Yes, I'm lazy and horrible about updating. Whatever. Christmas/studying has gotten in the way, so that's my excuse for now. So moving on to updating about China...
Day 5 was an experience. There's no other way to describe it. I know I keep saying that about everything we did in China, but really...this was the ultimate shopper's experience. The menfolk had to go to their first round of business visits, so the girls were left to their own devices. I had breakfast with Jerry around 7:30, and these women did not want to get their day started untill 10am. Huh??? Why wait so long people? I went back to the room after breakfast and I think it was that morning that I picked out Carrie's Santa present over Skype with Mom...gotta love technology :) I bopped downstairs to meet Dana, Elizabeth, Charlotte, and Donna. We decided that today would be the day we'd try out the Pearl Market and the Silk Market. These places are not for the faint of heart. We hopped on the subway (much to Donna's dismay, I think - she wasn't a big fan of the Chinese subway system!) and made our way to the Hongqiao Pearl Market.
You walk into the Pearl Market and it immediately starts...."LADY! LADY! LADY! Want to buy a watch? Ipod? iPhone?" And those were the only things they were saying on this floor because you enter on the electronics floor. It reminded me of the casinos in Las Vegas. There was no good way to get to where you wanted to go without going through all the action. We wanted to go directly to the top floor where we'd been told they have the real pearls, but we had to snake through each floor and find the escalators (no elevators here...guess ADA isn't a big thing, or either they had them well hidden). One entire floor was designer handbags/shoes/etc. Another floor was Chinese knick-knacks. Another floor was costume jewelry. Finally we got to the top floor with the real pearls!
Dana and I attended the orientation for the trip to China with our husbands, and the program coordinator tried to warn us, but there's no amount of warning that can prepare you for the sport that is Negotiating in China. I swear it should be an Olympic sport. Basically you look around for what you might like, look at it, ask how much, and offer about 10%. We didn't think you could do that in the more upscale jewelry stores, but you could! If they actually let you walk away, you know you've gone below cost on the item. The trick is to not let them know you really want whatever it is you are negotiating about. Let's just say that I ended up with an anniversary present of a black pearl ring by the end of this shopping trip, and I paid about 25% of the original asking price :)
Next on the list was lunch - we broke down and found a pizza place and truly enjoyed our pepperoni/sausage pizza with our beers!
Next was the Silk Market. Oh. My. God. If I thought the Pearl Market was crazy, that was NOTHING compared to the Silk Market. Oddly enough there's very little silk in there (really only one floor our of about 4 or 5). This place was CRA-ZY. The aisles in between the stalls were very narrow, and all of the people working in them wanted to reach out and grab you to get your attention. Not okay to a bunch of American women who like their personal space, but I eventually got used to it. This was the place for all of the fake designer handbags, which really did look pretty darn real! We didn't last too long there, as it was pretty overwhelming and it was getting close to the time that the guys were coming back.
Jerry and I ended up back across the street for more Hot Pot :) We tried to go to another nearby restaurant, but they didn't accept credit cards and there wasn't an ATM nearby, so we went back to the known entity. Afterwards we wandered down Wanfunjing taking in all of the sites, then headed back to the hotel to rest up for another day!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
China Day 4
So it got a little dicey uploading/catching up with blogging after we arrived in Shanghai. The internet was dicey at best, and honestly I was just having so much fun I didn't want to take time out to blog :) Since I've caught up on uploading pics to the Picasa site, I'm now updating the blog, so enjoy!
Today was AMAZING. There's really no other way to describe it, since I truly never thought I'd see the Great Wall with my own eyes, and yet I spent the better part of this morning hiking around on it.
We started out at 8:30 loading the bus and heading out to the wall. On the way, we passed by the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube from the Beijing 2008 Olympics. The architecture is very impressive; it's odd to see something as modern as those two buildings adjacent to thousands year old architecture. We plan on heading out there on Thursday since Jerry has a free day.
We made it to the wall after about an hour, and it's an incredible sight. It's also largely straight up. The ancient Chinese apparently did not believe in switchbacks which makes climbing the wall quite a task. You can tell which side is "inside" the territory and which is outside quite easily - the side of the wall that is higher faces the outside. A large portion of the wall has been subsequently rebuilt in the last 100 years or so, but you still get a great sense of the history that you are experiencing while at the Wall. We spent about two hours out at the wall, which probably wasn't enough time. It takes so long to get up to the top (or, at least what we deemed the top). I do have to say that this trip so far has really inspired me to want to learn more about Chinese history and culture. It is so very different from what we as Americans have encountered, and it's so fascinating to me. Perhaps I'll have some free time to read about China while Jerry's in Portugal next year :)
After the Wall, we headed back to the hotel. We probably should have gotten some lunch, but we didn't have time - it was on to the Forbidden City. This was a short walk from our hotel, which was nice. The Forbidden City is officially known as the Palace Museum, and was homebase for the imperial court and dignitaries until the 20s. It was opened to the public in 1949. It was completed in 1420. That's hard to comprehend since America wasn't even America at that point in time. The US really is a baby in the grand scheme of things! We wandered around in the Forbidden City for well over an hour, just taking it in and snapping pictures.
After the Forbidden City we wandered through Tian'an Men Square. I was 13 when the whole Tian'an Men Square Massacre occured, so that's what I mostly associate this place with. We were told by Jerry's tour guide that about a thousand Chinese citizens can be seen at dawn each day as the PRC flag is raised at dawn. Had dawn not been at about 5am, I probably would have gone to see that myself :) Mao's mausoleum is also located here, but it's not open on Mondays so we couldn't go in. On other days his body is brought out of the tomb for viewing.
After Tian'an Men Square, we headed over to Qian Men. This was known as the most imposing of the 9 city gates to Beijing back in the day. This has been renovated into a shopping area (China = consumerism I've learned). We had so much fun wandering around this area. I even found a place where I could get a cashmere coat tailor made for me! I may go back tomorrow to get measured for it while Jerry's in class!
After such a full day we headed back to the hotel, had dinner, and hit the sack!
Today was AMAZING. There's really no other way to describe it, since I truly never thought I'd see the Great Wall with my own eyes, and yet I spent the better part of this morning hiking around on it.
We started out at 8:30 loading the bus and heading out to the wall. On the way, we passed by the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube from the Beijing 2008 Olympics. The architecture is very impressive; it's odd to see something as modern as those two buildings adjacent to thousands year old architecture. We plan on heading out there on Thursday since Jerry has a free day.
We made it to the wall after about an hour, and it's an incredible sight. It's also largely straight up. The ancient Chinese apparently did not believe in switchbacks which makes climbing the wall quite a task. You can tell which side is "inside" the territory and which is outside quite easily - the side of the wall that is higher faces the outside. A large portion of the wall has been subsequently rebuilt in the last 100 years or so, but you still get a great sense of the history that you are experiencing while at the Wall. We spent about two hours out at the wall, which probably wasn't enough time. It takes so long to get up to the top (or, at least what we deemed the top). I do have to say that this trip so far has really inspired me to want to learn more about Chinese history and culture. It is so very different from what we as Americans have encountered, and it's so fascinating to me. Perhaps I'll have some free time to read about China while Jerry's in Portugal next year :)
After the Wall, we headed back to the hotel. We probably should have gotten some lunch, but we didn't have time - it was on to the Forbidden City. This was a short walk from our hotel, which was nice. The Forbidden City is officially known as the Palace Museum, and was homebase for the imperial court and dignitaries until the 20s. It was opened to the public in 1949. It was completed in 1420. That's hard to comprehend since America wasn't even America at that point in time. The US really is a baby in the grand scheme of things! We wandered around in the Forbidden City for well over an hour, just taking it in and snapping pictures.
After the Forbidden City we wandered through Tian'an Men Square. I was 13 when the whole Tian'an Men Square Massacre occured, so that's what I mostly associate this place with. We were told by Jerry's tour guide that about a thousand Chinese citizens can be seen at dawn each day as the PRC flag is raised at dawn. Had dawn not been at about 5am, I probably would have gone to see that myself :) Mao's mausoleum is also located here, but it's not open on Mondays so we couldn't go in. On other days his body is brought out of the tomb for viewing.
After Tian'an Men Square, we headed over to Qian Men. This was known as the most imposing of the 9 city gates to Beijing back in the day. This has been renovated into a shopping area (China = consumerism I've learned). We had so much fun wandering around this area. I even found a place where I could get a cashmere coat tailor made for me! I may go back tomorrow to get measured for it while Jerry's in class!
After such a full day we headed back to the hotel, had dinner, and hit the sack!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Editor's note
By the way, I think it's probably pretty obvious that these aren't always posted on the day I write them....sometimes I can get into the Blogger website, and sometimes I can't! Very interesting considering we're in China....So I'm basically just writing everything down in a word document and uploading when I can, just so you know!!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
China Day 3
So our third day in China was pretty low key, which was nice after the bombardment of sights, sounds, and smells from yesterday. We started out the day with breakfast at Starbucks (didn't I tell you that we'd go there!). While having breakfast we saw all sorts of runners and eventually figured out it was the Shanghai International Marathon. It was perfect weather for running a marathon, but I have to say I was glad to not be running it myself.
We wandered up and down the pedestrian shopping street a bit in the morning, but not for too long since we had to leave around 10am to head to the airport to catch our flight to Beijing. The flight was uneventful, which is always nice when it comes to flights. It was weird to actually get a meal on a flight that was only 1.5 hours long!
Once we arrived at the Beijing airport, we hailed a taxi for 6...that was interesting, seeing as how the van probably really only needed to hold 4 plus the driver, but oh well. We made it to the Park Plaza Wanfujing in one piece thankfully. Orientation for Jerry's program was at 6:30. That's when we finally met up with everyone else in the program. We were glad to have flown over a couple days prior, because those that flew over that day were looking rough! It was Keith's birthday (one of the students in Jerry's class), so he got a birthday cake while we were getting the rundown on the basic plan for Beijing. That was thankfully only about 30 minutes. Then we decided to scope out the food situation...
Luckily, we have a few really good restaurants right across the street from our hotel. One is "Fresh Hot Pot HK Style" Did we have any clue what hot pot was? Absolutely not, but we tried it out. I'm glad we did because it has turned out to be one of the best meals we've had so far. It's basically like Chinese Melting Pot. You pick out a broth base and they bring it to you in a big pot and place it on a hot plate set in the middle of your table. Then you pick out your meats, veggies, etc. to throw in there and cook. We weren't too adventurous and only got beef tenderloin, dumplings, kale, and some egg fried rice (which is WAY better than fried rice at home - not nearly as heavy). There was another group of guys from Jerry's program that had gone over there before we did, but as they didn't know what hot pot was either they just ordered the fried rice and were jealous when they saw all of our food.
So that concluded our first day in Beijing. Tomorrow is a group trip to the Great Wall...
We wandered up and down the pedestrian shopping street a bit in the morning, but not for too long since we had to leave around 10am to head to the airport to catch our flight to Beijing. The flight was uneventful, which is always nice when it comes to flights. It was weird to actually get a meal on a flight that was only 1.5 hours long!
Once we arrived at the Beijing airport, we hailed a taxi for 6...that was interesting, seeing as how the van probably really only needed to hold 4 plus the driver, but oh well. We made it to the Park Plaza Wanfujing in one piece thankfully. Orientation for Jerry's program was at 6:30. That's when we finally met up with everyone else in the program. We were glad to have flown over a couple days prior, because those that flew over that day were looking rough! It was Keith's birthday (one of the students in Jerry's class), so he got a birthday cake while we were getting the rundown on the basic plan for Beijing. That was thankfully only about 30 minutes. Then we decided to scope out the food situation...
Luckily, we have a few really good restaurants right across the street from our hotel. One is "Fresh Hot Pot HK Style" Did we have any clue what hot pot was? Absolutely not, but we tried it out. I'm glad we did because it has turned out to be one of the best meals we've had so far. It's basically like Chinese Melting Pot. You pick out a broth base and they bring it to you in a big pot and place it on a hot plate set in the middle of your table. Then you pick out your meats, veggies, etc. to throw in there and cook. We weren't too adventurous and only got beef tenderloin, dumplings, kale, and some egg fried rice (which is WAY better than fried rice at home - not nearly as heavy). There was another group of guys from Jerry's program that had gone over there before we did, but as they didn't know what hot pot was either they just ordered the fried rice and were jealous when they saw all of our food.
