01.29.05

Krispy Krap

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:46 am by Anne

Well poo. Shan is working again this weekend, at least until afternoon today. I hate when that happens.

Last night Lily announced she wanted doughnuts and so melted her father’s heart that the whole family, including the dog, loaded up and drove off to the nearest Krispy Kreme. I just read that each glazed doughnut is 1000 calories. Is this correct? Lily and I chatted in the car while Shan went in for the goods and soon we were stuffing our faces with hot, sweet, krispy kreme goodness on a friday night. You can’t shake a stick at that.

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01.28.05

Doctor Up

Posted in Uncategorized at 11:02 am by Anne

So we loaded both kids and went to the Dr this morning. Emma had her 2 month checkup plus shots and Lily had a sick child visit. The four of us loaded into a room, which was nice until all hell broke loose when the Dr arrived. Lily just spazzed out. Granted, she is sick and cranky, but she wriggled and screamed and cried and got red in the face. I don’t know how the dr was able to hear her chest through his stethoscope. Shan was in charge of Lily while I held a swaddled Emma. Emma wondered what was making Lily so upset and was a perfect angel while the dr checked her out. Then the shot nurses came. Again, Shan took shot duty while I tried to entertain the sickly Lily by looking out the window. Emma shrieked.Then it was over and we were back outside in the cold and damp weather.

the diagnosis: Lily just has a cold

We’re to watch for a fever above 102 and an earache. Emma is mostly fine and we are to watch for a fever, poor nursing, and labored breathing.

GAH!

Deliver us from this winter of illness!

On a more pleasant note, I may be able to sneak off tomorrow sometime while Shan watches the kids. Maybe. We’ll see…fingers are crossed. etc.

Have a good weekend, ya’ll!

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01.27.05

Sleeping

Posted in Recipes at 2:32 pm by Anne

Both girls are conked out on my bed. Emma still isn’t as sick as her sister but I finally broke down this morning around 5 and attacked her nose with the saline drops and squeegee bottle. She didn’t cry as much as Lily used to, which was a relief, and I did pull out a huge boog..so maybe those things aren’t so bad after all. It is still incredible to me how different these girls are from each other. Is it because I am not so stunned and startled this time around? I have no idea.

It’s a cloudy and drizzly outside and if it weren’t for the weather and the sick babies then I’d be loading them up and taking them on the road to the nearest liquor store. It’s that time of year for me to make the cranberry infused vodka syrup divinity because it makes the BEST cosmopolitan ever in the world the end. However, I am also not looking forward to strapping Emma to my chest and walking hand in hand with Lily into a store of such ill-repute. I wonder if I can get their Dad to go. HAH!

Here is the recipe:

Cranberry Liquer: Courtesy of Cooking Light

2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 (12-ounce) package fresh cranberries
3 cups vodka

Combine sugar and water in a medium saucepan; cook over medium heat 5 minutes or until sugar dissolves, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and cool completely.
Place cranberries in a food processor; process 2 minutes or until finely chopped. Combine sugar mixture and cranberries in a large bowl; stir in vodka.

Pour the vodka mixture into clean jars; secure with lids. Let stand 3 weeks in a cool, dark place, shaking every other day.

Strain the cranberry mixture through a cheesecloth-lined sieve into a bowl, and discard solids. Carefully pour liqueur into clean bottles or jars.

Note: Liqueur can be stored refrigerated or at room temperature for up to a year

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01.26.05

Still sick

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:52 am by Anne

and today we aren’t going to the gym. The slight cough is just too much for me to feel good about sneaking her into the daycare room. Only one symptom is allowed, per my new rule system, and since she has both bad nose and cough now, we’ll be staying at home. I tried duping her into taking some Tylenol Flu today in apple juice and then in some orange juice but it didn’t work. She just turned up her nose and sniffed at me. Then, during breakfast #2, she saw me pull out the dimetapp and she pointed, “juice?” Thankfully, she did take some of that but I don’t understand her logic. We’ll see if it helps any with the nose. Every sneeze brings forth a new and different mess of slime.

And Emma is also suffering, but not so much as #1. Emma just has the snuffles, which is bad enough when you are an obligate nose-breather, but the sound of her cloggy snuffling is hard to bear. The question is, are the snuffles worse than the abject crying that saline drops and the nose squeegee invariably cause?

Will I ever get used to the sound of both of them crying? aaaaggghhhhhhhhhh…

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01.25.05

Days

Posted in Uncategorized at 4:13 pm by Anne

Ah yes,

I remember the good old days of doing laundry only a few times during the week. Ever since #2 came along there are always at least 2 loads of laundry to do each DAY. I don�t even know how that happens but with both Shan and I going to the gym now, diaper blowouts, and messy toddler eating, I guess it all works out. Washing and drying the clothes is easy. It�s the folding and organizing into discrete groupings and then, sigh, putting it all away-that is so time consuming and tedious.

