Universal Donor 2

I am what you could call a Universal Donor. My husband, the Devildog, has some dominant genes, and all four kids have his blood type. Not one of these suckers have mine. Story of my life, it seems like I've got what everyone (in my house at least) else wants or needs.
However, last year when I donated blood in January, little did I know I was going to need to keep that blood. OOOPS. No wonder I had a stronger than usual reaction to the donation. It was December when I finally donated again. So, that meant it would be February when I could donate blood. I dragged 3 of the 4 kids with me. It's a long story why, and I won't bore you with it. MaNiC MoMMy does a virtual blood drive and her deadline looms, which is the only reason I'm getting around to posting this. I live by flying by the skin of my blessed assurance apparently.

In any case, I went to donate and the vampires - they love me. I have good veins that behave and don't roll. I had the Oldest Boy take the picture. It was difficult for him because he wasn't on the front side of the camera this time. He followed instructions better than Devildog did last year though. He got more than just my arm in the picture. However, he caught me looking down at something, and I look like I've got my eyes closed. And then when I was done, we got freezer pizzas from the grocery store even though I really wanted the kind from a pizza place (name withheld), and I went home and had to have a nap. This is why I schedule my donations for Fridays. I can go home and slack around and not do anything the rest of the day. And I'm incredibly thankful that even though I have FOUR spawn, they are spread apart in age and they entertained the mini-human till she needed feeding...because I've got the good stuff somebody else inevitably wants or needs.

sippy cup rant

I just have to vent and maybe someone in a marketing department will do a search for sippy cup and my blog post will appear in their findings.

WHY THE HECK DO ALL THE DANG SIPPY CUPS HAVE TO BE SPILL PROOF??????

I don't want valves and mechanisms that prevent the liquid from spilling. There is a time and place in this world for such inventions, just not when I am teaching my baby to drink from a cup. On the other hand, the only other non-spill-proof models I've found have an air hole in the top which allows physics to work as it should and the entire contents of the cup flow freely out of it. All three older kids had a Tommee Tippee cup that had two handles and a weighted bottom and slanted spout in the twist on lid. They were very readily available in the mid-90s for the boys, and it was a miracle that I even found one by the time Clone arrived in the early 2000s. I thought I was done having babies (God keeps laughing at me), so I gave away that prized sippy cup. Now with Miss Must-Be-Upright, they're NON-EXISTENT! I've been looking on ebay, amazon, etc to find one and haven't started scouring the second-hand stores yet to find just one. I can't even find a picture of it online. And no, I don't want one that is so vintage, I'm hesitant to give it to my child. I'm one of those weirdo parents that insist on teaching their baby to drink from a cup with the added lesson of cause-effect-consequence. As in, tipping the cup causes the liquid to move out of it, and that effect in excess causes the consequence of junior getting to clean up their mess. I've done similar things with nursing. Fall asleep or play at your workstation and it is removed. Yes, she's nearing 5 months old and maybe it is early to start this stuff by some standards. Honestly, those opinions can fall by the wayside and I'm going to do what is tried and true for my household. If the baby is grabbing for my cup and trying to drink from it, I give the baby a drinking test. Using a small regular plastic cup and a small amount of water, I see how the baby handles drinking from it. So far the attempts are going well and she's actually swallowing water as often as it it's dribbling down her chin.
I do have some other options in this adventure of cup-training that I didn't want to have to use. I may explore those ideas while I continue my search for this dinosauric contraption.

And just so you know, I am absolutely biting my keys on the rest of my rant involving parental choices and manufacturers' responses to those choices. I may be a slacker mom, but there are some things my kids have learned that their peers should have been taught.

baby yammering

It's a baby post. Just thought I'd give fair warning in advance.

My cousin J had baby #2 very late Valentine's Day. It was almost the day after, it was so late. They have a little girl who is just shy of a year old, and now she has a little brother. My friend Kristin had her long-awaited baby boy last week. All these babies.

