But stuff like this makes it easier to survive

These pictures don't need 1000 words for me. They just equal L-O-V-E.




All three of them are much easier to get along with when they are in this condition....

This blog...

will serve as a record of how we all survived, if we make it. Me and Brian need to survive Riley growing up and she needs to survive being parented by us. I think I need to change the title of my page, to something like "Jungle Mama: One Foolish Woman Attempting to Domesticate Wild Monkeys" How's that sound? Any other suggestions?






So, the latest in the saga of Rileyisms. Yeah, you see that? That picture was taken last Tuesday and the top of her head is still red. The marker doesn't wash out. Off topic: notice how Rob is totally cracking up looking at the back of her head?


















And then Friday was a hell of a day as well. I was "that mom". I had to go to HyVee and get some stuff with both kids and Brian was off doing some bitch work or other for his dad. (Who I totally love and am fine with, but I kind of wish he could have some free time to just hang out. He's ALWAYS busy helping someone) Anyway, we made it most of the way through the store and we were doing ok. Not great, but nobody was crying, not even me! We got to the checkout and the bagger boy said he had to take away the car-cart like he always does. So I'm still trying to wrangle the groceries and receipt and make sure we've got it all when Riley just zoom took off. She went from checkout to parking lot in under 3 seconds.
Yep, she ran all the way to the door and outside and right out into traffic without looking back. So I shove the cart out of the way and take after her. Thank God I wore Robby in the wrap or I totally would have dropped him. I've never been so scared in my life.
Something has to change with Riley or she will literally get herself killed before age 4. She's not scared of anything and I can't keep up with her. So I ended up with these two women who got my cart and followed me out to the car trying to ask me if everything was all right and could they do anything to help. And I just wanted to scream, "NO, it isn't all right. And I don't know what will help!!!" All I did was scoop her up and shove her roughly in the car without a binky. And I told her that I was very mad that she didn't listen and sad because she could have gotten hurt by running away. I don't think it made an impact.

The same day she had buckled herself into her doll's stroller and I was trying to get her to stop when she waddled over to the stairs and rolled right down with the stroller still hanging off her butt. Pink plastic wheels, head over heels. Could have been broken bones. Just as I was telling her to get back from the stairs before she got hurt. I could just cry. She's like a kamikaze baby.

Checklist check

Friday May 4

1. Give Riley a bath DONE
   
2. Put away two loads of laundry Did one
   
3. Get everyone ready and drop Riley off at Grandma's before 9:00 DONE
   
4. Eye doctor appointment 9:00am 5 minutes late
   
5. Pick Riley up from Grandma's DONE
   
6. Go to my bank to add Robby to savings DONE
   
7. Have lunch Ate at Grandma's
   
8. Get B's paycheck DONE
   
9. Go to our joint bank and make deposit DONE
   
10. Mail in Netflix Didn't do
    
11. Order new glasses maybe? Not done
    
12. Vacuum and make bed DONE
    
13. Pick up Blake at airport 5:20 DONE
    
14. Bible study bbq for friends to meet Robby, 6:30 DONE, 30 minutes late
    
15. Spend time visiting with Blake and friends? (probably too tired, nobody available to watch Riley) Not done, screw friends anyway pffft
    

Pictures

So here's some pictures of cute stuff from this past week.

Checklist

I've got so much to do here coming up, I'm going to make a list of all of it and then check back in and see how I did.


Friday May 4

1. Give Riley a bath
2. Put away two loads of laundry
3. Get everyone ready and drop Riley off at Grandma's before 9:00
   
4. Eye doctor appointment 9:00am
5. Pick Riley up from Grandma's
   
6. Go to my bank to add Robby to savings
   
7. Have lunch
8. Get B's paycheck
9. Go to our joint bank and make deposit
10. Mail in Netflix
11. Order new glasses maybe?
    
12. Vacuum and make bed
13. Pick up Blake at airport 5:20
14. Bible study bbq for friends to meet Robby, 6:30
15. Spend time visiting with Blake and friends? (probably too tired, nobody available to watch Riley)

And Brian is not around for any of this because he is working in the morning and then taking off early but he's got a parts car sold that he has to prep for getting hauled off which includes changing all the tires, taking out the seats and breaking out the ignition because Riley lost the keys to it and he can't turn the wheels to get it out of the garage. The prep will take most of the afternoon and then he has to deliver it to the guy sometime between 5:00 and when it gets dark.

