"Hi Mama, nice to meet you. I'm Elijah!"

"Elijah close the eyes!"

And he can count!! He can count! I'm so excited. He counted my fingers, and my lips. It was so awesome!

"Mama making eggs for Elijah!"

"Elijah try'n eat eggs."

My joints are so very swollen this morning, and there was no purring kitten to soften my morning (he was out in the living room). But there was a very happy little boy who wanted to play peekaboo and talk about trains and counting and lips and eyes and fingers :)

The house feels lighter after its surgery. I want to take the opportunity to have built-in shelves in the bathrooms, and I really, really want to put in frosted glass between the rooms and the stairwell, because it's really nice to have it so open and airy and bright. But that's probably not going to happen ;)

Good morning. Time to declutter now, before this afternoon's vet appointment of insanity. We're taking two dogs and two cats, all at once, to get checked over for ringworm. And Remmy needs shots. And I need to pick up new medicine for Beanie because the mold guys sealed up the closet that the medicine was in, and we can't unseal it until the industrial hygienist comes back to check things out.

Hello, world!

--Mama Coyote

Barometer of days.

E is lining his trains up side by side, rather than like a train. That usually means a particularly strong rigid-thinking day, where extra patience is needed.

The temperature is supposed to rise 30 degrees in the next few hours. My joints are already starting to hurt.

I don't like to talk about household-related fears here, but fears are there. I will get through them by focusing on E.

Good morning, world. I declare: Today will be a fun day.

Mama Coyote

A pain day, but still productive.

Celexa to stop the depression, Trazodone to help me sleep, caffeine and nicotine and acetominophen and aspirin to kick the headache caused by the Trazodone. Something is wrong with this picture :p

Hopefully the Trazodone's side effects will wear off in a few days.

Meanwhile, Maddy, Pooh's Heffalump Movie, the psychotic fuzzy white dog, Ancient Egyptian meditation music, and Flylady (7 days of FLYing, after five years of fluttering. yay!) kept me sane today, until the pain meds or the cold air or the nicotine or whatever it was finally kicked in, and now I have a ridiculous number of pounds of "metallic sand" so I can make weighted blankets for myself and the boy, and this post is getting just so rambly now, isn't it?

It was a very productive day, despite the pain. I got through a lot of email, Elijah had lots of play time and conversation time (sort of), and has been very interactive and playful today. No true meltdowns, thankfully. Maddy shrink-wrapped some of the windows, and I did a lot of reading on Sensory Processing Disorder.

And now, it is time to relax. For real, instead of just pretending to relax but instead trying desperately to find out how to help Elijah and myself with our sensory issues.

Goodnight, kitten, goodnight mush, goodnight Internet, goodnight old lady who whispers, "Hush."

Mama Coyote

Hello again.

Well, for a little bit there, I thought I was going to manage to post every day in January... but apparently not. Maybe I'll manage it for February :)

Elijah has been blowing kisses, giving hugs, pointing a lot, trying to babble more. Signing and signing and signing. He's gaining more recognition of the world every day and it's a lot of fun.

He's also discovered a love of frozen waffles. While still frozen.

I still haven't found a food he won't eat, though Kacy's given him asparagus and that didn't go over well. But garlic, mashed potatoes, spicy Thai curry, cheese (and cheese and more cheese), bacon, beef stew, baby corn, hot sauce on eggs? He gobbles it all up, loves it.

And he's learning to put his clothes on. He's figured out socks, and he nearly got his pants on today. He got them up to his thighs, and stood up, but I had to pull them up for him.

---

As for me, the day's been full of pain, sleep, and Northern Exposure. And love, lots of love--the whole family was here for the weekend. Chris had to head home for job and school related stuff, but Kacy and JD and the cat are still here. I've done nothing of substance today except make coffee and cuddle the baby boy.

And continually threaten to eat Remmy, because he won't stop barking.

Hell Day

Yesterday:

Wow.

Just, wow.

An urgent care visit and an ER visit, both in the same day? Sigh.

