Walking Backwards

So, following the example set by many other blogs. I've done these fifty questions. I got it from Sherry's blog (who I won't link to as her blog is password protected). It will soon be replaced when I finally get around to doing my 100 things.

Joe has been kind enough to remind me that I failed to write about my night out with him. It was, after all, our first night out in recent memory and was quite enjoyable and worthy of being written about. Annie and David offered to watch the little one for us and we got dressed up. I got to wear the black and white dress my mother had bought me months ago that still had tags attached to it. I felt quite swanky, if a bit uncomfortable, in high-heeled shoes. For a change, I wore make-up. It was an event. We went to Ventana, which is a French restaurant attached to the Texas culinary academy. I know that going to a cooking school for a fancy night out is really running a risk, but we were willing to chance it for the opportunity to have cheap cuisine. We were both floored by how wonderful it turned out to be. The service was exceptional; it felt as if we had five separate servers who all knew exactly when we needed something. There was one member of the waitstaff who just stood against the wall surveying the floor to see if another waitperson had to go attend to a table. We each ordered a different glass of wine which was poured by a sommelier. I don't think I have ever been to a restaurant with a sommelier before. I ordered the three course tasting menu and Joe ordered the steak au poivre and a ceaser salad. My appetizer was smoked shrimp followed by maple glazed pork loin with butternut squash ravioli and for dessert, creme brulee. Everything was so good. Joe would stop every few bites and just exclaim how wonderful he found everything. How the wine matched the food perfectly. How the staff was just on top of everything. All in all, one of the best dining experiences ever. The bill, which was far larger than we expected, didn't even phase us in the end (although it may keep us from going there as frequently as we would want).

I am beginning to suspect that there are going to be a lot of power struggles in this life with my toddler. This evening Nicholas and I engaged in a battle of wills and I am hopeful I may have won. Let me know what you think. I had just finished making dinner and Nicholas had just finished his nap. He was letting me know that doing the dishes was an unacceptable endeavor for me at this point in the evening. I calmly explained to him that I had to do the dishes before I could do anything else as they had overtaken most of the surfaces in my kitchen. He didn't quite seem to understand the importance of clear kitchen counter space in a house with five people (four of whom are boys), and continued to pursue his argument. I picked him up and took him to the living room with a cup of juice and some raisin bread and sat him in front of a baby einstein video. I then returned to my task at hand. Not to be so easily swayed, Nico returned a few short minutes later with renewed vigor. I tried to distract him with his kitchen cabinet full of interesting goods, but alas, it would seem that that had lost its charm. Now attempting to physically restrain my dish washing attempts, Nicholas' cries reached a fevored pitch. Before you begin to pity my child, unknown reader, let me tell you that I have spent all day interacting with my child and had cuddled with him for well over half and hour after he woke up. I could not continue to neglect my household responsibilities as they were beginning to pile up. And, as much as I would like it, I am simply unable to dedicate all of my attention every waking moment to the little one in my life. Bills do have to be paid and the trash has to be taken out after all. Now to return to my story, I kissed my little one and put him on the floor with his truck and told him that I would be done in five minutes and that I simply couldn't play with him until then. Needless to say, I spent the next five minutes doing the dishes with a very loud and angry toddler attached to my leg. After all was done, he was fine to watch his video, as long as I was in the same room watching him. So much grief over something so small. I worry that this is only a taste of what is to come.

