The Night of Screaming Mimi

These are the times that try men's souls...

Well....

Not really. But as a parent, they can really try your patience. The wee one kept waking up last night, and (yawn) I'm tired. Rob's tired. And the wee one is sleeping. Irony, much?

I don't know why she kept waking up. She was fed, changed, dressed warmly (we're having another one of our infamous "if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes" weeks....last week, it was warm enough to put her in just a onesie. Oy.) The only thing we can think of is that she had some gas pains, but whatever it was, it sure made her (and us) uncomfortable.

And then there's the cat. The cat is, oh, 15 years old or so now, and because I had him long before both husband and baby, I have a fondness for his quirks. But not his loud meowing after we just got the wee one to sleep.

Oh, well. With any luck, she'll sleep until after I leave, at which point Rob should be more awake. Me, I'm thinking of caffeine by IV right now. ;-)

Phobias (Blog Roll post)

This is the latest post on the blog roll. The assignment this week is to talk about phobias, so...

--//--

Phobias. I got 'em in spades. (No, I'm not that neurotic, I just have a healthy respect for things and situations that give me the creeps. ;-)

So here's the short list, in no particular order:

1) Spiders. I've gotten over this one as I've gotten older, for the most part, but I loathe black widows.

2) Large crowds.

3) Bodies of water--lakes, pools, you name it. I can't swim (I had a near-drowning accident when I was ten) so any large body of water makes me very nervous. That goes double when Roisin's around.

4) Closed in spaces. I got stuck in an elevator that got stuck between the floors and it was four or five of the longest minutes of my life.

5) Needles. I don't care if you have to give me an IV or draw my blood, but I'm not going to watch you do it (and don't insist, unless you want me to go horizontal.)

That's mine, for now. If I think of others, I'll add them. :-)

Parenting Minefield Dead Ahead....

There has been much comment on the Ehell (aka Etiquette Hell) forum about parents who take their children to "inappropriate" restaurants---that is, parents who take their kids to bars (in the US, definitely a no-no,) or sushi restaurants or restaurants that are obviously for adults in the mood for a little romance and who then let their little darlings (this is sarcasm) disrupt the entire evening.

Last night, we were almost one of "those" parents. :-O Except everything worked out okay. Rob's cousin and her husband were in town this week; they'd come into town for a business meeting and they invited us all to a fancy (well, to my mind---I don't eat at too many places that have more than one fork) restaurant in Balboa Park. Rob and I had agreed that if the wee one decided to start acting up, one of us would take her out so none of the other diners would be disturbed. And we were nervous---this isn't a place we would normally take our child, for the simple fact that a) she's 16 months old and b) fine restaurants and toddlers just normally don't mix.

It turned out fine. She was a good little toddler---drank her milk, had some hummus and some potatoes and chicken from our plates, and generally exuded excessive cuteness. She got a little fussy towards the end but it was really close to her bedtime, so we all just called it a night.

Whew. Another parenting minefield crossed. I'm not sure we'll go back there any time soon, particularly as she gets closer to the dreaded twos, but it's nice to know that we survived it.

What I Like About Me :)

This is the latest challenge from the Blog Tour. We were asked to write about what we like about ourselves, so...here goes (in no particular order.)

1) I like that I have boobs. I mean, when Monty Python joked about "huge tracts of land," they might have been talking about "the ladies." :)

2) My sense of humor hangs around, even when things are at their worst.

3) I have a head full of useless trivia and I don't forget anything (well, except where my keys are just now. :)

4) I don't have a lot of friends, but the ones I have, I've had for years. And they're not all the same "type" of people.

5) I'm honest...not rude about it, but honest. And I don't suffer fools gladly.

6) I can write intelligently. :)

7) I like my eyes (dark brown) and my nose (small.)

8) I speak sarcasm as a second language.

9) After all the hard work in becoming a mom, I have to say I like it.

10) I love my husband. And I love that he loves me for me.

The Death of Common Sense?

Okay, a small detour into Things That Annoy Me Greatly.

In yesterday's New York Times, there was an article about a measles outbreak in San Diego earlier this year. Nine of the twelve kids hadn't been vaccinated because their parents didn't believe in it.

Excuse me?

I did a double-take when I read this. Illnesses killed many, many children in the days before vaccines and now that we have vaccines, some parents are choosing to...what? Put their kids and everyone else's at risk? Because...why? Some internet-based fad that says vaccines are responsible for everything from autism to zebra stripes (okay, that last was hyperbole.)

I'm not one of "those" parents who normally goes around pushing my way of doing things on people. Breastfeed or don't, just feed your kid. Co-sleep, or don't---just make sure your kid gets sleep. Cloth diaper or disposable diaper, doesn't matter, just so long as they wear something. :) And so on. But in my mind, vaccines aren't negotiable. And I honestly can't imagine the mentality of a parent that can believe that much in herd immunity, or who is willing to risk the health of their kid and everyone else's kid for some internet fad based on poor science and worse research.

But all of this brings me to my original statement. I wonder if parents who don't vaccinate really comprehend what they're risking. Roisin spent her first five weeks in the NICU, wired to machines and alarms and tubes that kept her alive. Having seen that, there is nothing on this earth that would make us risk seeing her in another ICU, and so, we do all we can to make sure she doesn't end up there.

Common sense can't be dead in America. Can it?

Weirdest Vacation Evah :)

On another board, a bunch of fellow bloggers are writing about their weirdest vacations.

So, here's mine:

When I was ten, my dad, mom and I went to the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, TN. Not the first place you'd think of as, oh, family-friendly, but you know, it was pretty cool. The people were very nice and I wasn't the only kid there. It was just weird because at the time, neither my mom or I drank. (Well, obviously I didn't---I was ten.) What I do remember, though, was this ginormous iron safe in the office. Seems ol'Jack had himself a bit of a temper and kicked it hard one day. Broke his toe and died of gangrene not too long afterwards. Ouch. :-O

On that same trip, we went to Twitty City. Conway Twitty (the country western singer) had set this place up as, I suspect, a giant tax writeoff. It was a park built along the theme of "How Great I Am." You could see a replica of Twitty's house, the obligatory gift shop, and lots and lots of ephemera about the guy's life. Except that I had no idea who he was (and being ten, being interested would have just been so uncool.) C'est la vie. :)

So, broken toes, iron safes and Twitty City. That's my weirdest vacation. :-)

It's Always Something...

I just got back from my follow-up appointment with my kidney doc. The good news is that the kidney stones in my left kidney are now two or three smaller fragments, instead of two large ones.
The bad news is that I still have kidney stones, and I now know I'm facing another two or three shockwave treatments before it's gone.

I can deal with that. I mean, I'm not happy at the prospect of more hours of post-op vomiting or what exotic complication I can come up with this time, but the stones need to be gone. The doc offered the option of surgery, but that involves an even more painful recovery and a few weeks (!!!) off work.

Um, no. I did the "few weeks off work" thing in 2006. The "few weeks" was the last nine weeks of my pregnancy, and I was glad to do it...but I just can't afford to do it now. So, more shockwave therapy for me. Yippee :0)