Wo Wunk

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:41:00 +0000

Uff. Tired.

Morella went to bed at 7.30 no problem but woke up crying an hour later. She was off and on for about 30 minutes before I relented and got her. I gave her some pain medicine in case that was it (she was crabby/sensitive earlier) but as soon as I sat her down on my lap on the couch she was a very playful baby. But I kept it boring...and she played independently extremely well. I just put her down again after shutting down the house. I hope she sleeps. I thought I would just pop on real quick since I missed yesterday. I know I am out of the running for posting every day but I can sure make up for it by posting almost every day until the new year. Right? Right.

Pluto really misses Tim. He must be having fun because we have heard nary a word from him. It's always "bad timing". Being two hours in past is hard on schedules.

Oh I just realized the spell check got turned off on the computer somehow. Great if you see lots of misspellings blame it on Morella.

Today was okay. Got up at the ass crack of dawn to feed baby, play and then have her take a nap. I tried to take one but I got a bible thumper at the door who was VERY loud, and two phone calls. No one else stops by or calls any other time of the day except when I am trying to take a nap. GAH!

Then we had lunch over at Noah's. His Mom and Dad made some killer, all from scratching using free range chicken broth even, chicken soup and warm cheese and bread. It was delicious and such a heavenly thing not have extra dishes to wash tonight. I washed dishes in record time! I had a bit of a second wind after she went down, and was going to get through pumping and then do some stuff...but that's gone now. :( I didn't even get a great pumping session in but am too tired to care and try and catch up. 20 minutes will have to do. My supply is so low right now. I hope she can transition to whole cow's milk without a problem. *crosses fingers*

See you on the flip side.

What does it mean when old folks say "See you on/in the funny pages." Do they mean obituaries? Comics? What?!? I've always wondered that.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:57:00 +0000

Quickly now. Morella went down for her nap at 3.46PM. It's not an hour and half past that and the naps seems to be around 2 hours these days. I went and ordered her cake this afternoon because she didn't want to sleep earlier. They didn't have any kitties or puppies and I was too arsed to bring in photograph of one. Besides that would look stupid. So I decided on a claymation horsie toy. It's kind of like a dog.

I got butter cream and went with white. Personally I don't like marble and I wasn't sure if chocolate was the way to go for a first cake. Meh. Next year I can make her a chocolate cake.

I got a doctor's appointment this morning at 10:45. I had to wake Morella up from her morning nap for the second day in a row (suck!) to make it. They swabbed my throat and after charging me $10 bucks said "It's like a cold, except in your throat. Take some ibuprofen and suck on some lozenges." Honestly the doctor seemed WAY more interested in Morella's mastoiditis case from last week. I could almost feel him itching to examine her because it's such a rare thing to happen nowadays. Sheesh. In fact, he said "But today we will pay attention to Mom." Ha ha.

So I got some lozenges and a crap load of M and M's to fill the Nuts glass ball dispenser. If you come over you can have some. I decided it was going to be our holiday candy.

Chuck, Sigrid and Laima are coming over for a squash soup dinner tonight. Laima is bringing bread, Sigrid the dessert ... so it should be fun. I decided to make something easy that uses vegetables and I don't recall if Chuck is still a vegetarian or not...better safe than sorry.

On Sunday we had our Czech friend Mike visit. We picked him up from the airport at 12ish and dropped him off at 7ish. It was a good visit. He helped me set up my camera to take pictures of tiny Christmas trees I was going to sell...or at least try to. Sigh. We'll see how it goes. My mantra is "Do NOT get stressed out. Nothing is that important." He gave us a book with cartons that are almost indecipherable -- here is a review someone else did: homo digitalis by Rencin

He also left me with a delectable box of chocolate and Morella with a Mole puppet wearing a hat. :D I gave him a bunch of baby stuff because he is expecting their first child in early January.

What else did I do today? Not a whole lot. Ate lunch with the baby -- not a huge fan of tuna fish sandwiches though she was a sport and tried it out several times. Played with the baby. Will get babies dinner ready soon...ugh...spaghetti I think again..geez, I don't know what else. I need to think of a long list of things that kids like to eat. The soup isn't going to be ready yet other wise I would just give that to her. Last night she has black beans and loved them!

Speaking of dinner, I need to go and check on things.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:06:00 +0000

This month is a big bucket of suck. I am 95% certain I have a case of tonsillitis. The last time I came down with a case of this it turned nasty fast, and this one is proving to follow after it's ancestors. I shouldn't be surprised considering I was surrounded by ENT's and have a bad habit of chewing my fingers. :( Hopefully I can get in to see someone about it tomorrow. I might as well pick up a yeast infection kit at Walgreen's while I am at since antibiotics and that go hand in hand.

Then today when I was going to the library to pick up a book I had ordered (New Moon) I hit a squirrel! I stopped afterward to see if I had hit it and it was jumping around in the middle of the road. Then a blue transam came after me, and stopped waiting for it to move, then as it decided to drive around it the squirrel jump up and the car hit it too. On the way home I saw that it was dead. My first road kill.

The third sucky thing today was that I accidentally put the tea kettle on the stove to heat up water and then realized later that the kettle was looking really dark red. I went in and saw that there was no water in it and it was melting! I didn't know that tea kettles could melt. Sheesh. So that tea kettle bit the dust. At least the burner still works fine. Tim, Morella and I went to Target to buy a new one this evening after dinner. We also got her a hat set with mittens. I didn't really need the hat but they didn't sell mittens separately...so...yeah. She picked out a monkey hat.

She was in a pretty good mood today despite me being a bad Mom and not changing her diaper after she got up from her afternoon nap. I guess I didn't think it would be that freaking soaked because she hadn't peed all morning. So she swam in a bucket of pee for maybe an hour or two.

Tim is packing all his stuff up for his trip tomorrow. Why do I have to get sick while he gone? Why do the communists have to storm the castle? Why can't things NOT suck for awhile!

