I've been a little under the weather for the past few days, thanks to a sinus infection, but! I refuse to let it get the best of me and instead choose to focus on the fact that if I must get sick (after a solid ten months of blessedly wonderful health), better to do it now than, say, a week from now when I am gearing up for school again and running my 5k for the Northwest Hope and Healing Foundation. I've raised 75% of my goal and have until next weekend to complete it. (Thank you so much, again, to each person who has donated so far! I deeply appreciate it.)
I'm hoping that by tomorrow I feel well enough to go for an easy run, with at least one "real" run before the big day next Sunday. In the meantime, I've been drinking a lot of juice, taking naps (thank goodness for weekends and supportive husbands), and reading Catching Fire, the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy. These books are amazing, if you haven't heard. Matt and I have both been devouring them. The third book comes on out Tuesday, and Matt hasn't even tried to convince me to wait for a library copy. Or paperback.
I also feel the need to share, mostly for my mother's benefit, that I finally committed to the sinus wash thing. I have been terrified of these for years because they are SCARY and GROSS. When I was newly-pregnant with Suzannah I came down with a horrible sinus infection and kind of tried to do it a couple of times, since I couldn't take any really good drugs, but I don't think I was doing it right and I never really tried it again until now. This weekend, at a friend's gentle urging, I sent Matt out for a NeilMed Sinus Rinse Kit. I even watched a couple of youtube videos to make sure I was doing right, and they made me want to cry. I told Matt I could happily watch birth videos all day long (which is true; I love them!) but watching water pour out of someone else's nose totally DOES NOT MAKE ME HAPPY. But I was very, very brave and I watched the scary videos anyway and then I mixed up the little bottle of solution and then I squirted it up in my nose and I KEPT DOING THAT even though, yes, it is pretty gross, but you guys? IT WORKS, and it feels REALLY, REALLY GOOD. Just in case anyone here has every been plagued with sinus issues but has been afraid to try it. It works about a hundred times better than any cold medicine I could have taken, which I tend to avoid anyway because a.) I find most of them useless and b.) I don't want any of them to mess with my milk supply, since some of them can have temporary drying effects.
Aren't you proud of me, Mom? You were right! (She is probably both nodding her head and rolling her eyes because it took me a good four or five years to come to my senses and just learn how to do this already. I understand. Once you've seen the light, it's so aggravating when other people don't immediately convert.)
Anyway, being sick is no picnic, but I'm grateful to get this out of the way now. My biggest worry is that my kiddos will get sick, which is so much worse. Isaac has never even had so much as the sniffles; we've been lucky. Sick babies are so, so sad.
Speaking of my babies, here are some things about them:
Suzannah does this interesting thing where she says that anything she doesn't like is outside or "in the clouds." We'll have a conversation like this --
Suzannah: Mommy, are we going to get cupcakes today?
Me: You don't like cupcakes!
Suzannah: I do!
Me: Cupcakes? Eww!
Suzannah: They're not ew. I took the ew off.
Me: Where did you put the ew?
Suzannah: I put it in the clouds.
We do that when we're being silly, obviously, but sometimes if something upsets her she'll say it's "outside." I'm trying to think of a specific example right now, but all I can come up with is a memory of me apologizing to her for losing my cool awhile back and she said something like, "We put it outside." (The "it" was being angry.)
Bedtime continues to be ridiculous, and it probably always will be; we have our bath/jammies/teeth/potty/stories/songs/hugs, and then she thinks of five thousand reasons to get up. She has to kiss us again, or she has to squeeze out three more drops of pee, or she has to kiss Isaac's head, or whatever. The other night she came padding out of her room at 10:30 (good grief). I asked her what in the world she was doing up, and she looked at me with these huge wounded eyes and said, "I need to kiss Daddy's elbow."
She's long and leggy and such a kid. Sometimes I can't believe she was ever a baby, and sometimes I can't believe how fast it's gone. She still wants to snuggle with us; she still wants to rock in the big recliner when she's upset or sleepy -- and then sometimes just the way she tilts her head and says something like, "Hmm. That's interesting," makes her seem so heartbreakingly grown-up.
Pretty much everything about her delights me.
Isaac has a tooth! It poked through on the bottom last week, and actually, tonight I could feel another one on the verge of poking through right next to the first. So far, it hasn't seemed to bother him at all. I can only hope that all of his teeth come in this easily, but I'm prepared for the fussing and fevers and runny noses that plagued Suzannah whenever she popped a tooth.
We feed him more or less whatever we're eating, which means he gets some of it in his mouth and actually swallows it (we know, because we change his diapers; sometimes it's more obvious than others), and a lot more of it is dropped or squished in his fat little fists. He'll put anything into his mouth and gnaw with real enthusiasm, though. Slices of cool green pepper are a huge hit; I think it feels good on his gums.
He goes down so easily at night, anytime between 7:30 and 8:30. He sleeps in his room for a few hours, and then he comes into bed with us for the rest of the night. I still love sleeping with him, even though he's getting more restless in the bed sometimes. Sometimes, when he wakes up very early and won't settle or nurse back to sleep with us, I put him in the pack 'n play; he usually does fall back to sleep then, so it appears he just wants his own space a bit sometimes. Usually, though, he stays asleep with us until Matt gets up to shower, and then he'll blink his eyes open, stretch his meaty little legs, and smile at me. I love those moments more than I can put into words.
He's huge, wearing a combination of 12-month and 18-month clothes. I don't know what he weighs now, but at six months he was nearly 22 pounds. When we're out and about and he's beaming at strangers, people ask how old he is. When I tell them, their eyes always widen a bit and they say, "Wow -- he's a big boy!" I still wear him every day in the Ergo, though. Why didn't I have one of those with Suzannah? I wore her in the Moby until she was older, and I carried her in my sling until she was a toddler -- how did my shoulders even handle that? The Ergo is still incredibly comfy, though, even when I wear Isaac for a long time. I'm certainly not one of those anti-stroller people, because sometimes when I'm out and about with two children it's NICE to be able to put him down so I can, oh, eat with free hands, and he seems to like the stroller just fine, too, but what often happens is that we'll be at the zoo or something and Suzannah will say she's tired after awhile, so I'll end up wearing Isaac and pushing Suzannah. (Which is funny, because she refused to ride in the stroller at all starting at about age two. I think she just didn't want to be a baby or something. But now, sometimes, she likes to.)
Isaac absolutely adores his sister. Every time she pays any attention at all to him his face breaks into the most radiant expression of joy. If she's anywhere near him and does something goofy (makes a face, climbs on something, tries a somersault, whatever) I think everyone in our neighborhood must hear his delighted shrieks. (And he does shriek. He loves his voice so much. Suzannah was never a screamer; Isaac screams. But he doesn't scream when he's upset -- he screams when he's just so happy he can't contain it for a second longer. And then he looks terribly pleased with himself.)
I think he is the happiest person I have ever known.
No comments:
Post a Comment