Sandy and Brenden at Loco's

Sandy and Brenden at Loco's
Originally uploaded by nheiges.

Check me out - too lazy to post my own photos so I'm stealing from Nancy again!

24 hours to go before Dr. Light goes spelunking. Hope he doesn't find anything too extraordinary, like a diamond or a hidden tomb. I suppose I could make some tired Jimmy Hoffa joke or something.

Actually I'm thinking about the last season of the Sopranos, when Tony was in the hospital after being shot by his uncle and he makes friends with a physicist who went in for sinus surgery but the docs found cancer and removed his thorax. Wait. I mean larynx. Yeah. I'm a little worried.

I remember having outpatient work done because I had a whoppin' case of GERD. I'm thinking this was back in 2000 or 01. The doc shoved an endoscope down my throat to look for a hiatal hernia. I'm very glad I was asleep for that. I remember that whatever the anesthesiologist gave me was awesome. I woke up and I was insanely happy. I was so tranquil. I loooooved everyone! Later when I came down, I recall being amused by some of the questions someone asked me while I was grooving (that's the only word that fits). She was asking for feedback on patient care! I thought that was quite clever, asking my opinion of how I was treated while I was high as a weather balloon. I bet that facility boasts %1000 percent customer satisfaction.

I am fervently hoping for the same drugs tomorrow.

My doctor's appointment in a nutshell - the surgery is a go and set for Thursday afternoon.

The doc took one look at my CT scans and showed me how socked in my sinuses are. Basically I have inflammation and infection in all my sinus cavities; especially my right maxillary cavity which has been infected for some time. Years, maybe. Which begs the question I never asked: if it's been so bad, how was I able to skydive and even moreso, how was I able to scuba dive? My guess is it wasn't that bad yet at those points in time. I last did both of those activities in September/early October of '04 although I distinctly remember losing my sense of smell some time before that.

The doc - incidentally, he's a hottie - explained that the surgery would last about 3 hours and he would be opening the sinuses some and cleaning them out. Do the holes he's knocking into my skull count as trepanning? But I digress - afterwards I won't be able to lift anything heavier than 10 pounds for a few weeks so Jon gets to chase Brenden around without me for a while.

The doc also explained to me that this operation should alleviate the symptoms but they were not a cure. He said that if I do not work to aggresively keep my allergies in check, I would probably be right back in the surgery center in 5 - 10 years time. I am currently doing 2 of the 3 things I need to be doing to keep them in check: 1) medications - the coticosteroids I'm taking (Nasonex) to keep the swelling down. 2) Allergy shots. The third thing is to go through the house and allergen-proof it. Which means ripping up the carpets and putting a different flooring down. Hooray! I've been tempted to put wood flooring anyway. We'll also replace the couch and bed and use HEPA filters and all that jazz. One thing we will not do is get rid of the cats. Vasquez doesn't have much mileage left in her anyways, and I couldn't part with BFK. I think I'm not allergic to him anyway.

Yeah I'm a little scared but I'm also looking forward to not only maybe being able to smell and taste my food again, but also a mini-vacation from my responsibilities.

I'm back from a great weekend at Nancy, Mark and Anthony's house: Brenden and I woke up early Saturday morning and drove to Athens with little incident. Despite my protests concerning the costs of the vehicle, the Town and Country mini-van my husband bought us is perfect for travelling long distance with a small one. We have the back seat out so when I stop for food, I swing through a drive-thru then park and let Brenden out to crawl around the van for a while while we eat.

I always enjoy seeing Anthony because in many ways it's like a sneak-preview. Like Nancy I was interested in how Anthony and Brenden would interact. I thought Anthony did quite well - he didn't much like Brenden or I playing with his toys, but with some gentle prompting he would be generous. At one point he was playing with something, Brenden started playing with something, so Anthony took it away from him. I pointed out to him (very gently - I would not reprimand someone else's kid unless he was doing something extreme like trying to drown the cat in the toilet) that he couldn't play with both toys at once. He gave the toy back to Brenden. I was very impressed - it's no simple trick to appeal to a 3-year-old's logic with success. And there was one point where Brenden was crying and I was consoling him - Anthony asked me "why he crying?" and patted Brenden gently on the leg.

Both Nancy and Nancy's mom (who is as nifty and loving as I remember her) don't recall Anthony being as supercharged at 1 as Brenden is. This pretty much confirmed my suspicion that B is more active than normal. Everyone got a good demonstration of how B likes to run me ragged. There was so much to !!!INVESTIGATE!!! in this new place!

Between running around and keeping Brenden from trouble, I did actually get to visit with Nancy and Mark, and I was very happy to spend some time talking with Helly, who is as wickedly funny and smart as her blog indicates. I still feel like I didn't get a chance to get to know her but after this weekend I must say I am very happy for Alan. They complement each other wonderfully. Lachelle dropped by Saturday night as well and added to the adult conversation which I didn't realize I missed so badly.

Brenden and I had a fantastic time, even though both of us were out of sorts - B has some congestion and didn't sleep as well as he normally did, which means neither did I, plus I now have a raging sore throat that started Saturday - yep, my sinuses. I swear, and now that I've written it down maybe I won't ignore it, to visit more. And my offer is still open - anyone who wants to swing by the thriving metropolis of Hartselle Alabamastan, is more than welcome. And the next time I *do* visit either Brenden stays with Jon or Jon's coming with me to keep B in check.

Anyway, thank you Nancy and Mark for being such good friends and gracious hosts, thank you Helly and Alan for coming up and visiting and putting up with my hellspawn rambunctious child, and thank you mrs. Morris for helping out with B and for lunch Sunday. I promise not to be such a stranger, if you all will promise to give me sh*t if I let a year go by without visiting again.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming, wherein I whine about my sinuses. Vía Lachelle:

A: "I think I need my sinuses removed."
B: "You can't have your sinuses removed -- they're cavities."
A: "Maybe -your- sinuses are cavities."

Indeed!

Mostly dead and evil dead

Evil Dead 2 : Dead By Dawn VHS
Originally uploaded by p r o f a n i c.

Brenden can say "mama" and "dada" upon prompting now - no thanks to me. He's picked that up in daycare. Yes, I'm feeling guilty.

So that's my Brenden update for the week. This weekend I'm going to Georgia to my friend Nancy's to visit with her and her family, as well as newly-hitched Helly and Alan. I'm looking forward to a change of routine, and yes I'm bringing the rug rat.

I saw Superman last night, and I'm relieved to report it wasn't the cheeseball fest that Superman II was. I'm not going to add to all the speculation about why Richard Donner got shitcanned and what happened with the sequel. It's a crying shame, is all I'm gonna say. Something tells me the producers told Donner to tone down the dark stuff (re-watch it for nothing else than Lois Lane's death. That's some pretty harsh shit right there!) and he told them to kiss his ass. And another promising movie franchise goes down in flames. I am now totally intrigued to see Bryan Singer's spin on the story.

I have 2 more movies to add to the list:

8)Robocop: This movie is extremely violent and cynical but it's a late 80's classic. What's not to love about ED-209? Robocop would have been totally bankrupt if it weren't for Peter Weller bringing so much humanity to the cyborg. It also brought us Kurtwood Smith as an Evil Bad Guy and he was absolutely fabulous!

9)Evil Dead II: If you haven't seen this movie, why not? It has chainsaws, shotguns, eyeball swallowing, posessive demons, and Bruce Campbell.

I had a C-T scan of my sinuses yesterday. Guess what? I still have a sinus infection. My doc has referred me to another doc. Can you say functional endoscopic sinus surgery? Well, I won't jump the gun but everything I have read makes me think that is what he'll suggest. We shall see.

For some reason I've been watching a bunch of mid-to-late 70's movies lately. I watched "the Deep", which did nothing except make me miss Robert Shaw, the apotheosis of pushy bastard. And Nick Nolte was once considered sexy! Imagine that! Okay, don't. It makes me nauseated too. Jon and I watched "Animal House" last night - sometimes movies just become trite because they were copied one too many times. Still, it's kind of a classic.

