Month: February 2012

Dear Dexter (9 month letter to my boy)

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

Dear Dexter,

You’ve been on the outside of mommy as long as you were inside my tummy.  It’s amazing to think that you’ve gone from a little seed to a smart, happy, curious, MOBILE baby in 18 months.  Watching you grow has been and continues to be one of my greatest joys in life.

I love you. 

I love your blue eyes and blonde hair.  I love that you look like your own little person. 

I love that it is so easy to make you smile.

You still have just two tiny teeth.  You eat everything you can get your hands on.  You would keep feeding yourself finger foods until you exploded.  These last few days, you’ve decided baby food is for babies… hint: You ARE still a baby.  Mommy is not ready for you to give up baby food yet.  Sloooow down.  You just love every bit of independence you are given.

Sometimes when you are not given independence, you just take it. 

I love that you started crawling right before you turned 7 months and never looked back.  You took your first single step on Saturday, but I couldn’t get you to do it again when anyone else was looking.  Sweet of you to share that moment with just me, ha! I love that you are so brave.

I love that you are innocent.  You have not been changed by the negativity in the world.  You have not been hurt by other people’s words and actions.  You have a positive outlook on life because positivity is all you know.  You have been showered with love since the day you were born.

I love that you came into our lives when you did. 

I love the way your face lights up when you see your big brother.  I worried a lot about you and your brother being so close in age, but now I can’t imagine it being any other way.

I hope you will always love each other and play together.

I love that you are an easy-going, easy to please kind of kid.  I hope you stay that way.

I love that you love bathtime.  I hate that you never get to play as long as you want to because we are always rushing to get two little booties bathed. 

I love those rare times when you fall asleep with your head on my shoulder and your arm around my neck.  You can do that a lot more often if you want to, okay?

I love that you are finally sleeping through the night (more often than not).  What took you so long anyway?

I love that you are perfectly healthy.  We could not have been given a greater gift.

I love to hear your baby babble.  You say ga, da, ba, and lots of oooohs and aaaaahs in a sing-song voice.  Hearing your soft, sweet voice in conversation (albeit with yourself) is music to my ears.

I hope you and I are always close.  I always want to be in your life.  If other people call you a mama’s boy, that’s okay.  Just ignore them.  Or better yet, tell them you are lucky to have a mom who loves you so much.   Because Dexter?  I do love you. SO. MUCH.

One day you will get hurt.  Physically or emotionally.  I won’t be there to prevent the fall, but I will always be there to hug you and I will do my best to ease your pain. 

Dexter, you are such a special boy to your mommy and daddy.  We will like you forever and love you for always.  We love love love love you, just as you are.

xo,
Mama

three little stories.

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

Story number one:
Yesterday I dreamt that I was pregnant. But not really.  Everyone thought I was, despite the fact that I still had a flat stomach (well…as flat as it’s gonna get).  Or maybe I really thought I was at one point and had told everyone that I was.  But during the dream, I knew I wasn’t and I was the only one that knew I wasn’t.  Even my doctor didn’t know.  So they scheduled my induction and (just like in real life) I had to call before going to the hospital to make sure they had my bed ready.  I called and to my surprise (unlike in real life), my bed was ready and they told me to just come on in and they would start my pitocin. 

Only I didn’t.  Me and R just went on about our business, life as usual, you know…because I wasn’t pregnant and about to pop out a kid any second.  And I didn’t tell the hospital that I wouldn’t be able to make it in. The next day it crossed my mind that I should probably let the hospital know that I wasn’t going to have a baby. 

And that’s really all I remember.  I should start writing my dreams when I remember them. Because they are seriously weird.  And they always seem soooo flippin’ real.  So real that I woke up thinking “am I really pretend pregnant and all my friends think I’m having a baby, except I’m not?”  No, no they don’t.  Wake up already.

Story number two:
A few minutes ago I was obsessively staring at my own blog and Blogger stats, I noticed a nifty little thing down at the bottom of the page.  It looked like this:

what a milestone!
Wow, that seems like a lot of pageviews.  Except it doesn’t feel like I have that much traffic on my blog.  I’d love more traffic, but I don’t know that I have the time or energy to make it happen.  I’ve considered doing some giveaways but then I don’t pursue it because I think, wouldn’t it be embarrassing if no one even tried to win?  Also, why would a company give me a product to review when I only have 61 followers?  So I just continue doing what I’ve been doing and gaining a reader here and there.  I’m extra thankful for the 20-25 readers I’ve gained over the past couple months since I started participating in some blog hops, because as it turns out, they are the ones that comment and give the most feedback.  So thank you, new readers!
A lot of those views seem to come from people stumbling across my blog after they google “bowl cut” or some other combination of words from a blog I wrote leading up to Theo’s first haircut.  And no, he didn’t get a “bowl cut.”  See it?  Over there to the right under “most popular posts”…yeah. 
Story number three:
Is not really a story.  Since I’ve been trying to become more involved in the blogging community, I thought I would provide links to some of my favorite blogs.  I always look forward to the entries from these mamas.  Feel free to check them out and let them (and me) know if you like what you see. 
Babbling Abby (although she rarely posts anymore)
Okay there are lots more, now that I’m looking at my reading list on Blogger, but I’m going to stop there.  If you are not familiar with these blogs, hopefully you will enjoy them and find some fun new reads! 
Oh wait, one more.  She’s not a mama technically, but she’s raised her two younger sisters since she herself was still just a child after most of their family perished on 9-11-01.  If you are going to read The Aftermath of Rainbows and Unicorns, I would suggest you start at the oldest post and work your way to the most recent. Prepare to spend some time on her site, because her story reads like a good book you just can’t put down.
So, that’s it.  Some randomness on a Wednesday for you.  Enjoy!  Now go read!
~C~


