lawmummy

Calling all mothers of boys!
Calling all mothers of boys!

It’s been ten almost eleven months now since Charlie was born.  I’ve conquered my fear of diapering a boy.  I’ve mastered the "penis tuck."  I feel like a pro.

Except for the separation anxiety.

Oh. My. God.

I have two little girls who learned to spend more than five seconds apart from me without a meltdown.  But Charlie?  I leave the room.  Wham.  Pandemonium.  Crying.  Scratching.  Crawling to find me.

On Friday afternoon, upon my return from Target (where I spent far too much money, that will teach Chris to go on a trip without me), I had to pee.  I got everybody in the house and dashed upstairs to pee.  I am, and I’ll say it proudly, a speed peer.  I can get in, pee, wash hands and get out in the time that it takes many women just to get their pantyhose down (I don’t wear pantyhose, which is, quite frankly, an advantage).  I had no sooner finished up when I saw a little head peeking out at me.  Oh yeah, my little boy had managed to crawl up an entire flight of wood stairs (no carpeting here) to the second floor and into the bathroom in lightning speed.  I was agog.  And quite frankly, relieved that he didn’t kill himself trying.

If I leave the room for a moment, he freaks out.  Yesterday, he managed to move the entire pack ‘n’ play from the front of the family room, where I had strategically placed it to block any escape, so that he could get to me.  My 2 year old can’t move that pack ‘n’ play without help.

If I’m in the desk chair, he flails and cries until I pick him up.  If I don’t, he cries some more.  If you’re thinking "let him cry", you underestimate his staying power.

Every minute of the day.  Literally.  He must be with me every single minute.  There is none of this leaving for a second to get a soda, go to the bathroom, take a shower without drama the likes of which I have never encountered.

He is spoiled.  Spoiled as rotten as the tomatoes in my backyard in fall.

I did not have this same level of separation anxiety with the girls.  So tell me, is a boy thing?  Is this where we get the expression "Mama’s Boy" from?  Cause it’s driving me crazy.

If you have been following the Jenkens & Gilchrist meltdown at all and are interested in the result, I have a rather lengthy update at taxgirl.com.

God forbid anyone in my house actually start bleeding tonight… There are practically no more band-aids, which is stunning considering that this morning, I had three boxes. Three.

Kathleen and Lola had some issues. They are the other kids in my house. Kathleen belongs to Amy and Lola belongs to Katie. They’re Cabbage Patch Kids. And apparently quite clumsy since, according to the girls, they are constantly falling and getting hurt.

If you foolishly followed my advice about paperbackswap.com, you can read my retraction here.  Sorry!

If you didn’t listen to me, good for you!

(In Word) This is my first blog entry written with iListen. I’m kind of excited because so far, it’s working pretty well. I realize that it’s going to take a little bit of getting used to, especially with my crazy accent these days, but I am confident that if I keep working at it, it will be OK. It’s almost midnight so I’m going to call it a night and hopefully I will try again in the morning. Good night.

(In TypePad) I figure I’ll give this one try in TypePad directly! Not too bad.

Thanks to those of you have inquired about my father-in-law and my kiddos… I’m sorry that I haven’t returned phone calls or emails. It has been a terrible week.

This is the scoop on my father-in-law. He is much better, thanks. No repeat trips to the hospital since last week except on an outpatient basis for some hyperbaric oxygen therapy (every day for two hours, apparently). But no surgeries, no transfusions. He was looking good last Thursday when we saw him.

As for the kiddos, Katie’s cold is gone. Amy is in the last throes of the cold that never ends - she does have an appointment at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to investigate the recurring infections. She is small (today she wore Charlie’s shirt, which she picked out herself - and it fit) and the infections are causing her some difficulties, including balance issues. She often falls over which would be funny if it weren’t for the extenuating circumstances.

Charlie has been a mess. He has two ear infections, one of which qualifies as the worst he has ever had, according to my pediatrician. He ran a fever for a bit and refused to eat. He cried for hours and hours. But now, thanks to the magic of Zithromax and Motrin (please, no horror stories about babies and ibuprofen, I can’t deal), he is sleeping in his crib. Ahhh…

I’ve been a mess, too, but I’ll save that for another post. It’s 9pm and the kids are not in bed. It has been a long, strange day.

I love my kids’ doctor but I have to say, on days like today when Charlie is miserable, it drives me insane that it is ten minutes after the office should have opened and their “we’re not open” message is still on.

Grr.

A few minutes ago, I was sitting in the family room waiting for the clock to hit 9am so that I can make an appointment to take Charlie to the doctor (he has a fever).

I hear very labored breathing coming from the girls’ room. Amy has not been well so I’m thinking I have to make two appointments at the doctor…

I go into the room and this is what I see (pictured left). I hear lots of heavy breathing and blowing.

I say, “Girls, what’s going on?”

And Katie answers, as though I should know, “Mom, we’re blowing all of the bugs away!”

Don’t you just love spring?

Okay, don’t send me hate mail about the military. 

1.  I don’t want to hear it; and
2.  I know what I know.

And what I know is this:  our government does not tell us everything that goes on with our military.  I know that sounds all conspiracy-theorist but it’s not.  I come from a military family and I know that we are often where we say we are not.  We often fire where we claim we are not.  We do a lot that does not get reported in the media.

And I say this as a patriotic girl who loves her country and believes in our government (not our President, I think these are separate issues).

That’s why I believe this story (from the BBC) over this response on CNN:  "We have no information at this time that an incident has taken place
in the Gulf," Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security
Council, said about reports of a confrontation between Iran and U.S.
Navy warships.

And remember this from October? 

Tuesday, Oct. 17, the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group steamed into
the Persian Gulf to join the US naval, air and marine concentration
piling up opposite Iran’s shores. It consists of the amphibious
transport dock USS Nashville, the guided-missile destroyers USS Cole
and USS Bulkeley, the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea, the
attack submarine USS Albuquerque, and the dock landing ship USS Whidbey
Island. The Iwo Jima group is now cruising 60 km from Kuwait off Iran’s
coast.

My brother’s sub was there.

Where do you think he is now?

Right.  Me too.

I saw this news clip just now:  U.S. crude futures briefly spiked over $5 a barrel in electronic
trading late Tuesday on rumors that Iran fired on U.S. Navy warships.

Please let it be a rumor.  We don’t need another war.  Enough of our brave men and women have died in the stupid war we have right now.

And my brother, who is in the Navy, is currently out to sea.