"Rollerball" was on - we flipped by that one. I haven't seen the remake and from what I understand I haven't missed anything. It all looks so dated now! The best part about that movie is the Bach soundtrack.

Lastly we watched "Superman II". You know, I don't remember it being that lame but hoo-ya what a lame movie! The special effects were atrocious! Hard to believe it was made a year after "Star Wars". Oddly enough, the best thing about this movie is Christopher Reeve. He handled the duality of Superman/Clark Kent quite effectively, even though everything/everybody else was hilariously, well, comical. Even Gene Hackman. Tsk tsk tsk. Although I still love it when Terence Stamp commands "Kneel before ZOD!" but who doesn't? I want to see the new Superman movie even though no one else seemed to want to. I set up TiVo to record the first movie, to see if it was as good as I remembered, or simply a lame movie I liked when I was a teenager.

I'm compiling a new top 10 list: Top 10 pre-1990 Movies I want to watch with Brenden (when he gets old enough) that aren't Star Wars or Indiana Jones movies (because of course he'll watch all those):

1)The Terminator: The original. Because it's a frickin kewl movie, that's why! And James Cameron set a standard with this low-budget action/love story.

2)Jaws: a 70's movie that didn't date. Even with the 70's hair and clothes styles, it looks like it was filmed yesterday. Plus you know, it has Robert Shaw being a pushy bastard. This movie didn't become trite even though other movies copied it again and again and again, because all those movies missed the point about what "Jaws" was trying to say. It's a movie about what it means to be a man and if you don't believe me watch it again!

3)Ghostbusters: Bill Murray! Dan Ackroyd! Sigourney Weaver making out with Rick Moranis! Because it's a classic comedy, that's why! I bet you have that song stuck in your head now.

4)The Road Warrior: Hyper action movies before Michael Bay infected the world with shaky-cam ruled. Mad Max is a pretty good low-budget item and Beyond Thunderdome is only so-so, but RW is a monumental post-apocalypse movie that no one seems to remember.

5)The Princess Bride: Like the young boy being read to, it will be interesting to see if Brenden appreciates this sardonic/romantic tale.

6)Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Will MP's offbeat humor translate to another generation? Knee!

7)Who Framed Roger Rabbit?: Did you notice this movie never garnered a sequel? Imagine that! I loved it when it came out. Speaking of, I wonder if I'll be able to find unexpurgated versions of the Looney Tunes I grew up with. It just ain't a Daffy/Elmer cartoon without Daffy getting his beak blown off on-screen.

I'm still working on this list. Missing noticeably is my favorite movie of all-time, "Aliens". And flesh-eating zombie movies. And Clint Eastwood westerns, gangster movies, and James Bond movies. Of course he'll get to watch those! Although it might be a while before I show him "Dawn of the Dead".

What I'm not doing

Foot drag
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Well the pool was perfectly beautiful for exactly one day. Then we had a pretty fierce pop-up thunderstorm which blew a bunch of leaves into the pool.

El monito and I spent the weekend working on the outdoors - I went shopping early Saturday, first to the pool place to make sure the chemicals were balanced, then to Lowe's for assorted neccesities, then to Publix for groceries, then to the Verizon store to find out the phone Jon gave me can't be fixed, only replaced. I don't have a warranty so I'll have to buy a new one. Feh. Brenden did fairly well up until the verizon visit. I had to chase him down several times.

In all fairness he was just bushed by that time. Once I strapped him into the car seat he was asleep before we left the Verizon parking lot. I spent his nap time putting together a nifty kitchen table that folds down into almost nothing so now I can actually eat meals with Brenden in the kitchen. After lunch on our new table B and I went out to do some work in the yard. Bored yet? Me too.

Sunday we worked in the yard, played in the pool, then played in the sprinkler in the front yard as I tried to revitalize the dead grass. I found out that if Brenden tries to fight me when I'm removing him from a not-so-safe situation (like running out into the street - I can move pretty fast for an elderly mom!) he tucks quite easily under an arm. I can keep him from pulling my hair that way, too.

In other words, SSDD.

2-bath day

Neighborhood
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Yesterday was a 2-bath day at the Maynard household. Since I pretty much spend the entire weekend at home, and since Brenden loooooves the outdoors, I decided it would be a good time to do some work on our badly neglected landscaping. I decided to start by weeding and raking around the bushes in the front yart and spreading new mulch. I especially wanted to lay new mulch down because the previous owner used some sort of water permeable tarp around the bushes and a lot of it is uncovered because the last mulch is totally decomposed/washed away.

Brenden and I drove to Home Depot where I bought a few miscellaneous tools we didn't have and 3 bags of pretty red wood mulch. I figured I would need more but this is a long-term project because 1) it's too hot to stay outdoors for very long 2) I have to keep an eye on Brenden and 3) because I have to keep an eye on Brenden, I don't want to use any power tools so that I can hear him as well.

So yesterday I start raking around the weedy-looking and overgrown bushes to the right of our porch, and I finally discovered where all those freakin ants come from when they invade our house. There was so much leaf/compost buildup around the base of the plants they were living in there! Thank goodness these ants don't bite otherwise B and I would be in poor shape. So I didn't even get around spreading the wood chips - I cleaned up as best as I could and Jon should spray near the base and kill all those farging bastiches. I hope to get out there this evening and spread.

Brenden of course helped a lot, mainly by pulling clods of dirt up and tasting them. Oh, well - parasites can be removed. I grew up on a tropical island so I know all about parasites. Brenden of course helped rake and sweep; he spent a lot of time in the open garage where it was substantially cooler investigating everything in there (I spent Saturday cleaning up the garage so that Brenden wouldn't try to eat any spiders he found).

I'm making tentative plans to rip up the whole farging front landscaping this winter, and replacing the poorly-laid plastic border (ick) and the tarp (double-ick) and replacing it with a nicer brick border. I'll also do some initial prepping of the ground to get it ready for some new plants in the spring. I need to take photos so we can have a before-after comparison. As you can see from the above photo, we have a ginormous oak tree in our lawn with a very scraggly-looking area underneath. Poor watering and zero shade caused that. I'm still working out what I'm going to do about this area. The tree stays - it's huge, beautiful and in great shape. It definitely needs some pruning but that should be done when it's colder.

And then there's the landscaping around the pool - I'm going to wait for at least a year before I attempt to tackle it because I hope by then Brenden will have enough sense not to fall into the pool.

Brenden Loves Bananas!

hippie
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

My sinus problems seem to be improving, if only a tiny bit. Every once in a while, I can smell something fairly strongly. Most of the time it's something strong, like the garbage or the cat box or one of Brenden's diaper loads. Yesterday I realized I could smell and so I rushed into the refrigerator and opened a container full of some arroz con pollo I had cooked the day before and took a big whiff. Aaaaah, garlic!

I'm finally losing weight again, and the past month I have dropped to 140. I was pushing 143 when I found out I was pregant, so I have officially dropped all my pregnancy weight (yay!). I'm not happy though because that's still heavier than I'm comfortable with. The nice thing is I am still in a groove where I'm comfortable not eating and am having no cravings. And if I stay away from beer (which I am) they tend to stay away. My comfortable weight would be around 125.

I'm also walking a mile and a half Monday - Friday and I'm weightlifting again 3 times a week although I'm nowhere near the shape I was way back in '04.

Brenden's official 1st word is "Bow!" as in "Bow wow wow". It might be that he's practicing to be King of the Universe but I don't know. He loves pointing to things and saying "bow" so I think that he finally understands that the sounds we make have a distinct purpose. Well he actually has 2 phrases then. He says "Uh-uh-uh-uh" which means "hurry up and feed me/give me that/come with me/pick me up!"

He also has two other molars coming in. No wonder he likes ice in his drinks!

Before the haircut

Before the haircut
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Ahg. If it's Thursday, it must mean a visit to the allergy doctor. Why do I always get sinus headaches when I go see him? Is that some kind of joke? So anyway, since I had a reaction to the last antibiotic (Avalox) he prescribed me amoxcillin or some sort of -cillin but it didn't have any effect. I've got something new and unpronouncable to take plus at the beginning of August I get to have a CT scan of my sinuses.

