Carleen and Mike

We took Liam to Woolaroc today. It was a good day.

And yeah, I was there too:

Liam had his first Easter Egg Hunt this Sunday. He surprised us all - I had figured he’d find a few and then get bored. But he really enjoyed himself and found every single egg. Carleen bought some plastic eggs from Wal-Mart and filled them with some Teddy Grahams, so every time he found an egg, he got a treat - that probably helped. Here’s some pics:

A few mornings ago, while I was staying overnight at my parents house, Liam woke me up by giving me a sloppy messy kiss on the lips. Putting Liam to bed at my parents is always tricky and more often than not, he ends up in bed with me, usually caddy-corner with both feet tucked tightly between my ribs. In any case, there was something special about this good morning kiss, something different. It occurred to me later what it was. My son was learning to show affection without encouragement, all on his own, without being goaded by some annoying adult.

Oddly enough, however, that same weekend there was another change in my son. Being displaced at my parents for a weekend is both enjoyable and stressful. Enjoyable because I get pampered and fed but stressful because Liam and I have to live out of duffle bags. Food has to be meticulously chosen and packed. A little of this in case he doesn’t like that, a little of that in case he isn’t in the mood for this…you get the picture. On this particular weekend I had to pack stuff twice. By Sunday I was in one of my “when will my life stop sucking so much” moods so I decided to lighten my spirits by taking my little one to the pond in his Rider wagon to feed the ducks. He loves his Rider wagon, calls it his “vroom vroom”. His grandpa decided to come with so off the three of us go to the pond. On the way Liam is pointing at the cars driving by, at the trees and the mailboxes, making his little ewok sounds, smiling, happy.

Unfortunately, during the trip back, Liam decided he didn’t want to ride in his wagon but wanted to walk. So we walked. Understandable. I mean, he’s just acquired the motor skills to be able to walk and run after spending the first year of his life sitting in contraptions with wheels so who can blame him for wanting to walk through a park. On the way, while getting a little over excited about something he saw, he accidently threw his sippy cup on the concrete pathway, popping it open so all the water spilled out. He had hardly drunk a drop of water from the sippy cup since leaving the house that day so I didn’t think this was a big deal but apparently, once he saw that the water from the cup was indeed gone, he decided he was thirsty. So thirsty in fact, that he started to cry and stomp away from the path in the opposite direction we needed to go. My father and I stared at him as he went, a little perplexed by his reaction, since Liam has usually been a pretty calm child, only throwing mild tantrums that were easily dealt with by simple diversion (look Liam, look at the birdies!). However, in this instance it seemed clear that it was going to take more than a makeshift noise maker to convince my child to walk the two mile hike back towards his grandparents house so my dad tried the ever reliable trusty pick child up, console child, place child on shoulders and say “Look! Liam is taller than everyone”.

Liam’s reaction to this was to vigorously shake his head and scream louder so we tried the wagon again. All of a sudden, out of nowhere my child started to grow additional limbs, possibly two heads, I’m not sure, all of them kicking, swinging and punching the air. It was around this time that a runner passed us by. I looked up and smiled trying my best “Happens all the time, just a spirited child, got it totally under control, completely know what I’m doing here. Really” look.

Then a thought crossed my mind, all this tantrum throwing must be making him hot so I took off his jacket and stood him up to see if he would walk again. Instead, he fell back on his butt and continued to cry so my dad picked him up and tried to hold on to him the best he could as we walked back to the house.

I breathed a sigh of relief when we finally made it back into the neighborhood and Liam was again walking, a crooked path, but walking and not crying anymore thankfully. We passed by a couple working in their yard and had a neighborly chat, got the usual coos and awes when Liam flashed his smile at them. We got to the corner of that street and things started to go down hill again. I don’ t recall exactly what got him started but it had something to do with not being able to go in the direction he wanted to, so, again with the extra limbs and heads flipping back and forth. My dad suggested I run back to the nice couple in the yard and ask them to fill up his sippy cup with water. So I sprint back and ask, trying not to sound like a desperate panicked mother, however, any attempt at this point seemed fruitless since I noticed my shirt was on inside out (navy shirt, white tag in the back…nice) and I think, not entirely sure, but I think my eye was starting to twitch. The nice couple quickly filled the sippy cup to the top and even include ice to make it nice and cool. I walked back towards Liam and Dad feeling proud. I felt like a hero. I had water. Things would be fine now. He drank a couple of sips but then something else upset him. Dad and I just kind of looked at each other, took a deep breath, picked him up and carried him the rest of the way home. A walk that normally would take about forty minutes tops ended up taking us nearly two hours.

