Cleaning Service

I am a little disappointed.

Jay and I talked and had managed to get over the “weirdness” of paying someone to help with the house (with me being home full-time), and then we find that what we want/need, a cleaning service doesn’t do.

How weird is that?

It’s like this:
Jay is thinking about getting a snowmachine, which I don’t particularly mind, except it represents a monetary outlay that nothing I desire can match. What I want to do are mainly time-intensive (writing, reading, music lessons, etc.) and More Money won’t give me more of that.

Then mom pointed out having someone else clean would give me more time.

Getting past the weirdness of having someone else clean my home, I called, only to make the connection (“we clean every surface you require”) that what I really want, they don’t do.

Let me tell you, when I get my living room floor clean, it get’s vacuumed. That’s the only way it gets vacuumed, and it’s only an extra five minutes on top of the *real* work of clearing it all (folding gobs of laundry, for example). I’m not paying for somebody to come do that.

*sigh*

We’re growing up.

We’ve been wading through the living room for more than a week now, so last night I sat down before bed and made a schedule outlining what would get done today.

I got all the clothes folded, a load of dishes run, the cabinet doors washed and bread made.

The girls each put away their own clothes (Melody and I shared a “carrying” lesson: one hand on top, one on the bottom, watch where you’re going and don’t get side-tracked), they worked together to empty the dishwasher (I’d already put away what they can’t reach), and rag-mopped the kitchen floor with me.

It was a very productive day. All those things needed very much to be done, but since none of those things was clearing a space (living room floor, kitchen counter) it didn’t feel like we’d gotten done as much as we did.

Elisha woke right after they went down, so he/we worked on his sitting up. He wants it *so* bad!

We had dinner with the Weisensels, and it was nice not to cook after working all day. Elisha sat in Thomas’s highchair and just loved it. the sides are high enough that he can pull himself back up to sitting even if he falls over.

First Wedding

Our family went to a wedding tonight, and on the way home we had a genuine (as in, exchanging ideas not just continually repeating the known) conversation with Natasha.

She talked about how pretty the bride’s dress was, and how the bridesmaid dresses were “just a little bit pretty.”

And at least twice (maybe three times) she used the phrase, “When I get married…”

She says when she gets married she wants a pretty dress with flowers on it (like Heidi’s), and she wants little flowers to hold– and some big ones. The bride tonight had big ones (lilies). You get to hold flowers when you get married…

It was such fun to talk about something. Many times one of the girls will want to talk, and what is most likely to make me impatient is their not having anything to say.
Melody has started repeating the first half of a line, almost like stuttering, while (I assume) she’s figuring out how/what she wants to say, and both girls will ask the same question over and over (I don’t mind loads of questions, it’s the broken record bit that get to me), just to have something to talk about.