So that concluded our first day in Beijing. Tomorrow is a group trip to the Great Wall...
Monday, December 1, 2008
China Day 2
So today was our very first full day in China, and what a day it was. I started out by waking up at 6:30, bright & early. I’m not sure why, but since I was awake and Jerry wasn’t I decided to go check out the gym (not only to work out, but rumor had it that you could get free bottled water there which is important since you can’t drink the tap water around here…good thing the rumor was true!). I came back and dragged Jerry out of bed and down to breakfast. We had what we are now dubbing the “million dollar breakfast.” Turned out the American buffet is targeted to take advantage of foolish Americans eating in the hotel. I don’t think I’ve ever had a breakfast that cost roughly $70…and never will again. Mental note – Starbucks tomorrow morning.
After breakfast we grabbed our backpacks, camera and guidebook and ventured outside. We weren’t 10 steps from the hotel when we started getting accosted to have Jerry’s shoes shined or asked if we wanted to buy a cheap watch/purse/DVD/fill-in-the-blank. I am not kidding when I say it was incredible how many times we were confronted by random people on the street asking us to look at their stuff (and every single one of them had the same laminated piece of paper with the offerings, so you know they were all in cahoots to screw Americans out of money). This happened no less than 30-40 times while walking down Nanjing Road, the big tourist road that leads to The Bund. After we successfully navigated the tourist trap, we arrived at The Bund which is a nice riverfront area with lots of parks, old buildings, and just generally good people watching. We wandered up and down that area, checking out the local vendors. Here you could buy kites, skates, and pretty much any kind of food on a stick imaginable or otherwise…a popular choice with the locals was what appeared to be squid on a stick. No joke. Needless to say, Crohn’s girl did not partake in that little local delicacy. Instead we opted for a nice Chinese restaurant where we both had beef & noodles. I can’t imagine us getting Chinese take out when we get back to the states at any point in the foreseeable future.
After lunch we headed to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. While it’s no Georgia Aquarium, it was pretty nice. But it was here that Jerry and I realized a very important point. Kids here in China are allowed to pretty much do ANYTHING they want. I am not joking about this either. I guess it’s because they are only supposed to have one child, so that one child is spoiled to the hilt. These kids were running WILD in there. And the parents didn’t care one iota. I mean, I know you see kids doing that in the US on a daily basis, but there’s usually one mom that at least looks like she’s ready to jerk a knot in her kid’s neck if said kid doesn’t sit down in the stroller and quit the whining. Not here. All the moms were laughing at everything the little princes and princesses did. I however was ready to do some knot-jerking but obviously couldn’t. :)
Another thing we realized yesterday – they aren’t kidding around about respecting elders. This little epiphany came to me while waiting in a ridiculous line for a public toilet (which I later found did not have any toilet paper – queue the pack of Kleenex) and an older woman decided that she didn’t have to wait in line and could break in front of the roughly 10 of us standing in line. I was glad to see, though, that I was not the only one in line that wasn’t terribly pleased with that turn of events.
The final epiphany we had on Day 2 – there are no traffic rules in China. Sure, they have traffic lights and signals that tell you when you should and should not walk. Pay no mind to those. They are merely suggestions, and not closely followed ones at that. There were plenty of times that Jerry and I found ourselves walking with the masses and before you knew it you were standing in the middle of the road with cars honking at you.
All in all it was a very overwhelming, intimidating, but enjoyable day. China has a lot to offer, but there’s a LOT to take in all at once. And because of this, I’m tired and must go to sleep…but I have to remember to relate the story of Jerry and the tea ceremony before this blog is done at the end of our trip!
After breakfast we grabbed our backpacks, camera and guidebook and ventured outside. We weren’t 10 steps from the hotel when we started getting accosted to have Jerry’s shoes shined or asked if we wanted to buy a cheap watch/purse/DVD/fill-in-the-blank. I am not kidding when I say it was incredible how many times we were confronted by random people on the street asking us to look at their stuff (and every single one of them had the same laminated piece of paper with the offerings, so you know they were all in cahoots to screw Americans out of money). This happened no less than 30-40 times while walking down Nanjing Road, the big tourist road that leads to The Bund. After we successfully navigated the tourist trap, we arrived at The Bund which is a nice riverfront area with lots of parks, old buildings, and just generally good people watching. We wandered up and down that area, checking out the local vendors. Here you could buy kites, skates, and pretty much any kind of food on a stick imaginable or otherwise…a popular choice with the locals was what appeared to be squid on a stick. No joke. Needless to say, Crohn’s girl did not partake in that little local delicacy. Instead we opted for a nice Chinese restaurant where we both had beef & noodles. I can’t imagine us getting Chinese take out when we get back to the states at any point in the foreseeable future.
After lunch we headed to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. While it’s no Georgia Aquarium, it was pretty nice. But it was here that Jerry and I realized a very important point. Kids here in China are allowed to pretty much do ANYTHING they want. I am not joking about this either. I guess it’s because they are only supposed to have one child, so that one child is spoiled to the hilt. These kids were running WILD in there. And the parents didn’t care one iota. I mean, I know you see kids doing that in the US on a daily basis, but there’s usually one mom that at least looks like she’s ready to jerk a knot in her kid’s neck if said kid doesn’t sit down in the stroller and quit the whining. Not here. All the moms were laughing at everything the little princes and princesses did. I however was ready to do some knot-jerking but obviously couldn’t. :)
Another thing we realized yesterday – they aren’t kidding around about respecting elders. This little epiphany came to me while waiting in a ridiculous line for a public toilet (which I later found did not have any toilet paper – queue the pack of Kleenex) and an older woman decided that she didn’t have to wait in line and could break in front of the roughly 10 of us standing in line. I was glad to see, though, that I was not the only one in line that wasn’t terribly pleased with that turn of events.
The final epiphany we had on Day 2 – there are no traffic rules in China. Sure, they have traffic lights and signals that tell you when you should and should not walk. Pay no mind to those. They are merely suggestions, and not closely followed ones at that. There were plenty of times that Jerry and I found ourselves walking with the masses and before you knew it you were standing in the middle of the road with cars honking at you.
All in all it was a very overwhelming, intimidating, but enjoyable day. China has a lot to offer, but there’s a LOT to take in all at once. And because of this, I’m tired and must go to sleep…but I have to remember to relate the story of Jerry and the tea ceremony before this blog is done at the end of our trip!
Saturday, November 29, 2008
We Made It!!
Wow. So that's really all I can say to accurately sum up the past 48 hours. It's been a crazy wild ride, so let me update you....
Our trip started out the night before Thanksgiving. We had not even started packing yet, so that started after we had family dinner for Whizzy's birthday. That was lots of fun! Carrie was the hit of the dinner with the rest of the patrons at Old House Smokehouse, we had yummy birthday cake, then got home around 8:30 or so. I was of course dreading putting her to sleep. Whizzy et al gave Carrie-boo her bath while Jerry and I attempted to start packing. Once they were done they gave us a call and we headed over. Before we even got into the room I was crying :) I'm sure Carrie thought I was a weirdo, but whatever. We read The Hungry Caterpillar & Where the Wild Things Are, then we snuggled for a few minutes and we put her down. Ugh. She was fine, I was not.
So then we went back over to the cottage to pack. The entire process took about 3 hours. Why, I'll never know. It's just two weeks, but you would have thought it was two years. We weren't ready for bed until about midnight. Jerry of course immediately fell asleep, but once it was all quiet, that's when I started thinking about Carrie again...so off to the couch I went to watch a couple of episodes of Top Chef I had DVR'd. I think I fell asleep around 2, and the alarm clock went off at 3:30. Bailey was thoroughly confused and wanted to eat since everyone was awake. He could tell something was up with all of the activity, though, so he was a little pokey. We left the house at 5am promptly!
Thank goodness we were going through security at Savannah airport instead of Atlanta. We arrived at the airport around 5:30 and were through security and sipping on Starbucks by 6:00. The flight to Atlanta was uneventful. We grabbed some Chick Fil A in Atlanta, and got to the gate as they were boarding the flight to Shanghai. The flight was COMPLETELY full. Jerry and I were in the middle row on the plane, and he was in the middle seat. Despite me trying to switch seats with him the entire time, he stayed in the middle and didn't sleep a wink the whole flight. Me? I watched one movie, read some of my book, and slept about 3-4 hours. It was definitely nice to get the heck off the plane. Everyone else with Jerry's class took a taxi to the hotel which, for a 20 mile ride, apparently took over an hour. We took the Maglev then the subway and were at the hotel well before they were. The subway was an experience...a complete mass of humanity. In hindsight it probably wasn't the easiest way to get around with our carry-ons and luggage, but it was a good way to immediately get immersed in Chinese culture!
Once we arrived at the hotel it took all we had to not just pile on the bed and go directly to sleep. We met up with a few of the others from Jerry's group and went to dinner at Jade Garden, a place recommended by the hotel. There were 7 of us, so we traipsed over to the restaurant. We were immediately intimidated. It's bad enough being in a foreign country where you don't know the language....but here you can't even wing it by attempting to decipher the language because you have absolutely no clue what the heck the characters mean. Thankfully they have prepared for stupid Americans and have lots of pictures in their menus :) The restaurant was family style so we ordered all kinds of different dishes - pan fried noodles, a couple different types of dumplings, roasted duck, short ribs, soup. We were sure that at the end of this dinner we were going to owe an arm and a leg...turns out that it was a grand total of $11 a person. Sweet.
Dinner was over and we were back in the hotel by about 9pm. Jerry and I were asleep by 9:30, and were up and at 'em by 9am the next day! I'll blog about that tomorrow...right now it's 12:30am on Sunday here, which means it's 11:30am Saturday back home, just a short 30 minutes from kickoff time for GT-UGA. We're considering listening to the game for at least a bit...till the next post, I've created a Picasa album for folks to keep track of our travels!
Monday, November 24, 2008
WANTED: Rogue Kid in Carrie's Class
I really love the school that Carrie goes to. She seems genuinely happy whenever I take her there/pick her up (that is, when Whizzy doesn't!), it's nice and clean, blah blah blah. I got home today and went over to Whizzy & Pop Pop's house to pick up Carrie. The teachers in Carrie's class send home a report card each day indicating how long she slept, whether or not she enjoyed her lunch, diaper changes, and what they did for the day. There's also a place on there for any additional notes the teacher needs to write; these are generally something to the effect of "Carrie needs more diapers/wipes!" or "Don't forget to bring fruit for the party on Friday!" Today there was a brand new note written on there....
"Carrie was bitten by another student today on her lower right back. It was unprovoked...." I believe there was much more written on there, but honestly how could I pay attention to anything else? Some kid BIT my kid on the back, hard enough to leave a mark on the poor child!! What the hell is that about? I could not for the life of me believe that happened. The teachers were of course very apologetic, and admitted that the kid who did this was a kid they've been working with to stop him/her from biting. It doesn't seem to be phasing her, although we did slather it with Neosporin before putting her PJs on.
Whizzy said the same thing happened when she took Jerry to a Junior League meeting. She said she was pretty livid when it happened. I think I was just so in shock I sort of brushed it off when she originally told me what happened, but now that kid is a wanted kid. Good thing they didn't call out the student by name on Carrie's little report card :)
On that note I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of what happens when you leave Carrie alone for 2.5 seconds...she becomes the next spokesmodel for Clinique. Thankfully I caught her in the act before she could get too carried away!
"Carrie was bitten by another student today on her lower right back. It was unprovoked...." I believe there was much more written on there, but honestly how could I pay attention to anything else? Some kid BIT my kid on the back, hard enough to leave a mark on the poor child!! What the hell is that about? I could not for the life of me believe that happened. The teachers were of course very apologetic, and admitted that the kid who did this was a kid they've been working with to stop him/her from biting. It doesn't seem to be phasing her, although we did slather it with Neosporin before putting her PJs on.
Whizzy said the same thing happened when she took Jerry to a Junior League meeting. She said she was pretty livid when it happened. I think I was just so in shock I sort of brushed it off when she originally told me what happened, but now that kid is a wanted kid. Good thing they didn't call out the student by name on Carrie's little report card :)
On that note I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of what happens when you leave Carrie alone for 2.5 seconds...she becomes the next spokesmodel for Clinique. Thankfully I caught her in the act before she could get too carried away!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Panic attack
I think I'm having a panic attack.