Next week my husband gets a whole week with el monito. That should be fun for both of them! Really! I hope. I love watching Jon interact with Brenden. Like last night he gave monkey-boy his bath and it's so neat to watch them together. I never thought having a family would mean so much to me.

I'm doing pretty good on the Spanish front. Since I had a 4-day weekend I managed to do a rather intensive review (in between being led around by the finger by B), and after a while I was able to listen to something and pick up the meaning, not just small phrases. My favorite channel on XM now is CNN en español. I also listen to los deportes, but I have a harder time with that because I don't really have the specialized vocabulary to follow sports talk, plus the announcers get all excited when they're giving the play-by-play so I don't know what's going on. I wish I could find the TV remote so I could use the SAP button for Braves games. Yeah, I don't care if they are sucking wind this year. Been there, done that, and yes, I still have the t-shirt.

I also love love looove the HBO Latino channel. I watched "Titanic" and "Shrek 2" en español over the weekend. The familiarity with the movies help me decode what they're saying by the context. I also tried to watch "Elektra" but it was plenty boring even in Spanish so I wandered off. Both MSN and Yahoo have Spanish versions of their news pages available so I'm reading noticias when I can.

First Haircut

New cut
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Letter to Brenden Month 13:

Hey buddy; I thought you were going to slow down a little. Was I wrong! During your first month in your second year, you decided to work on communication. You don't exactly speak yet, but I knew something had clicked in your head when you sat down next to me a few weeks ago with your favorite book in your hands. You grabbed my finger and placed it on the book!

When I read to you I put my finger under the words as I say them, so I didn't have to be Einstein to guess what you wanted. You wanted me to read you "Moo Baa La La La" (again and again and again). What's really nifty is when I get to the part where some dogs go "BOW WOW WOW" you smile and go "WOWOWOWOWOW!"

That communication method took another leap as you learned that you could grab a finger and lead me around. Most of the time you simply wanted out to the back yard. I'd slather you with sunblock and we'd go, but not enough for you. Little dude, I did not want sunstroke! As it was I'm surprised neither of us are sunburnt despite the goop.

You have also learned to ask to be picked up - like all little kids, you hold both arms up to me. You take it a step further if I'm slow to respond. You took my hands and placed both of them under your armpits. Pretty cool, hon.

You are also sorting pretty well and are sorting all shapes not just circles any more. You can also stack a bit, but if you don't get something on a few tries you will throw the object impatiently across the room. Shades of your dad there, buddy.

I bit the bullet this weekend and I gave you your first haircut. I had to buy dad a new pair of hair clippers anyway, so I bought a nice set and used the clippers on you. You didn't seem afraid of the noise, just curious. I think it looks pretty good!

So you keep advancing. It looks like you finally have found the time to develop your noggin some now that you have conquered all of the first stage of physical development (walking, climbing the furniture, pulling kitty's tail, negotiating steps, emptying drawers, etc). I hope this time next month I can report your first real word, but I'm also dreading when you use that Boeing 747 brain of yours to start climbing by stacking things, and opening doors.

El coquí

El coqui
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I have copycatted my friend Nancy twice: she started a blog, I started a blog. She had a son; I had a son. She now maintains a blog in Arabic because she is studying that language. I said a while back I wanted to start studying Spanish again; I have been slacking off but I brushed off my Spanish CDs and am listening to them. And I am copycatting her once more: here is my Spanish blog, Yo Soy La Slacker. For those of you in my viewing audience (all 2 of you) who speak Spanish, feel free to peruse my new blog (only 1 entry so far) and let me know what I did wrong. I know like many English speakers trying to learn Spanish I don't have the hang of the difference between para and por, among many deficiencies.

Upon reviewing what I know, I think my biggest deficiencies in the language lie in word order and prepositions (like para and por). I simply don't know how to put together complex sentences. I may catch a few words here and there, but if I don't understand their context within the sentence I can easily confuse what is going on. I mean, something as simple as "te amo" can be easily misconstrued if you don't understand Spanish word order. We say "I love you" and a word-for-word translation in Spanish is (Yo) amo tú which of course is way wrong.

I also think the reason I have not been able to retain any Spanish I've learned is because I simply am reluctant to speak. Hell, I'm reluctant to speak English! But this is the internet world - I enjoy writing so why not write in Spanish? That way I can take my time and do some research on what I'm trying to say. I also have a great deal of resources on the internet for reading.

One nifty thing that I have discovered is closed captioning. We get the HBO latin channel, which will show movies dubbed in Spanish, and the closed captioning is in Spanish as well. I watched part of Revenge of the Sith the other day. Of course, Univisión is freely available as well with Spanish captions. I hope this time I can stick to it and really learn the language, for once.

Neighborhood

Neighborhood
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I spent most of the weekend working with my young fella on his vocabulary:
I'd say "Kitty!" he'd say "BUH!"
I'd say "Mama!" he'd say "Vava!" (he's just learned the V sound)
I'd say "Dada!" he'd say "Dada!" (dang)
I'd say "Chicken!" he'd say "BUH!"

So I got clever and say "Book!" and he'd say "BUH!" and I'd go "Yay! That's right!!"

And so on. He also tried to get a finger up one of my nostrils quite often. I guess he's curious.

Yesterday he didn't eat much of his dinner which was chicken nuggets and green beans. I found out why he didn't have much of an appetite when I fed him his last bottle at 7. He threw it up, along with what little of his dinner he ate, poor guy.

I bathed him and changed him, and we waited a bit to see how he felt. He seemed okay but naturally about 10 minutes later once I put him to bed he hurled his lunch. I'm serious - he had pineapple and cheese and it came up in whole undigested chunks. I'll pause for a minute so you can concentrate on the visual.

I got him cleaned up and the bed changed and rocked him until he got quiet again. He threw up once more, but it was only a little liquid so after a little cleanup he finally got to sleep around 9pm.

Oh, I also think I had a reaction to the new round of antibiotics: my arms have bumps all up and down them with little red welts in the center. They don't itch, it just looks bad. I'm waiting to hear from my doc to see what he recommends.

Here's the last two installments of the trip report with the nifty pictures:

Part 4

Part 5

Behold the Mighty Hunter

mighty hunter
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Nancy's comments from my last post reminded me of something:

I was tested twice for allergens - once when I was very young (4? 5?), and once recently, a few months after I gave birth. When I was very young I remembered the skin tests were all done with reusable syringes - it was that long ago - and my mom told me that I went into anaphylactic shock when I was tested against horses.

With this new round of testing, the nurse used these things that looked kind of like the things they use to poke you in the finger for just a little blood. Except in this case she was poking me in the arm, on a grid she drew with a ball-point pen. She was poking away when I finally got curious and actually looked at her little case with all the pokers and read the labels and saw one labelled "horse". Eep.

I asked her "have you poked me with the horse yet?"

"Just did".

"I guess I should tell you this: when I was tested as a kid I went into anaphylactic shock when I was tested for horses."

The nurse stared at me a second, then said "Now you tell me?!??"

I didn't go into shock, but. If you are allergic to something, your skin will develop a little weal, its size depending on how allergic you are. So I had a bunch of little bumps ranging from the size of a mosquito bite to the size of a dime. The horse test, however, was the size of a silver dollar. And man did it itch!!

Here's part 3 of that nifty travel report. I note with amusement that they were the last group cancelled out of the villa that is being blogged about here.

Paint your Wagon

wagon
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Today is random nattering day:

I do have new photos of Brenden on one of our daily neighborhood excursions - I've just been too lazy to post them.

Brenden's 12 month checkup went well. The doc was pleased with his development. The one thing I liked most was his physical development has been in the 98% since he was born - but on this visit his weight dropped to the 50% level. In other words, he's still growing like a weed but ever since he learned how to walk he's been burning up the calories. That's good because when he was in the hospital the doctor kept making comments "Wow, he certainly doesn't miss a meal!". It kind of upset me because I didn't see Brenden as obese. Now he's pretty skinny. I also don't force his food. Mealtime is over as soon as he starts showing disintrest with his food (usually signalled by using his sippy cup to mash whatever is on the tray).