I know this is the reason, because if I can find something “real” to get them started on instead they’ll chatter on with both of us being much happier.

~~~

Every time Natasha would say, “When I get married…” Jay would squeeze my hand and just scrunch up his face and grin at me. She sounded so matter-of-fact and grown up.

“I just can’t imagine a little boy doing that,” is what he finally said (in a low voice). “Wow. Girls and their dreams. It all starts so early. I had no idea.”

Victory! (We think…)

Natasha hasn’t had an “accident” in over a week, is entirely self-sufficient in the bathroom, and is (proudly) wearing panties today.

Grandma Florie came home last night, and she and Natasha picked out some colorful new underwear, first stop from the airport.

We are all very pleased.

Melody wanted some of the “Curious George” character panties, but not enough to be interested at all in using the potty. One funny thing, though. Last Tuesday she wanted candy enough that she went and used the potty all by herself. So we know she knows how. She just isn’t interested yet.

If her older sister is any indication, though (and I think it’s fair to assume that), if I “don’t care” long enough with her, it will only be she who is potty training, not both of us. Which, honestly, is more my style.

Elisha’s eye

We took him in to his appointment this morning (yes, on a Saturday), and after a great deal of fussing, squirming and enforced immobilization, the eye doctor told us the “deformation” Jay observed a couple months ago was completely benign.

It has a name, and the fellow wrote it down for us, but somewhere between then and now I misplaced it. Along with the appointment card for his follow-up in April.

Found it. The name: Nodular Flocculus. “Prominent pupillary frill” another scrawl seems to be saying.

Dr. wants us to come back for a second look, to make sure it hasn’t changed, then we can wait until the “normal” toddler check-up, “around 3-yrs-old.”

I asked why a child needed to be seen at that age (feeling like this was asking a salesman why I needed his brand), but I really wanted to know. Doc (I honestly don’t remember who we saw– he even had to write on someone else’s business card, said he was out of his own) said the reason is to try and catch a type of one-eyed far-sightedness.

This can sometimes cause an eye to cross, because the brain shuts-off receiving from that eye. The dr. said that if this isn’t caught by about age 6 and a half the brain-induced blindness (it’s not using that eye anymore) is permanent. He said they like to do at least one appointment around age three, in case the eye didn’t cross, so they can catch it. Called it the leading form of preventable blindness.

I can remember seeing younger kids with glasses and an eye patch when I was in high school. Don’t know where I picked it up, but I told the kids I was babysitting that the patch was over the “good” eye (counter-intuitive, I know) to make the crossed eye work harder.

Putting that together with what I picked up today (seems to make sense) it’s all very interesting, and seems a compelling reason to get the kids checked as toddlers. Or, at least, as little kids. I’m beginning to tell the difference.

I signed Natasha up for an eye exam the same day Elisha gets his follow-up. She’ll be four.

Flu shots and more talk

We have a new plan for family-wide shots (if we ever do them again):

The biggest child goes first. That way, if the remaining child(ren) is(are) distressed by the reaction of the first it’s a smaller body to restrain.

Natasha told the story to Mom this way: “Dad, and Mom, and I, and Muddidee all got shots. Elisha was too young.”

The two things that caught me out of that description were her use of I and calling Elisha young, rather than “little.”

There were free flu shots at Pioneer Park (I still want to call it Alaskaland!) as part of a emergency/disaster preparedness practice thingy. Anybody over 6-months could get a shot, and Jay came home over his lunch hour to help the whole family go over for it.

Jay went first, as we had (as a family) discussed. Then Natasha held back, and Melody was willing, so she went first of the girls. Of course she cried (I observed to another mother that somebody offering doses of children’s Tylenol for 50-cents a pop would make good money here. We sure didn’t think to bring any).

Natasha continued to resist, and ended up having to be restrained, and was teary and (I’d dare say) resentful for quite a while afterwards. That is, until nap, and then again after nap until dinner time. She wanted us to know her displeasure.

Fortunately she lightened up by bedtime, and we had a sweet snuggletime.

Fish tank

We moved the fish tank from the yellow room into the master bedroom Thursday night.
Jay (accurately) saw it as a reasonable way to prevent me from getting a little tank for my desk.

He cleared my dresser after dinner, took out more than half the water in the tank and said he was ready for my help.
I knew before we started that there was nothing in that room I was going to be able to do to help. He made like he was going to try and carry the thing himself (which was a little frightening. Honestly. That thing was *heavy*).

I begged him to give me a chance to go ask a neighbor for help, and was surprised/thankful when he didn’t object.

Three doors (and a discussion of knocking etiquette with Natasha) later, Jim, from sideways across the street, grabbed his hat and came over to our house to help Jay get it across the hall.

On Friday morning the kids and I picked out a frisky catfish-like thing, and an small school of neons.

The tank has definitely livened up (the shark doesn’t continually hide out in his rocks anymore), but we have only one neon left. We didn’t even find any bodies. If they’re dying of “natural” causes, the Pleco is finishing them off before the autopsy’s back.

Too bad, really. They were really fun to watch schooling on the first day. *sigh*.

Jay says we’ll give it a week, and then we can see about getting a little more color.

Been *sick*

Well, I’ve missed two Sundays in a row now.

Last week the girls were sick (Natasha had that fever I think I mentioned), and Melody had an awful sounding cough.

This week I (thankfully) didn’t have the fever but had everything else– the leaky nose, cough, sore throat, sneezes (I can’t remember sneezing so much in my life!) and general tiredness.

Jay (Bless that man!) stayed home today and ran herd on the kids all morning so I could sleep some more. I still feel a little below normal, but *loads* better.