There is nothing like nursing a baby with a runny nose.
First of all, there are the snot bubbles which grow and shrink as the baby valiently attempts to breathe and nurse at the same time.
Then there are the snot strings which streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetch when the baby repeatedly latches and unlatches as they gasp for air in between sucks. If you’re really bored, you can keep track of just how long they can stretch.
The best thing of all is going back to feed the next time and finding dried snot stuck to your boob and sticking it to your bra.
The lovely people downstairs were having ANOTHER FREAKIN’ PARTY. We have wonken up WAY TOO MANY times recently to the idiots down stairs talking and partying it up. It’s woken Geli up a few times as her room is downstairs with only a thin wall seperating her room from their kitchen/living room.
I’m not exactly sure what the deal is….earlier this year a mom and dad and older teenage daughter moved in….over the summer the daughter and ALL her friends hung outside and smoked so much. I spent most of the summerwith my back yard windows closed ’cause they smoke so often…..
Now that it’s winter time, I think they are smoking inside from time to time. We’ve woken up a couple of times to the house reeking like smoke, and Jon’s even gone down and asked and they’ve sworn that they aren’t….but it smells nasty….not fun!
Liek I said, they’ve had a few parties recently, but this morning at 4am I’d had it…..they were so loud and ALL 3 of the older kids woke up and that really ticked me off.
My kids are amazing. They don’t know yet that they are “supposed” to stay awake all night and wake up at 4am to open presents. They have always gone to bed around 8pm on Christmas Eve and wake up around 6:30 – 7am and are not allowed to come out and get their stocking before 7am. I’m so mean, but we typically have happy properly rested kids on Christmas Day, and I like it like that.
So, The last time they were super lound Jon had gone down, but there were some HUGE dudes and they were pissed out of their minds drunk. They offered to share with Jon and one guy even passed Jon his cup (sweet guy), and then when Jon passed it up – he took it back and polished it off. They did quiet down and left pretty quickly, but it was sounding pretty wild this morning, and who knew what Jon would be walking in to…….so……….
I thomped on the floor…..and thomped and thomped and thomped and thomped. Yah! I was mad…chicken, but mad….it got really quiet for about 2 minutes and then they all moved outside the back door and resumed. The basement suite doorway is right under Jeremy’s room, and’s poorly insulated and sounded like they were in the room with us…..so I thomped some more…..after another 15 minutes of one and off thomping – Id had it. I threw on a housecoat went out on my back deck and started yelling. The whole neighborhood could probably hear me, but I really didn’t care. They tried to shush me, but I told them to take off or I’d be calling the cops.
Long story short – They didn’t leabe or shut up and so Jon lodged a complaint with the police dept and they said they’d send a cruiser by, but in the next 5 minutes they were out on the front lawn for the whole cul-de-sac to enjoy their drunken roudiness, and one old guy came out in his security jacket to check it all out ’cause they started fighting.
So, we called the cops back and they said they’d be over right away.
15 minutes later the cops showed up just as the guys were climbing into their SUV. They pulled them out searched them, and then checked out the suite and we could hear them asking about pot and they said that they could smell it in the suite….so much fun……so finally a taxi minivan rolled up and carted the lot of them off and two of them who were obviously not too drunk to drive drove off in the SUV, and then the cops left and it was over…….
Except I was a awake and so were the kids. I told them to get back in bed and to go to sleep until after 7am, AND THRY DID.
But I didn’t….I was so wired and I laid there in my bed and laid there and laid there…so ridiculous. I finally went to sleep, and then REALLY didn’t want to get up at 7am when the kids woke up to get their stockings. Jon got up take pics, and I slept until 7:30pm.
I’m tired, and will hopefully get to go to bed soon.Â
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas Day. Ours has been wonderful even if it started off a little “eventful”. I’m really hoping that tonight is less eventful.
Going along with how behind we’ve been this Christmas…….
