In and Out the Window

Ah, the day before Thanksgiving: here at work (yes, I'm indulging in a quick worktime entry) I am the only one in the office today. That's fine with me as I have tons to do and I focus much better when left to my own devices.

Today is also Donny's last day at Eastminster. Its so bittersweet--I'm still pretty choked up about it all. Yesterday I brought home his blankets and his change of clothes. Ms. G. tried to give me his "portfolio" but no way I was carrying a three ring binder of photos and artwork in one arm while steering a stroller with the other. In the rain. Mike will pick that up today when he drops him off.

This weekend was pretty much a write off as Mike and I were both down with stomach plague. Even so, Donovan managed to have a good time. A few months ago I made him a fairly lame playhouse out of the box his big boy car seat came in. The first couple weeks or so he ignored it--now he plays in and with it EVERY DAY. We should be getting the kitchen worked this coming month and I can't wait to get new boxes for him--he's too tall to stand up in this one now.

Here's me and the boy. I'm still loopy from the stomach thing but, hey--the generic metrogel has the Rosacea under control!Was that Overshare? Sorry.

Unclear on The Concept

Me: Donny! Where's your nose?
Donovan: [hesitates, smiles, points to his mouth.]
Me: No, silly! Your nose! Where's your nose?
Donovan: [maintains eye contact, smiles wider, points to his mouth.]
Me: No, that's your mouth! This is your nose [moving his finger from his mouth and making him poke his own nose]! Nosenosenosenosenose! Now--where's your nose?
Donovan: [verrrrrry slowly lifts his finger and points...to his mouth. And laughs.]

Well Baby

Odd as it sounds, Donny and I had an idyllic morning at the Doctor's office today. He was in for a Well Baby visit and the photo above is him in the size XS hospital gown they gave him to wear. I felt like I was wrapping a doll house in a circus tent.

ANYhow, he fussed a little getting weighed and measured but, after that was done, he wanted to curl up in my lap and he actually ended up falling asleep. It was very nice to while away the morning, rocking my boy and waiting for the doctor to come in. Usually waiting for the doctor is annoying but, when you have a nice baby sleeping on you, its alright. He continued to sleep the entire time I was talking to Dr. Levine, who wisely examined him while he slept. He's not very good about stethescopes and earscopes but he slept thru that part too. We had to wake him up and hold him down for his shots but, even then, he calmed down almost immediately. We walked down the street and caught a 64A to Eastminster. During the ride we blew some polite raspberries at each other, looked out the window, pulled each other's hair and just had a nice time. He cried when I dropped him off but we got there right at lunch: meatballs, rice and pears--not bad for a baby.

Then I had to go to work. I really should have just called off for the whole day so I could do some winter babyclothes shopping. Alas.

BTW: Donovan is 20.8 lbs and 32 inches tall. He is STILL in the 5% of weight, meaning 95% of kids his age are bigger than him. We keep trying to fatten him up but to no avail.

Just One More Day!

The above title is a plea, not an exclamation. Sunday night is the worst because I'm prepping for a work week but thinking about all the stuff I could get done on Monday if I did'nt have a job to go to.

This is not to say I did'nt get alot done, due largely to my husband taking Donovan to the library for a couple of hours. In the time they were gone I:

* Made a buttload of Vanilla Scented Granola (yes, that's what its called)
* Made a buttload of Potato Leek Soup
* Put away a buttload of clean laundry, mine and that of my son.
* Noticed the snow, grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the last good rosebuds off my John Clare Rose Bushes. I also culled some very, VERY dark purple hydrangas. So very goth.
* ate some candy
* cleaned out a buttload of old magazines, empty kleenex boxes and 3 jars of Vicks Vapo Rub from under our bed.
* rearranged the nursery for the cold weather: the crib is no longer on an outside wall between two windows: it is on an inside wall, directly above the heatvent.

But if I had tomorrow off, oh brother: I could pull up the last of the nasturtiums, finish cleaning the very dusty bedroom, sew up the holes in my coat pockets and the button back onto my good coat, and, and, and...

The boy is fine, by the way. He really enjoyed the library.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Here's the Story

No sooner had I gotten into work yesterday than I got a call from Donny's daycare: he had hit his head against a shelf and had cut himself above his eye. They thought he might need stitches and could I come and get him. I called Mike and we decided that he would pick up the boy, come and get me and then drop Donny and I off at the Emergency Room of Children's Hospital. While I waited I made the necessary calls to cancel YET AGAIN another attempt to move several boxes of football film over to offsite storage. You know those projects that just seem to have a lightning rod stuck in them? These films are one of those.

So Mike picks me up and, there's my baby, gash above his eye with little tiny blood bubbles on it, and the kid is clapping and laughing. Well, at least he doesn't know to be scared. Mike dropped us off at the emergency room and where we got paperwork, an ID bracelet for Donny, and a seat in some strange waiting room left over from 1982.

Children's Hospital is in the process of moving to Lawrenceville. That means the fancy new building is being built while the old building in Oakland inches into genteel shabbiness. If a building I owned was going to be imploded in the next 3 years or so, I wouldn't invest in paint either, but I did feel like we were seeing the end of a hospital era, what with the big wood and glass cabinets and the early 80's electronics in their dark beige plastic and big rubbery number buttons.