Jerry and I leave for China exactly two weeks from tomorrow (on Thanksgiving for those of you interested). Without Carrie. Ugh. I'm having quite enough Mommy Guilt right now for the fact that I only get to see my child two hours out of the day as it is (and that's been progressively turning into a devilish two hours, but that's an entirely different post). Now I'm going to be gone 13 days.
Don't get me wrong - I am truly excited about going to such a foreign and interesting country. I've told many people that China never really was on my "must visit" list, at least not like New Zealand was. But the opportunity presented itself through Jerry's MBA program, so I selfishly took it. Am I worried about Carrie? Absolutely not. I know she's probably in even more capable hands than mine, being that she'll spend time with both sets of grandparents. No, I'm worried about myself. I start to think about putting her down for night-night that Wednesday before we leave, and I get teary-eyed (just like I am right now). We bought webcams to use. The intent on buying those was for when Jerry ships out to Portugal, but this is the perfect chance to test them out. Now I'm not so sure I want to even do that. All these things keep running through my mind - will she understand being able to see me but not get to me? will I turn into an absolute puddle each time I see her (I already know the answer to that one). will she resent me for being gone this long (can a 19 month old experience resent???) will she forget about me? And the one that really kills me - will she even notice that I'm not around? I'm not saying I want her to be an absolute terror for her grandparents while we are gone, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I'd be a tad bit happier if she exhibited at least a little unhappiness at the lack of tickle sessions with Mommy and singing The Hoppity Song at the top of our lungs while driving around town.
So while I'm totally loving searching out things on the internet for me to do while Jerry's off doing his MBA thing (sorry, honey), that's tempered with the fact that I'm reminded that I'll be away from her for about 330 hours all told. But who's counting?
Jerry and I leave for China exactly two weeks from tomorrow (on Thanksgiving for those of you interested). Without Carrie. Ugh. I'm having quite enough Mommy Guilt right now for the fact that I only get to see my child two hours out of the day as it is (and that's been progressively turning into a devilish two hours, but that's an entirely different post). Now I'm going to be gone 13 days.
Don't get me wrong - I am truly excited about going to such a foreign and interesting country. I've told many people that China never really was on my "must visit" list, at least not like New Zealand was. But the opportunity presented itself through Jerry's MBA program, so I selfishly took it. Am I worried about Carrie? Absolutely not. I know she's probably in even more capable hands than mine, being that she'll spend time with both sets of grandparents. No, I'm worried about myself. I start to think about putting her down for night-night that Wednesday before we leave, and I get teary-eyed (just like I am right now). We bought webcams to use. The intent on buying those was for when Jerry ships out to Portugal, but this is the perfect chance to test them out. Now I'm not so sure I want to even do that. All these things keep running through my mind - will she understand being able to see me but not get to me? will I turn into an absolute puddle each time I see her (I already know the answer to that one). will she resent me for being gone this long (can a 19 month old experience resent???) will she forget about me? And the one that really kills me - will she even notice that I'm not around? I'm not saying I want her to be an absolute terror for her grandparents while we are gone, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I'd be a tad bit happier if she exhibited at least a little unhappiness at the lack of tickle sessions with Mommy and singing The Hoppity Song at the top of our lungs while driving around town.
So while I'm totally loving searching out things on the internet for me to do while Jerry's off doing his MBA thing (sorry, honey), that's tempered with the fact that I'm reminded that I'll be away from her for about 330 hours all told. But who's counting?
Monday, November 3, 2008
Mommy's Little Yellow Jacket!
Halloween was a big hit this year, even though we had a slight fever and hacking cough. We just had to go out even for a little bit, and had a GREAT time. At first Carrie wasn't too sure about the whole trick-or-treat thing - why are all these kids dressed up weird, why am I dressed up weird, and why do I have to carry this orange bucket? Once she realized that each trip up to a house meant more stuff dropped into her bucket, she was game. We went to Oldfield, and all of the houses are up steps. Carrie couldn't be bothered with walking up the steps herself. When she arrived at another house, she stopped, looked at me, and said emphatically "UP!" As in, "please pick me up and take me to the top of the stairs, as that is much quicker!" Here are some pictures of our little Yellow Jacket:
All dressed up and ready to roll!
Mommy & Carrie (Daddy unfortunately could not tag along since he was in Atlanta for school)
So excited about Halloween!
No, I did not put her up to this - but how perfect that she's dressed up as a bee and sniffing the flowers?!
Trick-or-treating in luxury!
All dressed up and ready to roll!
Mommy & Carrie (Daddy unfortunately could not tag along since he was in Atlanta for school)
So excited about Halloween!
No, I did not put her up to this - but how perfect that she's dressed up as a bee and sniffing the flowers?!
Trick-or-treating in luxury!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Finally....an update!!
I've given up on trying to religiously update this thing....can you tell? :)
This has been quite the past three weeks for the Reeves V family! Where do we begin?.....
- On October 6th, Jerry started a new job! He's now working with Efacec, a Portuguese company that is now building a giant plant in Effingham County (about 10 miles from my office, I might add). Currently all of the employees are basically in a class, learning all there is to know about power transformers, how the Portuguese do business, etc. Jerry seems to have taken a lead role in this whole process, and I just keep telling him to suck up and do what he can to build relationships with these folks. Who knows - maybe in a year or two he'll be running the plant!
- Since Jerry started work on 10/6, that meant Carrie lost her "manny" and so she started school herself! She's now going to Cross Schools Early Childhood Education program. It has been a GREAT experience so far for her. She seems to really love the other kids in the class, and she already has a favorite teacher it seems, Miss Elisabeth. We now have cute art projects hanging on our fridge, fundraisers to participate in, and school photos to buy! Oh yes, and she seems to have a boyfriend already. I believe his name is Joe. He's so much bigger than her and apparently likes to show his affection by tackling her in a bear hug, or so I'm told by the teachers. I guess boys never change....
- We are now living in the cottage on Jerry's parents' property - it is SO cute! It's from the 20s, so it's definitely the oldest house we've ever lived in. But it's really perfect for us - Carrie has her own room, we do too, and we were able to bring down some of our furniture (read: big screen TV). I don't think that cottage has ever seen so much technology. In the span of about a week, we brought in our HD TV, blu ray player, had an HD dish installed, and got cable internet installed as well. Jerry's in heaven.
Well, that's really about it. We are getting ready for Halloween coming up on Friday. Since Jerry's out of town, I've signed Carrie and me up for the "teenie weenie Halloweenie" party at Oldfield on Friday - should be lots of fun, and a great photo op!
I'll leave you with a few pics from Carrie's first day of school.
Bailey had to be in the photo too....
Making ourselves comfortable at school!
Carrie immediately claimed this babydoll as her own...
Friday, September 19, 2008
Feelin' good
So I went to work out again this morning - third time in a week, my friends! It does make me feel better, that's for sure. And if I keep this up it seems I'll get more work done since I was sitting at my desk at 7:15am.
Our little family is now experiencing something that we have not experienced in about 7 or 8 years....that would be actual SEASONS. I left Oldfield this morning heading to work, and it was 68 degrees outside! It didn't get down to 68 degrees in Gainesville until about mid-December, although that was hit or miss, and I distinctly remember wearing shorts around New Years Eve last year. It's so nice. Of course, someone might have to remind me I said this when I start complaining about it being cold. I told Jerry just this morning that we needed to schedule a trip to Gainesville so I/we can get our winter clothes (or I could just use this as a good excuse to get an entire new fall/winter wardrobe....but even gas prices aren't that high yet as to justify that instead of driving to/from Gainesville!)
It's going to be just me and Carrie tomorrow, and I am so excited about Mommy-Daughter time! Whizzy & Pop-pop are heading to Atlanta for the GT-Miss. football game with some of their friends, and Jerry's up there for class. Carrie has a hair appointment tomorrow to get her shaggy mane cut, we'll go to Target to pick up a few things, and have lunch together.
We had a nice little mommy-daughter moment last night, although it only lasted for about 3 minutes. I took her outside to toddle around after I got home from work because the kid LOVES being outside. I asked her where the hammock was and she immediately went over to it and wanted me to put her in it. So I climbed in with her, and we laid there looking at the trees, sky, sunshine. She laid her little head on my shoulder and we were just hanging out. Like I said, it only lasted a few minutes because, honestly, there's just too many other fun things to do outside like pick up sticks and organize rocks than to lay still with Mommy. It was still very sweet, though.
Our little family is now experiencing something that we have not experienced in about 7 or 8 years....that would be actual SEASONS. I left Oldfield this morning heading to work, and it was 68 degrees outside! It didn't get down to 68 degrees in Gainesville until about mid-December, although that was hit or miss, and I distinctly remember wearing shorts around New Years Eve last year. It's so nice. Of course, someone might have to remind me I said this when I start complaining about it being cold. I told Jerry just this morning that we needed to schedule a trip to Gainesville so I/we can get our winter clothes (or I could just use this as a good excuse to get an entire new fall/winter wardrobe....but even gas prices aren't that high yet as to justify that instead of driving to/from Gainesville!)
It's going to be just me and Carrie tomorrow, and I am so excited about Mommy-Daughter time! Whizzy & Pop-pop are heading to Atlanta for the GT-Miss. football game with some of their friends, and Jerry's up there for class. Carrie has a hair appointment tomorrow to get her shaggy mane cut, we'll go to Target to pick up a few things, and have lunch together.
We had a nice little mommy-daughter moment last night, although it only lasted for about 3 minutes. I took her outside to toddle around after I got home from work because the kid LOVES being outside. I asked her where the hammock was and she immediately went over to it and wanted me to put her in it. So I climbed in with her, and we laid there looking at the trees, sky, sunshine. She laid her little head on my shoulder and we were just hanging out. Like I said, it only lasted a few minutes because, honestly, there's just too many other fun things to do outside like pick up sticks and organize rocks than to lay still with Mommy. It was still very sweet, though.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Random updates
I'm trying to stick to my update the blog regularly plan....doesn't always work, but hey, I get points for trying right?
I was in Atlanta Sunday night - Tuesday for work, which means I missed Jerry & Carrie terribly. I was able to get a lot of studying done for my HR certification class, of course, but it still wasn't much fun being away from the family. I did also get to go see my grandmother who recently had heart surgery to replace some leaky valves, and she's doing quite well! She may not agree with me on that, but she really is :)
Carrie's growing by leaps and bounds every day. Jerry called me the other day while I was in Atlanta to inform me that Carrie had a new trick - this new trick was the ability to walk backwards. Now, that doesn't sound all that exciting right? Well, it is to the parents that had to listen to her shriek in frustration and anger when she would push her little push toy full force into a wall and get so stinkin' mad that the rules of physics still applied and the push toy wouldn't go any farther. Now she realizes that if she just walks backwards a bit with the toy, she can have another go at it. Of course, I'm not sure Whizzy & Pop-Pop really want the Chicco toy car being rammed into their walls again and again....but we're working on it!
She's started imitating me and Jerry a lot now. Her current favorite one - repeating me when I say "No ma'am!" to her. It comes out from her more like "no man" which makes it even harder not to laugh/react to her when she does it. She's starting to use a few more words, although she still would rather point to objects and have you say what it is. If I ask her where something is (i.e Where's the Madeline book?) she can immediately pick it up and bring it to me. This is where I have to keep reminding myself that all kids develop at vastly different ranges and while she's not yet penning the Great American Novel, it's probably not something to fret over.
I was in Atlanta Sunday night - Tuesday for work, which means I missed Jerry & Carrie terribly. I was able to get a lot of studying done for my HR certification class, of course, but it still wasn't much fun being away from the family. I did also get to go see my grandmother who recently had heart surgery to replace some leaky valves, and she's doing quite well! She may not agree with me on that, but she really is :)
Carrie's growing by leaps and bounds every day. Jerry called me the other day while I was in Atlanta to inform me that Carrie had a new trick - this new trick was the ability to walk backwards. Now, that doesn't sound all that exciting right? Well, it is to the parents that had to listen to her shriek in frustration and anger when she would push her little push toy full force into a wall and get so stinkin' mad that the rules of physics still applied and the push toy wouldn't go any farther. Now she realizes that if she just walks backwards a bit with the toy, she can have another go at it. Of course, I'm not sure Whizzy & Pop-Pop really want the Chicco toy car being rammed into their walls again and again....but we're working on it!