Update on my brain-fogged purchase discussed in the last entry: I called the store and, while I was not able to get into specifics, they told me that they do have a thirty day return policy. I am going to go tomorrow in between Nicholas' classes and see if I can exchange items. Hopefully it will not take too long as I only have an hour, really. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Joe is going to kill me. No really, he is. I went out today to buy all of my mother day cards, gifts, and Amber's graduation gift. I ended up spending just over $300 on Amber's gift. I didn't mean to. I don't know what to do. Joe and I has decided to get her jewelry and had set a one-hundred dollar price limit. That should have been fine as what we were looking for had several items at or under that price on several jewelry store websites. So I went to the mall with my super cranky toddler in tow and started shopping. I bought all twelve of my mother's day cards and a cookie for the little one. The entire time I am nursing a fairly nasty sleeping-pill hangover, mind you. Well, it turns out the first and second jewelry stores don't have anything similar to what we're looking for. The third jewelry store offers to have some of their pieces reset to match what I'm looking for but it might take two-three weeks. Finally, at the ninth jewelry store I find what I want. Nicholas is screaming and writhing around in his stroller, throwing half-masticated bits of cookie at me. The jewelry store owner comes out to look at my screaming baby. I ask the sales clerk to see four pieces of jewelry and for the prices of each. I swear she said it was ninety-nine dollars. So I say wrap it up, sign the ticket and try to run out the door in the most dignified way possible. As soon as I get to the car, I pull all of the receipts out of my pocket to put them in my wallet and see that the item I bought wasn't ninety-nine dollars, but two-hundred and ninety-nine dollars. I have no idea if I can return the item, or what to do if I can't. Today is the last day that I have a chance to shop for her gift as well. Today has not been my day, and I have yet to tell Joe. That is going to be a fun phone call.

The strange things I have to do. . . This morning was Lily's vet appointment. Other than the obvious revelation that my little girl needs to go on a diet, the vet told me I now have to start brushing her teeth every day. She has no tartar build up, but she does have gingivitis. I was given two kinds of toothbrushes and a tube of poultry flavored toothpaste and am supposed to start tonight. If she doesn't like the poultry toothpaste, I can go back for the fish or beef flavored varieties. So much fun. I already enjoy having to brush Nicholas' teeth twice a day, now I am going to have two squirming creatures fighting my attempts to provide them the hygiene they need and are unable to provide themselves.


I am starting to get ready for my trip next week to my sister-in-law's graduation ceremony. I realized last night that I need to buy her a gift. There is no telling what to get her, I have no idea what she likes. My SIL and her husband are Jehovah's Witnesses so we have never had to buy them a gift before now. Needless to say, I would like to get her something special as this is her master's degree and since I haven't ever gotten her anything before, I would like to make it up to her. If anyone has any ideas, let me know.


Annie and I have been working on a tentative childcare exchange so we can both start attending school in the spring. I am quite excited. I will actually be able to graduate in a couple of years if everything works out. Unfortunately, my mother has thrown a large wrench into the plan shortly after its inception. She wants me to go to Italy with her for a month in October 2005. This normally would be thrilling, but it would be detrimental to that fall semester for Annie, Nicholas, and myself. I don't want to leave Annie in the lurch and I don't know how Nicholas' pre-school would deal with him being gone for so long. I also don't want to miss an entire semester of school. I know its a long way off, but I need to think about it now, before I set up my school schedule for the next year. There must be a way around it.

I really don't know what is going on, but Nicholas isn't sleeping. For the past two nights he has been waking up every hour after only sleeping for about fifteen minutes. Last night I put him down at 10:30, at 12:15 the restlessness started. He would wake up fussy and uncomfortable; for some strange reason he would rub his feet together. It would take me thirty to forty minutes to get him back asleep and he would be up again in fifteen minutes just as fussy and uncomfortable. He didn't have a fever and he wasn't gassy, I had no idea what was wrong. He finally went to sleep from 6:30 this morning until 8. I am totally exhausted. We missed his Kindermusik class because I'm just not up to it. He seems fine, but, reasonably, a little tired. I hope that this pattern doesn't repeat tonight, I don't think I am going to make it if I have to go through another night without any sleep. Joe got home this morning and the addition of another cranky person in this house is making things worse. We're supposed to go out tonight and leave Nico with Annie, but right now all I want to do is lay around. Bleh! Please forgive me if the previous doesn't make any sense, I can barely keep my eyes open.

So, I have abandoned the idea of doing the full on TV Turnoff week. Nicholas is going through too much with his daddy leaving after being home for almost four weeks straight. I am going to keep up with all of the plans I have made for this week, I'm just going to be a little more lenient about the television. Yesterday he hardly watched any television at all as we had a visit from his grandpa, a trip to visit his friend, Aiden, and an evening bridal shower for some of our friends. Today we drove out to Sweet Berry Farm and picked strawberries. Right now he is sitting in front of his Teletubbies video drinking juice and fighting to stay awake. Tomorrow, we might be heading to the Austin Children's Museum for their infant day. We'll have to see, I don't think either of us is used to this much activity in one week.


