It Has Been Eventful

Between the earthquake and the “hurricane” (we just got a much needed soaking) last week was full enough. However we had more going on than that for us.

The really concerning one was the Hound poisoning herself.

She’s a bit of a throwback and we know she hates being fed any foods that are “prepared” in any way. Even pre-killed. However, we don’t live somewhere we can set lose chickens or goats in the yard for her to attack and kill like the T-Rex in Jurassic Park. I know for a fact we’d be in trouble for animal cruelty. So she frequently hunts wild things on her own in the yard or, before her knees went bad, escaped to hunt and then comes home. We offer her food she won’t eat and this is just the way being her caretakers goes.

She’s also had problems lately on and off with organ function testing showing up as horrible. And then 2 weeks to a month later showing up perfectly fine. The vet at the clinic we were using insisted that she was on a downhill track if we didn’t get her on certain meds right away. I couldn’t swallow that since if we simply waited a short time, the problem seemed to go away. Organ failure just doesn’t undo itself all on it’s own. And doesn’t remain asymptomatic for over a year.

The vet I love has now opened her own clinic so I had the girls go in and voila. The Hound’s blood test shows up craptastic again. But the vet I love is the vet I love for a reason. She knows our hound well and knew she’d demolished a nest of mice that morning. She put in for a tox screen too. Apparently one of our neighbors is using poison to keep the vermin population down on their property and those mice, rabbits, etc. cross our borders just fine and every so often the Hound eats one. This is all accidental and makes me wish people would go back to using lard-soaked cork and barn cats to get rid of their mice.

So we are treating the poisoning, changing her diet back to raw, and putting her on some supplements to help boost her general health in case it happens again. So far, she seems pretty good but we need to accept that this will likely happen again and she is probably going to kill herself one of these days.

The less concerning issue is my layoff notice.

I got one alerting me that I am to be laid off the day I return from maternity leave. Rather than a horror show, I’m finding it to be merely an example of extremely questionable management decisions and annoying timing. I have no trouble finding work. In fact, I simply updated my resume online and have had 3 different interviews and a job offer I had to turn down because I cannot start next week. I will have something by the time I need to and it may even be better paying. We can manage the current daycare arrangements because the Husband can do it on the way to his new job no matter where I go—it just won’t be as convenient. And with that new inconvenience it may be worth it to at least consider a different arrangement—meaning further work and inconvenience for me. And all this: job hunting, daycare logistics, etc is in addition to the necessary consideration on whether my rights are being trampled. So this is really just a huge irritant that will take my maternity leave away as a time to recover and turn it into something it shouldn’t be.

Where Manboobs Come from

Things are much better today.
I know I've been a bit cranky, but partly that's been due to sleep loss thanks to teething pain that we are no longer giving pain meds for. So that means he's in our bed more, as that soothes him and helps him cope (and yes, we still have to have his taggie and glow-buddy too).
Unfortunately, he's not nice to sleep with and one of us gets headbutted all night while the other gets kicked repeatedly.
Last night wasn't any better, but I've not been peed on, vomited on, pooped on, or had any other bodily function smeared on me. And so, things are better.
His talking hasn't gotten any better, but I think we're figuring out some of his special secret language. He has several words that he's used repeatedly that didn't sound like anything we could figure out. Now he's figured out to go and find what he's talking about and point at it emphatically and repeat when we don't understand.
It works.
He's also figuring out utensils starting this weekend. Finally. And can I say Thank God!
The funny thing that's come with it is the sneakiness with this eating regression. So we sit him down to eat and give him something that's usually a can't miss. Say raspberries. And we go about our business and look over, and they're all gone. The floor is clean. His hands and face are covered in juice. So we give him more. Same thing.
You'd think he ate them, right?
Well, you'd be wrong. He's stuffed them down his pants and shirt. The straps on his high chair make it look interesting when he has a shirt filled with macaroni.
Where do kids pick these things up?!?

