The Burp Rag Chronicles

Breathe

Next time I am taking Sydney to her annual pediatrician visit, remind me how terrific this four-year one was. Thanks.

As most of the parents of young people know, the first year and the first few years after that are wrought with shots. DTaP, MMR, Varicella, Hepatitis B, Flu... you name it, your kids gets it. And most of them are series of shots, too... DTaP is FIVE shots... eeesh.

Knowing that Sydney would be getting some shots at her appointment, I was preparing her. After all, she'd seen Cameron get shots about two weeks earlier, right? Cameron cried for a very short amount of time, considering she's a tiny baby. Sydney, in years past, has cried small amounts, and last year she didn't cry AT ALL.

This year, however, was not the same.

I'm just going to sum it up by saying it involved my arms and a leg wrapped around her. That little poop is a STRONG one! Yikes. I know she built it up in her mind because after the Horribleness was done, she was easily lured into not crying with the promise of stickers. Two Handy Manny stickers and two dinosaur sticker was just what the doctor ordered. Literally.

Thank goodness she doesn't need any more shots until she's about 11, and that one at this time is optional. So... let's see. ;-)

Things are slowly starting to return to normal, thank goodness. I have my van back (though still waiting on Sydney's car seat), the accident is mostly resolved (Progressive, once again, rocks), the Focus is sold and paperwork on it completed, and life is sorting out a bit.

Breathe.

Cameron is inches away from crawling. She kind of does this army crawl thing so she gets to what she wants to get to, it's just really ugly. ;-) She's eating her veggies like a champ, we're wrapping up green beans and will start peas tomorrow. She looooves green beans. *lol*

We got Sydney enrolled in a gymnastics class - she is so excited to start it. It begins on September 12th and I don't think that time can come fast enough for her. *lol* The place we chose does actual training, and if your child enjoys it they can help them train all the way into adulthood. I can't wait to see how she does. :)

So, that's the news 'round these parts!

Happy 4th Birthday!

Four years ago (well, at 5:20 this evening) Sydney Elizabeth came into this world. I can't believe it's been that long. Actually some days it feels like yesterday and some days it feels like forty years ago.

 

Sydney just a little while after birth. Sunning like the California Girl she is. ;-) LOOK at those skinny legs! Not even close resemblance as to what was to come - Thunder Thighs! (newborn)

 

Strike a pose... vogue! Check the thighs on this young lady. LOL (1 year old)

 

Showing us her muscles, in her diaper, no less. (2 years old)

 

Her shirt is Little Miss Chatterbox - SO TRUE. (3 years old)

 

My adorable 4-year-old, so excited to go on her annual Build-a-Bear hunt! Holding a Wall-e cupcake topper from her party, wearing a shirt that she received as a gift. Such a BIG GIRL!

It really is hard for me to believe that she will start school next fall. She is SO ready for it, even now. But we've enrolled her in gymnastics and might do dance later if I can afford to do both. 

So four years ago, in just about an hour, my sweet girl arrived into this world. A day or two before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, in the midst of a gas crunch crisis... not under the best economic standings, but she sure did bring a ray of sunshine to the world that day. :-)

Happy Birthday, my Sticky Bean!

Build Me Up, Buttercup

Finally, things are starting to look up. It only took... gosh, a month? Really? Because it pretty much felt like the entire year.

Let's breeze through all the updates.

• Hard Drive Problem: still in process. It will be involving sending it to a company to recover it.

• Cameron Puking: Meh, she has her good days. Unfortunately her bad days have ruined all my t-shirts. That formulas stinks and it stains.

• Accident in Van: My van is still in the shop, though they estimate that it will be done on the 27th. I have a Dodge Caliber rental, which isn't too bad. I'd probably never buy one, but it's decent enough for a rental. New car seats have been ordered, Sydney's is on back order at the moment (ugh) but Cameron's should be here about mid-week.

• Side Note on Accident: Progressive Insurance ROCKS. I can not thank them enough for their ease of use, their great rates, and their top-notch service. They've made this Infrequent Accident Causer a believer.

• The Focus is SOLD! A lovely family found it on Auto Trader, and the college-bound son needed a reliable car. Ironically, that is JUST the market I thought it would be perfect for. :-) And in another ironic twist, he's studying to be an artist... just like what Jarrod won the Emmy for. They were very nice people and we're happy to know the car is going to someone who will take care of it. And, we've been invited to West Texas to visit any time we want. :D There is something very serene about the desert out there.

• Sydney's birthday party went without a hitch. I think everyone had fun, and at the very least I know Sydney enjoyed herself.

