up until yesterday, asking the boys what they had for snack yielded answers anywhere from "a vitamin and a little orange" to "my vitamin, some cottage cheese, an egg, and a piece of toast with jam". Regardless of how little or how much they had eaten earlier on, Josey still insisted on needing both a snack and his breakfast, which was anything from a bowl of cereal or oatmeal to pancakes to eggs, toasts and fruit. If he woke up after Russ had left he would freak out when I suggested just having breakfast. If, by chance, he forgot about the snack and I just made breakfast, a little while later he would suddenly remember that "we forgot to have snack!" and insist that we eat something else "for snack".
Now that I'm in total charge of the boys pretty much from the time they wake up, I've informed them two days in a row that they will not be having two meals first thing in the morning, and that I will make one large breakfast a little later than we usually have snack. This has caused crying, screaming, and the insistence that they NEED a snack or else they may die of starvation in the hour between waking and breakfast (they can have fruit if they really need something in the meantime, but I ain't making pancakes). I'm standing firm on this point though, so this morning I dubbed our meal "sneakfast" to avoid mentioning the forbidden "s" or "b" words. They did not appreciate my cleverness.

Last night Tristan slept 6 hours straight, from 9 to 3. Amazing, yes, but did I get to enjoy it? No, because Roanen woke up for the third time at 1:30 and fussed and cried, even in our bed, for an hour and a quarter, when Russ finally tossed him into his bed where he immediately passed out. I'll forgive him a little, because he's still sick and coughing pretty badly at night, but I really would have liked to sleep during the 6 hours that Tristan did. It may be a little premature, but I'm hoping that Tristan's apparent laissez-faire attitude about nursing at night may be to my advantage when it comes to him sleeping fully through the night. Seriously, I have to have one good infant sleeper. I'm entitled.

Just Call Him Beaver

There's a book out called Even June Cleaver Would Forget the Juice Box. Think the preschool teacher has read it?

Is That Your Final Answer?

I'm back on milk. On Saturday night I had a mini-freakout about not having prepared for dinner, and we ended up deciding that last week's bad days probably weren't dairy related after all. We got some really good cheesy, buttery, yummy takeout from a restaurant in town and crossed our fingers. So far Tristan has had no reaction to it. I'm still avoiding chocolate just in case that's the problem (which makes more sense since I have chocolate allergies) but I'm looking forward to trying it out sometime soon...

In other news, Josey has croup and is feeling crappy, and Roanen somehow hurt his wrist and is having a hard time doing normal things like lifting food to his mouth with his left hand and climbing on things (that one's a shame). Both the boys have been getting up at 5 AM and Roanen freaks out when we don't immediately "GO DOWNSTAIRS!" like he wants. I think daylight savings time hasn't kicked in yet for them, and wasn't helped by the fact that we started putting them to bed an hour earlier last week.

I think I'm going to start posting stuff about our little farm soon, if only to be just like the Pioneer Woman. Actually I just think everyone is dying to see graphic pictures of the next time we get our chickens slaughtered. Admit it, you are.

And The Bad Mommy Award Goes To...

Yesterday was our busiest day of the week, with Tristan's 2 months doctor's appointment (complete with shots) and Josey starting his preschool class. It had crossed my mind that the timing may be tight since the appointment was at 11:15 and preschool started at 12:30 and we had to fit lunch in somewhere, but I wasn't that worried since morning appointments are usually quicker and I figured that I could do drive-thru at Wendy's or something in a pinch. Naturally on this particular day the doctor was running behind and also ended up talking to a patient on the phone for about 20 minutes while we waited. I was watching the clock, and we seemed to be doing ok for time provided we skipped lunch and hauled ass over to preschool. The boys behaved well during the appointment, but the couple of minutes grace time we had were eaten up when Josey decided to run directly out of the office and into the cubby between the two glass doors leading outside. I was waiting for my next appointment booking while holding Tristan when this happened and I peeked out the door to see a woman standing in there with him. After all the warnings we'd given him about not running outside without anyone, I thought he'd know better than to go all the way out, but sure enough when he saw me looking at him, he took off out the door. Roanen was playing with the toys, so I set Tristan into his carseat and ran out after Josey (and the woman), who was tossed into the van and told to buckle himself up. Back in the office I walked past all the staring, disapproving people, announcing that he was in the van just in case they thought I was just letting him run through the streets by himself. Tristan, who started screaming as soon as I put him down, was being held by some woman who was evidently madly in love with him. Just as I got the carseat ready (while this woman unhurriedly walked him around showing him off) Josey came running back into the office, because apparently he now knows how to get out of the van by himself. By the time I got everyone into the van it was 12:33 and I was freaking out about being late and Josey not being fed. I told him he could reach into his bag and eat his snack that I had packed for preschool (that was just a precaution because I didn't think they'd actually have a snack there). When we got to the rec center, I rushed them out of the van with Tristan screaming and Josey moving as slowly as possible because he doesn't like people to know that he's with me, and brought them inside. As I got his jacket off, the organizer wanted to verify that I had packed a snack for him so I pulled out the snack bag, which now contained 3 half eaten crackers. Fortunately Josey was perfectly happy to stay by himself (yippee!) so I said goodbye and rushed out, remembering once I was outside again that he hadn't peed since well before leaving the house and was sure to wet his pants since I hadn't told him about asking one of the teachers to take him to the bathroom. When we picked him up at 2:30 I was happy to find out that A) he had a great time and didn't want to leave and B) when he had to pee he had asked the teacher to take him. The happiness ended when the teacher asked Josey "And what are we going to tell Mommy to pack for next week?" to which he responded "A drink". The teacher had to share with him, and I can only imagine what she was thinking about a mother who packed some chewed-up crackers and no drink for a snack. He was wearing pretty ratty looking clothes too, so she probably figures I'm just another one of those white trash welfare moms. Yay. Next week we're making muffins FROM SCRATCH and cutting up veggies for snack. And I'll give him TWO drinks. Yeah, that'll show them.