She's started imitating me and Jerry a lot now. Her current favorite one - repeating me when I say "No ma'am!" to her. It comes out from her more like "no man" which makes it even harder not to laugh/react to her when she does it. She's starting to use a few more words, although she still would rather point to objects and have you say what it is. If I ask her where something is (i.e Where's the Madeline book?) she can immediately pick it up and bring it to me. This is where I have to keep reminding myself that all kids develop at vastly different ranges and while she's not yet penning the Great American Novel, it's probably not something to fret over.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Suggestions please!
Someone please explain this to me - somehow, someway I am currently carrying fewer pounds than when I got pregnant with Carrie....but the clothes I wore previously laugh at me when I try to put them on now! Seriously, I know this is a case of migrating fat (i.e. the fat that I had prior to having Carrie is still there - just moved to a different place on my body), but what gives? This is just rude, plain and simple.
So I'm asking for suggestions on just how do moms find time to work out??? I mean, I have all these cute clothes that I'd love to fit back in to, but a)not sure it's gonna happen regardless of how much working out occurs, and b)how in the hell do I even find time to squeeze in a workout? I don't like the idea of working out after work - I'm less inclined/motivated to do so at the end of a long work day, but more importantly it would eat into my already precious few hours with Carrie at the end of the day.
I was so proud of myself on Tuesday morning because I dragged my butt out of bed at 5am and actually went to the gym. Yeah me! Have I repeated this feat? Absolutely not. I had good intentions of doing so this morning, but when the alarm went off at 5am I felt like a brick was sitting on top of my sinuses. Fun times. I need some motivation people! I know I would feel better if I just worked out at least 3 or 4 times a week. Now if I can just figure out how to make it happen without losing sleep, losing time with Carrie, losing study time for my PHR certification....
So I'm asking for suggestions on just how do moms find time to work out??? I mean, I have all these cute clothes that I'd love to fit back in to, but a)not sure it's gonna happen regardless of how much working out occurs, and b)how in the hell do I even find time to squeeze in a workout? I don't like the idea of working out after work - I'm less inclined/motivated to do so at the end of a long work day, but more importantly it would eat into my already precious few hours with Carrie at the end of the day.
I was so proud of myself on Tuesday morning because I dragged my butt out of bed at 5am and actually went to the gym. Yeah me! Have I repeated this feat? Absolutely not. I had good intentions of doing so this morning, but when the alarm went off at 5am I felt like a brick was sitting on top of my sinuses. Fun times. I need some motivation people! I know I would feel better if I just worked out at least 3 or 4 times a week. Now if I can just figure out how to make it happen without losing sleep, losing time with Carrie, losing study time for my PHR certification....
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Politickin'
Okay, so this is a departure from the regular Carrie-boo post, but it's so in my face these past two weeks I can't help but comment.
So obviously we are in an election year. I try VERY hard not to discuss politics with friends or co-workers. Why? Because I made the mistake of doing that one time at one place of employment, and spent an entire day feeling attacked because of my opinion. After that little episode, I vowed never to talk politics again in the workplace or with close friends. It's usually just too much of a powder keg and can lead to some hurt feelings. I think my family knows where I stand on most things, but they have to love me no matter what and regardless of whether or not they agree :)
What I am encouraged by, though, is the fact that so many people, for the first time from what I can remember since being able to vote, are actually paying attention to the issues and care enough to learn about these two candidates we have to choose from. People are researching where they stand, and trying to decide which candidate best suits themselves and their family. There's never going to be a perfect candidate that makes everyone in America happy. I guess that's part of the beauty of America - LOTS of differing opinions. But at least people are forming opinions and will presumably act upon them come November. I hope we see record turnout at the polls. Just remember folks - you can't complain about who's in the White House if you didn't vote.
So obviously we are in an election year. I try VERY hard not to discuss politics with friends or co-workers. Why? Because I made the mistake of doing that one time at one place of employment, and spent an entire day feeling attacked because of my opinion. After that little episode, I vowed never to talk politics again in the workplace or with close friends. It's usually just too much of a powder keg and can lead to some hurt feelings. I think my family knows where I stand on most things, but they have to love me no matter what and regardless of whether or not they agree :)
What I am encouraged by, though, is the fact that so many people, for the first time from what I can remember since being able to vote, are actually paying attention to the issues and care enough to learn about these two candidates we have to choose from. People are researching where they stand, and trying to decide which candidate best suits themselves and their family. There's never going to be a perfect candidate that makes everyone in America happy. I guess that's part of the beauty of America - LOTS of differing opinions. But at least people are forming opinions and will presumably act upon them come November. I hope we see record turnout at the polls. Just remember folks - you can't complain about who's in the White House if you didn't vote.
The Sweetest Thing
I have been inspired by a fellow blogger friend to keep more up-to-date on my blog :) I know she wasn't pinging me alone on this, but as I told her yesterday, I started this in mind to be able to record the little things that I might not otherwise remember, and I'm doing a pretty poor job at it. So now I'm sad to say that I've actually put a reminder on my calendar that will annoy the hell out of me each week to post something, anything. We'll see if it works!
I did have one cute story from Tuesday evening. I am working on my Professional in Human Resources certification, which requires me to go to a class once a week from 6-9pm. This of course means missing bedtime, one of my very favorite times of the day because it's just me & Carrie. I called Jerry as I was on my way home from my class, and he puts the phone up to Carrie's ear so I could tell her good night. I started babbling through the phone, knowing full well the kid is probably just fiddling with the buttons and trying to hang up on me. Do you know that girl actually kissed the phone when I started talking to her? Yes, I do believe Jerry probably said something to the effect of "kiss Mommy night-night" but I don't care. It was still sweet, and I loved it.
I did have one cute story from Tuesday evening. I am working on my Professional in Human Resources certification, which requires me to go to a class once a week from 6-9pm. This of course means missing bedtime, one of my very favorite times of the day because it's just me & Carrie. I called Jerry as I was on my way home from my class, and he puts the phone up to Carrie's ear so I could tell her good night. I started babbling through the phone, knowing full well the kid is probably just fiddling with the buttons and trying to hang up on me. Do you know that girl actually kissed the phone when I started talking to her? Yes, I do believe Jerry probably said something to the effect of "kiss Mommy night-night" but I don't care. It was still sweet, and I loved it.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
How is this possible?
My little girl has had her first haircut...Here we are getting all set up in our airplane seat at "Pigtails & Crewcuts," and we have our trusty Bunny in hand...
Gotta wet the hair to get an accurate cut.
I found it hilarious that they actually sectioned off Carrie's hair to cut it separately, just as you would do an adult's hair. I guess it's a good thing that I didn't attempt to just whack a straight line across the back of her head, then.
All done!!
I'm not too proud to admit that, when we left the salon (if that's what you can call it since it caters to the under 10 set), I was a bit of a puddle. My little baby didn't look like a baby anymore. She looked very much like a little girl. It didn't help that, when we got her down off the chair, she just toddled off like it was no big deal, in search of toys to play with or other children to inspect. I suppose I should get used to this feeling. It's just one of many, many times during her life that I'll sit back and think "how is this possible? how is she old enough to be doing this?"
Gotta wet the hair to get an accurate cut.
I found it hilarious that they actually sectioned off Carrie's hair to cut it separately, just as you would do an adult's hair. I guess it's a good thing that I didn't attempt to just whack a straight line across the back of her head, then.
All done!!
I'm not too proud to admit that, when we left the salon (if that's what you can call it since it caters to the under 10 set), I was a bit of a puddle. My little baby didn't look like a baby anymore. She looked very much like a little girl. It didn't help that, when we got her down off the chair, she just toddled off like it was no big deal, in search of toys to play with or other children to inspect. I suppose I should get used to this feeling. It's just one of many, many times during her life that I'll sit back and think "how is this possible? how is she old enough to be doing this?"Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Lazy days
It's been awhile since I've posted, so I thought I'd better check in and write something before folks get bored and quit checking this blog!
We've had pretty laid back days lately, which is nice. This past weekend we took Carrie to the beach for basically the first time. I mean, we took her last year when she was about 3 months old, but all we did was sit in the little tide pools and splash a bit, then she got mad with the sand in her diaper. So that trip to the beach lasted about 20 minutes....which was a pain since it took about 45 minutes to actually get to the beach. Plus I was paranoid about her getting too much sun. Not that that's changed at all.
Anyways, back to the beach trip. She LOVED it. Loved everything about the beach. The sand? Great fun to toss around, dig in, sit in, you name it. The waves? Even better. She tried crawling into the ocean (she's still preferring crawling over walking, which is getting a little old) and realized that wasn't such a great idea when she got smacked in the face with a wave. She did think that was somewhat funny, though. She loved for me to hold on to her little hands while standing in the ocean, then pull her up at the last second over a wave. She played with one of my new Junior League-Savannah friends, Tricia, and thought she was the greatest thing since sliced bread...I think that may have something to do with all the food Tricia had hidden in her beach bag. Jerry dug a big hole for Carrie to sit in, and she thought this was pretty cool because she could sit in there, then Daddy would cover her legs up with sand. All in all a great day at the beach, even if we were only there for 2 hours. We are thinking we're going to take her back this next Sunday to see Hon & Pop at the beach house.
We're considering a trip down to Gainesville the first week in August, although I'm not sure I can handle it just yet. I really love our house there, especially Carrie's room. I'm getting teary just thinking about it. I know we'll find a great home here once we sell the FL house and I'll come to love it just as much....I just think of the FL house as "Carrie's house" I guess. Ironic seeing as how she's certainly not contributing to paying the mortgage each month, but oh well :) I'm surprisingly calm about the fact that our house has not sold yet. I knew going in it would take probably at least a year, if not more. We've lowered the price a couple of times, of course, and had lots of lookers, just no written contracts yet. (Mom, you can insert the "I told you so" comments here :) ) It's frustrating not to have our own "space" to be sure, but I keep telling myself it will be worth it once it's all said and done.
We are definitely heading to Atlanta on 8/7, though, and I'm totally excited about that. It's been WAY too long since we were up there last (Memorial Day), so we're overdue for a visit. It should be lots of fun!!
I guess that's about it. I'll leave you with a few pictures here that Alston took when she last visited of Carrie and her absolute favorite food.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
What a weekend
July 4th weekend is supposed to be fun and relaxing, right? Well, on the one hand it was fun & relaxing, and on the other it was a pain....
- Pain- I get home around 3:30 on Thursday (thanks for letting us go early, Dr. Frost!) to find Bailey getting around quite well on three legs. He's holding his back right foot up and I immediately think "Great. He's torn the ligament in that knee now, and we're going to have to pay for another dog knee surgery." I of course want to immediately take him to the vet even though it's probably nothing serious, and Jerry thinks I'm looney tunes, but agrees to go with me to the vet anyways (basically because he knows I won't calm down till I know for a fact that Bailey's knee isn't hanging by a ligament). Well, turns out it's a good thing we did go because he had been bitten by a snake! We think it was a copperhead, although obviously can't be sure. His foot ultimately swelled up to about the size of my fist. He was miserable, understandably, but made a quick recovery. Chances are he'll now go seek out snakes to bite him due to the amount of dog biscuits he's received since Thursday.
- Fun/relaxing - We got to have dinner with our friends Jen & Chuck and their son Drake on Thursday evening! They were down in Hilton Head for a quick vacation, so we got together to have dinner and catch up. I really miss them and wish we lived closer. We all get along so well, so it's a shame that we can't see each other more often.
- Pain - The three of us were going to go to the July 4th parade at Oldfield, which the monthly bulletin said was at 11:30. We cruise up at 11:20, only to find out that the bulletin was wrong and the parade was actually at 10:30. As my mother said, thank goodness Carrie's not at an age that she can realize what she missed. I was bummed, though.
- Pain - We go back to the house after the missed parade and decide to go down on the dock for some R&R. We've got our giant LL Bean bag that you can lose stuff in; I start unpacking Carrie's stuff and find there's a sippy cup in there that's emptied out in the bag. I take everything out of the bag and go to dump out the water....splash....something hits the water and I obviously missed something that was still in the bag. It took me a few minutes to realize what it was. I sent Jerry up to the house just to check to make sure, and sure enough....I managed to dump our cool digital camera straight into the river. At this point I decided that it probably would have been better for me to just go to work that day.
- Fun/relaxing - Carrie loved the fireworks! We could see several shows from the dock, so we didn't have to go anywhere and get in huge crowds to see the fireworks. Double bonus was that the shows were past her bedtime, so while we were sitting on the dock in the sun chairs she would, every now and then, lay her head down on my chest and suck her thumb and just be still for a few seconds. I love those times :) Oh yeah, and hot dogs were a bit hit that night as well (there are very few foods that aren't a big hit with her, though).
