52 Weeks: Week 4

And my 100th post!

This week Mama and Papa were both home with Whit quite a bit. Ben's parents were out of town which meant I became a full time mom for the week. Which also meant lots of walks while it was unseasonably warm, trying new foods (I don't think he's going to like sweet things), and baking for me. Whitman is loving his doggies more every week. When we had to get in the bathtub (told you!) at 3am Wednesday morning, Whit was petting Zoey. We say he was comforting her and holding on to her collar so she didn't fly away! Oh and that frowny one of yours truly? Just how Ben and I spent our night off when the parent came back into town. We intended to watch the Hobbit and have a hard cider, instead my face blew up and we cleared out our DVR some. Que sera, sera.

Time to clean the bathtub!

This is what I woke up to this morning. Well this and a squealing, happy baby. I am loving that Whit wakes up happy now!

Anyhoo, if you live in the South, you take this stuff seriously. Or at least you should, and here's why:

That is the tornado that wiped out a lot of Tuscaloosa (where Ben's dad and step-mom live) on April 27, 2011. And here's the ones that hit North Alabama, where most of our friends live, on the same day.

I have to be honest and tell you that was one of the scariest days ever for me and we weren't in immediate danger. Sure, we had tornado watches in effect for our area, but that was nothing in comparison. I was watching the weather to make sure we didn't go into a tornado warning suddenly, when the local news started showing the feed from Tuscaloosa because of the great video they were getting. At first I was in awe, and then when I started seeing debris in it I realized that it was in the center of town and I just sat down and cried. Then the cells in North Alabama start popping up, and in Birmingham (more friends), and in Meridian (my family). It was incredible and incredibly stressful. Around Harvest, AL was probably the worst because I would see friends posting on Facebook that their cell phones weren't working right and they couldn't call or text, but they could see posts on Facebook. I was going back and forth with two girls from high school (one of whom I wasn't really friends with) about when it looked okay for them to come out of their safe places and when to go back. 

In the weeks after it was amazing to see people helping people. Ben and I gathered donations and drove them down once the restrictions to outsiders were lifted. We wanted to help clean up in the harder hit areas, but volunteers weren't allowed in until much later. A group of our friends came up and hung out for a bit and took advantage of our electricity, since it took them over a week to get it back. Even the news stations in Huntsville were broadcasting with backup generators and very little light. Occasionally I would get on their website to watch, it was so... interesting? heartwarming? awesome? I love how persistent humans are in the face of adversity. 

But all of that taught us a very important lesson. One, don't underestimate Nature. And two, be prepared! For that week, many friends had a hard time. Many of them didn't have non-perishable food that they could cook without electricity, water, a way to charge their cell phones, extra gas (which apparently people go nuts for in an emergency, even if there's no where to go), basically no one was prepared to be without power for an extended amount of time. Everyone has candles and flashlights, but that only goes so far. Thankfully, many restaurants gave away food for free. I heard of a couple of places that, since the food was about to go bad anyway, they had a huge cookout and gave away what they had. 

In fact, this is reminding me I need to restock our emergency stores. And clean the bathtub. Looks like that's where we'll all be sleeping tonight!

52 Weeks: Week 3

This week was spent inside mostly, due to cold and Whit not feeling well. So there was much laying about and being lazy, a bit of cleaning up after the frenzy to get ready for Shanna's baby shower, and quite a bit of appreciating the dogs and cat. When Whit was cranky they were the only thing that could make me giggle chuckle guffaw. We did manage to leave the house on a couple of occasions. One for Shanna's shower, which went very well! And we took another medium-sized trip to Huntsville to visit my friend Amanda and her baby, Pierce.

I have to add, I'm not seizing Whit in that bottom left picture! He's starting to sit up by himself and I was just trying to help him out the only way I could while taking his picture.

I think my baby is ready for solid foods.

I would call that "interest in what you're eating", wouldn't you?

