Back To Me

Birthday suits

I'm sure I'm inviting all kinds of crazy here but I have a legitimate question/discussion to pose and I'd like to know your thoughts.  Play nice.

What are your opinions on children seeing parents of the opposite sex naked?  Let me explain: I grew up with just my mom, so I was never around an older man (specifically my father) where the possibility of seeing him naked existed.  I remember being at a friend's house in 7th grade on a sleepover when I saw her dad in his boxers and I flipped out I was so embarrassed.  Her response: "What's YOUR problem?  He does that all the time."  So stuff like this is totally foreign to me.

Theo isn't even a year old yet and I'm already starting to feel uncomfortable with him seeing me in the shower.  Some mornings he's in the bathroom playing while I get ready, and now I think that's going to stop.  He could care less--he's more interested in the light switch and tassels on the rug.  But I'd rather stop something before it gets weird for both of us.  If we had a daughter I'm sure we'd put the kibosh on Bryan getting ready or showering with her around too.

So I'm curious to know: how do you feel about this and why, and how old is too old for brazenly naked?

About today

Dear Theo--

Today we just witnessed Barack Obama become the 44th President of the United States.  We nominated and saw into office the first African American leader of our country.

Your father had been volunteering at Obama's National Headquarters for a few months, fighting for change and the hope of what could be.  We were lucky enough to be able to bring you down to the office (you even have your own visitor's badge that will go in your baby book!) and meet a lot of people which was an amazing experience.  You're too young to understand now, but I hope when you're older you will look back and be grateful for what you were a part of.

Daddy and I took you with us to vote on November 4th, and you were in the backpack while your father and I filled in the circle next to Obama's name.  I remember standing there, overcome with the enormity of the moment.  I knew something great was happening.  I knew that the hope we had was real and that yes, we COULD make a difference.  Not only for ourselves and our country but for you.  And on election night, when we officially heard that Obama would be our President you were snug in your crib, sound asleep and unaware of what had just happened.  But Daddy and I knew.  I burst into tears because all the stress and sacrifice of the past months was all worth it.  That moment was what we worked so hard for.

So today we watched it all come together.  Daddy said you clapped during the speeches and were very interested in the inauguration.  You're only ten months old but I have no doubt that you knew something important was going on.  There is an energized feeling in the air--renewal and anticipation--and it's impossible not to notice.

My sweet darling boy, you are so very lucky.  Many things have been overcome to get where we are today, though that does not make the road ahead of us easy.  There is still much more to do, but the path we are on is a good one.  Our little family of three is on it together joined with millions of other Americans and I am so excited for what is in store.

I love you.

Mama

Mini Therapy

What do I do when I can't shop for anything?  Make a list based on pure greed, of course!  Here is my somewhat pathetic Amazon list of what I'd buy if I could get anything that I wanted without guilt.  I know I know, some of the things on there aren't just for ME (kitchen stuff, etc) but they'd still make me happy and that's all that matters in this little exercise, okay?  No judging.

Do you do anything like this or am I crazy?  And what would you buy?  (Granted, I was stuck within the realm of Amazon and while they do have tons of stuff, I was still somewhat limited).

Momversation: A Poll

I don't know if you're familiar with the cool web blogging going on over at Momversations but I get such a kick out of the topics and hearing what my favorite bloggers have to say.  The latest topic has really intrigued me:  Which do you think is harder, being a wife or a mom?  (clip here)

After thinking about it for a minute I confidently agreed with Dooce (and went against the majority vote) and said being a mom is harder.  Way.  Harder.  Granted, I'm speaking from the standpoint of being a mom for 10 months and a wife for 6 1/2 years so take that for what it's worth.  But here.  My reasons, let me show you them:

1).  In a marriage I can get a large chunk of uninterrupted sleep.  And with sleep, everything is easier to handle.  Sure being married is a lot of hard work, but if I'm well-rested I can tackle pretty much anything without freaking out unnecessarily.  I can have clear-headed conversations, rational thought, a sense of humor and the ability to relax.

2).  I got to know my husband before signing up for 'Til Death Do Us Part.  With a baby you don't know what you're getting and the commitment is already made.  Now, please don't interpret this to mean that I'm not crazy in love with my son because that is the farthest thing from the truth.  But to paraphrase Dooce:  if you were on a date with some guy and he screamed bloody murder in your face for 7 hours you'd never call him again, but if your baby does that you're expected to put it on your boob.

3).  Husbands can (in most cases) express how they feel in ways that we can understand.  Babies can not.  They cry, thrash around, whine, throw things, refuse to eat when they are hungry and don't sleep when they are tired, thus exacerbating The Crabby.  Now I'm sure some of you could put up a good argument that your husband is quite adept at those things too but c'mon, baby trumps husband and you know it.

