MoMonkey MoMonkey

Stripper For Hire

I awoke this morning to find Mo in her crib half naked. With the air conditioning on in the house, it can get a bit on the chilly side at night, so she's been wearing long sleeve shirt and pant PJ's. She has officially learned to remove said items at night and throw them out of her crib. She won't sleep with a blanket either. I suppose it would be kinda hard to have a blanket draped over her all night with the way she sleeps (starting at one end of the crib at night and ending backwards on the other side by morning). Now, here's hoping she won't learn to take her diapers off like her cousin Morgan - whose mother often wakes up to find a poop filled crib! I'm knocking on wood as I type this.

Laughing Gas Don't Make Ya Laugh

I went back to the doctor's yesterday and, of course, the pain is still an issue. I have been taking Vicoden and Percoset the past week. Vicoden works from time to time, and Percoset just makes me feel sick to my stomach and dizzy, so I won't take that anymore. Anyhoo, the doctor said I still have dry sockets and it could last up to 10 days. Oh.my.god. I can't handle 10 more days of this crap. Anyway, he decided to remove the packing and repack again. In other words, repeat the awful procedure I had Tuesday, but this time he gave me Nitrous Oxide (AKA Laughing Gas).

Has anyone ever had that before? That was my first time and holy crap, was that weird. The doc told me I would feel floaty and happy and I was like - ok, sign me up! But honestly, I felt like I was in an alternate universe that just creeped me out. And the weird thing was that I could feel myself arguing in my head to relax and go with it and think about taking a walk with Mo, yet the other part of me was saying stay aware of what's going on, listen to the Doc, etc. I guess the arguement in my head got so confusing that I lost my train of thought altogether. I couldn't seem to focus on anything... and I couldn't seem to remember where Mo was or catch up with her... it was freaky. All of a sudden, like a lightswitch, the feeling was gone. Turns out the doc had to turn it off early because I was apparently tense and trying to run or something! Trying to catch up with Mo I suppose? I dunno! All I know is that I was only out about 5-10 minutes and it felt like I was out for hours. Man, that was weird. I don't think I ever want to do that again. I probably didn't like it because I'm such a control freak and I couldn't keep any control over the situation. I would never be a good drug addict!!

Ah well...thanks everyone for the well wishes and sympathy! I promise I'll try to keep ya'll out of wisdom teeth hell from now on and keep my misery to myself. Next post will be something sweet and cute about the Mo-mo!

Wisdom Toofers

Since my wisdom teeth were removed last Friday, I should be well over the pain by now. In fact, the doctor told me that the pain would reach its peak by the 3rd day. Yeah well, that's not so true. The first 3 days were a breeze in comparison to the pain I've had the last few days. Turns out I have dry sockets and I had to go back to the dentist yesterday to have them packed. In other words, they shoved medicine-filled gauze in the holes and oh.my.god, the pain.... it hurt so badly that I could barely walk. And to top it all off, while the doc was shoving the gauze in me, he sliced my lip with his scissors. Excuse me while I go shoot someone.

Weekend Update

Let's see.

1. Shopping.
2. My whole freaking mouth and face hurt.
3. More shopping.
4. Spent time with my sister doing what else? Shopping!
5. My mouth hurts so bad I want to stab myself with a fork.
5. The Mo-meister has been an angel so far. Well yesterday anyway. We'll see what today brings.
6. Baseball game today.
7. Oh and yes, I am on happy pain pills. They just don't always work... most of the time. But not all the time.

How's your weekend going?

So Much Blood

I had my wisdom teeth pulled this morning and a couple of words come to mind:

woooooooozy
eeeeeewwww
oooooooooww

...musth get thome thsleeep....sooo tiyard....

The hubs thinks it's funny as hell that I can't talk properly...I think I"ll get some rest after I punch him in the head!!

The New Digs

Yep, it's a monkey table. What else would you expect me to purchase? Lion crap? :)

Do I Speak Chinese?