And that’s kind of how it’s been for the past few weeks. Liam has entered a new phase. Mike and I have struggled a little with the adjustment, lost our tempers a little more than we would wish, however we’re taking it with stride. We’re delighted that he’s enjoying ball games and has gained the necessary motor skills to throw and kick balls, however, we’re not so delighted that he throws everything else he gets his hands on like, food, toys, phones and shoes. It’s complicated to explain to a eighteen month old that you can throw this but not that. He obviously finds throwing to be some kind of stress reliever because he also does it whenever he’s mad and is told he can’t do something. When my cousin, Jill, came to visit this morning with her two sons I took the opportunity to ask her advice on the throwing situation but the best she could give me was “duck”. She recalled that her son had gone through a similar stage but that, luckily, it was short-lived, so we’ll cross our fingers to that.

Unless somebody dear to me decides to die in the near future, this month is going down as the worst month of 2008 (and we’re only two months in). In addition to the local corruption and headbanging going on, our city is also currently experiencing a full blown flu epidemic. I would find you the article that supports these claims but our newspapers’ online archive sucks (I distinctly remember flu or maybe health epidemic in the article title…I’ve tried both and neither pick of squat).

Although I’m fully recovered from my flu (for now), everyone around me is sick. I mean real sick. Co-workers, friends and family. Mike has been down with the full blown stuff, chest, cough, fever since Wednesday night. I’m here at my parents again trying to keep Liam and myself quarantined since I currently have no sick days left and don’t want to catch anything that will force me to have to go to work sick or stay at home with unpaid leave. I was supposed to go to Tulsa today for a workshop but my poor mom, who has already had the tummy flu twice, has now caught the other kind of flu or something of its kind we don’t really know yet, all we know is that she’s not well. We spent a frantic fifteen minutes this morning right before I was supposed to leave trying to figure out whether I should use my last family sick leave to stay at home since I really hated the thought of her taking care of Liam all day feeling the way she did. I felt guilty no matter what decision I came close to choosing. Staying home might make me look bad at work. Going would leave my mom under strain. Me staying would then make my mom feel guilty for being in a condition that would warrant me missing work. So then she would back out insisting she’d be fine. One look at her expression would tell me the exact opposite. Round and round we go. My dad, bless him, insisted that he could handle it, which I’m sure he could, but I know my mom and I know that if I wasn’t around and dad was left alone with Liam she wouldn’t rest like a good patient, she would be up and about helping.

So, I stayed at home, which turned out to be the right choice in the end since I just put Liam to bed with a 101 degree fever. He’s been out of sorts ever since he woke up this morning and went through several crying fits throughout the day. I’m hoping his symptoms are of the simple teething pain/bubbles in the tummy sort of stuff because Mike and I have worked very hard to try and keep him away from all the flu people so he doesn’t have to go through that kind of discomfort. I don’t know. We should probably just give up and hope that as one family member begins to feel bad, another will begin to feel better and somewhere out there they’ll be somebody to take care of our son in the meantime.

It never occurred to me until today how lost I’d be without my parents. It really got me thinking. For one thing, I’m not aware of my dad ever staying home from work to take care of Mitch and I when my mom got sick. She didn’t get “sick leave” from being a stay-at-home mom. So, as the working person in the house, imagining myself in a situation where I didn’t have my parents close by like this, do I get to say “Eeek, Mike, fever of 102. Man. That must suck. And that cough sounds horrible, hope you don’t end up with bronchitis again. Well. I’m off to work.”

Yeah, right. I mean, this is precisely the reason I did stay at home today. Parenting is changing for the better in someways at least. I’d be willing to bet if the tables were turned, Mike would stay home for me. I was faced with a situation where I could either leave my son at home with sick people, making things hard on them and risking the health of my child or stay at home and take responsibility for my child (no stranger or non-family member will be babysitting Liam until he’s able to talk…so alternative childcare is not an option…you should hear some of the horror stories I’ve heard). Yes, it was my last family sick. Oh well. We’ll just have to hope that March will bring with it a fresh breeze that will wipe away all the sickness in this town. As for all the headbanging at city hall? Who knows how long that will go on.