My own is moving forward with leaps and bounds in her developments. I have long forgotten where her siblings were at this age. I just know that I am not ready for all this mobility. She's been rolling a lot, and she does so with authority. She's sort of scooting, and trying to get up on all fours. She gets rice cereal, and has come to expect it daily. I've long held the practice of putting baby in the high chair at the table with us at dinnertime. Baby gets toys if not old enough to eat what we're eating. Thankfully tonight I made her bowl of cereal at the same time I got my own bowl of chicken & dumplings dished. She saw us spooning food into our mouths and started making fishfaces to tell me she wanted some. The rapid open-close-open-close was funny. She does well with spoon feeding. Like the older 3, if you don't keep that spoon shoveling, she gets vocal. Varying noises are emitted from high pitch shrieks and low 'aaahhh' to things like "nin-gah!", and "na na na na". Clone's word for food was num-num and well, I'm guilty of reusing it. Apparently I'm being mimicked by Miss-Must-Be-Upright.
She later went to sleep a few hours and got back up - you guessed it - hungry. Snacktime was more like it. She spent as much time eating as she did excitedly telling her guardian angel all about her day. She wasn't talking to ME, I can tell you that much.
She's makes no bones about declining an offered pacifier or toy. It gets thrown, her head turns away and she makes a "nuh" noise. In turn, if she wants something, she'll do everything she can to clearly indicate as much, including kamikaze nosedives. She and I are learning our "language", and I think this is happening much earlier than it did with the older 3 kids. Of course by this point, with 4 kids, my brain and memory fail me often, I'm lucky my bra is under my clothes and not on top of them when I leave the house.
She chews on most anything she can get in her hands, or get her mouth onto. It's almost like having a puppy, minus the splintered table legs. And I can't tell you how many times I've reread this post to correct the baby's "help". I'll need a new desk soon. Baby drool is pretty potent stuff and I'm sure the veneer on my sawdust & glue furniture will give out in no time. As I type this, I'm sure my keyboard is at risk for shorting out from drool. She's standing on my lap, smacking the keyboard, chewing my fingers, and knocking things to the floor. Cats do that...come to think of it, she DOES sound just like a cat sometimes when she's talking or crying. I tell people who offer me a pet, "Um, no thanks I have 4 kids that do the exact same things as a pet, but at least I can make an attempt to get slave labor out of the kids, minus the shedding."

A new member of the "mommy club"

My friend Kristin just had a baby boy today. He was a week late, and not nestling into mom's pelvis. The doctors induced, and after a 24 hour process that was not going anywhere, the decision was made to do a cesarean birth. Once they got in there, they found the reason he didn't move down was that he danced so much his cord was wrapped around him. I sent her a text to tell her I'd been thinking about her and praying for her today, and she responded that she needed it. I then said that I told the baby to send her guardian angel to watch over the baby and help him get outta there, and that I was sending mine to help her get the baby out too. I'd hoped that maybe my speedy delivery vibes would help her somehow, since there was some Buddah-belleh rubbing going on earlier last year. Oh well, I'm only *so* helpful at any given point. At least she now has her heart's desire finally. It's been a tumultuous journey for her to get here, and she made it.
Congratulations, Kristen and Jere.

brain = fail

I got logged out of my blog dashboard by one of the kids hijacking the computer a few minutes when I wasn't parked at the desk. Subsequently the site wants you to remember your password in order to get back where you want to be. It took a week to figure it out, and I have GOT to go in and change my security question. WTH was I thinking...nevermind.
I recall mentioning the multitude of passwords I have.

Earlier I whined about my body saying "get a new job". I heart my chiropractor. I'm feeling much better after an adjustment, a session with the TENS on steroids, and a weekend of resting my back. I was told to make use of my sister's birthday gift - an exercise ball and rebuild my core muscles.
In other news, I have managed to get some more knitting done recently. Not that anything is even close to finished. Two projects were started in the Summer of 2008, and neither is finished. So what do I do? Pick up another project. Clone took a "learn to knit" class at the library and the yarn that was donated for the class is Paton's Soy Wool Stripes and very splitty. I traded some cotton yarn for her SWS and swapped the project she started onto my size 10s from her beginner sticks (one red, one blue) and while she tried to figure out a knit-on cast on (it's all I know how to do - long tail scares me for some reason, but so do yarn overs right now), I looped away with it. It's a self striping yarn if the project is narrow enough. Once again dropped a stitch, thought I rescued it, and later realized that I bungled that one too. The Yarntender might consider offering a class on rescuing stitches, for people like me.
Of course, knitting while doing other things that involve the mini human makes for mistakes. Not only has she started to go mobile, she's now found her feet. The ped thinks she'll walk early, but the others did too.

