Archives for October 2007

We’re working on Day 5 without a nap and I have to say, I don’t like this new development, not one bit, nope I don’t. Pumpkin hasn’t napped, and she’s waking up repeatedly during the night. I was up with her once last night, Hubby was up with her twice. She’s refusing to eat, except the two bites of Jell-O and a small handful of goldfish that she ate before grinding the rest into the floor. She has had some milk, some water, but not much else. She “hates” everything today, even stuff she usually loves. She’s a little contrary rugrat, and she’s being extremely difficult.

And I am so freakin’ tired that it’s really really really really really wearing on me.

So, send some Go-To-Sleep-Pumpkin vibes, wouldya?

Turning 31 isn’t one of the milestone birthdays like 16 or 21. In fact, nothing good happens from here on out, does it (except I’m four years away from being able to run for President, which is good to know)? But, I’m 31 today and it’s been an alright day.

For starters, Pumpkin was up THREE times last night, and Hubby got up with her every time. Fantastic – because she’s on day four of her nap boycott, and as I type, I hear her in her room babbling, singing, doing everything but napping. I woke up at 6:40, got ready for the flood of children in my house, went downstairs to eat a quick breakfast. Found cards and gifts waiting for me on the dining table. Love it. Hubby came downstairs and presented me with beautiful yellow roses he’d picked up yesterday and hidden somewhere in the house (sneaky man!).

All the girls got along pretty well today – no bloodshed, no tears shed, no major drama. That’s a plus. Some awesome emails from friends this morning – makes me feel loved to be remembered. I needed that.

I took Pumpkin to The Princess’s school for a program they had for the kids on barnyard animals. The girls loved it – The Princess got a bit grossed out when the calf peed on the floor, though. Pumpkin and I then met my mom for a yummy yummy lunch, after which we came home to a crapload of work (me) and nap avoidance (Pumpkin).

It’s going to be an alright day.

Edited to Add: An “alright” day quickly goes in the other direction when the sleep-deprived two year old spikes a fever of 102, has a coughing fit so severe she pukes all over everything (including ME), and Hubby made a dinner unintentionally omitting a few ingredients, which made dinner kinda sorta not yummy. I’m freakin’ exhausted. But then again, it could just be my advanced age.

This morning, I was supposed to take the girls to get their flu shots. The doctor’s office was iffy on whether or not Pumpkin needed one, and The Princess was definitely due for one. Unfortunately, Friday Pumpkin started coughing and the low grade fever set in, and this morning after a weekend with very inconsistent sleep and NO NAPS WHATSOEVER, I also scheduled an appointment for Pumpkin to be seen by a doc to make sure she wasn’t getting that nasty bronchitis that The Princess had.

I told The Princess in the car on the way there what we were doing – as I knew she would, she freaked when I told her she’d be getting a shot. She’s terrified of shots, hates them – had I told her before we left, I would have had to carry her into the car and force her in.

Soooo, we get there, and The Princess gets her shot. She was miserable – screamed and cried. I bribed her with a hot cocoa from Starbucks when we were done. The doc came in to check out Pumpkin and said that Nope, not bronchitis, just an upper respiratory infection (is that a fancy way to say ‘cold’?). He prescribed lots of fluids and popsicles.

We came home where Pumpkin (once again) REFUSED to nap. This is now DAY 3… and she was up at 5:30 this morning! The afternoon was rough – she was tired, I was tired, and no one was having any naps. About 3 p.m., The Princess started fading on me, crashed on the couch snoozing — and when I finally took her temp, it was 101!

So now, I’ve got two sick kids on my hands. Oh what fun…

Yesterday, I found a link to a version of a Personality test based off of the Meyers-Briggs test. It’s been awhile since I’ve done this, and so of course, I took the test again. The results say that I’m an “INFJ – Confidant” – which was no super surprise to me.

Some INFJ characteristics….