Also I couldn't find any weeble wobbles at Target. I really wanted to get her some for her birthday. I guess I could look around some more. I also bought her a green striped T-shirt that Tim says is "boyish". I guess girls can't wear green. :P I promised to pair it with a pair of pink pants or something. But it was on clearance and she needs long sleeved shirts. I also got her a pair of brown fleece/cotton pants. I figure the brown will be a nice pair with all that pink and won't show crawling dirt as much.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 15:06:00 +0000

For the second time in a row, I got to sleep in this morning! Yesterday it wasn't by much, and today it was only an hour longer - but hey it's nice. Tim has been getting up with the Mobug, eating breakfast with her and then giving her medicine because he is going to be gone starting Tuesday morning until .... until Saturday night around 6-ish. I have a feeling that his flight will be delayed and blah blah blah will happen and he will be the case where the guy was stuck at the airport and missing his daughther's first birthday. :P We'll see though.

So. Yeah. I am planning my week out. Monday morning we have Baby Bustout Playgroup, Tuesday we drive Tim to the airport and then my friend Chuck, Sigrid and maybe two ohters are coming over for dinner Tuesday night. I have two standing offers of dinner that I very well might take up. I mean, less cooking for me! And I wouldn't have to clean up!!! Ha ha ha.

But aside from that, I am thinking I would like to spend some detail cleaning on the house, organizing, clearning off surfaces and putting things back where they belong. That sort of thing -- the kind of thing that takes forever because I'll find a picture of Morella when she was 4th months on the green coffee table, and then start thinking about her baby book, and hey maybe I should do a page in that poorly neglected thing, and while I am looking at that I start thinking about making one of those graphics where you see the baby every month from birth to one year....and you get my drift.

Okay. Morella is having her morning quiet time. Sometimes she takes a nap during it. Sometimes she doesn't, but I usually use the time to take a shower, start laundry or do other things like that for a 1/2 hour. Oh crap, Tim went in there to cehck on her because he thought he heard something and now she is screaming like a banshee. Ahhh....screaming because she is tired and wants to play -- not because she is sick and in pain. :D I'll take it.

No but really, I should take a shower. With the drop in my supply, I guess my body is getting back to pre baby times -- complete with acne face and greasy hair. :P I could have done without that a lot longer. When is greasy hair ever gonna end?

I also need to think of good goodie bag things for her party. My only idea so far seems pretty lame. So lame, I won't even tell you. Ideas or suggestions welcome.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 02:10:00 +0000

Ugh ... tired.

Today was a great day. Morella was bright eyed and bushy tailed, full of giggles and laughter, hearty appetite and good thirst. It was the kind of day I was looking forward to when she was sick. In fact, she's better than ever! It's like we got a new and improved Morella back.

We went to New Berlin to the Great Backyard to attend Morella's cousin's birthday party. She had fun, but all the noise overwhelmed her a little. I wonder if that is our fault because we live so quietly. Maybe if she had the TV on all the time she would be more accostumed to it.

She had a big piece of cake -- pratice for next weekend. Now I think well work on her opening presents this week while Tim is gone. I am thinking the crappier the present is wrapped -- the better! I bought her a new birthday outfit from Gymboree -- it's so cute. It has little scottie dogs on it, because you know small dogs are the funniest thing ever.

Thank goodness for healthy little girls.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:18:00 +0000

Friday Photos: Hospital

These were all taken on the last day she was there, and when her IV was unhooked, because I gotta tell you, when the IV is in, you gotta do a lot more wrangling.

She did really well this morning. She drank six ounces of chocolate breastmilk, ate some yogurt, cheerios and a few bites of banana and had a few crackers before she laid down for her morning nap. I bet it's nice to get some quiet sleep.

Last but not least.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIM! Just think, in a few more years you'll think this was young.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:31:00 +0000

At 7:36 PM this evening Morella was officially discharged from the hospital. Her white blood count had dramatically improved this morning to 17 (normal is around 11). When she first went it was 30 ... or was it 40? In any case it was high. She had dramatic improvements with each consecutive day. The big concern today was whether or not she would drink anything. After they took out the IV and as the morning progress her appetite and drinking returned. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see her guzzle more liquids but it's more back to what it was before this whole nightmare began. The ENT himself said "She's always had problems with eating right? So you tell me what's normal." He also added that she "isn't your average bear," when it comes to typical eating patterns for babies/kids.

It seems so surreal to Tim and I. It almost feels like it was just one day spent at the hospital, though the days leading up to it felt as though it were an eternity. Even now, as she lays in her own bed sweetly sleeping, it doens't seem like it happened. Yet, I can't tell you enough how joyful it was to see her play, laugh, smile, dance and crawl around this evening just like her old self. That's one lesson - if she ever stops playing or crawling for more than 24 hours I am booking an appointment with the pediatrician right away. Of course, if she has a corresponding fever for more than 24 hours then you can be sure I'll be there quick as lightening.

Tidbit time:

It's a good thing I didn't give up pumping completely because it meant I got "free" meals. I was the "breast feeding mother of Morella." That said, I ordered things for her and myself. I never intend on eating steamed broccoli but she seemed to love it, and who the heck orders slices of American cheese but a baby? With a side of applesauce. ;)
Pumping -- my supply has crashed. I am now only getting 15-17 ounces a day. Was it the stress? Was it only doing two pumps for a day or two in a row? I would like to say I got more in, but you know how the last weeks have been around here. So I am not sure what to do. Keep going, I guess. It's not like she is drinking that whole amount still, though the chocolate syrup they had the hospital made the milk better than ever. I think I need to go and buy some regular milk chocolate syrup rather than using the special dark stuff I have at home. I brought a little container of that home to bridge me over.
Morella made out like a bandit! I can't believe the stuffed animals, art supplies, awesome knitted hat, baby leg warmers, balloons, books and toys that she got in the course of these few days. Her birthday is still coming up in a week too!
Tim finally was able to send birthday invitations out today. They had been ready to go since Monday except I never got a chance to go to the post office because of the drama.
Morella had to have ear drops and oral antibiotics twice a day for 7 days. The ear drops we need to keep her head tilted to the side for five minutes. I don't know how that's gonna work.
I am sick of eating hospital food. I think Morella was starting to really enjoy it though. We had a big feast at the end before we left thanks to the good folks at Roundy's.
It's amazing how much stuff gets donated to the Children's Hospital. I suppose we were also housed with the cancer kids, and you get any sadder than that.
I gotta pay bills tomorrow. :P
I hope Morella catchs on sleep tomorrow, since she won't be interuppted, prodded and baby handled every time she takes a nap. I ask you, how does anyone ever get better at the hospital with all those interupptions in sleep? One of the nurses told me that before the new hospital was built, that it was 5 times more noisy. Ugh. I can't imagine.
I wish we had a toy room filled cool toys, books and round the clock eager volunteers who want to play with babies.
I'm pretty happy to be home, and will probable feel even happier tomorrow when my little scamperdoodle is back to leaving a trail of messes.
Lastly .....