Apparently, Bartlesville is the sickest community in Oklahoma right now. We have all sorts of flu strains floating around; Type A, Type B, flu’s so bad that they turn into pneumonia or bronchitis if left untreated. Last week my parents contracted a nasty stomach flu, otherwise known as the Norovirus. My mom actually got it twice, was sick one day, thought she’d recovered until she spent the next two days even sicker than she was before.

Since having Liam, I’ve been more worried when flu season comes around. It’s easy to catch stuff working a service desk at a public library. People come in sneezing, coughing, blowing their noses. Then they touch our books, use our computers, type on our keyboards. I have a bottle of Germ-X on my desk and have been particularly OCD about using it lately.

However, by last week I started to get the feeling I wasn’t going to be able to avoid the flu much longer. I had already been getting these random symptoms, that head fever headache feel but it would just never quite develop into anything. In the end, it happened so often that I put it down to allergies even though I’m not usually prone to allergies. But last week several staff members were out with the flu, and Wednesday night a teenager puked next to one of the public computers while I was at work. Then on Saturday, I played a volleyball tournament in Ochelata where someone’s kid puked in the gym. Here we were, in a contained building, with everyone sweating and passing around the same ball. At that point, I knew it was only a matter of time. Sure enough, early Monday morning, the Norovirus made it’s first appearance in my toilet bowl. I ran into the bedroom, woke Mike up to tell him that I was heading over to Mom and Dads for “quarantine”…and here is where I’ve been. I haven’t seen my baby in two days. I don’t think I’ve ever been away from him this long. I’m going nuts.

Thankfully, the worst of it is over although I do feel incredibly weak and woozy when standing. I’m also glad to report that Mike and Liam are still symptom free but just to be sure, I’m spending another night at my parents. By tomorrow, it will have been more than 48 hours since I’ve had contact with Liam. I miss him like crazy. I know I’ve already said that but I’m saying it again for emphasis.

Here’s a video of Liam rolling dice during Mike’s gaming session yesterday.

Although it would be fun to blog about how our county treasurer was recently arrested for drug charges last weekend, especially after I just sent him a check for thirteen hundred dollars to pay off my land/property tax, I’m going to refrain and simply say that the whole thing is a very sad situation.

Instead, I’m going to tell you about Alison Jay, who illustrates children’s books. I just discovered her. Her illustrations are simply a delight. We have two of her books checked out for Liam right now. It took me forever to realize that each page has an image subtly placed that is then exhibited in a larger form on the next page. It’s kind of like a Where’s Waldo book, but far more intriguing and finer artwork. You can buy her illustration in poster format on an online “boutique” called Oopsy Daisy. Her books are definitely going on my wishlist.

Liam has this semi-creepy way of sneaking up behind the dogs and trying to poke his finger into their butts. I try not to get either of the dogs too excited whenever Liam and them are together, lest I risk needing to yell the phrase “No Butts!” one more time to my son. The other day reached the peak of his obsession, as I’ve seen it. He was chasing Chani around the house, index finger pointed and ready, laughing maniacally in his best evil/devil laugh. I think he’s catching on that if he can get ahold of the tail, he can control it to some extent, and was trying to get at her tail that way. When that didn’t work, he got down on the ground, facing up; he looked like he was inspecting the under-carriage of a car. Now, I’ve had to tell Liam not to sit on the dogs, I really hope I never have to tell the dogs not to sit on Liam.

Liam was having a hard time this past weekend with the shots and I think he maybe getting new teeth in. Mike and I were pretty much at a loss as to what to do with him. It’s amazing what you can come up with when you get to that point….ice cube trays+water+food coloring+paper= happy Loki mess!

It’s been kind of a rough week. Poor Liam got his MMR shots last Monday and he seems to be showing some side affects. He’s had a low grade fever for the past few days. The fever is gone now but he’s broken out in a measle-like rash all over his face and chest. Apparently this is to be expected. We’re keeping him close to home now, trying our best to keep him cozy and comforted.

Liam is turning into the most curious little kid. Now that he’s walking, Mike and I take him for walks a lot to the park just up the street. What should be a five minute walk usually ends up being more like fifteen since he wants to stop and investigate pretty much everything. Acorns, leaves, dirt, dog poop, street lights. He’s also fascinating with curbs, walking on them, then walking back down. Anything new has to be experienced to its fullest potential.