Just Get Off The Cow!

For the record, I didnt go too crazy on the dairy. Aside from the sorta-cheese on Monday night I didn't have any pure dairy like milk or yogurt and I even restricted foods with dairy ingredients in them. I was good, really I was. Unfortunately Tristan has been excessively cranky since Tuesday evening and I'm going to have to cut dairy out again to see if it helps. His nights have been really good though (after he finally passes out after screaming for hours) and he's slept 5 hour stretches at the beginning of the night 3 nights in a row. I'll be talking to both the doctor and a lactation consultant about it all today, but I'm already preparing myself for a long cheeseless, rice milky year. Ugh.

Mmmmmm Dairy.

Just a quick note to say that there has been no reaction to me having dairy last night. I don't know how long it takes for something to get into breastmilk, but Tristan's been really good since last night. A little fussy at the boob in the evening, but I attributed that to having spicy food at dinner. He was down for the night at 8:30, which is pretty good for him, and he slept through until 1:30. Just before 11 I tried to give him what the Baby Whisperer calls the "dream feed", which is when you pick him up and feed him when he's asleep (so that he can sleep a longer chunk without waking up hungry) but apparently doing that counts on the baby having a good suck reflex, which my soother-refusing, non sleep-nursing baby doesn't have. He stirred and stretched for a while, but wouldn't open his mouth to nurse at all. Oh well. Even Roanen slept pretty well last night after the nap disaster and didn't wake up until 5. We're trying to get the boys to bed at 7 now since neither are sleeping well during the day and we figure they need more rest. Nothing to do with the fact that we'd like time sans children in the evening, no sirree.

Had To Be Done

I ate cheese at dinner. Actually, it was Tostitos Salsa Con Queso so I'm not sure if it actually counts as real cheese. Even though I said I was going to deprive myself a while longer to really make sure, something told me I should go for it. It was probably the cheese. I made a (dairy free) chicken chili for dinner and we just happened to have a (dairy free) bag of Tostitos in the cupboard that would go perfectly with it. Problem is that the bag of (dairy free) Tostitos was purchased with a (not so dairy free) jar of cheese dip and I reasoned that if we just ate the chips the dip would be very very lonely. And then I reasoned that I'd already eaten cheese so a mini Caramilk wouldn't hurt. And then I reasoned that I'd already eaten cheese and a mini Caramilk so another mini Caramilk wouldn't hurt. And then I reasoned that I'd already eaten cheese and two mini Caramilks so some PC the Decadent chocolate chip cookies made with (so not dairy free) butter definitely wouldn't hurt.

And now my tummy hurts.

It Has Escaped.

What has escaped, you may ask? My ear. From the death grip of an exhausted nearly-two year old who spent an hour in hysterics because he DIDN'T WANT TO GO NIGHT-NIGHT and who wanted to GO DOWNSTAIRS. The only thing that would calm him down was to have a tractor and truck clutched in one hand and my ear in the other, which wasn't working so well for me since I had to do a variation of downward-facing dog to achieve the perfect ear-grip for him. Napping has been an ordeal lately, with Roanen sleeping a maximum of one hour before waking up and coming downstairs extremely cranky and needy. Naturally Tristan is usually fussy at this time so I end up with the two of them fighting for prime lap space (ok, Tristan does more crying than fighting but whatever) until Roanen wakes up enough to remember that he likes bulldozers better than me. After being good in the middle of the night for a while he's back getting up at least twice (on a good night) or screaming and refusing to stay in his bed (on a bad night). Most mornings there are 4 of us in our queen-sized bed and if we're really lucky Josey will squish in as well when he gets up and amuse himself by alternately kicking at us and pulling out my hairs one by one.