Let's recap:

Morning: Family awakes up at 8am. Mama is stiff and sore and already has a migriane; very unusual for the morning. Mama takes Oxycodone. Family goes to Gymboree. Mama hides under play equipment and watches children play. Tries to explain to people who give her funny looks that she's in pain. Oxycodone takes away joint pain but not headache.

After Gymboree, go to the wholesale store for dye-free baby Tylenol and food. Migraine increases and is joined by queasiness, a brand new symptom in 10+ years of frequent migraine.

Go home. Daddy & Baby play while Mama tries desperately to sleep.

Around 4pm, I woke up crying and kinda half-screaming because the pain was that bad. This is the worst migraine I've had. Am trying to compare to childbirth. Don't remember crying during childbirth, only screaming. Go to Urgent Care with 30 seconds left for them to take new patients.

The Urgent Care doctor is calm and mumbly and moves carefully and not loudly. Reminds me multiple times that I need to go to a neurologist and he can refer one if I start going to him as my regular doctor. His nurse gives me a shot of Phenergan ("do not take while breastfeeding"!) for the nausea, but he refuses to give me migraine rescue meds because I'm still breastfeeding.

So he prescribes Vicodin ES. And Phenergen.

I told him Vicodin wouldn't work and could he just prescribe Frova? Even just one?

And he said no, I will not give you one dose of migraine rescue meds that are relatively safe for nursing, but here's 20 Vicodin.

So, well, I have plenty of Vicodin to deal with my join pain now. Which is helpful.

So we go home, and I go back to bed, and try to sleep. I awake up crying again and while B is in checking one me, we hear Elijah screaming in pain. B runs to him, and then I hear B's panicky voice telling Elijah, "Let me see, I have to see, let me see." Adrenaline dulls the pain for a moment and I jump up. With a slightly clearer head than B, I manage to see that Elijah has a gash on the inside of his lip and one on the outside. I assume he's bitten through his lip and kind of panic. I grab my shoes and the diaper bag and we go to the ER.

The bleeding stops on the way, and Elijah laughs at all the sick people in the waiting room. And runs around banging on chairs and cheering. I lean on a chair, trying not to throw up.

Eventually I suggested we just take him home and go to his regular doctor the next day, just to be safe. But then we got called into a room. I continued trying not to throw up while we waited for nurses and doctors. He screamed at them all, terrified of doctors now. I tried to ignore the world and my body while lying on the room's bed. B and Elijah named all the things in the room and watched Monk on the tv. (We were in Kids Care, and Monk was on TV. A woman murdered her husband on-screen. This didn't seem appropriate for the childrens' ward.) Then the doctor checked Elijah's lip, determined that the wound does NOT go all the way through, and sent us home.

Elijah fell asleep in the car with minimal fussing, we picked up my prescriptions, and then headed home. When I went to sleep at midnight, the pain was still there, but I was able to eat some mashed potatoes.

Today, Elijah is very short-tempered and I am very fragile, but we are alive, and okay, and things will be fine.



The happy patient.

Today has been odd, in many ways. It started out way too early, before dawn, with Elijah waking up coughing (though not the barking cough of croup, thankfully). The cough would come and go, but never be gone long enough for either of us to get back to sleep. I don't know how long this went on, but he managed to doze off eventually, and I trembled crying on the couch for a while because I hadn't managed to sleep at a decent hour anyway and my head hurt and my eyes hurt and my right leg and toes hurt so very much and I knew I wasn't going to be functional for the day on just two or three hours of sleep.

And then I remembered I had painkillers, and took them, and curled back up with the by-then calmed and sleeping baby. And we slept till 10:30am, which is about three and a half hours later than usual.

The day itself was comparatively pain-free, though I felt very fragile and tried to take it easy. I got some laundry done and Elijah and I played and watched too many videos on the computer. My kitchen is still broken, and a mess. Roasting a turkey on Thursday is going to be interesting if I have to wash my dishes in the bathtub.

Today was a Gymboree day, which was awesome as always. It was open gym, not a class. I love open gym time. I love watching the varied ages of toddlers and how they interact. It always makes me so tired, though. Fortunately, it makes Elijah tired, too ;)

And he and Daddy are done with bathtime, so it is now nursing time and sleeping time.

Post title? Post title.

