Author Archives: Cindy

kiss my butt, Google Maps

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Today was our friends Becky and Carrie’s wedding. I was so excited about this wedding; I’ve known both of them for over ten years, I just adore them and I’m so happy for them both. We left extra-early to make sure there was no way we’d be late (as we always are): the wedding was set to start at 1:30, and we left at 12:45. It should’ve only taken about 20 minutes to get there. Dave and I don’t really know our way around this area yet, so I had used Google Maps to get my driving directions there. That’s foreshadowing doom right there, in case you didn’t guess.

We set off, and we hit a little bit of road-construction traffic, but nothing major. Then we finally get to the area that Google said was our destination, and… no. The wedding was supposed to be in a restaurant (ceremony in a banquet hall upstairs, reception in the restaurant downstairs), but where we were? There was nothing but farmland all around us. So, um, WTF?

I figured that at least we were on the right street, so we’d just follow it down to the correct street number, and we’d be good. Only… it didn’t exist. Eventually we ended up in the next county, where the street changed names, and oh my hell, we are LOST. And sadly, the GPS in Dave’s car is pretty hit-or-miss right now, because we need to take it to a dealership and get the software upgraded. (It knows the Northwest really well, but its directions in North Carolina are sketchy at best.) It told us that the particular number on this street didn’t exist. Again: WTF?

We eventually figured it out, but we got there after 2:00, so we missed the entire ceremony. The only thing that kept me from bursting into tears over this is because I didn’t want to ruin my make-up.

But, you know, we made it. And I got to hug both of the brides and tell them how sorry I was that I had missed it, but I was so glad that I could be there on their special day.

me, Becky & Kristy

me, Carrie & Kris

(I sort of forgot to get a picture of both brides at the same time. Oops.)
(Oh, and the blonde on the far right of that first picture? That’s my ex-roommate who I hadn’t seen in over TEN YEARS! Crazy! It was so fun to see her and catch up.)

And Cate had a fantastic time running around the restaurant.

she LOVED the bench-style seating

Luckily she wasn’t the only kid there, and most people seemed to think she was cute and not obnoxious. We tried to rein her in as much as possible, but seriously, she’s kind of impossible to contain. Exhibit A: SPAZZ.

my happy little spazz

I swear, I don’t know where she gets all that energy. She didn’t inherit that from ME, I promise you. She took a short nap on the way home, and was rested and recharged in no time. We went for a walk around the neighborhood to let her burn off some more energy. Well, it was less of a walk and more of a run, really.

girl on the MOVE

I’m hoping that all the running she’s done today will help her sleep tonight. Please GOD, let her sleep. Yeesh.

random stuff, again

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1. We headed back to the pediatrician today so the doctor could check to make sure Cate’s lungs are all clear. She also got a flu shot, which was no fun. I still really like this new pediatrician, although man alive, I am tired of doctor’s offices.

Oh, when the doctor checked her throat, he said, “Man, she has all kinds of teeth coming in back there.” Kind of nice to have official confirmation of what I’ve been suspecting. The dreaded molars are on their way.

2. On our way out of the pediatrician’s, we ran into Kimberly, my across the street neighbor who recommended this group of pediatricians to me. Her little girl Morgan (the one whose birthday party we went to last weekend) was there for her 12-month checkup. We chatted for a while in the parking lot and finally exchanged emails and phone numbers. She invited Cate and me to a mommy playgroup thing next week, so that should be fun. She seems really nice and I always find it really easy to chat with her, but I’m such a dork that I sort of have to hold myself back from grabbing her and asking her if she’ll be my new BFF. Apparently this whole stay-at-home mom gig has been a little more isolating than I thought it would be. Man, I need a job.

