Damn Girl Scouts

I must admit I consumed an entire box of Girl Scout tagalongs Monday. T did have two, but other than that it was all me. Why must those little patties of peanut butter, chocolate, and cookie be so good? I am lucky I exercise a lot. Sometimes I wonder why I am not much heavier than I am with some of my eating habits. I eat like a saint all day until around midnight when all eating hell breaks loose. I know it will catch up with me someday. I blame those Girl Scouts.

We could be closer to moving. Our offer on a house was accepted. Now we are trying to sell our current home. Who knows how soon that will happen in the current market. We did have some people look at it yesterday. T was frantically trying to clean up before they came over. We are pretty attached to this house. It will be sad to leave it, with Q's nursery so perfect and all our painting and improvements. I am sad just thinking about it. I guess you have to just keep moving onward and upward though.

Q is still coughing, and I am starting to get pretty worried about him. There has to be something going on that the doctors are not seeing. He coughs so much at night and can't get a good amount of sleep. He has yet another doctor's appointment today. Hopefully, this will all pass soon.

--MM

Moving on up?

We put an offer in on a home yesterday. It is all in the very preliminary stages, so we don't know if we are actually going to be moving anytime soon, but it is still exciting. We offered pretty low on my dad's advice, and it is contingent on the sale of our current home, which is a very big if. It's kind of a tricky market right now. We are in good shape as buyers but not as sellers. The house we are looking at is far from my dream home, but it does have a lot of nice little touches. It is two-story, with a pantry, a big walk-in closet, two sinks in the master bath. It would be nice. We'll see what happens.

I had a marvelous spa day Saturday, though afterward I felt a little awkward walking around in my robe. I couldn't figure out how to hang up my robe while getting into the steam room, so I briefly flashed the room. No one was around that I know of. It was very relaxing and enjoyable.

Q seems to be a little sick again. Poor little guy. It just makes me ache to see him feeling cruddy all the time. I worry he has asthma or some other breathing problem. It's no fun for any of us when he is this way.

--MM

Winter Wallop

Oregon means rain. Unless you live in the mountains, snow is not a common sight. So, this week when four inches fell, it was chaos. We did a very rare thing and actually did the entire 5:00 newscast outside. We adlibbed most of it and interviewed guests and debriefed reporters. It surprisingly went off without a hitch. We figured it would either go wonderfully or crash and burn. Thankfully, the former happened. Our bosses were thrilled, and everyone seemed energized and proud. It is so easy to get into the monotony of the days, and it is a pleasant change to try something new. I am trying to come up with some new ideas to be excited about at work. I figure if I am going to be here awhile, I might as well try to enjoy it.

One thing I know I am going to enjoy is my Valentine's Day present tomorrow. I have three and a half hours of spa time scheduled. After yoga and a spinning training session, I will be getting a mega facial and a massage. Excellent. I can't wait to just relax. Poor T will have Q all by himself while I luxuriate. I feel bad for him. OK, I'm over it. :)

I feel very content lately. I think now that I have the decision of staying behind me, I can just relax and enjoy things. T and I are planning a number of trips, and it is fun to have them to look forward to. Next month we are going to Seattle for the first time. I am planning our anniversary in August to a lodge along the Columbia River gorge near Portland. In July, we will both be going to weddings. Mine is in Florida, his in Boston.

Q also has his nine-month pictures this weekend. He should look smashing in his yellow and blue sweater vest. T mocks sweater vests on him, but I think he looks fantastic.

--MM

Staying Put

Our contracts are signed, and we are staying put. We are both pretty happy about it now that it is said and done. T is going to try to go to grad school, and we will probably have another baby while we are here. I think we have a lot to look forward to here.

We are thinking about buying another house. We will need a bigger one when we expand our family, but we think we should buy now so we will be in it a few years and before prices get too out of hand. They don't have basements here, and I really wish they did. That would solve many of our space problems. We could toss the treadmill and computer and other junk down there and free up a spare bedroom.

I dread the thought of moving again. I would love to get movers this time around. We are eyeing a couple of two stories in the neighborhood we are already in. I would love to stay here. Our neighborhood is very cute and new, and it would be lovely to just be able to carry stuff across the street.

I went to Barnes and Noble tonight and got myself a book and Q three books. He seems to love The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Some things never go out of style.

--MM

A new week...sickness-free

Q goes back to daycare today. He is hardly coughing at all and is not having his breathing treatments. It is a relief to see his back to normal. We ran into his daycare provider at the mall. She really seemed to miss him and even kissed him on the cheek when she saw him. It is touching to see someone else really care about him even though she is not related. Even though daycare takes him away from his parents and exposes him to all these bugs, I think it can't hurt to have someone else who loves him and cares about him.