- Fun/relaxing - We were invited by some friends I'd met through the Junior League of Savannah here to go on the Pau Hana Catamaran, which was super fun. We were able to go on a date night, cruise around on a cool boat, and have some wine (I was a bit overserved, but it was all good!)
- Fun/relaxing - The Ann Taylor outlet store opened last week and had a huge grand opening sale. I'm not sure this was so much fun for Carrie/Jerry, but it was great fun for me!!
So I guess that's it for now. I think that's enough, don't you?
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
We have liftoff!!
We caught Carrie in the act...she's finally decided that walking on land isn't nearly as bad as she thought!! Pay no attention to me shoving the poor dog out of the way.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
One good thing about being alone right now...
I can enjoy my Starbucks java chip frappuchino without any help. Yum. The last time I attempted to drink this around Carrie she started screaming at the airport gate because I wouldn't let her suck the entire thing down. I had to throw away my 99% full grande Java Chip Frappuchino because of that incident. I'll admit I was a little teary-eyed.
p.s. As you can see I've finally realized how to make words hot-links so I can be cool like my friend Anne :)
p.s. As you can see I've finally realized how to make words hot-links so I can be cool like my friend Anne :)
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
I miss my kids.
This sucks. I've been out of town for approximately 62 hours now, and I am just counting down the hours till I get back to Savannah (that would be approximately 48 more hours). I'm in Atlanta for a conference. I got here at 8am on Sunday, and will be back on Thursday evening. This is the longest I've been away from Carrie since she was born. I was very conflicted about coming to this conference in the first place. I mean, before it was sort of a treat to travel for work. I never did it very much at all, so when I did, I looked forward to going somewhere different, staying in a hotel, and getting some "me" time all at the same time. And I was sort of looking forward to that with this trip as well, but I was over that by about 8pm on Sunday evening when I realized Carrie was probably sitting in her "Carrie" chair throwing back her nightly milk, and I was missing it. I'm not kidding when I say I almost lost it yesterday at the Georgia World Congress Center. I came out of a session and almost walked right into a woman who had her baby girl laid out on the floor getting her diaper changed. She must have been right around the same age as Carrie. I got tears in my eyes and had to go call Jerry just to see how everyone was doing. Carrie of course chose that time to actually say Mama - perfect timing, kiddo.
I miss Jerry & Bailey too. I think I've called Jerry no less than about 10 times in the past two days. To add insult to injury, I get home around lunchtime on Thursday...just about the time he'll be leaving to drive up to Atlanta for his MBA class. And I'm sad that I haven't seen Bailey come flying up the driveway to greet me when I get home.
I keep going back and forth with this - one second, I'm so thrilled at the idea that I can eat a meal without having to share mine and tear it up into little bits, then the next second I realize there's no way I can eat all of the food I got because I'm not tearing it up into little bits and sharing. One second I'm excited that I can read a book that has no pictures in it, then the next second I'm reciting "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to myself.
So I guess since it's 7:30 and I'm done for the day I'll go finish eating my dinner, watch an episode of Lost that I've missed, and try to ignore that, right at this very moment, I'm missing bathtime.
I miss Jerry & Bailey too. I think I've called Jerry no less than about 10 times in the past two days. To add insult to injury, I get home around lunchtime on Thursday...just about the time he'll be leaving to drive up to Atlanta for his MBA class. And I'm sad that I haven't seen Bailey come flying up the driveway to greet me when I get home.
I keep going back and forth with this - one second, I'm so thrilled at the idea that I can eat a meal without having to share mine and tear it up into little bits, then the next second I realize there's no way I can eat all of the food I got because I'm not tearing it up into little bits and sharing. One second I'm excited that I can read a book that has no pictures in it, then the next second I'm reciting "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to myself.
So I guess since it's 7:30 and I'm done for the day I'll go finish eating my dinner, watch an episode of Lost that I've missed, and try to ignore that, right at this very moment, I'm missing bathtime.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Walking
So I'm gonna talk about two types of walking here...one about my kid, and one about another "kid" I know.
First, my kid. It seems we may be entering the walking phase of Carrie's life. Good lord, hold on everyone. She's almost 14 months old, so obviously taking her sweet time. I have no problem with that due to the fact that a) she doesn't seem to have any physical problem keeping her from walking for me to worry about, and b) I'm frankly not over the moon about having to keep up with her running amok from this point forward. At least I had a chance with the crawling. Not so with the walking. She took a couple of what I call "accidental" steps on Memorial Day. I didn't really count them because I don't think she quite knew what she was doing, and Jerry wasn't there to witness it. But there we were, in my grandmother's den, and she thought it would be fun to try to take a couple of steps closer to Lady to chase her down. She took about a step and a half, face-planted on the floor, and took off crawling. We all gasped because I was sure she'd start screaming bloody murder, but she just hauled across the floor after Lady. My first thought was "Oh my God, she just took a step." My second thought was "Oh my God, do I tell Jerry?" I didn't want him to think he'd missed something, but told him anyways. I am not a good secret-keeper, generally speaking.
This was followed up by more fun in the pool this past Sunday. She hadn't tried to walk any more since Memorial Day. However, we were hanging out in the kiddie pool at Oldfield (which had to be a sight, by the way - 5 grown adults and one child in the kiddie pool. Yeah, we were hogging it but I didn't care). It was me, Jerry, Rhett, Alston & Nick who witnessed Carrie's realization that this whole walking thing was WAY easier when water can help you out. She took lots of steps in the pool, generally chasing after me. She'd take a step or two, then sort of lunge into my arms, usually getting a face full of water at the time. Luckily, due to Jerry's unorthodox bathtime methods of just dumping water over her head to get her wet, she thought it was great and didn't have issues with the water in the face thing. I cried, I think Jerry got a little teary, and I think Alston/Nick/Rhett just thought it was cool to witness this milestone. Now, if we can only get her to do it on land, our world will once again be turned upside down...
Now on to the other "kid" and walking...Rhett graduated from high school last night. Talk about a reality check. She was 8 when I first met her. Jerry and I drove down to Savannah for SCDS' homecoming in the fall of 1998 because Alston was on the Homecoming Court (I'm sure she'll kill me for publishing that - sorry!!). We were driving back to Okatie after the game, and Rhett rode with me and Jerry, and she was curled up in the backseat asleep, 8 years old. Now, she's a high school graduate and off to Sewanee in the fall. She's turned into such an amazing young woman; I'd consider myself extremely lucky if Carrie turns out to be anything like her or Alston. Honestly, both of my sisters-in-law are totally amazing women. They probably don't realize it, but they've both taught me a lot about life and opened my eyes to things I may have never considered for myself.
Enough sap. I'm done!
First, my kid. It seems we may be entering the walking phase of Carrie's life. Good lord, hold on everyone. She's almost 14 months old, so obviously taking her sweet time. I have no problem with that due to the fact that a) she doesn't seem to have any physical problem keeping her from walking for me to worry about, and b) I'm frankly not over the moon about having to keep up with her running amok from this point forward. At least I had a chance with the crawling. Not so with the walking. She took a couple of what I call "accidental" steps on Memorial Day. I didn't really count them because I don't think she quite knew what she was doing, and Jerry wasn't there to witness it. But there we were, in my grandmother's den, and she thought it would be fun to try to take a couple of steps closer to Lady to chase her down. She took about a step and a half, face-planted on the floor, and took off crawling. We all gasped because I was sure she'd start screaming bloody murder, but she just hauled across the floor after Lady. My first thought was "Oh my God, she just took a step." My second thought was "Oh my God, do I tell Jerry?" I didn't want him to think he'd missed something, but told him anyways. I am not a good secret-keeper, generally speaking.
This was followed up by more fun in the pool this past Sunday. She hadn't tried to walk any more since Memorial Day. However, we were hanging out in the kiddie pool at Oldfield (which had to be a sight, by the way - 5 grown adults and one child in the kiddie pool. Yeah, we were hogging it but I didn't care). It was me, Jerry, Rhett, Alston & Nick who witnessed Carrie's realization that this whole walking thing was WAY easier when water can help you out. She took lots of steps in the pool, generally chasing after me. She'd take a step or two, then sort of lunge into my arms, usually getting a face full of water at the time. Luckily, due to Jerry's unorthodox bathtime methods of just dumping water over her head to get her wet, she thought it was great and didn't have issues with the water in the face thing. I cried, I think Jerry got a little teary, and I think Alston/Nick/Rhett just thought it was cool to witness this milestone. Now, if we can only get her to do it on land, our world will once again be turned upside down...
Now on to the other "kid" and walking...Rhett graduated from high school last night. Talk about a reality check. She was 8 when I first met her. Jerry and I drove down to Savannah for SCDS' homecoming in the fall of 1998 because Alston was on the Homecoming Court (I'm sure she'll kill me for publishing that - sorry!!). We were driving back to Okatie after the game, and Rhett rode with me and Jerry, and she was curled up in the backseat asleep, 8 years old. Now, she's a high school graduate and off to Sewanee in the fall. She's turned into such an amazing young woman; I'd consider myself extremely lucky if Carrie turns out to be anything like her or Alston. Honestly, both of my sisters-in-law are totally amazing women. They probably don't realize it, but they've both taught me a lot about life and opened my eyes to things I may have never considered for myself.
Enough sap. I'm done!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Fun stuff!!
So I figured I'd post about some fun stuff instead of just blasting people over vaccines :)
Carrie's still not walking, but I'm okay with that. She just turned 13 months, and frankly, as long as everything's okay with her, I'm not in a terribly hurry to have to chase her butt all over creation. I mean, it's hard enough to keep up with her with how fast she can crawl these days. When she's on all fours it's all we can do to keep her from hurtling herself down the stairs (she's good at going up them, not so much going down) or hauling it into the pantry area where she enjoys activities such as pulling out koozies and throwing them everywhere or stacking and unstacking cans of veggies.
We're going on our first ever airplane ride tomorrow evening. Pray for me. We're flying from Savannah to Atlanta to visit my parents. I was supposed to get to go up there for my cousin's graduation on 5/10, but my surgery sort of put the kibosh on that jaunt. So I traded in my one day ticket to go fly up tomorrow and return on Monday. At least Carrie's first airplane ride will be a short one since it only takes about 30-45 minutes to fly Savannah-Atlanta. I apparently was NOT paying attention when booking the flights, though. Our plane tomorrow leaves at 6:30pm...right in the middle of dinner...great. We arrive and will be leaving the ATL airport around 8 or so....right around bedtime...great. Then, just for giggles, I scheduled our return flight on Monday at 7pm. Still right in the middle of the whole eat dinner-go to bed routine, which is bad enough, but we'll have to be at the airport around 5pm. This is when the Princess is usually waking up from her nap. I figure I'll have a little monster on my hands, but oh well. Should be interesting - check back next week for the gory details.
Carrie continues to eat like a little piglet. I have no clue where it all goes, honestly. The kid is maybe 19 lbs soaking wet at 13 months old. Currently the only thing she doesn't really care for are green veggies (except broccoli)...last night she took one look at a butter bean and wrinkled her nose up and swiped it to the side of her tray. Of course, it was also meatloaf night, and I swear that kid can eat her weight in meatloaf. She had a ton of meatloaf, some bites of mashed potatoes, a few cubes of cantaloupe...oh yeah, and a bottle of milk before bed. It's no wonder she sleeps through the night - she's in a food coma.
One thing we're trying to work on is naming everything and emphasizing "please." She has this habit of pointing and whining to get something. She very obviously knows what the different items are, because when you ask her "where's the _____" she points right to it. I'm taking my grandmother's lead on this, because she said she had the same issue with one of my uncles; he'd just point to get what he wanted, and wouldn't use words until she just stopped getting him whatever he pointed towards. Yes, I realize she's only a year and probably doesn't have the ability to say "Mom - can you please hand me that hunk of steak off your plate? I'd really like to eat it, regardless of the fact that it's your dinner" but hopefully by starting early we can curb the incessant whining/pointing pattern. If anyone has any advice, I'm all ears.
Carrie's still not walking, but I'm okay with that. She just turned 13 months, and frankly, as long as everything's okay with her, I'm not in a terribly hurry to have to chase her butt all over creation. I mean, it's hard enough to keep up with her with how fast she can crawl these days. When she's on all fours it's all we can do to keep her from hurtling herself down the stairs (she's good at going up them, not so much going down) or hauling it into the pantry area where she enjoys activities such as pulling out koozies and throwing them everywhere or stacking and unstacking cans of veggies.