Today after her shower, Lily ran out of the bathroom. �Don�t slip!� I thought to myself as I walked down the hallway after her. By the time I found her, she was clutching her sippee cup of apple juice and warily eyeing the dog, who was lapping at some fresh stain on the carpet. �Lily, is that juice on the floor?� I asked suspiciously. Darwin wandered off and I was left with a bad feeling. All you really need to know is that in the time it took me to catch up to my oldest daughter, she managed to pee on the floor.

Right now I am alone, more or less. Grammo dropped over and picked up Lily for an hour or two and Emma is snoozing in the swing. Now I get some me-time and I almost don�t know what to do first. My icecream maker
Showed up today and it looks just wonderful. It�s unfortunate that because of the new health plan we�re following that I won’t be taking it out for a spin tonight. Once I get back to a more manageable weight, you better believe I�ll be back on top of dessert mountain again. And speaking of supper. With some sauteed sugar snap peas and a salad, we’ll be having this.

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01.24.05

oh brother.

Posted in Uncategorized at 4:50 pm by Anne

So I walk into the living room from the kitchen, where I was making some hummus, and find Lily. The little bowl of clementines is upside down, apple juice is all over the coffee table, and the floor is strewn with tiny mashed bits of orange. Not only has she purposefully dumped the juice but she’s taken the clementine sections and squeezed all the life out of them with her tiny fists.

Just another reprimand in the life of a two year old.

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Sweetness

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:30 pm by Anne

Last night Lily snugged up to me in bed while we were watching tv (what it was exactly, I cannot remember) but I laughed alot. Oh yeah, it was the film version of “The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” anyway, Lily was still snuffly in the nose and at the apex of her toddler politeness, she started handing me things. Tiny, hard, crusty things that she pulled from her nose. She tried giving them to her Dad but he merely thanked her and declined so it was left to me. There is no telling how many diaper wipes I went through last night, nor how many crusties accumulated on my side of the bed.

Then, today, I became one of those awful mothers I’ve complained about. I took the kids to the gym despite Lily’s nasal leakage. All morning long she seemed fine, we ate, read books, watched some Barney, and she even helped me give Emma a bath in the sink. I don’t think she is contagious anymore; it’s just kinda gross. Kids with crusty upper lips…are gross. See what a hypocrite I am?

Now I’m trying to prepare for a nourishing week of healthy eating. My old chem prof, from india, brought over some extremely tasty dishes, one of them a dal, and I am looking to make one on my own. Here, here, and here may be the winners. I wonder if the local store carries red or yellow lentils? gahhhhhhh.

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01.23.05

Picasa 2

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:29 pm by Anne

I highly reccommend this program. a lot! It seems to be able to do all the things photoshop can but with even more little gems. I love it.

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110651564288524840

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:27 pm by Anne

cake! 

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Sick again.

Posted in Uncategorized at 2:53 pm by Anne

I knew something was coming when she sneezed and an enormous pale, yellow ,boog appeared on her upper lip yesterday afternoon. Uh-oh, I thought. The process of becoming sick took a short time from then on. Every subsequent sneeze was a productive one and by bedtime last night, Lily had watery, puffy, pink eyes and just cried. Now I know how my parents felt when we were sick. It is the most helpless feeling in the world to see your baby so uncomfortable, and yet, there is nothing you can do for them. A cold is a cold is a cold. Bythe time I was ready for bed, Emma was not, and all of her mewling and cavorting, prompted me to move into Lily’s bed while Lily moved into our bed. It didn’t help that the neighbor’s dogs were barking their fool heads off again and at one point, both Lily and Emma were joined in a depressing aria of crying. Then Shan called the police on the dogs. The first time he’s called them instead of animal control.

A few hours later Shan walked into Lily’s room holding a sleepy-sick girl out to me. “Somehow her diaper had come off enough during the night that she pee’d all over our bed. And I haven’t had any sleep because I’ve been up with a police officer for the last two hours.” Police Officer?! With Emma asleep and Lily snuggling in with me, I decided to let my questions rest until morning, while Shan stripped the bed. He was pretty cranky about it and I didn’t need the stress.

This morning Lily was feeling a little better but getting her to take any Children’s Dimetapp was difficult. I had to conceal it her apple juice after finding the right dosage although you probably should check with your doctor first. Of course, she drank it very slowly over a period of a few hours and I am not sure it helps much but we’ll see. She is snoozing very lightly now. Poor baby. If I can just keep Emma from catching this thing I’ll be doing good.

As for the cop, she came over, heard the dogs being awful and knocked like crazy on our bad neighbor’s door. They never answered so she left a note for them to call her (she thinks they weren’t home) and she told Shan to call the police in the future whenever there is a similar noise disturbance. I thought, “Well, Hell, why didn’t we call them in the first place?” and then I remembered, police officers have bigger fish to fry than crappy people like that and we didn’t want to waste their time.The plain and simple truth is that our neighbors suck and they shouldn’t have dogs, since they don’t take care of them. It was in the 20’s last night. What kind of people leave their dogs outside and then leave town?

The word ‘asschicken’ comes to mind. (Thanks to Cess for adding that one to my lexicon. )

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