Speaking of doctors, I have previously mentioned my sinus infection. What I haven't talked about is the doctors I have been seeing. I've been going to my general practicioner for these infections since my first one this past November. Stupid me, I didn't equate sinus problems to my allergy problems. At my last visit my doc threw his hands in the air and said go see a specialist. I asked what kind, he said "an allergist". Oh.

So I went to see my way cool allergist Dr. Krishna, who has made some recommendations and prescribed some meds. I should have gone to see him in the first place.

Dr. Krishna took a personal interest in my problems when I first went to see him during the 2nd trimester when I was having such horrible problems with athsma. He really seemed to care about me. It's so common for doctors not to show compassion these days, and considering how busy they tend to be it's no wonder they can't remember you from visit to visit. I really like my doc.

I don't think everything is cleared up, however; I still can't smell anything. Once the prednisone prescription was finished I slowly sank back into an odorless world. I have another appointment in a week; in the meantime I'm working with a 'home' remedy which consists of me snorting salt water. Actually I use a dropper to put salt water up my nose. What I need to do is spend 2 weeks at the beach and go swimming every day. That will burn the infection out!

Speaking of beaches, even though I haven't been to one since I got pregnant, I dream about it a lot. We're hoping to go somewhere next summer, maybe with my brother Ed and his wife Jen (they both Scuba dive). So I poke around alot on the web and I found this amusing site about building a villa on St. John. It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. Unless I won the Powerball and didn't have to worry about money at all. But anyway, the blog starts out so optimistic and slides into slow panic and despair as deadlines are missed and budgets are blown sky high.

But like I said, it's a nice place to visit. Here is a relatively short trip report with some great pictures that someone posted:

Part 1

Part 2

At least look at the pics if you want to blah through the travelogue.

What now?

What now
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

My brain has finally stopped melting, and I think I have recovered enough to compose a coherent post. I owe the letter to Brenden Month 12.

One whole year old. Your physical development is above average, but your communication skills aren't. You don't say anything intelligible yet, but you can point at what you want - usually your sippy cup during dinner. I won't leave it on your tray because you will use it to mash your peas or green beans or drop it on the cat's head (who is hanging around waiting for you to drop something). Speaking of your sippy cup, I have you almost completely off of bottles. I have one left with which I feed you your only bottle of formula just before you go to bed, and that will end as soon as this can of formula is gone. Considering that I mix up 4 oz. of formula and top that with 4 oz. of milk, that can will be finished by November 2008.

I could just give you a sippy cup of milk and you'd be happy, but I'm being a mommy-head and am reluctant to give up the time before bed where I get to hold and rock you and feed you a bottle. Indulge me just a little bit longer.

You have developed a taste for Vienna Sausages, or what the Gerber folks package under the name 'meat sticks'. Real Vienna Sausages are about 90% fat, and have enough salt to shrivel a slug per sausage. The Gerber 'meat sticks' at least actually do have meat in them plus far less sodium. You also like chicken nuggets and catfish - anything you can pick up and shove in your mouth. You are getting cross with me if I try to give you anything by spoon.

I am reading to you more - your favority book is "Moo Baa La La La" by Sandra Boynton. I think you like all the animal sounds I make ("Rhinoceroses snort and snuff, and little dogs go 'ruff ruff ruff!'"). Speaking of animal sounds, I have a ritual we go through every night: I line up your little Fisher Price Little People on the table, and we go through each one of them and the sounds they make ("This is a chicken. Chicken! Chicken says 'Bock bock bock!' This is a cow. Cow! Cow says 'Moooooo! Mooooo!' This is a farmer. Farmer! Farmer says 'Howdy! Howdy howdy howdy!'"). After that I ask you to pick up a specific animal. You have no idea what the hell I'm talking about. You do seem to like trying to grab the sheep and sticking him in my mouth. I do like lamb chops dear, but not plastic ones.

You like being cooped up in the house less and less, so I make it a point to go on a walk with you every evening. It's like taking a cat for a walk because you don't listen to me very well plus you have so many interesting things to investigate and try to put in your mouth, like rocks, leaves, bugs, small stray pieces of trash, and flowers. I only pick you up and move you if we get close to a car parked on the street and you try to lick the bumper. I also pick you up if a car comes - most of the people who live on the street are very nice and thoughtful (most of them have young children too). There's one jerk who drives like a maniac and I hate it when I see his car. It's the one with the blue flashy lights on top. I guess he thinks he can get away with driving like an idiot teen-ager because he's a cop.

So anyway: we have your 1 year Well-baby checkup today which means more shots! Hooray!

Very Tasty

Very Tasty
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Here's Brenden enjoying his birthday cake. We enjoyed it too. Still not inspired. My brain resembles overcooked tapioca because I'm trying to fire an event from an MFC application where the interface container is derived from CCmdTarget and not COleControl like any sane rational human being would have coded.

In the desperate attempt not to get Dooced, I shall stop here.

1 Year Old

AtMoms
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Happy Birthday, Brenden! One year ago today your mother was goofed up on Demerol and doesn't remember much except the look on your little newborn face when she first met you. You looked a little confused.

12 Months later you are a healthy, massively rambunctious little toddler. Please don't be too rough on your Grandma today, OK? I'll write more when I feel a little more inspired.

Fuzzy B

FuzzyB
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Brenden and I spent Memorial Day (and most of the weekend) with ourselves. We went shopping Saturday morning because I had to make chicken gumbo for a party at the DZ Saturday night. I have no idea if it tasted good because my sinus infection was raging again and the only thing that tasted good to me were those cheap icy-pops that Wal-Mart sells by the gross for $1.99. Plus, while I was making the roux, I didn't let it get dark enough because Brenden was standing at the kitchen gate wailing for my attention so instead of a nice chocolate brown the gumbo was an ocean-scum color. People told me afterwards that it tasted good but I think they were being polite.

Saturday wasn't all about cooking - I cleaned as well namely the pool. The pool store sold me a 50 pound bag of baking soda because the water was becoming acidic. I also bought Brenden yet another kiddie pool because he could easily collapse the walls on the one I bought for him previously. We went swimming in the big pool too, which is a quite enjoyable 86 degrees now. Brenden hates me when I take him back into the house but I'm on antibiotics and they all have vociferous warnings about sunlight overexposure. Both B and I were glopped with Sunblock 6000, but that crap washes off. Neither of us is burned, which is good because I tend to let Brenden skinny dip and I'd hate for him to have a burned willy.

Despite the relatively late hour, Brenden and I went to the DZ with the vomitous looking gumbo around 6pm and Brenden walked around the tarmac in front of the hangar and I followed until I got tired. I took him home a couple of hours later and we fought about him going to sleep. Fighting over sleep isn't as bad as it sounds, it consists of me putting him in his crib and walking away. He protests for about a minute then he finally concedes that he is indeed tired and falls asleep, on his belly but his knees pulled up so his butt is in the air. Mom told me I used to sleep like that.

We also encountered Miranda and Jason's daughter, Emma Cate, who was born 5 weeks after Brenden. She is as tall, but with super long legs whereas Brenden has these cute little legs with a long torso. She's standing up pretty well but not walking. It's tough judging Brenden's demeanor until I see him with other kids. Brenden seems to be more introverted (uh-oh). I have never seen him try to take anything from another kid (though he'll wrestle with me for the remote all the time). Emma tried to take a toy away from him (her mom stopped and admonished her). What interested me most was when Emma pushed him aside (he was sitting and toppled over) to get at a toy (it wasn't a deliberate push - he was just in the way). Brenden started crying, which I found odd - the cat could push him over incedentally, he could bonk his head off the ground, and he will laugh about it (and tackle the cat). I can't fathom his reaction to Emma. Did she scare him?

