Good times at the libaray

Well the library was PACKED! The show started at 11:30 and we got there at 10 passed to make sure that we had a good seat. But apparently loads of other people had the same idea because we stood in a queue that wrapped around the library and when we were the 3rd people from the front they cut off admission. Thankfully, they arranged to do a special 12:30 production so we waited for that one to happen. It was crazy too! You wouldn't believe the people who showed up right up until 11:30 thinking they were going to get in. The 12:30 performance was nearly to capacity as well!! Still the kids were so sweet watching it. I sat next to a lady who said that Mr. Tischner used to open his home at Christmas time for the public to come and walk-through and see all of his puppets. That would have been a sight to see.

I'm so grateful that the Nashville Public Library offers these shows.

It happened last night

Last night, it happened. The moment that Mom and Cas (MIL) both said would come. As PD and I sat Skyping with Sug, PD started to fuss. We had a really good day yesterday so I figured there was an actual issue. I gave him a sniff and sure enough, he needed a change. We went up to his room and laid a diaper beneath him like we always do and proceeded to open him up.




OMG! I have no idea where all of that stuff came from because the kid has not been eating properly. He refuses anything by spoon. He used to only refuse the spoon in the morning but would eat dinner. Now he'll take about 3 bites and then wants to do it himself. Anyway, if he's refusing things by spoon then he's getting by on what he can pick up and feed himself and that's not a whole lot. So where did all of that poo come from?! Who knows. It was everywhere. Luckily we use cloth diapers so it didn't get out. I know that it would have leaked out of everywhere if he'd been in a sposie.

Still, It had gotten all over his diaper cover and worked it's way to the front and as soon as I opened the diaper I think it started to multiply like Gremlins!!! I decided to just put him in the bath cuz a wipey wasn't going to cut it. So I wrapped him in the clean diaper which was now covered in poo anyway and we went to the bathroom. I sat him on the toilet and ran a little bath and sat him in it. He was very entertained by all of the little bits of poo floating around in the tub and it was all I could do to keep him from playing with them.

After I got him out of the tub I used the toilet shower to rinse off the tub, toilet, both diapers and the cover and then cleaned the toilet, floor, side of the tub, sink and myself with clorox wipes. It was INSANE!!

Poor sug just sat all alone on skype while I did all of this because he thought it was just going to be a quick change.

Today is my last day as a SAHM. So PD and I are off to the library with some friends to see Cinderella again and I'm not sure how we're going to spend the rest of the day.

I'm still not sure who he is going to stay with on Monday. I have spoken with 3 different people. As soon as Marsha lets me know if she wants to come out here, I'll have a plan. If she doesn't, he'll go to Danielle's until Sug gets home then Sug will keep him.

Storytime and playdates

We went to the library today for storytime. It was just the standard storytime that they always do but Oliver enjoys it so much. They sing their little songs about being friends and making a rainbow and read books aloud to the kids. Oliver loves being around all of the bigger kids.

After storytime Marsha and Shannon came over with Maddy and Dylan for a playdate. Oliver slept through the whole thing, pretty much. By the time he woke up Maddy and Marsha were just about to leave. They did stay long enough for Maddy to pinch Oliver and make him cry. Then his cry upset her and she started to cry. Naturally he was over it waaaaay before she was. Still, he was teary and I felt bad that I didn't stop it. I was trying to take pictures of them playing but the camera wouldn't focus. I'm not sure what was going on there. As soon as they started crying the camera sorted itself out. That was frustrating.

Oh... did I mention we now have a camera?! OH YEAH!

After Marsha and Shannon left Oliver and I hung out for a bit then Mia came over. It was really nice to catch up. Naturally, she brought Bear with her. He's so cute and Oliver thought he was just the best thing ever...

We've had a pretty good couple of days...

Sug was home all day on Friday and devoted the entire day to hanging out with us. IT WAS AWESOME! We went to the Library downtown which is an event in itself. The building is beautiful. BUT, the reason we went was to take Oliver to see the Cinderella marionette show. It was an amazing production. The soundtrack was witty and entertaining. The library staff who manned the marionettes behind the set nailed it. The audience was enthralled the entire time. I've told all of my friends and there is a good chance I'm going to go back with them before too long. I'm sure there will be all new productions of things when the Clarke's come over around PD's birthday. Sug had such a great time and commented several times on how the outing was right up Cas's ally so we're totally taking her when she comes to visit. We went to the puppet show then to Provence (a bakery downtown) and had a coffee. Then walked to the arcade a couple of blocks away and got a chocolate soft-serve cone. It's so hard to find chocolate soft-serve these days. I got them all of the time when I was pregnant and working at curves. Until I found out I had gestational diabetes, that is.

The plan Friday was to dash home after storytime and let PD have a nap then take him to the Zoo and wear him out because Eller had offered to keep him while we went to see Harry Potter. Unfortunately, he didn't feel like taking a nap for quite a while after we got home so we never made it to the zoo. We'll do it as a family soon, though. Maybe when Sug gets home from the west coast.

We took him to Eller's around 6:00 and experience the "Cry because mommy is leaving" for the first time. Needless to say I felt like crap and totally contradicted myself. I've always said that if my kid ever started crying because I was leaving him with some one I would just leave anyway and let him deal with it. I TOTALLY CAVED. I snatched him right back out of Alfred's arms to have myself a little cuddle at which point he stopped crying and cuddled into me. (Oliver, much like his mummy, isn't a cuddler unless he's sleepy) I was at a total loss at what to do and on the brink of cancelling the entire outing but Eller was very reassuring and turned on some kiddie show and pulled out some toys and Oliver totally forgot that we were there so we snuck out. Apparently, he was cool the rest of the evening. He went right back to being his normal chuckling, giggling self until he had to go to bed. We all know that no matter where you lay him he acts like it's on a bed of nails. Still, Eller handled it just fine and I'm ever so grateful!