I have to talk about the strawberry picking, though. Seanna, Aiden, Nico, and I drove out to their little farm about 40 minutes from where we live. It was a little more crowded than I expected, but my worries about them running out of strawberries were quickly alleviated. There were hundreds of bushes of strawberries with ripe fruits on each. As soon as we walked up, the babies were straining to get away and run around. Right next to the entrance there were baby kittens and two baby goats who thought that Nicholas was hiding some tasty treat in his overalls. Fortunately, they were easily distracted with the possibility of running up and down the strawberry rows. Nicholas would put the strawberries into the basket if I handed them to him. Eventually we gave up on keeping the little ones near us and just let them run around. Nicholas walked up to the horses and just stared at them, quite an improvement from his trip last week when he would stay as far from the horses as possible. We ended up taking home about nine pounds of strawberries. I think Seanna and I got a little over-excited with the picking. I still don't know what I am going to do with all of them, but I think at least a little strawberry ice cream is going to be called for. Now I think it is time to sit on the floor with the baby and eat enough sun-warmed strawberries to be able to skip dinner.

I don't know if I have gone temporarily insane or not, but I am going to try to participate in TV Turnoff week this year. Of course, it has to fall the week Joe goes back to work after being home for three weeks. It is going to be hard enough to calm the little one down, but I think that its a good idea. I am going to spend some time tomorrow planning out activities for those seven days. Joe says I'll be lucky to make it through the first couple of days and that just making the effort will be noble enough, but I really want to make it the entire week. I still have to figure out a way to record next week's Gilmore Girls because it is a new episode and, wouldn't you know it, I can't watch television either. I'll have to read the site a little more thoroughly to make sure one of the activities I want to do is allowed. I want to take Nicholas to Baby Day at Alamo Drafthouse, finally. They are showing 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', which I want to see quite terribly. Hmmm . . . maybe I should think about this a little longer.


In other news, Nicholas is now enrolled in swim class at the beginning of June, I made my hotel reservations for my sister-in-law's graduation party at a really swank hotel because of an online discount, the only distance learning classes I need to take this summer are classes I want to take in the classroom but I am going to take them anyway, and I am still dealing with the hassle of getting Nicholas' immunization records for his pre-school.

We are now, finally, back from vacation. Who knew that I would miss my house this much? It isn't as if our vacation was terribly stressful, or even disagreeable really. I just love not feeling out of place. I missed my own bed and my cat and all of the simple comforts of my home. Knowing where the spare toilet paper is has distinct advantages. Now for a quick recap of the activities of late:

Day 1 (April 3rd):
Having packed the night before, loading the car was quite easy. We started toward San Antonio only fifteen minutes late and only missing a few non-essentials. The portable DVD player kept the little one occupied and the ride was short. We arrived in SA right on time for Miss Fiona's first birthday party. She looked quite darling in a very fashionable red (and later yellow) ensemble. Nicholas elected that Fiona's toys were much more exciting than his and proceeded to spend most of the afternoon ignoring everyone except the two four-year-old boys who were tearing through the house. We ate barbecue and cake and had a good time catching up with everyone. Then we were off to Houston.

Day 2 (April 4th):
Much of the day was spent being quite unmotivated. We finally left the house at four thirty to meet with some of Joe's friends at Chuck E' Cheese pizza. Nicholas became enthralled with skeeball. He loved running up the ramp and dumping balls into the slot. I know that he was cheating, but I don't think it matters as he was mostly dumping them in the gutter and his most common score was zero. We then went to visit Joe's dad in the hospital who looked better than expected, but still was worn from ten days in a hospital bed. He was going to be released in two days and was getting anxious. That night we left for Joe's mom's house.

Day 3 (April 5th):
Joe's mother's house was very relaxing. All that we accomplished all day was a long trip to the grocery store and quite a bit of wandering around on the property.