It finally happened

We had our first overreacting-parent pediatrician visit. Whit has been cranky ever since we got home from the baby shower (which is why originally I thought it was just boredom). He had all these crazy symptoms: pulling his hair, scratching his belly, whiny (while playing and in between laughs), chewing his hand, super tired, shaking his head, and was only happy while we were holding him and walking around. So we thought, he's teething. No, his stomach is bothering him. Maybe it's a food allergy? I had given him his first taste of banana Sunday night. Maybe it's an ear infection? We finally take him to the doctor yesterday only to find out...

he has dry skin. Which I knew. His rosy cheeks aren't only from being a cute baby, but he's got his mom's and aunt's skin issues. I try to keep them well-lotioned, but that wasn't enough anymore. Now I'm having to put hydrocortisone (.5%) on his cheeks twice a day and Eucerin on top of that. And the dry skin had moved to his torso, so Eucerin on those spots every chance we get.

I guess we've been inside so much lately due to the cold, that he's drying out worse than normal. Normally I only bathe him twice a week and slather the baby lotion on afterwards, but he needs something a tad stronger. Poor little guy! And the doctor says he's probably teething too.

Good news: The little one is mostly fine. I reaffirmed my love for his pediatrician and the office staff. They are so nice about worried new parents! <---which was one of my questions for them before we decided to use them. And we found out Whitman is now a whopping 19 lbs!

When good parents go bad.

Or at least it feels that way. Yesterday afternoon I had to let Whit cry it out. This is the second time I have had to do it, but the first time that it hurt to do so. The first time I knew he was tired, he knew he was tired, it was just a matter of allowing him to calm down enough to rest. Yesterday though, I had no idea what was wrong. He's been kind of whiny the past two days, I think he might be teething again? So I tried teethers, the tablets, distraction, a bottle and finally Tylenol. I laid him down with his belly on my lap while I patted and rubbed his back...no good. I rocked him, hummed to him, let him try his vibrating rocker with it on, with it off...nothing was working. Okay, he's got a clean diaper on, he's fed, he's burped, I've given him everything I can think of, he's got to be tired? But as soon as I put him in his crib he just whimpers and looks at me and gives me a dirty slash "why are you doing this to me?!" look. And I walked out. I feel like I was abandoning him, but I know better. When nothing's working, sometimes you have to just let them fix it.

Geez, it was almost like he was mad at me. At one point he had calmed down in his rocker, so I asked him if he felt better. He looks over at me and here come the waterworks! It's not like him to be fussy, so I'm really thinking we'll see another tooth here soon. I don't see where from though, so I can't give him any oragel (that I know works).

I just want to hug him and tell him it's my first time too, and I'm just as confused and frustrated as he is. And that I'm sorry.

Oh, the other half of what the title means! I almost bitch slapped a couple of people today while Whit and I were out shopping. What's the deal with everyone getting all up in our grill at the checkout line? It's not going to get you out any faster, but it will get my cute little boot up your ass! Don't you know there's a FLU outbreak?! Stop breathing on my child!

/rant over

Organize this! {Media}

Along with almost everyone else, I've been spending the first month of the year trying to purge, sort and reorganize our lives. I've gotten a few little things done: my now weekly purge of Whitman's clothes (the kid is growing like a weed!), our pantry (really wished I had taken pictures), my magazine collection and a couple of kitchen cabinets. Today I was so inspired by this post from Young Nesters that I went right out, got everything needed, and had it done in about 10 minutes.

Granted, our media storage isn't much to begin with. We're much more book and magazine people than DVD people. 

And hell yes those are VHS! I don't know why since we don't have a VCR anymore.

+

=

Whoa, buddy! By the way, that single DVD on the side is one we borrowed from a friend, that I forgot we had....oops. And now we'll have somewhere to hide Whit's toys (away from the dogs' reach) that we keep in the living room

Plus, going through all the DVDs allowed me to find these:

Sweet, right?