Right now he is talking to himself in the mirror. 60 Minutes had a piece on autism this weekend that scared me. Now I am examining Q for all the signs. I think he is okay, but I can't help but be the paranoid mama. He is also currently destroying a stationary catalog. He's quite the destructive little one.

I had a nice yoga class this morning. One of my participants brought me five Cd's he made. He brought me one a few weeks ago, and I was initially insulted thinking he hated my music. I am always one to take things personally right away. Eventually, I realized he was just being nice. He said he has a huge music library. I told him to feel free to make me more. Yoga Cd's cost about $20 a piece!

It looks like we are signing our contracts today. That commits us to another three years. I was kind of upset about it at first, but have tried to change my thinking. T got us another week of vacation, so that makes it a little nicer. We are considering buying a new house. Another job possibility that was floating around fell through, so I feel much more at peace about signing. I don't think we are settling. It would be strange to be leaving in two weeks anyway. I can't quite imagine that! I think we are making a good decision.

Hopefully this week will be stress-free and sick-free!

--MM

Getting back to normal

Q got out of the hospital Monday afternoon. A few doses of steroids seemed to do the trick. T's mom is out to help us now. She is a nurse, and it is wonderful to have her here to watch him since he can't go to daycare.

Q is back to his smiley self. He is still coughing a bit, but he is eating well again and is back on his sleep schedule. It is lovely to hear his laugh again. I am so glad he has kicked the evil RSV.

I feel like I am playing catch up this week. I had loads of laundry to do, our cabinets were empty, and our house is dirty. Our tivo is packed full of shows from the week we were gone and the worst happened. Our tivo broke! My saved shows are now lost! We have to go old school this week and record things on VCR. I'm not even sure I remember how to do that!

I had two big projects this week at work, and I had to cover two other people's jobs when they called in sick. I hate when people have a slight cough and decide they must stay home in bed and sip chicken soup! So, it was pretty busy for a few days there. But, now as you can see, I have plenty of time to play on the Internet at work.

T and I didn't get to celebrate much for Valentine's Day. T brought his mom and Q up to the station, and we ate pizza and salad together. I got T this hilarious personalized novel from www.bookybyyou.com. He is the handsome hero, and I am the clever heroine. I had to fill out a form with our names and personal details. I also got him a stress-relieving candle, a giant candy apple, and two chocolate turtles. He got me some flowers and this ultra-facial and massage. It is scheduled for next Saturday. I can't wait. I am in dire need of some relaxation.

Tomorrow, I have a luncheon for the Leadership Committee of the Children's Miracle Network. It will be the first time I go. I think it is a good leadership opportunity, but it is also an important group to our family. CMN benefited Q when he was in the NICU and also when he was in the Pediatrics ward just last week. CMN raises money for hospitals that serve children across the country.

T and I are in the midst of contract negotiations to determine if we stay at the same job. It is a period of mixed feelings for us. We are not entirely unhappy in our current jobs, but there are certainly things we would change. There is always a feeling of excitement when you consider moving on and a sort of depressed feeling when you think of staying put. But, it looks more like that is what we will do. Our lives are pretty good here, but you can't help but think of what else is out there.

--MM

Looooong Week

Q is still in the hospital, and T and I are about to go batty. He is cheerful and doing well, but his oxygen saturation levels are still a bit low. The doctor who examined him this morning prescribed steroids. T is worried about his future in the Tour de France. Hopefully that will help his breathing, though. They also took him off oxygen and are going to see how he does. We hope to take him home tonight or tomorrow morning.

Hospitals are not fun places to be. You constantly have people coming in and out and peeking through the blinds to check his monitors. None of the nurses seem to communicate, so they are all doing different things. Q's breathing treatments act like stimulants so he is constantly awake and crying late at night. There are babies crying in other rooms. It is just a sad place to be.

I worked my regular hours this week, and I just about lost it on Friday. I was dripping with tiredness and had that overwhelming irritability that comes with lack of sleep. I had a conference call with our image consultant at 2:30. I had to hurry to make it in for that. She told me my hair was too short and one suit was too tight in the bust (a common problem when you are lactating). It seemed so frivolous at that particular moment. Plus, I like my current hair cut, and it aggravates me that I have no choice in the matter. I plan to be passive aggressive and only grow it out a half inch or so. It's not like they can ban me from the hair salon.


To top it all off, my mom told me she had to put our family cat to sleep this week. Poor Charlie. He was my buddy. She was very sad about it, and it sounded like an excruciating choice. He was in pain though and was probably about 16. He came into our family when a friend found him as a kitten abandoned in a field. What a wonderful life he ended up having! My mom said she keeps looking for him around the house. That was heart-breaking. I hope for his sake there is a cat heaven with slow, fat, blind mice and fields of catnip.

--MM

RSV Misery

It has been a rough few days. Q, as I mentioned, was very fussy on Sunday. On Monday, he had a fever and was really coughing, so we took him to the doctor. The doctor said it was probably RSV, but usually the virus didn't get very severe. Still, Q had to stay home from daycare. I was holding him later that afternoon waiting for T to come home so I could go into work. I noticed Q was breathing very rapidly. I consulted my trusty Dr. Spock's book and it said babies should breathe 40 times a minute, but Q was clipping along at 95! It was frightening. He was limp and hot and his eyes were even rolling back a bit. T took him back to the doctor, and he ended up spending the night in the hospital. Seeing him get hooked up to an IV was absolutely miserable. He screamed and bawled in such sheer pain. I also couldn't nurse him for hours until his breathing slowed. That was quite horrible also to listen to him cry but be unable to help. T and I spent a nearly sleepless night squashed onto a single cot awakening every time Q's monitors went off.

The next morning I had to quickly find a replacement for my emcee gig, which didn't seem to go over well. You'd think people would be a bit more understanding when your baby is in the hospital. Q was doing better so we took him home. Later in the evening, his fever returned and his breathing sped up again. T took him to the ER, and he was admitted once again. Our room is better this time with two beds for us and some room to actually walk around. We didn't sleep much again because Q was crying quite a bit. He is on oxygen now because his oxygen saturation levels were dipping. I had to wake up early to go to teach yoga. I was feeling less than zen though, let me tell you.

T ran into work briefly to finish a story. Now he is back to the hospital, while I stop at home quickly to down some coffee and shower before heading into work.

My conclusions are: my back hurts, thank god for coffee in large quantities, I do not like hospitals, and RSV is evil.

--MM

Fuss Bucket

We have a fuss bucket on our hands this weekend. Q has been sleeping like crazy, and the small amounts of time he is awake he is constantly fussing. We are not quite sure what to make of it. He is usually a sweet, easy little guy, but this weekend he has just been having a hard time. We think he might being teething, but we have been suspecting that for months. It is sort of the fall back when we're not sure what's going on in that little head. We did give him a teething biscuit this weekend, and he went to town on it, so those tiny teeth could finally be emerging.

We stayed home to watch the Super Bowl. I was fairly unimpressed with the commercials this time around. I chose to cheer for the Bears, though I am not too passionate about either team. We dressed Q up in his tiny Packers outfit to celebrate Brett Favre's return next season. T bought a nice assortment of vegetarian snacks and some wings for himself.

I went for a six-mile run today. It was sunny and perfect out and one of those ideal running situations. I enjoyed every step. We live in a beautiful spot to run. When you get up to the top of one hill you can see a wide expanse of valley with two plateaus and a snow-capped mountain. It is so pretty. I enjoy checking out what the llamas, goats, and sheep are doing. Much of the time, my runs are purely to burn off calories, and I just wait for them to be over. I truly enjoyed the run today. You can't beat that.

I have a long week ahead. I work till midnight every day, but this week I also have something every morning. I have an 8:00 a.m. appointment four of those mornings. The other day I am emceeing Go Red for Women event. I get so nervous in those situations. The script is pretty thick. I just don't like all those little eyes on me.

I am off now to fold laundry and watch Criminal Minds. It looked pretty intriguing from the Super Bowl commercials. I am always sucked in to ads!

We'll see how the fuss bucket sleeps tonight.

--MM

Couch Surfing

I have become such a fan of reality TV lately, and I don't mean Big Brother or something. I love Project Runway and Top Chef and now Top Design. The season finale of Top Chef was on last night. The hot chef had already been eliminated, but thankfully Ilan won and not the weasel Marcel. I have heard that show described as food porn, and it is so true. I find myself eating more when I watch that show, unfortunately. However, I do not have a grand spread of gourmet delicacies, so I just gorge myself on cheese and crackers and ice cream sandwiches.

I have been in the worst rut lately with sleeping on the couch at night. My mom used to do that all the time, so maybe it is genetic. I get home from work at almost midnight. Then I have a snack or eight and watch my tivoed reality TV. I keep putting off breast-pumping promising I will do it after I close my eyes for just a moment. Then I wake up at 5:30 a.m. with uncomfortably full milk ducts, smeared makeup, and contact lenses suctioned to my eyes. T has long since given up on coaxing me off the couch. More often than not he is scrunched up on the smaller couch until the middle of the night as well. Last night, we each woke up with a warm cat sleeping on us. That is one of the true joys in life. Anyway, I need to find some discipline in the nighttime routine. We'll see how that goes.

-MM