Just when I start to think we may have Mo's babysitting issue resolved, I get thrown for a loop. As I mentioned in a previous post, the hubs and I met with this lady and thought everything was set. Although we only needed her to watch Mo 1 day a week, she told us her minimum was 2. No problem. We told her she could pick the two days she wanted to work with - but it had to be a Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday. She picked Friday immediately, and told us she'd get back to us on the other day within a week.

Seeing as how a week has passed by and I have yet to hear from her, I decided to give her a call tonight. She tells me that she has given it some thought and Monday would work best for her. Um, hello? Monday was never an option, so I tell her that. And what does she say? "Well Monday works best for me, so I'll have to think about it a few more days..."

So is she planning to tell us she's not interested in watching Mo the day before she's supposed to start?

Gah. I guess I have to start from scratch just in case this falls through. I so hope there are no more traumatic babysitter adventures in my future.

Check out the Cutie Patootie

I wonder what's on her evil little mind in this pic!! Speaking of evil, the other day Mo was traipsing around the kitchen and dining room in her usual manner. I walked into the dining room to check on her and I found her sitting on the middle of the dining room table. There's a little basket on the table that has junk in it that needs to be put away. When I caught her, she had various items in her hands and as soon as she saw me, she shoved everything down her shirt!

Cute? Yes! The beginnings of terrible twos? Ooooh yeah. We're so in trouble.

This Just In

Mo decided to take a big gulp of her DESITIN diaper cream and before I could get to her, she swallowed it and went looking for more. So I looked on the back of the tube and it said if swallowed, seek medical attention and call poison control immediately. So we did, and it turns out that A) they get this call all the time; and B) it's not harmful if swallowed.

So I ask - why on earth do these manufacturers have to put such a warning on the product if it's not true? Why not say if your kid swallows the whole tube, you might have a medical issue. A swallow or two won't hurt! Gah!

Problem Solved

Well, the second ad we responded to turned out to be great. We met with the lady last night and as soon as we walked into her home, we knew it felt right. She runs a mini daycare on the first floor of her home and it was so neat, organized and clean. We asked her lots of questions and she answered everything perfectly. And the best part is we know people who know her - so we got an inside scoop on how she is as a person. Gotta love that. Mo's going to start there after Labor Day.

I guess responding to random ads isn't so bad... I'm just thankful everything worked out.

Eeeewwww

I started out working from home 3 days a week and was in the office 2 days. As time went by, I found that my limited time in the office was becoming more and more difficult for me to be able to get things done. For instance, I'd have to cram all of my meetings into 2 days and then I'd never be in my office. So I eventually phased in a 3rd day in the office and that seems to have done the trick.

Mo's usual babysitter watched her those 3 days, but as of this month she has to drop to 2 days. So we've been on the hunt for another babysitter for 1 day a week. We looked into some daycare options, but most have long waiting lists and all of them require a minimum of 2 days per week. The few that don't have waiting lists are downright expensive. One was $108 for 2 days a week, and another was $140 for 2 days. What the freak? Who can afford to pay $54-$60 per day? That's madness.

So I've resorted to looking in the paper and responding to ads. It makes me nervous as hell, but I figure that the hubs and I will meet with the person at their home, ask lots of questions, make sure they have clearances, etc. etc. I figured we'd get a good vibe when the right person came along. Today was our first appointment and oh.my.god. I think I've been permanently scarred!

