Henry Monster and the Case of Paw, Hoof, and Beak Disease

so we're transitioning henry from his crib (from which he kept leaping) to a 'big boy bed.'  robb is dutifully researching healthy mattresses and we found a frame we like, but it'll take a while to put it all together. for now, his crib mattress is on the floor, getting lost in the vastness of his bedroom. he likes it and feels important having a pseudo-normal person bed and a star wars pillow and everything, but i can't help but thinking it looks like a cot in the corner of a jail cell (having NOTHING to do, i'm sure, with the fact that i just binge-watched the entire first season of the netflix series "orange is the new black" set almost entirely in a federal correctional facility).

he does, occasionally, make a mad dash through the house when he's supposed to be sleeping since there aren't actual bars keeping him contained anymore, but mostly he just sits there and calls for us to come snuggle him back to sleep when he wakes up through the night. which he still does. nightly. :) 

and then this (below) still happens fairly often, too.

plus, this week all sleep rules (really, all rules) have been out the window because we've had a pox on our house. i have been dealing with a horrible sinus infection for something like a month that finally came to a head this week and is now (gracias a dios) receding and henry monster was diagnosed with his first bout of 'hand, foot, and mouth disease.' high fevers and mouth blisters and general crankiness. we haven't really seen any spots on his hands, feet, or bum areas, but we're monitoring.

my saintly mom has been here with him so that we can go to work and henry can avoid contaminating the other nasty gremlins at daycare. and after the first day of it, he's really been fine other than a little soreness in his mouth when filled with anything other than a grape popsicle (see above: all rules out the window). so i'm hoping he can go back to daycare tomorrow and life can get back to some normalcy. but he and grandma have been having fun this week, so it has certainly not all been for nothing.

on the topic of having sinus congestion and being 16 weeks(!) pregnant and not being able to take much in the way of useful drugs to kill the symptoms.....it is what it is. i feel terrible for people who deal with congestion all the time in life or during the durations of their pregnancies and hope i'm not among that group. otherwise feeling good!

i'll get some prego pics out soon. the little bump is growing, but i'm so far still in my jeans, so i hope it's growing enough. we'll find out at next week's visit. (i think it's probably just that i'm not eating fries and cake twice a day this time). :)

AM I A MAAAAAN OR AM I A BAAABY? IF I'M A MAN, I'M A VERY BABY-MAN....

this is one of our favorite songs from one of our favorite movies. watch it and look for the STELLAR cameo. and it won best original song at the 2011 oscars!!

anyway.

on the topic of my 2 year-old man/boy/muppet who is exhibiting SOME big kid qualities, but also MANY baby qualities....

i am wanting to work on improving his skills of independence as i work on procuring another infant from my sub-cockle area.

i was having a conversation with my cousin tonight who is in her residency to become a pediatrician (HOW FREAKING COOL IS THAT, RIGHT? so, please, if your kid has a rash or something funky falling out of any of his parts, feel free to send her a blurry cell phone pic and insist she identify and treat it for you) and she said she was reading about how to get toddlers prepared for a new baby.

she says, "and don't be surprised if he regresses to some of his baby-ish behaviors. goes back to the pacifier, loses his potty training abilities...."

and i'm thinking, now maybe he'll be in a very different phase 6 months from now (i mean, d'uh) but right now he is still mostly giggling at how the potty seat frames his junk and is definitely still relying on a pacifier. thetre's nothing to regress to. we're already there.

goals! goals! goals! ;)

oh, but we might be moving into a big boy bed pretty quickly. he jumped lithely out of his crib last night when mad at me because i wouldn't rock him to sleep AGAIN at 9pm and had left him to cry for a few minutes.

so i guess he's got problem solving skills. that counts, right?

:)

Being the Growed Up Is So Stoopid and Hard Sometimes

yeah, so 2 year olds have these fits and require this parenting and all of it is very hard.

and it's so easy just to indulge the tiny dictator with what he's demanding to get him to go back to being quiet and happy...but you know that the right thing to do is to stick to your guns and make him do the right thing that's being asked of him and then eventually he'll learn some stuff and in time grow up to be a good respectable citizen.  (RIGHT?)

but it really is hard because it's inconvenient (especially when it happens in public or when you're in a hurry) and it hurts your heart. all you ever want is this little person to be happy and well and in this moment he is destroyed! ruined! heart-broken! and you could fix it all just by letting him watch a TV show or stay up later or whatever...but instead you have to do the right thing and refuse the TV show or late bedtime even with him screaming "MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY! mommy? MOMMY" and sobbing hysterically.

it's awful.

good parenting is not for the faint of heart. and it's so confusing sometimes because your emotions are all wrapped up in his and you want what he wants because you want him to be content. always.

but sometimes he wants crazypants stuff and you have to kill his dreams. not fun.