INFJs are hard to get to know. They have an unusually rich inner life, but they are reserved and tend not to share their reactions except with those they trust. Because of their vulnerability through a strong facility to introject, INFJs can be hurt rather easily by others, which, perhaps, is at least one reason they tend to be private people. People who have known an INFJ for years may find sides emerging which come as a surprise. Not that INFJs are inconsistent; they are very consistent and value integrity. But they have convoluted, complex personalities which sometimes puzzle even them.

INFJs like to please others and tend to contribute their own best efforts in all situations. They prefer and enjoy agreeing with others, and find conflict disagreeable and destructive. What is known as ESP is likely found in an INFJ more than in any other types, although other types are capable of such phenomena. INFJs have vivid imaginations exercised both as memory and intuition, and this can amount to genius, resulting at times in an INFJ’s being seen as mystical. This unfettered imagination often will enable this person to compose complex and often aesthetic works of art such as music, mathematical systems, poems, plays, and novels. In a sense, the INFJ is the most poetic of all the types. Just as the ENTJ cannot not lead, so must an INFJ intuit; this capability extends to people, things, and often events, taking the form of visions, episodes of foreknowledge, premonitions, auditory and visual images of things to come. INFJs can have uncanny communications with certain individuals at a distance.

According to the site – other real life INFJs are… Chaucer, Oprah, Goethe, James Reston, MLK Jr., Mother Theresa, Mel Gibson, Shirley Temple Black…

Fictional INFJs include… Luke Skywalker and the Tinman from the Wizard of Oz.

What type are you? I’m curious!

It’s amazing that you can spend hours of your day cleaning and picking up after the people in the house, and at the end of the day, it looks like you did nothing but sit on your ass watching TV and eating bonbons?

Or is it just my house?

Last night, I decided to get the downstairs looking spiffy knowing full well I’d be up early this morning, and the coming downstairs to a clean kitchen and living room would make the early start to my day somewhat more tolerable. As the kids were already snoozing as I cleaned, I didn’t bother to vacuum up the goldfish crackers that Pumpkin had ground into the carpet (how DOES she do that?) – figuring, “Oh well, I’ll do it tomorrow.” I filled the dishwasher, scrubbed the counters and the stove, picked the toys up in the living room, wiped off the dining room table. It looked really nice.

Today, I’ve tried to stay on top of it, cleaning as I’ve gone – through my cheesecake baking, through lunch and dinner prep, through errand running and just day-to-day chaos with children. Of course, now that Hubby’s home and dinner is over? The kitchen is TRASHED! My biggest cleanliness pet peeve regarding my kitchen is that a sink full of dishes makes me cringe. Hate it hate it hate it. The sink is just a foot away from the dishwasher – I’m not entirely sure why no one else will put a dish in it. Sooooooo, now the sink is filled with dishes, the counter has today’s mail, and a few other miscellaneous things, the carpet (which I did vacuum today) once again has goldfish crackers ground into it. There is a spot on the carpet by the couch where a cup of choclate milk spilled. Pumpkin’s dirty clothes are in the corner of the living room, and The Princess’s new Halloween costume is on the dining table.

I give up!

Bedtimes are my least favorite time of the day, but man, if my girls aren’t keeping me on my toes tonight. Not fifteen minutes after getting tucked in, Pumpkin was standing at her door calling for me. I was somewhat ignoring her (it is bedtime, afterall, and these girls will prolong the inevitable as long as they can if you let them), until The Princess came to the office and said, “Mom, come here. You have to see Pumpkin.” So I did.

She was completely naked. She’d unzipped and removed her pj’s and climbed out of her pull-up and was standing at the door, naked as the day she was born, laughing. She apparently “hates my payamas” and she wanted a princess pull-up (instead of one with just Cinderella on it – because apparently Cinderella doesn’t count). Oy. That kid.

Then, just moments ago, The Princess came to me and said, “Mom, how do you spell ‘floss’?” So I told her. “How do you spell ‘just’?” So I told her. Then she brought me a note that said, “I Lust floss” (Her backwards ‘J’ looked like an L). Tooooooo funny.