My new nickname for Liam is Loki. Lord knows I’ve gone through many since he was born but I think this is the one that’s going to stick. Loki is the name of a Norse God (fire, trickster, he has many descriptions). Liam is cheeky in a very cunning way sometimes. I think the cheekyness is just a result of the fact that he’s getting smarter everyday. He’s learned to tease you and trick you. Like yesterday, Mike was crawling around the island in the kitchen playing a kind of peekaboo game with him. After two or three go’s of this, Liam figured out what he was doing and turned around, crawled back in the other direction and crept up behind Mike.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I just can’t believe it’s December already. I’m hoping to actually get xmas cards out this year. I’m kind of excited about this since I’ve been able to get back in touch with some old friends through Facebook.

Here’s a turkey shot. I’ve uploaded the rest to flickr. Mike made the turkey again this year, and again it was amazingly scrumptious.

Mike will email me every so often at work with little updates. It’s nice because it helps me feel like I’m able to participate in some of his and Liam’s daily activities and I don’t miss Liam so much as a result. They’re usually short “Everything’s good, went down for his nap just fine” type stuff. Last night however, I got this:

Email Subject: Dogs….Grrr

Next time Turbo gets himself stuck in the compost bin I’m leaving him there overnight, and MAYBE it’ll teach him a lesson. How he got in, I don’t know, I’ll have to check it out when it’s light tomorrow.

Liam’s fine, he’s head-banging on the couch.

I’m happy to say I finally have the chaotic family I always hoped for.

Puke. That’s pretty much all I’ve done for the last six hours. I’ve often wondered why some people are more susceptible to stomach viruses than others. I can think of several cases where I’ve had to endure violent vomiting. I was put in the hospital when I was fifteen for violent vomiting and when I was college, I was in the emergency room twice for violent vomiting and severe abdominal pain. Apparently Mike can’t even remember the last time he had a stomach virus. Before he was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease he hadn’t ralphed since he was in elementary school. I think it must be a genetic thing because his mom has only puked once in her life. Apparently she was so horrified by the experience that she simply decided never to puke again. I envy these people. If there’s a stomach virus floating around, you’d be darn sure I’ll get. If there is food poisoned with salmonella somewhere in a restaurant, it will probably land on my plate first.

So, I’m home sick from work today. The worst of it seems to be over, although I still can’t seem to drink water without feeling quezzy so I’m holding back on all food and liquid intake for now. My stomach muscles hurt to much from last night, I really don’t want to puke again. To make things worse, Liam has had the sniffles since returning from New York. Damn those airplane cabins. Maybe that’s where I caught this, wouldn’t surprise me. Last night he hardly slept at all and Mike had to stay up with him while I was in the bathroom hugging the toilet bowl. But what is a slight sniffle for Liam is now a full blown head cold for Mike. I don’t want to go near Liam right now so I’m feeling pretty helpless. Mike just tried to get him down for a nap but it was a no go. We thought for sure, after the lack of sleep last night, he would surely go down for his morning nap. Surprisingly it’s just the opposite, he’s quite perky. Mike just took him for a walk in hopes that he might settle a little.

Sick days really aren’t real sick days when you have a kid. If it wasn’t for the fear of spreading germs, I would be at work right now because adults can at least understand that you’re not feeling well, whereas Liam has no clue why I won’t kiss his booboo better or play vroom vroom with the truck. Not only that, but it’s Friday. Who the hell wants to be home sick on a Friday.

This sucks. Seriously.

Here’s a cute video we took of Liam walking. He’s been taking steps for awhile but it wasn’t until about Wednesday of last week that he started really walking.

The cutest thing about this video is Mike getting annoyed with the camcorder. You have to start with this video first.

It appeared that the video in the camcorder was full so we switched it out. But then the damn thing wouldn’t stop beeping so Mike got annoyed and I took over. I don’t usually have the “magic touch” when it comes to technical devices but for some reason on this day the Camcorder Gods took pity on us and I managed to press record and somehow it started working. Suffice it to say, I think Mike and I might be investing in a digital camcorder some time soon.

Also, don’t miss Liam in his adorable bat costume. Mike did one hell of a job putting it together. We had our little Halloween get together last night and had an absolute blast.

