By way of explanation

My cute nephew took this picture on his phone when we blessed Amelia. Not great quality, but an awesome pic, eh? I realized that I hadn't posted about Felix's lumps (thanks for the reminder Michelle). If you look at the pics in the last post, you will notice lots of marks on his face. Most of those are left-over brown sharpie.

But last Saturday during his birthday party, Felix took a header over the arm of his grandpa's chair and he caught a vent on the way down (it's a wall vent that sticks out about an inch). Two giant goose eggs on his forehead, with the lower one close enough to give him a black eye. :(

I don't know if I've ever gotten across the living room faster.

He learned a new word this week - scab. Not like he can pronounce it, but he tries. Of course, he picked it off already, but it's all healing nicely and the black eye just looks like a little green eye shadow in the corner of his eye now.

No more progress has been made on Felix's room. When we removed the baseboards we found that there are about 4 feet of wall under the window where the sheet rock is ruined. Moldy and crumbled. Sigh. I've got a piece of sheet rock to fix it, and hopefully I'll get that done today. Then the last step before I can finally paint is to fix the ceiling. We had water damage in the ceiling and although it's been fixed, there is a section where there is now no texturing. I have a plan of attack, but I'm kind of worried that that particular section will never match. gah!

So much to be done!

A post of pics

Most of these are from the last week. Felix turned 2 on Saturday. Yes, Amelia does have male pattern baldness. She has hair on top, just not a lot. But what she does have is a beautiful read - at least in natural light it's red.

The smirk

You'd think the grin means that she's a happy baby. She's not really. Well, she's got some serious colic here and there and it's been extremely tough. Nobody wants to deal with a screaming baby for 6 hours straight. It's so mentally tough to be so helpless. Terrible!

She is cooing and smiling as a response. That, and when she cuddles up into your chest to sleep, makes the crying worth it.

On Saturday we had a birthday party for Felix and for his grandma. We were going to try to get some work done on the bedroom, but nobody showed up till the goodies were out. Felix loved the balloons, the building blocks (like giant legos), the bubbles, the Cookie Monster puppet, and the car. A pretty good haul, to be sure.

Just before we were ready to get out the cakes, Felix took a header off his grandpa's chair and caught a vent cover with his forehead on the way down. He's got two goose eggs on his forehead now, with scrapes in the middle. From the side he looks like a young Klingon.

As is his pattern, he cried really hard and zonked out very soon afterward, but that was fine because he needed a nap anyway. We've figured out that if he skips his nap, we can get him down about 8 pm and keep him down till 8 am. Otherwise, there's no guarantee. I sure hope Amelia keeps up her own trend and sleeps a lot more regularly.

Since Felix likes cords and wandered off with the cord I need to download pictures from my camera, I have no way of getting his birthday pictures off my camera at the moment. Thankfully, my brother and his wife have the same camera so I can occasionally borrow their cord. Time to make a trip to Provo... (I'll put the pics up as soon as I get them off)

Interesting thing

When I had that last blog post up and went to another tab in my browser, it was a truncated version of the title. It said, "I blame my fat..."

I do that sometimes. Blame my fat. It's not very pleasant, to be honest, but I blame a lot on it. I have for years. At least I realize it, right?

Sorry to be so random. I thought it was interesting.

I blame my father...

He's the one who showed Felix how to draw on his finger. Silly grandpa!

Photographic evidence

See, we really are making progress. The next step is to sand the walls of Felix's room so I can then prime and paint (I want to get that all done before Saturday because we're then hoping to put in the flooring). We also need to do some rearranging in the kitchen so we can finish the wall behind the fridge. I'm going to hold off on the ceiling and other two walls till some time in the future. I'm just not going to worry about it for now. Same with the mural I have planned for Felix's room. I just want the base paint for now. The guy at the paint store said I don't really need to texture the walls. I can sand them down and then use matte paint (instead of glossy) and with a mural it'll be fine.

and this time I'm serious!

I bought an exercise bike from a Filipino guy who's getting deported. The group work visa extension was denied so stuff is being unloaded for good prices. This was my find. Mom helped me put it together last night and I have the blood blister on my finger to show for it. But dang it, I just HAVE to lose this weight.