Here it is an hour after bedtime and they are still up and at ’em. I’m ready for MY quiet time!

The Princess broke her “goal-a-game” streak tonight when her team got trounced by the Pink Team – like a million to nothing. Yup, it was a shut out. Not only did my girl not score a goal – no one on her team did. In fact, the Purple Team got no where NEAR their goal. I think the girls were thrown off by the fact that they were playing soccer and it wasn’t 80 degrees outside. The chill and the extra layers must have thrown them off – because the girls seemed to have forgotten the purpose is to kick the ball. For four periods we watched them run near the ball, up and down the field while the girls in Pink kept scoring.

It sucked.

Because I value oral hygiene and pretty teeth, I subjected myself to taking both of my kids to the dentist today. I must be a glutton for punishment. The Princess is old-hat at this dentist stuff. She’s gone every six months for a few years now, and handles it like a pro. This was Pumpkin’s first “real” checkup (not like the checkup last year because we thought her sole tooth might have gotten injured in a fall), and I warned the dental office that I didn’t think she would cooperate.

I was right.

The hygienist was optimistic though. She started out trying to position Pumpkin in this funky xray dealy bob (she stands with her chin positioned on the little chin rest, holds the handles and then the scanner revolves around her head). Yeah, I laughed too. After five minutes of telling Pumpkin where to put her hands, and having her stand on a box of garbage bags to make her tall enough, and telling her where to look…. as soon as the hygienist turned the machine on and it started revolving, OF COURSE, Pumpkin kept turning her head to see where it was going. Consequently, her x-ray was not at all clear, not at all useful (for anything other than my amusement). Back to the exam room where Pumpkin did NOT want to sit in the seat once the hygienist started reclining it. She was fine sitting. Reclined? Um, no thank you. She allowed the hygienist to count her teeth but that was about it.

The dentist then came in and checked her out (all looks good!) and was able to polish her teeth a bit. He stopped after three or four teeth though because she was getting fidgety. He said at her age, it’s best to let her get used to it, not make her mad, and not make her hate the experience. We decided to call it good – she’ll go again next year.

The Princess did a fantastic job – getting her teeth polished, flossed, xrayed, and a spiffy flouride treatment. They showed me this full mouth xray where I could see her little baby teeth and where the adult teeth were underneath them. The dentist pointed out which teeth would probably be the first ones she lost (her bottom two front teeth), and then told me that the little doohickey that connects the inside of her upper lip to her gum (does that thing have a name? I didn’t ask) would probably need “a procedure” at some point as it would cause her to always have a gap in her front teeth. She already has a gap in her baby teeth and HATES it, so I know it’s something we’ll do. He says it’s no big deal – it sounded similar to the clipping of the frenulum she had when she was a baby (She was tongue tied). He said that when we take her to her orthodontist for braces, the ortho would probably do it. Braces?! He said, “I could be wrong, but…. she’ll probably need them.” Dagnabbit!

So, the girls came home with prizes from the prize box, brand new toothbrushes and shiny smiles. And I came home with a monster charge on my credit card for the experience. Lucky me.

Ah, an end to the freakish October heatwave and I’m so relieved. This 80+ degree weather nonsense at this time of year (okay, ANY time of year) was really starting to get to me. I’m hoping the cooldown continues and that I will soon be able to pack up the girls’ shorts and tank tops and find some more room in their dressers for cooler weather outfits.

As I type this, I’m half watching the movie “Breach”, and have no idea what is going on. I was up several times last night and figured that I was so exhausted today, I would take it easy during Pumpkin’s nap rather than try to get a bunch of stuff done. That’s why there is a pile of clean towels sitting on the floor waiting to be folded, less than two feet from me. I’m inhaling the fresh laundered scent – but, they’re gonna be there awhile.

For those of you who don’t know, my birthday is a week from tomorrow. I’ll be thirty-one(derful). I love my birthday. Kind of not so enthused about really being in my thirties, but y’know, life is good to me for the most part, so can’t complain.