6 years of Sunshine

Today, my WonderGirl turns 6.  I'd say I don't know where the time has gone, but in reality, it feels like 6 years.  I don't remember what life was like before the locomotive of crazy that has been motherhood crashed into me in the form of this girl - and I'm alright with that.  She has weathered my inadequacies and basic stupidity and I couldn't be more amazed at the person she is.

How did I get so lucky??

and it's a....

REAL.

I have an ultrasound in a few hours, and if everything cooperates, we'll get to see the gender of this parasite.  I've been so nervous I could hardly sleep last night.  I'm not nervous at what the outcome is - although I am really hoping for one of the healthy variety - no, I'm nervous because then this whole mess becomes REAL.

No more being able to drift off and pretend like my life isn't about to be turned upside down, like maybe I've just had a nasty flu for the past 5 months.   I have to accept reality, dig out the right baby clothes, start arguing about names and finally deal with getting a bunk bed into WonderGirl's room and have them cohabitate.  Which is kind of a big deal, since they've had their own rooms since birth and the sweet Dude routinely wakes us up at all hours of the night by loudly belting out "The Itsy Bitsy Spider."  And then coughs, giggles and goes back to sleep.  WonderGirl is gonna LOVE that.

So many changes.  Ugh.

I honestly don't have a preference about what the gender is.  I have one of each and they are both so wildly different and amazing that I can hardly imagine the awesomeness of ANOTHER one.  I've been blessed far beyond what I deserve, and I'm down with whatever.

I do, however, have other preferences, or hopes.

I'd like a child who wears a hat.

I'd like a child who doesn't walk at 9 months - no, I take that back.  WHEN they walk is not the issue.  I'd like a child who doesn't HAVE to walk at 9 months because they have been so anxious to move that they've been writhing and screaming in my arms since they were 5 months old and when they FINALLY get blessed mobility, only use it for bolting away from me in public places.

I'd like a calm baby.  I wonder if I can get one of those?

I'd like one who potty trains themselves.  Don't roll your eyes at me - I've seen other kids who did it.  Not MINE.  But I know they exist.

If I do end up getting one who won't wear a hat, is violently mobile at a ridiculously early age, is extremely excitable and takes their darn sweet time figuring out their bowels, I'll survive.  I have two of those already, and they.  ROCK.

365 days 264-269

 10-3-12
The fog outside was insane in the morning.  I ran out into the street to snap this from the view of the farm next door, and liked it so much I had to use it for the 365 project.  Except I wasn't in it, so I tried out overlay for the first time.  Woo!

 10-4-12
I often complain about the lack of trees in our yard, especially with the crazy heat and cloudlessness of this past summer.  But the amazing amount of leaf piles a few blocks away are gorgeous and making me thankful that I don't have to use my rake.  I passed these leaves by the other day and had to race home for the camera.  The poor Dude was strapped into the car, mad that I wouldn't let him out to run in the street with me.  He got a chance later in the day... the following pic is evidence...

 10-5-12
I had to stop for an errand at the bishop's house and as I got into the car to leave, I spied the kid's leaf pile from the previous day's play date and couldn't resist.

 10-6-12
General Conference!!!

 10-7-12
More General Conference!!

10-8-12
People, the heartburn is so bad that I'm completely zombie-fied.  And I'm only halfway done with this pregnancy.  DUDE.  I need some relief, STAT!!

PSA for crazy mommies like me

Because the internet just scared and confused me while I was trying to figure out the lice thing, I'm going to be magnanimous and share what I've learned so far about dealing with your young'n and the buggers.

Get the creme rinse, not the shampoo.  They both do the same thing, but the creme rinse is way easier to apply and covers more uniformly.

You still have to do that fine-tooth comb thing.  The box says it will kill everything in just one application, but then it says after that you still need to comb through the hair and get all the nits (eggs) and bugs.  Huh?  I called them up and asked them why I had to if they were already dead - couldn't I just wash them all out?  Well, the bugs will probably be gone at that point.  At least WG's were, I think there were a total of 3.  But the eggs are still there GLUED TO THE STRAND, though if they are close to hatching, are more permeable and have probably been killed.  But the NEWER eggs aren't as permeable and the creme rinse probably didn't get to them.  THAT'S why they insist you do one more treatment with the creme rinse 7 days after that - to kill those buggers because by then, they'll be able to be killed.

