coffee anyone?

I lean over the bassinet trying to calm Ivy when I smell coffee.

"Ooh, I can't wait to drink some of that," I thought but then came to the sudden realization that I didn't make any coffee today.

One look into the kitchen confirms what I feared-- Lorelei at the kitchen table liberally sprinkled with ground coffee, an empty bag discarded on the floor.



Angry she was caught..


and back to the fun once she realized I wasn't going to take it away.

observations

My baby smells sort of like cheese. I guess she needs a bath soon.

That is all...

A little too literal

My toddler is starting to actually understand what the TV is saying. Today she was watching Yo Gabba Gabba and drinking from a bottle of water when a song came on about flowers needing water. She ran over to her pitcher of big fake fabric flowers (one of her favorite toys sent to her by her grandmother) and was about to pour some of her water in it when I realized what she was doing.

Wow.. comprehending toddler. Need to watch what I say and what she sees on TV more!

Dementia Sucks

My dad has dementia. He has for years, but now, there is no denying it. He isn't just "a bit wierd".. he is blatantly and obviously ill.

He's had 2 brain surgeries, many many knee surgeries, surgery for colon cancer, and surgery to have more than half his liver removed.

What did it to him? I don't know. But the brain and liver surgeries are the most likely culprits.

The liver filters poisons from the body. He has less than half of his now. Ammonia builds up in the body when the liver can't remove it.
He drinks over a 6 pack of coca cola a day. Eats packs and packs of cookies. More sugar than I can ever imagine eating. I'm betting that makes it a lot worse. He could probably keep it partially at bay by eating a veggie heavy diet with a lot of whole grains but I've never seen more than a few veggies ever leave his plate to anywhere except the trash can. I keep looking at reasearch about ways to help this particular brand of dementia but all of the things that could help it are things he would never do.

Right now my parents are visiting ostensibly to help take care of my kiddos while I get used to having a toddler and a newborn. But my dad is like another toddler himself in attitude and maintenance.

He has developed all the common hallmarks of dementia. The wandering. The paranoia. Loosing things. Sundowners.

Sundowners is particularly strange. For some reason people with dementia almost always get worse when the sun goes down. He can seem just a little slow most the day, but when the sun goes down that's when we get to see how truly sick he is.

I don't know why I'm posting all this here, except out of pure frustration. There's no one else to talk to it about so I'm letting it out to float around the interwebs. For anyone who made it this far, thanks for "listening." Time to go check on the newborn.

Now Presenting

Little Miss Ivy Adelia

That's right, we finally decided on a name!

Nesting, derailed

I had so much planned to do, as my energy level permitted, in the next month. So I'm still kind of reeling because my little bean decided to come rather early. At first possible chance to be born at home, really. She was born at 36 weeks, but the gestational age worksheet my midwife filled out put her at 35 weeks. She was 5 pounds 6 oz, 17 inches long, and her head was only 12 inches around!

She had a little trouble breathing at first, but luckily we got it cleared up without having to take her to the hospital. Now, she's tiny but doing just perfect.

Now if her dad and I could just agree on a name for her!

edited to add: a few more portraits I took, more "professional" style are here at my photo blog.

New room for the big sister

Here's a rather picture heavy post for you, about the state of some of our baby preparations (possibly better called Big Sister preparations really)

We've decided with the new baby to give her Lorelei's current room and move Lorelei into a room that is slightly further from our bedroom. Her current room shares a wall with our bedroom so I don't need to use a baby monitor. Also the changing table and crib are already in there so it makes more sense to move her out as she progresses to the big girl bed (or at least we HOPE she progresses to using it soon.) Right now she and the cats use it as a play place

In the works, painting the little room, adding a larger area rug (the room has big white tiles), changing out the light fixture and in general dolling it up in a way that Lorelei will hopefully love it.

The color I chose to use for her room is sort of a robins egg blue. Yes, blue for a little girl's room-- because so many accessories and toys and such are pink. Her current room is a nice limey green for similar reasons.

I'm trying to figure out what shade of blue I want to use. I'm leaning towards the darker one, because I want to paint a white tree mural, and I don't think it will show up well in the lighter blue.

She already has this stripey rug which she loves, so I got her some polka dotted sheets in the same colors.
As you can tell the room is already being used as a play room.

That's all we have for now though. I'll be getting a solid colored fitted sheet to cover the box spring, and at some point she will get a dresser, blinds (there are already white curtains) and a cleaned out closet.

I have a lot to do...
including convincing the cats that it's not "their" room...