Saturday May 5

• Clean out refrigerator
• Shop Costco
• Sort and file ALL the mail that has been piled up in my neglect, some of it as far back as mid-March.
• Schedule payments for household bills, find out about Robby's medical bills
• Laundry laundry laundry

Sunday May 6

• Church
• Church-sponsored college-age connect lunch (Riley has to go to Grandma's)
• KCAP spring party
  

Busy busy weekend

Whew, what a busy weekend we've had! Saturday was the KCAP field trip to check out the Shatto dairy farm. We were disgustingly late, even with Brian to "help" and I actually turned around and started to come home because of how late it was and I hadn't even gotten there yet before he talked me into going the rest of the way because I'd already put the miles on the car and everything. And then he had to talk me into getting out of the car while I was bawling my eyes out because I was so embarrassed and I didn't think I could face anyone after they had specifically told ME to be on time and I was an hour and a half late. It was nice though for him to try to help me, Brian is usually telling me how awful it is for me to screw people over by being late when I'm invited somewhere. And I guess maybe they really are my friends because nobody laughed at me or said anything about how late it was.
Anyway, personal issues aside...I would not drive that far again for those cows. It was neat but I don't think it was worth the trip. Riley almost milked the cow, but just as she was getting ready to touch it, the cow peed everywhere and R got scared!
Cow farm pictures, I didn't take many:







Then, when we got home we went over to Grandpa and Grandma's house and Riley helped Grandpa and some friends paint the house and she had a lot of fun! Daddy painted too.












Big Rob just sat around with me most of the time, although he did have his first run-in with the EVIL 'uncle' T despite my best efforts to foil his approaches. I managed to keep myself in check but just barely. That experience is another post for another time though, and not nearly as fun as this one.





And the most exciting part of the weekend (for Daddy and Riley at least, I'm not so thrilled)...........Daddy got a motorcycle! I'm so sure this is a brilliant idea, and all the thanks can go to Grandpa. This lovely specimen has been rusting under FIL's porch for the last 3 years and he decided he wanted it gone yesterday so now it is in my garage. So let's all welcome a gutted (or whatever you do to a bike) 1976 Suzuki to the family.

happy time!!!!

I had to do some new pictures of Robby for a church thing for next month...here's the result. Except the sling one is from when he was in the hospital but I don't think I posted it yet.

This is just SO Riley

She's the anti-clean lately. So far this week she has dumped out most of a bottle of Shout on the bathroom flour and yesterday she greased up the couch with brother's Aveeno lotion. I think we're onto a slippery theme.

Random Thoughts Wednesday

*I wish we didn't have fingernails, because I cannot keep up with the cutting of them. Not mine, not the kids, and although I'm not taking the task of grooming Brian-his are always too long whenever I get a look at him.

*To the woman who is certainly the mother of two children and perhaps unfortunately the wife of one man who I had the pleasure of parking next to at Costco: I am sorry and I hope you DON'T know how he is talking to those kids and that you find out soon and put a stop to it. Your little boy and girl are lucky to have parents smart enough to keep them in good carseats although they are at least 5 years old, but they didn't do anything to deserve their father locking them out of the car and telling them they had to suffer for misbehaving him and would need to find their own ride home because they broke the rules.

*To the woman who was in line behind me at the Costco checkout: Thanks for helping unload my cart, but do I really look like I have my hands full? Really? I thought I was doing so well and I had myself fooled, but I guess not anyone else...that was my first shopping trip with two kids but I knew where they both were and nobody was crying so I don't think I really needed any help. How do the people with even more kid do it? I saw a woman walking on my street today with 4 kids under school age. She had three in a stroller and one walking and they were all clean and happy looking. Even the mom. What's the trick?

long time no update...

Baby was born on March 25 @ 3:49pm. I did have a successful waterbirth at home and it was a lot of hard work. He is a boy!!! He weighed 11 pounds at birth.
The day after he was born, there was some concern that he was breathing very fast and we made a decision to take him in to the urgent care at Children's Mercy South to have him checked out. What should have been a quick overnight observation turned into a nightmare of blood tests, spinal taps, misdiagnoses, ambulance transports, IVs, and 4 different antibiotics and we were trapped in the hospital for 2 straight weeks.
I am working on writing his story but it will be a little longer before I process all of it. We were freed from the hospital on April 9.
There was never anything "wrong" with him. He is a huge healthy happy perfect baby. Nothing I did made him sick. He is not sick. Nothing that I did or did not do during my pregnancy and birth caused him to be admitted to the hospital or put his health at any risk.
His name is Robby.










Since we have been home, we have had some rough times adjusting but we are doing ok for now. The whole experience has been far from what I hoped for and now we have to figure out damage control, but now I'm just grateful that it is all over. For instance, we were separated from Riley for the entire two weeks, save for a couple short visits. Her entire routine is gone. She doesn't know when to go to bed, she's been eating all kinds of crap, and she is terrified to be apart from us now.
But she's doing pretty good, all things considered:




And Robby is wonderful. We are so blessed to have such an excellent family and that we are all healthy and able to be together.

Countdown

Ok, I'm an hour away from turning over the end of my 42nd week in this pregnancy. That's long enough. Let's not make it another week baby. Come on out now.

Need to take more pictures I guess, haven't done any since those last ones and at this point every day is really a milestone where most people only need to count in weeks. But I keep telling myself I won't see another week go by.......and then I do. I guess I'm not going to fulfill my dream that told me the baby's birthday would be a date that ended in the number 3. Unless it is April 3rd. And I really really really really really really do not want to cross over to another month.