Those egg things are almost invisible.  They stick like glue to the hair and won't come off.  I read somewhere that they may seem like teeny flecks of dandruff, but won't move, unlike dandruff.  So just washing and scrubbing the hair won't get rid of them.  The husband got that fine toothed comb - a metal one, the plastic ones don't work - and went through the hair for 2 hours the first night with a huge flood light on her head. I sat next to the husband with a pair of scissors and cut each strand he found with an egg thing.  Her hair is so fine that brushing with the comb doesn't shake 'em loose - we wondered if maybe that happens with people with thicker hair?   I think the kids must have watched at least 87 episodes of Cyberchase while we looked and cut (it felt like it!).   It took a long time to find the eggs because we didn't know what we were looking for.  They are BARELY visible to the naked eye, just these tiny bumps a few millimeters from the scalp that do NOT come off.   No picture on the internet helped us find them, because they seemed so much smaller on her head.

The next night we had cous cous at dinner and the Dude got it all stuck up in his hair.  I WISH those egg things were that visible.  That'd be awesome.  And easier.

Don't just look where the child says it itches.  You have to look everywhere.  The back of WG head was where we'd found all the irritation from the little buggers, but the eggs were mostly on other parts of her head.

You do not need to boil your entire house.  The clothes, linens and brushes are the most important part.  This website was super helpful.  The best part was this tidbit:

We searched the floors of 118 primary school classroom carpets for head lice while the pupils were out of the classroom. We also checked the children's heads. We found no lice (ZERO!) on the floors and 14,033 lice on the heads of the 2000 or so children using those classrooms. To treat head lice concentrate on the head!

So I washed all the linens and dirty clothes I could find in the hottest water we had - plus her car seat cover, and vacuumed and such, but I remembered this part and it made me a little less psycho.  Although my skin still crawls a bit at the thought of it all.  We got lucky - no one else in the house got them except for poor WG - we all share brushes too!  Not anymore - I bought new ones today.

It did feel good to tidy and vacuum, though, as if I had some power over THAT at least.  It was my mental healing, I think.

They can't jump.  They can't live very long without a host. They can only be gotten by touching an infected person's head with your head, or something they wear that touches their head.  So I realized all those tiny dots jumping off Pigpen from Peanuts must have been fleas, not lice.  Who knew?

Heck, the American Academy of Pediatrics even recommends that teacher shouldn't send kids home from school if they are found with lice, just make sure they keep their head and head wear to themselves.  That's nice, but I'd rather they call the parent and get the problem taken care of pronto.  Which I did.

You are going to feel like the worst mother on the planet.  If you're anything like me, anyway.  If you are healthy and well-adjusted, you'd understand that this is not your fault, that lice are actually attracted to CLEAN hair and those darn bugs don't care if you are wealthy, poor, neat or messy.  They just care if you have a scalp.  When the school called me to tell me, I almost yelled into the phone - "I'm sorry, you must be mistaken - I have a GOOD kid.  She plays the violin and piano and my kitchen is spotless right now!"  But at some point, she tried on some other kid's hat and voila!  

Prevention?  Aside from getting my insane kids to listen to what I say, I've also heard lots of ideas on how to prevent getting it.  The ones I'm going to try are: 1. Leave in conditioner 2. Hairspray 3. Some lice prevention spray I snagged at the grocery store that has lots of essential oils in it and is essentially a detangler.  The reasoning behind these is that since the buggers dislike dirty hair and it makes it harder for them to stick to the hair shaft, have some kind of product on there to make it less hospitable.  We'll try it and see if it does anything.  Her hair will smell great, anyway!

Also, have some good girlfriends to call and whine to.  That really helped!  And I hope this is never ever helpful to any of my dear readers!!

aaaaand better

Found this from 2008.  Now I feel better.  Itchy, but better.

365 days 256-263

AAAAAaaaaaaand a palate cleanser.  My visiting teachers just stopped by and dropped off a bouquet of flowers for my birthday this month.  I just started bawling and couldn't stop.  My sweet lil old VT didn't ask me why, she just kissed my Dude and hurried off with a smile.  

Note to self - when you grow up and no longer have weeks eaten up by fine-tooth combs and tiny humans eating up your life, you should be that awesome.

9-25-12

How is that for cheering up a day?

9-26-12
Puttin' on the Ritz.  No reason in particular.

9-27-12
 This was merely an experiment.  Our spoons aren't very shiny.