4).  I have given over 100% of myself for my child and while I gladly do it, it's still hard.  The constant demand for my full attention, worrying that my behavior is somehow adversely affecting the emotional development of my son, knowing that this is a very impressionable time and I! Must! Make! These! Moments! Count!  With Bryan?  It's not my job to mold him.  Yes, I have to help nurture our relationship but if I don't he probably won't become an ax murderer or worse, a REPUBLICAN.  (I kid, I kid.  Sort of.)

I'm curious to hear what you have to say in the matter because I'm fascinated by the topic.  Which was harder for you and why?

Resolutions I will keep so help me

I need to be held accountable and I'm feeling ambitious so I thought I'd bust out my resolutions for 2009.  Go ahead, judge and laugh at my lofty goals. I'm used to crying I don't mind.

1.  EXERCISE AND I'M NOT JOKING. I bought 30 Day Shred and it's sitting in my living room.  I can do 20 minutes a day three times a week, right?  Right.  My kid isn't getting any lighter (27 pounds!  It's like carrying around a wet sandbag!) and I need to rebuild my core or my back is going to go out any minute.

2. Cook more and eat healthier.  Cooking and eating at home is better on the budget and gives us more control as to what we put in our bodies.  I have successfully made all of Theo's baby food so I may as well cook for the grown-ups in the family.  Though I can't guarantee everything won't be pureed. 

3. Spend more time with friends.  I can't really use the "I just had a baby!" excuse anymore for being antisocial. Though I work full time and am exhausted most days ending with a -y, I still need to get out more and have fun. Hangin' with my girls will put some pep in my step!

4.  Read before going to bed.  This may sound easy but it's not.  Not really at all, actually.  I haven't read a real book since February and it's making me sad.  I miss it so much and am going to make a point of reading--if only a few pages--every night before passing out cold.  It helps me sleep better, it's relaxing, and encourages me to use my brain for something other than What Else Can I Worry And Stress About Now At 9:30 At Night?

5.  Pamper myself more.  Oh goodness gracious have I let myself go.  Even in the simple lotions and potions department I am failing miserably and my skin shows it.  I'm going to be 30 in less than three months (AIEEE!  etc, etc.) and I'd really like to still feel like I'm in my 20's.  I also have to reset my current line of thinking that pampering = spending lots of money which is completely untrue.  Putting on perfume is easy.  Or adding a ring I like to an outfit makes me feel snazzy.  Throw in an at-home pedicure here and there, along with a facial scrub a few times a month and I'm well on my way.

6.  Spend more time In The Moment with Theo.  I get so excited thinking about his next milestones that I sometimes forget about where he's currently at.  He's growing up so freakin' fast I really need to sit back and enjoy what he's accomplishing and learning and not what is next on the agenda.  While I can't wait to hear him talk and can only imagine what amazing things will come out of his mouth, I savor his gooey babbles and will miss them terribly.  I could get drunk on is current string of "Loe-dee-doe-dee-doe-dee-doe" and I never get tired of it.  He is moving on to "Dat" and "Mama" and when I haven't heard our coveted "Loe-dee-does" in a while I prompt him to say them because I know time is running out.

I'm sure I have more, but this will suffice for now.  Are you all making resolutions?  If you are what are they and have you been successful in the past in keeping them?

Catching You Up, Volume 1: Theo's Sickfest 2008

Oh, we've been busy 'round here lemme tell ya!  Pull up a chair and get cozy because here is one for the baby book.

Theo got a double ear infection the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  He was given amoxicillin to treat it, which he had had once before.  No problem.  The first high fever came that Saturday.  After calling his pediatrician we took him to Urgent Care since I was worried as he was on antibiotics--why did he have a fever of 102.7?  We dosed him with Motrin before we left and when we got there he was a new kid, flirting and babbling with everyone.  His fever was down to 100.2.  The doctor said that his ear infection in conjunction with cutting THREE TEETH THAT WEEKEND was probably too much for him and his body freaked out a bit.  He'd be fine.
 
Okay.
 
Monday night while giving him a bath I noticed a rash.  Huh.  I called the pediatrician again and they said to bring him in the next day to verify that it was an allergic reaction to the amoxi.  I had to leave crazy early for St. Louis the next morning for a 2 day business trip (new job, kinda had to go) so Bryan was going to be alone with him.  Just a rash--no big deal.  Theo woke up at 4:30 Tuesday morning when the limo was almost there to get me and he had hives all over.  All.  Over.  I burst into tears and almost threw up because I didn't want to leave my sick baby.  But he didn't have a fever then and was acting fine.  Bryan assured me it would be okay and if anything happened I could always hop a quick flight and be home in an hour.  So I left and at that point it was the hardest thing I had ever had to do.
 
