More Than Math For a Mom

September 2010

September 2010

May 2011

May 2011

Finally good weather when we can venture outdoors beyond running from the car into Target. We went to our first trip to the park since the girls have been walking. I used to have to leave one child suspended in a babyswing while I explored the other equipment with the remaining child, hoping that the Polish drunks in the corner were keeping a careful eye on the swinging child. Now that they're mobile, it's been somewhat easier, although I know it's only a matter of time before Thea begins her quest to end up in plaster before the summer is out. Time is so depressing to me. It's going too fast, and while I do celebrate their milestones, I miss my babies from 6 months ago, I struggle to remember my babies from 12 months ago, and beyond that I have to be reminded by pictures. And they are having the time of their lives growing so fast. They delight in mocking crying children by calling them "babies, waah, waah," and everything that they do has the running commentary of  "dis is what big girls do." A week is just seven days on paper, but in about 6 months I'm going to look back on that week and pine for those seven days, when the girls were that much smaller, and Thea hadn't taken a nosedive off the top of the slide.

            

Where Have We Been?

Did nothing happen for an entire month in our household? Well, unless you're talking about trips to the doctor then yes, nothing much did happen. We celebrated Easter with a double ear infection for Thea, a single ear infection for Maya, and two nights running of no (and I mean no) sleep for me. I spent one night with Thea prostrate on my chest, the next night with Maya. By the third night they were both heavily medicated and peace reigned once more. It seems that whenever we go anywhere, we bring back a new strain of the cold virus. As I write, both girls have the sort of green noses that as a teacher I used to despair over when students were leaving a slug trail of slime around the room. Our pediatrician is probably planning her early retirement on the strength of these two; we're back there again next week to check that the fluid has gone from the last ear infections and who knows what else we'll discover. We have been there so often that Thea when asked what she wanted to do one day last week, said "go and play at the doctor's." She thinks that this is one of our weekly routine options for her. And next week it is.

With ears this big, an ear infection really hurts!

War On Terror (Food) Continues

Complacency is a dangerous thing, especially in the world of food allergies. Having had a clear run of no reactions since the beginning of December, and three passes of previously dangerous foods, I was hopeful that we were slowly but surely saying goodbye to our familiar cycle of vomiting and bloody diarrhea. Not so. Thea can eat wheat, broccoli, pears, white potatoes and plums, and maybe corn - still under investigation in my crime lab that others call a kitchen. Yesterday at Whole Foods I was excited to find a vanilla wafer cookie that consisted of wheat, vanilla, cane juice and palm oil. Admittedly I'd never trialled palm oil or cane juice, but she has had sugar and survived. Thea loved the cookie, I loved being able to give it to her,  Maya loved adding to her plethora of snack options. An hour and a half later, Thea exploded in a bloody, mucous mess - it's impossible not to be graphic with FPIES. Today, she has puked her guts out, and I have cried my eyes out. Maya ironically laughed at us both. Five is going to be our lucky number for a while, crime lab is shutting up shop until I can muster up the courage to trial something new.

One Small Step For Twinkind, A Giant Headache For Me!

In addition to recommending I start potty training the girls, at our two year check up the pediatrician asked if they could climb stairs yet. I guess when I answered no, I did so ignorantly because the truth of the matter is, I never let them near our stairs. They have yet to be carpeted, they're steep, and it's enough to manage the girls on a level ground let alone on an ascending one. As far as Maya and Thea are concerned, stairs are where you sit when you're waiting to get your shoes on or off, and where Mommy stores months upon months of mail before she tosses it. However, we were told that they had 11 weeks (their adjusted two year old age) to master the skill before we'd have another appointment to schlep to; physical therapy. When the girls were younger, I actually relished any additional appointments because it was something to do. Now that they have minds of their own, and trips out require me to plan each moment strategically to ensure a good time is had by all, for my own sanity I max out at two events a week .... and prefer just one. So, I decided to start stair boot camp, and (against my natural inclination) actively encourage them to climb the stairs. Hole in one, they did it first time. How many other things can they do, but I'm stifling with my over cautious, 'not on my watch' nature? Of course now they're giving me heart attacks by pausing mid climb and turning around to look down. And as difficult as it was to climb with a toddler on each hip, I miss it so much. I can already feel my familiar batwing arms returning.

We Did It!

Happiness Is... A Pouch!