9-28-12

Ward bonfire.  I felt like Joan of Ark.

9-29-12

I did my first photo shoot and took the portrait of a family I know just because I wanted to see if I could.  It turned out awesome!!  So this pic is an ode of the magic box that made it happen.

9-30-12

Unbelievable.  I took this driving near Devil's Lake on my phone.  It's so gorgeous but lasts not nearly long enough.

10-1-12
Got a flu shot.   Also saw my first lice?  Louse?  Anyway, I decided to document the shot instead.

10-2-12

19 weeks.

behind

Has is really been over a week??  Good golly.  Well, last week I was busy feeling self-congratulatory.  The house was miraculously still tidy Monday morning, so I woke up NOT feeling like I was already behind in life.  I was able to focus on other endeavors and things were pretty sweet all week long.

I tried to recreate that same Monday feeling this week, but I was so sick Sunday - just pregnancy stuff - that even though things were still respectable, I was already kind of behind in life.  I had a good attitude though, and I had a good start to my day.

But then.  During the Dude's naptime, WG's school called to inform me I had to come pick her up because of a lice infestation at school.  She was one of the lucky winners!

People, I didn't even know what lice were until I was in high school.  I genuinely thought "cooties" was a sadistic game of tag.  I grew up in the suburbs.  No one I knew ever had it.

Anywho, I'm a wreck.  I couldn't sleep last night, my skin is crawling and I'm feeling so lost as to how this happened and how to make sure it doesn't happen again and how to keep the Dude or I from getting it.  And even though those expensive bottles of treatment stuff swear they kill everything on contact, you still have to use that darn comb and catch every unseeable-to-the-naked-eye egg or they are coming back and then eating out the brains of every single person who lives in the house.  It's 2012 and we're still doing this??  There isn't an easier solution??

When I picked up WG, I tried to explain the gravity of the situation.  Me: "We're going to have to cut your hair off."  WG: "Yippeee!"  Me: "You have to go see a doctor."  WG: "Yippeee!!"  Me: "You have to miss school."  WG: "What???  NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Ugh.  I hate feeling behind, out of control.  And I usually am, so you'd think I'd just get used to it.  GAH.

You know what would really help?  A call to my mommy.  But she's away from her phone, in Mongolia, riding camels.  I couldn't feel more lame if I tried.

365 days 251-255

 9-20-12
Just sumpin'.

9-21-12
I ran as far away as my remote would let me.  Not shabby!  And can you believe I've gone this far into a 365 challenge without a tripod??  Yep.  We have a small one but it doesn't support the big SLR.  I improvised this one with a music stand.  Lucky for me, all the neighbors were at work and didn't stare at me all weird as I marched across the street with a music stand and camera.  Also luckily for me, the wind didn't topple the music stand over.

9-22-12
Sock season is upon us.  I got a few of mine out, and realized I have very few normal looking socks.

9-23-12
Remember how I was all THE AUTOFOCUS IS BROKEN IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!!!!!!??  Husband figured out what was wrong and ordered a new lens.  That was all!  I figured it would be a huge gobs-of-money problem, and it ended up being around $75. Whew!  Anywho, in my focus-less time it made me experimenting with capturing silhouettes.  I need to keep working at it obviously, but it was fun to do this one over and over and over!

9-24-12
Oooooo!  After a few failed attempts with a tube of material, this worked out much better with a plain cardboard tube.  And then a little computer-y magic to bling out my baby blues.

Anyone have any ideas for pictures?  I've done over 200 of these puppies and I'm running out of idears.

Ooo, and I got some nifty news today!  Remember when I was all "I'm going crazy, I need something to distract me and look forward to!!"  Well, the hubs called me today and announced he'd just purchased some killer seats to a Bela Fleck show ON MY BIRTHDAY!!  I've loved Bela Fleck since I was in high school - he's this caraaazay banjo player and right now he's touring with a jazz trio.  YUM.  SO YUM.  And here's the nifty part - his mom is coming to visit and we're going to drive down on my birthday, have lunch with husband, then she's leaving me, taking the Dude back up home and I'll have the afternoon in Madison to shop and hang out, then dinner and the show with the husband.  !!!!!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, I officially have something to be positively giddy about.

365 days 242-250

 9-11-12
Feeling up.

9-12-12
Though it took about 12 attempts, I successfully skinnied a hideous pair of boot-ish cut maternity pants. I kept sewing it wrong then unpicking the seams - which I actually adore doing.  Maybe I subconsciously did it on purpose...