Sunday and Mondays were mirrors of Saturday with no Gumbo: playing, a little walking outside, a lot of pool time, and some dancing. Yeah, he's dancing! Well, he likes to play a song on one of his toys, then he'll look at me - if I smile and start clapping, he'll laugh, stand up, and clap and bend his knees up and down. It's awful cute.

The Happy Couple

The Happy Couple
Originally uploaded by nheiges.

This past weekend I made it to my friend Alan's wedding. I'm so glad I made it but I totally hosed up by not taking a day off on Monday. I hosed that up because I simply don't have any vacation time left. Piss poor planning on my part. I also messed up by leaving my camera at mom's so I will have to rip off other people's photos for any blog entries (thanks, Nancy!).

I did snap some photos of my mom's place, which I shall post as soon as I find the time. Mom was happy to see Brenden and B did remarkably well there even though he tried to dig up some plants and bust open a bottle of wine. He only ate a few rocks and woodchips as well as a little dirt. Mom fed him cheese so he decided she was cool.

As for the wedding - it was pretty spiffy. I was nervous as I always am in a social situation where I don't really know anyone (everyone I did know was in the wedding party). Alan's mom remembered me even though we hadn't seen each other since Alan and I were in college together. The first time I got to see Helly she was walking down the aisle and I must say she chose a very beautiful and elegant wedding dress. She walked down the aisle to a cover of "Kashmir" which was different. She also chose elegant looking dresses for her 2 bridesmaids - the dresses had sleeves and no butt bows which I think is a first in recorded history (not true I kid! - the dresses Nancy had for her wedding were nice, too). The gents wore tuxes, but the sharpest dressed there was Lachelle, who was one of Alan's groomspersons. Somebody better post pics!

I was amused by how many people greeted me with "oh, yeah! The skydiver!" when I introduced myself as Alan's friend. I was totally flattered, however, by the people who knew me from reading my blog (hi, Mikey!).

The food was tasty and the Guinness was cold and I got to exchange maybe 4 words with Helly. I feel really bad I didn't stay longer, but then again I'm happy I made the effort to go. It would have been easy to make an "I'm too busy" excuse. As Alan pointed out, Alan, Mark (and Nancy), and I made it to each other's weddings. "The circle is complete".

Congratulations many times over, Alan and Helly. I will do my best to get back over there soon so I can spend some real time with my old (and new) friends.

Letter to Brenden Month 11

GoofyB
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

You are almost a year old and you have done more leaping development in the last month. You walk just fine now - you rarely fall down unless you come across an uneven surface. When we were at your grandparents' place we really enjoyed watching you navigate over the threshold of a door (very carefully). Ilu is highly impressed that you don't want to hold someone's hand while you walk.

You can do some limited sorting - you can put a round toy into a round hole - you can't handle anything with corners yet. I get thrilled though when I demonstrate something to you and you try to do it - this mostly concerns putting something into something else. You also like to play with my hairbrush and try to brush my hair, or yours, or the cat's. Sometimes you like to try to put the hairbrush in my mouth or in the cat's butt. Fortunately you haven't succeeded on either count.

Your love of water amuses us all. I can let you play in the bathtub forever and you would stay. I wish the pool were warmer. I am going to get you a kiddie pool for your birthday.

You like to clap your hands and shake your head. When you first shook your head, your dad and I were a little freaked until I read that kids just like to do that because it feels neat. I would write about something else you do that feels neat when I change your diaper but I don't want to duly embarrass you when you finally get old enough to read this. You clap your hands because of that freakin' Baby Tad sing-along doll that sings "when you're happy and you know it clap your hands..."

You don't really say anything resembling english yet, although sometimes you will repeat 'mama' or 'dada' if we say it first.

Oh, yeah. You are ticklish. You poor child! Don't tell anybody.

My Family

family
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday Bill Paxton,
Happy birthday to you!

Waiting for Breakfast

Waiting for Breakfast
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

We're back from Oklahoma, where I had no internet access and watched far less TV than I normally do. We were going to take the Cessna, but bad weather forced us to drive. It's a ten-hour trip and Brenden was surprisingly good. He fussed some but he had no breakdowns.

Dad and Ilu's place is pretty much finished except some work in the kitchen. It is gorgeous, and the best part of the trip for me was sitting on the porch in the back yard and listening to the birds twitter. It was cold, which was a surprise.

Brenden had a great time when he discovered the dog's water bowl. He loved splashing it all over the place. When he got wet, I would strip him down to nothing and keep filling the bowl for him to splash. He actually tried to sit in it which promted us to buy him a little kiddie pool. The kid is part polar bear, I swear! He sat in that damn thing until he shivered but he loved being in the water. I'm thinking of buying him a little pool here for when I don't want to get wet.

Jon and I took dad's 4-wheelers up the side of a mountain (what passes for a mountain in Oklahoma that is). Scary but fun! I have to thank Dad and Ileana both for putting up with us, as well as Brenden's 2am crying sessions.

I owe a letter to Brenden, which I shall get to soon. I have a busy catch-up week.

Best Friends

Best Friends
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Just a quick note - B, Jon and I are heading to Oklahoma for vacation for the next week. I'll be sure to take lots of bad photos!

Hello!

Hello!
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Monkey-boy smells pretty good. When his diaper isn't loaded, that is.

Random Non-sequitur Photo

Old Junk
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

The Revenge of the Sinus Infection

I wrote a few months back about having a bad sinus infection. It has not cleared up all the way, and I wonder how long I have actually had it. I'm beginning to think I have had sinus problems since before Brenden was born.

Why? Because I finally talked to a doctor about it yesterday, when I went in about my sinuses again. Apparently a symptom for a chronic infection is a loss of a sense of smell. I told my doctor that my ability to smell has become completely null, and I know this because I can put my nose in close proximity to one of Brenden's messier diapers and can't get even a faint whiff. In the meantime my husband, who is in the other room, is making gagging noises from the odor.

If I had to lose one of my five senses, smell would be my choice but I sure do miss it. Is there anything better than the smell of fresh garlic and onions being sauteed in olive oil? And many women have come up to Brenden and just stuck their noses in his hair, breathed deeply, and sighed: "I just love the way babies smell!"

I wouldn't know, I have never smelled him.

I can't smell cut grass, the cat's fur, or a burning candle. I can't smell anything I'm cooking, and that means I can't really taste it either. Of all things it makes me feel lonely.

So self-pity aside, I honestly thought I was losing my ability to smell because of my age. Now it looks like it is the infection, which means there's a cure (hooray!). The doctor prescribed me a more aggressive antibiotic treatment, along with a gentle decongestand, an orally ingested steroid (Prednisone, natch) and Rhiniocort, a corticosteroid. The latter I'm already taking (in the form of Nasonex). He said if it doesn't clear up this time he's going to refer me to a specialist.

The good news is this morning, I got into my car and realized it smelled like cold Burger King onion rings (Why? I don't eat those). I got to work, made a cup of coffee, and remembered how atrocious the coffee is at work because it smells like burnt ass. I put some Tropical Coconut lotion on my hands and I can smell it!

I'm already planning to cook something for dinner that requires me to saute garlic and onions, and I'm really looking forward to smelling Brenden. Even if his diaper is dirty.

Nothing to do with Monkey-Boy

Monday 24
Originally uploaded by Tiffany Velez.

This post has nothing to do with Brenden. I've written almost exclusively about my son since he was born, and then there were those 9 months that I was pregnant. I think it's time I diversify.

Here's my review of An Unfinished Life. Every once in a while the Cinemablend review staff will have screeners available for review. I always volunteer for screeners - free movies! Plus you never know you might get something good. Like a copy of a movie with your favorite redhead.

Except for one offhand comment about his royal hotness, I didn't make much mention of his role in the movie. It was a small role, and he played an abusive piece of white trash. I was happy when Robert Redford kicked him in the nuts, and I was kind of hoping the bear would come along and eat him. Still, it was nice to see him in a relatively new movie.