Today was pain, for approximately nine hours, when the migraine finally broke and post-migraine euphoria slowly set in. Then there was food with a friend, and shopping, and both were fun.

And then there was babyface screaming the entire way home, and that was not so fun. But now he is asleep, peaceful and beautiful, and I can sit and play Pokemon and collapse into a heap.

And my kitchen is broken. Some sort of back-up in the plumbing, so I can't do my beginning-of-week fridge clean-out and scrub-down of everything... the kitchen is currently a huge mess and I can't cook anything because everything is dirty. Sigh.

AND I wasn't paying any attention at all and bought whole bean French roast from Trader Joe's instead of something drinkable. (I don't have a coffee grinder.) It's back to Gevalia with me, I think.

Also: This and this.

Night-night.

Pain and turtles and guppies and Mama Kacy etc

Also groceries, amazing cheese dip, DS games, and sleep. Oh god, please to sleep!

Elijah woke up screaming way too many times. 6am was a bit hellish. 9am was too, but at least then he calmed down and could wake up and have some fun. But the day. Ohh today. Has been. Well. A day.

and my shift key isn't working properly, which is driving me crazy.

Anyway.

I think the poor babyface is getting yet another tooth. Which is awesome, but painful.

Mama Kacy is in town, and even that isn't making him too happy, although they seem to have had some happy bath time tonight. I'm glad about that.

I don't have much to say, because you see, my head is growing teeth as well, and trying to consume itself.

Time, I think, to feed the turtle, the guppies, and the dogs, and then watch Phoebe in Wonderland.

Night-night.

Screamers and shifters and bleeders oh my...

Today hurts, in many ways. And is good, also in many ways.

The movie Push is absolutely incredible. I could watch it again, right now. Twice. In a row.

Good morning, good night.

Today hurts.

I want braised beef.

Babyface is napping with his nose next to MY blanky-blankety-blanket thing (that used to be blue but is now gray) from when I was a baby. He does this a lot. If he thinks he can have my blanket as his blanket, he is crazy. I will make him a blanket. But that one is MINE. *huffy little girl face*

(Wait till the amazing little 4 year old asks for mama's blanket as his own, and we'll see what I'm saying then.)

Home, and pain, and fun.

My back hurts. And Elijah and I have a cough.

But! The turtle has a heater and a filter and a nice mountain of gravel, and the babyface is no longer freaking out in the middle of the night, and I got Starbucks to give me a large size cup with a small sized drink in it... the rest was filled with whipped cream. It was great :D

Elijah knows approximately 14 signs now. He's made up a couple. And he learned about stealing noses, from Uncle JD.

We're back home now after a week of time spent with Mama Kacy, Uncle Chris, Uncle JD, and Morning-the-puppy. Plus Treble and Meryl the cats. Elijah LOVES the cats.

The coast is good for my joints but apparently bad for our allergies--interesting trade-off.

I might get to pictures and more rambles tomorrow. I might not. We'll see.

Sneezes & Pictures

I'm sick.

Being sick makes me incredibly whiny.

Thai medicine helps me be less whiny.

Elijah is not sick, which is good. He has also been very accommodating the last couple of days, playing with his toys and watching his videos and giving me hugs when I ask.

To spare you the whining (since when do I want to do that?), have some pictures.

---



Dressed all in black. He got very confused by those socks and took them off.


Looots of toys.


All cleaned up and sorted!


He was really loving that watermelon.


This is my home while I'm sick. It's full of magazines and books... which mostly get ignored in favor of the computer. (Except Nanny 911, which is there too.)


This is the toy cat Elijah picked up at the grocery store :)

I wish I had some precooked bacon.

Today is one of those days where blinking hurts, I'm dropping everything, and walking by the "gingerbread spice" scented reed diffuser makes me gag. Usually, I love that thing--it makes my hallway smell like cookies!!--but today. Ugh. Not today.

So I'm trying to coast until naptime, and maybe I'll feel better after we sleep some more.

---

Naptime didn't help.

