Bryan update and lessons about baby toys

He seems to be doing much better today. Other than some localized soreness on one side where they had to work really hard to get the tooth out, he says he's not really all that sore. He's currently sitting in his jammies, doing work stuff on his laptop, so I'd say we're off to a full recovery.
Evie and I are going to do a little Christmas shopping today, I'm bringing her floppy seat for the cart and some of her linkey rings to chew on. I will try to be more kind and gentle if/when publicly chastised for letting her sit up at her age.
Speaking of linkey ring toys, I learned a valuable lesson about them last night. If you give Evie a pretty long strand, and she's sitting in her command station, (in which the seat can spin 360 degrees,) The fun linkey ring toys can quickly become infant toy of death. Understand that when I put the linkey rings on the toy, I did think, "this might be a little long," but then I thought I'd just put them there and see what happened. She's never played with them before, and I assumed there would be a time of inspection prior to self-asphyxiation. Apparently, not with my kid, who immediately grabbed, stuffed a couple connected links in her mouth, and started to turn- quickly, creating her own little colorful plastic noose in the process.
I immediately shortened the strand, so now she can only turn a few degrees while holding on.
Now she sits, linkey rings in hand/mouth and begins spinning, only to get caught. She then yells and smashes her linkey rings against the command station, as if to punish them for her lack of progress. I'm hoping she will soon figure out that she can let go, turn and then hold them again. Otherwise, I worry about her problem solving skills.
Well, I don't really worry. After all, according to the old women at the grocery store, she shouldn't be doing anything but laying on her back, so I suppose getting hung up with linkey rings is okay. I have to remind myself that just because she's standing, (and jumping, and spinning) in her excersaucer now, this doesn't mean she really has control over her body quite yet, and well, cognitive skills are still being developed. I can't wait for the day when she does have control over her body, but lacks the judgement to make good choices. This is how we found my brother Travis on top of the refrigerator at 10 months old.

A Big Day

Bryan had his wisdom teeth yanked from his skull this morning. It's something he's been needing to do now for oh, about 3 years. The time finally came when he was in agony all the time, and so I called the doctor myself to arrange an appointment for him. He's currently asleep in bed, mouth full of gauze. I just gave him his next pain pill and did a gauze change. He seems to be doing okay, and right now doesn't seem to be too swollen. He is bleeding far more than we anticipated, but the doc. said that could go on for the first 6 hours, and it's only been 4.5, so we'll see what he's like later tonight.
In other news, while he was at the oral surgeon, Evie and I bopped over the grocery store next door to pick up some foods that don't require chewing, (pudding, yogurt, jello, etc.) I didn't want to fuss with the stroller, and Evie was being a little cranky, so I tried something new- I put her in the cart, and strapped her in with the little seatbelt.
She sat there, triumphantly, and looked at me with such pride and delight, I couldn't help but be proud for her. She looked at me as if to say, "wow, mom, why haven't we done this before?!"
As we walked the aisles, Evie sat there, presiding over all that was her kingdom, smiling at all those looking on in amazement, and asking "how old is your baby?!? I would reply, "almost 5 months." To which they would then say, "5 Months!?!? Isn't she too small to be sitting up?"
It was all I could do to not take my shoe off and smack them with it. I really wanted to turn and look at Evie and say, "You hear that kid? It seems you're too small to be sitting up, so we're gonna have to take you out of there and try again when you're older, okay?" Some people.

25 Christmas questions

My friend Holly sent me this email quiz...I'm not a big fan of forwards, but didn't want to be accused of being a "scrooge," so I decided to put it here. :-) If you'd like to answer, cut and paste them, and answer in the comments section.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Always gift bags, except Christmas, then it's almost always wrap. (I do have to admit that one year when I was in college, I got home to Spokane really, really late Christmas eve, after spending a week doing mission work in Mexico...that year everyone got their presents "wrapped" in Target bags.)

2. Real tree or artificial? Fake. Bryan is allergic to the real ones, and although it was a hard transition for me, I've got to admit, I'm a big fan of the pre-lit, pull out-of-the box tree now.

3. When do you put up the tree? Usually Thanksgiving night, but I've been out of commission, so probably next weekend.

4. When do you take the tree down? New Year's Day.

5. Do you like eggnog? Very much, especially in a frappaccino from Starbucks.

6. What about Fruitcake? Bleck.

7. Favorite gift received as a child? When I was 10, I got Legos. I had wanted legos since I was 5, but they were always too expensive or something. I had a bunch of fake Legos, but we all know that those were just crap, and never really connected together quite right. Anyway, I was 10, we were in Wenatchee, and I opened a real Lego set; it was the hospital. Then I opened another set, it was the police station. The Legos just kept coming. My mom had rallied all my family members and everyone had given me Legos. Most had given me like a $5 set with one little dude and a car, but you would have thought they had given me a season pass to Disneyland, I was so happy. My mom also gave me a fishing tackle box so I could organize them by size, shape and color...every Lego had its own tray and compartment. (She knew me so well) Looking back, I am still excited to think about that Christmas. You know, I think that today if someone gave me legos, I'd be just as excited.

8. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, it was my mom's.

9. Hardest person to buy for? My husband...he always finds things for himself on sale before Christmas, and just buys them...drives me CRAZY

10. Easiest person to buy for? My sister, she always has a big list to choose from.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? My great-grandmother got me a barbie doll every year for Christmas and my birthday. I HATED barbie dolls, but I always had to be polite and grateful, even though I was so disappointed. My sister and I had a tradition that as soon as we left her house, I'd give the doll to Sara. This is why when she graduated from high school, my sister had over 30 barbies.