Bryan kept updating me via text messages.  They had gone to the doctor that morning and were told Theo had two things:  the rash was Roseola and he got it from the high fever.  The hives were an allergic reaction to the amoxi.  We were to give him OTC Children's Zyrtec and Motrin and he'd be good to go.  Hives would go away in 1-2 weeks.  Fine.
 
Bryan said he was eating great, playing, blabbing, etc.  Low grade fever, not sleeping as great as he normally did but still not too bad.  I felt better.
 
I flew home Wednesday night.  Theo was asleep so I couldn't see him in the dark.  When I was finally able to see him in the morning it took all my energy not to be hysterical because that was NOT what he looked like when I left.  Not even close.  He looked HORRIBLE but Bryan was all proud like "See?  Doesn't he look great?"  because he had looked so much worse over the past two days.  His face was swollen, his eyes were puffy--it didn't look like him.  I couldn't snuggle him because he was so uncomfortable, diaper changes made him cry, his feet were cold because we couldn't put socks on him.  I couldn't even believe it.  I had that day off anyway because of my business trip so I was able to be home with him which was a relief.  His personality was pretty good considering, but then in the afternoon he got lethargic again like before when he had the high fever.  He only wanted to lay on me and not move when normally he's going a mile a minute, plus he was shivering but burning up.  I took his temperature and it was, again, 102.7.  Called the doctor and they wanted him to come in right away.  We went.  All the doctors came in to look at him.  The nurses were clutching their chests when they saw him.  We were told to go straight to the ER to get multiple blood and urine tests to check for Kawasaki Disease which my cousin's daughter had a few years ago and was in the hospital for three days.  I was freaked about that but I was more panicked about what we'd have to DO to get blood and urine from Theo.  I wanted to vomit.

  

  
 
Off to the ER two hours past his bed time.  He didn't nap in the afternoon so he was tired and fussy and he only wanted to be held (rightly so).  We were there a total of five hours.  I had to help pin him down while he was SCREAMING in order to get blood and to put a catheter up his penis.  The nurses couldn't get urine.  They then noticed he wasn't crying tears so they said determined was dehydrated.  We had to force him to drink something or he'd be admitted with IV fluids.  Great.  We didn't have a bottle with us (didn't think we'd be out that long!) and he wouldn't take the nipple from their bottle.  He also wouldn't drink out of a sippy cup or from a medicine dropper.  Bryan had to drive home to get his bottle and formula while I was in the room with him when all he wanted to do was sleep.  So he fell asleep on my shoulder and I was sweating like crazy since he was hot and the room was hot and I was stressed.  I finally got him to eat a lot of ice chips (who knew?) when he woke up a bit so that was progress.  Then we all had to catheterize him AGAIN and hold him down AGAIN to get urine.  It was hands down the worst night of my life.  Thankfully all the tests came back great and we were able to go home as long as we kept getting him to drink ANY clear liquids.

It was determined that he had Erythema multiforme though not as severe as it could have been, it was still pretty bad.  His hives went away fairly quickly once we got him properly hydrated, and today there are no tell-tale marks.  His back looked very bruised for a while due to residual marking and honestly, a stranger would have thought we severely beat our child.  Thank goodness for long winter clothes!

The hives and fever went away and then Theo cut three more teeth (SIX IN ONE MONTH DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT WE WENT THROUGH OMG) around Christmas.  This was accompanied by a cold, which led to a cough, which led me to freak out AGAIN that he might need a nebulizer so back to the doctor's office we went!  Luckily his lungs sounded great so he was just prescribed a rescue inhaler (with teddy bears on it!) which helped a lot.  That is, until he spiked ANOTHER 102.5 fever at night and couldn't sleep because of all the coughing.  Called the Doctor on-call and she said that if the fever didn't go down we needed to go to the ER (oh, our old friend) to make sure it wasn't pneumonia.  We made it through the night, went to the doctor the next day and hey, it was another ear infection!  Different meds this time happily equaled no hives.

Knock on wood but since New Year's we've had an extremely happy and healthy child. He's sleeping straight through the night (11-11.5 hours) and is as jolly as can be.  Of course he is, he's FINALLY feeling great for the first time since Thanksgiving!  And he has taken a break from teething as well which is a nice reprieve I must say.  He has a total of eight now and we're fine with that for the time being. An uneventful January in the Theo health department would be great, thanks. 

Happy 2009 Everybody!