15 Month Update

Without much fanfare Noah turned 15 months old on Monday.  I know, perhaps some fanfare was deserved, but since we spent all of the last week sick (p.s., Tim finally did end up coming down with the bug over the weekend at some point), I was just so glad to have a quiet Mommy/Noah day that I didn't want to stir the pot so to speak.  As is typical of the every 3 month interval we have going on here, we were off to the pediatrician's office this morning for the 15 month well-baby visit.  It was pretty good timing given that he had just been there the week before quite sickly and its always nice to have an ear re-check to make sure the antibiotics are working and progress is being made in the right direction.  We had our first appointment with a new nurse practitioner, and let me say she is not my favorite.  I will be asking for the other N.P. in the future.  She was nice and all, but she was a bit of an alarmist, and that my friends is exactly the type of medical professional that I desperately need to avoid!  She asked the typical developmental type questions about his eating habits, what are his favorite toys to play with, does he walk, what words does he say, does he point at things to communicate, and then she asked if he could point to at least one or two of his own body part when asked to identify it.  Tim and I looked at each other and couldn't come up with the answer she wanted.  I said that the reason he doesn't point is because its not something we talk about a lot around the house.  I figured that he would eventually pick up on the words in the course of dressing or playing or something and that it wasn't necessary to draw up a daily lesson plan on identifying the parts of a wee man.  Apparently I was mistaken, as said woman looked disapprovingly at both Tim and I when we said Noah didn't know his body parts yet.  Well, excuse me, I'll be sure to accurately mark on his college applications that he was a slow body part learner and didn't get it until 16 months instead of 14 months.  Phew, I am going to lose sleep at night over the guilt of that one.  So, I guess now I should start actually telling him about his own toes and his belly and his nose and things like that, and if I really want to freak Tim out, I could get some cute little body part flash cards and we can strap the kid down to make extra sure he passes the "test" at the 18 month check-up in a few months!

On a side note, while said alarmist was examining the wee dude, she freaked out that she heard a heart murmur and asked us to wait around so the doctor could listen to it.  So we waited, and waited, and waited (since the doctor wasn't schedule to see us that morning after all) and while we waited I began to worry.  Perhaps she wasn't being alarmist, maybe this was something serious, I mean she even mentioned a potential appointment with the pediatric cardiologist.  Thankfully, when the doctor did finally find a few minutes to see us, he listened and said something about a mild rumbling type murmur.  He said it sounded like nothing at all and wanted to personally check back up on it at the 18 month appointment.  For now I have ceased with the panicking, but lest you think I have actually learned anything over the course of my life, I reserve the right to panic about it in the future should it become a more pressing issue.  You have been warned! ;)

And the ever important statistics

Weight: 22 lbs, 14 oz  (25%; only 8 oz up from 12 month appt. - scrawny little dude)

Height: 32" (75%; up 1 inch from 12 month appt.)

Head: 49 cm (91%; up 1 cm from 12 month appt. - still got a huge noggin)

Noah, Where's Charlie?

Noah has adopted a new lovey.  His name is Charlie and he is a stringy (slightly homely if I must be honest) little stuffed monkey.  He and Charlie are the best of friends.  Charlie was the chosen one.  Literally.  Noah and I were on a brief shopping excursion to TJ Maxx to try and find a duplicate of the beloved blankie.  As I was checking out the selection I bent down to confer with Noah on a particular option.  In his had is this stuffed monkey.  I asked him where he got it, he pointed to the shelf, and then clutched the monkey tight to his chest loving on him and asserting his desire to keep said creature.  After a few failed attempts to distract him (attempting the old and time honored bait and switch technique) and return the monkey to its home on the shelf (each attempt met with wails of protest), I surveyed the tag attached.  It said $3.  Oh for pete's sake, why am I fighting with this child over a few dollars?  So the monkey came home with us and has rarely left his side ever since.  He is carried and cuddled and patted lovingly on the tush.  Tim assigned him the name Charlie and apparently Noah approves since he will point to him or run over and grab him whenever he is asked, "Noah, where is Charlie?"  Charlie has been with us for a little over a month and has been thrown up on, peed on, and shoved into diaper regions without complaint.  He is a faithful monkey friend, the best one a wee man could ask for! :)