12. Mail or email Christmas cards? This year's Scott family photo Christmas card just arrived from Kodak, they will be addressed and sent by this weekend.

13. Favorite Christmas Movie? Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life. " I think it is quite possibly one of the most beautiful films ever made. The older I get, the more I love it. And it never fails, every year when I watch Mr. Potter STEAL their deposit, I just go crazy and start yelling at the TV. It is just so incredibly hateful. I would argue that Mr. Potter is far more evil than the witch in the Wizard of Oz. And in the end, when the entire community rallies around this little family who has selflessly given of themselves for so long. Oh. So beautiful. I'm choking up right now, just thinking about it.

14. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Usually October, this year I'm a bit behind.

15. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I refuse to answer on the basis that my answer could be held against me.

16. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Yes. Er. I mean, all of it. The candy, the cakes, the fudge. I just love it all.

17. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear.

18. Favorite Christmas song? There are way too many to choose just one. Although, I really like the little drummer boy, always have.

19. Travel for Christmas or stay at home? Stay at home. Too many snow storms, too many people with sickness, too many people driving their minivans slowly in the fast lane, and well, just too many people in general.

20. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? Dancer, Dasher, Donnor, Blitzen, Prancer, Comet, Cupid ,Vixen, Rudolph...is that right?

21. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star

22. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning

23. What is the one present you want most this year? Well, I want a new iPod that can hold all my music at once, instead of my having to sort through and only pick a few songs at a time, but those are too pricey, so just some CDs for my collection. And also, Alias seasons 4 & 5. I've asked my spouse for these for my birthday and Christmas the last 2 years and somehow they never materialize....if you see him, please remind him...ALIAS, seasons 4 & 5 :-)

24. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The materialistic commercials....Best Buy has a pretty horrible one right now where the family drives by Grandma's house, but doesn't stop because they want to go home and play with their stuff. Oh, I just hate that commercial. Do people actually think that's funny? I think it's hateful.

25. What I love most about Christmas? Ummm...almost everything. The music, the decorations, the clothes? The food. So fabulous.

Just FYI

When I went to take my pill this morning, I couldn't find the already cut 1/2 one and not being one to waste, I decided if the prescription calls for a whole, and I tried a half and did okay, why not go for the full one this time?
Well let me tell you, a whole Xanex is a bit much. I'm just finally coming out of the fog. I felt very happy, mind you, but more than just a little zoned. Er, I mean stoned. I can see how people like to take this stuff, although I'm not sure how they get much done will they're on it.
Come to think of it however, since I took the pill this morning, I have cleaned out a closet, done two loads of laundry and fed, diapered and played with a baby.
Imagine what I could have accomplished with all my faculties?

Better living through chemistry

I finally spoke with my neurologist around 7:00 last night. After going over the events of the weekend, how I've been unable to sleep, feeling like my heart is going to explode, feeling like I'm going to crawl out of my skin etc., he determined that instead of my having a bad reaction to the migraine medication as I thought I was, I might instead be dealing with some hormone imbalances brought on by the whole pregnancy, giving birth, weaning stuff., and might be dealing with anxiety instead. Not so much sitting here, anxiously stressing out about things, but rather, dealing with wackadoo chemicals causing my engine to rev, rev, rev, thus preventing sleep and/the ability to just sit comfortably.
So now I'm taking Zanex to see if we can't get me settled down. Last night, I took 1/2 a Zanex, waited two hours, and then took an Ambien, per my doctor's instructions. I'm happy to report that I slept all night; woke up this morning in the exact same position in which I had fallen asleep.
Today, I'm feeling all revved up again, so I'm about to take the other 1/2 of the Zanex and we'll see what happens. Hopefully this is just a temporary fix to get my body back on track, but at this point, I'm happy to do anything they tell me if it results in my feeling like myself again.
I have an appointment with my regular doctor on monday to get hormone and thyroid levels checked, just to make sure we've covered all our bases.
In the meantime, if the anti-anxiety meds help me start to calm down, then I go back on the Topamax (Migraine meds) because the last thing we need with all of this, is me getting another migraine.

Evie meets her cousins

it was all just a tease

I took the sleeping pill at 8:30 last night...fell asleep around 9:15-ish.
At approximately 1am, I awoke, to sit and stare at the ceiling for the remainder of the evening.
I know that in the grand scheme of things, I have a nice life, a nice house, a wonderful husband and daughter, and bombs are not going off over my head. In the grand scheme of things, not being able to sleep is pretty small. But in the last two weeks, I have slept only one night, it was two nights ago and it was a drug-induced sleep. This is taking a toll on my mental and emotional state. Now that Ambien isn't even working, I find myself very, very frustrated.
And for those of you keeping track, I'm still dizzy, and feel tremendous pressure coming from the back of my skull around my jaw to my eyes and nose.
But there's been enough of me down for the count, life has to go on, Bryan had to go back to work, so for me there's no more being sick. Back to the piles of laundry and dishes.

Home

We just got home from a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend spent in Wenatchee with family. Nancy put on a wonderful spread and we enjoyed a great time with an assortment of family members, including Sara and Joey from Spokane. Friday we went over to Grandma's for a roast beef dinner, our first family meal since they moved to the new house.
As of Friday night, I had gone 6 days without sleep, and was feeling a little grumpy as a result. Saturday morning, still suffering from sleep deprivation and drug side effects, I called the neruologist and pleaded for something else. The on-call doc took me off the new drug and prescribed a sleeping pill to get me through the weekend. I reluctantly took the sleeping pill and finally did get some shut eye. We returned home this evening, and I'll take one again tonight, to ensure at least two nights of sleep, before I call the doctor tomorrow to see about a new plan; this is certainly no way to live.

Evie can't get enough of Ragan