I am now officially embarking on a new chapter in life, one that doesn't stink quite so badly. My birthday is next month, it's not allowed to suck!

So, Sydney's party was great - you can see pictures here. It kind of spans the weekend, so I put them all on there. The cake turned out adorable (thanks to Mel over at Just Baked! You get the horns, girl!). I think we celebrated her birthday in style! Now we're slowly getting to play with and wear all of our awesome gifts - thank you everyone! We'll be working on Thank You cards this week, check your mailboxes soon!

So yeah, things are heading in the right direction, finally. Yay!

Let's see... Cameron. Where do I start with that child? ;-)

She is happily eating solids really well - we're on to Sweet Potatoes, and next is the lovely green beans. Or peas, I haven't decided which one, yet. Rest assured we will have the video camera handy when we try them. ;-)

She is also happily rocking on her hands and knees, getting ready to crawl. I thought I had more time. Your time line gets so jacked up with the second kid, things seem to happen SO much quicker.

We have gotten rid of her diaper rash (yay!) with the help of my good friend Kim - she nailed it as an internal yeast problem. Much, much trickier. But I am, as I type, re-sanitizing her diapers in hopes of using them again. In the meantime we were using Sydney's old Fuzzi Bunz diapers, which have held up beautifully. They make me realize why they worked so well with Syd. Though I've heard their re-design sucks. I'd like to try one to see for myself, though.

I think that is all, really. We enjoyed having Uncle Tyson down for Syd's birthday, and we will enjoy a visit from Grandma Sandy this week as well. I am taking her to a trial gym class tomorrow, in hopes that it's just what she needs to get a little activity with a purpose. The girl needs some focus!

So, without further adieu... goon night, and thanks for the fish. :-)

The Middle Finger of God

Aimed right. At. My. Head. So far August 2009 has sucked in the following ways:

• My external hard drive has crapped out on me. Want to know what was on there? ALL of our digital pictures since December 2000. I have a backup, but nothing past May 2008. So... none of Cameron as an newborn infant on through six months. NONE.

• How much will it cost to possibly retrieve the data off there? Oh, roughly $1000. Give or take $200.

• We go to church yesterday, and being the great parents we are, we've moved Cameron to a Big Girl car seat, which means she can't sleep in her infant seat in church any more. So I put her in the Moby wrap. Awesome! She liked it, it's comfortable for me, sweet! Uh-oh, she is starting to crank up a little! I'll stand in the back of the church trying to calm her down. Aw, baby burped. Oh shoot, baby is throwing her entire 8 oz. bottle up on me. All over the front of my shirt. And the Moby wrap. At church.

• My mom bought a van! Yay! We traded her our Escape for the van because she wanted something ridiculously cool and we wanted more room to haul children around. Only now I am trying to sell the little Focus because the dealership tried to screw us over with a low ball offer. Same with Carmax. Yay, two car payments this month! We've had a lot of lookie-loos but no real offers, despite shelling out about $200 on "advertising" for the thing.

• Since my mom is the lien holder on the new van, she has to be the main insurer on it. I am the secondary driver. We have 30 days to activate insurance on it, and we got that taken care of yesterday. Good thing, I got into an accident today!

• After said accident (which was me rear-ending someone at a stop light - freaking anti-lock brakes - and then him rear-ending his wife/girlfriend right in front of him) the wife/girlfriend in the first car hops out and yells at me "My KIDS are in that car!" pointing at the middle car. To which I reply, "And my kids are in THIS car!" Later she apologized after realizing that I didn't wake up this morning seeking someone out to smash into. I really, really could have done without that, lady, thanks.

• The irony was that I was being a Good Daughter and taking my mom some Starbucks coffee at work, since she works Sundays and the cafeteria is closed. Now that triple venti latte is soaked into my passenger floor mat. It smells great, for now. I suspect the milk will start to ferment by tomorrow.

• Sydney was really great throughout the entire ordeal. Until she saw me crying. When we got back to my mom's house (she took the rest of the day off and will tomorrow as well), she was crying on the couch that she didn't want our new van to have a boo-boo.

• Now, my air conditioner in the van is busted (there was leakage at the site of the accident but it appears to not be the radiator) and in 100+ degree heat it kind of makes it really miserable to drive around. Cranky mom + cranky kids + lots of sweat = death for Dear Husband.

• Tonight I found out that my wonderful husband prayed at church last night for less stress for his lovely wife. I think next time he should keep his big, fat thoughts to himself.