3. I lost my keys for an entire week, and couldn’t find them anywhere. I knew they were in the house because I remembered that the last time I had used them was to unlock the front door. Beyond that, though, I had no idea where they were. It was driving me insane – I had my extra car key, but no house keys. Yesterday, I was cleaning the house and finally found them. We have a big overstuffed chair in our living room (this one), and it was underneath the cushion. Hmm, I wonder what little blonde toddler thought to hide them there. Gah. Dave and I seriously have to put beepers on our keys so we can find them when she stashes them (or when we misplace them, which happens all. the. damn. time.).

4. On Saturday, two of my friends from college are getting married, and I’m so excited and happy for them. Kris and her fiance Tony are flying in for the weekend, so she and I are going to meet up for breakfast tomorrow. Dave will be working from home, and I’m leaving Cate with him, so Kris and I can have some one-on-one time without trying to wrangle a toddler in a restaurant.

Btw, does anyone know the appropriate attire for a lesbian wedding? Or “commitment ceremony” or whatever you want to call it since the stupid state won’t recognize their union? I’m assuming I just wear the same thing I’d wear to a regular ol’ hetero wedding, but if I’m about to make a huge fashion blunder, I’d appreciate a heads-up. My plan is to wear my faithful long black skirt (the one with the stretchy elastic waist that doesn’t mind if I gain or lose ten pounds) and a cute top. The wedding is in the early afternoon, so that’s probably ok, yes?

However, I do have to do something about my feet before this wedding, because I haven’t had a pedicure since Linda’s wedding back in July. Yikes. If I can find a good color nail polish already in the house (which is dependent on whether I can find the box of make-up that I almost never use), I might try to tackle my toes myself. Otherwise, I might have to drop the $20 to have them professionally done. We’ll see.

on politics

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So, I’m probably going to regret writing this because I certainly don’t want to alienate anybody who reads my website, but here’s the thing. I am obsessed with politics this year. It’s strange, I’ve honestly never really cared that much before now. But this year, I find myself spending waaay too much time on cnn.com and a slew of other news sites, reading everything I can find about this upcoming election. I seriously can’t wait to vote in November. This is a totally new, foreign experience for me.

And in case there was any question, I am 100% an Obama supporter. I know he’s not perfect, I’ve read factcheck.org, I know that both Obama and McCain have misspoken and exaggerated at times, especially in their advertisements. But I’ve weighed the issues that I care about: health care, the environment, women’s issues (equal pay, right to choose, etc.), the war in Iraq, the economy. Obama is my guy on pretty much every topic.

I used to like John McCain. Honestly. I remember back in the 2000 primaries, he was running against Bush, and I remember thinking that he was the most reasonable Republican candidate I had ever seen. If it had been him running against Al Gore, I’m honestly not sure who I would’ve voted for that year. But it seems like in the last couple of years, he decided that his integrity was worth less than his desire to be President. When he caved in on Bush’s torture bill, I lost all respect for him. I mean, for a guy who wants to play his “former POW” card as much as possible, to decide that torture is ok? Yeah, sorry dude, you lost me right there.

And god, y’all, I don’t even know where to start with Sarah Palin. It’s not a sexism thing, it’s not that I think a mother of five (even with a special-needs baby) can’t have a demanding career. That part is fine. But she represents pretty much the exact opposite of every political viewpoint that I have, and she’s even less articulate than Bush. Listening to her speak (or more accurately, try to speak) makes me want to stick a fork in my eye. With McCain’s age and his current health, there’s a relatively good chance that he could die in the next four years. And the idea of Palin as president… lord help us all.