So sick :(

Remember back last week when I said something about being jealous of Tim's vacation week that he was getting to spend with the wee man?  I would like to partially retract that statement.  While I am indeed jealous of the theoretical free time to play and hang out with the little dude, the practical reality of the week has been far from ideal.   I already mentioned that last weekend ended with Noah and a fever on Sunday.  We went out for a walk around Harvard Square to get some sun and fresh air. I was secretly hoping that some time strapped down in the stroller would under handedly provide him with some much needed rest.  He is a little boy on the go lately and few things stop him.  If he is strapped down with some scenery flying by him, he tends to stay fairly still (most of the time).  He seemed to not be doing too bad by the time we put him to bed, definitely not himself, certainly looking on the sick side, but nothing alarming.  By Monday morning he looked pretty darn good.  The fever seemed to have subsided, but by the afternoon he was spiking the fever again and collapsed on the floor in utter despair.  After scooping him up, he sat with me on the couch under blankies for the rest of the evening.  No coaxing dinner into him, and he spit up a bit of his evening bottle.  After a 12:30am wake up and more burning up, I hauled him into bed with us so we could keep a better eye on him.  As a side note, how the child actually gets any sleep with all of the flailing and readjusting and flopping around is seriously beyond me, but anyway.  When Tuesday rolled around, there was much of the same, no improvement and by now I am starting to get a bit concerned.  He is getting really congested and is now starting up with a pretty intimidating sounding cough.  On day 4 of the fever, Wednesday, I called the pediatrician's office and Tim brought him in to get the once over.  We didn't get to see any of the members of our regular team, but the urgent care doctor immediately pronounced an ear infection.  (Not a bad track record, 2 ear infections in almost 15 months).  She also expressed concern over his pattern of breathing, apparently most kids spend proportionally more time exhaling than inhaling and Noah was doing the opposite.  Um, did you hear the heinous cough on him lady???  While we were not given any official diagnosis, I have had bronchitis enough to know it when I see it.  If the wee dude didn't have it, I will eat my words.  Obviously not worth fighting over since he was getting the antibiotics for the ear infection anyway.  So we are now proud owners of 2 whole bottles of the bright pink bubble gum medicine.  Ten days worth of it, 3 times a day.  We finally got rid of the dreaded month long diaper rash, let's hope the medicine doesn't result in a relapse.  

On a related note, I am now the proud owner of whatever germs Noah started up with.  Oh joy and rapture!  Mine started on Monday, with that "not so great" feeling and a tiny bit of congestion.  It carried on through Tuesday and Wednesday and yesterday it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I am officially 100% miserable and am sitting on the couch taking my first sick day in I can't even remember how long.  Most of the time I can pull through and at least get myself to my desk and hang out there quietly.  Today the congestion is so bad that I feel as though an overweight pachyderm may be residing on my forehead.  So not cool given our plans to go to Maine for the weekend.  We'll probably still make it, what's the difference between sitting on this couch and the one up there?  After all, I have a very greatly needed appointment for a hair cut up there with Pam tomorrow morning.  Hopefully I can pull myself together enough to get in the car and sleep the hour and a half up there.  Sadly, not the week Tim anticipated having hanging out with Noah and having fun, but I guess there is always the bright side that no one had to take random sick days off from work to look after the ailing wee man.  Here's hoping for a MUCH healthier vacation week in August.

He was so yucky feeling on Tuesday night that he literally fell asleep on the changing table as we were getting him ready for bed.  Poor little dude!

 

Its beginning to look like spring!

We have been having a great weekend, enjoying the weather and having a bit of adult time without the little dude for an afternoon/early evening.  Saturday we got out of the house early for a couple of errands and to get some magnets for the wee man to play with in the hopes of keeping him entertained in the kitchen while we clean up or make meals.  It has been somewhat of a success in that he loves the toy we got him, it is magnetic, it sings cute little songs, but he pulls it off the door (the back door out to the deck) and carries it around the house while he causes mayhem and destruction where we can't keep our eyes out for him.  So, while we were indeed successful in finding him an engaging magnetic toy, we failed miserably in keeping the child stationary.  Oh well, can't win them all.  For now, we'll just continue to divide and conquer, one person can cook and/or clean up while the other follows around the miniature tornado and picks up the path of destruction that inevitably follows him.  We had a quiet and successful later morning nap on Saturday in the hopes of helping Ali to avoid a crankpot overtired Noah later that evening.  Ali came over around 3 and we showed her the basics and let Noah get to know her a bit before we took off.  Noah watched us leave and didn't seem to mind the fact that we left him to hang out with Ali.  Ali reported that he had a few fussy spots, but once he found Charlie (the new lovey of choice...a post on Charlie will be coming soon!), all was right with his world.  They had a snack and dinner, took a couple of walks and we arrived back home just in time to finish helping to clean up a big messy diaper and get him in his footie pjs and off to bed.  

