Round is Also a Shape

It took me 7 months to fit back into my old pants after birthing the Feral Goat. I guess I could have been a bit more proactive about it and do something, like, oh, exercise, but moving and sweating weren't really my thing. I am lucky to inherit my grandma's small frame, which I'm hoping to pass on to Chase, and have always been thin without having to do anything for it. Yes, please feel free to roll your eyes as I also find it to be completely obnoxious. But lemme assure you that being small has nothing to do with being in shape. I pretty much sat on my butt most of the pregnancy because of sciatica and joints that were determined to disconnect as soon as I was knocked up. So now I'm rather, how shall I put this..., fluffy? I weigh the same as I did before I was pregnant, maybe even a pound or two less, and wear the same size pants, but there's definitely more of me to love. I told myself I had a year to get back that body and was quite smug that I had plenty of time to do it--until I was in the process of booking our Thailand trip and realized that there were only two more months until my deadline! How did this happen? Two more months until my Little Bean turn one?!? More importantly, two more months until I have to be in a bathing suit frolicking in the warm salty water? Does Spanx make swimwear? Panic was beginning to set in because nothing said I gave up like wearing a sarong on the beach.

Wil came home yesterday and asked Chase "did Momma work out?" because the sight of an exercise ball and a yoga mat all over our living room was hard to miss. I had a very good intention to start and even unearthed my mat, but apparently Miss Crabby Pants really loved my muffin top and was determined to sabotage my plan. I found something on Self.com that I think I can stick with and actually looks like a good clean fun. We shall see how much fun it really is after a few reps of Tush Tightener.

He Still Makes Me Laugh

Chase and I woke up to a cold gray sky and whipping wind that caused Paddy to print back inside right after he was done with his morning business. Later I got an email from Wil that told me that going for a walk today might not be a good idea but to remember that we were going to Thailand! I have a feeling that he will be using that to cheer me up a lot in the next few months. Bad weather? Think of us laying on the beach in Thailand! Sick kid? Grandparents will be there to help in Thailand! Disappointing dinning experience? We would be eating like kings in Thailand!, AND Kwan will probably entertain the baby for the whole entire meal, so we both could eat at the same time and with both hands! Magical and wonderful THAILAND!

Putting on an extra layer and wishing that it'd be May when I finally come to...

What Is That Round Bright Thing in the Sky and Why Am I Sweating?

"So, Chasey, you remember about the sun we read about in your little book?"
"Look around!!!"


Ok, so we weren't really sweating since the temperature was still in the mid 40's (that's about 6-7˚C for those of you who are keeping score in celsius), but the sun was out! And no rain!!! I needed today. I needed today like three weeks ago, but enough of my bitching. As soon as Chaster was done with lunch, I ran to the garage to dust off her trusty stroller and stroll we went! It was only 45 minutes long because Chase needed to take a nap, but it was the best 45 minutes I've had since we moved almost two months ago. It reminded me why we fell in love with our little German village in the first place.
Partners in crime. Is she really pointing?









NEED. NAP. NOW. She almost doesn't fit in her stroller bassinet anymore!

And here are the rest of yesterday's shenanigans:

In baby jail and being punished because she woke up too early from her nap.

I realized yesterday when I snapped this picture that we purposefully decorate our house(s) in the colors of our dogs, so their hair would just blend in with the furniture and I wouldn't have the vacuum on every single waking moment.

Trying to call Papa. She actually got it right and dialed someone yesterday. Hopefully it wasn't a long distant call.

A very naked, however very patriotic, baby.
Two more months before you get to kiss those chubbers, Kun Tha, Kun Yai, and Kwan!

Ahhh, yes, you want to hear about Thailand? It looks like Chaster and I will be spending the month of May and a tiny bit of early June at home with my parents. Wil's leave days haven't really been determined but he'll fly to meet us there and hang with us for at least two weeks. I need not tell you how excited I am about this trip. It's been too ridiculously long since I went home, but this time no grandmas are going to be fussing over me. I'm a mere baby carrier and totally cool with that. Baby and boozing on the beach don't mix anyway :).