The lady sounded really, really nice over the phone. We hit it off immediately. I was really looking forward to our meeting today. When the hubs and I pulled up in front of their house, he immediately said this wasn't going to work. The house from the outside wasn't so tidy, but I insisted that we not judge a book by its cover. So we went inside and holy crap, the place was disgusting. The carpets were filthy, their grayish couch was nearly black with filth, it wreaked of smoke, and there were countless dead animal heads hanging all over the pink walled living room. There's something about pink walls and deer heads that don't go together... Anyhoo, Mo wasn't shy at all. She ran right over to the dirty toys and started to play while the hubs and I asked some questions. Although we wanted to run like hell, we had to be polite!! One of the first questions was about her clearances. As she describes that her clearances were ok, the lady's scary looking husband/boyfriend dude walks down the stairs right by us and doesn't say a word or even so much as look at us. Then some scary looking kids walked through the room and again, no eye contact, no words. The lady tried to introduce one of the boys but he just held out his hand as if to gesture "talk to the hand". He just kept walking. It was really, really weird. We then asked her to describe a typical day and how much tv time is included - since we try to limit Mo's viewing to about an hour a day (Sesame Street only). The lady proceeds to tell us that she leaves it on during the day and lets the kids watch Sesame Street, Blues Clues, Barney, etc. etc. - but tells us in her next breath that she doesn't let the kids watch much. And as she's talking, all we could see was the tall bookcase in the corner lined with a bazillion video tapes for kids. No books. Just videos. And another TV that's lower to the ground for friendly kid viewing. We asked how much activity takes place outside and her answer was zip. She doesn't take the kids outside in the summer. At some point in the conversation Mo decides to take a walk into their kitchen, so I go chasing after her and the filth got worse. The kitchen was disgusting. Dishes piled up. It smelled. Trash all over the floor. There was a big painted mural on the wall of a scary looking cat. And their cat was sprawled across the kitchen table. The cat was supposed to be orangish in color, but it was hard to see the color through the black matted crap stuck to it. I don't think they've ever washed that thing - and there it was lying sprawled across the kitchen table while the lady's filthy son ate there. I felt like I needed a shower right then and there.

We finally made our exit after 3 questions and told her we'd get back to her. Yeah right. All I could think after we left there is that I'll gladly spend the $54-$60 per day - and that I'll never respond to an advertisement again. Unfortunately, I had already lined up another appointment for us tomorrow night as well - so we have one more to get through. Then I guess we're destined for expensive daycare.

The only thing that I find more disturbing about this experience today is the fact that this lady was approved to be a child care provider through the county. How does something like that happen? What crackheads in the county office thought this was an appropriate, healthy environment for children? They obviously don't do home inspections. I think I'll be placing a call there tomorrow and they're going to get a nice earful!!

We Survived!

Well, we survived the first night away! Mo handled it beautifully, and her Dad and I didn't do so bad ourselves. Today is her first full day back and she has been clingy as hell. She won't leave my side. If I leave the room, she cries. So I guess it's going to take a few days for things to get back to normal again! Thanks Gram and Grandpa for taking such good care of her!

Today our cleaning lady was here to right the oh so wrong of a messy house! Mo's been around her for a few months now, but today she was fascinated with her. All she wanted to do was help clean. She kept following her around the whole house, tried to vaccuum and even swept and mopped the floors. Now that's Mommy's girl!

Of course, ten minutes after the cleaning lady left, Miss Destructo made a nice big mess by knocking a table and all of its contents over on the dining room floor. The contents weren't just a few little items. We're talking a candle surrounded by leaves and rosehips, containers and drawers full of odds and ends, etc. It required picking up, sweeping and re-mopping the floor because the rosehips shattered into microscopic pieces.

Ah well. I had a perfect house for 10 minutes. What can I say?

Learning Spurt & Other Firsts

Mo's been on a learning streak this week. First "Mommy", then "dork" (thanks to her Daddy), then "Molly" (pronounced mawyee) - our evil dog, then "Gramma", "kisses" and "Debbie". Holy crap. That's 6 new words in a few short days.

But the big news is that tonight is the first time she's spending the night away. She's at Gram and Grandpa's house and I don't know who's more affected - her Daddy or me. I tried not to think about it all day by burying myself in work until 7:30 - then running some errands afterwards. I figured if I got home after 9, it would feel like it was just a normal night where she was sleeping soundly in her crib! This could have been an opportunity for the hubs and I to have a little bit of a date night, but he had a mascot appearance. Such is life.

So far I think I'm handling this very well. I think it will hit me tomorrow morning when I don't have the pleasure of seeing her smiling, cheerful self before work!! Ah well... I better get used to it sooner or later. The kid's growing like a weed and time is a-flying... I must adapt!

Now I'm going to veg and partake in some tv viewing. Toodles.