We are headed out to the stores right now. It is 9:30am on the Saturday befoe Christmas, and if that weren’t bad enough….it’s snowing. We are going to have some seriously grumpy people in the malls today, people, and we have our 4 kids and a stroller with us. Fortunately, I don’t think we actually have to hit the Mall, but we do have to make a dollar store run, and to go to Superstore and the Veggie Market.Â
Somone “facebooked” me (is that a verb now) a suggestion about what to get for my dad, and I think it was a GREAT suggestion and I think we’ll be doing that today as well.
To kick it all off, I have a headache and we haven’t even gone anywhere today. I’m not sure why I have a headache, but I’m wondering if it’s something I ate ’cause not only do I have a headache, but Josiah is a wicked rash on his head. He hasn’t had one in a while, and so I’m wondering if I ate something that had dairy or dairy protiens in it……..if that’s the case then that’s brutal.
Or, they could be totally unrelated and I couyld have a headache ’cause Jon and I had our second fight within a week. Nothing brutal, but when you’ve not had any fights at all, and then you have two…..well, have we just not been communicating and now we are doing a bit more and so there is more opportunity to disagree or clash or is it because we have some issues that we need to resolve. Who knows….it’s not a HUGE life altering fight, but you know….we just need to work through a few things….doesn’t everyone have issues sooner or later. We might need to talk through a few things in front of a counsellor or something.
It’s always a good idea to work on your marriage and realtionships, and therapy or counselling is great as a preventative measure…….Doens’t it make more sense to work on “things” before they become a MAJOR issue? That makes perfect sense to me. To put in an other way….it makes more sense to exercise and eat healthy so that you don’t have a heart attack ’cause it’s easier to get healthy before you have a problem and WAY harder to come back from a Heart Attack and get healthy…….Which would you rather choose?
Do you believe in preventative and/or ongoing counselling or therapy to work on yourself and/or your marriage? Do you go for a “tune up” once in a while?
I had really good intentions of posting before now, but hey, based on my recent track record…..twice in one week ain’t all that bad now, is it?
Josiah is sorta doing better. When I have a bit more emotionl energy to actually talk about what’s really been going on – I will. I’m not really holding anything back, per se; but you’ve just heard the bare bones of it all and as I’m sure you’re aware – I can be a lot more long winded and verbose about it all. There are probably details that might help you to understand things a bit better but for now – He’s doing a bit better.
We are almost ready for Christmas. I have a hard time believeing that I’m saying that. I haven’t left things this close to Christmas in quite a while. It’s hard to not be on top of things, but this Christmas I almost don’t even care. It really doesn’t even feel like Christmas. I’ve not done any decorating except the tree and that means that I’ll have nothing to tear down except the tree…….and that’s the way it stands this year. I have no Christmas baking because no one here can eat it, and that’s kinda hard, ’cause I LOOOOOOVE baking. I have pulled off a few recipes, and I made vegan Oatmeal Cookies, but substituted Kamut for Oatmeal ’cause Xan and me are not supposed to have oatmeal……and I made vegan Gingersnaps and they were pretty good also…actually they were delicious, but Xan took the majority of them to her class party and so we were left with only 8 to split between the 5 of us.Â
I think that I’ll ramble for a bit about everything and nothing. I have seen the left side of 180 pounds a few times……I’m hovering weight wise right around 180…..178 – 181 – 179 – 180 – 179……I’ve been watching my weight creep down over the last 2 months and it’s been pretty cool to see those 170’s in there. I was almost 180 when I got married and so to be at that weight is pretty exciting…….(whispers outta the side of her mouth) although I’m in no where near the same same as I was back then…..Oh to have that body back, but that would require some gravity defying surgery as “things” have sagged and fallen to lower levels and I’m not just talking about my butt or my under arm skin…….
We are trying to get back into some semblance of order here in the Culley house. Jon’s been doing an amazing job of getting up with the kids and getting them off to school,then usually ends up putting them to bed ’cause I’m nursing Josiah…
The kids know that he’s nicer than I am and have stretched out the evening schedule to an hour and a half. RIDICULOUS!!!! Not only that, but they continue to get out of their beds even after that, and I can’t handle it ANYMORE. So, I’ve laid the “SMACKDOWN” on them all, and we are on a freaking rigid schedule that will not be mucked with on pain of death…….we are eating dinner at 5pm, cleaning up as soon as we are finished, and tidying the house if necessary (and you know it’s always necessary) then if that’s all done by 6:30 we’ll play a family game (either a board game or card game or puzzle or something) and then at 7pm they have 5 minutes to get jammies on and brush teeth and if that happens then Jon is reading to them until 7:30pm and then it’s on bed and Lights out for Jeremy and the girls get to read until 8pm UNLESS they’ve been rude or cheeky or disobedient……then they go to bed at 7:30 as well.