A BIG THANK YOU! To all the folks who wished Morella well and kept us in their thoughts. I am 100% convinced that all that good energy helped Morella get better faster and on the road to recovery.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:08:00 +0000

Yesterday, I had decided I was going to call the doctor. I got a chance to read the very speedy first two comments from from LJ friends before I heard Morella stirring and went to wake her up. She was crying pathetically -- the soft "eh eh eh' cry and I gave her some milk to drink which she drank as much of before stopping and crying some more. I realized she was hot so I checked her temperature while I changed her. Under the arm - 102.1 (add one degree to 103.1) I gave her some tylenol, and carried her a little -- but she looked like she wanted to go back to sleep. Then I thought "Hey, her ear STILL looks funny.

You see, the night before we noticed that her right hear was sort of sticking out. We figured she had just slept on it wrong since she took such a massive nap. After "ear infection" entered my morning vocabulary and "sick" I noticed that it was sticking out even more, and swollen behind it to the point of turning purple. I called the pediatrician right away. She got me an appointment for Urgent Care in a 1/2 an hour. I called Tim and asked to go with me. We got to the appointment, she was weighed - 16lb 2 oz -- she lost 10 ounces and was mildly dehydrated. The attending Urgent Care woman looked in her ear and confirmed it was an ear infection, however she got a second opinion from Morella's pediatrician who said the swelling behind the ear was cause for concern. The said to go to ER at the UW Hospital so that an ENT could take a look at her. The pediatrician said that they might want a CT scan to see if she had an abscess and that if that is the case then they might want to do surgery. Mostly she tried to assure us, the trip to ER was just to assess how bad the infection is to determine the right dose of antibiotics.

Of course what she really meant to say, and was later asked and commented to us a thousand times by all the folks in ER was that she might have Mastoiditis. What's that, you ask?

Mastoiditis is an infection of the mastoid process, the portion of the temporal bone of the skull that is behind the ear. It is usually caused by untreated acute otitis media (middle ear infection) and used to be a leading cause of child mortality. With the development of antibiotics, however, mastoiditis has become quite rare in developed countries, most likely due to antibiotic treatment of otitis media before it can spread. It is treated with medications and/or surgery. If untreated, the infection can spread to surrounding structures, including the brain, causing serious complications.

While in the ER, she was hooked up to IV to start fluids, take blood, administer antibiotics, a mild sedative, etc. She had a rectal temperature of 104.7. The temp alone would have assured her an over night stay. However, the CT scan (after a visit to the sedation clinic) revealed that she DID have Mastoiditis and surgery was scheduled for that night. They explained that they were going to make a cut in her timpanic membrane and suction all the puss and blood out as best at they could, followed up by antibiotics, ear drops and supervision to see if the swelling, fevers and white blood cell counts go down. If they don't, she may have a follow up surgery where they cut the outside of her ear (versus going through the ear canal) to clean the infection up more. I am a little worried this might happen because the Surgeon said that they didn't get *as* much blood and puss as he would have expected. He also mentioned that it appeared to have started to burst own with a little leaking starting. But nothing was coming out. And for the record, I would like to point out that she never pulled her ears or rubbed her head or anything. The only thing she ever did was rub her mouth.

So that is where we are at folks.

Oh she is awake!

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:08:00 +0000

Teething Hell Day III

She hasn't played with a toy or crawled in two full days, now we are working on a third full day. :( I take back all the crabbing I did about her fussiness before. I was wrong. I didn't know how bad it could get.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 16:25:00 +0000

I hope that in as little as one year, Tim and I will look back onto this cold November day. The kind of day where the sky is so grey and overcast that you cannot be sure of the time without peeking at a clock. We will look back and congratule each other in that special survivor way. "Can you believe we made it through that teething spell?"

I got her at 2:45 this morning when she awoke, howling that raw cry of hers. I gave her some Motrin and held her, gave her a few sips of water juice and she cried for 30 unstoppable minutes before I put her back down. This morning she was up at 6:00 screaming through the monitor, her cries leaking underneath her bedroom door and seeping through the walls. I went and got her and brought her to the bedroom. There she sat and cried between us until Tim finally got up and gave her some breakfast. She stopped crying long enough to eat 1/2 a pear, a few cheerios and take a few sips of breastmilk before dissolving into tears again.

Yesterday I commented as she ate a few grape quarters "Every grape bit you eat is fuel for another tear."

None of the tricks are working. No dancing. No music. No mirror. No walking around. No putting her on the floor. No looking out the window. No nothing.

Finally Tim threw a shirt on her, put her shoes on and asked me what else she should wear. He was going for a drive. I said I could come along too, so I put off pumping, kept my glasses on, hair unbrushed, threw on a sweat shirt and found my shoes and off we went with a brief stop at McDonald's for coffee and breakfast. I got a McGriddle and she ate about 5 bites of the pancake sandwich thing before refusing more. She was quiet for about 30 glorious minutes. Whenever I looked at her she was spaced out, looking despondently around her, leaking from mouth and nose -- but quiet. The next 30 minutes we weren't so lucky. She finally fell asleep about 5 minutes before we got home. It's amazing how she does that so often!

Tim put her down and thankfully she fell asleep. She has been out for about an hour and a half now. Time enough for me to pump milk that will eventually be poured down the drain, review the internet, write this post, warm up some coffee and bring up laundry from the basement.

I wish there was more we could do for her. She is so miserable. All she wants to do is just sit and cry, and occasionally wipe the tears and snot all over my shirt with her face. This is day two of this -- how long can this go on? Yesterday we saw that the left half of her bottom gums were swollen, and this morning we noticed to our horror that the right side of her bottoms gums are puffy now too. This on top of the other top tooth puffiness that was going on Friday.

Really, it's Tim's fault because he invoked Murphey's Law. "Wouldn't it be great if she got all her teeth at once so we could get it over with?"

We both agreed on our drive to no where that maybe it wasn't such a great idea after all.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 13:56:00 +0000

So yesterday I was still pretty bummed about this whole eating thing. I eventually got myself out of it with the help of cake and rotisserie chicken therapy, and a playing Tim's new birthday present.

