Not only is he easy on the eyes, but Jason also almost ridiculously helpful around the house. Compared to my friends' husbands, Jason is the Champion of Occasional Child Care and General Household Helpfulness, including child distraction during dinner preparation, laundry folding, dishwasher unloading and cat litter scooping. These tasks are easily taken for granted ... at least until he goes on a business trip, at which point I have to step up and do absolutely everything around here. Not only does it make mealtime challenging ("Here, sweetie, have a 14th graham cracker while Mama prays that the pasta will be done soon."), it means I have to spend valuable nap time taking care of the things I can't do when Liza's awake. I've got a lot of respect for women who do this all the time, this "single mom" thing. By the end of Jason's business trip I'll probably be a babbling, drooling puddle in the corner. Oh, and here's proof that he's a saint: When he woke up at 4:30 Friday morning and couldn't get back to sleep, he went ahead and cleaned the bathrooms for me so I wouldn't have to try to do it before everyone came over for the baby shower that evening. He cleaned the bathrooms even though he was going out of town the next day ... I am so lucky.
Topic 2: New diet plan
It has come to my attention that the Black Forest Cake I made for the baby shower yesterday encompasses almost all of the important food groups, i.e. Chocolate, Alcohol, Fruit, and Whipped Cream. Which explains why I've eaten the leftovers as part of all three meals today ...
Topic 3: Uncomfortably numb
I will post more often when my office is warm enough for me to type for more than five minutes without losing feeling in my fingers. Dude, it's like 45F out here. I need one of those portable firepits or something ... the shivering is messing up my score on Zuma.
Topic 4: You could etch glass with this stuff
Something is apparently causing my daughter's poop to have a pH of about 0.5 ... Sort of like sulfuric acid, only less smelly. Last week I chalked it up to the standard teething/runny nose/overnight poopy diaper issues, but I could only get the rash to clear up for a day or two and now it's back. It doesn't look as bad this time (no open running sores! hurray!) but it's obviously bothering her. Tonight in her bath she was scratching her butt so hard I thought she was going to spin her self completely around ... and don't try to convince an 11-month-old that she's not supposed to scratch her butt - if she can reach it, she's going to scratch it. Anyway, the only thing I can think of that she's been eating recently that's a little out of the ordinary is grapes. Lots of grapes. Like, imagine there was a swimming pool full of grapes ... that's how much Liza would eat, given enough time and someone there to quarter them for her. I can't imagine that grapes would cause the acid butt problem, and I've never heard of it doing that to anyone else, but it's the most likely culprit here. I'm going to cut off her supply of grapes and see if that helps at all. Otherwise, I guess we'll get to go and see the doctor again ("No, she's not sick - she just keeps trying to rip off her privates every time her diaper is off").
Update: I just got on the web and searched for photos of different types of diaper rashes (God, I really need to get a life ... ) and found one that looks familiar (I love how they've preserved the baby's modesty in this shot). Looks like there's some antifungal cream in our future.
Topic 5: The Continuing Adventures of Countess Clingy
A month or two ago Liza decided that my presence is essential for her continued existence. It's not too bad when we're the only ones home - she lets me wander all over the house while she plays, as long as I check in every few minutes. But if a "stranger" (i.e. anyone other than me or Sam the Electrician) is in the house, she starts wailing inconsolably as soon as I leave her sight. She even does this with neighbors who are visiting over here all the time ... even ones who haven't babysat for us in the past. Usually she doesn't do this when Jason is the other person in the house, unless he tries to take her from me when I'm holding her. At first I think he thought it was kind of funny, and then I think he started to get a little offended that she only wanted me. But the other day he watched Liza while I volunteered at the radio station, and he took her in to work to go to a baby shower for one of his coworkers. Apparently Liza decided that if I wasn't available, Daddy would have to suffice, because she clung to him like a limpet the whole time. It was probably the first time that he's ever gotten to be the one she turned to for solace ... and I think he was kind of stoked about it. The next day I took her with me to the radio station for a few minutes to show her off to all of her honorary aunts and uncles there, and Liza made every attempt to burrow back into my body. I'm going to have a bruise on my chest for weeks from where she attempted to bash her way back through my ribs in a misguided attempt to make herself invisible to all the freaky radio people. It was cute, but it took close to an hour to get rid of the cramp in my arm from carrying her around for 20 minutes ... she's not a tiny bundle anymore.
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