We had a wonderful full day. Started out at my dads. He walked Liam to the park while I ran the route and met them there so we could feed the ducks. Then we headed to the pumpkin patch to pick up some pumpkins and mums. Liam had a blast crawling through the fields and hugging pumpkins. Then my dad and I drove down to my uncles in Tulsa where Liam got to meet some of his cousins for the first time. Good times.

I’ve been rather giddy the last few days, not sure why. They came to install our new windows on Monday. They look amazing! Mike took pictures, he just hasn’t uploaded them yet. We’ve both been kind of lazy lately. It’s really hard to get things done around the house when you’re in temporary possession of The Office season three DVD set and Willy Wonka’s secret stash is stocked in your kitchen pantry. Priorities folks. Some things are just more important. I’ve had chocolate everyday since last Wednesday and I’m not aiming to stop soon. It’s amazing what an insane amount of high quality chocolate can do to a womans personality.

I’ve spent a lot of time lately anticipating Fall. I don’t know why I’m so excited about the holiday seasons coming up but I think it has something to do with having a kid. I can’t wait to dress Liam up in Halloween costumes and take him to the pumpkin patch to choose a pumpkin, or put up a xmas tree and see what his reaction is when we have it all decorated and the lights are turned on. As adults, we’re so bad about letting these activities loose their appeal and excitement. Decorating trees and such actually become more of a house chore than anything else. Having Liam around is making me feel like a kid again, I really can’t wait. The weather outside yesterday was much cooler than usual. It rained most of the day and it really felt like Fall weather. I had a very twisted urge to play hookie from work so I could stay at home and watch Anne of Green Gables. There’s just something about that story and that red headed chick that just screams Autumn time.

Mike and I have always talked about how we would like to settle in the country. Most of the places I’ve lived growing up were in the suburbs. Still my brother and I always managed to find some hidden path somewhere that would take us to some place more remote, open and wooded. I had a rotten habit of following my brother and his friends around. I know they didn’t want me there but I guess they figured out early that it was easier to just let me come with them then it was to tell me to leave since I would surely storm off whining “I’m tellin’ Mom” and that would just ruin everything. Sometimes we didn’t have to go far to find these places. They were usually easy to find in Norway. In fact, my grandmother’s house had a great yard with this really neat area of pine bushes where we would build little huts out of branches and stuff and run around pretending we were elves or warriors or something. In Scotland there was an area behind one of the schools in our neighborhood that we used to go to. I remember we picked blueberries there once.

I often think about my childhood and compare it to what I imagine Liam’s will be like. Like all parents, I want Liam to have a childhood filled with happy memories similar to the ones that I have of my own. But having said that, I can not imagine every letting him roam as far away as we were allowed to roam when we were kids. All I can think about is all the sex offenders and nut jobs out there. I get so upset when I see all the young kids who come to the library after school, just waiting around for their parents to get off work. If you’re fourteen or fifteen, ok, maybe. But we had a kid who was ten at the library the other night. He was there until closing time. He had ridden his bike there. We close at nine. It’s dark outside. This kid was going to bike home. At the age of ten. Downtown. In the dark. Am I wrong to think that’s insane? I’ll get Liam a bike. Bikes are good, exercise, fresh air. Good. But until he’s about fifteen, I’m biking everywhere with him. What about all the crazy drivers out there, what if he gets hit by a car? I’m going with him, that’s all there is too it. That’s not crazy, is it?

Ok, it is crazy. In fact, there are plenty of studies out there indicating that “hyperprotective parenting” could leave children at risk for more anxiety. I mean, Liam will never want to go outside or go anywhere on his own if I’m constantly scaring him about the potential “boogy man” lingering on the street corner or all the crazed drivers behind the wheel. I really have no idea how I’m going to balance this because there are so many legitimate reasons to be scared to let my son out of my sight yet, I’m going to have to eventually. Then there’s the whole nature thing. Part of the reason I don’t like living in suburban neighborhoods is the whole “pretty garden” stuff. I mean, I like pretty gardens. I want some prettyness to my garden but I also want a yard where my child can play without having to worry about accidently trampling the petunias. I want a garden of potted plants. The rest just needs to be open space with green grass and trees. With a rocking chair on the front porch and a picket fence in front. Wait a minute, nevermind. I’m thinking of that country song.