Morella points to the crib when she wants to go to sleep (but only if we are in her room). I realized yesterday that she has actually done that a few times but I just couldn't believe that a baby could tell me that she wanted to go bed. She took a good nap in the morning and ruined my plans to go over and visit Hilary and Cullen. It worked out because she has a runny nose with occasional rivers of green sludge coming out, plus she's kind of grumpy. After she got up from her nap she was super cranky and wanted to be held. I held her, danced, moved around and eventually put her in the moby so that it would be easier. The weather outside progressively got more overcast and grey. There were reports that snow would fall at some point, but with sunshine casting rays of light down on the leaf strewn backyard only 1 hour earlier made it seem impossible. I dress up Morella, put on some cool finnish boots on her feet and decided we would walk to KFC to use one of the coupons I had.

We got half way there and I realized she wasn't wearing any boots. I turned around and spied one across the street and went to pick it up. It's a good thing it wasn't that cold outside! I ended up retracing my steps all the way back to the house in search of the other bootie. Apparently she had kicked it off before we even left the house! The little boy across the street saw us and said "Why isn't that little baby wearing shoes or socks?" Why indeed.

I get back in the house. I put some socks on her feet and shoes, not five minutes have passed and we get ready to head out the door again -- except now it's pouring cats and frozen dogs. It was sleeting, cold, windy and wet. Wow, it was a good thing that she kicked off her boots otherwise we would have been caught in this on the way back and we were woefully underprepared. Walking briskly back home also ensured a bit of a workout.

Since it was raining, I hemmed and hawed for a moment before decided to just drive to KFC and get something so that lunch would be faster and easier for Morella. I was just pulling out of the driveway when a strange car pulled in behind me and gave me the hairy eyeball. Or at least it felt like it, the rain obscured who was in the car. After a minute or two of careful study the driver side opened to reveal Morella's Grandpa! Another way it worked out that Morella brought me back home before I had planned.

I left Morella with her Grandmother and Grandfather to feed her a lunch of a grilled cheese sandwich with extra butter and cheese, pears, and buttered carrots to go to the bank and then to Cub's for a lunch of Rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, potato wedges, coleslaw and 1/2 a cake -- all for the same cost as KFC, and it was enough for us to have lunch (where Morella had 1/2 cup or more chicken) and dinner for all three of us again that night (plus cake for breakfast!).

After her grandparent left, and with my full tummy of delicious food I did a search on google for "baby stopped drinking milk" and up came a ton of links about the other women who have expereinced this same thing. I was really amazed to see that the common demoninator in many of these posts/questions/etc is that their baby was 11 months old when this happened.

What is it about 11 months? Tim said last night that it's a transitional age.

She's giving us a run for our money today. She went to bed last night at 7:00 but woke up crying 15 minutes later. We got her up, calmed her down, gave her some motrin and she went to sleep at 8:00 and was fine until 2:30 where she cried but was able to put herself back to sleep. Not the case for the 3:30 wake up though. She cried and cried and cried and we got her up and sat with her in the living room looking at her Goodnight Gorilla book over and over waiting for the tylenol to kick in. We put her back down at 4:00, she cried for about 7 minutes and went back to sleep until 6:20 this morning when the same thing happened.

She has been up since then, and the first hour was her crying. She got mad when you looked at her, talked to her -- tried to do anything for her! We finally turned on the evil TV ( a thing she never gets to see) in an effort to try and calm her down and kill time until we can give her Motrin again. She watched some Curious George and then looked her Goodnight Gorilla book again .... she's better. Not by much though, she's not very hungry, her nose is a faucet and she on a hair trigger.

I tried oragel, and hylands teething tablets this morning -- I can't say either of them are very effective.

Anyway. Here we are. Coffee in hand. The weekend has started. I was going to sleep in this morning too! So much for that. :P

I kind of wish that today was a shower day. I could use a shower to reset....wait maybe it is! Yeah it is...cool!

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 05:29:00 +0000

We got Tim's birthday present early -- Gears of War II. I guess we shouldn't be playing on casual because we are that awesome. More tomorrow.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 02:26:00 +0000

Last night was a zoo. I felt so overwhelmed....I just can't get that girl to drink much of anything. Her modified goal is 12 ounces of breastmilk or formula. Today I got her to drink 2.5 ounces of it. The other six ounces came from juice. I tried adding strawberry instant breakfast (just one tablespoon), vanilla, chocolate syrup, plain, with formula, just formula, water, in a cup....and she wanted none of it. The majority of the drinking she does do is in the car and first thing when she wakes up in the morning before breakfast. Often though, she will drink a little and then see her dinner/breakfast/lunch and demand that.

So last night I felt devasted. Like I just didn't know how I was going to do this anymore. Of course, there is no choice but to "do" -- to go on and keep trying no matter how futile the fucking thing is. This morning I got up and felt better about it. The day went pretty well, Morella took a nap this morning after dropping Tim off at work. It was pouring rain and I wanted her to keep sleeping so I drove to McDonald's and got a burrito and large coffee. Then I went to the Woodman's parking lot and ate it while watching it rain. Then I got bored and called my Mom and had a nice chat with her until Morella woke up.

We went shopping for high calorie stuff. Things like pound cake, carnation instant breakfast, malt, shortbread cookies, peaches and pears in heavy syrup, apricots, prune juice and non dairy creamer for me. One thing I'll say about McDonald's is that I didn't feel the urge to slpurge once! It was nutz. I kept trying to convince myself that I wanted a donut, but I didn't. So I didn't get one.

After that we came home, ate a snack and then she took a nap -- a three and half hour nap! I was stunned! I did some laundry, washed the dishes, took a shower, got dressed, worked on her invitations, wrote some emails, did a little reading and over all expected her to get up any second. I finally had to call Ann and postpone our afternoon plans by a half an hour so that I could feed her when she woke up.

She had a big bowl of chicken noodle soup (about a cup and half of pasta and carrots), four big peach slices, little sticks of cheddar cheese and a few sips of milk. Yeah, she ate a lot but does it make up for the little bit that she drinks? I don't know. I keep pushing the fruit because it hydration of some sort....when is this going to end? I am just feeling so helpless and inadequate about this at the end of the day. I almost wish someone else would take her and get her to drink again. Because apparently I can't do it.

