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Friday, January 30, 2015

Reluctant reader

I'm working the Reference Desk this afternoon.  I had 3 questions right away and then almost nothing for the rest of the time. I still have 1 1/2 hour left to go. I was thinking I'd write something. But I don't know what. I don't have a real topic. Mostly I'm just bored. So let's see.

I haven't been reading. That's unusual for me. I've read everyday since I learned how. But lately I've been playing games on my iPad rather than picking up a book. I've all but outright abandoned my book blog and sooner or later I need to either just shut it down or review something again. Maybe micro-reviews rather than the full ones or something. I just know that the actual act of picking up a book hasn't been happening. I read over Christmas break. I read 2 books and that felt good. Honestly this kind of reading impedance is confusing for me. I'll work it out.

I have still been listening to audio books on the commute and now I have Bub hooked on them. We've listened to Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, Floors, 3 Below, and Peter and the Starcatchers. I liked that he is enjoying books. I hope that one day he can read them himself with as much enjoyment. In the meantime, I'm listening to his books when he is with me and then my own when he is not. I'm on my 4th or 5th listen of To Say Nothing of the Dog, Or How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump At Last, one of my absolute favorites. At least that's something.


Friday, January 23, 2015

This is not a resolution

I decided not to make any resolutions this year related to health and/or weight loss. I don't need that kind of pressure anymore. But I would like to take up exercising again. It's something that has been in the back of my mind for a while now.

So the university rec center has started a promotion that if you take 20 classes in the next 4 weeks then you get a free t-shirt. This is something I could never hope to accomplish as that is one class everyday for 4 weeks and I don't have that kind of time. However one of my coworkers is highly motivated for this free t-shirt and so she is going for it. I, in turn, have become inspired to at least try the rec center once a week. So yesterday I went to the barre workout with her. I was nervous because while she is 27 and looks like a college student, I'm fairly certain no one is mistaking me for one. She assured me that the students don't care and they aren't going to judge me as the "old lady." And she was right. Mostly they were trying to keep up and figure out the moves same as me.

Mostly when I work out at home I do walking or aerobic workouts and nothing is ever strenuous because I'm a toe in the water kind of person. Not that the barre workout was strenuous. It just worked my muscles groups (my legs mostly) in a way that they are not use to. Which is good but also oww. It was a lot of ballet moves (as expected) with some push-ups throw in at the end. I enjoyed the class and was happy I went even if I'm sore today. I'm definitely going to try to go once a week while she is working on her t-shirt and maybe even after. I'm hoping that it motivates me to do some workouts at home. But mostly it was nice to 1. do something that did not involve my children and 2. do something just for me.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Potty training {The End}

Since I've written extensively (probably too extensively) about Button's potty training journey, I thought an update was in order. I'm happy to report that she's about 95% trained. In fact, she's slept in underwear the last 2 nights and woken up dry so most of the battle has been fought. There's still a #2 issue but that is being slowly resolved. She wears big girl underwear and doesn't want to put pull-ups on anymore. So I have a whole stack of pull-ups since we had some at the house and then the daycare sent their supply home too. I told BT last night how excited I am to never have to buy diapers again. I'd like to take credit for this miracle of a child potty-trained before the age of 3 but her daycare teachers had a lot to do with it. I honestly think they did most of the work and their consistency in taking her to the potty and getting her to where she is now is mostly to their credit. So I am very grateful to them for that. We still haven't done any big outings with her in underwear but as long as she is kept aware, I think she will do just fine. Potty trained before the age of 3! So exciting.  

Friday, January 2, 2015

Happy 2015 or something

Holy smokes! I didn't realize how much time had gone by since I last wrote. I hope your New Year got off to a great start. Ours was less than ideal.

The end of 2014 was brutal health-wise. Button has gotten the worst of it getting both strep throat and RSV at the end of November. I followed up by catching something from her. My guess is RSV but officially it was a sinus infection. That lasted essentially the month of December. Button then came down with the flu right before Christmas. And I have to say that the flu was the only thing that managed to keep that child down. Everything and everyone was looking better until Wednesday when her face started to swell and she began running fever. Had she just had the fever I probably wouldn't have worried so much but the swelling freaked me out. So yesterday I took her to Urgent Care after calling the on-call doctor who didn't really seem to know what to do. The Urgent Care doctor didn't know either sending us to the children's hospital ER. So that was a waste of an hour and a co-pay.

The ER doctor was more helpful but in the end I'm not convinced she entirely knew herself. Anyway, it was not a fun day at all. Traumatizing is the word I believe. At least BT was off to stay home with Bub because I could not have dealt with him too. Poor baby Button had to have an IV and a CT scan because they were afraid her glands might be abscessing. The CT scan was pretty horrible for us both. They had to wrap her up papoose style and strap her down so she would be still and she's crying and I'm crying and it was not okay. She calm down when they started and there were some stickers in the machine that interested her. They also drew a lot of blood so they placed a catheter in her hand for that and also to give her fluids. They seemed pretty convinced that she wasn't eating or drinking but they were wrong. Her appetite is essentially the same as usual.  Anyway, something kept going wrong when they tested the blood drawn out of her hand so the phlebotomist came in and drew some blood out of her arm. All in all, Button filled 9 vials for the hospital. Finally the doctor came back and said she thought it was parotiditis, the swelling of the salivary gland. Somehow Button managed to get an infection and that is what is causing the swelling. They think. 2 doses of intravenous antibodics and we were good to go. Well, that and a lot of tears and 1 interrupted nap and 5 hours.

Button was pretty much a champ about the whole thing. There was the breakdown about the IV and the one about the CT scan but who can blame her? It's scary enough for a lot of adults much less a 2 year old. But she handled it pretty well all in all. She didn't say much though most of the day which is unusual but once we got home she was herself again. To say she was not a fan of the hospital is an understatement. She was pretty cheerful leaving saying bye to everyone we meet on the way out. It helped that BT and Bub had come at the end and she had her big brother with her. So it looks like she's on the mend again. She'll have a follow-up with her regular doctor on Monday so she's out of daycare for the next 4 days. Hopefully this is it for my poor baby girl. I just hope that this is not an omen for 2015. It's definitely not how I pictured spending the first day of a new year.