I'm a week and a day into not having any dairy products in case Tristan is sensitive to them and I'm thinking that it's not making much of a difference. I've mostly decided that he's just really sensitive to being uncomfortable in any way. I still think he's got reflux because he's not screaming in pain every night now that he's on medication, but otherwise when he gets upset I can usually attribute it to having gas or being overtired. He seems to have bad circulation too and I'll sometimes get him out of the swing or bed when he starts crying suddenly and his hands, feet and face are freezing cold. Just one more thing to talk to the doctor about when he gets his shots on Thursday (yes, already. Groan.) One thing that is making life easier on me is the swing. He really likes it and falls asleep pretty easily in it so I've gotten really lazy and I rarely try to put him in his crib during the day anymore. We'll see how that works out for me when he outgrows it...

Last bit of news is that Russ got a new job and he starts in 2 weeks. Instead of working from 8 to 5 he'll be working 7 to 3:30 (with 40 minutes of travel time each way) so he'll be getting home about an hour and a half earlier than he is now. In my mind it will be extra time that he can play with the kids while I happily make dinner without one kid in my arms and another (or two) holding onto my leg. In his mind I'll be able to get a job a few evenings a week since I'll have enough time to get somewhere for 5:00. Yes, apparently even though he can't handle the baby on his own for longer than about 15 minutes (because Tristan hates him, you know), if I get a job he'll be able to get all three kids fed, bathed and in bed without committing infanticide. Riiiiiiight. I'll start looking tomorrow.

No Excuses...

I'm running low on excuses not to blog (like the newborn + crazy older brothers excuse isn't good enough on it's own). We finally went ahead and bought a new computer since the old one was beyond ancient and near useless. And I mean delete-as-much-as-possible-off-the-computer-just-so-there's-room-to-upload-a-camera-full-of-pictures useless. On Sunday we popped into WalMart to check prices on laptops (because I NEED a laptop so I don't have to hole up in my room and neglect the kids while I go online) and lo and behold, there was an Acer Aspire 3100 (no it's not a new model, yes it's a gazillion times better than our old computer) on for $345.00. Not knowing whether it was actually going to be good enough on its own we made sure that there were plenty in stock and that the price was going to remain the same for a while and went home to make some calls. After being assured that it would be sufficient for us I went back on Monday to pick it up. I was seriously annoyed to find out that not only was it sold out because they'd only had 5 to start with, it was only on sale for the weekend. Now here's where dealing with major stores comes in handy. Knowing that I, the customer, AM ALWAYS RIGHT when it comes to WalMart, I called around and found the one store in the entire world that still had ONE left. Ok, it was only 5 stores, but luckily enough it was the one in Pembroke where Russ works. A few phone calls, a non-customer service-oriented manager in Renfrew, and a visit to a very the-customer-is-always-right visit to Pembroke and I am now the owner of a fancy-schmancy new laptop, for the sale price of course. I loooooove it, but since I can now sit on the couch or at the kitchen table on the internet, I don't have much of an excuse not to keep up with the blogging. Although I draw the line at typing with one hand while holding the baby. So don't get too excited.

Wow, now after that immensely boring section here are some more random things because I can't get my thoughts organized enough to cover the last couple of weeks in an exciting fashion.
After about a week on the medication, Tristan was still fussing quite a bit in the evening and not going to bed until late. Then his days started to deteriorate to the point where last Thursday I had to call Russ and make him come home at lunch to help me out. He's getting really gassy, but I was totally confused as to whether he was crying from reflux pain, gas pain, unknown pain, being overtired from refusing to sleep on his own or for long periods being held, or just being a baby. Either way it was getting unbearable. Ultimately we decided to continue with the reflux medication, get him to sleep more, even if it means holding him or letting him sleep in the swing or in bed with us, and cut out all dairy products (right down to trace amounts in stuff) in case it's a sensitivity to milk protein. It's been 5 days of this so far and he's much happier, although I have no idea which of our changes is helping. I'm going to continue it all for another week or so before adding dairy back into my diet to see if there's any reaction, and if that's not the issue (please God let him not be sensitive to dairy because I'm going to die without it) we'll go a little longer before trying to take him off the reflux medication. A happier baby lately has made things a little easier, although I'm still hoping the next few months go by quickly because I don't deal well with this infant stage.



"Watching you suffer without dairy makes me happy!"

Josey is going to be starting in an intro to preschool program next week. It's 2 hours a week for six weeks and he's really excited about it. I'm looking forward to it too, although I'm worried that he's going to get upset about it not being at KidsCorp where he's used to having his playgroup. His new thing is saying "Why doesn't anyone want to play with me" when we don't provide him with constant entertainment and although I know he totally just testing us, it makes me feel bad that he doesn't get the chance to play with other kids very often.

That's it for now. Even though I'm in the same room as the kids, I still feel guilty about just sitting here on the computer while they watch TV. Bad Mommy. I promise to update more often from now on though. Maybe.