The MiL & the Poop

For the last couple of days, we have been battling with the MiL over Poop. Yes, that's right. Poop. Or the lack-thereof.

Let me explain. Grace is now on solids twice a day. As with many babies starting on solids (or so the Almighty Internet tells me), she has had a case of constipation. Our poor little baby strains and strains. And nada. No poop.

We are moving her up the chain of solids as dictated by her doctor. Rice cereal, then oatmeal, then whole grains, then veggies & fruits. According to the doctor, we have to wait a day or so in between these new introductions so that we can monitor for any food allergies, etc.

Grace was on Step 2 - Oatmeal.

For the last few days, the MiL has been all over our cases. "She needs to eat FRUIT!" she berates. Fruit is the miracle cure that will fix everything. We have gotten the lecture over and over. I tried to explain that we were following the steps the doctor told us to and the doctor had warned about a little trouble moving food through Grace's system. But, nothing would convince her.

So, yesterday we caved. We SKIPPED the whole grains and gave her PRUNES. Grace thinks prunes are really cool. They are lots of fun to smear all over her face. And you know what? Still no poop.

Last night, as we put Grace to bed, J turned to me and said "I hope she poops all over her tomorrow."

Me too, honey. Me too.

The 31st

This morning, in the midst of getting Grace up & ready, dealing with fires at work and the huge pile of laundry that grows astronomically every time I turn around, something happened.

I turned 31.

Of course, as anyone can tell you, being 31 feels no differently than being 30. It's just another year gone by. Regardless of the chaos around me, it came and went just the same.

This year could be the best ever. After waiting for so many years, I have my precious daughter.

But life finds a way of humbling me over & over again. When something goes right, three more things go wrong.

It may be obvious in my writing - it definitely is to me - but I've been struggling with depression again lately. I am unhappy with work, and the cloud from that is invading my entire life.

Whenever I feel down, I try very hard to consider all my blessings. With that in mind, here are 31 blessings in my life for my 31st year (in no particular order).

1. My beautiful, healthy daughter
2. A dependable husband who is my best friend
3. My Dad
4. My dogs
5. God's faithfulness
6. Music
7. The Ocean
   
8. Photography
9. The ability to remember random facts
10. My baby's smile (I know, I know. I already said something about her back up at #1. But, hey! I make the rules here.)
    
11. Long eyelashes
12. Monopoly (the board game)
    
13. Flowers
14. Curling up with a good book
    
15. Facebook
16. Food to eat and clothes to wear
    
17. Creative outlets
    
18. Trees
19. Smart Phones
    
20. Melted cheese
21. A car that runs
    
22. DVR
23. Benedryl
24. Chocolate
    
25. The storage capacity on my iPod
    
26. My family and the good memories associated with them
    
27. A fabulous home
    
28. Quiet moments
29. Bacon & Eggs
    
30. Electricity
31. Watching my child grow
    

First Father's Day

Today marks another first for our little family - J's first Father's Day.

I woke up early, took care of the dogs, snuck to my present-hiding place and got everything ready for J to find when he got up.

A little later, J began to open the gifts. As soon as his hand touched the top of the bag, "Sssshhhrrrkkk!" His fire scanner went off. (He's a volunteer now.)

It turned out not to be a call he could take, so he began to open the bag again.

J loves clocks and watches. When we got married, I got him a watch. So, for the first Father's Day, I thought it only appropriate that I give him a watch.

Well, while this watch is beautiful and he loves it, blah, blah, blah, it does not have a stop watch on it. Apparently this is an essential feature, and I got lucky with the first one I gave him. Whatever.

J saw the look of misery and bewilderment on my face, so he immediately told me "I don't use it *all* that much." This means he's willing to make the tremendous sacrifice of living without the stop watch part in order to avoid hurting my feelings.

We will be exchanging the watch.

Before we could finish our discussion, the work pager (his regular IT consultant job) went off. 8 different times.

So, now here I am. Spending the first Father's Day alone upstairs typing into my phone. I hope that you, dear reader, have better luck.

This Twitter Thing

I am the last person I ever expected to be on twitter.

It began innocently enough. I'm a project manager in web development, and one of the websites I'm working on needed a twitter feed displayed. So, I joined. For research. I promise.

Meanwhile, I enjoy making sarcastic comments at the TV while I indulge in my secret soap opera addiction. One day, I happened to be watching - phone in hand. A thought occurred to me. Grace & my dogs are probably sick of hearing my commentary. Why not put it out there for the world?

Now, it's pretty much a mandatory thing that I have the phone around when I watch TV.

Now, I twitter when I read the news online too. I can't get enough.

Are you on twitter? Follow me @lemonologie, and I'll follow you!

Need Your Screen Cleaned?

You know how you always get those pesky prints from touching your screen?  Go here to find out the best way to get it clean.

Overheard at Restaurant

"I don't have OCD. I have CDO in the order it is supposed to be!"

Spring Cleaning

I have been doing some blog design work over the last few weeks for my job, and I decided to upgrade my design template for this blog. Here's what's new:

• This blog is now mobile-friendly. Now that I have a smart phone, I could see how hard to read it was!
• New and improved footer. A place to cram more stuff!
  