My viewing habits are shifting towards tv shows lately. Since Battlestar Galactica won't be back with new shows until November, the Sci-Fi channel is showing Doctor Who in its place. I haven't watched the show since the Tom Baker / Peter Davison days. Thanks to CGI and a bit better budget, this time around the good doctor's special effects are a whole new class of cheese. I'm sorry Chris Eccleston only played the Doctor for one season, because he did a super job. He brings the doctor's cheerfulness to the right pitch - just a tad on the manic side.

We finally broke down and are now subscribing to HBO simply because I didn't want to wait two frackin' years for the last season of The Sopranos to come out on DVD. I still don't like anyone on the show, well not totally, but anything mob-related is like catnip to me.

The good thing about this show is that the mob guys are such evil idiots. Unfortunately just about everyone else (FBI, non-mob bystanders, Tony's family) are idiots as well.

We're still watching 24 even though it went way beyond silly a long time ago. I accept it for what it is and it's an enjoyable way to spend a Monday. I applaud Fox for deciding to run the show on uniterrupted consecutive weeks. Now if only the folks responsible for Lost would do the same.

This season I'm suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because every character I ever liked (except 2) has been killed off. Everyone has Dead Pools, and it's not a matter of who will die, it's how soon.

And then of course there's American Idol. The great fun of the evening is trying to guess how drunk/stoned Paula Abdul is. It's fun to make snarky comments about the contestants but sometimes getting through the show can be a real chore. Thank goodness for my TiVo remote.

Television Without Pity recaps AI and the poor bastard that has to write those recaps must be suffering from brain damage. His recaps have an almost hallucinatory, stream-of-conciousness quality to them. I was dismayed when I learned that he was to start covering Battlestar Galactica but he's doing a terrific job. He loves that show, and he's actually a quite passionate, articulate writer. I highly recommend his BG recaps.

So we have learned:
Battlestar Galactica: Quality, compelling television!
American Idol: Destroys brain cells!
24: If you don't watch, Jack Bauer will shoot your WIFE!

Walking

Walking
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Brenden and I had our first (of many to come, I am sure) War of the Wills this weekend. He's just tall enough to reach a knob on our stereo receiver. Instead of putting it higher to where he can't reach it, I decided to try to instill some discipline. I kept saying "no", moving him away, and trying to distract him, but he would inevitably walk/crawl right back and start fiddling again. It got to the point where I would stand in front of the receiver and then he would bitch at me while trying to push me out of the way.

Eventually, and I mean some times it took 5 minutes or longer, he would go find something else to do. But he would try again later on and the whole process would be repeated. Finally around 7 last night he did it again, and I said "you know what, Brenden? I don't care. Have fun."

He fiddled, looked at me, fiddled, looked at me, fiddled, then he lost interest and walked away. That whole sequence took less than 30 seconds. Sheesh, kid!

We are going outside in the back yard more. I am letting him go wherever he wants as he is showing less inclination at shoving strange things in his mouth. Matter of fact the only thing I removed from his mouth this time was a rock. After playing in the grass for a while he decided to investigate the pool. I had a grip on the back of his shirt - I figured if he lost his balance I could keep him from falling in.

What I was not prepared for was his attempt to do a gainer right into the pool. He got halfway in before I got my other arm under him and pulled him out. He was too shocked to cry, plus he was busy coughing up that water he tried to breathe. He cried some but no hysterics. I got him dried off and changed with little fuss. On one hand it was pretty funny - you should have seen that look on his face! I think he thinks it's one big bathtub.

On the other hand, if he ever gets outside without me knowing it, he will most likely head straight for the pool and fall in. That's a sobering thought. I'm going to buy a door alarm plus some better latches for the screen door. Damn, I better lo-jack Brenden while I'm at it.

The Pool is Open!

swimming
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I found a nifty floatie for B at Target yesterday. It was warm enough to try out. It's still a mite chilly but we had fun.

Brenden's bipedal skills have sharpened immensely since he took his first steps. If you are so inclined (or just bored) you can take a look at some of them here.

Mowing the Cat

Mowing the cat
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I'm sorry this pic isn't centered very well. I bought Brenden a push toy for a walker and he has fun with it. He tends to push it until he hits something, then he bitches and keeps pushing until I help him turn it. Stubborn lad.

I wish I could remember what blog I read that linked to this song. I spent the weekend singing it to Brenden and using the cats as unwilling demonstation subjects. It is stuck in my head, of course.

Brenden is trying to walk! He will let go of the furniture and take 3 - 5 steps and fall down. It was a fun weekend.

BSG Voting Slip

BSG Voting Slip
Originally uploaded by CharlieBrown.

Sweet animal crackers, Lileks has outdone himself this time. And the great thing about it none of his commentary makes it funnier. The ad just speaks volumes for itself.

I know I haven't made any comments about season 2b of Battlestar Galactica. It was damn good, with the cliffhanger from season 2a resolved rather dramatically.

Things we learned in 2b:

1)Being a Pegasus officer is a form of suicide. Hopefully not for Commander Adama, who is now in charge. No, not Bill Adama, who is Admiral Adama now. Lee Adama is the Head Cheese. Him and his new squeeze Dualla.

2)Starbuck goes back to Caprica and rescues Anders. They're married!

3)Boomer 1.0 (the one who shot Adama) and the Model Six who seduced Gaius way back in the miniseries both have been downloaded into new bodies and thanks to their contact with humanity, think the Cylons made a big mistake in destroying humanity and are trying to change things in Cylon society.

4)2 episodes dealt with the squicky subject of Ab0rt*0n. I applaud the writers for not siding with either side of the issue, but merely using it to point out how politicians use the subject to manipulate voters.

5)Speaking of politicians, Baltar is now president of the Colonies. Laura is now a schoolteacher again. Baltar sucks as a president, which shouldn't surprise anyone.

6)Speaking of Laura, she is cured of her incurable cancer. It really doesn't matter how; like many fans I really didn't care all I know is she didn't die. Yet.

7)Speaking of dying, Boomer 2.0 and Helo's daughter was born premature. Roslin decided it would be a big mistake to let a Cylon raise the cybrid so they stole the baby and told Boomer her kid was dead. That's not going to end well.

8)Speaking of ending well, the fleet found a hospitable planet and everybody but a skeleton crew(s) are living there.

9)The Cylons find it too.

10)Because of Boomer 1.0 and Caprica Six, the Cylons don't blow the little colony to smithereens; instead they are keeping it like a little people zoo. I think that's called a 'reservation'. Or maybe a 'concentration camp'.

11) The latest cylon model looks suspiciously like Al from Quantum Leap.

I want to bang on the drum all day

drum
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I wish I had taken a 'before' photo of the pool because it's starting to look really good. It's a balmy 70 degrees right now so I'm not going to do any swimming yet.

The pool pump had problems over the weekend - just a wiring problem that Jon fixed yesterday - but I went out to look at it on Sunday but instead of trying to fix the pump I decided to commit genocide on a colony of ants who had taken up residence near the pump. Despite the high-powered hose those bastards came back. Jon dug them up and added gasoline on Monday. I wonder if they got the message?


If you look closely at this picture you might see a light blue easter bunny. Dad and Ileana stopped by on their way back to Oklahoma and they brought this toy. If you press it's foot it starts singing 'Here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail, hippity hoppity Easter's on it's way...."

Brenden of course gets a big kick out of it and tries to attack it whenever I start the song playing.

And by attack I mean he gets a big smile on his face and lunges at the bunny and starts mouthing its face and drooling on it. It took me a while to understand his behavior.

It occured to me on Sunday. What do I do when I'm playing with him? I'll play, then all of a sudden I'll be overwhelmed with mommy hormones and I'll smile, sweep him up in a big hug, and plant kisses all over his face.

Brenden is merely imitating me. Except I don't drool. Much.

Smiley

Smiley
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I hope your Friday wasn't as fun as ours. I had to leave work early to pick up B from daycare - all the schools were letting our early because of the impending weather.

It didn't really strike until about 9 pm, and from then until midnight, I spent the night glued to the T.V. watching the approaching line of storms. I also spent a good deal of that time in pants-wetting terror because the tornado sirens in town kept going off.

