Long Beach

I really like it here most of the time. It's a nice little city and the people are mostly very friendly. But...

I'm missing Chicago and New York and even lil old Minneapolis because of the weather. It's getting cold there right about now. Or it should be even though it isn't - but that's even more to the problem! It's 65 in Minneapolis and they can't stop going on about the heat wave - I mean...it's November for Christ's sake! It's 65 here and people are, I shit you not, wearing parkas. I want to go back to living where the depressingly early Christmas displays aren't mockingly ironic, what with all the snow flakes and icicles hanging hither and thither.

But what's really got me blue? I'm freezing. I'm wearing layers and socks and dressing the baby* warmly. I keep the windows wide open and try to grit my teeth instead of letting them chatter. As someone said, the blood thins out really fast here.


In happier news Rex's imagination is really taking off. Today he decided that I would be the Man with the Yellow Hat & he would be "Monkey George" which is what he calls Curious George. To be fair, he freaked out a little when I got overly excited and started acting out narrative sections. ("Okay - the ostrich has just swallowed the bugle, you're upset. I'll be over here looking all over for you because I don't know where you are and I'm worried! 'George, George, George!'") He actually looked at me like I was nuts and backed away slowly. But it's great progress.

I'm still worried about the kid at school that Rex says hits him. This came up Sunday night when we were saying our good nights. We were talking about all the nice people when out of the freaking blue he says. "T hit Rex" I thought "WHAT THE HELL?" I said, "what?" He repeated it and this time gently hit my face. I was very proud of myself. Inside I was really going nuts but I maintained my cool on the outside and told him "hitting is not okay, if Timmy hits you ask him to stop and tell Miss Cathy" Seriously, inside I was furious. I don't care how old that little punk is, I'm going to take him out. OUT. B tried to talk me off the ledge reminding me there wasn't anything we could do tonight, he was sure that they were looking out for him at school and what the heck - kids say the damnedest things, etc. The thrust of his point was, at this point the biggest danger was probably freaking Rex out, so not to make too huge of deal out of it. On Monday I mentioned it to the teacher and asked her to keep an eye out. She did say that T was a bit hands on (?) but that she hadn't noticed anything. She got points from me, however, for saying "but Rex wouldn't just say something like that for no reason." When I picked him up, there was no report of any problems and Rex hasn't mentioned it. Until tonight. He goes back to school tomorrow and, to B, he said something about "T hit Rex" again. I don't care if he is another baby* and I'm sure he doesn't have 'bad inentions' - nobody, but nobody, hits my baby.*

Time for the flannel jammies.



* I know he's not a baby anymore. Shut up.

Mr. Potter

Thank goodness for the Halloween party at school on Friday. He was way too sick to make it out for trick or treating Monday, so this is all we've got.

Whoops

I've become quite the statistic. I never update my blog. Okay, I'll try to do better for a while.

Haloween and Fitzmas have come and gone and the whole house was pretty much sick for both of them. Rex had a horrid fever/snot thing that took hold Saturday night and is still lingering a bit. I took him to school today anyway though. He wanted to go, and I really need a nap. The worst part of the illness, I think, was that he couldn't sleep, the poor guy. So I couldn't sleep, so I'm a mess.

But here's the thing. I'm a rotten mom. I KNEW he was sick, but I kept trying to get him to fall asleep by himself because I kept thinking, 'oh no! It's a new stage of no sleeping without mom rocking him and then holding him all night! We can't have that - he needs to know how to put himself to sleep!!' HE WAS SICK! What's wrong with me?

I rocked with him for one night for an hour. I slept on his floor for a while, but would sneak off to my bed when he drifted off. It would never last, he would wake up within a half hour each time. Finally, on the first bad night, I just took him into the guest room with me and we slept in the bed together for a few hours. This was the first time I'd ever slept with him like that and he's nearly 2. I'm that paranoid of rolling over or him falling off or some other terrible thing happening. It was the right thing to do though. He would still wake up every half an hour, but having me there, he would calm himself right down. Did I take this as a sign of success? Oh no. The next day I was completely paranoid that I had ruined him forever and that he would never sleep on his own again.

The next night, more tears. I would rub his back and again, curled up on the floor, but I was terrified to bring him to bed with me or rock him for hours. I'm an awful, awful person. It finally dawned on me that the kid's sinuses were probably killing him and the reason he wanted to 'wock in wocking chair?' was that it drained him out. And he got to hang with mom which is nice when you're completely miserable. I broke down and rocked him to sleep but after putting him back in the crib he started up again. At this point, I'm so tired I'm nauseated, (and thinking - so is he! so is he! HE HAS TO SLEEP - sob...) and I got B to go and rock him/comfort him.

B manages to have a conversation with him and tells him that Rex needs to sleep, that Mom needs to sleep and that Dad needs to sleep. Okay? Not a peep for 5 hours.

It was just like when he was a newborn. 5 hours felt like I had been asleep for weeks, I felt GREAT. I felt like crap again later in the day when it caught up with me, but still. It was so much better. Rex clearly benefitted too and he had a much better day yesterday. Hope today is going well.

Other things to talk about
I need a new Pediatrician

I need a job

The Democrats are finding a spine. Finally.
I can't believe that the wingnuts are actually saying that this is all politically motivated. Perjury to cover up a false case for war. Uh huh. But perjury to cover up a blow-job?? Impeachable. Whatever, I'm not excusing Clinton - the bastard lied under oath. I just can't understand how you don't see a teensy difference in the stakes.