Thank You, Girls

I'm constantly reminded of how lucky I am to have you girls in my life. Your words of encouragement mean the world to me and even if we live thousands of miles apart, I don't feel so alone knowing that my friends are out there in the cyberspace :). I'm not having "woe is me" days anymore even though I'm still a hermit. Less of hermit since we did get out this weekend. It's so cold and damp (rain or snow everyday for as long as my short term memory can recall) I just don't dare to take Chase out. She's definitely over the latest case of whateverthatwas but I still hear an occasional congestion and cough here and there. After nearly two months of non-stop sickness, I'm just too petrified to take a chance. Good thing is there's an indoor playground nearby. I had heard about it, checked out the website, and decided that Chase was a little too young for it. But I HAD to get out of the house, so of we went. Oh, and Wil came along, too. The kid wasn't having a good day. She has been sleeping so poorly lately and often wakes up tired. It wasn't even noon when we got there but there were already plenty of screaming kids, who seemed to be jacked up on pure sugar and syrup, running around in costumes. I think it was the combination of birthday parties and Fasching. As I had thought, Chase was too young (they do have a baby/toddler area, but it's quite small), and far too tired, to truly enjoy it. Most of the time she just seemed overwhelmed and just stared at everything with her big eyes. Poor baby.
Doesn't it look like a state prison from the outside? Complete with a guard puppy. I have no idea how he got to the roof but clearly he was enjoying the view.









After a nap, we had a better time at the commissary. It was Chaster's first ride in the cart (normally I just cart her around in the baby carrier), and she really liked it.



Sorry this seems rushed. Chase is waking up from her nap now and I've got to go. Gotta tell you later about our planned trip to Thailand! I'm already in a much better mood thinking about it :).

Anywhere But Here

I'm in a funk. This **** weather and being cooped up inside have finally gotten to me. I feel like a hermit. I don't want to be here.

Be Still My Heart

This week:

I'm putting away some of Chase's 6-9 months clothes and getting 9-12-month stuff in to rotation, which I probably should have done a week or two ago. I'm just not ready for the double-digit-month era to start and for my baby's first birthday to come. Plus she looks really cute in a tight fitting onesie that highlights the round belly.

With the increased mobility comes the increased daily crying as a result of a fall, slip, head banging, and random acrobatic maneuver. It's always the scary cry that starts with no noise at all--just big sad welling eyes with exasperated quivering lips. It hurts me more every time.

It has snowed on and off pretty much everyday, which makes walking anywhere with a baby, who just recovered from her latest ailment, impossible. Haven't left the house in 6 days.

The light of my life eats like a man (as if we needed any more evidence that she's mine). She puts more food away everyday than I did during my first trimester with her. Her favorite meal of the week is rice with spinach and liver in a little bit of beef broth. I am waiting for her to ask for a 28-oz ribeye.

Chase has learned to repeatedly pat the top of Paddy's head, who parks his big butt under her high chair during each and every meal time, when she's ready to share her meal with him. It's so funny I have a hard time telling her no.

Her favorite word right now is "Day-Day." I was convinced it was the name of her future boyfriend, while her father said "no daughter of mine is going to date a boy named Day-Day." I informed him that it could be a nickname for David, and he's been giving little boys named David the stink eye since :).

I've also learned that trying to iron curtains is about as frustrating as waiting for Chase's first tooth to cut. I'm hoping the wrinkled drapes will grow on me soon, or I'm going have to break out my steam cleaner. And Wil will have to drive me to the hospital for a severe burn to my digits and hands.

Not much to share this week. I was hoping we would be able to do something together this weekend, but it looks like Wil will be working on Saturday. Chase and I might do some solo outings, if weather and health permit.

Pictures

I'm too tired to write a real post, so here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

We've been getting a little bit of snow every night this week and the boys have the best time chasing each other around before the warm sunshine melts the white stuff away by the end of the day.
Have you spotted our neighbor?
He has a friend that lives with him in the stable across from our house, but I could never get her picture. A camera-shy horse, that one.