I'm sick of shopping in the fat lady section.
I'm sick of specialty shops for under-goodies.
I'm sick of asking for an extension for the seat belt in the airplane and hoping that a skinny person is sitting next to me so my fat won't touch theirs.
I want to have an easy pregnancy. Easier, at the very least.
I want to have the energy to play with my kids.
I want to be able to order dessert and not worry about getting knowing looks (to me and behind my back). Because you know if a fat person likes dessert then that's automatically what made them that way.

Sigh.

Felix is making progress on the potty training. He likes to sit on the potty chair, but he hasn't figured out how to make himself go - hasn't made the connection yet. He sits and even tries to push something out. It's really funny. The best part is how he sits. There's a little pee shield that folds down and to get over it, he puts his bum way up in the air and backs onto the seat, looking between his legs for guidance.

I'm sure that one day this will be good blackmail fodder...

sickness

The yeast is out. The bacteria is in. I got strep. Sheesh!

Now, since I'm prone to yeast and don't have insurance (thus, don't want to pay for another doctor's visit), I'm self-medicating. Don't worry, it's all very safe.

Let me tell you though, gargling with 5 parts water to 1 part vinegar is both disgusting and effective. Don't forget the copious amounts of ibuprofen. I know you can't tell from the picture, but Felix got a fat lip today. He was climbing on the cart at Wal-Mart. Bled a bit and he kept licking it. I didn't notice till after he was asleep here that there were two teeth marks - top and bottom. Poor kid could have bit a chunk out.

Amelia has been quite fussy lately. I'm sure she's got yeast in her system, but hopefully the grapefruit seed extract (tastes like all the natural sweetness of the grapefruit has been removed - it's terrible!!!!) in my system will pass to her at least a little bit and kill the yeast. Oh, we're also giving her acidopholus and Gas-X to ease stomach cramps. Fun!

We're some kind of druggie family. Thank the Good Lord for modern medicine!!!!!!!!!!!

She finally passed out in the swing. Tonight wasn't so bad. She only fussed for about 3 hours, but she didn't cry solid the whole time. There have been a few times she has done that recently. Sorry about the blur. I wasn't about to stop the swing to take the picture. We'll let it run out (timer) and sleep there till she wakes up in a few hours ready to be a ravenous beast again.

Oh, many thanks to Michelle for the little swing. She loves the lights. And Felix is in love with the music.

Quote from the great President Hinckley

¨Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop, most beef is tough, and most children grow up to be just people. Successful marriages require a high degree of mutual tolerance. Most jobs are more dull than otherwise. Life is like an old time rail journey - delays, sidetracks, smoke, dirt, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for just letting you have the ride."

It's good to remind myself that normal is okay, even while I strive for excellence. I can be excellent in non-traditional ways, right?

Stuff

Felix pooped and peed in his potty chair on Sunday morning. First time for both. Hasn't done it since. There is hope though!

I have a yeast infection in one of my milk ducts. Feels like I'm being stabbed when Amelia nurses. Aches for hours afterward. Doctor appt tomorrow to get some good drugs.

Felix was sick last night, so we watched Chuck and Heroes with the subtitles because the poor kid was inconsolable for about 3 1/2 hours. He's a total doll today. Can't even tell he was sick at all.

Brent submitted a design to threadless.com. It's a similar premise to the t-shirt contest at woot, but the prize is higher - it would help a LOT right now, what with owing on taxes and all. Check it out, and please vote.

I'm drowning in laundry, but my kitchen is intact. On Saturday my brother and his whole family came over to help us put everything back into the kitchen. The cool part is that the cabinets are in. The uncool part is that now there's a whole lot of organization that needs to happen in there. I'll put up pictures when it's done. We also got the living room back to its natural state. That's a very happy thing.

Sunday we blessed Amelia. She cried during the blessing but only during the blessing. The rest of the time she was just placid. Brent's brother told him that she just knew she had a microphone. Little performer! We had people over after. It was a very pleasant day.