Come, Mommy » whininess

The Perfect Storm

lieslf — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:25:00 +0000

I have a cold. And I didn’t get much sleep last night. Throw in a teething baby and a mysteriously foul-mooded three-year-old, and it made for a Perfect Storm. Tantrum after tantrum (from the three-year-old), clingy fussiness (from the baby), and me wondering alternately, “What happened to my sunny Lemur?” and “If I just dropped him at school and didn’t come back would anyone notice?” There was way too much TV viewing going on here today, but it was that or Mommy losing her mind…

But thankfully Kevin came home and caged the Peevish Primate….

Phew…

Thank Heaven days like this are rare. My nerves would not survive frequent onslaughts of this behavior, I assure you!

How Not To Fundraise

lieslf — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 01:41:00 +0000

Tonight at 8:22 PM we had the kids both sound asleep. The doorbell rang. Kevin and I both fell over ourselves trying to answer it before the kids woke up. A young man popped his head in the door and announced loudly, “I’m from LocalHighSchool Football Team. We’re selling these cards that give you discounts at area restaurants.”

Of course, that woke up both kids. Kevin announced he was planning to take money from LocalHighSchool Football Team.

At 9:15 PM, Liam was back asleep.

At 9:30, Kieran was still up and I was thinking about calling LocalHighSchool Football Team’s coach and inviting him over to rock a baby for a bit.

At 9:44 PM, Kieran was asleep.

At 10:00, the phone rang. It was LocalStateUniversity looking for donations. I was not very polite to the undergrad on the other end of the phone. He did promise, “never, ever to call this late again.”

I still need someone to rock the baby back to sleep.

Last Minute Scramble

lieslf — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 22:32:00 +0000

We’re flying out tomorrow morning to Chicago. I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to go after getting sick last week, but I’m much better. After all, how ironic would it be to miss this because I was home sick in bed with mastitis?

After a mad last-minute scramble involving a) several loads of laundry that we needed for the trip, b) a dryer that was finally repaired at 4:30 this afternoon ( a whole ‘nother post there, for now just say don’t buy these dryers unless you want the repair guy as a frequent guest), and c) a realization by ~~my husband~~ someone that we never told the airline we were bringing a baby along, all is under control. Or as close as it gets around here.

See y’all in a few days, and Amy? See you Tuesday night!

M Is For Miserable

lieslf — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 01:57:00 +0000

Remember that migraine I mentioned? What I didn’t mention is that I spent most of Sunday in the local ER with it. We finally did manage to defeat it, but at a cost.

Kevin had the boys for the day while I was there, and Kieran was getting milk from my freezer stash. It turned out that eight hours is too long for me to go without nursing. So now I have mastitis. Lovely.

As soon as the antibiotics kick in and I no longer feel like I’ve been hit by a truck, I’ll be back. Until then, blogging will be sparse…

Placeholder…

lieslf — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:29:00 +0000

I’m around, I’ve just been dealing with a vicious migraine. Gotta love postpartum hormones. Or not. I should be back soon with the Great Maple Tree Takedown.

“How’s your headache, Mommy?”

Bits ‘n’ Pieces of Post-Partum Randomness…

lieslf — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 20:41:00 +0000

It’s been a week since I posted?? How did that happen? Oh, yeah, now I remember, there’s an extra kid in the mix now. I have an extreme dearth of blogging time, and an even more extreme lack of coherent thought. From what I hear, that’s about right for this stage in my parenting career. Still, though, things are happening here. To wit:

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Poor Leonard. Gran-Gran left on Thursday, and between having had her to himself for a month and the fact that I am not instantly available to him 24/7, it’s been a very hard last couple of days. This sweet little boy who had previously thrown maybe five tantrums in his life has been melting down every half-hour or so. I feel so bad for the kid, but with wacky post-partum guilt hormones, I’m not handling the meltdowns well. My reactions range from wanting to give him the world as an apology for ending life as he knew it all the way to wanting to tell him he’s a big kid and the whininess is killing me so deal with life already…

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It bothers me when people make a big deal out of the baby while discounting the presence of his very cute older brother. Not that the baby isn’t a big deal, but doesn’t his brother count anymore? Poor Leonard’s had a few encounters with folks who pretty much blew him off this week, and the big brother gig is wearing a bit thin. I suspect those of you with more than one child have seen this in action, but here’s a typical scenario:

At Friendly’s, we were mobbed by a bunch of biddies:

Biddies: “Oh, oh, oh, look at the baby! How CUTE!! How old is he?”

Me: “He’s two weeks old.”

Biddies (spying Liam): “Oh, oh, oh, and this must be the lucky Big Brother!!”

Liam: “No.”

Biddies: “Oh, you’ve got it made with such a cute baby. How much fun is it to be the Big Brother??”

Liam: “No, I’m not-”

Biddies: “Is the baby a boy or a girl?? So, so cute! Cute! Aren’t you happy to be the big brother?”

Liam: “NO! I’M NOT THE BIG BROTHER! I AM LEONARD!!!!!”

So at least I’m not the only cranky member of the family. Sigh.

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But Gran-Gran is coming back next week. There is hope. And lookie the Easter eggs she and Leonard made this week:

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And? Since when do they stamp expiration dates right on the eggs? Look between the sticker and the “Mommy,” and there’s an expiration date.

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Thought we were through with various tummy bugs? Nope. Now the ferrets have GI issues. There’s nothing like a couple of ferrets with diarrhea to create quite the mess, I tell you. Thankfully our vet was able to phone in some Bactrim to the pharmacy, so we didn’t have to take five ferrets, a newborn, and a cranky 3-year-old to the vet’s office.

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How’s Kieran, you ask? He’s doing incredibly well. So well, in fact, that he managed to gain 12 ounces in his first 10 days on Earth. The baby is a natural-born nurser. And he sleeps at night. Both of which are wonderful things, truly, but in the perverse world of post-partum hormones, it’s only adding to my guilt at my parenting of Liam. Liam was not a natural born nurser, and we spent the first six weeks of his life trying to get him to nurse enough to gain any weight at all. He cried a lot, and slept little. As did Kevin and I. Now that we’ve got Kieran around, I’m realizing how hungry Liam was in his first weeks. And I feel bad.

But, gosh, Kieran’s a cutie:

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What’s this? Snow for Easter?

Hmph!

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On a non-whiny note, lots of you have sent cards and gifts, made dinner, and phoned with congratulations. I fully intend to get Thank You notes out sometime before the first college tuition payment falls due, but in the meantime, know that we appreciate all of your help, good wishes, and generosity. Thank you!

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And Thank You for sticking out the post this far. I hope to be back soon in a less cranky/less exhausted frame of mind. In the meantime, Leonard wants to know:

“Gran-Gran? Will you come back soon? I miss you and Mommy and Daddy are tired and cranky and Kieran isn’t but he doesn’t play trains, either.”