By the time we got back to pic Oliver up around 10 he had been sleeping like a log for ages. I joined Eller for glass (or 3) of wine while Sug and Alfred talked about canoeing or hiking or whatever it is guys talk about. I'm sure we totally outstayed our welcome as we didn't end up leaving until around 1 and Oliver did not appreciate being woken up. He stayed awake the whole car-ride home and was reluctant to be laid down into his own bed. In the end, he slept really well that night as did Sug and I. :-D

Yesterday was our big "Mom's Group" BBQ. Sug cut the grass and set up a tent outside and got the place looking really nice then we stay inside and let the babies play with the toys in the recroom the whole time. lol I had 3 cancellations the day of and 3 no-shows. I was upset and totally about to put a nasty message on the group message board about it but Maurisa talked me down. I'm still chafed and still want her to kick them all out of the group but she won't do it cuz she's nicer than me. :-D

I did have a great time with the people who did show-up though. The food was great and the babies had a really good time plus the other mom's got to get out of the house and have some grown-up conversation which is sometimes a rarity. So all-in-all I'd call it a success.

Still no camera - maybe Monday??

Big Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow I have an interview with the American Red Cross here in Nashville. I'm really excited about it. I'm interviewing for a position as a DRD Rep which is what I used to do in Huntington. I hope I get it. Our little family could really use the extra income. Even after the economy recovers, if Sug decides that he's going to go to the airlines, we'll need an extra income for the first year at least. I think I'm looking at being at this job for at least 3 years. AT LEAST 3 years. It could take longer than that for the airlines to recover enough to start hiring. We'll see.

No big news with PD today. We went to story time at the library then to lunch with my friend Laurel. We weren't going to go to story time at all because Marsha is in San Diego and we normally go with her. Then I figured PD really enjoys it and he over-slept last week so we only saw the last 10 minutes. I sent Laurel a text and she was free so she met us for lunch. We got some books from the library about sewing because I'd like to be better at my sewing machine. After his afternoon nap I took him to the dam to feed the ducks. He was so cute sitting there in his bumbo with all of the ducks surrounding him scrambling for the food. Hopefully, if we go next week, we'll have a camera and we'll take a vid so you guys can see too!

We've found another food PD doesn't like

I've devoted quite a bit of time this week to making baby food for Oliver. We went to whole foods and bought organic produce, baby snacks and other things to make his food. I've spent ages steaming, cooking, pureeing, freezing, labeling and storing. Tonight he got to try his new food for the first time. The verdict?!

He loves the Ravioli we got for him. We kind of knew he would. My friend Laura got me all kinds of baby food when I was pregnant and one of his faves has been a beef and tomato macaroni. He liked the corn as well. The lima beans... uuuuuuum not so much! In fact he kind of gagged each time I gave him some. It could be a consistency thing. I'll try adding some milk to them next time and cream them up to see if that improves his opinion on them. For now, though, he REALLY doesn't like lima beans.

I have plans for several more types of baby food to make for Oliver. There are several websites I've found that offer recipes for baby food and I've checked out some books from the library to learn some tricks as well.

We spent the day at our friends' Corinne and Olivia's house. Olivia's 1st birthday is July 31st so Oliver and I went out to their house to help them decorate a super cute cupcake style that Corinne made for Olivia to smash up after she's gotten her pictures taken with it. They have a professional photographer coming out to the house to photo the event. FUN TIMES!

A major development at Casa de Clarke

So tonight, after Sug gave Oliver a bath, they went back to Oliver's room while I went downstairs to finish making some vegetable soup. Before long, Sug was calling to me to come up stairs and look at something. When I got to Oliver's room Oliver was in the floor and Sug was sitting on the futon. He threw a snappy in the floor about 4 feet away. Oliver spun around (he's been doing that for weeks) and proceeded to push/scoot/army crawl over to the snappy. Now there have been a couple of times when he has done one simple army crawl, but only ever on one side and only one little push. Tonight, it seems, he has figured out that if he keeps pushing, he'll keep moving. We were so proud. Of course, we don't have any pictures, but Sug went directly to eBay and did a "Buy It Now" on a camera as soon as we got back downstairs. With any luck, we'll have a new camera by this weekend.

Things are looking up!

This economy has pretty much affected everyone I know in one way or another. It's sad to think how bad things have gotten. Last fall, when Sug (my husband Daniel who will nearly always be referred to as "SUG") and I were budgeting for me to stop working, everything was fine. Soon after I stopped working, as luck would have it, he took a paycut and we found ourselves not nearly as financially sound as we had hoped to be. A couple of months went by and he took another paycut. Once that happened we were JUST getting by. At least I had been able to save up a bit here and there after the first paycut. After the second one, we needed every penny he made. Naturally, a couple of months after the second paycut he was laid off. PERFECT! Even with government assistance we were still struggling. Luckily he got called back to work after just a couple of months of being laid off and he's been working ever since.

Still, between normal everyday expenses and the mound of medical bills we have from being pregnant with Oliver(sometimes referred to as PD or Peeds), we're just getting by. I have tried any number of things to contribute to the household fund to help keep us afloat without much luck. Except for www.mommycanworkathome.com which is still going to take a while to show a great return, I haven't had much luck.

I have interviewed for several jobs and actually been offered the position in several circumstances. The problem with those jobs is that they have all been bogus. No one is serious and it's all very frustrating.

But today, my friends, things are looking up. I saw a posting for a job on craigslist at the ARC. This position is for the exact same job that I used to do when I lived in Ohio. I spoke with a lady on the phone and have an interview set up for next Thursday. Yes indeed, things are looking up!