Look, if it was just me at home, I'd pop a beer and find a baseball game to watch. But I had my 10-month old snoring in my arms, and I kept wondering what the hell I would do if a tornado did hit?

Of course I was ready to go into the hallway with something heavy to cover us, but what if something happened to me? Would the rescue people find Brenden before he got hurt? What if he did get hurt but I was unconcious or dead?

Bleah.

Brenden at the DZ

Brenden at the DZ
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

If it's April it must be time to start working on the pool!

Halfway through March the pool looked pretty decent, with just a thick layer of leaves on the bottom to mar its perfection. I spent a warm afternoon fishing out a bagful of leaves around that time. Not a week later, the weather warmed considerably and the algae bloomed. My beautiful pool turned into a swamp. I should have bought the requisite chemicals right then, but yo soy la slacker so I didn't get around to that until this weekend.

So the algae is dead and the pool is nominally blue but the bottom is now covered with a thick ooze. I turned on the pump to 'waste' and started vacuuming the bottom. When the pump is on waste it just sucks up the water and spits it out with no filtering. If I tried to filter and recirculate, I'd have to shut the pump off and backwash to clear the filter every 5 seconds. As it was the pump was spewing nasty booger-green water. I have barely scratched the surface - I mean the bottom - but it will be a month at least before the pool temperature will be tolerable.

So far I have only worked on the pool if Jon was able to watch Brenden. I'm going to have another go at vacuuming this afternoon if weather permits so I'm going to bring his exersaucer out so I can keep an eye one him. An exersaucer is kind of difficult to describe. He can sit upright in it, turn around, and it has a lot of little squeeky / rattle toys on it that he can play with. One thing he can't do is move it around but just to be safe I think I'll tie it to the patio furniture so that he can't bounce it into the pool.

Speaking of El Jefe:

Letter to Brenden Month 10

Holy crapoly, you're 10 months old! And you're sick again! Will you stop it? If you get sick I get sick! And this time instead of a cold followed by a sinus infection, I have a cold with a sinus infection!

Ah, guilt from mommy. I'm starting early, aren't I? It's a good thing you can't read yet.

So what's new with you? Not much to be honest. I don't really feed you baby food anymore - just the fruit. You are refining your grip so that you don't sqish peas too hard any more. Green beans seem to work better, and you just dig the hell out of goldfish crackers. You like scrambled eggs which is a great quick protein fix. Last night you ate scrambled eggs and peas, most of which you fed yourself. I'm truly sorry that the pool isn't clean yet because you were a mess! It would have been so easy just to grab your ankles and dunk you a couple of times after that.

I'm joking, honey. Partways. But it's cool that you can feed yourself so well.

Your new daycare provider has proven to be a mixed blessing. She opens late and closes early, which means your dad and I have split taking you and retrieving you. I mean mixed because your dad is taking care of you more and just like everything else he attempts he does it well! Sonya took an entire week off for Spring Break and you and dad had a great time!

Our favorite game is 'pass the toys' - I hold out a toy, if it's an animal I make the appropriate animal noises (you have an awful lot of ducks, hon. What's up with that?). You grab it out of my hand and stuff it in your mouth. I move onto another toy and we repeat. You are obsessed with you 'Baby Tad' singing frog - you push a button on his belly and he rewards you with a song. At that point you tackle the frog and start chewing on his lips.

But your favorite toy of all time is the TiVo remote. It's the one remote in the house that rewards you with noises when you press buttons. If I let you play with it all I hear is "kerPLIK kerPLIK BONK BONK BONK bing bing bink plikplikplikplikplikplik BONK BONK BONK" for hours on end. Last night I was just trying to change the freakin' channel to watch American Idol and you started crying hysterically, trying to grab the remote out of my hand. I finally dug through the TiVo menus and found the setting that turns off the TiVo sounds. You're going to hate me forever now, aren't you?

Cousins and Uncles

Cousins and Uncles
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Holy Crap but my last post was lame! Tedious, boring, dull dull dull!

Let me tell you what the Maynard household was like last night. I'm driving home from work, and as I'm about to turn off into our subdivision, I get a text message from Jon: "BRING BEER". So I turn around and head towards Decatur.

Just inside the city limit is a classic gas station/liquor store combination. As I'm paying for my 12-pack of Michelob Light, the owner of the store gives me a free beer. It's a Budweiser Select in one of those aluminum bottles. I guess they aren't selling very well if they have to give them away, but hey a free beer is a free beer.

I get home and I'm greeted by the wail of a 9-month old and the anguished look of a frazzled father. Brenden needed a hug, a bottle, and a diaper change. Then I fed him dinner which consisted of diced chicken (thighs are the best - more flavor plus they don't taste like pencil shavings if you overcook them) and green beans plus the occasional goldfish cracker. I help him eat, as well as chase the cats off (they are eyeing his diced chicken) while I work on my aluminum beer.

Once he's happy (and I'm working on a Michelob), I wash out the aluminum bottle and give it to Brenden. He is absolutely thrilled as he cruises around the room and bonks objects with his new bottle. I have noticed (as many parents have before me) that a child's interest in a toy is inversely proportional to the amount of money spent on it.

Dad & Son

Dad & Son
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Letter to Brenden Month 9
So I'm only 3 weeks late. It's been a hectic Month! This one is going to be short, too.

Brenden, honey - you are still developing at a rapid pace. We have pretty much stopped feeding you baby food, except for some of the fruits. When I change your diapers, you vaccilate between fighting like mad with me and laying still, all happy, with your legs up in the air.

You are cruising pretty well. You can almost make a full circuit of the living room by holding onto things. Matter of fact, you are starting to get bored with just the living room. I hope it turns warm pretty soon, so I can spend some of our weekend afternoons keeping you from eating bugs outside.

Most of all I love how you are starting to sleep through the night. You wake me up occasionally with a 'WHAAA!' but you settle back down pretty fast.

You are so huggable, hon. Don't grow up too fast, ok?

Happy

Happy
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Cutting my teeth on bars
And rusty chains, I’m gonna break my
Rusty cage and run


Now lets see how many hits I get because of Soundgarden. Anyway, here's a pic of el jefe when he was in the hospital earlier this month. As you can see his disposition was unaffected.

Here are my reviews I haven't linked to:

Corpse Bride
Class of 1984
Pulse
Pride & Prejudice
Good Night, and Good Luck.

Some of the grammar and syntax errors really make me cringe. I have been in a hurry lately, as is the editing staff (they are overworked, I am running after my kid).

I am reviewing Everything is Illuminated next - all I know about it is a hobbit stars and that creepy guy from Phantoms directed it.

Ed's Tag

Ed's Tag
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I truly need to start posting more. I have kept writing reviews for Cinemablend but I have been too lazy to post links. I shall do that shortly.

My brother has finally unloaded his Atlanta house and will be moving up to Andover, Massachusetts at the end of this month. That sucks, the skydiving is much better in this part of the country! I wish him and his wife, Jen, well in the People's Republic of Taxachusetts.

Alabamastan is a much better place to live! Unless you want a beer or a sex toy.

And now for a slightly melancholic moment and brief movie review:

When Johnny Cash died I recall making the comment that he must not have wanted to keep fighting because his wife had died. That was just a romantic notion on my part; I knew just enough about Johnny and June to know their romance was legendary.

I finally saw Walk the Line last week and I now wonder if my comment wasn't more true than I believed. If you go by the movie, Johnny Cash was a weak man who just desintigrated when his first marriage went to hell. The pills didn't help either.

I saw Ray and a lot of people have commented on the similarities to the story. The biggest difference of course was that Ray Charles had a very tough streak in him and that's what pulled him through his problems.

If Walk the Line told the truth, if June Carter (and her family) hadn't helped Johnny Cash, we would have lost that legend a *lot* earlier than we did.

The thing I admire most about Ray Charles is his strength. The thing I admire most about Johnny Cash is June Carter Cash. No wonder he passed away only four months after she did.

I can't watch Cash's video for his cover of 'Hurt' without bursting into tears.