I think a large portion of my broad and long term brain failure (aside from the copious number of kids) was my lack of the FLYLady calendar. It is worth every single penny spent on it, and so am I. I finally got the money to buy it and some other stuff, and that arrived Monday afternoon. But nonetheless, I've been at a loss of cognitive function quite a bit lately. Sleep deprivation, work, 4 spawn, funky shifts, and general ADD all get thrown in one of those industrial "Will it blend?" machines.

My running joke this week (or any other time really):
brain = pile of yarn barf - yarn

Then amid all this my friend Persnickety had another birthday, further proving to the doctors that all they really do is merely PRACTICE medicine, they can't call themselves a medical super league. I still have her Christmas gift in my den.
And my other friend Chrissy (who never bothers to blog anything anymore, or ever) had another birthday too. She's older than I am, about the same age as my two older sisters. Her husband bought a new honkin hube boob toob ... and was smart enough NOT to say it was her birthday gift.
And then later this week, I have an appointment with the vampires to donate blood now that I am eligible again, for MaNiC MoMMy's virtual blood drive.

What I ought to be doing

I'm sitting here in the quiet of my house, Howard Miller clock chiming the quarter hour, listening to the rain. I should be sleeping, but I'm playing online. I could at least be knitting to finish up that fuzzy turquoise wrap, or crocheting the last of that market bag - both started in the summer of 2008. In my defense, they got set aside while I worked on a neverending baby towel for my friend Heather. I did use up some green varigated cotton yarn I disliked but got because it was on clearance for $2 for that huge skein. It was originally like $8. But ALL that yarn for the same price as a little ball you could get a only potholder from? oooohhhh...yarn bargain! Ya, I'm more selective now. In any case, I destashed yarn I didn't like on a project I wouldn't dare repeat the same way, if ever again. The recipient is Heather's daughter and the little girl LOVES it. If only Devildog's Aunt Donna had taught me continental knitting while I was working on that thing...I threw every single one of those stitches. I may have shaved a few months off that project too. It took me a year because it hibernated during the green-and-freshly-planted phase of growing a human. Then I was too tired and miserable most days to do much after work. Plus it was just to blazing hot in this house to touch yarn. But I got it done just shy of the one year mark. This is why I don't start more than one project at a time. I work slowly, sporadically and it takes forever to finish something. Meanwhile my project list grows lol. But I suppose I will back away from the keyboard a while and do something that is actually PRODUCTIVE instead for a little while, even if it's a mere 15 minutes.