When my brother and I were little living in Norway we used to eat a cookie that was the shape of a man..kind of like a gingerbread man but not with ginger, more like a sugar cookie. My mom sent some from Norway for us and here’s Liam eating it. He giggled when I first gave him the whole thing, after which he proceeded to tear off the heads and arms. Didn’t eat much of it but certainly enjoyed playing with it.

We’re trying to teach Liam sign language. Although he hasn’t done them on a repeated basis, he has signed “dog” and “bird”, also “milk”, however I don’t think he really understands that he can use these signs to communicate with us. He just copies. I think he just sees it as playing. He has, however, created his own sign. We have a DVD of nursery rhyme songs that he loves to watch. His favorite is Wheels on the Bus. Whenever we pass by the DVD player or he’s playing around it he’ll do the “swish swish” motion for the wind shield wipers. I got him another DVD for his birthday of animal cartoons…all based on famous children’s books. But he won’t sit still for those, I think, because there’s no music.

Liam’s new thing nowadays is getting into the pantry and pouring cheerios on the floor. He then proceeds to eat the cheerios off the floor until the dogs come running…the dogs love Liam. They follow him virtually everywhere, especially during and after feeding times. He’s great at sharing, constantly dropping pieces of his own food onto the floor for the dogs to enjoy. We’ve had a lot of trouble getting Turbo to eat his meals here lately…for obvious reasons, who wants dried kibbles when you can have pumpkin and applesauce, or chicken and rice.

In other happy news, this time next week I’m going to be an aunt for the first time. Mikes sister, Kim, is due on Friday. She’s having a girl. They’ve chosen a really snazzy name…I love it. Syndey Theresa…I have no idea if I spelled that correctly but hopefully Kim will correct me. Mike is getting real excited about this too. It’ll be so neat for Liam to have a cousin around his age.

I think I’m going to designate Mondays as my official blogging day. I never blog anymore, I just can’t seem to find the time. It doesn’t help that I spend eight hours a day staring at a computer screen. The last thing I want to do when I get home is stare at one some more. On a similar note, I think to help with the whole techno stress thing, I’m gonna designate Sunday’s No Technology Day. That is, no computer, no t.v. and no car. If I need something at the store, I’ll walk to Wal-Mart. Chances are I’ll be too lazy to do that so whatever I need will have to wait. I may, however, make an exception with the t.v. thing in case Mike wants to watch a movie. I’ll claim that as me and Mike time.

Now that I’ve gotten myself all organized I guess I should blog about something interesting for once, and what could possibly be more interesting then my son. I’ve had some time to reflect on this past year, which has been full of changes both personal and professional. So far, I think Mike and I have it pretty good when it comes to finding the balance between work and home life. We’ve been doing the mom work full time, dad stay at home thing for about two months now. We’ve worked out a flexible schedule (note the emphasis on flexible). Liam still wakes up at night. I have a feeling this probably won’t change until he’s finally got all of his teeth. There are dozens of different schools of thought on this. Most people say he’s supposed to be sleeping through the night by now and that we shouldn’t respond to his crying/whines because this will help teach him to self-soothe and put himself back to sleep. Although there are times when Liam will wake-up and fuss himself back to sleep without any assistance, there are other nights when he simply won’t and needs help. Sometimes he just needs some rocking and a sip of water. Other times he needs a full bottle, especially here lately since he hasn’t been eating to well (probably a combination of teething and growth spurt). When nothing else works, we bring him into bed and co-sleep with him. Those nights are cozy, sometimes too cozy…for some reason he likes to sleep sideways so I usually end up with a foot in my ribs by morning. To help each other out, we rotate the night time responsibilities every two nights. That way we can ensure a few nights a week where one of us can sleep through the night without interruption.

I always come home for my lunches. Depending on how Liam’s nap schedule is, I’ll get at least forty minutes to see him before heading back to work. Mike will often email me throughout the day with short little updates. This helps since it makes me feel like I’m still participating in his daily routine even if I am at work. Most nights I get off at 5:30, drop my stuff at the door, change clothes and eat dinner. I have about three hours with Liam before his bed time routine starts. Most people might consider this a tiring task after eight hours on the job but it is honest to God the best way to unwind from work for me. I love it. I miss him so much throughout the day, I can hardly wait to get home and see him.