I’m not even getting angry or upset with them…..we are talking a lot about choices over here right now…if they make bad choices, then they end up with negative consequences and good choices result in positive consequences…….they may not always know what the consequence may be, but they are constantly making choices and their choices ALWAYS have a consequence……It’s been a week, and already I’ve seen a positive change in behavior and attitude….although they are still balking a bit at HAVING to tidy up EVERY NIGHT……things are still more positive than negative and so we are headed in the right direction.
One thing that I still need help with, I want to get something for my Dad…….and I’m STUCK! I have no clue as to what to get him. What do you get someone who can buy anything he wants. I got him a gift certificate to a outdoorsman store for his birthday, but that just seems so…..so…..thoughtless…..What would you get for someone like that? Surely some of you have to buy stuff for someone who can get whatever they want………What you you suggest?
I have a very good reason. I’ve had a sick little baby.Â
We’ve been having problems with poop, and I am so tired of “problems”, I really just wish that everything could be “normal” for a couple of weeks (at least) so I could rest and relax and stop holding my breath all the time.
We’ve seen some blood in Josiah’s diaper, and if that doesn’t just FREAK THE CRAP RIGHT OUTTA YOU, then I don’t know what would.
Something’s been going on for a wwile now. His poos are not normal. I know that breast fed baby’s poos are all over the place, but they shouldn’t be filled with mucus and streaked with bits of blood and so acidic that they burn his butt every time he poops. That’s just not right!
We took him to our family Dr, who was so busy and running an hour behind and he basically brushed me off. CAN WE SAY FRUSTRATION? So, I then took him to the naturopath, who tested him and said that he’s got an yeast imbalance, and appears to be intolerant to dairy and eggs…
I wasn’t surprised about the eggs because a couple of weeks ago I made eggs and ended up scrambling them ’cause I wrecked them (I like my eggs a cretain way) then I made two more and ate them with my toast like normal, and a little bit later I was still hungry so I ate the other 2 eggs……Josiah threw up ALL DAY. Not serious vomitting, but just little barfing….the ONLY thing different about that way was the 4 eggs…..Hmmmmm – so I had already wondered about eggs.
I’ve been “supposed” to be off dairy for a long time now, but occasionally cheat, but for a week and a half it’s been hard core. No dairy, no eggs, and right now we’ve just started no soy…….I saw some more blood yesterday, and I had a fair amount of soy on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.Â
It’s so frustrating and so scarey when you’re laying beside your baby in the middle of the night and you’re not certain if they’re squirming and whimpering because they have some gas or if it’s something more serious….let’s just say that I’ve not been having very much fun the past couple of weeks. WAY TOO STRESSFUL!
But, I have a question for all of you, now that I’ve explained why I’ve not been around so much.Â
What is your favorite Christmas CD? I’m looking for good music, and I like pretty much anything, but I am looking for some more good ones. I have memories of growing up and listening to Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers Christmas Album. Not that I think that they are the definition of “Good” music, but I have so many memories attached to that tape cassette. I love Sarah McLachlan’s Wintersong, and I think that Mariah Carey’s Christmas Album is a great Christmas staple to have……..
So, what are your favorites, and hopefully they’ll be on I-Tunes so I can buy a copy?
We just had a HUGE dump of snow, and then immediately had some freaky warm weather. The temps went from -5 degrees to 13 degrees from one day to the next.
It started snowing on Saturday, and came down in HUGE FLUFFY GIANT FLAKES! And it snowed off and on until Sunday Evening when it started to rain, and by Monday the snow was mostly gone, and you didn’t even need a jacket outside it was so warm.
 WEIRD!