Today's lunch: liver dumpling, spätzle, peas, and carrots. How German is my kid? After getting some encouraging words about what to feed her from Rebecca, I became a whole lot more relaxed and just let her explore the wonderful world of food. I'm so thankful we decided to go the Baby-Led Weaning route as it has really taught her how to properly chew (gum) and swallow before taking another bite. She LOVES food and is such a little piglet. The apple definitely doesn't fall far from the tree.

Her mohawk from last night.

I know I'm partial but I just think she's the most perfect creature I've ever seen.



We've been getting lots of snow through out the day today and it's not melting since the sun is taking a day off.
We have a mess in one corner of the backyard. Our landlord is supposed to be pouring a new concrete pad for our driveway. As soon as the temperature rises above the freezing point...perhaps in June.
The sickies get to stay inside. Oh, yeah, Wil's home :). Yes, all of us are still sick, but Chase and I are doing much better than her father.
She was actually smiling and laughing, but the picture didn't come out too well.
I love this picture of the boys.

Poor Baby

I started to add this as an update in the last post, but no one ever seems to notice it after I add stuff to the bottom of the post. I got an email from Wil, who just came back from the hospital with the flu diagnosis. The MSG, who was in charge of the conference, recognized that his symptoms were a little more serious than a bad cold and took him to the hospital. Poor guy. Poor House Keeping at the hotel. At least now he has a plethora of medications to help him along instead of just a bottle of Nyquil. He's also on quarters now, and I'm sure for the rest of the conference. I must say that I'm a little relieved that Chase is not allergic to the flu vaccination like her father. Can you imagine the three of us sick together under one roof? I shudder at the thought. Get well soon, Honey! Just a few more days and you'll feel even better when you see your beautiful baby at the airport. Hope all the germs are gone by then, because, you know, I'd hate for you to be responsible for spreading this across the Atlantic. I love you with all of my heart but will beat you senseless with a stick if you get our baby sick for the forth time in a little over a month. So take this as an order to rest, rest, and rest! Get well soon, My Love. You are almost home.

I Did Warn Her

Don't even ask me how I missed 2 exits on the autobahn today, even with the Garmin yelling directions at me. Because of our little detour, we came home 30 minutes later than when Chase's afternoon nap was supposed to start. 30 minutes. Apparently that was all the excuse my kid needed to act up for the rest of the day. She had a restless night and didn't sleep long for her morning nap either. So for the following 6 hours of nap strike, my child was a picture of a petulant monkey. Her only saving grace was the fact that she knew when to reach out for me and grab my face to give an opened-mouth kiss in the midst of all the crocodile tears--or else she would have already been dropped off at the fire station. I told her that if she didn't eat her dinner nicely, instead of digging through a pile of beefy rice to look for pieces of carrots and throwing everything else everywhere, I would post an unflattering picture of her on the blog. I think that was when she decided that Brutus and Paddy needed sweet potatoes more than she did. So I'm following through with what I said, 'cause MOMMA DON'T PLAY.

OK, so the child is far too photogenic to truly have a horrendous picture. At least we can all point and laugh at her hair.
And because I know her father needs to see this gummy smile to get him through a terrible cold/flu/stomach thing and the next couple of days.
Alright, one more for good measure.

I'm not sure what she was doing here as she was standing like this for a very long time. I was too afraid to ask in case it was some kind of baby booty dancing routine.

I gave Chase a stick of hard pretzel to gnaw on and when I turned around she was feeding it to Paddy. After Paddy bit off a piece (it was already soft and soggy, so he didn't really have to bite down, MOM. I promise Paddy won't eat her fingers), she put the rest in her mouth. She got this from her father. And Paddy is going on a diet.

Smelly AND Theraputic!