And not that this is nearly as important as the issues themselves, but there’s also the fact that I grew up in Mississippi, and I’ve always been keenly aware of racism in the world. That’s not to say that racism doesn’t exist outside of the South – I think it’s absolutely everywhere, it’s just a little more obvious in the South with its history of slavery, the civil rights movement, etc. Even within my own family, my dad is a pretty racist guy. He was born in 1936 and has lived in the South all of his life, so I guess he’s a product of his generation and environment. We got into a fight during my family’s visit a few weeks ago about the fact that I don’t want him to go on any racist rants in front of Cate. I know she’s too young to understand it now, but pretty soon she won’t be, and I don’t want her to hear that kind of talk in our house. My parents made my grandparents (on my dad’s side) stop using the n-word when we were little because they didn’t want us to hear it, so it’s the same idea. I just don’t want Cate to hear any sentences that start with the phrase, “These blacks…”

You know, that’s just not the world that I want my child to grow up in. I’m aware that racism will always exist in the world, and I can’t shield her from it forever. But I would love it if I could tell her that the first presidential election after she was born was the one where we elected our first black President. And even if Obama doesn’t win, I’ll still be proud to tell her that her mommy voted for him (and that Daddy would have, but he isn’t a U.S. citizen and he can’t vote with just a green card).

But if the worst happens and we do end up with President Palin: don’t worry, baby, you’ll have dual citizenship so you can move to England after the U.S. has been shot to hell.

EDITED TO ADD: The above is all my personal opinion, which as it turns out, I’m allowed to express on my own website. If you disagree with me on every point? Good for you! That’s why we live in a democracy. We’re different people, we’re allowed to have different opinions. But I would like to request RESPECTFUL disagreement, I’m not looking to start a flame war.

3 good things

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1. MY CAR IS FIXED!!! The repair guys finished it yesterday, and I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am to have it back.

See, before:
my poor car

And after:
my car is finally fixed!

Isn’t it insanely shiny? I don’t know what those guys did to it, but it looks fantastic. I was so happy to have it back, I almost jumped on the hood and humped it like I was in a Whitesnake video. Dave said that would leave a bigger dent than the one the movers caused, so clearly I will never be speaking to him ever again.

2. Cate’s asthma is way better. She hasn’t needed her albuterol in over 24 hours, so that’s what we call recovered around here.

3. We went to our very first neighborhood gathering today: little Morgan across the street turned 1 year old, so her parents threw a party and all of the neighborhood kids were there. It was kind of insane, there were kids (mostly older, our neighborhood seems to have a lot of kids in the 5-10 year-old range) running around everywhere. Cate was a little clingy at first with all of the people around, but she soon relaxed and ran around and had a great time. She even let a couple of the other moms (and one teenage girl) pick her up, which is pretty amazing given how mommy-centric she is right now. Also, I got to meet a ton of our neighbors who I hadn’t met yet, and all of them seemed really super nice, so that was great.

And the absolute best part? After getting completely overstimulated by the kids and all the activity, baby girl crashed almost as soon as I got her home. Naptime has never been as easy as it was today. Yay! Can’t wait for e-baby’s birthday party tomorrow so we can wear her out all over again!

asthma update

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Yesterday we headed off to the pediatrician to check out Cate’s asthma attacks. And I have to say, we picked our new group of pediatricians based on the recommendations of a couple of neighbors, but the first doctor that we met a few weeks ago left me totally unimpressed. I felt like he didn’t really listen to me, and he was very brusque with Cate and basically scared the pants off her.

However, yesterday we met with a different doctor, and I will absolutely be requesting this particular doctor from now on, because he was awesome. He was so sweet and gentle with Cate, she didn’t even cry when he looked in her ears, which is something that always makes her freak out. I mean, it’ll be difficult for anyone to match the love that I had for our pediatrician back in Washington, because she was fantastic, but this guy just might come close.

Anyway, we’ve upgraded Cate’s asthma treatments to the equivalent of her same medication using a nebulizer rather than an inhaler. Cate is definitely not a fan of the nebulizer, and honestly neither am I – it means we have to keep her distracted with cartoons for about 7 minutes instead of the 10 seconds that it takes to do the inhaler. But on the plus side, it really does seem to be help with her wheezing more than the inhaler did. It’s just hard because she gets bored and fidgety long before the medication is done, but if you’ve ever had a child in respiratory distress, you know that the inconvenience factor is pretty minor. Anything it takes to get her feeling better, I’m all for it.