I'm just getting irritable. It has been "baby, baby, baby, baby" for a month already now and there is no damn baby to show for it! I'm already getting sick of talking about baby stuff and I don't even have a baby. I was so thrilled and obsessed with the cute little clothes and diapers, now I don't even look at them anymore.

I busted and re-busted my ass over and over keeping the house to my dream standard of clean and now I physically am not able to keep up with it and it is getting all trashed and dirty. If I wanted the house to look as nice and neat as I wish it would, it would really take me several hours a day to maintain it because I am so slow-moving and R is so fast at un-cleaning whatever I just get done with.

Either that or she needs to go live somewhere else and then stuff would stay looking good. Seriously, she can't even sleep here if I'm going to get a break. I have to change her damn sheets EVERY. SINGLE. FRICKING. DAY!

She either pees on them or dumps a drink or gets all sweaty or drools. And I don't think it is unsanitary to say that if it was just sweat or drool, I could make sure it got dried out before her next sleeptime and she could at least sleep on it for two days before I had to change the whole bed again. But she is too picky and if there is the slightest bit of dampness anywhere when she wakes up, she'll loudly point it out to me and if I try to sneak her back into the bed without putting on fresh sheets and pillowcase, she won't go to sleep until I do. She'll stand there and yell "Ew, gross! Gross bed. MOMMY! Gross bed wet, yucky!" for apparently ever. I've tried to talk her down from it for half an hour and she will not let it go. Even if the bed is not at all wet when I put her in it, if it was wet that morning she will not lay in it until it is freshly made. Stuck-up little monkey. I'll sleep twice on a pillow I've drooled on, and I'm telling you...I am not a dirty person!

So I guess my rant-vent of today is about changing crib sheets. Wasn't expecting that one. And to top it off, I am so round that it is painful to try to lean over the side of the crib bar to get the sheets tucked in.

And we'll have to quit eating too. Doing dishes sucks. When I was a little kid, my mom quit doing dishes and we just had paper plates and plastic cups. I haven't been able to bring myself to that, and don't know if I ever will. I don't even take disposable stuff on picnics or in packed lunches. So now I feel sorry for myself because my conscience is preventing me from developing a higher level of laziness.

Fucking hell, can I please pop this kid out so I can not think about doing this stupid shit for at least a couple of days??????

Surprise! Still nothing.

Just a little update. Still no baby yet. Went to an excellent new chiropractor yesterday who rocked my world and I really thought it would happen last night. Oh well, I'm not stressing over it, the odds are it has to be sometime soon. It isn't like I can get any less pregnant, so every day I'm automatically closer to having a baby.

Pictures:

Rolling Over

That's what I feel like, a rusty old car whose odometer just rolled over.
41st week, no news.
One of the other moms probably had her baby last night/this morning. Her "due date" was supposed to be the 27th. I'll admit, I did get jealous and kind of upset to hear her talking about having contractions and getting ready to meet her baby. I've never been this patient in my life, and I'll do my best to stick to it but I am starting to get tired of waiting.
I'm (obviously) all for natural childbirth which includes natural labor without induction, but a little bit of me is getting fed up. I've been waiting for a really long time, and nothing is happening! All this build up and anticipation and then no reward!


On the totally superficial, my hair needs re-done again but I think I can't do the blue/purple like I have been because it usually bleeds and fades for about 8 washes after I do it and I really really do not want to let myself believe that I won't be having this baby for 8 more days.
And I don't want to bleed purple in the birth tub because we borrowed it from friends of ours and I'm the first one to borrow it and I would feel awful if I stained it or messed it up.

So, my options are just to re-blonde the whole thing and I'll have weird faded pinkish ends or come up with something else. I have some light blonde stuff sitting around here, or I could go out to the store and get just about anything today although Brian might not like it.


But at this point, anything to make me feel better and take my mind off the laziness that is my uterus. NO fucking contractions!! What the hell is going on (or rather, not going on) here????

I'm also considering putting in a call to my old chiropractor. I quit seeing her several months ago to switch to a clinic that was in-network to our insurance so we could try to take it easy on the finances.
But, she is Webster-certified (read: expert in dealing with pregnant women) and nobody at the clinic is. I'm wondering if a really excellent adjustment would help me out. My next appt. at the clinic is Tuesday and when they scheduled I never thought I would make it that far. Now I really don't want to go, so if I can see my old doctor and cancel that appointment I'll be happy.

Some other people have been talking about accupunture or massage with accupressure. I don't have any idea how much that costs or where you go for it. I've never had a real massage in my life (oh pity me!) and it sounds really damn excellent. Guess I should ask if I really want to know.

Ok. I love this!

Keeping busy on a Wednesday night

What we do while we're waiting for baby....

Go to Costco and try out the lawnmowers:


Walk around the new Bass Pro Shop and check out some scary fucking dead animal carcasses. I'm proud of her, she didn't want anything to do with the stiff wildlife. Here was as close as we could get her:



But the fish were ok, after she realized they could jump out and bite her like pet fish. Look at them!


And...here's our family picture at the fish aquarium waterfall. Holy shit, I look like I belong in an aquarium. At SeaWorld. Freeeee Willy!!!!