So today I was feeding Scarlet microwave macaroni and cheese while trying to simultaneously edit a task for work and it just sort of hit me that this is my life now. Scarlet giggled and spit out her noodles and smeared cheese in her hair until I cleaned her up and put her down for a nap. Trying to finish my work before the end of the day, I sat at the table and ate the rest of Scarlet's macaroni (with a little pepper sprinkled in, because I'm classy like that) and edited my document. So this is my life: smeared cheese and leftover baby lunches and naptime and work.
I have to admit, though--I really like this place in my life. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Not even for the higher-quality, non-microwaveable macaroni and cheese.
Friday, June 13, 2014
Friday, May 30, 2014
Lindsey Stirling Concert
So Josh and I had a fun night. We bought Lindsey Stirling tickets last January and last night we finally got to see her perform! She performed at the Saltair, which I had never been to. Once I got there, I was a bit let down. It's a standing-room-only location. I hadn't been to a standing-room-only concert since the Aquabats in 2008. That's right--six years ago. And let me tell you, there are things you don't enjoy as much when you're six years older, standing for three and a half hours being one of them.
But it turned out to be a wonderful experience anyway. I couldn't help jumping up and down (a LOT) and cheering until I grew hoarse and clapping after every performance. That girl can really rock a song! Her dancing was elegant and fast-paced and triple-y impressive with her two backup dancers in sync behind her. The choreography was spot-on incredible. I can really tell she's improved her dancing and violin-playing a lot since her last album came out. I especially loved her costume changes. She had five different (awesome) outfits complete with five different violins for the concert, including a black-and-gold violin that she "unearthed" from a chest during her pirate-themed performance.
She talked a bit between some of the numbers, which I really loved. She's bubbly and bright and energetic and she has the sweetest things to say. After her first number, she was discussing the research she did before going on tour this time around, and said she had attended a Lady Gaga performance where Gaga did a "sexy" costume change on stage until she was "down to her nothings." Lindsey said she wanted to do something similar, so her backup dancers threw a bright green track suit on over her outfit. It was a funny bit, especially when she called it her sexy wardrobe change, but then the lighting changed and her clothes started to glow and she performed an incredible rave-like techno number that perfectly worked with the outfit. It was awesome and the crowd loved it.
Immediately after the song, she begged her dancers to help her take it off, though, claiming that "being sexy was too hot."
My favorite numbers were a song she wrote for a little boy struggling with bullying and her album-cover song "Shatter Me." The anti-bully song dealt with wind and flight and stars and sky and the dancers wrapped Lindsey in this sheer blue fabric and a powerful fan blew her beautiful dress behind her as she was carried on the shoulders of the dancers and leaned far over the crowd. It was so beautiful and artistic. And Shatter Me. Ohhh...I love that song like nothing else. The music video is spectacular and you should all watch it and fall in love with me:
It deals with Lindsey breaking out of her shell, except in a literal sense via the music video. I think it's absolutely fantastic.
The opening band was Archis with Dia Frampton, whom I now love. My favorite song they performed was Blood. You can see her perform it two weeks earlier in this video:
I thought their performance last night was better, but our stage had better acoustics and the band was two weeks more experienced.
Anyway, Josh and I left at 9:30 with our ears ringing from standing too close to the stage. We felt like old fuddy-duddies with our sore feet and ears, but my heart was light. We picked up our sleeping baby from the grandparents' on the way home and then we all went to sleep. It was a magical night.
But it turned out to be a wonderful experience anyway. I couldn't help jumping up and down (a LOT) and cheering until I grew hoarse and clapping after every performance. That girl can really rock a song! Her dancing was elegant and fast-paced and triple-y impressive with her two backup dancers in sync behind her. The choreography was spot-on incredible. I can really tell she's improved her dancing and violin-playing a lot since her last album came out. I especially loved her costume changes. She had five different (awesome) outfits complete with five different violins for the concert, including a black-and-gold violin that she "unearthed" from a chest during her pirate-themed performance.
She talked a bit between some of the numbers, which I really loved. She's bubbly and bright and energetic and she has the sweetest things to say. After her first number, she was discussing the research she did before going on tour this time around, and said she had attended a Lady Gaga performance where Gaga did a "sexy" costume change on stage until she was "down to her nothings." Lindsey said she wanted to do something similar, so her backup dancers threw a bright green track suit on over her outfit. It was a funny bit, especially when she called it her sexy wardrobe change, but then the lighting changed and her clothes started to glow and she performed an incredible rave-like techno number that perfectly worked with the outfit. It was awesome and the crowd loved it.