Anyway, on Sunday Afternoon Jon went outside to play with the 3 older kids. I figured they’d be back in fairly soon ’cause IT WAS COLD…and Jon hates being cold. If there is anything that he hates more than being cold – it’s being wet and cold.Â
Three Hours Later, everyone comes in yelling for the camera. Apparently they needed to take pictures of this:
If you click on the picture you can see the other pictures of the igloo. The kids had a blast. You just use an ice cream bucket and start building up around yourself. Jon helped them and they made it big enough that 3 kids could sit comfortably inside, and tall enough that Jeremy could stand up.
I love making these kinds of memories with the kids.
What are your memories from winter or Christmas time from when you were a kid?
Jeremy has a bit of the dramatic in him….I can’t imagine where he got that from, at all.
It’s all because of Jon, he was suach a drama queen growing up, and of course I had such an  even disposition, and never dramatized ANYTHING…….EVER!
Well, if you watch just the beginning of this first video, you’ll think that we are killing our son….so if you’re going to click on this video, you have to promise to watch it past 1:28…that’s when Jeremy stops screaming instantly……like Screamfest 2007 one second, and nothing the next……..this is how all kids lose their teeth, isn’t it? Don’t most mom’s love to pull their kids teeth out? I think that I’m a little too late pulling his teeth out actually, because he is morphing into Shark boy. He has the tooth tht should be in that spot, growing in behind…like a shark with a second row of teeth…Sucks! He’ll need braces for sure – I hate that!
Now, this next video is the middle phase where he’s checking himself out in our hall mirror. No. he doesn’t want plyers – he wants my tweezers….’cause those’ll work really well, son…..if you look in the background, you get to hear Xandra reading her shirt out loud to herself in the mirror, and explaining that Jeremy “wants those things that mom pokes her stuff out”……thanks Xan!
And here in this final video, the tooth actually comes out. Jeremy gives me the go ahead to use my” claws” on him, and “pop” it’s all done in a bloody gory mess. If you didn’t watch either of the previous videos – watch this one….it’s cute in a yucky kind of way.
He’s so proud that he’s finally lost his first tooth the normal way – as opposed to having the dental surgeon remove one……..’cause this is definately “normal” ain’t it?
PS: While this may not be a big deal to you, this is his first tooth that he’s lost (outside of an operating room), and he turns 7 on Friday… which is a bit late.
Okay, I feel almost human . I say almost, because I still feel traces of zombification, but MAN – it’s amazing what a little (uninterrupted) sleep can do for you.
Josiah has done 3 days in a row of amazing sleep, and I love that little man to bits for it.
He did from 11pm to 6am on Friday night, fed at 6am, and then slept until 10ish on Saturday morning.
On Saturday night, he slept from 11pm until 6am, and fed at 6am and then slept again until 10am.
LAST NIGHT……he slept from 11pm until 7:30am……yup, 8 and a 1/2 hours…..and then he fed and is still sleeping now at 10:10am…..WOW!
He should be up in a few minutes, but I figured that I could pop off a post before he wakes up.
He is getting so big, and is still such a happy and content baby. He smiles ALL the time, and rarely cries. He is such a blessing. He just started rolling over.  Lat Thursday he rolledf rom his tummy onto his back, and he’s done that about 3 times since then. He’s so close to rolling from his back onto his tummy, but I’m really not pushing him to do any of the different milestones or stages before he is actually ready. I want him to stay a baby as long as possible…..yah, that and as long as he’s not mobile I don’t have to vaccum EVERY DAY. Yup, can you tell that I’m looking forward to the crawling stage – NOT!
He is talking and cooing up a storm, and the giggling. I mentioned it in the last post, but seriously, it just melts you into a giant puddle on the floor. It’s so cute, and when he smiles – the smile just takes over his WHOLE FACE!
Oooops, I hear him calling. Hope you have a great day…Â
btw – I’m drizzling…just in case you all were wondering. I know that it was a real cliffhanger and I didn’t want to keep you on the edge of your seats with the suspense of it all.
I should have lots of pictures of the Cookie Swap up for tomorrow or the next day…..