We're going on our first ever airplane ride tomorrow evening. Pray for me. We're flying from Savannah to Atlanta to visit my parents. I was supposed to get to go up there for my cousin's graduation on 5/10, but my surgery sort of put the kibosh on that jaunt. So I traded in my one day ticket to go fly up tomorrow and return on Monday. At least Carrie's first airplane ride will be a short one since it only takes about 30-45 minutes to fly Savannah-Atlanta. I apparently was NOT paying attention when booking the flights, though. Our plane tomorrow leaves at 6:30pm...right in the middle of dinner...great. We arrive and will be leaving the ATL airport around 8 or so....right around bedtime...great. Then, just for giggles, I scheduled our return flight on Monday at 7pm. Still right in the middle of the whole eat dinner-go to bed routine, which is bad enough, but we'll have to be at the airport around 5pm. This is when the Princess is usually waking up from her nap. I figure I'll have a little monster on my hands, but oh well. Should be interesting - check back next week for the gory details.
Carrie continues to eat like a little piglet. I have no clue where it all goes, honestly. The kid is maybe 19 lbs soaking wet at 13 months old. Currently the only thing she doesn't really care for are green veggies (except broccoli)...last night she took one look at a butter bean and wrinkled her nose up and swiped it to the side of her tray. Of course, it was also meatloaf night, and I swear that kid can eat her weight in meatloaf. She had a ton of meatloaf, some bites of mashed potatoes, a few cubes of cantaloupe...oh yeah, and a bottle of milk before bed. It's no wonder she sleeps through the night - she's in a food coma.
One thing we're trying to work on is naming everything and emphasizing "please." She has this habit of pointing and whining to get something. She very obviously knows what the different items are, because when you ask her "where's the _____" she points right to it. I'm taking my grandmother's lead on this, because she said she had the same issue with one of my uncles; he'd just point to get what he wanted, and wouldn't use words until she just stopped getting him whatever he pointed towards. Yes, I realize she's only a year and probably doesn't have the ability to say "Mom - can you please hand me that hunk of steak off your plate? I'd really like to eat it, regardless of the fact that it's your dinner" but hopefully by starting early we can curb the incessant whining/pointing pattern. If anyone has any advice, I'm all ears.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Call me alarmist...
Or call me what you will, but it's stories like these that give me pause about all of these damn vaccines that the docs insist must be pumped into a child's body all at one time before the kid is two. I swear I NEVER thought I'd be this "granola" about this sort of stuff. I always thought "of course my kid will get all of her necessary vaccines and on the exact schedule the pediatrician recommends, no question!" I mean, yes, if the child is sick and this will save his or her life, then of course go forward. But my child isn't in daycare yet...what's the rationalization for shoving all those meds into her system in a very compact schedule, other than to maximize the throughput in the pediatrician's office?
My goodness...I hope I don't hurt myself getting off of my soapbox :)
Georgia family challenges federal vaccine law
By BILL RANKIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/20/08
Stefan Ferrari got his required vaccines before he was 18 months old. At the time, his parents said, he was a healthy, verbal boy.
But after his last round of booster shots, Stefan stopped speaking and, now 10 years old, he has not spoken since.
Stefan's parents, Marcelo and Carolyn Ferrari of Atlanta, filed suit, alleging the vaccines caused neurological damage to their young son. On Tuesday, the family's lawyer asked the Georgia Supreme Court to let the case against two vaccine manufacturers, Wyeth and GlaxoSmithKline, go forward.
Lawyer Lanny Bridgers told the court it was bad timing when Stefan received his last shots. A year later, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that thimerosal, a preservative used for multi-dose vaccine vials, be removed from childhood vaccines. The Ferraris contend that manufacturers should have made vaccines without thimerosal before Stefan was vaccinated.
But a lawyer arguing on behalf of the manufacturers told the state high court that the suit is barred by the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Act.
The law says no vaccine maker shall be held liable in a civil action for damages arising from an injury or death caused by vaccines given after Oct. 1, 1988.
The exceptions are if the vaccine was improperly prepared or contained improper directions or warnings. Neither of these were involved in Stefan's case, Daniel Thomasch, a lawyer for the manufacturers, told the court.
"It was the clear intent of Congress to pre-empt precisely the claims that are at issue here," he argued.
Congress passed the law after hundreds of lawsuits were filed against vaccine manufacturers. The litigation increased insurance costs, drove out some manufacturers and threatened the continued production of some vaccines, even though the lawsuits were largely unsuccessful, Thomasch said.
"It has been a remarkably successful program," he said of the 1986 law. "This wasn't a rescue of the industry. It was an important step to make sure vaccines remained available in the United States."
Seven of eight courts to consider challenges to the 1986 act have ruled in favor of the manufacturers. Last year, the Georgia Court of Appeals became the first court in the nation to rule the act did not pre-empt state law allowing such lawsuits. The manufacturers are appealing that decision to the state Supreme Court.
Bridgers, the Ferraris' lawyer, told the justices that courts should review vaccine challenges on a case-by-case basis, not bar them completely. Otherwise, complaints must be brought in Washington before the U.S. Court of Claims where there are restrictions on the amount of awards, he said.
"Did Congress really intend to create an opt-out provision that allows the child to be thrown out of court?" Bridgers asked the justices. "I think not."
My goodness...I hope I don't hurt myself getting off of my soapbox :)
Georgia family challenges federal vaccine law
By BILL RANKIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/20/08
Stefan Ferrari got his required vaccines before he was 18 months old. At the time, his parents said, he was a healthy, verbal boy.
But after his last round of booster shots, Stefan stopped speaking and, now 10 years old, he has not spoken since.
Stefan's parents, Marcelo and Carolyn Ferrari of Atlanta, filed suit, alleging the vaccines caused neurological damage to their young son. On Tuesday, the family's lawyer asked the Georgia Supreme Court to let the case against two vaccine manufacturers, Wyeth and GlaxoSmithKline, go forward.
Lawyer Lanny Bridgers told the court it was bad timing when Stefan received his last shots. A year later, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that thimerosal, a preservative used for multi-dose vaccine vials, be removed from childhood vaccines. The Ferraris contend that manufacturers should have made vaccines without thimerosal before Stefan was vaccinated.
But a lawyer arguing on behalf of the manufacturers told the state high court that the suit is barred by the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Act.
The law says no vaccine maker shall be held liable in a civil action for damages arising from an injury or death caused by vaccines given after Oct. 1, 1988.
The exceptions are if the vaccine was improperly prepared or contained improper directions or warnings. Neither of these were involved in Stefan's case, Daniel Thomasch, a lawyer for the manufacturers, told the court.
"It was the clear intent of Congress to pre-empt precisely the claims that are at issue here," he argued.
Congress passed the law after hundreds of lawsuits were filed against vaccine manufacturers. The litigation increased insurance costs, drove out some manufacturers and threatened the continued production of some vaccines, even though the lawsuits were largely unsuccessful, Thomasch said.
"It has been a remarkably successful program," he said of the 1986 law. "This wasn't a rescue of the industry. It was an important step to make sure vaccines remained available in the United States."
Seven of eight courts to consider challenges to the 1986 act have ruled in favor of the manufacturers. Last year, the Georgia Court of Appeals became the first court in the nation to rule the act did not pre-empt state law allowing such lawsuits. The manufacturers are appealing that decision to the state Supreme Court.
Bridgers, the Ferraris' lawyer, told the justices that courts should review vaccine challenges on a case-by-case basis, not bar them completely. Otherwise, complaints must be brought in Washington before the U.S. Court of Claims where there are restrictions on the amount of awards, he said.
"Did Congress really intend to create an opt-out provision that allows the child to be thrown out of court?" Bridgers asked the justices. "I think not."
Monday, May 12, 2008
YUCK
I can't believe it's taken over a year for this to happen, but it finally did last night. Let me set the scene for you: Bathtime is always Daddy-daughter time. I'm not kidding when I say Carrie generally flips her lid whenever I'm around for bathtime. Sometimes I'm allowed in, but not always. It's like she suddenly gets pissed that I'm interrupting, or else wants me to pick her up, but we've found if I enter the bathroom during the process all hell breaks loose. So I usually just stay just outside of her visual field and put away laundry, etc. Last night I was folding her freshly laundred clothes and chatting with Jerry, when all of a sudden I hear "What are you doing - OH NO!!!!" coming from the bathroom.
Carrie decided the bathtub was as good a place as any to go to the bathroom. And we aren't talking #1 here, folks. (of course we aren't - would I be posting if she simply peed in the tub? Not nearly as funny).
So I fished her out of the tub, then Jerry drained, rinsed, and repeated. I took all the bath toys to be washed off in scalding hot water. Usually Jerry's such a good sport about stuff like this, but I think after having to deal with me and my issue last week, the pooping in the tub episode was just too much.
I post about it only because I know he'll be able to look back in a few years and think it's hilarious :)
On another note, the first birthday party was a success!! Here's a picture of her cake - Publix did a fantastic job, and I was so excited. They also gave her a smash cake, which would be what's all over her little face in the next picture. The weather was perfect, the company was perfect, and we couldn't have asked for a better first birthday party for the munchkin.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Vent
Here's your warning - this is a vent on my part, so don't continue reading if you don't want to! My mother and Jerry got an earful about this yesterday, but it's still in my system...
So Carrie's one year check up was yesterday. Jerry and I were all excited to find out how much she weighed and how long she is now that's she's the big 0-1. We arrive at the new pediatrician's office and fill out all the fun paperwork, and are immediately whisked back into a room. 1 point to the office for not making us wait for a long time! We go back and the nurses arrive and get Carrie's shot record from me, and ask routine questions. Any concerns? Nope, Carrie's a dream; I just want to talk to the doc about vaccine scheduling. This gets a raised eyebrow, but no comment. Is she on formula or regular milk? Neither - she's still nursing once a day and drinking some that I've frozen, but we are trying regular milk slowly and she's not too sure about it yet. Another raised eyebrow. I guess this should have been my red flag, but whatever. They leave and we're getting Carrie ready for her check-up with the doc. (by the way, she weighed 18 lbs 13 oz and was 29 inches long - definitely petite!)
So our doc comes in and is super nice. She's good with Carrie and talks to her very sweetly and the whole nine yards. She lets me hold Carrie while she's examining her, to the extent that it's possible, and Carrie plays with her monkey on her stethoscope. Everything's great, blah, blah, blah. Then she starts talking about all of the vaccines Carrie should get at this visit. She starts listing them off...I'm slowly counting up the number of needles involved, and I ask "Am I counting right - she'll get five shots today?" "Yep, that's right. Five shots." WHAT??? I don't think so. Who the heck wants to get FIVE shots in one day? So I launch into my carefully rehearsed speech about how I don't have a problem with her actually getting the vaccines, I'm not convinced the vaccines cause autism, but what I do have a problem with is my child getting all those medicines in one dose and expecting her tiny little body to be able to efficiently and safely process all of that in one fell swoop. The doc proceeds to tell me that she's of the opinion that it's best to get them done and over with so Carrie doesn't have to keep coming back and getting shots. Okay, maybe I'd buy that argument if it were me getting the shots, but not with my child. It was obvious that I was getting upset - I was crying. I probably overreacted, no doubt, but here's my problem - the research is inconclusive about the autism thing (or at least what I've seen - there's just too many 'coincidences' out there it seems...), not to mention having all that stuff floating around in her body at one time would be bound to make her sick or feel like crap. I feel like it's my job to protect her - what if something did happen, God forbid, as a result of me allowing her to get five vaccines in one day? I know I couldn't live with myself. I'd constantly be saying to myself "what if I had stuck to my guns and stood up for what I believed was best for my child?" I basically told the ped that we would not be doing all those shots in one day...she said "Well, she's your child." I just said "Yes, she is, now let's figure out which 2 shots she's getting today, which 2 she'll get in 6 weeks, and then which 2 she'll get at the 15 month check-up." Which, by the way, at that check-up she'll be caught up and on track again. All of this over one extra visit. Give me a break.
Then I got the third degree again. From the check-out clerk. Seriously? I told her we needed to make a shot appointment and her check-up. I told her which shots she'd be receiving in 6 weeks, and the clerk said "What happened? Isn't she supposed to get those today?" At this point I snapped.