Immediately after the song, she begged her dancers to help her take it off, though, claiming that "being sexy was too hot."
My favorite numbers were a song she wrote for a little boy struggling with bullying and her album-cover song "Shatter Me." The anti-bully song dealt with wind and flight and stars and sky and the dancers wrapped Lindsey in this sheer blue fabric and a powerful fan blew her beautiful dress behind her as she was carried on the shoulders of the dancers and leaned far over the crowd. It was so beautiful and artistic. And Shatter Me. Ohhh...I love that song like nothing else. The music video is spectacular and you should all watch it and fall in love with me:
The opening band was Archis with Dia Frampton, whom I now love. My favorite song they performed was Blood. You can see her perform it two weeks earlier in this video:
I thought their performance last night was better, but our stage had better acoustics and the band was two weeks more experienced.
Anyway, Josh and I left at 9:30 with our ears ringing from standing too close to the stage. We felt like old fuddy-duddies with our sore feet and ears, but my heart was light. We picked up our sleeping baby from the grandparents' on the way home and then we all went to sleep. It was a magical night.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Dental Adventures--I Hate It
One day a couple of weeks ago I was being a good tooth-carer and flossing my teeth when my crown on my back left molar just popped right out of my mouth. Hmm. That's troublesome. So I called the dentist the next morning and went in for an emergency visit to have them temporarily recement the crown back onto that silly tooth.
*As a side note, visiting the dentist unplanned is a bit of a hassle. I have to arrange for time off from work, which isn't always easy depending on my workload and deadlines. I also have to see if my mother-in-law has the time and availability to drive down to watch Scarlet while I leave. Then I have to call the dentist (I hate calling people more than I hate anything ever) and somehow make my case sound important enough to wedge me into the already-full schedule of the day. This hassle doesn't even take into account the fact that I'll have to work longer that day to make up the missed work and that I'll likely be sore and grumpy from any dental work done. But I digress.*
So, back to the visit. The dentist said that the crown would likely pop off repeatedly unless I replaced it because it had been made too shallow (it had to be because I got it when I was a pre-adolescent and my gums were still developing underneath it). I promptly scheduled an appointment and one week later I was back in the dentist's chair (having undergone all the same inconveniences of work and babysitting I discussed above) while the dentist drilled and cleaned and molded and then recapped the tooth with a temporary crown until the mold could be sent to a company and a permanent crown could be made. I have an appointment scheduled for that in another week. I went home, thinking that was the end of it for at least a week.
It was not.
The next day I ate breakfast a little gingerly because my temporary crown was a bit sensitive. As the day progressed, my tooth and then my jaw eventually ignited into flame and I endured rather excruciating pain for a few hours before I broke down and took a couple of Tylenol. I made the necessary arrangements again to see the dentist the next day. He explained to me that my predicament could be caused by one of two things: either my tooth is really sore because the cells surrounding the nerve in that tooth are building an extra layer of tooth to protect the nerve from further impact, OR the nerve is gradually dying from too much trauma on that tooth and will require a root canal. Either way, I have to wait it out and self medicate when the pain gets too intense. Really? I set up an appointment to find out that nothing can be done?! If the tooth is growing an extra layer around the nerve, then that process will take four to five weeks. And if the nerve is dying, it will still be a process that takes several weeks to know for certain. Bah.
SO. Here I am, waking up every day with a grimace on my face and a snarky comment on my tongue. I *think* I've been good so far at keeping my surliness from offending Josh as I endure this unending barrage of tooth soreness each day. I have this crazy fear of needing pain medication for something serious and it not working because I've built up an immunity and however valid that fear is, it prevents me from taking medications unless I absolutely cannot stand it (which is why I waited until my contractions were 30 seconds apart before I broke down and begged for the juice). This equates to me holding off and waiting to take one or two Tylenol until the late afternoon. But it also means I've had a pretty foul attitude about absolutely everything.
Work is reorganizing AGAIN? I hate it. Our sink handle needs to be replaced. I hate it. It's raining? I hate it. Last night I bought a pizza and rented some movies from the library and I guess I didn't hate last night, but I think I hate just about everything else right now. Just four to five more weeks of this...