The doctor also gave us an oral steroid, to help with the swelling in Cate’s airways. I got the prescription home, smelled it, and knew that there was no way that I was going to get Cate to swallow it. It smells vaguely like cherries, but it has a really strong chemical smell too. When it was time to give it to her, I set up with a big tupperware container and a couple of towels, just to be prepared for the inevitable gagging and barfing that I knew was going to ensue. And… she loved it. I guess even though it stinks, it must taste like candy, because she sucked the stuff out of the syringe without a single peep of a complaint.

She’s definitely feeling a lot better today, and has even eaten a little bit of actual solid food (when she’s sick, she goes to liquids-only; I guess it’s too hard to chew when you can’t breathe). So that’s great. And she only woke up once last night, for which I am extremely thankful.

So it looks like our birthday party-packed weekend will go on as planned. I wasn’t worried about her being contagious, because I figure we passed that point a few days ago, but I was thinking that we’d have to cancel if she was still wheezing and miserable. Fortunately, it doesn’t looks like that’ll be the case. Hooray for modern medicine!

another sick baby post

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Last night may have been one of the worst nights we’ve had since Cate was a newborn. Her asthma flared up yesterday, which I was kind of expecting as her cold was getting worse. I’d started her on her steroid inhaler on Monday, when she first started showing signs of getting sick – the idea is that it’s supposed to help with the swelling in her airways so she won’t have an asthma attack. In my experience, though? It never really seems to work at preventing squat.

So when she started wheezing yesterday, we added on her albuterol inhaler. That plus some Motrin seemed to help… until around 6:00 last night. Then she just started wailing and wouldn’t stop. It was the kind of crying that obviously wasn’t a tantrum or basic toddler frustration; this was the “I’m miserable and you aren’t fixing it” crying.

I gave her a quick bath, some more albuterol, a cup of milk, and put her to bed. She was out in almost no time. She woke up coughing and wheezing about two hours later. And again two hours after that. And lather-rinse-repeat all. night. long.

Sometime around 4 a.m., she woke up and I gave her the albuterol and tried to give her a sippy cup with some milk. While she was drinking, she wheezed and inhaled some milk, which made her gag and then throw up everywhere. All over both of us, the couch, the floor, the coffee table… heck, she even hit the remote controls. Girlfriend put some serious velocity on that barf.

You can imagine how thrilled Dave was when I woke him up at 4 a.m. to go clean up the barf downstairs while I got Cate and myself into the shower. Yeah. That was fun.

She’s still wheezing this morning, so we’re off to see the pediatrician in a couple of hours. The last time this happened, they gave her an oral steroid in the doctor’s office and it really seemed to help a lot. Hopefully the same thing will work this time.

But Miss Priss had better knock off this nonsense soon, because we’ve got a weekend full of birthday parties (little girl across the street on Saturday, e-baby on Sunday), and she needs to be her 100% fun, charming self for both events.

do you ever get used to handling other people's snot?

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Cate woke up yesterday with some phenomenal sneezes. You know the kind of sneezes that shoot clear across the room? Or cover the child’s entire face? Yeah, those. So apparently it’s Cold Time again. Fun fun fun.

The one perk is that she’s now old enough that when she sneezes, she doesn’t immediately try to wipe it away with her hands (thereby spreading the mess around even worse). Now she waits for me to come running with a tissue. She’s trying to figure out how to blow her nose when I hold up the tissue, but… yeah. Not so much with that milestone just yet. We’re working on it, though.

I’m a little brain-dead from dealing with a sick kiddo, but here: this article is kind of fascinating. I’ve never really understood why some Americans (um, mostly Republicans, I think) are so anti-France, but most of their system sounds pretty good to me.

I should probably do a political post at some point and expand on my thoughts about our American government and the upcoming election, but I think I’ll save it for when I’m a little more coherent. Good night, y’all.