Day 4 (April 6th):
We got to go fishing for catfish at the pond on the property. I have only been fishing once before in my life and am apparently quite unskilled. I only caught one fish that had to be thrown back and the second fish that bit broke my line. Everyone else seem to do much better. My day was not without adventure, though. Nicholas decided he wanted to sit down in the pond and got stuck in the mud. As he leaned over, he fell in the water. All you could see was the top of his head. I panicked and jumped in after him, pulling him out. He started crying the second he left the water, but was perfectly fine. After a few minutes he let me put him down and played with his own fishing pole. It didn't have a hook or much line on it, but it did have a floater, which he threw in the water and Joe fished back in.

Day 5 (April 7th):
The first time Joe and Nicholas rode a horse. Nicholas was not thrilled, but Joe seemed to like it quite a bit. Nicholas got on the horse with Joe and made a big circle around the tree before he decided that he had had enough and wanted down. I got to ride for a few minutes before I had to put the baby down for his nap. Later that evening we had fried catfish that everyone had caught and a belated birthday cake for Joe.

Day 5 (April 8th):
We left Joe's mom's house in the afternoon and drove to Lake Charles to visit Joe's grandparents. Actually, it was more like we drove Nicholas there for his grandparents to dote over. They made Joe's favorite, fried shrimp and played with the baby. They gave us ten dollars with the stipulation that we use it solely to buy Nicholas Easter candy. I think that it will buy Nicholas Easter candy for the next three years. They also sent us home with a grocery bag full of hot house tomatoes that they grow. We left there at about seven to return to Houston. When we arrived in Houston we were excited to learn that Joe's father had gotten out of the hospital and was at home on a respirator. Nicholas was a lot more friendly towards him out of the confines of a sterile hospital room.

Day 6 (April 9th):
The day IKEA struck. Joe and I spent the day shopping at Ikea and picked up quite a few things, but we didn't get the couch I wanted. We did get two new toy boxes for Nicholas' playroom and blankets for the twin bed we are getting him later. They didn't have some of the stuff I wanted to look at from their catalogue, but I suppose it is for the best, financially at least. We still have that gaping hole in our front room where something is conspicuously missing, but we aren't moving anytime soon. We'll have the chance to get something later.

Day 7 (April 10th):
I woke up early and let Joe sleep in. Polly and Nicholas' baby cousin, Tyler, wanted to go up to the nearest grocery store where Joe's sister works and where they were having a visit from the Easter bunny. Unfortunately, we arrived a little late and there was no bunny to be found. After getting home and finding Joe awake, we headed for the nearest mall to search for the elusive Easter bunny. Sadly, he wasn't to be found there either. We did find some of Nicholas' school clothes for next year on sale. I got him a jean jacket, some rain boots, and some high-traction socks. We returned home to start the prep work for Easter dinner, our desire to have a picture of Nicholas screaming at the Easter bunny unsatiated.

Day 8 (April 11th):
Easter. The day you eat candy for breakfast. Nicholas really liked his Easter basket. He got a set of glow-in-the-dark pajamas, a book 'My Ducky', an egg shaker, a whale bath toy the shoots out water, and some animal crackers. His Grandma Polly got him a ball, some sand toys, a kite, some bubbles, and lots of candy. His grandmother Charla got him a plush duck puppet that quacks out Old McDonald and some really neat bath toys. He got a little much. We ate Easter dinner and then a dessert of strawberry shortcake a little bit later. Joe and I decided to get a jump on things and left that night. Amazingly enough we finished unpacking before collapsing on the bed.

So here we are, returned to life at home. I am eagerly looking forward to a bath and a cup of tea and the hectic schedule to return.

It has been a semi-stressful few days. Joe's dad is in the hospital with pneumonia and he isn't getting better. They did a lung biopsy on him yesterday and we will find out the results tomorrow. If the can't figure out what is causing his fever and pneumonia, they are going to perform an open-lung biopsy on him where they have to open his chest to exact different tissue samples. We have been on the phone every day waiting for news. Joe's brother drove out to Houston on Monday and came back yesterday. He said that his father is really badly off. He has to be kept on oxygen constantly and is barely eating. We are driving into Houston on Saturday evening and I really hope that he is showing some improvement by then. I just can't picture Joe's dad being sick. He is always so upbeat and happy. It is so strange to think of him in a hospital bed surrounded by breathing machines. We keep asking if we should go in early, but everyone says that Saturday should be fine. Joe and I are just really worried.