After lunch we went to Target to buy some more toliet paper, some 75% off Halloween stuff, novelty moose ears, laundry detergent and coffee. We didn't have time to go to Border and have coffee while looking at books and letting the babies crawl around. A shame really because the Starbucks coffee at Target was terrible! Finally at 5:00 I had to leave to pick up Tim from work. We got home, hurridly put a pizza in the oven and then Tim rushed around and got ready for his Thursday night gaming session.

30 minutes later he was gone, and I was back to facing off against Morella in her high chair. She ate a little and then got cranky. I gave her a bath. Tried to give her more milk, read a few books and then put her to bed. She went down without a sound. She was whooped!

Oh Hilary is here. Good, I need to stop playing Scramble.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:39:00 +0000

I showed up to the doctors appointment, after calling this morning to double check the time only to find out that the appointment was tomorrow! Oops. :( The nurse could have mentioned that fact. Anyway, they manage to fit us in today. Today's weight was 16 pounds and 11 ounces. So she lost one ounce in the span of the week.

The good news is that 1 ounce isn't much and that babies can lose significantly more than in one week. She does have a reason for it -- teething. Still, I was pretty disheartened to hear it. On the other hand, she is bright eyed and busy tailed and yesterday and today have been much better days.

A few things -- no more watered down juice. She is too get full on juice for snack times. Her goal for drinking milk is 12 ounces a day (a goal she has not met since this whole strike began) but that it is okay for me to add a drop of chocolate syrup to the breastmilk if it gets her to drink more. I got a sheet that had some other suggestions like adding instant carnation breakfast mix to it that I might try. She can eat as much cheese as she wants, everything gets butter or cream cheese mixed into it, and well you know, try to get her to eat as much high calorie stuff as possible. Her lungs sounded beautiful and clear again so maybe I can try to let the fear that I am drowning my kid by giving her thin liquids can be laid to rest. At least for now. :P

I tell you, it's so overwhelming to me at times this whole weight thing. Was Tim a skinny baby? Apparently I am supposed to ask, but how can I expect Tim's Mom to remember that when she had like five more kids after him? I am sure that they would start to blend together. I could also ask Tim's sister...since Zeland is Morella's long lost twin.

She is sleeping now, and I bought a mocha on the way home to sooth my fears, help with the caffeine and energy level, especially since I was up late last night and tonight I am going to be babysitting two kids from 4.45 - 10ish. I need to clean up the office a little better so that they have a place to sleep when bedtime rolls around.

In other news, I wanted to highlight to the two care packages I got last week. One if from an exchange I took part in through word of mouth from Laima. The idea came from Stephanie over at Dispensing Happiness.

This came to me from Tina at Wildflours. A nice little collection of Halloween themed goodies. Not pictures is a package of freeze dried pears that mysteriously disappeared after Morella sampled them last week.

I feel a little sad that I forgot to include more handmade items in my package. I know I can and have done better. Well, maybe next time.

Then this package came from a friend of mine over in LJ land - Childlight.

You can see Migo examining the goodies. It was great fun to get those books and I can't wait until Morella is a little older and more patient to handle story books instead of picture books. Plus, she is very insistent on turning pages herself so thin pages are out for the moment.

The real hit of the package was the cat toy. Morella loves to play with it and play with Migo! For two peas and pod, it's a stroke of genius! Incidentally, I was thinking of finding a cat toy like this for Morella to play with Migo so it's great that it showed up on my door step! Thanks Talena -- that was super thoughtful and brought many smiles in the face of a crappy, worry filled week.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:54:00 +0000

I hope my Chicago friends are in Grant park tonight ... I know if I was still in Chicago I would be there!

I was voter 2085 at 6.45 in our hood tonight. There was free sandwiches, cookies and water -- a first! Morella went with us, of course and I took a photo of her and I beside the poll sign. When we walked in one of the bake sale (it was held at a school) said "Her first election!" After we voted, I corrected him and said it was her second voting experience because we were there for the primary. Yes, Tim and I vote every single time we can --- it is a duty that I have already mentioned, I will not take for granted.

Oh ... here is Barak now giving his speech! I feel like I could cry. :D I am so proud that my daugther lives in an age where a minority can become President of the United States of America.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:25:00 +0000

Hey you know what? I am actually in a position to do the "NaBloPoMo" thing -- which is of course the blogging version of National Write A Novel in a Month" challenge in which you write at 50K book.....or at least string 50K of words together. I tried that challenge twice and the furthest I have ever gotten was 33K words. I think somewhere along the way I thought about blogging every day for a month -- but that usually happens in December. So. DO I give up my blog every day in December for blogging every day for November? Or do I go for the gold and try to do everyday for two months? You know, up the ante? I guess I'll go for every day for November.

Yesterday Tim went canvassing and I was home along with the the cranky baby. I wanted to go out and do something -- but not shopping, something with walking, something different... in the end I went to Cottage Grove and walked on the Glacial Drumlin Trail with Morella. The path is made of tiny gravel pieces so it was a pleasnantly bumpy ride for her and I hoped that she would fall asleep. Instead, she stayed awake, snacked on a cheese stick and biter biscuit, and looked around, flopped around, talked...everything but slept. She was so tried as her eyes were red rimmed and half opened. She just seemed kind of out it. Regardless, I enjoyed my Fall day with her. It was so quiet and isolated (exception being the few walkers and bikers that passed -- all older women!). I reminded me of when I was a wee lass and often spend hours out in the woods or fields just sitting, laying on the grass and looking up at the sky.

She feel asleep finally 3 minutes before I got home. I carried her into the house, took off her shoes but left her light jacket on and put her to bed. She ended up sleeping for three and half hours! When she got up she was a total wreck -- still. We gave her some Motrin, a bath and then she felt a ton better and was able to nibble a little more before going to bed.

I went to bed at 9.45 myself and it was awesome! It's like reverse sleeping in. No it's not and "old" thing to do. It's a cool thing to do. Really. :P

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:44:00 +0000

Tim on Accordion

This photo and a bunch of other amazing ones taken by J. Samsa (whose starting to make my own photography skillz look bad!) are over here. Thanks Jason! I wish I had your talent.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 23:41:00 +0000

Update: TWO teeth. The top left tooth and her left fang are cutting through. The top left one has cut through, and the left fang is almost through. Is this the bottom of our problems? Are there more? Hm. But at least we have some explanation. She had a really rough night.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 20:10:00 +0000

I'm having another worry day. :( Morella has been kind of crabby all week, as you know. It could be teeth, it could the nursing strike, it could be the weather patterns, it could be the alignment of the stars, it could be .... well anything. Today it's becoming apparent that she might be getting a cold. She is running clear snot, sneezing a lot, won't take long naps - but at least she has had two. She just woke up from her afternoon nap after only sleeping for 30 minutes, and she woke crying and inconsolable. Tim took her to go and pick up vegetables while I pump.