• Sydney's birthday is next weekend and I have very little done for it. Granted I am not having it here at the house and the location we are having it at does a lot of the work for you. But I need to get goody bags made, a design for the cake made out, and wrap her gifts from us. These three things should take me another month to accomplish. I really hate planning birthday parties, though I have zero problem attending them. This is why out of Sydney's four birthdays, I have done two parties. I hate doing them. But she is getting to the age where she is starting to notice parties and if I didn't have one for her, she will ask me why none of her friends came over. No thanks, I don't need to make her cry.

I am so ready for September 2009, things can't possibly suck any more than they do. A friend of mine on Facebook said I am due for some good news. I suspect with the level of crappiness that has gone on this month I deserve to win the lottery. At least enough to pay off my credit cards, please. That's all I ask.

I know they say that God only gives you what you can handle, but why the heck is He choosing to test me all at once??

Fruits and Veggies!

Cameron loves her fruits and vegetables! Even if they are made of plastic!

Long Cat iz...

It seems like the days around this house fly by and before I know it, Cameron is embarking on Six Months On This Earth, and Sydney is almost four years old. I mean really, when did I start losing time? Can I claim that I have an alternate personality that is stealing time from me? That can't be, because hopefully that other personality would be a little more productive.

Let's see, what has happened recently?

Uh, well, we are in the process of selling my Focus (anyone need a great little fuel efficient car?) and we purchased a van. A little drama surrounding that, but I love it. Never thought I would be a "van person" but here I am and I probably won't go to anything else, at least until the kids are grown and out of my house. This baby is a 2005 Chrysler Town & Country Limited - it's got everything. And I mean that. DVD player, nay, CHANGER. CD, nav system (though I still like my Garmin better), Stow N' Go seating. automatic lift gate and doors. talk about riding in comfort!! And I love how smooth it drives, too. I liken it to driving an M1A1 Abrams. Because I've totally driven one of those.

Anyway, we've had interested parties but no takers yet. We've rented space on a highway For Sale lot not far from the house, I've done an Auto Trader ad, and I've put an ad for it in the credit union newspaper. It's stressing me out because I am just ready to be done with it. I don't need more stress, and it's been affecting my sleep. Well, not necessarily the car, but everything combined.

Cameron keeps trying to get up on her knees to crawl. Or I guess rocking usually comes first. But you can see her hoist her buns in the air, and then her legs collapse under the weight. It won't be long, that one.

She has been suffering a wicked rash, though. We finally got it figured out, I think. I think she has issues with internal yeast because she will clear up, and as soon as she goes #2, she turns bright red again and it takes me a day to clear up. You know, just in time for her to go again. So I think I will continue using the prescription cream the pediatrician gave us, and make an appointment to discuss internal treatment if she thinks that is the issue.

I want my damn cloth diapers back, people! I like the gDiapers but I don't love them. They are good when you have to put medicine on their nethers, but they suck at containing poop. I've said that before and I am becoming more and more a believer in that as the days/weeks wear on.

So aside from that, life's been peachy.

I've started working out at a local gym, which I am really enjoying. I need to get better at going (more consistent!) and aim for three or four times a week. I really liked it when I went that often before - maybe I can make a Saturday morning one. Then two or three more during the week. I know I would feel better. I was gaining a little weight after I'd gotten all my Cameron weight off, and I am proud to say that the little that I have been doing has gotten that back in check.

I am also looking at getting Sydney in to a gymnastics program. I was really leaning toward a Mom's Day Out, but I think she might need more sport-related physical activity. She's smart and I don't have issues getting her to learn. But I can't keep up with her in a sport fashion. I've never been a sports person. I don't really even know HOW to play soccer other than you kick a ball back and forth and you can't use your hands. And that people all over the world go berserker for their team. That's about it.

So, that's life right now. Oh, and my hard drive that had all of my digital pictures from May 2008 - present is fried. And yes, that would include Cameron's baby pictures. We have a friend looking at it but something tells me I am going to have to get it from a drive restoration place, costing a ridiculous amount of money. But I can't not get her pictures. :-(

*sigh*

Fluffy Cloth Diaper Butt Contest

Hey everyone - go vote for Sydney in the Biggest Fluffy Butt Cloth Diaper Contest! She's not the BIGGEST butt in the bunch, but she sure is cute. All you have to do is leave her a note in the Comment section saying you love #3 - that's it! Help us help, well... Cameron! I guess I could put a diaper on Syd, but that seems kind of mean since she is well out of them. ;-)

Go, tell your friends to vote for her, too!

FYI - that is Sydney at about 10-11 months or so: