mamajoan

In my previous post I wrote about the logistics of last Thursday. It turned out fine, of course. I ended up going with the option that was less logistically complicated but that involved me not seeing the kids for almost a full 24 hours. The babysitter picked them up after school, and since it was a ridiculously hot day, they basically just hung around our house eating italian ice and playing on electronic devices. Which is pretty much what we would have done if I'd been home, except probably with ice cream. Meanwhile, I went to the chorus dress rehearsal, which was also fine.

I also said in my previous post that you shouldn't get me started on Saturday, so now of course I have to post about Saturday. ;) It was pretty ridiculous.

( all the gory details )

On how we're doing / what we've been up to the past few days:

* The kids enjoyed their sleepover with their cousin last week.
* The car got fixed, to the tune of over $500, sigh.
* Isaac's first Little League game of the year was scheduled for Saturday but got postponed by rain to Sunday. Then Sunday the field was still wet so they postponed it again. So they will play their first game tonight, weather permitting, knock on wood, etc.
* The Cambridge Community Chorus, including me, sang Beethoven's 9th in concert yesterday. I thought it went pretty well and am glad it's over.
* All that standing in place (for the concert and dress rehearsal before it, etc.) has really messed up my back. Am debating whether to tough it out until my chiropractor appointment on Friday, or try to get in sooner. This morning was particularly bad. When I can't even put my socks on, that's pretty pathetic.
* Today is the first day back to school for the kids after 10 days off, and boy were they grouchy about it. Okay, we were all grouchy. ;) Also I may fall asleep at my desk.
* Isaac's rash is still itchy but he says he has "gotten used to it" and refuses to use the prescription cream.
* Ruthie somehow managed to sit in a hive of mosquitoes(??) or something, and developed itchy bites all over her legs and butt and lower back. Her solution to the itchiness, because she doesn't like cortisone cream/calamine lotion, is to cover the bites with bandaids to prevent herself from scratching. We are now all out of bandaids and her lower body looks like a mummy project gone wrong. *eyeroll*

Thanks everyone for the words of support on my post about my mom. (And if you somehow missed it, here it is.) Sorry to go more than a week without updating...!

Mom got out of the hospital last Tuesday and is glad to be home. She's recovering well from the surgery. She even managed to sing in our choir's concert on Sunday, only nine days after surgery! Everyone was amazed to see her there. :) In case you missed it, here is an article in the local paper about our concert, which explains why it meant so much to me and mom. (we are both quoted in the article.)

Anyway, so mom is on the road to recovery and we are all just trying to gear ourselves up I guess for the next step, which will be chemotherapy. :( Apparently with the type of cancer that mom had, chemo can reduce the odds of recurrence from 40% to 20%, which is a really big deal. But it still sucks that she has to go through chemo. We are still in the process of gathering all the info about that.

In other news, yesterday Isaac and I both had performance evaluations. ;) Well, I had a performance evaluation (my new company does them for everyone in December)(I've been here 3 months now so I guess I can stop calling it my "new" job) and I also had a conference with Isaac's teacher. It was my first parent-teacher conference since the beginning of the school year so I was glad to get the chance to talk to her, although there really wasn't all that much to talk about. I mean, Isaac is brilliant and wonderful, a joy to have in class ;) yadda yadda ;) well, I paraphrase ;) but that is basically the gist of it. So that was good to hear and I was glad that she didn't have any "issues" to bring up, except for the fact that Isaac's homework hadn't been getting done, which is totally my fault. *facepalm* I really slacked off for a while on making sure it got done and turned in. I'm cleaning up my act.

As for my performance evaluation, well it's my policy not to talk about work except under friends-lock, but I think it's safe to say that it went fine. Since I've only been working here three months there wasn't a whole lot to say, but it was good to check in with my boss and verify that we both agree as to how things are going. Also, there's my bonus to find out about. It's complicated the way that works, so I won't actually find out until probably sometime next week how much bonus I'm getting. It should be more than a grand, though, so that will be really nice!

I should round things out here by saying something about Ruthie ;) so I'll say that she is doing very well with potty-training, which I'm very happy about, and also that she can write her name, which proves that she is also a genius ;) and is starting to get interested in letters and words and spelling. Not that she can really spell anything yet, except for her name and STOP -- but she loves to pretend. Actually, today she found a word magnet (from the "motherhood" magnetic poetry set that I got a while ago) and asked me what word it was, and I told her it was "him", and then she went and got the three relevant letters from the fridge letter magnets and spelled "him" on the fridge. So I thought that was a pretty big step! Hey if she acquires some real sight words in the next three months I can still tell people she learned to read when she was 3. ;)

Anyway, needless to say that's only a drop in the bucket, in terms of all the stuff I could be updating about...but that's all I have the energy for right now.

* The concert last Sunday went quite well. I hope I shall have a chance to write more about it at some point. (I say that a lot, don't I? sigh.)

* Monday was a glorious day both weather-wise and activity-wise. We spent basically the whole day in the back yard, with six(!) other kids coming over to play at various points. The fabulously wonderful wneleh was kind enough to bring us an enormous play structure that her kids have outgrown, and my kids and their friends LOOOOOVED it. She brought it over in pieces, and as we were putting it back together, the kids were literally climbing all over it. It was all "Get down from there! Don't crawl through the tunnel until it's hooked up! Climb down off that! Have a little patience!" LOL. Anyway, this thing is teh awesome. I shall post pix at some point. The kids are lovin' it and it's going to be great for Isaac's party.

* However, the lesson learned from Monday is that it's about damn time to buy a new bottle of sunscreen. I acquired quite the sunburn across my shoulders and upper back, and it is rather painful these last couple of days, making wearing my backpack -- or even clothes! -- somewhat uncomfy. d'oh. Fortunately the kids seem to have gotten off easier (though I keep meaning to ask metafrantic and sandykidd whether Baz got any burned, since he's so much fairer than my kids -- and he was looking quite pink by the time we decided we had better get him inside. yikes).

* Apparently I have agreed to foster for an unknown period of time a kittycat whose people are looking for a cat-friendly apartment (long story). The timing is unclear but it seems we'll be taking custody of "Chubby" within the next few days. I'm excited! and also a bit nervous, but it will all work out somehow.

* Isaac has developed an unhealthy fascination with the Weather Channel widget on my Firefox (it shows little icons in the status bar to tell you the weather for right now, later today/tonight, and tomorrow). He runs over to check it like every five minutes. It is kind of annoying, LOL.

* Ruthie's daycare teacher today said that Ruthie is "such a happy kid," always laughing and cheerful. That was so nice to hear. She is mostly like that at home too, except for the occasional screechy tantrum of course, heh.

* Tonight I made pancakes out of How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I've made pancakes before of course, but never this simply from a recipe, so I'll count it as number, uh, 32 I think? (edit #33) Anyway I subbed whole-wheat flour and cornmeal for half the flour, and they came out too dense and the kids didn't really like them much, alas. ah well.

* I finished re-reading Stranger in a Strange Land and then read Grammar for the Soul, a totally delightful little book by a guy who is a friend of my mom's and the dad of one of my best childhood friends. It's basically centered around the premise that the grammar we use affects our mindset and attitudes -- and vice versa -- and that by mindfully changing our grammar we can positively affect our mental/emotional state. Okay, it sounds hokey but it's really a fun, witty, engaging, and thought-provoking book. I really enjoyed it (obviously). Highly recommended.

* And now I am reading Imaro by Charles Saunders, which I believe was recommended by morgan_dhu.

* And of course I have lots more to post about but that's enough for now.

Not much updating from me lately, eh? I got home late last night from chorus rehearsal, after deciding to go out to dinner with the crew -- something I used to do all the time, in those heady days before kids. It was fun-ish, but I couldn't really enjoy it. Too busy thinking about the kids and about how tired I was and how tired I would be in the morning. urgh.

Food porn! Check out this picture and then this other picture of the two more loaves of bread that we made on Sunday. Aren't they beautiful? Did I mention that we made three loaves of bread this past weekend? And then I was like, "wait, what am I going to do with three loaves of bread?" LOL. I used some of it for Isaac's sandwich today in his lunchbox, so we shall see how that went over. Also I have been having it with peanut butter for an afternoon snack, which rocks. The slight sweetness of the bread makes it just perfect for that.

I haven't posted lately about money, but uh, money sucks. My financial straits are still fairly dire, sigh. I have decided to try selling ad space on the kids' jackets to raise some extra cash. Have you heard about this? It's similar to that thing where you put ad decals on your car, except in this case there's this company that gives you one of those iron-on patch thingies, and you put it on your child's clothing/outerwear and then take them out and about. I figure it should work well with Ruthie, at least, because she's so cute and people always grin at us when we go toddling through Davis Square. We shall see.

In other news I was dragged kicking and screaming onto Office 2007 at work, and it sucks. Change is bad! Especially change that comes from Microsoft! ;P

Last night Isaac and I made #15 Luscious Lemon Polenta Cake which is basically a lemon pound cake with cornmeal. It was not really so much "luscious" as "lousy." Really, it was like every comedian's routine about a kitchen disaster ever, rolled into one. LOL! Fortunately I hadn't hung my hopes on it too much, so I was able to laugh it off.

Note to self: When recipe includes things like separating eggs and "fold gently with a rubber spatula," do not attempt recipe beginning at 7pm on a Sunday.

The thing had pretty good flavor, but it came out with the edges/outside overcooked and dry, and the center fused into a solid mass with really awful, unappealing texture and "off" taste. I think I didn't beat the eggs enough, or I folded too vigorously, or who the heck knows what. It's hard to think when you have one kid repeatedly asking "Can we eat the cake yet?!" and the other standing naked in the middle of the kitchen howling because the noise of the electric mixer scared her. heh.

Anyway, on the plus side, I have a spiffy new nonstick loaf pan that I bought for this purpose, so now I can entertain myself by looking for other ways to use it.

In other food news -- have I mentioned Pie Day here yet? A coworker and I jointly decided (well, he claims it was my idea, I claim it was his) that March 14th, Pi Day, should be Pie Day at the office and we are encouraging everyone to make a pie and bring it in for everyone to enjoy. We set up a page on the internal wiki (well of course we did -- we're geeks, aren't we?!) for people to sign up and say what kind of pie they're going to bring. I tentatively signed up for Key Lime Pie, which really would be what mofic calls Lime Pie In the Style Of Key Lime Pie. ;) I have never made a lime or key lime pie before, but mofic makes it sound pretty easy. I bought two graham-cracker crusts this weekend, and I'm planning to make it this weekend as a test run. whee!

Tonight is the first rehearsal for our chorus's spring concert. It will be the final concert for our beloved music director who is retiring after like 18 years, so everything is pretty fraught. But to stay on the food-based theme of this post, sopranos are supposed to bring snacks tonight which is part of why I had wanted to make the lemon cake; so now I'm snackless. I do have a bottle of juice I can bring and some plastic cups which are always in demand. I'm also in charge of setting up, managing, and then cleaning up the snack area for tonight; usually this other chick does it and I'm her faithful sidekick / right-hand woman / Girl Monday, but tonight she can't come so I have been deputized. Maybe that lets me off the hook for actually bringing something. But probably not. d'oh. ;)

Well, our concert went off fairly well.

Music-wise, it was pretty great. All the singers (chorus and soloists) were great, the orchestra was mostly great, and the audience was appreciative. What little there was of it, that is.

I'd say there were maybe, I dunno, a hundred people there? I suck as estimates of that type. It was a very good turnout considering the weather. It would have been a *terrible* turnout in different weather, but ah well.

Before the second half, the mayor of Cambridge (who also sings in our chorus, and was there at its founding) presented a proclamation and the key to the city to William, our music director, who, as I may have mentioned, is retiring and this was his last Messiah concert with us. It was emotional. I cried a little. I cried more at the very end of the concert. sigh.

( Getting to the concert was an adventure.... )

By the time we got out after the concert, the precip had all turned to rain, and much of the snow to slush; there were ENORMOUS puddles of slushy water at many street corners, which made me shiver in dismay at the thought of what those would look like this morning, all frozen over. And without going into the gory details, let me just say, I was right. It was REALLY ugly this morning. I had parked in a slushy parking spot, and had some difficulty getting out simply because of all the crusted-over ice. And it's supposed to remain in the 20s F today, so nothing will be melting. I hear it'll be in the high 30s on Wednesday, but it's supposed to snow more *headdesk* so I guess we won't be "helped" by much melting there. Ugh! Have I mentioned lately how much I hate winter? :P

Just because no post would be really complete without a cute-kid tidbit, I'll mention that Ruthie has gotten the concept of "too" as in "also," so if for example she sees Isaac having milk, she might say "milk too!" ("muck doo") to express that she wants some. She is also getting the idea of "two" as in the number two, and now when she points out features (e.g. eyes, boots, hands) she'll say "two!" afterward. This morning she pointed to my eyes and said "mama eyes" and then "two," and I said "yes, mama has two eyes," and then I said, "Ruthie has three eyes!" and she gave me a very surprised/confused look, and Isaac was like, "Noooooo!" LOL -- I think Ruthie is a little young yet for that particular type of humor, although Isaac finds it very funny.

Ruthie has also started using two-word phrases with "more" e.g. "more milk" "more book" or (somewhat heart-breakingly, last night when I was taking a long time about parking the car after not having seen the kids all day), "more mama!" She still refuses to say an actual word for nursing; she will make the sign or make her little grunting noise, and I always try to get her to say "nursie" but she won't. But now she'll say "more" and then grunt. LOL.

I'm happy to say that my sore throat basically disappeared in time for the concert, yay. And the nausea and TMI from Friday has not recurred. However, today my stomach's still a little uneasy so I'm not sure what is "safe" to eat for lunch. sigh. But I better go figure something out, 'cause I'm getting hungry.

Whew, where to begin? How about at the end? :)

This morning was an adventure. ( An adventure of the icy kind. Like in the Paul Simon song 'slip-slidin' away,' except not fun. )

They say it's going to have cleared up in time for the evening commute. I sure as hell hope so, because not only do we have to get home, but then mom and I have to drive (possibly also with pekmez and zubatac) up to Andover for the dress rehearsal for our chorus concert.

pekmez and zubatac are planning to bring their daughter, age 2+, to my house to be watched by my babysitter tonight while we go to rehearsal. That ought to be, ahem, "interesting." I have the utmost confidence in our babysitter, but still, Kata and Ruthie are both toddlers, if you know what I mean. And if you don't, count yourself lucky. ;) Also, we'll be getting back after bedtime, so wish our babysitter lots of luck getting all three kids to sleep, yikes.

( Ruthie's weekend )

Isaac had a good milestone and a bad milestone this weekend. ( details )

Which seems to lead naturally into the topic of gift-getting, but I don't have the energy to type about that now. oy.

Oh, and as for our actual weekend activities: On Saturday we went to the Children's Museum with Isaac's friend Hi'ia who is leaving for Hawaii tomorrow. That was super fun and I'm really glad we managed to do that before Hi'ia leaves. Then on Sunday we went to mom's house where Isaac helped her bake a cake for metafrantic, whose birthday is today. A friend of mine came over and stayed with the kids while mom and I and metafrantic and sandykidd went out to dinner (a nice leisurely dinner and conversation! zomgwtflol!), then we went back to mom's house and partook of the cake. That was nice. Happy birthday to my "baby" brother!

And now I have to go eat a second lunch / early dinner in preparation for the aforementioned chorus rehearsal tonight. Maybe I better have some extra caffeine for that too. *headdesk*

Oh wait, one more thing -- while we were lunching at the children's museum Isaac asked for juice and I gave him The Look, so he said "please," and I gave him the juice, and he turns to his friend and goes, "Did you know, sometimes when I say 'please,' she says, 'oh, well that's a whole nother story!!'" LOL!! So true....

Awesome chorus rehearsal last night. On the drive home, mom and I both commented on the fact that, even though we've been singing Handel's Messiah every December for many years (mom says it has been 18 years, I say 16, but either way it's a lot), we still learned and discovered new things about the music in yesterday's rehearsal. Truly a testament to the genius both of Handel and of our music director.

Not so awesome was the kids with the babysitter last night, alas. They were both cranky all night. ugh.

Also not so awesome was ( the saga of the washing machine. )

So, cross your fingers that I'll successfully do some laundry tonight, 'cause it's fairly dire. yikes.

In Ruthie news, her new word this morning appeared to be "pumpkin" unless I'm losing my mind, which is quite possible, heh. Also she has been working hard on her pout. She has quite an impressive one, which she busts out if things don't go her way in even the tiniest of matters. ;) I really hope I'll manage to get a picture of this pout, because it is world-class, people.

Speaking of pictures, Amazon has a deal on this digital camera that's awfully tempting. Only $155 and you get a free 2GB memory card. It looks like a great camera, except for the part about battery life and the flash needing 4-6 seconds to recharge. That can be an ETERNITY when you're trying to get good pix of fast-moving kids! So I'm not sure. The memory card costs about $20 and there are other good cameras in the same vein for $130, so maybe I should do that instead. I dunno. What do you think?

Yesterday in Harvard Square a nice middle-aged touristy couple with British accents stopped me on the street to ask for directions...to Ben&Jerry's. LOL!

( Shopping vs. Singing )

I haven't posted here much lately about the whole Ruthie sleep situation but, suffice it to say, it continues to be an issue. Part of the problem is that it's hard for me to see much point in putting a lot of effort into changing the sleep situation when there are important baseball games most nights. The games start at 8pm and go into the wee hours, so I'm generally like, why bother trying to change up Ruthie's sleep when I won't be taking advantage anyway?

So our pattern lately has been that I lie down with her in her bed while Isaac lies in his bed, and we listen to music and she nurses to sleep, whereupon I disentangle myself and go do whatever (watch the game, etc.). She'll sleep in her bed for around two hours, give or take, and then wake up. Then I nurse/rock/etc. her back to sleep and put her down in my bed. Then I finish watching the game, and when it's over I go to sleep on the couch, until Ruthie wakes up again another 2-3 hours later and I get into bed with her.

It's a stupid, pointless, ridiculous pattern, but it'll work for us at least through the World Series. After that my plan is to work on getting her to sleep through the night without nursing. Or at least with less nursing.

Anyway, last night the babysitter took care of the getting-Ruthie-to-sleep-in-her-bed part, and when she woke up I rocked her back to sleep without nursing (shocker) and put her down in my bed as usual. Then since there was no game, I just bedded down on the couch, around 10:30 or 11pm. And, as usual, I got up when I heard Ruthie doing her outraged "I woke up in bed alone! oh the humanity!" cry.

But to my surprise, when I sprang up from the couch upon hearing that cry, the clock said 6:15! Wow. We must have both been pretty tired. So, yay for sleeping through the night at least once. I have no illusions that it's suddenly going to become a habit...alas....