To Purple

There is a blog I read. I find her project of simplifying her life and ridding it of all the unnecessary trappings and progressing towards “greenness” as quite interesting and a concept I am very on board with. But as she mentioned in one of her posts “For some people Purple is Green”, well….we’re purple.
As much as I’d love to reject the material and live a zen existence, it’s just not practical. I am married to a Gadget Man/Packrat/Obsessive Tinkerer. As anyone who knows such a person is aware, having ‘things’ is a necessity for them. If they don’t have ‘things’, they will create them. It is futile to fight it. The best I have been able to manage is to keep the influx of ‘things’ balanced by a steady stream of outgoing ‘stuff’.
I also have to rely on hiring professionals to help us out on keeping things up. For example, we pay people to groom our dogs and clean our house. That is a luxury, but one that has become necessary with me in school (in addition to working full-time). Such things are luxuries. However, it does simplify our lives. Grooming a kerry blue takes ALL DAY. Time I would rather spend in quality time with my family. And the cleaning of our house is a special arrangement that seems to benefit everyone---not to mention I’ve never had it cleaner or cleaned more greenly.
But other things have been done. For one, our food is all cooked from fresh ingredients. I traded cleaning for cooking and think it’s benefiting us all greatly.
Another is that we didn’t buy a new construction home or hire a lot of contractors. No, we bought an old Colonial and did nearly everything ourselves and just got all the permits and inspections done. I really think there’s a lot less waste in that because extra parts got returned to the store or used elsewhere in the home. Like the extra wood/hardware for our deck? Turned into patio furniture. Crown moldings? Picture frames. Nothing was wasted. Also, when it comes time to replace broken Ikea-type furniture, I like to do it in one of 2 ways: 1) find vintage or antique pieces at The Big Flea that are quality craftsmanship and will go with my décor, or 2)Have my husband (our in-house craftsman) build something out of scrap furniture grade lumber. Unless of course we’re talking mattresses, sofas, or other things that don’t last well. Those we get new.
We also have eliminated almost all the chemical cleansers. We still use dishwasher detergent and fragrance/phosphate-free laundry products, but for the most part that’s it. Everything else is able to be cleaned/disinfected with steam or boiling water. When we clean in between big cleanings, I don’t find the Shark takes any longer or more effort. And mysterious rashes have disappeared.
I did try to garden to raise some of our own organic fruit and veggies. That hasn’t worked so well. The dogs eat it or it accidentally gets mowed over. We have been considering getting into hunting. I have no problems with the concept provided all parts of the animal are used, and with us they would be (free dog food!). And we have 2 breeds that have the ability to be used for hunting—and I’ve seen them work together to take down prey, they’re very good at it.
For clothes, some friends and I have a clothing swap every season. Stained/destroyed clothing is of course not allowed, but everyone has things they’ve decided they just don’t like or don’t fit as well as they once did. I’ve gotten some lovely things…and given them away as well. It’s kept my closet from building up and kept my clothing budget down to a minimum.
And finally, medically we’ve been trying to be as holistic/homeopathic as possible. I have seen a big difference in the health of both ourselves and our pets with this change. I really think that working WITH the body to fight illness rather than against it to be quite beneficial.
So here’s to Purple.

Bad Noise

This was an interesting article. And I have to say I'm not sure if I buy that "noise" is bad. Firstly, have you ever experianced time with a baby who's used to quiet? They wake up if a floorboard squeaks and become fearful at loud sudden noises. Lots of stress and tiptoeing around.
Our house? Well, lets just say Sasha can sleep thru the Apocalypse. But then again, there are a lot of mediterraneans in our genepool. Loudness comes naturally.
I think having been exposed to loud background noise that can often be sudden and startling from the womb has made him a more easygoing baby. KerryGirl barking her head off at 2am because the neighbor's kegger has spread to our backyard (and over our fence) doesn't even phase him. A roadwork crew even came in a few days ago with jackhammers to work on the water main. Nothing.
And he's not deaf. I have tested it by sitting just outside his door holding the video monitor and singing a happy song very softly. He smiles and looks around for me.
We play classical music softly in his room when it's nap or bedtime. It's part of our routine and has helped to signal that it's sleepytime. It also helps keep him from getting used to the house ever being too quiet. Do I consider this damaging? Not at all. No more so than a music box or any similar device parents have used for generations to soothe babies to sleep.
We also do tend to leave the tv in the living room on. And no, not on PBS...Nickelodeon. It's not for us. It's for the dogs. The happy songs during Nick Jr. and cartoonish voices seem to elevate their mood, keep them from being naughty, and distract KerryGirl from her protection drive.
Meanwhile while I'm home you'll typically find Sasha and I *upstairs*.
I'm in my office working, and usually narrating everything I do while he sits in my lap, plays on the floor, or enjoys his bouncy seat.
So yes, we have a background noise 24/7. Do we watch a lot of TV? Yeah, we do--in the evenings. We have a DVR so can watch what we want when we want and not be bothered with commercials. We also have the ability to pause the television if Sasha wakes up or any other priority. We cannot watch TV when he is awake because we cannot understand what is going on. We both have a bit of hearing loss and a reasonable volume level is more than drowned out by Sasha's own.
Personally, I think if the noise that comes out of our mouths drowns out any TV, radio, etc. we're doing good. He should have *NO* trouble figuring out what voice is coming from where .