Back again

When I was pregnant, I had some excruciating pain, often resulting in my inability to even move the slightest bit without stifling a scream. My OB referred me to physical therapy but I knew in my heart that was not what I needed. It was an alignment issue and physical therapy wasn't going to correct that. I needed a chiropractor, but very few are willing to manipulate a pregnant woman, and even fewer (if any) are willing to do so if she's never had prior chiropractic care.
So when I had the baby, I waited a couple weeks to see if delivery improved things or made anything worse. There were improvements but I felt very grossly out of whack. So I went to the chiropractor, and that first adjustment was a shock to my physical person, and at the same time a huge relief because all those nerves weren't being mushed and pinched. X-rays revealed a partially sacralized L5 vertabrae, and the disk between L5 & S1 having some issues. It isn't clear if it's genetic or an injury. The side that had the extra bone growth was the side with sciatic pain during pregnancy as well as other times-usually when I was out of line. I was going for adjustments twice a week for a month, then once a week for a couple months, and now I'm down to every other week.
The past couple weeks or so has been very difficult in terms of mobility. Bending forward to do things like pick up stuff or put the baby in the crib have brought back the excruciating winces. My aunt was a nursing assistant and injured herself during a team lift of a super-obese patient. I called to pick her brain and ask what it felt like when she injured her back. Similar stuff it seems. I am not sure what will follow but it's a bit unnerving to say the least.
I'm hoping and praying it can heal with time and a new job. I told my dad that I was having problems and he said not to have pins and rods put in my back, going on to say "Look at what happened to your sister". She got hurt on the job nearly 20 years ago, and opted to have a fusion with metal rods. Short story of it all, lack of mobility (not sure if it's injury induced, surgically induced or patient non-movement) and she's now majorly obese, diabetic, and has congestive heart failure.
If I ever have to have surgery, I will certainly be exploring the option of using my own bone marrow like my aunt did. She's allergic to every metal there is. Her replacement knee is ceramic coated. Her fusion was done with her own bone matter. But for now, I truck along carefully and use the TENS unit to keep the muscle spasms at bay. I'm going to the chiropractor later this week, and will definitely mention this development to him.

There are some other medical issues in the household needing attention but due to some other factors (no names, situations or fingers being pointed), I doubt attention will be sought anytime soon. So keep us in your prayers.

Cheese and wine - no H

I often tell the kids when they're being whiny that I have no cheese to go with their WHINE. It makes them roll their eyes and say it's a stupid old line and I shouldn't use it anymore. But it gives me reprieve of the whining.
I ran away from home for a while tonight. Why? Because sometimes real life is stranger than fiction. My friend Fran Pitre wrote a book about her experiences having 3 sets of fraternal twins, and there was a book signing party. I almost didn't go because it was from 5 to 8 and I was not moving fast thanks to some pulled back muscles. I really needed a shower, the children smelled the pork tenderloin in the crockpot and there needed to be something else to go with it. So I made some pan fried potatoes. Some things I just can't bring myself to leave to the teen boys yet. It was 7 by the time I finally left. The mini-human was asleep, but supposedly woke up right after I made my exit. She apparently has mommy-radar and knows when I'm more than ten feet outside the perimeter of the house. Nobody called me, so I was none the wiser, and enjoyed the company of friends.
Wine, fruit, cheese, crackers, cookies and a lot of conversation. I'm not generally a wine drinker, but I do have a couple favorites. I got to sip some wine, eat some cubes of cheese, and met some new friends. (And as I typed "cube of cheese" my ADD brain went immediately to "The Devil Wears Prada" ooh shiny! sorry...moving along).
In any case, Fran was talking about the potential plans for promoting the book. I have no concrete details so I'm not about to misinform anyone here. But I told her I'd do my part.
Twins X3 is available now for your perusal and purchase.
Our pastor read the book, and commented later about knowing details of his parishoner's body. Fran said he wrote a review of the book, so I'm now in search of that bit of text to see what he has to say about it.
And before you start whining, yes Mrs Amiot, you're next. ;)

Annnnd we are mobile!

It's official. We now have a quasi-mobile mini-human. She's been rolling a bit here and there, and has been able to roll front to back more so than back to front. She's been trying to roll back to front by herself and literally gets ticked if I try to help her. But the last day or so she's been rolling and relishing her new trick. Today, she rolled from tummy to back to tummy to back and almost to tummy again till she was stopped by the toy box in the living room. This in addition to her kamikaze nose dives off my lap or out of my arms. I remember the boys would launch themselves off my lap, but I don't remember them jumping out of my arms. There were many many many times I had to move fast and keep Clone from self induced bain dramage from flipping backwards while I was holding her. It was very fun apparently - only guessing by the number of times I had to hold tight to her legs. Tonight I went to the grocery store while the middle 2 kids were in religious ed class. I was walking down an aisle with the baby on my arm, facing back over my shoulder. Nothing unusual about holding a baby that way. Good thing there were two hands on her. She bounced, jumped and nearly launched herself out of my arms. This is way sooner than I remember and I'm sooo not ready for mobility. I don't think the older 3 kids are fully aware of what lies ahead. She's reaching for stuff, grabbing her toys, and working those gross motor skills like a champ. Tonight she leaned over and reached for the big brother. Apparently his aloof, "I don't like babies" charisma doesn't work on her. It was either that or she's a crafty bugger and figured he was next to the kitchen counter, and she could get closer to stuff up there and play with it, if he held her instead. I am just going to go with the delusion that she missed her big brother and just wanted to visit with him for a bit instead of hanging onto me like usual.
In other news, I am not so mobile. I already have bad posture and this new round of antics from my hips, spine and back are making it difficult to bend over or sometimes move. I've been using the TENS unit a fair amount, but I know something is way out of alignment. Plus my muscles are staging a revolt. I need to stretch my back and legs so my chiro adjustments aren't undone so quickly. These copays are taking away from my ability to save up for the trip to Rome. I'd like to go more than a week before needing a readjustment. And right now, I'd just love a massage.