Brenden's First Blog Entry

outdoors
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

; jj z] nmoiy79 gy yiuoi;puok fgcxff

Feeding

feeding
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Wow, have *I* been slack!

This week has been pretty hectic - about a month ago I noticed a bump under Brenden's skin when I changed his diaper. I thought it was odd, but it was small so I ignored it.

It remained there, about the same size, but he is due for his 9-month well-baby checkup this coming Monday so I thought I'd point it out to his pediatrician then.

Monday night, howerer, I noticed it had gotten appreciably bigger, so I took him to the doc on Tuesday. She was as puzzled as I was. It wasn't red, and it didn't bother B too much when we poked at it, so she ordered some blood work and made an appointment for us with a pediatric surgeon.

Jon took him to this appointment on Wednesday afternoon. The surgeon took one look at B's bump then at his blood work - his white blood cell count was pretty high - and told Jon to get B admitted to the hospital.

Pook kid was put under and they drained and cleaned what turned out to be an abcess. We had fought mighty hard with diaper rash for a while until a local lady told us about Boudreax's Butt Paste. Yeah, silly name, but that cleared his rash up. Unfortunately the rash had gotten bad enough that he had open sores at one point. Open sores + poop = nothing good.

We got out of the hospital this morning. He was kept on an I.V. for the administration of antibiotics - plus we were there for so long becuase they wanted to rule out a staph infection (staphylococcus aureus - there's words to strike fear in any parents' hearts!).

Turns out it was plain old e. coli.

Brenden did a phenomenal job of staying confined to a hospital crib for 2 + days. Apparently (and I'm totally projecting here) he inherited some of my easygoingness along with his dad's charm and exuberance.

So anyway, I owe a Letter Month 9 which I hope to get to soon. Brenden is currently tearing up our computer room so I know he's none the worse for wear.

Top Down

top down
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I love this photo of Brenden!

My computer's CPU took a dump sometime last week. I'm pissed.

I also have a sinus infection. I went to see the doc yesterday - I was tested for strep throat then they took X-Rays of my noggin. The doc told me the infection was 'pretty nasty' and that my maxillary sinuses were 'filled with pus'.

Ew ew ew ew ew!

I have this vision now of someone giving me a bear hug and my head exploding like a huge zit.

I just need the flu or bronchitis now and I will win Winter Season Bingo.

Dad and Son Day

son and dad 3
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Yesterday Jon took care of Brenden while I worked. This time it went pretty smoothly because Jon knew to devote the entire day to Brenden, and to not even pretend to try to get any work done.

We had Hamburger Helper last night, only with deer meat. Doesn't that sound like a "You might be a redneck if.." joke that Jeff Foxworthy rejected? Actually we have a freezer full of deer meat. A friend had a banner year deer hunting, and he gave us a deer and all we had to do was pay for processing.

I know some people blanch at eating wild game, but I have a simple philosophy: "If it's dead it's groceries".

Rocker

Rocker
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

After sending an email to Nancy explaining the missing word in my post below (I'll fix it eventually), I figured I better post something to cheer her up.

Enjoyed our Vacation

Sleep 2
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Happy Valentine's day, everyone.

As you can see, Brenden and I got caught up on our rest in Oklahoma.

I'm somewhat upset today - our daycare provider is closing up shop and becoming a loan officer at a bank. Jon and I spent yesterday looking at other daycare options. We found someone surprisingly close; I'm just not sure I like her as much as I like Shayne but I guess that remains to be seen.

We saw one place and I'm still bothered how the kids looked more like herded cows than kids. Brenden would never get the attention he deserves in a place like that.

I was listening to the news on the radio and heard a story about some woman who killed her baby by cutting off her arms. What the hell is wrong with people?

Climbing mom's leg

Climbing mom's leg
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Here's my latest movie review.

Letter to Brenden Month 8

Well my darling little child: I just reread the month 7 letter; at this time last month you weren't even crawling! Just last night you were chasing the cat. He tried to maintain a dignified but hurried walk but after the 3rd time you grabbed his tail he took off running with a huffy "Meow!".

I spent this last week trying to keep you from knocking your brains out of your skull. Most of the time I was successful but every once in a while you'd fall down and go "bonk". I'm impressed by your collection of bumps, bruises, and scratches. And the foam bumper thingies I bought for the coffee table and fireplace have already paid for themselves.

Speaking of the coffee table - last night you stood in front of the table facing your dad and I. We were eating our shrimp fettucini alfredo and occasionally feeding you a small piece of pasta. I swear once we get back from vacation I'm going to start planning meals around things you can eat with us. We'll see how well that goes.

You have also once again decided you don't want to use a binky. You started up again when your two front teeth started to make their move. Now that they are through the gum line you spit it out. I'm almost sorry because giving you a binky at 2 in the morning would usually put you back to sleep. Now I just have to let you sit there and bitch because no one will let you out of your cage. Oy! I'm so tired....

4 things meme

Sunday Morning
Originally uploaded by Iguana Mama.

Nancy tagged me with the "4 Things" meme. Here goes:

4 jobs I've held:

1)Software programmer
2)Pager repairer
3)Pizza delivery person (for 1 whole day!!)
4)Breakfast cook at Mrs. Winners

4 Movies I can watch over and over:
1)Aliens
2)Jaws
3)Dawn of the Dead (original)
4)Toy Story

4 Places I have lived:
1)Isla Verde, Puerto Rico
2)Stone Mountain, Georgia
3)Statesboro, Georgia
4)Decatur, Alabama

4 TV shows I love:
1)Battlestar Galactica (new one)
2)24
3)Lost
4)Spongebob Squarepants

4 places I've vacationed:
1)St. John, USVI
2)London, England
3)Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
4)Playa Azul, Costa Rica

4 favorite dishes:
1)Arroz con pollo
2)Buffalo Wings
3)Kung Pao Chicken
4)Puerto Rican Roast Pork

4 sites I visit every day:
I visit a lot of blogs but I thought I'd keep those out.
1)Sluggy Freelance
2)CinemaBlend
3)Instapundit
4)Virgin Islands On-Line (forum)

4 places I'd rather be:
1)At home with my son
2)My dad's place in Oklahoma
3)Cinnamon Bay beach, St. John, USVI
4)At home with my son

I'd tag my brother Edward, but that slacker hasn't updated his blog in *months*!

PS: the photo is of Cinnamon Bay.

More Brenden Blatherings

Droopy Pants
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Hey, it's the beginning of a new month. as far as my weight goes, I am finally past the 150 psychological barrier. I weighed in at 148.4 this morning. Woo-hoo!

My goal for February is around or about 143. Then I won't be too far from my prepregnancy weight of 140.

I looked back in my postings and I had porked out somewhat just before we went on vacation to Costa Rica. So the good news is I'm not too far away from wearing my old clothes, but the bad news is that when I hit 140, I'll still have 10 pounds to go.

Oh, yeah. I was going to blather about Brenden, wasn't I? Very well: 2 nights ago B and I were taking our bath when I realized one of his (many) rubber ducks was listing to port. I realized he must have taken on water (the duck, not B), so I picked it up and squeezed it.

The duck made a rather disgusting noise as water gushed out of the small hole on its bottom. Brenden started giggling. So I filled the duck up and squirted him with it. All of a sudden he was just laughing his little butt off!

Dad heard the commotion and came in and checked in on us. He took command of the duck and squirted both of us for a while as Brenden had the time of his life. It was so cute!

It wasn't so cute last night, when he woke up at 1:30 and refused to go back to sleep. Usually he does, but I could tell by the way he was complaining it wasn't going to be easy. I let him get up after a long 15 minutes of howling and gave him some water. I got tired of him pulling my hair so I put him back in his crib and he stood up and wailed for another good block of time.

I got up again and held him, hoping he had tired himself out. He had, and I let him fall asleep in my lap and put him back in bed without a complaint at about 3am. B, I love you honey but mom has to go to get up at 5! Jon was nice enough to get out of bed at 5:30 to let the howler monkey out of its cage so that I could catch a little extra sleep.