Remember that book-turned-movie, The House of Sand and Fog? I’m going to write my own book and call it The House of Snot and Phlegm. Once it’s adapted to a screenplay and becomes a movie, the tag line can include some mention of “sleepless nights”, “spiking fevers”, and “ow, my stomach hurts”.
So. Who wants to come over with all that in store?
When I was pregnant with Breanna, I didn’t want to be wishy-washy about discussing it with Hayley. If you ask her how Breanna got out of my tummy (or uterus, since she knows where that is too), she will tell you that “Mommy pushed and the baby came out of Mommy’s vagina, like a beautiful butterfly!”
(The butterfly part is something she added on her own, as a result of many readings of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”.)
(Also, I’d like to take this moment to say hi to pervy Googlers who have now found me by Googling “Mommy’s vagina”.)
Anyway, this amused many people, especially my mother. Then she pointed out that things could get interesting if, after being convinced of how they come out, she decides she wants to know how they get IN. I laughed and said I’d have to cross that bridge when we get to it.
I’d rather explain that fact of life to her than the other fact of life conversation we need to have tomorrow where I will need to explain to her that Nicodemus, the dark brown rat on the left, died this evening. I wish we could ignore it like we did whenever a fish died but a missing rat is a little more noticeable than a missing goldfish.
I’m just glad she was sleeping so she didn’t have to be a witness to how sad it was to watch Mozart try to cover his tankmate with his paws, clicking nervously at me. I had to pet him gently, assuring him I wouldn’t hurt his brother, and then I distracted him with a little egg sandwich at the other end of the tank so I could take Nicodemus out. Nic was happily eating yesterday so he must have just gone to sleep today and never woke up. I hope it was fast and painless. He was really old though, for a rat; we got them around Christmas of 2003. I never expected them to live this long.
R.I.P. Nicodemus, my daredevil buddy who escaped TWICE this month, and who was named after the awesome Nicodemus in The Secret of NIMH. You’ll be missed.
I’m seriously considering just putting journal entries over here. I’m getting tired of writing in two places on my site.
Great. Another minority government but with Conservative Harper at the helm. I am overjoyed with a Tory leader.
Sigh.
Yawn, I’m so tired, I hope Breanna goes back to sleep quickly.
We watched “Four Brothers” last night – it was amazing. It had a lot of really funny moments with the interaction between the four of them, it had a ton of action, and a fantastic ending. Also, Mark Wahlberg continues to prove he’s come a long way since his days as a rapper and underwear model. I’m glad he decided to go into acting, because he’s really good at it.
I decided to put a photolog up again. Not much there yet, but it’s a start.
Oh, right – I have a weblog, perhaps I should write in it! Breanna had her 2-month checkup on Thursday (and turned 2 months for real on Friday).
The Good: She’s doing very well as far asgrowth is concerned. My doctor refers to her as The Bionic Baby because she’s firmly nestled in the 75th percentile for everything. Her weight was 12 lbs (and half an ounce), her height was 60 cm (almost 24 inches), and her head circumference was 40 cm (almost 16 inches). He also listened to her heart and lungs and checked her out and everything was just fantastic. She also continued to prove that she’s highly tolerant of most things by being the only baby there who didn’t cry when she was laid down on the scale.
The Bad: She made up for not crying by wailing and screaming with rage when poked by two needles for her vaccinations. The doctor got a nurse to come and help so they could do both at once and we also did it while I was feeding her, but it just didn’t help. I can now say that while many things are easier with a second baby, seeing them get their shots is not. She slept all the way home (thankfully, because it was rush hour traffic time and she hates whenn the car stops for more than 3.2 seconds) and for another 45 min in her carrier at home, snowsuit and all. I guess it all wore her out.
The Ugly: I stupidly thought we had dodged a bullet and that maybe she wouldn’t react at all because she smiled and cooed after waking up, had some milk, and then sat happily in the bouncy seat, staring at dots and Hayley while I washed the dishes. Then at 7:30 the shit hit the fan and she starting freaking out. She screamed on and off for hours, passing out on my shoulder in between. Tempra finally kicked in and settled her down by 12:30 and she was asleep 15 minutes later, waking up at 6 for some milk (she was starving because she had been too upset to nurse much) and then sleeping until 9 or 9:30. Poor baby. I can’t WAIT to do that again at four months.
Unfortunately, our doctor works out of the hospital and we were in the waiting room for over an hour because he was over-booked; since there are all kinds of people waiting to see doctors and nurses for all kinds of reasons, you never know what’s floating in the air and Breanna is sick now. She has a cold and has a sniffly nose with a little cough. I think the cough is mostly because of stuff running down her throat because she coughs mostly when her nose is extra stuffy. Kids with colds suck becauses they sound so pitiful but a baby with a cold is just wrong.
Tagged by Shari (I didn’t even know you had a weblog!):
Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Technical support assistant manager for an ISP
2. Video store clerk
3. Barista at Second Cup
4. PR person at the studio
Four movies you could watch over and over:
1. Heathers
2. The Last Supper
3. Bring It On (embarrassing yet true)
4. Harry Potter, all of them
Four places you have lived:
1. Toronto
2. A boring suburb of Montreal
3. A cool and trendy suburb of Montreal
4. A really french suburb of Montreal
Four t.v. shows you love to watch: (just four?!
1. CSI & CSI Miami
2. Lost
3. The O.C.
4. Grey’s Anatomy
Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Halifax, Nova Scotia
2. Quebec City
3. Alberg, Vermont
4. Cancun, Mexico
Four websites you visit daily:
1. Many of my blogroll
2. LJ
3. Some forums
4. The Weather Network
Four of your favourite foods:
1. Chips
2. Chocolate
3. Breakfast foods
4. Mexican
Four places you’d rather be right now:
1. Mexico
2. Prague
3. Living in Halifax
4. In bed, sound asleep (got that Miss BumbleBree?)
Four bloggers you are tagging:
I suck with tagging. You want it, you got it – just leave me a comment so I know you did it!
There’s a new journal entry up, detailing the surgery a bit and some new pictures too.
In the entry I mention that Breanna and I have an appointment tomorrow with the doctor for her 2-month checkup, her first vaccinations, and my postpartum checkup. I’d really like to go because my doctor is crazy busy and I know if I re-schedule I’ll get a resident instead of him; it’s mostly okay because I don’t care who weighs Bree and gives her the shots, but I would prefer to see him for my checkup. However, we had a bit of an ice storm here today with freezing rain turning the streets and sidewalks into skating rinks (my mom didn’t even go to work because she couldn’t cross the street let alone walk two blocks to the bus and the news reported tons of people going to the hospital with broken bones from either falling down or getting hit by out of control cars!). The ice has melted but it’s currently snowing like crazy and the wind is so hard all our windows are rattling loudly and if it all freezes up again, tomorrow will be another awful day. I’d rather not risk the drive in, plus we’d be coming home in rush hour traffic which would result in a nightmare drive back. I’ll see what it’s like in the morning.
Ah, good old Canadian bipolar weather.
Earlier, I took a break from my own supper to feed Breanna. Sometimes she closes her eyes, but other times she looks around at the same time, all serene. Tonight was the latter and a few times she would look up at me.
Stroking her hair, I said, “Breanna, I hope you’ll always love me. Can you do that for me? Can you always love me?”
Without ever unlatching, she turned her head just a little and looked up at me. She stared straight into my eyes with her pensive blue ones, taking in what I had said.
Then she grunted and loudly crapped herself.
She smiled at me and resumed nursing.
I’m just going to take that as a yes.