how do you get rid of fleas?

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest
We had been seeing tiny red dots on the bathroom sink for almost two weeks.  I looked at Niko’s paws on Friday afternoon for about the fifth time in as many days trying to find some sign of injury.  He loves to lay in the cool sink and on the counter so I suspected he had something to do with the red dots. 
big Niko
As I was examining the soft pads on his paws, something on the top of his paw caught my eye.  A tiny brown fleck wiggled and writhed its way back inside Niko’s fur as quickly as he flashed himself to me.  I dug around in the fluffy white fur for a moment before giving up and going to the other front paw.  A similar scene.  A skinny, shiny brown bug quickly wiggling its way back into the massive amounts of white fur.  I tried to grab it with my fingertips but the damn thing was just too small and speedy.
I texted R at work, saying “I think Niko has fleas,” and explained what had just happened.  Moments later, I was hard at work googling everything I could about “tiny red dots on sink” and “fleas on cats.”  Within moments, I knew that my poor boy had fleas.
This came as a pretty devastating and confusing revelation, considering that Niko has never even been outside since he has lived with us (about 3.5 years now).  We’ve had Sylvie even longer, closer to 7.5 years.  No fleas. 
So we went by the vet’s office early Saturday to pick up some medication, as everyone online said that the kind sold by the vet was better than supermarket types.  As soon as R mentioned the tiny red dots on the counter, the vet confirmed once again that it was due to fleas and said that they are exceptionally problematic right now.  I’d say.
Wanna hear something disgusting?  Sure you do.
Fleas eat blood.  Because they eat blood, their poop consists mostly of… you guessed it, blood.  It is black and flaky looking, until it gets wet.  At that point, it turns bright red…like?  Blood.  So that’s why we had only been noticing the dots around the sink. About that time, I also noticed a few of them on the washing machine, another one of Niko’s favorite resting spots. 
little Sylvie
We asked the vet if we should treat Sylvie too, and he said most definitely we should. We got home and I grabbed the grooming comb and started running it through Sylvie’s fur.  Um. Sick.  With every stroke, more and more black flakes of flea poo accumulated on the comb.  Oh, and the occasional flea, jumping up and down like he was having a party right there on the comb.  Double sick.  I flicked them into the sink and ran the water to drown them.  A few minutes later when I walked by the sink, I’d see 3 or 4 hopping around.  They just climbed right back up the pipes and were trying to find their gracious hosts again. 
The jerks are hard to kill apparently. 
I combed Niko next and it was more of the same.  Black dots and jumpy jerks.  We got the kids down for a nap and got the cats bathed in their lovely flea dip.  Not a luxurious bath experience.  I’m surprised they didn’t wake up Theo, with his bedroom on the opposite side of the wall from the bathtub.  I figured while we were bathing the cats, we’d see a bazillion fleas climbing out of their fur to dry safety, but I really only saw a couple.  We got the cats dried off and later gave them their first Revolution treatments. I guess once you start treatments you can never stop. 
This is the first time we’ve had to deal with anything like this.  It’s really disturbing to me.  I know for every flea we’ve seen, there are many more that we haven’t and many more eggs hiding out.  We are in the process of cleaning everything in the house, but there are so many surfaces where these microscopic eggs could be waiting for the right time to hatch.  How do you ever really get rid of them?
Maybe I am overreacting.  Maybe it will be fine.  Right now it feels extremely overwhelming and disheartening.  I feel like we will never get rid of the pests and that our house will be taken over.  I have pictured foreclosing on our home as the fleas set up their own bedrooms and master closet.  I have started naming some of the fleas.  I have probably watched one too many episodes of Infested on Animal Planet. 
Have you seen this show? Ew. 
Whenever I think I’d prefer to be pet-free, I’m reminded of this.

I’m new at this flea thing and the mere thought of it sends me into a panic.  I’m not gonna lie, it’s freaking my freak right now.  I’ve been itching from head to toe since about 3 seconds after I realized we had fleas. Have you had to deal with fleas?  If so, how did you successfully get rid of them and how long did it take?  Please.  Do tell.
itchy in Indiana,
~C~