While we were out, we got a chance to talk to each other about adult topics, we tried to avoid spending the entire outing talking about Noah, which we were pretty successful in doing.  I got to do a little spring wardrobe shopping and then we went out to dinner.  The dinner was good, we had each an amazing mango mojito, but we both agreed that we missed eating out at Magarita's.  Perhaps we will hit them up with or with out Noah next time we are up in Maine!

Today we woke up to a less than healthy Noah, poor dude.  Its almost as if he gets something every other week or so lately.  He was fairly congested at the end of the week, but it was pretty harmless given that was the only problem.  Saturday morning he woke up with a bit of a "barky" sounding cough that quickly cleared once he woke up for the day.  This morning he was up at 6am, I changed him up and he still looked exhausted, so into the bed with me he went.  He didn't start causing trouble in there until 7:30am!  It is very unusual for him to actually go back to sleep when he comes into our bed, usually it is prime trouble making time once he hits our mattress!  Not this morning, it was sleep and lots of it.  He was fairly touchy all morning, he ate breakfast well and then at about 9:15 or so he sat in Tim's lap with his blankie and Charlie for quite sometime looking at books.  When he started laying his head down on Tim's lap, we tried to get him comfortable.  I ended up with him on his pillow on the couch.  Before we could even start decided whether to get him a bottle, he fell sound asleep!!  This is a HUGE anomaly in this house.  Noah never just goes to sleep when he is tired, usually he fights it tooth and nail until you whip out the big guns (a la bottle filled with warm milk) and he caves eventually.  For him to lay down willingly, and go to sleep with no bottle, something had to be up.  I had a hunch it was a fever or heading there when I put him to sleep in the crib.  Three hours later!!!!  He wakes up and is on fire with a 103 fever.  Poor little guy!  We gave him some Motrin and some lunch and decided the best way to get him to rest is to strap him down...in the stroller that is.  It was gorgeous out, so we headed out for a walk around Harvard Square.  We checked out the children's bookstore and I got a few minutes to look at some beads at Beadworks.  Hopefully the fresh air and exercise for us did some good.  

This is Tim's vacation week, so we have tomorrow to hang out too.  I'll finish the 4 loads of laundry and perhaps we'll go grocery shopping.  For now the wee dude is sleeping, but he has already woken up at least 3 times fussing (and putting himself back to sleep thankfully) in the 4 hours he has been down.  Let's hope it doesn't turn out to be a rough night, but just in case, I am off to bed.

Job Front Update

I have a one word summary of my experience on the job market this year...BOOOO. I know very mature given that I am looking to find a professorial position at a post-secondary educational institution, but seriously. I applied to 13 jobs all of which I felt were a really good fit for me. They were all roughly in the New England region, they were at smaller, mostly private liberal arts colleges. They were places were I could see myself staying for the remainder of my career and where I felt like I would be happy. I got letter after email after letter saying one of the following things:
"We're sorry, due to budgetary limitations, we are unable to continue the hiring process this year, we will keep your application on file in the hopes of reopening the search next year."

"Thank you for your interest in the position, the quality of applications was outstanding. We have filled the position with a candidate who is not you and whose research and background is much more appealing to us than yours." [Thankfully not an exact quote, but you get the idea].

and my personal favorite..."Your research and background is fascinating and we are really excited about the possibility of you joining our department, please come in for an on campus interview!"
"Oh and after the interview, just so you know, we won't contact you for 6 full weeks, and only after you send us a polite email requesting further information about the progress of the search will we tell you that on second thought your research wasn't as interesting as the person we hired, and all the best with your job search process!"

So yes, now I have finally heard from Assumption College, they hired someone else and took their dear sweet time in letting me know that (rumor has it that an offer was made on Feb 12th)! I am cranky because face it, I was rejected and am going to have to repeat this process again next year. My "outside of work" life is now put on hold for another year...no house, probably no new car, no thinking about continuing the family, no increased salary. I am disappointed and frustrated and annoyed that they took so long to wish me good luck on the job search process, which is now over for another academic year (so I guess they meant good luck next year???). I am all of those feelings above, but most of all I am scared...with the economy in such disarray, I am not the only person not getting a job this year, meaning the competition will be even stiffer next year. I am scared that I will have invested all of this time and effort into my education only to not be able to get a job I will be happy with. I am ready to settle down in a more permanent way. While I like my job here, its not a forever home, and that is what I really need right now.

Whoa, were does the rage come from?