The first doctor came to look at Donny and, since it was a head injury, she had to do all sorts of tests: do his eyes still move correctly? Were any of his teeth knocked loose? Did he bite his tongue? How do his ears look inside? None of this went over well with the boy in question and there was much shrieking and crying. The upside is that, when she left, Donny fell almost immediately asleep on my shoulder. It was very sweet but my shoulder was killing me so I wrapped him up in my coat and he slept like that for about 2 hours with a brief wake up when another doctor put topical anesthesia and a bandaid on the cut. The decision was made to just do topical anesthesia as opposed to full anesthesia, which would require lots of extra time and the risk of an adverse reaction. With the topical anesthesia, however, they would have to "papoose" him. Oddly, while Donny was napping, I took a photo of the "Papoose Board" that was hanging on the wall. The artwork looks like it should be on the nose of a WWII Fighter Plane. When I took the photo, I had no idea that Donny would be a papoose candidate but, there he was, woken up and trussed in with a variety of velcro panels. He was a very good boy, considering everything. He got 4 of the tiniest stitches ever, which the doctor protected with gauze and "glue." He should be healed and the stitches should fall out on their own in about 6 days. I watched him all day to make sure he would'nt worry the gauze off but he doesnt seem to know there's this stuff stuck to his eyelid. He did wake up last night a couple of times, tho, and he did end up sleeping with us. Here's hoping he has a good day at daycare today. If he's smart, he'll show off his stitches to all the girlies. Chicks dig scars.

Big Changes and French Fries

This photo was taken on Thursday when I picked Donny up from daycare and had about an hour and a half to kill before Mike was done with work. For whatever reason, the thought of bussing it home and hiking up the hill behind a stroller full of baby filled me with malaise. I decided, instead, that we would have some adventures at the Strip Mall.

The Strip Mall has gone thru several different incarnations since I've lived in Pittsburgh. It used to have a big ol' Phar-Mor and a Payless Shoes. Its since been gentrified and has an Office Depot, a Subway and a China Buffet (which is one of my guilty, guilty pleasures...). After I picked up Donovan I wheeled him over to the Petland to look at animals. I'm not a PETA member but I was raised by crazy cat ladies and I know Petco is bad. That being said, my kid does not have much exposure at all to animals and a few koi fish in a petstore tank is better than nothing so we strolled around the joint. As usual, that which I thought would elicit squeals of delight did nothing of the sort. Maybe he was still coming down from daycare but, whatever it was, there was no sort of interest in the fish, dogs, hamsters or bags of cedar chips. Oh well.

After that I decided we needed to eat something. We went over to the McDonalds and I got a Filet of Fish Sandwich meal, thinking Donovan would like the fish. Wrong again, but he did like the fries and that bought us a little time.
I mention the fries as a segue into the fact that we signed Donovan up for the Little Friends program at the Pittsburgh Waldorf School today. The Waldorf School certainly does NOT serve french fries--in fact, looking at the snack menu, there were at least two different mentions of Nutritional Yeast. Mike and I went to talk to the admissions person there today and while we were still conflicted when we left, we talked it over and decided the pros outweighed the cons.

Plus, when we were given a tour of the playground area for his class, the guide said, "That little hill, the kids love it. When it snows we bring out little sleds and they have a ball." Sleds? ACTUAL sleds? SIGN US UP!

Joking aside, this whole move from one daycare to another is bittersweet. I think I feel more conflicted about moving Donny from Eastminster than I did when I left Elyria for Pittsburgh, which is just a little bit disturbing...

Oh.

I just found the price schedule for the Waldorf Nursery program.

I thought that was too good to be true...

You Know What Happened to the Boy Who Got What He Wished For...

Its so good to wake up and think, "Last night, this country saved itself." Actual salvation is a long, slow process but the fact that we did'nt blow our chance: that was a nice, nice change.

But what's with only 46% of white folk voting for Obama? What's up with that? I'm proud to be in the minority.

Nationally the mood is one of celebration but, here in Donnyville, things are very fraught. The good news is that there is an opening ini the Waldorf School's Little Friends program and Donovan is first in line. I really should be happy about that and I am but two things keep tugging at me. First, he really is happy at Eastminster and they do take very good care of him. He's still very much one of the "favorites" and is coddled and fussed over, which I like. Also, Waldorf is more expensive. Significantly more expensive. To the tune of Mike will sell plasma on the first and third Mondays of the month and I'll take the second and fourth. Part of the money related freakout is based in the fact that, between now and Christmas, we will finally be having major work done on our waterdamaged, butt-ugly kitchen. The work is something I've known was coming and much of the monies given to us by my Aunts has long been earmarked for such. Having it sitting there in the bank, tho--well, that's been nice. I'm going to hate to see it go. Anyhow, last night when I went to bed, I really was feeling like putting Donny in Waldorf would be a bad idea.

Then, today, I had a revelation: Kids Grow Up. I went back to the Waldorf School's website and looked at the curriculum descriptions. If I'm reading everything right, Donny would be in this program for 19 months and then he would be moved to the Nursery which (again, if I'm reading this right) is free. Suddenly, I felt better. 19 months? I can be superpoor for 19 months! I actually like PB&J! We can do this!

Mike is going to call me this afternoon with his take on it all and we'll decide then. Any suggestions?