"Yes, techically she was 'supposed' to get them today, but we're coming back in 6 weeks for those." This should have been enough for her, but it wasn't.
"Why didn't she get them today."
"Because I don't want her getting all those shots at once." (funny look from clerk)
"Okay...when do you want to bring her back in for those shots?"
(funny look from me - haven't I just told you this?)
"In six weeks."
"SIX weeks??? Why are you waiting so long? Is there a reason?"
"Yes, there is a reason. I want her shots spread out. Her 15 month check-up is, by definition, in 3 months from now. That means 12 weeks, and six weeks is half of that, so that's when I want to bring her in for her shots."
Whatever happened to letting the parents parent and, as long as we aren't abusing our child or putting her in harm's way, letting us make the decisions?
Okay, I'm done venting now. :)
So Carrie's one year check up was yesterday. Jerry and I were all excited to find out how much she weighed and how long she is now that's she's the big 0-1. We arrive at the new pediatrician's office and fill out all the fun paperwork, and are immediately whisked back into a room. 1 point to the office for not making us wait for a long time! We go back and the nurses arrive and get Carrie's shot record from me, and ask routine questions. Any concerns? Nope, Carrie's a dream; I just want to talk to the doc about vaccine scheduling. This gets a raised eyebrow, but no comment. Is she on formula or regular milk? Neither - she's still nursing once a day and drinking some that I've frozen, but we are trying regular milk slowly and she's not too sure about it yet. Another raised eyebrow. I guess this should have been my red flag, but whatever. They leave and we're getting Carrie ready for her check-up with the doc. (by the way, she weighed 18 lbs 13 oz and was 29 inches long - definitely petite!)
So our doc comes in and is super nice. She's good with Carrie and talks to her very sweetly and the whole nine yards. She lets me hold Carrie while she's examining her, to the extent that it's possible, and Carrie plays with her monkey on her stethoscope. Everything's great, blah, blah, blah. Then she starts talking about all of the vaccines Carrie should get at this visit. She starts listing them off...I'm slowly counting up the number of needles involved, and I ask "Am I counting right - she'll get five shots today?" "Yep, that's right. Five shots." WHAT??? I don't think so. Who the heck wants to get FIVE shots in one day? So I launch into my carefully rehearsed speech about how I don't have a problem with her actually getting the vaccines, I'm not convinced the vaccines cause autism, but what I do have a problem with is my child getting all those medicines in one dose and expecting her tiny little body to be able to efficiently and safely process all of that in one fell swoop. The doc proceeds to tell me that she's of the opinion that it's best to get them done and over with so Carrie doesn't have to keep coming back and getting shots. Okay, maybe I'd buy that argument if it were me getting the shots, but not with my child. It was obvious that I was getting upset - I was crying. I probably overreacted, no doubt, but here's my problem - the research is inconclusive about the autism thing (or at least what I've seen - there's just too many 'coincidences' out there it seems...), not to mention having all that stuff floating around in her body at one time would be bound to make her sick or feel like crap. I feel like it's my job to protect her - what if something did happen, God forbid, as a result of me allowing her to get five vaccines in one day? I know I couldn't live with myself. I'd constantly be saying to myself "what if I had stuck to my guns and stood up for what I believed was best for my child?" I basically told the ped that we would not be doing all those shots in one day...she said "Well, she's your child." I just said "Yes, she is, now let's figure out which 2 shots she's getting today, which 2 she'll get in 6 weeks, and then which 2 she'll get at the 15 month check-up." Which, by the way, at that check-up she'll be caught up and on track again. All of this over one extra visit. Give me a break.
Then I got the third degree again. From the check-out clerk. Seriously? I told her we needed to make a shot appointment and her check-up. I told her which shots she'd be receiving in 6 weeks, and the clerk said "What happened? Isn't she supposed to get those today?" At this point I snapped.
"Yes, techically she was 'supposed' to get them today, but we're coming back in 6 weeks for those." This should have been enough for her, but it wasn't.
"Why didn't she get them today."
"Because I don't want her getting all those shots at once." (funny look from clerk)
"Okay...when do you want to bring her back in for those shots?"
(funny look from me - haven't I just told you this?)
"In six weeks."
"SIX weeks??? Why are you waiting so long? Is there a reason?"
"Yes, there is a reason. I want her shots spread out. Her 15 month check-up is, by definition, in 3 months from now. That means 12 weeks, and six weeks is half of that, so that's when I want to bring her in for her shots."
Whatever happened to letting the parents parent and, as long as we aren't abusing our child or putting her in harm's way, letting us make the decisions?
Okay, I'm done venting now. :)
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Weird.
This is so weird...I'm sitting here on GT-Atlanta's campus...not as a student, but as an employee. Campus has changed dramatically since Jerry and I were here as undergrads. Some things are still the same - the student center is still in the same place, but has undergone some major renovations and looks WAY better now than when I was here. Some things are new, though - the old student athletic complex has been demolished to make way for the new Campus Recreation Center (it apparently had to have a new name to go along with new multi-million dollar building). It's obvious that we got cheated while we were here :)
I can only imagine what it will look like in 17 years when Carrie is a freshman here ;) Seriously, I am going to try to be really good and not pressure her into going to GT, although I think it would be one of the best decisions she could make. I'm happy just as long as she doesn't go to a certain school north of here in Athens or one south of here in Gainesville FL. I don't want her to go to UGA just on principle, and I've seen what goes on in Gainesville.
I'll post about her first birthday festivities shortly, once I'm back in Savannah from my trip to ATL. I also have to get all the pics from Ken - he took over 300 pictures on Saturday, so I finally just quit taking them and let him run with it.
I can only imagine what it will look like in 17 years when Carrie is a freshman here ;) Seriously, I am going to try to be really good and not pressure her into going to GT, although I think it would be one of the best decisions she could make. I'm happy just as long as she doesn't go to a certain school north of here in Athens or one south of here in Gainesville FL. I don't want her to go to UGA just on principle, and I've seen what goes on in Gainesville.
I'll post about her first birthday festivities shortly, once I'm back in Savannah from my trip to ATL. I also have to get all the pics from Ken - he took over 300 pictures on Saturday, so I finally just quit taking them and let him run with it.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Random musings
Nothing huge to report lately, so I thought I'd just highlight a few of the random things rattling around in my brain these days...bear with me...
- My child will be ONE YEAR OLD a week from tomorrow. This is blowing my mind right now. I have no clue where the last year has gone. Nevermind, I do know where it's gone - straight into the most beautiful child ever to walk the face of the planet (I'm not biased or anything!) Honestly, this year has been wonderful. I doubt I would have said that while I was nursing her around the clock. In fact, I think during that time I was wondering just what the hell I had gotten myself into and what made me think I was fit to be a parent. I now know that apparently most, if not all, new parents have this same feeling. It too shall pass my parent-friends said, and they were right. Now I can hardly remember what it was like to not have Carrie in my life (although I do vaguely catch a glimpse of what it used to be like when Jerry and I leave the house without her...that means if we say we are heading out at 5pm, we are actually walking out the door at 5pm, not frantically searching the house for socks/jacket/bottle/food/diaper bag/whatever else we need, and actually leaving at about 5:30)
- When planning your child's birthday party, make sure the decorations are still available that match the invitations you fell in love with and "just had to have." I ordered Classic Winnie the Pooh invites and sent them all out, and only then did I realize that Classic Winnie the Pooh decorations had been DISCONTINUED. Huh? Who the heck discontinues such items? Thankfully eBay exists and I've paid more than I ever thought I would to have matching plates, balloons, and banners.
- Carrie's trying her hardest to walk these days. She likes for you to stand behind her and hold her hands so she can motor around. It's pretty cute, and I'm all for her walking, but terrified of how in the heck I'm supposed to keep up with her at that point. I mean, she can already just about out-crawl me, so what's gonna happen when she's running???
- We really love living in SC! And to answer everyone's question - yes, it's going fine living with Jerry's parents, and I really mean that and am not just saying that since I know they'll be reading this :) Apparently they get the same question as well..."So...how IS it living with your grown son, daughter-in-law, and one year old granddaughter?" As if it's some sort of death sentence that we are bunking up with them for the time being. Alston apparently had quite the experience when some woman overheard her talking to Jerry's mom about this. If you know Alston, please ask her about this story - to see/hear her tell it is priceless.
- While we loving living here, we miss our friends :( Jenn/Rad, Amy/Aaron, Amy/Nate and all of the other folks we hung out with there. It's no secret that Gainesville wasn't my dream town to live in, but we really did have some wonderful friends there, so we miss seeing them on a regular basis.
- I love my job. Love it. And I'm a big dork because I love working for GT.
Okay, I think that's about it for now. Happy weekend everyone!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Word Update
Just a quick update on Carrie's word count...we're now up to four. The first three were, in order, "dada," "uh-oh" (she gets a lot of use out of this one), and "doggie." And now, ladies & gentlemen, last night we finally had a good long string of "mama" thrown in there for good measure. She was sitting in my lap at the table eating my strawberries and all of a sudden just launched into saying a string of "mamamamamamamama" for about 10 seconds. We all just got really quiet, listened to her babble, then clapped for her afterwards. I swear I thought I was going to cry at the dinner table...but I held it together :)
Monday, March 24, 2008
We Made It!!
Well, we've officially made the transition from Gainesville to Savannah. We've been in Savannah for two weeks now, and have barely had time to catch our breath, which is why I wasn't able to stick to me "write a post at least once a week" plan. Hopefully I'll get back on that bandwagon this week!
March 9th was the big move. Actually I guess it wasn't technically too big since we weren't moving everything we owned, just the "necessary stuff." Hah. The "necessary" stuff filled up a 6' by 12' U Haul, a Subaru, an Envoy, and an Expedition. Of course, I think my scrapbook stuff probably filled up one of those vehicles, but that's another post. Don't ask Jerry about it - it's a pet peeve of his that we keep dragging mementos of our past from house to house. I just keep telling him he'll be glad I did it once it's all in a nice scrapbook and he can look back and remember what he did with his life. Rhett was a total lifesaver during the move. She kept Carrie entertained the entire morning while Jerry, Izzie, and myself were scurrying around packing and cleaning up. We finally got out of Gainesville around 2pm, a mere 4 hours past Jerry's target time of leaving. We stopped at Wendy's for a little lunch, where Carrie reached over and grabbed a hot fry off Jerry's tray and screamed bloody murder because she didn't know what to do with it, but knew it hurt like the devil. Not fun. At any rate, we made it to Okatie all in one piece around 7 that evening and unpacked boxes into the front hallway. I'm happy to report that all of the boxes are out of the front hallway...unfortunately they have just been moved up to the upstairs hallway, but we hope to have them put away soon!
Carrie loves being around all the pups. This past weekend with Easter she had 8 dogs to entertain her since Alston & Nick had their two pups, Porter & Sam, to add to the mix. It makes for a lot of chaos with that many dogs, but I think it's great. We are definitely going to have to teach Carrie at some point not to just assume all dogs are as nice as these 8 dogs. They put up with so much from her (except Carolina, who has quickly learned that if she sees Carrie coming that she should just get out of the way).
Easter was great, although church lasted about two hours. Carrie was a real trooper. She got cranky only once, and Jerry took her outside til communion started. Other than that she just looked around and entertained our neighbors in the pews. Izzie wasn't kidding when she said she always felt like she'd been through WWII after a church service with kids. I only had one to keep up with, but Carrie's such a monkey that she was constantly trying to climb all over me the entire time. I can't complain though, she was such a good girl throughout the service.
My job is going really well. I'm such a dork that I think it's great to be back at GT. I got my Buzz Card this morning; talk about surreal. Since I was a student way back when, they still had my BuzzCard picture from freshman year. That was entertaining. Suffice it to say I look a bit older in this most recent picture than the one I had taken 13 years ago (yikes).
March 9th was the big move. Actually I guess it wasn't technically too big since we weren't moving everything we owned, just the "necessary stuff." Hah. The "necessary" stuff filled up a 6' by 12' U Haul, a Subaru, an Envoy, and an Expedition. Of course, I think my scrapbook stuff probably filled up one of those vehicles, but that's another post. Don't ask Jerry about it - it's a pet peeve of his that we keep dragging mementos of our past from house to house. I just keep telling him he'll be glad I did it once it's all in a nice scrapbook and he can look back and remember what he did with his life. Rhett was a total lifesaver during the move. She kept Carrie entertained the entire morning while Jerry, Izzie, and myself were scurrying around packing and cleaning up. We finally got out of Gainesville around 2pm, a mere 4 hours past Jerry's target time of leaving. We stopped at Wendy's for a little lunch, where Carrie reached over and grabbed a hot fry off Jerry's tray and screamed bloody murder because she didn't know what to do with it, but knew it hurt like the devil. Not fun. At any rate, we made it to Okatie all in one piece around 7 that evening and unpacked boxes into the front hallway. I'm happy to report that all of the boxes are out of the front hallway...unfortunately they have just been moved up to the upstairs hallway, but we hope to have them put away soon!