• I'm on Twitter, and now you can easily find me (see the footer)! You can follow me or see my latest ramblings down below.
• A label cloud! (See footer)
• A new image host! Now hopefully no one will have to let me know that my background mysteriously disappeared!
  
• A navigation bar with handy links. Now that I have seen this one, I'm not sure I will keep it up there. I'll leave it for now and see if it grows on me.
  

The New Normal

It's 1 AM and I have been asleep for approximately one hour.

The scanner goes off. The floor creaks as J walks down the hall. The alarm announces "Garage Door" as he exits. Max & Molly bark furiously. All the noise wakes the baby.

It's 2 AM and J returns home. Grace settles back to sleep after her feeding. The dogs finally calm down after barking the entire hour.

I am wide awake.

From My Crackberry Again

Nice to see that Alltel puts their tagline in there. Perhaps we can work out a sponsorship deal!

For you, dear reader, this just means an increase in typo probability!

Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel

UPDATE: Tagline removed on all future posts from my phone! Love the Crackberry Forums!

From My Crackberry

Now that I have succombed to the smart phone phenomenon, I find my phone glued to my hands and my thumbs getting a heavy workout.

At least I am exercising!

Today I discovered that I can post this way. I decided that I would try it. I'm not sure if my OCD can handle not being able to control the formatting. What will I do without HTML tags?

Ah, the dillemas that technology brings!

Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel

The Day I Ruined My Tile

The morning started off pleasant enough. The sun shone brightly in my window. I got up, took my shower, and opened the shower door to step out into a day filled with opportunity.

Then suddenly I heard a crash.

Not just any crash, but a crash with the additional sound of glass shattering.

I looked down at my feet to see pools of "I'm Not Really a Waitress" red all over my beautiful porcelain tile.

My favorite bottle of bright red nail polish was no more. I was crushed.

98% of a full bottle of nail polish remover, a roll of paper towels, a runny nose and a killer headache from the fumes later, I emerged from the bathroom.

I got the stain off of the tile itself, but alas, my grout is ruined.

Why I Hate Politics

I am an independent. I vote strictly on issues - never by party.

I live in an ultra-conservative town. The people around me make me look like the absolute most liberal person in the world.

Immediately after the election back in January, a female from my church updated her Facebook status to say that Obama should be assassinated. This is the very same group of people that claim to vote for McCain strictly on the issue of abortion. What gives?

I will say that I am definitely not a fan of Former President Bush. When an issue arose that I found fault with, I was told that "He is our president. You have to respect him because of that."

Of course, this no longer applies. Obama finds himself in the news again today, and it does not even matter what he says. The people around here begin their uproar about what a horrible person he is.

Now, I am in no way waving my Obama sign and wearing my Obama t-shirt here. There are things that I agree with our president on, and there are things that I disagree with him on. But, I refrain from speaking up altogether unless I am well-informed. When I do speak, it will be on the issue at hand, and not a completely unrelated attack on personal character. I wish the people living around me shared that sentiment.

17 Weeks, 3 Days

Dear Grace,

Your Dad & I cannot believe that you are already four months old. In that amount of time you have nearly tripled your birth weight. You are solidly in 3 month clothes. You are quickly gaining on your full-term counterparts!

You learned to make noises. You "Coo" and "Google" when you are happy. We know you are our child - you can already say the website names!

The mornings are my favorite time with you. You are a little tired - you have not completely woken up yet. You cuddle in my arms and look up at me with a great big beautiful grin on your face. That grin makes me melt.

You have learned to hold your head up, and you insist upon being held that way. If I lay you down in the crook of my arm, you will stick out your lower lip. You have already perfected your pout!

From the hours of 6-10PM, you have colic. You will cry and cry, and there is nothing that your Dad & I can do to appease you. We try though! We would do anything to make you feel better.

Today you went for your four-month checkup. We saw the nurse practitioner. She commented what a beautiful baby you are. Your Dad & I know this well, so we just grin and nod. She looked you over. You performed perfectly. You made noises when she asked about noises. You pushed with your feet when she tested your leg strength. You opened your mouth when she needed to look inside.

You are now in the 10th percentile. At our last appointment, you were beneath the chart. We are so proud of all your development.

Throughout the appointment, you kicked your feet and danced with your arms. When it came time for the last thing - shots - you were so happy. When the nurse stuck you the first time, you looked stunned. You could not believe that something happened like that to hurt you. When the nurse stuck you the second time, you screamed. Your scream ripped my heart in two. I scooped you up in my arms and held you tightly. We cried together.

Tonight, with the approval of your doctor, we tried feeding you solid food for the first time. Rice cereal! I did the honors while your Dad filmed us. You pushed the mush around with your tongue. You spit some of it out, but you swallowed most of it. This is only the beginning. When I told our family that you had your first solids, the first question I got back was "Does that mean I can give her candy now?" Sure. If the candy looks and tastes exactly like rice cereal.

You continue to grow strong and healthy, sweet girl. I love you very, very much.

Love forever,

Mama