It's seems like it's whenever I have to pump that she wakes up. It's probably not a coincidence in as much as I pump or used to pump several times a day. It's bound to coincide a few times.

I had given her some tylenol at 1:50 so I wonder if it's pain or generally not feeling well? I don't know. I just don't effin' know. Of course todays Worry du Jour is that she has pneumonia and it's all because I am giving her thin liquids. Nevermind that I tried my ass off to get her to drink a thick bottle of milk, a thick bottle of juice, sippy cups of thick crap, cups of thick crap, crap with a straw and she just wouldn't touch it. The only thing she does drink out of is a cup and that's it.

Logically thinking it's probably teeth. Tim said "I really hope she gets a bunch of them at the same time to explain all the headaches that she has been giving us." I kind of hope so too. Tim got a bunch of teeth all at once when he was about her age, so it would make sense. She still only has those three teeth and her one year is fast approaching. She has to catch up sooner or later, right? It could also be a cold. She has been out and about with other kids a lot the last couple of weeks and so it's entirely possible that she has caught a bug. I could keep her in a bubble but she and I both like social activities so that's not possible. There we have it -- teeth, or a cold. At times like this, I really wish she would drink breastmilk from a cup without a fight because then I could make myself feel better by thinking that she is getting precious antibodies and cold fighting immunity.

Not to mention it's really sucky to have to keep pumping and not have her drink hardly any of it.

I'm glad that she has a follow up appointment on Wednesday to check her weight to see if she has lost any on her new food/drink regime then I can have the doctor listen to her lungs again to make sure she is still doing okay. She isn't coughing which is one of the big signs of pnemonia so that is good. But then even if she does start coughing then it could still be just a cold, right?

I really want to blame my Mom right now for giving me this worry gene. It's all her fault. :P

----trying to stop thinking about it....----

Yesterday was Morella's first Halloween. It was a busy day. We got up, ate breakfast and then stopped at Woodmans to buy some fruit leather, a card and Halloween cookies for my friend's daugther's graduation ceremony. After that we headed home where she took a quick 45 minute nap (her only nap of the day) before eating lunch, and then playing outside and enjoying the fabulous 70 degree fall weather. Emily called then and asked if we wanted to walk to Walgreens with her to buy lights to entice kids to their house. It went a little longer than expected and I bought the worst diet root beer of my life. It's still sitting on the green table. I should toss it.

Then I fed Morella an early dinner, pumped and then got her dressed up in her frog costume and we went over to Ann and Noah's. Our plan was to walk to the Come Back Inn and meet up with Tim and her husband Peter for a beer. It was around 5 so the trick or treating had started and we got to see some fun costumes and houses that were way over the top. We picked up our friends Christian and Cecci along the way (Cecci is one of Morella's favorite adults) and headed onward. I did trick or treat twice along the way and got a peanut butter M&M and a Reese's Peanut butter cup. Once we got the Come Back Inn, Morella lasted about 15 minutes before turning on the whine machine. Tim had to go and get the car and by the time we left at 7:10 she was in full meltdown mode. She cried the whole way home and one block before our house fell asleep. We got her out of the car and into her jammies and less than 10 minutes later she was asleep for the night. After that we got only 5 trick or treaters (neighbor two doors down said they had a ton of trick or treaters..but they also live on the other side of the run down empty house with fun neighbors. I was disappointed Morella didn't go trick or treating to our neighbors, but I guess -- next year she'll enjoy it more.

She is so out of sorts. I feel terrible for her, and sort of feel like we need to just buckle down and get her (and me) through this day.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:04:00 +0000

Friday Photos: Last Week of October

Birthday Boy Cullen dives into his birthday cup cake while the "Papa"-rattzi look on. (har har)

Baby Moslee and her Momma. She was so stinking cute in those little tights and red skirt.

Recital audience members. We were packed into our garage because it was really windy outside.

Oliver playing the violin. He volunteered to go first and try to ease Tim's worries. He did a fantastic job -- I think he was born to be on stage. ;)

Morella this morning. She likes to eat and and stand on one foot. She's an amazingly talented little baby.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:41:00 +0000

Morella Bomb

It's been a rough couple of days. Starting after her morning bottle on Sunday, Morella has gone on strike. No more bottles. None. Nada. Don't even go near her with a bottle or she will melt down. Subsequently, she has only had the following countable ounces of liquid:

Sunday: 10 oz
Monday: 8 oz
Tuesday: 5 oz

During this process I fired my former pediatrician -- she was a way for a funeral and I was stuck with the incompetent staff and other pediatrician who just wrote a nurse for the worst mumbley nurse ever to recite back to me -- none of which actually helped me. I was feeling overwhelmed, alone and lost and then yesterday it occurred to me that there are other pediatricians -- like at a different location for example. So I called our insurance and switched pediatricians effective immediately for the Capitol location. You know, it's actually closer to me too. I had stayed with the East side because that was were my OB was, and I thought it would be easier. Pft.

The new pediatrician's nurse is already much better. She talked to me yesterday about signs to watch for -- no wet diaper in 6-8 diapers, lack of tears, and if she drank less than 10 ounces again to give them a call today and maybe they can squeeze her in for a dehydration evaluation. Since Morella drank less than 5 ounces yesterday I called her. She now has an appointment today at 3:45PM.

The bright side to this, is that I get to meet her new pediatrician and decide if I like her with enough time to still switch insurance companies by their deadline of November 12th. Hopefully I won't have to do that. I already feel like she cares more about Morella and I than the cold, dispassionate people at the East side location.

In the mean time, I still am offering her a thick bottle of milk AND apple juice at eating times, and in between I am chasing after her with a medium flow sippy cup of unthickened watered down juice, and a medium flow sippy cup of unthickened breastmilk. I know, I know -- this totally goes against the specialist recommendation of her not having ANY unthickened liquids based on her 4 month evaluation -- but it's the only thing she will drink! What am I supposed to do? For the record, she is able to drink it just fine, when she does. No choking at all.