Birthday Loot

I have a load of awesome friends. I suppose it kind of makes up for a crummy childhood perhaps? Birthdays as a kid sucked about as much as an industrial strength shop vac. Then I grew up and expected my husband to have a different approach to my birthday than my parents had. That was erroneous of me. My sister suggested at the time that I lower my expectations. I responded with something along the lines of "*F* that! I'll just give MYSELF a good birthday." That was 11 years ago, and my birthdays don't suck anymore. I make a full week of it, or a weekend of it - depending on when my birthday falls during the week. Yes, I milk it as much as I can, and I don't hide my birthday. Of course the caveat to that as I get further into my 30s is that I reveal my age. I don't mind it but I've noticed I'm growing self-conscious about the number for some reason. But I love my birthday now, regardless of the number, and I especially love gifts.
I really wasn't expecting to be given so much for my birthday. It was better than Christmas for me lol. I'm breathing better for one thing. And for another I got a bunch of neat stuff.

I belong to the Ministry Of Mothers Sharing (MOMS) at church and we had a general meeting on my birthday. I was figuring someone would bring cake since I not so subtly hinted what day it was. But I was given my favorite shower gel from Bath & Body Works, and a pretty Yankee Candle tart warmer - plus cake.
My sister baked me a cake involving cocoa, hazelnut creamer, buttercream, and a bunch of yum. She did laundry and hung with the teenagers while I was gone to the meeting. She also gave me a big exercise ball like the one she loaned me when I was trying to get the baby to move closer to the exit.
My son's friend gave me a cupcake from Publix - which anyone in the southeast knows Publix bakery is awesome.
The friend that taught me to knit, sent a care package. It arrived from the upper Midwest on my rain-drenched birthday, just as she'd hoped it would. She's trying to destash yarn. So am I, but the big projects in my queue don't have enough of the appropriate yarn in my stash, and I need to avoid buying yarn. Yarn money and space in general are lacking here. But I have enough yarn now to finish a couple of the big projects I have on my list. In that loot was 3 hanks of wool yarn she's allergic to and can't even touch. She sent the rest of what will be the baby's christening outfit, a knitted drawstring bag (in her attempt to destash lol), some table food feeders and some Whoppers candy. She sent those because the Dirty Santa exchange at the holiday party resulted in me coming home with a double feature chick flick dvd, accompanied by some stale candy. The card she sent made me laugh. The front had a cartoon woman doing those "finger quotes" and it said 'Happy "29th" Birthday'. Inside it said 'From your "110" pound friend'. I laughed, opened the gift, and cracked up even more. Not only were they fresh Whoppers, it was a bigger box than the original.
I'm going to the Midnight Knit In (crochet too) as part of my birthday weekend. I don't get a chance to visit the yarn shop all that often, but I make a point to do the Midnight events if I can.
I also will be making use of those birthday freebies I registered for with Moe's and Sticky Fingers. Burrito and ribs make a birthday yummy. So do three different varieties of cake. And friends who are awesome - even the ones I play tag with so much lately. I much prefer my friend-filled birthday now than those as a kid.