Scout is 9 months old, and has never sat in front of the television. Talk to me at kid 3 or 4, but I don’t die over the idea of letting my kid veg out in front of the TV when we could be playing together, singing together or taking a walk. I was talking to my mom the other day, and she told me that she thought it was a fine idea to have him watch Sesame Street every once in a while because they teach him things like colors and shapes etc. I still don’t love the idea, but she makes a good point.
This morning I had him up after his morning nap. He usually sits in his highchair while I sing songs with him and make his oatmeal. For whatever reason, he was screaming like nuts. He is usually so happy in the morning, that I did everything I could think of….all to no avail. I remembered what my mom had said about S. Street, so I told Scout that we were going to see if we could find Big Bird and Elmo. I finally found PBS, and Telletubbies was the program running. YEAH RIGHT - I am NOT letting my little guy watch those things. I just remember the time when my brother Nathan told me that it is slightly embarassing that his little boy Samuel couldn’t leave the house without his stuffed Tinky Winky. He called my mom- completely serious- and asked her how to ween a child off of a stuffed animal. My mom told him to just laugh about it, and not to worry about Samuel. Nathan told her it wasn’t Samuel he was worried about….it was his own good reputation he wanted to keep!
All the time Scout was screaming came to a halt as soon as Tinky Winky and Po were dancing around like little fruitcakes on the small screen. You have got to be kidding! So I went over and made the oatmeal, as Scout was glued to the four animals/martians dancing around the screen. He especially liked the little baby’s face that is surrounded by a sun that came on. He started clapping he was so excited! Slightly frightening! For fear of having to have a little stuffed whatever with me at all times, I think from now on the Denisons will be saying NO to Telletubbies!
I have had the never-ending last few months! It started off at the end of November when I was the fill in realtor for the sale of my parent’s house. For whatever reason, I was in on all of the negotiations and was the liason between the buyer and my family. It actually makes sense on why I was the go-to girl….but I will forego the boring details.
Soon after….I was helping with Christmas. I know every single person finds themselves a little busier at Christmas time than the rest of the year…..BUT I was ridiculously busy! On top of actually selling the house, I was trying to arrange movers, timing, dates, my own little family’s Christmas….and on top of that craziness….I was helping my mom do Christmas for over 30 people! She usually does it with a little help from some of us, but this year was not feeling good, so I was pitching in. Hence, I spent many days and nights wrapping away, and many afternoons shopping. It was fabulous as usual, and was a nice 24 hour break amidst the chaos.
The day after Christmas, I was on to packing up the house. Our original intentions were to get movers, but after we thought about it, we weren’t very interested in having people pack everything and anything, just so we could move 18 years worth of crap into the new house. So instead, we sifted, organized, moved, and threw away stuff for two weeks solid. I must say that anyone who wanted to score BIG TIME should have been there. We gave away EVERYTHING! A very commen comment lately has been, “Whoops…I gave it away”, or “Whoops, that was in the trash pile” when my mom asks where things are. When we moved from our last home, we had a biggest garage sale EVER, to the tune of almost $20,000 dollars….and that was in 1989! This garage sale would have been for the record books. But because we lived in Bear Brand Ranch, and there are no garage sales allowed…every charity scored! (Sidenote…..shout out to D.I. and Salvation Army. Both got semi’s full, and did all of the work for it! They were lifesavers!) On top of the charitable donations, we took 8 huge loads to the dump. One load had 12 matresses plus more boxsprings. It was literally a comedy act. Shout out to my dad who could run circles around anyone half his age. He is 67 yrs. old, and was lifting the heaviest stuff, packing massive loads by himself, going to bed at midnight and being up and ready to go again at 6 am. They just don’t make them like him anymore. He never complains, never gets overwhelmed, and just gets the job done. I am convinced it is because he grew up on a farm that he has the ultimate ability to work hard. And his added bonus is that he is super smart. On the other hand, my mom -who is also a very hard worker- was still feeling sick. It started out where she was just exhausted all of the time, but turned into nausea and dizziness. We thought it was the flu, until we realized that she was turning bright yellow. Holy Cow?!
The move was EXHAUSTING! But I woke up the next morning with a HUGE burden lifted from my shoulders. My mom (even though she was totally sick) and I drove the U-Haul for the final drop off, and I thought I was going to cry I was so excited it was over! We were thrilled it was over. On the way home, I suggested that we should go to a walk-in clinic just to see hwat exactly was going on. She is and has always been so healthy, that she doesn’t even have a doctor to go and see. We headed over, got right in, and within an hour of dropping off the U-Haul started a new exhausting chapter.
My mom was getting sicker and sicker, and more and more yellow. She was literally as yellow as a highlighter pen by the end. We were in and out of doctor’s appts. for a week, until she finally got admitted to the hospital. In the meantime, Scout was teething and had fever on and off. Micah had the flu for two solid weeks, and was flat on his back for about a week of it. When my mom was in the hospital, I tried to be there most of the day. I would get there and stay a while, drive home to make food for Micah, go back to try and catch the doctor, talk with fmily members and keep them in the loop, etc. After a week, an ERCP, a liver biopsy, and a whole lot of blood drawn, my mom was able to leave the hospital…..unfortunately without any concrete answers. She has been home for a week, and they have been giving her medicine to make her feel better. The medicine itself has bummer side effects, but at least she isn’t constantly nauseous and dizzy. We are waiting for more results…..but until then, she is doing much better. In fact, the first day she felt better (probably on a scale from 1 - 10….she was a 6 as versus a 2 she had been the previous week), one of her Bloomingdales sales people called to tell her about a sale they were having. So after her doctor’s appt., we headed off to South Coast to see what two girls could buy! We did some pretty good damage (remember that I threw everything away), and spent about 4 hours shopping away. From flat on her back the day before to 4 hours of shopping….she told me the next day that she thought she overdid it. Whoops!
Like I said…..it has been a VERY exhausting few months. I didn’t even mention that during that time, I also helped my mom buy a house, I am training (2 rides to Oceanside and the train back) for a century ride this Saturday (100 miles), I am trying to cook Sunday thru Thursdays and I have been trying to practice the piano again. Stinks for me that I am coming down with the flu.
My one calm in all of this is my nice little boy who never complains about going nap free. He never turns his nose up at whatever food I can round up for him. He is fine with sleeping on a makeshift bed at night, my bed for naps, and my mom’s closet floor when I am helping her. Talk about good natured!
My little guy finally got his front left tooth at 9 months and a week….no more vampire motif! Plus - I finally got a picture of his two bottom teeth!
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