going tubing

Remember when tubing was this?



In an effort at full disclosure, I have no idea who that girl is. My friends and I weren't that "earthy" [read:dirty hippie]. But it gives you an idea of what my friends and I did during our summers at Virginia Tech. Just add a tube with a cooler of beer attached to it, some iffy sunburns, and a pack of cigarettes in a ziploc bag. Oh, and the requisite "Oh my God! I lost the keys!" fiasco.

But now tubing is this...


We took Britton to the ENT doctor today and discovered that even though she has been on antibiotics for the past two weeks, she has another raging double ear infection. And she needs tubes as soon as possible. Which normally wouldn't have been a problem, but Britton and I were scheduled to fly out Friday to visit my family over Easter weekend. And the doctor only does surgeries on Fridays, and he was booked solid. So we're getting there bright and early Friday morning to get Britton's tubes inserted, and I spent a little time this evening on the phone with Melissa from Southwest Airlines rescheduling our trip.

We have the option of either having Britton go under anesthesia or holding her down in the doctor's office where they numb her eardrums and do it there. Both come with risks, of course, but hearing the child screaming in the room next to us solidified our decision to go with the anesthesia.

Tubes cut down ear infections by 85%. And when a kid with tubes gets an infection, it's easier to treat with antibiotic ear drops. No longer will Britton have to rely on the broad spectrum antibiotics that she is quickly becoming immune to. We've had her on a probiotic regimen for two weeks now, trying in vain to replace the "good" bacteria in her system that has been wiped out by constant antibiotic use. Her digestion issues have taken well to the probiotics, but we look forward to the day she no longer has to take that gross bubble-gum flavored medicine. By the way - who flavors a medicine "bubble gum" for a 7 month old? She has no frame of reference, people!

One thing the hub and I are looking forward to will be the almost-instant relief Britton will feel with the tubes inserted. She's a naturally happy baby and she very rarely acts sick, even when her ears are killing her. But sometimes, like this afternoon, she melts down from the constant pain and pressure. And we can't wait to see how much happier she is when she no longer has that constant pain.

gardening a-go-go

When we moved in to our house last spring, the one thing I could do without (besides the tile countertop in the kitchen) was the bare backyard. Well, we had a couple of bushes, planted around a sprawling electrical box. But there was no landscaping. And no trees.



So, the hub went out Saturday morning and bought an autumn blaze maple tree. This thing grows an average of four feet per year. But because trees are pretty pricey when you aren't buying them from the Lowe's clearance section, we could only buy one.

You like those flags around the tree? We had the utility people come out and mark the cable, electrical, etc. lines so we wouldn't mess them up when planting the tree. Turns out the lines run the perimeter of the yard, so the flower bed got moved out from the fence. And because the hub couldn't remember to buy fluorescent spray paint, despite me asking him the minute before he went to the Lowe's not 5 minutes from our house, I used the utility flags as my flower bed markers.



But the tree was lonely. So we piled in and went to TLC nursery to get flowers.





But, being instantaneous-gratification like I am, I had to have the entire project done yesterday. So I went out for mulch and a rock border. I just didn't buy enough. So then the hub went out for more mulch and more rock border.




And he even found time to plant tomatoes, jalapenos, and habanaro peppers. In two weeks, it's on to the front beds!

school picture day

Britton had school pictures taken for the springtime. We weren't aware that daycares did this sort of thing, but I'm never one to pass up 16 wallet-sized photos of my child. Here are the proofs I stole, I mean scanned. Adorable outfit courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa. Enjoy!

my bracket

I've entered two brackets at work - one for money and one for glory. And unlike the rest of America, I do not have Kansas winning, or even getting to the final game.

Anyone want to guess as to which team I think will take it all?

over the river and through the woods

Well, not too many woods, but we did go over the Red River to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Ft. Worth this weekend. They just got settled into their corporate housing last Thursday, so we bolted down I-35 for a visit. Because a blizzard was predicted for Friday night, we decided to wait until Saturday morning to see how bad it would be to travel. We woke up early Saturday morning to nothing more than a little dusting of snow, packed up the family truckster, and headed south. On the way we encountered more snow, but it slowly turned into rain as we crossed into Texas.