*As a side note, visiting the dentist unplanned is a bit of a hassle. I have to arrange for time off from work, which isn't always easy depending on my workload and deadlines. I also have to see if my mother-in-law has the time and availability to drive down to watch Scarlet while I leave. Then I have to call the dentist (I hate calling people more than I hate anything ever) and somehow make my case sound important enough to wedge me into the already-full schedule of the day. This hassle doesn't even take into account the fact that I'll have to work longer that day to make up the missed work and that I'll likely be sore and grumpy from any dental work done. But I digress.*
So, back to the visit. The dentist said that the crown would likely pop off repeatedly unless I replaced it because it had been made too shallow (it had to be because I got it when I was a pre-adolescent and my gums were still developing underneath it). I promptly scheduled an appointment and one week later I was back in the dentist's chair (having undergone all the same inconveniences of work and babysitting I discussed above) while the dentist drilled and cleaned and molded and then recapped the tooth with a temporary crown until the mold could be sent to a company and a permanent crown could be made. I have an appointment scheduled for that in another week. I went home, thinking that was the end of it for at least a week.
It was not.
The next day I ate breakfast a little gingerly because my temporary crown was a bit sensitive. As the day progressed, my tooth and then my jaw eventually ignited into flame and I endured rather excruciating pain for a few hours before I broke down and took a couple of Tylenol. I made the necessary arrangements again to see the dentist the next day. He explained to me that my predicament could be caused by one of two things: either my tooth is really sore because the cells surrounding the nerve in that tooth are building an extra layer of tooth to protect the nerve from further impact, OR the nerve is gradually dying from too much trauma on that tooth and will require a root canal. Either way, I have to wait it out and self medicate when the pain gets too intense. Really? I set up an appointment to find out that nothing can be done?! If the tooth is growing an extra layer around the nerve, then that process will take four to five weeks. And if the nerve is dying, it will still be a process that takes several weeks to know for certain. Bah.
SO. Here I am, waking up every day with a grimace on my face and a snarky comment on my tongue. I *think* I've been good so far at keeping my surliness from offending Josh as I endure this unending barrage of tooth soreness each day. I have this crazy fear of needing pain medication for something serious and it not working because I've built up an immunity and however valid that fear is, it prevents me from taking medications unless I absolutely cannot stand it (which is why I waited until my contractions were 30 seconds apart before I broke down and begged for the juice). This equates to me holding off and waiting to take one or two Tylenol until the late afternoon. But it also means I've had a pretty foul attitude about absolutely everything.
Work is reorganizing AGAIN? I hate it. Our sink handle needs to be replaced. I hate it. It's raining? I hate it. Last night I bought a pizza and rented some movies from the library and I guess I didn't hate last night, but I think I hate just about everything else right now. Just four to five more weeks of this...
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Budgeting is Not A Hobby
I was looking over our budget today as I do often because I find it cathartic (I have problems) and it occurred to me that now that Josh has signed on to work full-time with his company, we'll be receiving his paychecks twice monthly as close to the 15th and 30th as possible. While that's hardly any different than my own pay schedule, it presents an interesting change in the way I'll be budgeting our income.
Josh was a contract employee up until yesterday, meaning he was technically employed by a hiring agency and his paychecks were delivered weekly. I like to plan the week's expenses--tithing, estimated food and fuel requirements, as well as any pending utilities or other bills--to determine how much of our income can be set aside for savings. I REALLY like to put money in our savings account, guys. It's almost like going shopping--I get this really satisfying high when transferring the money over. So when the leftover weekly income becomes available, I happily move it into savings and receive my positive boost of enthusiasm, happiness, energy, or whatever else you call it.
All this background is merely to present this new conundrum. We won't have those weekly paychecks anymore, meaning I won't get to put money into savings on a quadri-monthly basis. I'll have to wait until the end of the month to put anything into savings and that rather devastates me. No more high.
Now I'll have to find a real hobby like a normal person.
Josh was a contract employee up until yesterday, meaning he was technically employed by a hiring agency and his paychecks were delivered weekly. I like to plan the week's expenses--tithing, estimated food and fuel requirements, as well as any pending utilities or other bills--to determine how much of our income can be set aside for savings. I REALLY like to put money in our savings account, guys. It's almost like going shopping--I get this really satisfying high when transferring the money over. So when the leftover weekly income becomes available, I happily move it into savings and receive my positive boost of enthusiasm, happiness, energy, or whatever else you call it.
All this background is merely to present this new conundrum. We won't have those weekly paychecks anymore, meaning I won't get to put money into savings on a quadri-monthly basis. I'll have to wait until the end of the month to put anything into savings and that rather devastates me. No more high.
Now I'll have to find a real hobby like a normal person.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Hitler Mayo
So Josh likes mayonnaise but I'm not a big fan. I made chicken salad sandwiches the other day for dinner and I put in a bit of mayo for Josh's sake, which was more than I wanted but less than Josh wanted, so he felt compelled to pull out the mayo from the fridge and coat the sides of his bread before continuing to eat his sandwich.