all that being said, i operate from a 'pick your battles wisely' philosophy and probably give in too easily on a lot of things, trading happy kisses for what could have been a learning moment.

we're both still new at this.

i'm sure i'll have it totally ironed out for the next one. totally.  :)

I'm Afraid I've Been Keeping Secrets From You, Dear Readers

i am pregnant!

and it's going well! 13 weeks now,  due mid-january. ultrasound today confirmed that all is well and baby is in there(!) and growing as indefinite gender pronoun should be(!). 

i've been reluctant to share this superb news for a few reasons.

one- this happened very differently than the other pregnancies. it just kind of...happened. rather unexpectedly (as much as two informed adults with resources can be surprised by this sort of thing ) and easily and quickly.....and then it stuck! all of which caught me off guard. (if you know my history, you know that in the past it's taken us some work to get and then stay pregnant). so it's taken a little while to wrap my head around it and feel confident in it.

and two- this is dumb and not at all helpful to anyone- but i feel this weird sense of disloyalty to my fellow ladies in 'the crappiest sisterhood on the planet' who have had to or are still having to blood-sweat-and-tears their way to children. i wanted to punch people in the throats for whom it just "kind of...happened." so, again, while in no way useful to them, my heart aching for them has interfered just a wee bit in my heart jumping with joy over the new little package i'm carrying in my gut. (well, just above my guts). --those i've told have been nothing but generous and gracious and enthusiastic, naturally, because they are some of the loveliest people i know---

anyway.  today i had an ultrasound that went well and i'm safely moving out of the 1st trimester and i'm getting more excited and less freaked out. (more of that later, for sure).

how have i been feeling? nauseous and sleepy, but overall pretty great! my hormones are all over the map, naturally. having these girly hormones racing through you does to your emotions what i imagine peyote does to your mind, man. i'm sort of raw and fragile and extreme and i just want to curl up on my blanket and look up at the stars while eating some snacks. and the weird dreams i'm having! vivid and disturbing and just wacky. also, i'm having bizarre cravings for very specific, random things i HAVE TO HAVE RIGHT THIS SECOND and then, once i've had it, it's dead to me forever and the mere mention of it (or seeing the 400 pack i bought of them in the fridge) will send me retching. what else? the fatness came on way quicker this time and i'm looking roundish already. and i might be feeling the faintest fluttering of a wee one in there already, but, as always, it could just be gas. we are vegetarians, after all.

not telling henry yet, because 7 months is just too long to anticipate something for someone who's only been alive a few times that himself. we'll prep him as the time approaches.

will we find out the gender? not sure yet. probably not. we don't much care, but i'm more tempted this time than i was last time. we'll see.

so that's our excitement right now. would very much appreciate your warm wishes and prayers sent this way.

smooches all around!

Monkey Dance Party

during the summer, our local zoo stays open late on a weeknight and has music and food and drinks and stuff. lots of people come out for it and it's a great event. we went last week and henry danced like a crazy fool. it was awesome. please enjoy.

MOMMY is the Bomb-y

henry is my little buddy. he always has been. there's negative connotations (stupidly) to saying he's a 'mama's boy,' but, really, let's call a clingy spade a spade. he is.

and by that, i mean, that it seems i am his security blanket, rock, safe haven, happy place, and wind beneath his wings.

he needs me when he is sleeping, when he is awake, when he's playing and eating. he also needs me when i am sleeping, awake, eating and doing anything in the bathroom. many showers i can hear him whining in the hallway just outside the door and robb doing his darndest to negotiate with him to do something (anything!)  else, or at least to whine a few feet away. (MOMMY?...mommy's in the shower....MOMMY?.....give mommy a few minutes, she is trying to clean herself, she's taking a bubbles....MOMMY. NO DADDY. NO BUBBLES. MOMMY?!!). sigh. my hair didn't really need conditioning anyway. :)

and it's kind of amazing being someone's my precious, but it's also kind of exhausting.

robb somehow doesn't let it hurt his feelings too much. i don't know how. i would want to throw the kid if i was on the receiving end of "NOOOOOO DADDY! GO AWAY!" they have so much fun together and absolutely adore each other, but if henry's at all off his game (like lately in the mornings when his head's been spinning 360 and there's green soup coming out and the old priest and young priest just don't ever get there quite in time before we have to leave for work/daycare...) all he wants is MOMMY. 

ah, well. i know he won't always feel this way, so i'll take the sticky hands in my hair as he grips onto me for dear life. it's kind of great. :)

he's talking up a storm. he chatters all the time. his pronouns are still coming around, which leads to funny conversations like:

MY WANT TO WATCH ELMO......no, henry, we're not watching TV right now, we're getting ready to leave....MY NEED ELMO....my does not need elmo right now. my will have to wait until later. i mean, you will have to wait until later....MOMMY!