Stellan

The blogging world is again praying for little Stellan. He is not doing well and it is a question of how to treat him next. Please send some thoughts his way.





We are supposed to be on our family vacation right now however Celia and I are with my Mom and Pete is in the Outer Banks. The start of our vacation has pretty much sucked. I had to have unexpected surgery on Friday (may explain at some point) I was discharged Sat. morning. In anycase this has altered some plans for the future which is frustrating. So tomorrow my Mom, Celia, and I are headed to the Outer Banks for the week. I might not be able to swim but I am going to get as close to swimming as possible. Hopefully by midweek I will be able to swim in the ocean. That is my whole reason for loving the beach. Pete and I, I guess need some happy thoughts sent our way. Things are going to be fine, just rough for a bit.

I will have to say though that after seeing Stellan's update when I got back from the hospital, our issues are definately minor.

20 Years

I don't have a picture of my Father on my computer, I really should. I just don't. 20 years ago we were at a Greenwood vs Wedgewood Swim meet (we were Wedgewood). My father had a fatal heart attack at the meet. It has been 20 years since that happened. It is really hard to believe that he has missed so very much. It is important to me that he is remembered. When Celia is old enough I will certainly talk about him with her.

My father had the most amazing sense of humor and he could make his voice change in an instant to impersonate someone or just to be silly. He was extremly patient and very kind. He loved painting and was a very talented artist. He also loved carpentry. I just took my dollhouse out of storage recently and I am amazed at what he made me. I received that one Christmas morning, decorated with Christmas lights. He was simply just an amazing person, you met him once and you liked him. I can't say he was perfect, he wasn't. We loved him for those faults too. I know my Mom was always very frustrated about his talent for forgetting things- his car almost always had a post note on the dash reminding him of something!

So Daddy you've missed quite a bit. More swim meets, graduations, weddings, moves, grandchildren, life, and love. We all miss you and you will be remembered.

Elmo and Bert Got Busy

Okay I know, there is something wrong with me, seriously. Celia likes this book called "Fix It Shop". It is about Elmo and Bert standing in as managers at the Fix it Shop for Luis and Maria. The other day I was reading it and I noticed the phrase "Elmo and Bert Got Busy". That produced a fit of laughter that I couldn't stop and an image of Elmo getting busy with Bert. The thought of the furry little monster and the 20 something muppet getting it own is forever implanted in my dirty little mind. I am not sure how it got there as I have read the fix it shop many times for Celia. I shared my perverted thought with Pete and before I even got to the point of explaining why I was reading the Fix it Shop in between snorts of laughter, he said "You never noticed that phrase, the one about getting busy?" Evidently Pete noticed it immediately and I guess he had already imagined the unthinkable scenario. So the book has forever been changed to me and Celia has to warn me not to laugh while reading the book.

Today we took some steps into setting up a play area for Celia in the basement. It isn't going to be anything fancy, just a small spot for her to have some toys. I want to put a bean bag there so she can look at her books. Eventualy I want to paint one of the walls with chalkboard and magnetic paint. My Father in law helped, okay more or less did most of the work. We moved the fridge from a little cut out area in the basement into the laundry room and to make it fit we relocated two cabinets. The laundry room looks great. I had a table in there with my sewing machine and craft supplies. It took up alot more room then I realized and now the laundry room looks more open. I now have to find a buyer for the table, it is a nice table actualy, but we don't need it. So when I get rid of that I can start working on her area. The good thing is in the process of finding room for the things in the laundry area, i have reorganized our storage closets and found alot more room.

I am hoping for a restful night. Celia took forever to get to sleep, went "pee pee" 3x. The last time I swear she only squeezed out one drop just to prove that she really did need to pee. We celebrated today because she pooped on the potty. She has done this before but it has been awhile. So she earned an M&M and some time spent watching Elmo on the computer. She was so proud of herself, however still a bit unsure of the whole pooping on the toilet. We ran to the toilet about 6 x before she informed that she was going to "Poop in here" and went into my closet. I let her know that it wasn't okay (kindly) and put her on the toilet. She was very cute. She spent a good part of the evening putting her dolls on their potty (a pink Ikea bowl that somewhat resembles her own pink potty). They peed and pooped, then received lots of hugs and claps. Glad to see she is enjoying this process!!

Sleeping Naked

This is from yesterday:

Celia is down for her nap, sleeping soundly, buck naked. Yes, that is right, naked. We went to the park with my friend and her 3 year old twins. Celia had a great time but unfortunately after waking up early and playing, she was exhausted. She fell asleep 10 min. from home and I carried her into the house. I attempted to put a diaper on her because she wears one for naps and at night. I should have learned though, don't mess with a sleeping Celia. I was pulling off her shorts and she started to smile, a big huge grin. She has never done this when she is asleep so I assumed she was playing me. So I picked her up, we cuddled and I made the mistake of saying "let's go pee pee before we go up for your nap". I am not sure if it was due to the request that she pee or the mention of her nap that sparked a horrible tantrum. It involved rolling around the floor, yelling at me to not touch her, hitting her stuffed elephant, etc. It wasn't pretty. She did in the midst of it announce by holding her self and racing to the bathroom that she really did have to go pee. She then received a raisin as a treat, I thought we were done with evil Celia- wrong. When I explained that we were going upstairs, she started again.