As he did this, I explained to Josh that I put the purple grapes into the salad to provide a burst of flavor and moisture that essentially serves as a better kind of mayo for my sandwich. Josh then made these observations:
"Grapes are Camilla Mayo.
"Mayo is Josh Mayo.
"And Miracle Whip is Hitler Mayo."
Needless to say, Josh is not a fan of Miracle Whip.
As he did this, I explained to Josh that I put the purple grapes into the salad to provide a burst of flavor and moisture that essentially serves as a better kind of mayo for my sandwich. Josh then made these observations:
"Grapes are Camilla Mayo.
"Mayo is Josh Mayo.
"And Miracle Whip is Hitler Mayo."
Needless to say, Josh is not a fan of Miracle Whip.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
The Age of Clumsiness and Illness
Scarlet is causing me all kinds of grief these days, but it's really not her fault. She has finally reached that age where everything--absolutely EVERYTHING--she does leads to bumps and cuts and bruises. She is so clumsy now! She's been walking for three-ish months but suddenly it's like her feet are too big or too small for the rest of her and she trips over her own feet, her shoes, the carpet, the stairs, and sometimes literally nothing at all. On more than one occasion, I've seen her drop from a dead standstill, having fallen over nothing. It's exasperating and more than a little funny.
She fell down the stairs at my sister's house (despite my having put up a gate to prevent her from climbing the stairs) and got a nice scab on her right cheek that is almost entirely healed now. She also got a scratch down her other cheek that scabbed over whose origin is entirely unknown to me. She also fell at the play place at Chik-fil-a and slammed her forehead into the shoe cubby holes and got a lovely greenish bruise between the eyes. She also smashed my phone into her forehead and had a pinkish mark underneath her bangs for a few hours. That was just in one week.
A few weeks ago, I was playing with Scarlet by holding her hands and pulling her up and twisting her from side to side to get her laughing. It was adorable. After a time, she started to cry for a couple of minutes and then stopped suddenly. I was concerned but she seemed fine and relatively happy so I brushed it off. I took her with me to book club and she was somewhat fussy there, which was uncharacteristic of her. When Josh was changing her into pajamas that night, she started to cry a little bit and we were both concerned by then. I wanted to take her to the ER to have her checked out at that point, but Josh thought we should let her sleep it off and take her to see her pediatrician the next day if she was still feeling out of sorts. Well she was fussy the next day, so we took her to see her doctor, who confirmed she had nursemaid's elbow. The tendon in her elbow had been pulled askew by my swinging her, which was easy enough to fix (the doctor snapped it painlessly back into place in a second), but which meant that her elbow was more susceptible to that particular injury in the future. I've been incredibly careful ever since, but the guilt in knowing I injured my own baby will probably never go away entirely. Scarlet didn't cry in the doctor's office, but heaven knows I did.
On Sunday afternoon, Scarlet started to act a bit fussy, which is always a hint that she's not feeling well. We put her down to sleep a little earlier than usual, but she woke us up at one in the morning because she had vomited all over her bed, the poor thing. We were more than a little concerned because aside from spit-up, Scarlet had never vomited before. Josh cleaned her up and I changed her into new pajamas and cuddled with her in our big bed for a few minutes before Josh put her back into her own bed. Then twenty minutes later she started crying again, so I went in and checked on her. She hadn't thrown up again so I rocked her and sang to her and put her back down. It was odd for her to start crying for no reason, but I figured she just needed help getting back to sleep. Twenty minutes after that, she was sobbing again, so I got her out and carried her to my bed, thinking to sleep with her in the bed for a little bit. Instead, Scarlet threw up all over our bed. Ah. So THAT'S why she was crying.
That began the long morning wherein I sat with Scarlet in the rocking chair in her room, holding her and leaning her over a bowl each time she started to gag. She threw up a lot. She also needed several urgent diaper changes. She was so uncomfortable and feeling so poorly, that she was unable to sleep regularly and kept tossing and turning and crying and sleeping and waking up and starting it all over again. It was a LONG. NIGHT. Just before seven o'clock, I passed Scarlet off to Josh and I stumbled into bed. I was dead to the world until 2 in the afternoon. Josh, of course, had taken the day off from work to look after Scarlet. We were both headachey and exhausted the rest of the day. Apparently it takes two adults to look after one sick baby.
Anyway, that is an example of our first experiences with Scarlet's new stage of development: clumsiness and illness. I'm pretty sure this is a transition that will be permanent in her early childhood and perhaps later, but I am not excited about it. I miss her feeling healthy and happy and I miss not worrying about her as much.