Grandma and Grandpa surprised Britton with her very own Disney hat, complete with her name and ears! The ears snap on so they are changeable. She didn't know what to think, but I suspect she's now starting to figure this whole Disney World thing out.




We hung out, ate Mexican food, looked at houses, and the hub and I scooted out to buy our growing girl some pajamas while Britton and Grandma napped together. Unfortunately, the drive home took FOREVER because of construction. Not that there were any workers out, but you can imagine what shutting down one side of the major interstate between Texas and Oklahoma will do to traffic. On the last day of Spring Break. On a Sunday afternoon. We all got pissy, and instead of being productive with our anger, we took it out on each other. Ahhh, the family fun to be had sitting idle on the interstate! So, we took lemons, and made lemonade vodka tonics with them. Figuratively, people. We actually hardly ever drive drunk anymore with Britton in the car. Touche!



Britton sported the Penn State onesie the hub got her from his trip to a conference in State College, PA. He got back home on Friday, to turn around and drive us all down to Ft. Worth the next day.




Snuggling with Daddy...


Britton playing her favorite game with Grandma and Grandpa, called "I'm the center of attention." She LOVES that game!

hoarder

No, I'm not like one of those people on TLC who refuses to throw away pizza boxes and dog feces. I have steadily been taking pictures with my iPhone for the last couple of months, only to forget that I can download them to the computer! I email them out religiously, but never downloaded them until tonight. With the hub out of town for a conference, the baby asleep, and Sadie dog non-verbal, I've been twiddling my thumbs tonight, and finally got around to being productive.

And in completely unrelated, but "I can finally share" news, Grandma and Grandpa are moving to the Dallas area! Instead of a 4 hour plane ride, it will now be a 3 hour car ride. I didn't want to blab about them moving until everything was final, and now it is! When I share that my in-laws are moving closer, people always ask me if that's a good thing. I know in-laws get a bad rap, but my in-laws are truly fantastic people. I am so excited to have them close, to visit often without the cost and hassle of plane rides, and to share Britton with them. Memories will be made!

And to that end, here are some pictures from the iPhone I haven't yet shared...

happy st. patty's day!

Gone are the days of taking off the day to eat green eggs and ham and drink green beer in the parking lot of a local bar. Since work frowns on me being drunk, despite the festive holiday and my red hair, I celebrated with Britton, her green heart shirt, and some green beans and rice dinner. Who says a mom can't party?

crawling & scooting

The hub is intent on Britton crawling, even though I keep reminding him that once she's mobile, life changes completely for us. She's not crawling yet, but is trying so hard...



And later a woman at the TLC Nursery (plants, not babies) told me how "handsome" my baby is. Apparently an all-blue outfit means boy, and the pink blanket I had with me means I'm open-minded.

the way i see it

We had another orientation at work this week, this time meeting with the boss (also known as the head honcho, the guy who signs my paycheck, numero uno). We were to ask him any question we wished, and some people took this as an invitation to deep-six their careers. Others just brown-nosed (yeah, I'm looking at you, the one who asked if you could follow the boss around for the day), and yet others actually asked some decent questions. "Do you wear boxers or briefs" does not qualify as a decent question. And urban legend has it that the lady who asked that was greeted by security when she got back to her desk, and asked to get the hell off of the property within 5 minutes. But I digress...

One girl asked if the boss had any advice about life. And he listed some good points, like that the person you marry is the most important decision you'll make, as it influences everything else, and also to never start a business for the sole purpose of becoming rich. But he also said something that hit me. He said, "Love your children. Just don't worship them."

My a-ha moment, the lightbulb burning above my head. Isn't that what we've been doing? This idea that because we have more education, more money, more options, more of everything than ever before that our children should be the recipients of those riches. No one wants their child to suffer. But maybe the fine line between suffering and struggling isn't really so fine. Our children have more opportunities than ever as far as entertainment - computers, televisions, gaming systems, portable devices, you name it. But they are also the fattest of any generation. Our kids have access to more information than ever before. Then why are parents planning and executing science fair projects? We are so afraid of our kids not getting into the right college that enrollment in New York City for preschool-aged Mandarin classes have a two-year wait list. We are so afraid our children won't be the smartest in the class that kindergarten is ruled by worksheets, not recess.