So we made it upstairs, she explained to me that she was going to "read to self". "No Mommy, I do, you go". As tempting as that offer was, I didn't think that would work. In anycase she ended up in her crib screaming "I no want to take a nap". I rocked her a few times, she nodded off in my arms and then when I put her in her crib, she woke up and informed me that "I no want to take a nap, I wake up". Yeah, I don't think so. After about an hour she zonked out. I checked on her and she had taken off her shirt.

She was not the happiest kid when she woke up either and I did discover a 3rd, possible 4th tooth coming in. So that explains some things!!

Today:

Last night was awful, I think I only slept an hour since Celia woke up around 2am. She was a mess. I gave her tylenol but it still didn't seem to help and I don't even know if it was her teeth that were bothering her. I eventualy brought her into bed with me (Pete was sleeping in the basement, his decision, to try to get some sleep). She actualy fell asleep immediatly. I couldn't go to sleep though. She woke up a few times and acted like she was having bad dreams, she would thrash around and then wake up suddenly. So I fell asleep again I think around 4 something and she woke up around 5 am, ready to go. Oh ready to go with the biggest case of "I am really tired, so don't mess with me, you know don't even look at me". She is thankfully taking a morning nap...

Mommy, well I just think this is a summer of sleep deprivation. I haven't been sleeping well and Celia hasn't either. I am hoping for some sleep when we go on vacation.

Celia "reading"

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

"Ogurt"

I made some home made "ogurt", that is what Celia calls "Yogurt". I actualy think she is currently made of 1/4 yogurt with the amount she eats. Making it was very easy actualy!

I put 1/2 gallon whole milk into the crockpot on low for 2 1/2 hrs. After that, I let it rest for 3 hours. I then combined 2 cups of the milk with 1/2 cup yogurt (I used Trader Joe's whole milk vanilla). I then put the mix back in the crockpot, wrapped the crockpot in a damp towel over night. In the morning, there was yogurt- pretty easy!!! I actualy just might try making it in my little dipper. It makes a huge amount, well it makes 1/2 a gallon worth. It keeps for less then 2 weeks. With it that easy, I could make it frequently. I don't imagine that my yogurt buying days are over, but perhaps we won't be going broke by Miss. Celia's yogurt obsession. She sometimes eats 3 containers of "yobaby" a day. If you price that out, a 6 pack of that stuff is sometimes 3.99 in our area! I made less then $2 for the milk and I had the starter yogurt on hand. Now I can use the yogurt I made as a starter. Now I do have to flavor it. I put just a tiny amount of honey in Celia's and I combined some frozen fruit with mine. The yogurt is a bit more runny then what we are used to but neither Celia or I really minded. I also made a smoothie with it this morning, yummy!

So on a side note. A close friend of our family was involved in a terrible accident. I don't know the details, but his neck is broken. It sounds like he is not paralyzed but from what I was told that could change. In anycase, send some thoughts out there. He is a very active man, enjoying retirement, golfing, grandkids, tennis, etc.

Celia has finally cut out her morning nap and Pete is having a difficult time with it, a very difficult time with that reality. I am okay with it honestly. It alters the day some as it isn't as convenient as her previous nap schedule, however most babies change to only 1 nap at age 1, we had nearly an extra year. Of course she didn't nap for the first 8 months of her life, so we disserved the extra time.

Beginning of Summer

I can't say that Celia and I have been totally enjoying the start of summer. I had the "plague" that I reported about a couple posts ago. Then Celia got a version of the "plague" that was complicated with an ear infection. My Mom came up the Friday after I was done work and ended up staying for more then a week. She was supposed to stay so that I could get things done around the house. I did for a few days then realized that I still was quite tired and then Celia got sick, so things didn't go as planned. We wish that we could have done some fun things with Mom Mom. In anycase, she was a huge help. My bathrooms and windows have never been so clean. This week, Celia was the one who was very tired and luckily had some good naps. After Celia's fever broke, she gave us major attitude. We were very scared that it was the terrible twos- however it ended up being the terrible bug that was bothering her! After a couple days, some good naps, she was back to her old self. That is not to say that she is an angel, she definately has an attitude.
We have enjoyed playing in our not so little baby pool with our neighbor, doing some extra special shopping for Daddy's birthday, and going to the park. The park wears Celia out, I love the park... I am enjoying being home with her so much! I know I am going back to work but still not sure if I am requesting a transfer. I will definately know more in August.
Sadly, we missed out on seeing my niece Katie in June because of the "plague" that was at our house. However we are in the works on setting up another date for her visit. She stays with us for about a week each summer. I really can't wait because Celia loves to talk to Katie on the phone. Potty training for Celia is going basically okay. She has the pee thing down, pooping is another story. She will poop on the potty, it just isn't her favorite thing. She has gone more lately then she has before, so perhaps it is progress. She still will poop most of the time when she takes her nap. At 22 months, I am okay with that but of course since she is on the pottying track, it would be nice to get both of them to go in the potty. We have had very few "pee" accidents and she is pretty good about holding it when we go out. She doesn't like to use public restaurants, but we have learned that she seems to be good with holding it.
We are spending the 4th at home. We have good friends coming over tonight and Pete's family is coming over on the 4th.
Happy 4th of July!