Carrie loves being around all the pups. This past weekend with Easter she had 8 dogs to entertain her since Alston & Nick had their two pups, Porter & Sam, to add to the mix. It makes for a lot of chaos with that many dogs, but I think it's great. We are definitely going to have to teach Carrie at some point not to just assume all dogs are as nice as these 8 dogs. They put up with so much from her (except Carolina, who has quickly learned that if she sees Carrie coming that she should just get out of the way).
Easter was great, although church lasted about two hours. Carrie was a real trooper. She got cranky only once, and Jerry took her outside til communion started. Other than that she just looked around and entertained our neighbors in the pews. Izzie wasn't kidding when she said she always felt like she'd been through WWII after a church service with kids. I only had one to keep up with, but Carrie's such a monkey that she was constantly trying to climb all over me the entire time. I can't complain though, she was such a good girl throughout the service.
My job is going really well. I'm such a dork that I think it's great to be back at GT. I got my Buzz Card this morning; talk about surreal. Since I was a student way back when, they still had my BuzzCard picture from freshman year. That was entertaining. Suffice it to say I look a bit older in this most recent picture than the one I had taken 13 years ago (yikes).
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
seriously???
Is it possible to pinpoint the exact point in time when you lost your mind?
Cause I realized yesterday at about 5:15pm that I had, in fact, lost my mind. I'm just not sure of when it happened.
I realized this as I whipped out my Amex yesterday afternoon to pay for $37 worth of party decorations.
For my dog.
Yes folks, that's right. I spent almost $40 on party decorations for Bailey's "Going Away" party at his doggie daycare for this Friday. And I haven't even bought the cake yet. I can't wait to see how much that's going to cost me.
Jerry and I decided before Carrie came along to make a conscious, concerted effort to not push Bailey to the wayside when she arrived on the scene. I think we've done a fairly good job of that. No, he isn't the only child in the house anymore, and he's had to sacrifice some Mommy/Daddy time to Carrie, but all in all he's adjusted well and seems to be a happier pup for it (except for the occasional pooping in the house for no good reason lately, but I think that's because he realizes something's up with all the packing and boxes). We've continued to take him to daycare at least once a week so he can see all his buds and get some much needed running around time. The folks that run Camp Marlin Doggie Daycare were so sad when I told them we were moving. He's been going there for 4 years. I remember the exact first day I took him to daycare. The only reason I got Jerry to agree to let me take him was because he was traveling all the time and I felt so guilty about leaving him at home all day by himself. The first day I dropped him off he looked at me like "Are you seriously leaving me here with these strangers ALL DAY LONG?" and he wimpered a little as I left. I called twice to check on him. No, I'm not kidding. Then the second day I took him it was all I could do to keep him from dragging me across the parking lot to get into the building fast enough. And ever since then, whenever I tell him to get his jewelry on Wednesday mornings he goes bonkers. We can't even say the word "daycare" at our house; it's referred to as "DC."
So I guess it's the end of an era. He won't need to go to daycare when we move to Savannah, at least not at first since we'll be staying with Jerry's parents and they have five dogs. It'll be like daycare every day. And so I find myself making a list of things I need to do for my dog's going away party....stuff goodie bags...order a cake...pick up doggie ice cream...fill up the pinata I bought with dog treats...
If it's like this with Bailey, someone stop me before I go overboard for Carrie's first birthday party!!
Friday, February 22, 2008
They're coming, I promise!
So I had no clue how many people were actually paying attention to all those pictures of Carrie I sent out on a monthly basis. Well, now I think I have a pretty good idea since, here we are just 3 days after her 10 month birthday, and I'm getting accosted with questions on when they next round will be posted on Snapfish. They will be posted this weekend, folks! I have to do Tour of Kitchens for Junior League tomorrow ALL DAY LONG, so it won't be till Sunday. Of course, we also need to do some sprucing up on the house so we can hopefully sell this thing. We've had some lookers, just no buyers yet. Send your positive vibes our way!!
Speaking of Junior League, Carrie got dragged along to a meeting last night at Jenn's house. She was a pretty good little Junior Leaguer and made everyone laugh a few times as she was interjecting her own thoughts in the middle of the meeting, in a rather loud voice I might add. She was sick earlier this week with a 103.3 temp, but is now back to her normal self. Tuesday night she just couldn't get comfy and breathe well, so she was up like every two hours, upset at the fact that it's pretty hard to suck her thumb and breathe at the same time when her nose is so stuffed up. Neither one of us knew what to do at those early hours; she was up at 9:45, 11:30, 1:30, 3:30, 5....both of us were dazed & confused since we haven't done that since....well....since she was about 2 or 3 weeks old. I am just hoping that if and when we have another child, the baby gods bless us once again with such a great sleeper.
Speaking of Junior League, Carrie got dragged along to a meeting last night at Jenn's house. She was a pretty good little Junior Leaguer and made everyone laugh a few times as she was interjecting her own thoughts in the middle of the meeting, in a rather loud voice I might add. She was sick earlier this week with a 103.3 temp, but is now back to her normal self. Tuesday night she just couldn't get comfy and breathe well, so she was up like every two hours, upset at the fact that it's pretty hard to suck her thumb and breathe at the same time when her nose is so stuffed up. Neither one of us knew what to do at those early hours; she was up at 9:45, 11:30, 1:30, 3:30, 5....both of us were dazed & confused since we haven't done that since....well....since she was about 2 or 3 weeks old. I am just hoping that if and when we have another child, the baby gods bless us once again with such a great sleeper.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Adventures in eating
See - two weeks in a row that I've posted something. You all should be proud of me (if anyone's even reading this blog anymore!)
So I think we've entered the "I want to feed myself, thank you very much" phase. She'll still let me feed her breakfast in the morning, which is usually a few cubes of bananas and/or apples. I think she allows this just because it's been roughly 12 hours since she last ate, and she's just hungry and doesn't care to fight. Lunch is a whole different story. Neither Emily nor I are able to get her to really sit down and eat anything for lunch. I think she's just too busy these days pulling up, cruising, and scooting around torturing Bailey. Dinner's also interesting in that she'll deal with me feeding her for a little while, then she just wants down to go play, or would stuff herself full of Cheerios or Gerber puffs simply because she feeds those to herself. Saturday night we had green peas with our dinner, and I put a few of those on her tray and she gobbled them up. We can't tell if she really likes the taste, or just the fact that not only can she feed herself peas, but they roll, which makes mealtime oh so fun. Needless to say, Bailey is LOVING this new stage we're in since only about 50% of the food actually makes it to her mouth. The rest ends up on the floor, which we never have to pick up because our own Puppy Hoover is right there waiting any scraps.
She's also pulling up on everything in sight. People, chairs, the side of the crib, Bailey...you name it. Everything's fair game, regardless of whether or not it's stable. I think we need to take the mobile down from her crib since now that she can reach it I've caught her on the monitor a few times yanking on Pooh and Piglet. I think if I don't take it down I'll come in her room one day and find them laying in the crib with her!
So I think we've entered the "I want to feed myself, thank you very much" phase. She'll still let me feed her breakfast in the morning, which is usually a few cubes of bananas and/or apples. I think she allows this just because it's been roughly 12 hours since she last ate, and she's just hungry and doesn't care to fight. Lunch is a whole different story. Neither Emily nor I are able to get her to really sit down and eat anything for lunch. I think she's just too busy these days pulling up, cruising, and scooting around torturing Bailey. Dinner's also interesting in that she'll deal with me feeding her for a little while, then she just wants down to go play, or would stuff herself full of Cheerios or Gerber puffs simply because she feeds those to herself. Saturday night we had green peas with our dinner, and I put a few of those on her tray and she gobbled them up. We can't tell if she really likes the taste, or just the fact that not only can she feed herself peas, but they roll, which makes mealtime oh so fun. Needless to say, Bailey is LOVING this new stage we're in since only about 50% of the food actually makes it to her mouth. The rest ends up on the floor, which we never have to pick up because our own Puppy Hoover is right there waiting any scraps.
She's also pulling up on everything in sight. People, chairs, the side of the crib, Bailey...you name it. Everything's fair game, regardless of whether or not it's stable. I think we need to take the mobile down from her crib since now that she can reach it I've caught her on the monitor a few times yanking on Pooh and Piglet. I think if I don't take it down I'll come in her room one day and find them laying in the crib with her!
Monday, February 11, 2008
Milestones
I really must get better about posting here, seeing as how I haven't posted in almost TWO MONTHS...I am going to shoot for once a week from now on. We'll see how long I stick to that schedule! Of course, most of you know me well enough to know that if I set myself a goal, it usually helps me to actually do something!
Let's see - so much has happened in the past two months. Christmas was a big time for all involved. Christmas morning brought Carrie sleeping in until about 9 (we'll enjoy it while we can!). Once she woke up we all did stockings, and that was about all she could handle before a morning nap (must be nice). After her nap, she awoke to find what Santa brought her - a big shiny red wagon! I have to say I was a bit skeptical when Jerry said that's what Santa was going to bring her. I mean, seriously - the kid's 8 months old, how much could she enjoy a wagon? I was apparently sorely mistaken, as Carrie squealed the whole time she road around in it, red nose from the cold and all. I'll have to be sure to post some pics here. It's still a big hit with Carrie now. She, Emily, and Bailey go for a wagon walk around the neighborhood each day, so the Radio Flyer is getting plenty of miles these days.
She's still army crawling, although in the past couple of days she's getting up more and more on her knees. She'll take a few "real" crawls then plop back down on her belly. I have no doubt it'll be no time before she's scrambling all over the place.
We FINALLY have a tooth, folks! I didn't think it would ever happen, but we found one in her little mouth on February 6th. You'd normally think you wouldn't have to find it, that the child would be fussy or something...apparently Carrie's too busy for that nonsense. I swear she's been acting totally normal, then all of a sudden she grabs my finger, puts it in her mouth and clamps down and I thought she had something sharp in her mouth other than a tooth. Hey, I'll take non-eventful teething anyday. I still say on the next child Jerry and I are completely and totally in for it.
On the family front, we're moving to Savannah in about a month! We're really excited about it. We're in the process of finding a nanny for Carrie once we get there. We've had such great luck with Hayley & Emily here in Gainesville that we are hoping for similar luck in Savannah!
Let's see - so much has happened in the past two months. Christmas was a big time for all involved. Christmas morning brought Carrie sleeping in until about 9 (we'll enjoy it while we can!). Once she woke up we all did stockings, and that was about all she could handle before a morning nap (must be nice). After her nap, she awoke to find what Santa brought her - a big shiny red wagon! I have to say I was a bit skeptical when Jerry said that's what Santa was going to bring her. I mean, seriously - the kid's 8 months old, how much could she enjoy a wagon? I was apparently sorely mistaken, as Carrie squealed the whole time she road around in it, red nose from the cold and all. I'll have to be sure to post some pics here. It's still a big hit with Carrie now. She, Emily, and Bailey go for a wagon walk around the neighborhood each day, so the Radio Flyer is getting plenty of miles these days.
She's still army crawling, although in the past couple of days she's getting up more and more on her knees. She'll take a few "real" crawls then plop back down on her belly. I have no doubt it'll be no time before she's scrambling all over the place.
We FINALLY have a tooth, folks! I didn't think it would ever happen, but we found one in her little mouth on February 6th. You'd normally think you wouldn't have to find it, that the child would be fussy or something...apparently Carrie's too busy for that nonsense. I swear she's been acting totally normal, then all of a sudden she grabs my finger, puts it in her mouth and clamps down and I thought she had something sharp in her mouth other than a tooth. Hey, I'll take non-eventful teething anyday. I still say on the next child Jerry and I are completely and totally in for it.
On the family front, we're moving to Savannah in about a month! We're really excited about it. We're in the process of finding a nanny for Carrie once we get there. We've had such great luck with Hayley & Emily here in Gainesville that we are hoping for similar luck in Savannah!
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