So I have a continuation story related to the barrel of crazy that resides upstairs from us!  She lost it completely last weekend...thankfully not due to anything we have done this time (hey, there is always next time when we can be counted on to drive her to the psych ward).  It was a gorgeous weekend weather-wise around here and many people were outside airing themselves and their cars out.  The people next door were cleaning out the inside of their car in their driveway.  Mind you it was 11:30am on a Sunday.  While they were cleaning, they were enjoying some tunes, rather loudly I will admit, but to each his own.  Noah was napping through it all, so it therefore wasn't bothering me any.  Sure there was some bass thumping, but the windows weren't rattling and the lyrics contained no profanity (these are early 40s age people with a 7 year old we are talking about).  So the music continues for about 15-20 minutes or so.  At this point, I went over to the window to double check that it really was who I though it was since they are normally such quiet people.  At just about that exact moment, the previously discussed unfortunate woman from upstairs comes flying out her door screaming all sorts of obscenities at said car cleaning neighbors.  I was a little taken back, I mean she herself has to be around mid-40s or so and she was dropping the "F" bomb multiple times in a 2 minute period.  There was no kind request to simple lower the volume, no discussion over the perhaps excessive volume of their music interrupting her presumed very busy work...nope, she just flew out the door and started on with the stream of profanity and the outright demands to turn down the "F-ing" music!!  Wow, I thought to myself, is this how she normally communicates with people?  Where did she learn this unique technique?  Does it ever actually work for her?  Nah, probably not.  About 15 minutes later a police cruiser pulled up in front of the neighbor's house...yep, the unfortunate crazy woman upstairs actually called a noise complaint on the neighbors for playing music at 11:30 in the morning on the weekend.  Oh to still be under the illusion that the world revolved around me and to be nasty enough to demand the neighbors to follow along with this illusion!  Seriously, can we buy a house yet?

Oh so random...

I have been most uninspired to write things here lately. Partly because I am trying to work two jobs (postdoc research & teaching my class) full time and failing at actually "full timing" either of them. In a normal faculty world, you wouldn't get paid to do both full-time...you would get paid for one job and they would expect you to teach and squeeze in research when you can. Sadly, this is not the case for me...instead I am doing a favor and teaching 1 course on top of my already full-time research gig. Only 7 more weeks to go, not that I am counting. Other reasons for not posting much is that frankly, not much is happening. Here is what we have had going on lately... 

• Saturday was Tim's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!! Feeling a bit guilty that I didn't post on the actual day with a cute little birthday message, but since I was actually out with said birthday person having fun, I think I might be excused! We had a good day, a relaxing morning, an after lunch trip to play at the Children's Museum, some really tasty ordered in pizza, and then we played some Wii (before I fell asleep that is!). I made a very very tasty southern style coconut cake, with vanilla cake layers, but the most amazing coconut creme filling in between the layers. I was told I out did myself...I take that as a high compliment.
• As it was his birthday, and it is customary to get gifts, I feel it is my duty to report that the gift is now threatening to take over the living room. Tim finally got his 32" flat panel LCD HDTV. I shall now refer to it as the shiny atrocity. It is very shiny and very black and very big and I am not a fan of black big shiny things (that is unless they have four wheels and take me around town). I know many disagree with me (that is allowed), but I have never been, nor will I ever be on board with the need to have a big flashy TV. I was really and truly fine with the 19" tube TV that was a leftover from the college dorm years, and I must say I am a little sad to see it head to the basement. Tim is in love (assuming the upgraded cable box will fix the fuzzy picture issue), he loves the shiny atrocity and is quite pleased that his gift certificate/birthday money hoarding has resulted in exactly what he has been itching for over the last 3 years! I maintain my disdain for the shiny atrocity and will continue to do so until such time as we can get an armoire WITH DOORS that will keep the shiny atrocity hidden when not in use. Then perhaps I will stop feeling like I am being taken over. As if the sheer quantity of the wee man's toys in the living room weren't bad enough, now another boy is trying to take over the living room too!!
• Not to jinx myself, but the sleep situation seems to have been a one time occurrence. We had the one bad night, and it has been smooth sailing sleeping through the night Noah back again...THANK YOU SLEEP GODS! Of course now that I have written this, it will all change for the worse again and you'll see another "Please Help Me" post here next week.
• One of the awesome undergrads that works in the lab at work, and who also incidentally helps me out with my course prep type of work, has offered to come over and look after Noah this Saturday so that Tim and I can get out for a long over due date night.  We are planning to go out in the afternoon to do some quiet shopping (without worrying about boring Noah) and then we have a gift certificate for dinner at Cafe Sol Azteca, a mexican place in Newton Corner.  I am sure Noah and Ali will have a great time together and hopefully Tim and I will get a chance to get out a bit more often than once every six months or so! :)
• Nana Lou is on vacation next week, and covering her absence is none other than Daddy! Tim is taking a vacation, not only to enjoy a few well-deserved days off, but also to look after the wee dude for the week.  Hopefully they have a great time together and get out of the house to enjoy some activities.  They may very well just have too much fun without me...wait a minute, now I am jealous!