I am not a gushy mom, not someone who 'oohs' and 'aahs' over each and every thing their child /children does ~ well, if there's a cocktail or two involved I'll maybe display a touch of emotion. However, if you've read the details of Thea's struggle maybe you'll allow this foray into the slushy side of life. For almost a year, Thea has wanted to eat everything Maya does. Maya eats everything, and still wants more, who wouldn't want to live this good life? As you may know, what Thea wants, and what her system can tolerate, don't necessarily mesh. For a while now, I've had to deny Thea most things that Maya will be gorging on. I try to explain it as it will make her tummy hurt, make her sick etc. She then added her own sound effects to this, and would walk around Jewel pointing to foods and mimicking somebody throwing up....had to try and implement new gestures after the looks we were getting from other shoppers. Well, for the past 6 weeks or so Maya has had a fad on pouches of fruit puree/sauce; she calls them smoothies, I call them five minutes peace. Thea would make do with freeze dried pears, not nearly as exciting, particularly when she started crumbling them all over the rug. Plum Organics do a pear puree in a pouch, but I had always been too nervous to try Thea on it because it states on the package that it's manufactured in a facility that also processes dairy, soy, wheat etc. When we couldn't find the pink potty on Tuesday, to alleviate Thea's disappointment I just went for it and gave her a pear pouch. The look on her face when she realized she could actually eat it, you'd have thought I had given her a bike (or a pink potty with a hint of her beloved black!) She finished it in three minutes flat, but for the next hour and a half she held onto that empty pouch and kept saying "surprise!" I was hoping we weren't in for a surprise of the reaction kind, and thankfully nothing happened. I gave her another pouch, nothing happened. Two days in, and fingers crossed I think we have a safe pouch. Life is good. And the pink potty is arriving from Diapers.com tomorrow.

Off to Buy Big Girl Potties

We're Ready!

Since most of my day/life seems to revolve about poop (who has/hasn't done it, sniffing out culprits of noxious odors), it's seems only fitting that my first post should take off on the subject. For longer than I can remember now, I have not been 'allowed' by my two employers to take a solo bathroom break during the day. Each trip to the toilet is a group outing, accompanied by my pint sized bosses, who watch the whole process, get toilet paper to mimic my actions .... and insist on the door being wide open so that the neighbor can also partake in this spectacle. I have tried waiting until they're totally absorbed in an activity, or even a tv show, and silently, stealthily creeping into the bathroom, all in the quest to take care of business privately. I have yet to be successful since Maya seems to have been equipped with the hearing of a dolphin, and will actually race me to the bathroom, bar the entry with her arms while she yells "FEEAH! (Thea)" at the top of her lungs so that we can all be present for the opening act. This interest is apparently one of the signs that they're ready for potty training, and not a sign of voyeurism. Also a sign? When Maya grips the edges of the coffee table, turns beet red and screams "POOPING!" loud enough for anyone within a five mile radius to clear the area. The fact that five minutes later if you ask her if she's pooped and she looks at you with with disgust/ despair and declares that no she hasn't, is not a sign, just a personality trait. So we have the signs, and now we have the professional (our pediatrician) advising me that now is the time to start potty training; they're ready. I'm not ready. It all comes down to sleep; how can I preserve mine and trick these two into maintaining their eleven and a half hour blocks to serve my ends? I thought at first that I'd just concentrate on daytime potty training, let them whoop it up during the night with their trusty, 'pee in me for twelve hours straight' nappies/diapers. The experts say that this will give them mixed messages; you're telling them that they need to use the bathroom during the day but can rely on nappies during the night. I can see how that's confusing. However, right now they wake up in the morning with a water balloon between their legs -that looks like it would translate into a lot of visits to the bathroom during the night. They are not in toddler beds yet, this is also not something I'm in any rush to change, but doesn't that complicate (ie disrupt my sleep) matters when they need the bathroom during the night? I need to read up on this, maybe next week or so, and then steel myself for the mission. For now we have to concentrate on the weighty decision of which potty to buy. I had been reading up on the various options, then was told by my pediatrician to go into the store, see which ones they each pick up, buy those. She's pretty no-nonsense  about most things, and usually right, so today is the big trip to Babies R Us to select the winners. The girls are pretty excited, and last night as they lay in their cribs Maya declared that she's going to get a blue one, and Thea piped up that she wants pink. Pink? This from the child who when doing handprints and faced with twenty pastel/ bright colors, will adamantly choose black each time. I have to coax her to use anything other than black when using markers, but she's suddenly gone all 'legally blonde' on me and is choosing pink? And Maya, who for a long time thought all colors were pink now wants blue. Perhaps it has to do with what they know will end up in those pink and blue receptacles, or more likely I should just stop thinking about it and just get on with it. So with the dream that one day I may pee in peace, without being able to wave at our neighbor at the same time, I'll take the first step and get the potties, whatever color, Disney character, celebratory tune playing potty my babies desire. Doesn't mean we have to use them full throttle yet, they might be showing signs, but Mummy has to show some too.