I was on the phone with my mom yesterday telling her how much trouble Chase was having sleeping because she couldn't breathe. That was when my mom suggested one of the craziest things I'd ever heard. She said "put a crushed shallot in her bed when she goes to sleep." Apparently in the Thai olden days, crushed shallots and kaffir lime leaves were added to a warm bath for any babies/kids with congestions. I didn't have any kaffir lime leaves and probably wouldn't even know where to look for one but did have a bag of shallots sitting in my pantry. I kind of thought it was crazy but mom said that she did it when we were little and it worked well. I was afraid that the emitted gas would burn Chase's eyes, and she assured me that a shallot was small enough and would not be as pungent as a big onion and told me to just hold it in front of me for a minute to try. Sure enough I didn't feel any stinging, but since my nose wasn't stuffy at the time, I couldn't attest to the nose-clearing ability. Desperate time called for desperate measures, and I wasn't about to face the third sleepless night in a row without a fight. And you know what? She slept 11 hours straight last night. I never heard one stuffy nose snort--not one angry fit. When I opened her bedroom door this morning, the distinct aroma was abundantly there but my child was also breathing effortlessly. Within minutes of my taking her to the living room to have breakfast and play, she was suddenly congested and dripping the gooey stuff again. Unbelievable!!! I'm not above making her a shallot necklace to wear for a couple of days. Kun Yai to the rescue! You are the greatest walking and talking mom's encyclopedia. I also made your concoction of lemon and honey drink this morning to soothe my miserable throat and am already feeling better. Man, I used to hate that stuff when I was little. Thanks again, Mom!

We're experiencing our first thunderstorm in this house, and Paddy was taking a refuge from the evil storm that was coming to get him under my feet.
My 85-lb baby.


I was feeling adventurous and let Chase have some chicken and noodles for dinner. The kid looks stoned here, doesn't she? Anyway, ALL the kids were very happy about this dinner choice, if you know what I mean.

It's been raining cats and dogs here all week and our backyard is so overly saturated and flooded. I have had to hose down the boys a couple of times a day after they come back from using the bathroom. We have both a bathtub and a little shower stall in our bathroom, and I've been rinsing them off in the shower stall so I wouldn't have to fight with Paddy to throw him in the tub. It's really tiny even for me, but it does ok for a quick job. For some unknown reason, Brutus LOVES to be in the shower stall. All I have to do is to open the door and tell him "bath" and he'd just jump in. I think he's just relieved that he didn't have to slip and slide all over the place in the tub. Last night I left Paddy outside while I was cleaning off Brutus in the bathroom. When he was done and dried off, Bru jumped into his papasan chair and got comfortable. Then I went to get Paddy, opened the door, told him "bath", and practically had to shove him in. Brutus, who heard the command, leaped out of his chair and into the stall. I couldn't get him out for a minute. He was actually miffed that I kicked him out of the bathroom without giving him another rinse down. All my kids are weirdos. Look how thrilled Paddy is about this situation.


BUSTED!

This explains why we are not making any progress with the sippy cup. My kid thinks that nipples of any kind are funny. I know. She would gnaw on it a little, take it out to examine it, squeeze it to see if something comes out, chuckle to herself, and then repeat the process. She does it with mine sometimes and I can never keep a straight face long enough to tell her no. Life with this child is always amusing.

I'm Going to Stab You with a Fork, Winter, and It's Going to Hurt

Chase gave me her cooties and it just took me nearly 45 minutes to swallow a bowl of noodle soup.

√ Feeling of head becoming detached from the rest of the body.
√ Earache.
√ Having to fight for a place and blanket in bed with mutts that smell like the outdoors. Feeling much too wonky to give them baths.
√ Spent far too much time playing with symbols after discovered the 2-key combinations to make: œ∑´®†¥¨ˆøπåß∂ƒ©˙∆˚¬…æΩ≈ç√∫˜µ≤≥÷
√ Love Mac.
√ Kid's still sick.
√ Need clean sheets. And my mommy.