---

From Elijah

We have lately been having the best lunch ever: EasyMac with a handful of four-cheese blend and some bacon bits; mushrooms sauteed in butter and olive oil; masala naan; and Ovaltine. Elijah doesn't like the naan, but he LOVES the mushrooms and the Ovaltine, and quite likes the EasyMac.
(One day I will make real mac and cheese.)


First the water... then the Ovaltine... it's so awesome!!


And time to tease the dog!


And this is because there aren't enough blurry cameraphone breastfeeding shots on this blog.

Day of hurt.

There's a tropical storm coming in. Pillows, textsfromlastnight.com, Homicide: Life on the Street, the playpen and the highchair and a lot of Cheerios are my saviours today.

Elijah took 21 steps down the hall last night.

Have some pictures.



Toolin' around with Grandmere.


Camo pants and a nice nap on fleece.


Happy birthday, Elijahface! Breakfast was wonderful.


I think this shot needs to go on a custom banner for the blog.


Nose!




Daddy got his hair cut.


Little professor?


Yesterday, he kept putting himself in the cage, closing the door, and looking up and laughing :D


New rug!


Mama's old Lambchop, and baby's new Lambchop. Thank you aunt Dani!


They're hard to see, but there are lots of turtles on that log :D


Such a sweet sleeping boy :D




That tea shop was nice.


Lego store!! See that wall at the back?


IT'S BULK LEGOS!!


If he could talk, he'd be saying, "LOOK!"


"Look at all the ceiling fans!!"


The new high chair is awesome.

17 steps at once today.

Migraine.

zzz

It's a day.

There are new videos at our YouTube channel.

---

We're watching B5 again.



"You understand?" "No. But understanding is not required. Only obedience."





We have cookies.


Beanie looks comfortable. And confused.



I've done a lot of laundry today, but I didn't take pictures of it. Also cleaned the kitchen, slept, played with the boy, and whined a lot. And took considerable amounts of ibuprofen.

Sigh.

Arrrg. I just spent the last three and a half hours trying to help Elijah get to sleep. It took that long for whatever was making him so uncomfortable to subside--I suspect teeth.

But we had a very nice hour or so cuddling on the futon and watching the Baby Sign DVD. I was surprised that he was content to just sit in my lap, playing with my hand and chewing on his hand and feeling my arms around him, while he stared intently at the tv. Amazed. He's never done that before, and it was very nice.

Now it's time for me to wind down enough to sleep. Which is why I'm staring at a blogger window.

Let's clear out some tabs...

From StumbleUpon:
A giraffe licking a very red squirrel.
Street Installations - some of these are oddly disturbing.
The Mapping of a Cat's Brain - Lyn and Jen will like this one :)
Things That Make You Go Aahh - More cute animal pictures. Some amazingly cute wombat pictures, of all things.

I'm hungry. And exhausted. And I have to get up early, because we made plans. Sigh.

But--those plans involve IKEA. So maybe the day will overcome the lack of sleep and be awesome anyway. We shall see. I think there will have to be significant amounts of ibuprofen and tea. I wish I could take Vicodin.

Night night... again ;)

I am Pollution.

It's about to storm. This makes me unbelievably happy.

---

Today was not a good day: I didn't sleep last night (Elijah did), woke up in a lot of pain (head, joints, shoulders, back, eyes), moped around all day, gave a virus access to my computer, and watched Elijah pull the PS2 off of its perch. It crashed to the floor and stopped working.

Brian fixed both PS2 and computer when he got home, because he is awesome that way.

The evening was much improved: Dinner with my boys, then a walk outside in the dark while the storm rolled in.

---

I wish I had more interesting things to say today, but I don't think I do. I haven't checked out StumbleUpon yet... maybe I will and post again.

If anyone has any particular ideas that I should ramble about, feel free to comment with them? (Sonja, I bet you could come up with a few :) )

Inventory of recent injuries.

These are MY injuries, not Elijah's--he's much less clumsy than I am. Plus made of rubber.

-right foot still sore from dropping heavy glass egg on it
-right knee bruised from banging into a door frame
-right thumb healing from an impressive cut with a kitchen knife
-bruise of unknown origin on right thigh-nose still sore from Elijah slamming his head into it on Friday
-both big toes have been stubbed

I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting. It's insane.