She fell down the stairs at my sister's house (despite my having put up a gate to prevent her from climbing the stairs) and got a nice scab on her right cheek that is almost entirely healed now. She also got a scratch down her other cheek that scabbed over whose origin is entirely unknown to me. She also fell at the play place at Chik-fil-a and slammed her forehead into the shoe cubby holes and got a lovely greenish bruise between the eyes. She also smashed my phone into her forehead and had a pinkish mark underneath her bangs for a few hours. That was just in one week.
A few weeks ago, I was playing with Scarlet by holding her hands and pulling her up and twisting her from side to side to get her laughing. It was adorable. After a time, she started to cry for a couple of minutes and then stopped suddenly. I was concerned but she seemed fine and relatively happy so I brushed it off. I took her with me to book club and she was somewhat fussy there, which was uncharacteristic of her. When Josh was changing her into pajamas that night, she started to cry a little bit and we were both concerned by then. I wanted to take her to the ER to have her checked out at that point, but Josh thought we should let her sleep it off and take her to see her pediatrician the next day if she was still feeling out of sorts. Well she was fussy the next day, so we took her to see her doctor, who confirmed she had nursemaid's elbow. The tendon in her elbow had been pulled askew by my swinging her, which was easy enough to fix (the doctor snapped it painlessly back into place in a second), but which meant that her elbow was more susceptible to that particular injury in the future. I've been incredibly careful ever since, but the guilt in knowing I injured my own baby will probably never go away entirely. Scarlet didn't cry in the doctor's office, but heaven knows I did.
On Sunday afternoon, Scarlet started to act a bit fussy, which is always a hint that she's not feeling well. We put her down to sleep a little earlier than usual, but she woke us up at one in the morning because she had vomited all over her bed, the poor thing. We were more than a little concerned because aside from spit-up, Scarlet had never vomited before. Josh cleaned her up and I changed her into new pajamas and cuddled with her in our big bed for a few minutes before Josh put her back into her own bed. Then twenty minutes later she started crying again, so I went in and checked on her. She hadn't thrown up again so I rocked her and sang to her and put her back down. It was odd for her to start crying for no reason, but I figured she just needed help getting back to sleep. Twenty minutes after that, she was sobbing again, so I got her out and carried her to my bed, thinking to sleep with her in the bed for a little bit. Instead, Scarlet threw up all over our bed. Ah. So THAT'S why she was crying.
That began the long morning wherein I sat with Scarlet in the rocking chair in her room, holding her and leaning her over a bowl each time she started to gag. She threw up a lot. She also needed several urgent diaper changes. She was so uncomfortable and feeling so poorly, that she was unable to sleep regularly and kept tossing and turning and crying and sleeping and waking up and starting it all over again. It was a LONG. NIGHT. Just before seven o'clock, I passed Scarlet off to Josh and I stumbled into bed. I was dead to the world until 2 in the afternoon. Josh, of course, had taken the day off from work to look after Scarlet. We were both headachey and exhausted the rest of the day. Apparently it takes two adults to look after one sick baby.
Anyway, that is an example of our first experiences with Scarlet's new stage of development: clumsiness and illness. I'm pretty sure this is a transition that will be permanent in her early childhood and perhaps later, but I am not excited about it. I miss her feeling healthy and happy and I miss not worrying about her as much.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
My Baby, the Speechless Barnacle
I'm getting very anxious for Scarlet to learn speech so that she doesn't have to sob uncontrollably to let me know that she wants a bite of my cereal. It would also be nice to be able to explain to her that when I'm in the shower, I'm safe and happy and don't need her to pull back the shower curtain and sob as water soaks her clothes and hair for TEN MINUTES while I rinse out the shampoo and conditioner from my hair. I would also like to explain that the toilet paper roll she discovered this morning should not be swatted at until all the paper unravels onto the floor as I'm doing my hair in front of the mirror.
Scarlet can do so much these days--eat real food, walk unaided, sit still in front of a Barbie movie for ten minutes at a time--but I'm certain that life will be a bit easier once she understands that she doesn't need to be by my side constantly. I love her affection and cuddling but I also love being able to type with two hands and being able to place my work laptop in my actual lap, and not awkwardly on the arm of the couch so I can hold Scarlet in my lap and edit one-handed.
*sigh* One day...
Scarlet can do so much these days--eat real food, walk unaided, sit still in front of a Barbie movie for ten minutes at a time--but I'm certain that life will be a bit easier once she understands that she doesn't need to be by my side constantly. I love her affection and cuddling but I also love being able to type with two hands and being able to place my work laptop in my actual lap, and not awkwardly on the arm of the couch so I can hold Scarlet in my lap and edit one-handed.
*sigh* One day...
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