Allergies and Sickness #3 Rant

Chase is having a rough month, to say the least. She started to sound a tiny congested a few days a go and I was keeping my fingers crossed that it was just a minor reaction to the manic cold/rain/snow/occasional sun combination we've been having. No such luck. Yesterday she started to have a runny nose while we were out having lunch with our friends. I stopped at Ramstein Bx to look for a bulb syringe. We have several, but I find the one that was sent home with her from the hospital to be the most effective. Paddy was mesmerized by the thing and kept stealing it, and now I have no idea where it is. If he has it, he's not telling. I mean it sounds simple enough right? Well, I couldn't find it anywhere, so I asked 2 store employees, who had no idea what I was talking about but eventually sent me to another kid section, where I was told by two more employees that bulb syringes were being phased out. Huh? Phased out? A newborn/infant necessity is being phased out at AAFES, you hear it here first! Personally I thought there was some language barrier as none of the four I spoke to were a native English speaker and I had to actually explain what a bulb syringe was. I mean, if you don't know what you are talking about, why not just admit to it? I pretty much gave up after combing through all the baby/kid sections and went up to pay, where I registered my question/complaint to the cashier, who appeared to be a sweet high school student. She didn't have an answer for me, but the girl who was in line behind me thought she surely did when she chimed in with "oh, yeah, that's old." What's old? Bulb syringe? I had a baby 9 months ago and it was in use then. As far as I know, newborns haven't evolved so far as to be able to blow their own noses immediately after birth, so I'm pretty certain it's still fairly "in" and "new." I have very low tolerance for morons especially when my poor baby is telling me with her sad eyes that she's utterly miserable and can't breathe. I didn't have time to drive around on the economy to look for one, because the baby didn't look well and I wanted to give her some medicine and let her rest. Needless to say, our night was horrendous. She was up for nearly every hour crying because she couldn't breathe. Benedryl doesn't even put a dent into this one and the tiny bulb syringe we have is just useless. And since today is Sunday, no stores are opened on the economy for me to go look. Sigh. I'm thinking about calling Mother & Baby unit at Landstuhl, where we got the first one, and offer to buy one from them. This much trouble for a FREAKING BULB SYRINGE!!! I reserve a special kind of hatred for AAFES buyers/stockers.

So while we were out at lunch yesterday, I let Chase try a piece of steamed sweet red bell pepper. I made sure to order them without butter, salt, or any kind of seasonings. No more than a few minutes passed before red rashes started to appear around her mouth. Unfortunately, this is not at all uncommon with Chase. She has so many food allergies that the poor child ends up just eating the same thing over and over again. At the very least, the reaction is localized around her mouth and goes away quickly without an aid of any medication. The worst was when I gave her about two teaspoons of baby yogurt a few months ago. Her whole face puffed up and she became very fussy, which led me to believe that she might be having some trouble breathing. Of course, we rushed her to the German Krankenhaus in town (we were living in Baumholder then) immediately and thankfully she was fine. Her airway didn't close up and her internal reaction was the cause of her agitation. When the doctor undressed and examined her, we could see that she had broken out in red hives, with her belly being the main area of concentration. It was the scariest day of my life, and every time she has a reaction since then, however minor, it sends me into a panic. I had the worst time finding something that doesn't have dairy in it to eat when I first found out that Chase had milk protein intolerance, so I could keep nursing her. Now imagine trying to find something for my finger-food-loving 9 month-old that doesn't contain any dairy. I feel so bad for her. On most days she ends up eating Cheerios and fruits, because the child has decided that she doesn't like the taste of bland chicken or meat that I'm supposed to give her. I spoke to her doctor about it the other day when we went in to discuss having her tested for allergens, because she suddenly started to randomly breakout (not food related) since we moved into this house. We're thinking that she might be allergic to something in the yard that the boys track in. Anyway, back to the food. I never thought letting the baby have food with some seasoning was bad as long as it wasn't too salty, but I had been trying to go by the books, which all said to NEVER add salt to baby food. I'm beginning to think little salt is better than no protein outside of breast milk at all.

I know this post is so long and unorganized. I'm guess I'm just frustrated. Normally I would have Wil to bounce my thoughts and concerns with about the baby, and I kind of don't want to bring it up to my other friends because I feel like illnesses and sleep problems are all I talk about as is. I guess this is what I'm doing here, but since this is MY blog I'm just going to let it rip. I'm having a really foul Sunday, can't you tell?

One for Me and One for My Homie

We've been up to our elbows in Cheerios. Literally.