The bright side of this whole fiasco, is that Morella is making up for this missed calories in the breastmilk by eating. Oh boy is she eating. She is eating like ... well a kid and not at all like the picky nibbler she was two weeks ago. Since she is not drinking, I have been trying to give her as many water rich things as possible like pears halves, peaches and peeled, quartered grapes. It's still best to give her foods that she can feed herself because she gets really mad if you go near her face with a spoon more than once or twice.

In fact, I need to go and buy more grapes today if this strike continues for much longer.

Overall, I am trying to remain hopeful today. I have a mini mantra going of "Babies are very resilient...she will still live." For the record, right now I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am beginning to believe she will never drink a bottle again, that she will never drink breastmilk again, she will take only minimal amounts of liquid for the rest of her life. Be a camel. Get all her liquids from food.

In other news, I am making Morella a fleece sleep sack. Those thin cotton ones just don't seem like they are going to cut it this winter, and her room is like the second coldest room in the house (the kitchen holds that honor), but it is right next to it. I wonder if it's because it leeches warmth from her room? Hm. I just have to sew on a zipper I cut off from an old hoodie.

I roasted a bunch of pumpkin seeds yesterday. I need to remember to bring them over to Laima's, along with her crock pots before I eat them all.

I am switching summer clothes over to winter clothes. Good bye summer clothes, I hope to see you again soon before long. Hello boring, heavy winter clothes. I wish I could say I was excited to see you again, but I am not.

Election day is a week away! We are going to have a new president soon...I hope it's the good one. I hope everyone votes. It really pisses me off that I potentially know women especially who don't vote. Every time a woman doesn't vote they are disrespecting the sacrifice and hard work of their ancestors, taking away their own liberties and perpetuating inequality between men and women. The same thing applies if you are a minority. Since I am both, I consider it doubly important to cast my ballot every time I am presented with the opportunity.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:55:00 +0000

Pictures will come later, but the party was a success! No one was seriously hurt, the right amount of food and drink was made and consumed, the recital was a hit and the pumpkins were carved --or at the very least toted off as a party favor.

We had Hilary, Jason, Mina, Leta, Cullen, Sarah, Dave, Ruth, Kathy, Cody, Amy, Rhyse, Dane, Jen, Ben, Tristan, Nat, Sarah, Luke, Zeland, Moslee, Sharon, Rev Tim, Sigrid, Heather, Matt, Angie, Zoey, Alora, Ann, Peter, Noah, Emily, Peter, Leo, Stepanie, Alison, Oliver, Laima, Leif, Rowan, and Rebekah = 42, add me, Tim and Morella and you get a grand total of 45 folks! Dang!!

I'd have to say that it was one of the more less stressful parties that we have thrown. I wonder if it is because we are getting better at it? Or because it was more low key. I swear, going by the mantra of "channel Kathleen" is really working. For those of you just joining, while we were in LA this summer on vacation, the friend we were staying with Kathleen (and Chuck) had people over for dinner one Thursday night. She just invited people over, baked some chicken and had folks bring over a dish. The party was a fun and I was so impressed at how she did it with such a low level of stress. She said 'No one cares about the food, they just want a reason to hang out." She is right and so when I want to start obbessing over details I just remember "It's a reason to visit and commune....it will be okay." And it was!

Morella had a blast! She was in baby heaven hanging around so many people and other babies. In fact, she was in such heaven that she didn't want to return the realm of us mortals and EAT. Gah. She had breakfast, a bottle and then took a glorious two hour nap while we finished up getting ready. She then had a lunch of cheese and crackers, had a sip or two of a bottle and that was it. She didn't want anymore. She wouldn't take her bottle at 2, or at 4 or at 6 or at bedtime. She just would chew on the nipple and then pus it away and cry. I finally got desperate enough to put the milk into a sippy cup and then she had a few drinks before more protests. Later, after everyone left Tim's parents had forgot to drop off Rhubarb. So Tim had to drive to Sun Prairie to meet them and pick it up. I had him take Morella because she was so tired and wound up. I figured it would take longe than it did -- and hoped she would take a nap during that. Meanwhile I stayed home and pumped because I hadn't done a noon pump at all. When he got home she woke up again, and after howling in her crib for 15 minutes, gave her a bath and got her dressed for bed. I read her stories and tried to offer the bottle and sippy cup again (no deal) and just sat quietly with her. She keep listening, and looking around, and listen for more activity. I have never seen her refuse the bottle this much. Finally, after sitting for 40 minutes reading books, singing songs and just chilling she was able to wind down enough to go to sleep. Man, I hope she makes up for not eating/drinking that much today. Scratch that, she did eat....she actually ate a whole sliver of pumpkin pie - the filling not the crust, and a lot of goldfish and several sips from the sippy cup. So maybe she did have enough to eat and drink. Hm. One thing is for sure, the party sure as heck wound her up!

Still, I think she will have a birthday party -- it's her first, you gotta have a party for the first! I think we are just going to order pizza though for it. Then I can focus on decorating, goodie bags invitations and what not. Yeah....

Did I mention that I got her a walker that converts into a little car type thing? I did. I was buying a birthday gift for Cullen (her first party on Saturday) and whenever I buy a gift for someone else I end up getting something for her! It's not that often, and since we hardly ever get hr anything, PLUS I had been looking for that exact thing for the last two months at garage sales with nothing, I figured why not. The deal was sealed when I saw that it was on sale for 7 dollars less than the orginal price. It was a like a sign from heaven that said "Get this now, because she won't need it by the time spring is here and garage sales are in full swing again." It would figure that her little friend Noah liked it more.

Tim's recital went well. He was nervous. Very nervous. But he managed to pull it together and get up in front of an audience packed into our garage to play a few pieces along with our friend Oliver who also did a very nice violin set (boy I wish I could play the violin like him!). My orginal idea was to do it outside but it was so windy today that it wasn't possible -- as was the fire. It was sort of a bummer, but I don't think anyone really missed it. I thought it was a nice touch on the party to have some live music, and Tim is extremely glad that it's over (until the next recital...ha ha...no just kidding. Kind of. No really, I don't have a deal set for him to commit....yet.....no wait, he gonna play Happy Birthday for Morella at her birthday...so that is something!).