An open letter to....

Dear Not Nice Woman Living Upstairs from Us* - 

Thank you so very much for the warmth and compassion you have shown us over the past three years.  It is a joy living downstairs from someone we know like the random stranger we might meet in passing in a dark alley.  We greatly enjoy listening to your stomping around with high heels shoes for hours on end that you somehow must feel is punishment for whatever insignificant "neighborly" crime we must have committed that day.  Its also really fun to try to figure out your schedule.  Some days you don't seem to be able to get your unfriendly behind out of bed until midday, while other days you are up banging around before the sun has even cracked the horizon.  We love smelling the rancid meals you cook for yourself on a weekly basis, god only knows if you are eating that stuff its no wonder why you are so cranky.  But most of all, thank you for your patience and empathy while we figure our way out as parents.  It's so comforting to hear the deliberate foot stomping above our heads at 2:30am when Noah is inexplicably screaming.  Its helps the situation greatly I assure you!  In the future I will consider waking up the wee man at odd hours and making him cranky since it seems that you have a chance to get in some exercise and practice your line dancing skills whenever he has a mid-night screamfest.  

We are so glad to have had such a wonderful relationship and thank you for reminding us on a daily basis why we need to buy a SINGLE FAMILY HOME like NOW!

Lots of Love,

The obviously inconsiderate obnoxious family living downstairs 

* I have other choice monikers for her that I do not use in my out loud voice, but given that I am trying set a good role model for the little dude, this less efficient label will have to do.  For your entertainment, please feel free to insert your more appropriate obscenity of choice in its place. 

Holy mother of god!

Well to say that last night was not a successful night of sleep is a major understatement.  Noah woke up at 2am screaming the screams of a war criminal being tortured to death.ever.so.slowly.  Not fun.  I got up to see if he was caught in the crib railing, dangling by a toe nail...was being stabbed, or frankly any other good reason for the extremely disturbing decibel level of the screaming taking place in the next room.  Much to my dismay, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with him other than the fact that I wasn't holding him.  I stood by the crib rail for a bit talking to the wee dude, patting his tush, stroking his hair until he finally laid back down.  I stayed for a few extra minutes to be sure he was really back to sleep and as I was trying to escape the room the gate at his door clicked loudly enough to wake him back up and the screamfest resumed full force.  I picked him up and rocked him a bit, he was sweet, melting into my shoulder so completely that I thought a pry bar would be needed to get him off me.  After about 20 minutes I was starting to get the impression that sleep was not coming to the little dude, so I checked his diaper to be sure there wasn't anything in there (almost completely dry), I took off his sleep sack and brought him into bed with us to attempt to get him back to sleep.  He laid down for a bit and cuddled, but was certainly not going to sleep.  The lack of sleeping turned south into simultaneous kicking Tim and head butting me...not a happy place to say the least.  So off Noah and Daddy went to his room and poor Tim attempted to rock him to sleep.  Things continued to deteriorate and finally we were left with no choice other than putting him back in the crib and letting him scream himself past the point of exhaustion.  An hour and a half after the initial wake up (about 20 minutes after Tim left him in the crib the last time), Noah finally collapsed asleep and I had to pry him out of bed this morning to head to Nana Lou's (God bless that woman...may the force be with her).  He was a crankpot this morning as I was trying to dress him, it took 3 tries to get pants on him and finally a stern talking to ended him in tears, but at least with pants on.  What a mess.  

Phew!  I got that off my chest.  I feel a bit better.  Lest you think that I some how am angry with the little dude or don't love being his mommy, rest assured that is not the case.  He challenges me, yes.  He is an intense little being and certainly is not shy about expressing each and every one of his opinions, but he is also a sweet little thing, so social, and when well rested, so happy.  Nights like last night are not my favorite, and while I would rather skip the screamfests in the future, I wouldn't trade in my intense, highly opinionated, hits the wall when overtired little boy for all the tea in china.  I am sure moments tomorrow will remind me again why I love being his mommy so very much.  For now though, I am gladly accepting a break from Nana Lou, enjoying some coffee and advil and getting in some serious quiet work time in.  Amen!