I think, maybe, the only time I have difficulty is on the weekends. Because I work all week, I feel a little guilty about taking time to do things for myself. I feel like I should be spending every waking moment I have with Liam. Not only that, but Mike has Liam all week. He needs his breaks too. Then of course, Mike and I need time together. There’s only two days in a weekend, it’s hard to fit all of that in. But all in all, I think we’re doing pretty darn good. If we could just keep our house from falling apart, we’d be in really good shape. I’m still trying to work on Mike with the whole yurt idea. I have a feeling I can swing him when he finds out that plumbing is completely optional.

The last few days have been a little brutal for Mike and I. Yesterday was our five year anniversary. After paying for our car insurance ($300), paying to fix our car ($500), our plane ticket to New York in October ($500) and various other medical bills ($150, give or take), we have practically no money other than what we need for food right now so we weren’t able to celebrate in the way we had planned. This will likely be the last anniversary we have in Oklahoma so we had planned to spend the night at Jarret Farm, the same ranch hotel we we stayed at the night of our wedding. No way we could afford that now. Instead we were just going to do a casual dinner and a movie thing. I took Liam over to my parents house while Mike worked on installing our new tub in the guest bathroom (a topic which requires a entire post for itself). We were to meet up around dinner and finish watching Rome series 2, only nothing seemed to be going right for either one of us yesterday. Liam seems to be teething all of his teeth at once and has some sort of strange allergy/cold thing, probably cold since it would appear that I’m coming down with it too. His moods alternate from wild and happy to cranky, hold me/don’t hold me go away wait don’t move, I don’t know what the hell I want. Mike had his own issues with the bathroom. We ended up being too exhausted by the end of the day to even care that we had made it to our fifth year of marriage. With a cold coming on I decided to sleep in a seperate bed last night. I downed some Benedryl and Tylenol and fell into a coma like sleep only to be startled by Mike at around 4am in the morning. “@*#%! We’re flooding!” We were in the middle of a major thunder/rain storm and water had seeped in through the bathroom wall into Liams’ room, down the hall into our bedroom, soaking the carpet (not a big deal) and our new laminate floors (very bid deal). Our sunroom roof was also leaking, which it does persistantly no matter how often we try to fix it.

I think Mike is about fed up with house stuff and I don’t blame him. If you’re on his Facebook you’ll note his status has been updated to “Mike is cursing his house to Hades”. When I was home for lunch he expressed the hope our house would catch on fire and burn down so we could collect on the insurance and be done with it, but then he realized how bloated the house was and that it would likely not even stay lit. So goes his luck.

This would be my husband at his wits end. If you know and care about my darling Mike, please send him some positive karma in the comments below or give him a sympathetic smile when you see him. My efforts are appreciated but I think he could do with a couple of more “hang in there’s” from friends. Meanwhile, I’m going to fantasize about living in a yurt and cross my fingers that my cold is gone by Monday.

So a strange, quiet little transformation has been happening with our little boy. Actually, it’s just that: he’s becoming a little boy. The past few weeks have been nightmarish trying to get him to eat anything we spoon fed him. We tried various tactics of distraction, from handing him his own spoon to jingling keys in front of his face. It’s ok, though. I’m a parent, I’m slow and dim-witted. What he’s been trying to tell us is, “Quit this mushy crap I got these damn teeth I wanna bite something!” Our biggest concern, however, has always been vegetables and meat. He’s always spit both vegetables and meat out. Fruit he loves, he’ll eat any amount of fruit you put in front of him; bread, cheese - loves ‘em.

Well, the other day, in a fit of desperation over needing to find something ANYTHING for the poor kid to eat, I whipped him up a veritable smorgasbord of food: a Pluot (it’s the cross between a Plum and an Apricot), bread and butter, chunks of cheese, and tucked away in the corner (just in case) some steamed carrots and broccoli. I offered the bread an cheese first, of course, he loves ‘em, right? He takes a few bites and tosses the rest overboard. The Pluot he went for, but I was running out of food. I grabbed the sorry, sad little bowl of vegetables. I looked down at them, I felt like the island Natives offering up Margaret Thatcher rather than Naomi Watts to King Kong. But lo! The carrots went in the mouth and did not return. Surely, though, the broccoli will be tossed overboard. One bite…in the mouth…an ugly face, oh no!…but wait! *chew, chew*, and a swallow!! Now I can’t put broccoli pieces down fast enough - he’s literally popping them into his mouth as I set them down - I even had Carleen cook another bit so would have enough.

My world is upside down. My son…is a vegetarian.