That said, I don't think I am going to do a big Christmas party this year. I might do something with a few close friends...but nothing extravagent. I feel like the Fall party and the 1st Birthday party are going to take that up. Maybe my friend Jen or Sarah should have a cookie party that we can attend to gear up for Xmas...(hint hint). It would give us a reason to go up north so that Morella can visit her grandparents and I can see my friends....

We have a lot of pumpkins left, and a lot of seeds to roast. Yum. I guess I'm going to be carving this week...OR giving pumpkins away. Ha ha.

Okay. Time to use the john, pump and play some scramble.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:11:00 +0000

11 Months!

For some reason I thought Morella's 11 months was going to be tomorrow. Imagine my shock when I looked at the ticker to see she was 11 months today. No way! One month to go and my wee girl will be a wee one year old! That is just nutz.

I need to work on my 11 month update for Morella to write in her journal.

Hilary was over this morning with Cullen and Morella ate a bunch! Well it was nothing to the vacuum that is Cullen, but I was pretty impressed with it. Maybe all that extra food will help her nap be good and long and have her not wake up hungry. She went down minutes after they left. She was pretty tired yesterday, took a three hour nap in the afternoon and went to bed early without eating her last bottle.

It was nice to have Hilary over. Gives me a little extra oompf to make the house more homey and comfortable like hers is. Now to get crackin.

Happy 11 months Morella! It just flew on by.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:18:00 +0000

What a day. Ugh. I am glad it's almost over. Just have to pump and then to bed with me. When I finally got home, I sat on my bed for an hour and just worked on my rag rug so that I could relax. Thankfully, it did the job. I felt much better afterward.

This morning the new comer shindig at Cool Beans was small but pleasant. Morella was the youngest person there, and she got the comment of "She's so tiny!" She followed that up with "I guess my kids were always so big." Yeah. I just agreed. She is small. But so full of personality! I got the endless cup and had two small mugs of regular coffee and one mug of decaf. I almost wanted more but the coffee was particularly strong and I was dangerously close to feeling that kind of sick jittery feeling. It was kind of surreal because of the four other women who showed up, three of them were expecting all within a month of each other. Sheesh!

After that Morella and I stopped at Trek to buy Tim some new biking gloves since his other ones are totally blown out. I also splurged and got him a headband -- you know it's slim and will stay on his head under the helmet and maybe allow for wearing a hat. Now is the best time to buy biking gloves because they are usually on clearance.

Then we came home where she barely ate any lunch, had a bottle and then took a three hour nap. That was great, except today I made plans with Cecci to go to a Schuster's Playtime Farm to buy pumpkins for the party on Sunday. Since I was going to be driving outside of Madison I felt I needed a little extra company, and the help wouldn't hurt at all. Plus, I thought it would be kind of fun to do that with someone other than Morella. She was game, so I picked her up finally at 3:30 (a 1/2 hour later, though I did keep her apprised with phone calls) and we headed out.

We got the farm, opened the car door .... and hello dolly! It was windy and COLD! I mean really, really windy. If Morella knew how to walk she would have been blown over. The sky was even more overcast, we were the only ones there for about 10 minutes before our curse kicked in and like 6 other cars full of people showed up. I was glad that I brought along Morella's puffy vest to go over her hoodie but I was really disappointed I couldn't find her gloves anywhere. Then again, I didn't think it would be that cold. It was the difference of like 20 degrees from when I left Madison to when I got there. Plus they are on top of a hill....so....

I decided to take a bunch of pictures of Morella posing around in the typical pumpkin farm patch. Then we loaded her, and a few other pumpkins up in a wagon and went out into the field to find the right size of pumpkins that we needed. Oh my, did she have fun. She had the biggest grin on her face as she rode in the wagon, going over bumps, looking around -- that is until her hands turned blue and her nose got all red. Poor dear was cold! Cecci had a pair of fingerless gloves that she sacrficed for Morella to wear, and then I carried her to keep her warm and out of the wind as much as possible.

Finally we got our 35 pumpkins and two squash, and pumpkin for the front stoop and headed out. I paid and then we went to load the pumpkins in the car. Cecci put Morella in her carseat unstrapped so I could do it. I put down my purse on the ground behind the car and went to attend to Morella because she has started crying. Cecci finished loading the pumpkins and then at that point I had tucked in Morella with a blanket, put some cheerios on it, a book and her juice sippy and we headed out.

I was extremely proud of myself for finding my way home all by myself. I called Tim to see if he was home yet so I could just drop Morella off so she could eat and get a change of diaper. He was still at work, so I asked Cecci if it was okay to stop at home for a little bit before going to her place. I figured that Morella could crawl around there and take a look at her bunny. I parked the car, reached for my purse .... and sickenly realized I had forgot to pick it up before we left.

"My camera!" I nearly cried "My camera was in my bag and I probably ran over it."

Cecci assured me that probably wasn't the case and to just call. I called and called an finally found another number to call and got through to someone. They said they did find my purse, and in fact has almost run over it themselves. My camera was intact, as was the rest of my things.

Relief.

I changed Morella's diaper and ended up changing her whole outfit because she had out maneuvered me and stood up to look out the window and peed all overself. I threw her in a pair of jammies since her feet were still cold, then gave her some gold fish while her bottle warmed up and then feed her that. I know we didn't do the proper dinner, but it was past her eating time and I needed to get out of there so I could drive back and get my bag. She downed the entire bottle and was such a giggly, happy little girl that I was melting all over the place. Tim got home at that point, and the last I saw of Morella today was her with a big grin, just happy to be alive and crawling around the floor. Oh my sweet child.

Cecci and I got a bit lost trying to find our way back, buy my camera instinct kicked in and lead me in the right direction. The indeed had my bag, and all of it's innards and I was so happy I hugged them!

Drove back. By now I was starving and I felt Cecci needed a proper thank you for getting wrestled into my crazy scenarios and so we ended up at Monty's Blue Plate for a dinner on me. Cecci really knows how to make a person feel better --- oh man some of the stories she has....precious.

There you have it. I almost lost my camera -- oh yeah and the contents of my one of a kind purse that my Dad made especially for me. What a day. I needed that hour of mindless sewing to calm down and not feel like throwing up. It's amazing what adrenaline does to the body.

noreply@blogger.com (hadjare) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:52:00 +0000

The Lion and the Frog

I was going through some pictures -- working on Friday photos and just HAD to share this one. Sadly, I did not take it... Jason Samsa did -- but it was with my camera so I feel like I should have some credit. Heh.

EDIT: One more!