Let's all take a collective deep breath. Before I started Britton in daycare, I was crying to my sister that Britton would be ignored, her every need not attended to immediately. And you know what she said? "It's good for a kid to have a toy snatched out of her hand." And she was (is) right.

Because life isn't fair, and not everyone shares, and people snitch and talk behind your back, and hard work isn't always rewarded, and sometimes it is who you know and not what you know, and good guys don't always win and bad guys aren't always punished.

And the hard part of parenting is raising a child to know this. I'm not saying that I'm going to hold Britton's hand on a hot stove to teach her about pain, but I am going to teach her that doing her best will always be good enough, even if it's not for someone else. And that she has to pick herself up when she's down, because there's not always going to be a cheerleader in her corner. She has to fail so that she can learn that it happens, that mistakes are made, and that she can overcome it and move on. And to hold on to the good feelings of success and to pat yourself on the back when there's no parade.

I have a favorite quote that was taped to my computer through all three years of law school. It now hangs on the wall of my cubicle, surrounded by my diplomas.

"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. It is the first lesson that ought to be learned and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.” ~ Thomas H. Huxley

And how will Britton truly learn that if I write her book reports or demand that her college professors let her do extra credit? Will she ever relish success if it doesn't belong completely to her? Will giving a child everything she desires make her love you more? Will praising every move a child makes give her confidence? Will not keeping score at tee-ball games mean there wasn't a winner, and a loser? No. So we've got to let them fall, let them fail, let them skin knees and be picked last and feel disappointed and feel rejected and cry and pout, and hope it happens less often than when they are happy. Because only then will our kids know what happy really is.

another first

Tonight the hub surprised me with another first for Britton. She took a bath in the big bathtub without her baby tub. She can sit up well, so she's able to stay up in the tub by herself. But it was sad at the same time, to see the "whale of a tub" baby tub cast to the side, no longer needed. The tub that she had her first bath ever in. When she was so tiny I thought she would never grow into it, let alone outgrow it.

third time's the charm

On Friday the daycare told me that Britton was pulling on her right ear. I figured that she's exploring her ear, just learning of its existence or the fact that it is attached to her head, or that some teething pain has made it hurt. Surely it couldn't be another ear infection. Well, it was. And don't call me Shirley. Saturday morning I took her to the doctor's and low and behold, an ear infection in her right ear. I started her on a new antibiotic, and Britton spent the day being clingy and unhappy and so very not herself. Sunday night the dam broke. I couldn't put Britton down to bed without her screaming. She clawed at her ear like it was on fire. Her stomach was rock-hard from the gastrointestinal side effects of the new medication. The only way Britton would go to sleep was on me. But I couldn't fall let her fall asleep, and me as well, in the rocking chair as she is capable of rolling over. So come midnight, with no relief in sight, I gave in and let her fall asleep on me. And I didn't try to put her in her crib. To do so would have been futile, as she would touch the crib mattress and scream. I snuck into the guest room, and laid on the bed with pillows surrounding me, and slept with my daughter on my chest. And we woke up every hour, and finally at 4:30 a.m. I laid this tired baby in her crib and she gave in and slept.

The entire night was a flash-back to those grueling colic nights, and I was instantly panicking at the memories. My post-partum issues, still not completely resolved (and may never be without a lobotomy) instantly flared into the constant thought, "She is going to cry all night. She will cry all night every night. I will never sleep again." Admittedly, this is a place I cannot go back to and escape unscathed.

So the hub stayed home with her Monday morning and called the doctor's office to get another appointment. I met them there, and come to find out the ear infection was now in both ears, and her right ear drum was red and bulging. The oral antibiotics are no longer working. Britton had to get two shots of antibiotics in her thighs. Now, the nurse mentioned that the shots had lidocaine in them to help with the pain. I noticed that this news made the hub antsy and I asked him why. He said that if they have lidocaine, it hurts. And it did. Luckily the hub was willing to be the one to hold Britton down as I was in the corner blocking my eyes. We had to go back today for another round of shots. And tomorrow Britton has another appointment to check on her ears, in case she needs a third round of shots.

This is THREE ear infections in a month and a half. Suffice it to say, she has a consultation regarding tubes on March 29th with an ENT.


Friday, before the storm...




Tuesday, happy despite the raging bacteria farm in her middle ear canals...