 9-13-12
View from the top.

 9-14-12
I discovered a pair old snuggly pants in my maternity stash that had me feeling glorious.  Is there any way I can wear wear nothing but velour track suits and not look... well, like this?

 9-15-12
See the otter?  The daughter?  The reflection of the mom-er?  We took the sweetest excursion to Mad-Town to see the zoo and discovered a 7-11 on the way.  Slurpees?!  Heavenly day.  It hurt to head home.  It also smelled, too.

9-16-12
We actually escaped the kids for a few sweet minutes and lay in bed before they found us.  I do so love being his partner.

 9-17-12
A dress in progress.  I'm quickly out-growing my clothes, so I snagged this material for $3 a yard to try and make myself a dress.

9-18-12
I even ironed it too...  I am looking embarrassed because I'm well aware that this looks like a hospital gown. If I take the hem up a few inches, are there any accessories that can save it?

9-19-12

At some point I'll make this material into a skirt for WonderGirl.  For now, ooooo, look who's pretending to be artistic!

oh wait...

We moved to Wisconsin 3 years ago when the husband had a job in a teeny town.  Then we bought a house 2 years ago in a slightly-less teeny town and the husband commuted a few minutes to the teeny town.  But last year, the job situation became toxic and the husband went a-courtin' interviews again.  He interviewed in lots of places, and even in Mad-Town just to be fair to the poor cheese state.

We did not expect to stay here.

But the job he took ended up being in Mad-Town.

He now commutes an extra long way.  To an actual city.  With city stuff and probably less cows.  While we still live in the slightly-less teeny town than the original teeny town.

This fact has slowly dawned on us, especially since he discovered how many hundreds of dollars he spends on gas, commuting to the actual city.  And we ask, WHY are we still here, exactly???

Well, first, moving stinks and is expensive.  This is the THIRD house we've owned in our short almost 8 year marriage, and the moving between different places equals to something like 7 times so we know whereof we speak.  Our bank account agrees that it doth stink.

The neighbors on one side FINALLY sold their house after at least 2 years on the market!!!!  The problem is, then the neighbors on the OTHER side just moved to Chicago and put their house on the market.  Ugh.  So unloading this place is obviously being put off until the neighbor's house sells.  And then there's the undeniable fact that you really can't sell a house here during the snow or ugly season, so you've got a brief  late spring/summer window before you are up a creek until next year.  There's only 2 houses on our block too (the other neighbor is a corner lot).  Double ugh.  And I'd have to live in it while I was trying to sell it... and with 2 kids (and by then, a baby) that's pretty impossible.  It would look seriously unappealing, although it's a lovely home, just in rural Wisconsin, being inhabited by hobos.

The kids are in decent school situations, although I know it wouldn't be too hard to find a situation that would work for them.  They're pretty easy going, especially with the Dude only requiring hugs and WonderGirl only requiring ALL THE ATTENTIONS.

So we're stuck here in this small town where we get to try and handle our church responsibilities - which have their challenges everywhere, I know, but everyday when I think about what I'm doing and how I'm still a failure at it all and annoying the heck out of the locals at every turn, the idea of just taking off sounds soooo delicious.

Maybe next year?  uuugghhhhh.

So I'm forcing myself to make a list of all the things that don't stink about living here.  Because at this moment, I need as much positivity flowing through my system as possible.  Since presently, I am full to the brim of ARRGJSDLRKWJSGAAAAAAAAA.

1.  The closest movie theater as $5 tickets every day except weekend evenings.  It's in the Dells, so it's all touristy and they need bodies the other times.  Not that I ever really have the chance to go to movies, but it's a peaceful feeling know it's an option.

2.  No traffic.  Well, almost none.  I have to drive by 2 nursing homes to get to Main St. so I can get stuck behind some slooow clunkers - although only when I'm late.  I'm counting it up, and I think there's only 8 traffic lights in the whole town?

3.  Fantabulous early services for the Dude.  We did seriously luck out - and our non-verbal Dude will now not hush up.  It has been the one huge miracle of moving to Wisconsin.

4. Everyone knows me at the library.  That's kind of cute.

5. There's an Aldi in town.  For a town this size, that's pretty awesome.

6.  The parks are pretty cool.  There's one across the street, too.

7.  It doesn't always smell like cows.

8.

Okay, I'm losing it here.  Ideas??