14
Jan 2010

'cause waking up is hard to do

The past week has been absolutely insane. We had a huge project due on Monday. One so massively critical that the babysitter logged forty hours last week, and Spice spent the weekend with my mother. On the bright side, it's over now, and we're all recovering well, and we might have scored a huge boost thanks to all the sacrifice. In other news, the cats have recently been brushed and the orchids watered. Stay tuned for more upcoming excitement; same parent time, same parent channel. :-)

Filed under  //   life   parenting   work  
11
Sep 2009

i'm dreaming of... time

It's been back to work for me this week, and I feel the guilty mother for admitting that... I like it more than being a stay-at-home mom. *sigh* 

I've said it since the spouse-unit went back to work right after Spice was born: that I thought working nine-to-five (or eleven-am-to-two-am, in our tech startup roles) was way easier than being ever-patient, spoon-full-of-sugar parent all day. One year later, and it's pretty much the same. Older baby with new tricks, but it's the same old workload for the same zero pay. Maybe it's the fact that at work I may actually get a "thanks for that" (if I'm lucky), while at home I tend to just get variations on screams. At work, I get a lunch break, bathroom breaks, moments to walk around and just stare into space to get my brain back in order, while at home, I'm lucky to get time to scarf a banana down on the run. Forget thinking.

I love Spice. In fact, I love our shiny new threesome family so much that we're thinking of the next one already. But while I'm ready to be fat and tired and have sleepless nights all over again, I'm not really ready for the lack of ME time that comes with it.  I've been enjoying work this week so much. I came home this afternoon and volunteered to drive the babysitter home just so that I didn't have to spent active time with Spice at home while she went through the afternoon fussies. Popped her in the car seat, armed her with a few carrot sticks and a business card to play with, and just drove. *sigh* It was good, really. Then I had to come home, and now I'm spastic and twitching until the spouse-unit comes home and I get to hand her off to him to bathe her. 

The less ME time I get away from her, the less patience I have with her -- and the less I'm capable of being genuinely joyful to be around her.

I tried getting time to myself before, but I think I went about it wrong. I would go to Starbuck's or something to work, or I would "treat" myself to getting my hair or nails done. But those were things that needed to be done anyway. No, I realized today while I was driving around that, gas-guzzling aside, that driving somewhere is calming to me, as is hanging out with friends without the baby, or just vegging and watching something, or working on something fun online. The last two are things I will still need to leave the house for, unless I can figure out to get the baby & spouse-unit out of the house. Sadly, if I try to do my own stuff at home while she's there, I just get sucked in, whether it's her actively crying to me, or just the spouse-unit asking for a diaper. 

But I'm determined to get some space for myself. Somehow. The spouse-unit gets his at night when I've put her (and myself) to bed, either to catch up on work in the quiet, or watch a movie, or play PS3. He gets that when I go out with her on the weekends to run errands, etc., something that he almost never does. Yet. *wink* I'm nudging him to take up a toddler music class with her or something. Here's to ME time sleeping in on Saturday mornings! :-)

     

Filed under  //   life   parenting   SAHM   work  
09
Sep 2009

hitting the ground running

I should totally be sleeping now, but I think my brain's still fired up from getting back to work yesterday. It's like the downhill part of a roller-coaster: hard to stop. I even gave in and started watching "NYC Prep" via iTunes and it's junky, but terribly addicting. (They're all little monsters, er, teens, but if I had to pick one to like, it would probably be Jessie.)

 The spouse-unit is busy as ever, but doing a swell job of manning the grill for a few mor weeks. Spice has grown (surprise, surprise) quite a bit taller and is almost walking. My family in Malaysia loved her, and traveling with her was pretty good, almost easy. But it's been a crazy summer of travels, so it's nice to be home in SoCal. Aside from the terrifying fires, of course.

 Just a quick note to touch base; smile, be merry and enjoy the last rays of summer!

       

Filed under  //   life   travel  
21
Jul 2009

wisdom teeth extraction recovery

I finally got my upper two wisdom teeth out. It's been overdue for literally years now, cavities in each eating from the inside out until they were virtually hollow. I don't know how they didn't just crumble and break, and they didn't hurt or feel sensitive. With less than a week to an eighteen hour flight with a one-year-old, and being out of the country for a month, now was hardly the best time to do this. Yet the fear of dental work in Malaysia, if they should crack on me, was terrifying enough to rush getting them out today.

 kellymom has some great resources on http://www.kellymom.com/health/illness/dentalwork.html . Following that, I pumped and saved some milk (even though Spice isn't thrilled with bottles), and we talked to the oral surgeon about our general anaesthesia and post-op painkiller options. I tanked her up before we left and pump-and-dumped this evening. So far, so good.

 For recovery, I'm basically on liquids. I tried some thick hummus, but the effort of moving it around mouth kept causing some suction on one side where I have a hole to my sinuses, so I have to be extra careful not to get things stuck there or dislodge the blood clot forming. I made some yummy gazpacho, but it had a few coarse bits of cilantro, tomato, etc. that I didn't trust to eat yet for the same reasons.

 So "dinner" was two cups of creamy garlic chicken soup from a carton, and a few spoonfuls of vegan chocolate pudding that was also too thick for comfort but sooo good. :-)

 I read somewhere that the bromelain in pinapple juice was really good for healing mouth wounds. Pineapple juice is very acidic, though, and I imagine it would be painful on an open wound. I added 1/4 cup of light coconut milk to a glass of it and stirred it up to a cold, creamy fresh drink. Mmmm, yummy!

 Tomorrow, I'll probably try blending some oat milk, rolled oats and honey to drink and have the gazpacho for lunch. I'm also wondering what pureed pho or oxtail soup would taste like... might just have to try it!

Filed under  //   dental   health   life   recipes