:-X

Went and saw the doctor last week about my dizziness. I'm still having it and have this constant feeling like I'm standing on a boat. I had a standing appt with my usual so I figured I'd just ask him.
Just was given more reason to change doctors. Did he check anything or give me a test of any kind? No. He just told me I had vertigo from an inner ear infection/virus and that I should give it another 4 weeks. If it didn't clear up, I should go see Dr. Referral.
At this point, I'm pretty sure it's from extreme sleep deprivation. But I don't like the diagnosis without any kind of examination to go with it. A pelvic tells nothing about the state of my ears. Also apparently there is treatment for it and he didn't give that either.
One of my concerns was that this was a sign that I was having Irish twins (not something I want). But he didn't check that out either...even though I'd told him I had a stick turn blue. I know there's a good chance that it's a false positive since Sasha isn't that old but still....arg.
In other news, Sasha is finally sleeping in his crib all night--when he sleeps. That teething is going to drive us mad.
And my inlaws...I'm not sure what their deal is. I try to like them and not be judgemental but they make it hard. So very hard.
We were out at brunch (at a time that meant I had to go to an ungodly early mass time to do both--they don't understand why I go, it's apparently "stupid"). Sasha was making the rounds of the table as babies are prone to at family gatherings. And being a baby of a certain age was reaching for what was on everyone's plate. After all, it was stuff in front of him. That's all it takes to have him want to grab it and shove it in his mouth. But babies are ignorami and its up to adults to know whats best and not let them do certain things. One of those would be to keep a 3month old from eating sausage and scrambled eggs with cheese. Something you'd think people who'd had 5 kids would know.
But no....these people decided they were going to feed it to him. I can't tell you how fast I flew across the table to scoop all of that out of his mouth. How appalled they were that I wasn't "feeding him". And how much more appalled they were when I did feed him by sticking him under my shirt and letting him nurse. In public. Without showing a millimeter of skin...just a pair of baby booties sticking out from under my blouse.
Supposedly breastmilk is 'bad' for babies, I'm starving him, and should let him eat off my plate of blackberry french toast.
Its oh so very very hard to be nice...

More toxins

I swear, every week there's something new out there poisoning you, your pets, or your children. The latest and greates were the Lexan baby bottles.
Guess what kind we use? Thats right. Lexan. Plastic code #7.
Evenflo Comfis at home and Nuk and Grandma's. Yes, we have Medela (safe non 7 plastic) but they only come in 5oz size. Sasha needs twice that.
So off we went to WalMart after dumping the dogs off at the groomers to buy new bottles. Now we have 6 Gerber Clear Views in addition to the dozen or so Medelas. Funny, the clear views remind me of bottles that were around when I was a baby. Plain, ugly, cheap, but servicable.
We threw out all the old ones, but kept the nipples and caps.
Grandma threw hers out this morning.
We went and bought fancy nipples instead that had some of the features the bottles had (venting, anti-colic, variable flow, etc.).
And now we need to throw out all our old Lexan bottles we used for hiking trips. We have a few metal water bottles and some old fashioned Thermos bottles. Looks like we'll be using those from now on.