Monday, August 31, 2009

Toothpick Monday...



Do you remember the old "Tom & Jerry" cartoons? Man, I used to love those when I was a kid. A particular episode comes to mind today when Tom was sleeping and Jerry used toothpicks to try to keep his eyelids open. Painful? Yes, but dang, if it worked I wouldn't put it past myself to at least try it on days like today. No amount of coffee seems to give me the kick in the pants that I need. Good thing I don't know where the toothpicks are...

Why so tired, you ask? Well, we have a 7 month old. That should explain a lot. "Oh," you say. "Shouldn't he be sleeping through the night by now?" To which I reply, with grinding teeth and a slight bit of steam percolating out of my head, "YOU THINK??!!!???" We are on day four of Isaac waking up about every 3-4 hours. He hasn't done this since he was a month old. Usually when I put him down for the night at 7:30 or 8:00 he is out till at least 3:00AM or 4:00AM. But he has been on this crazy, "Hey ya'll!! Let's wake up and see how long it takes me to fall back asleep! It will be fun!! Whose taking bets??"

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with it, but about two weeks ago I was hanging out with Isaac in his room. He was playing in his crib and I was reading in the rocking chair. Out of the corner of my eye I start to see this little head peek up. I look over and Isaac has pulled himself up holding onto the top railing of his crib. The kid was standing up!! He was 6 months old at the time! Even more startling than that was the fact that the railing was up to the middle of his chest. Perfect topple over the railing situation. So, the next day Marcus lowered his crib to the bottom rung. All that to say, now when I put him down for bed, half the time he wakes up when I lay him down. Not sure if the extra two feed did anything to the atmosphere rolling around his head, but hey, ANYTHING right now is a culprit.

He's growing so fast, his brain is taking in so much new information, he's learning so much...the list goes on. I'm pretty convinced that his brain is just going a million miles an hour and his body is on overdrive growing that he just can't fully rest. Yeah...we will stick with that.

Until then, keep all toothpicks out of my reach...

Monday, August 24, 2009

Giggles and Monday...

For some reason my brain is all ADD today. I think it is the crazy 'to-do' list that is sticking its tongue out at me and saying, "Oh yeah sister...THAT is a Monday morning for ya!" Stupid list...I shake my fist at you.

Last week was a total blur due to getting caught up after my computer blew up, getting the new computer set up, adjusting my eyes to said computer's HUGE screen, and Isaac teething. Oh landy...he is teething with a capital HOLY CRAP THIS IS HARD. It is so heartbreakingly hard to sit by while you know your child is uncomfortable. I think we are finally seeing a slight light at the end of the tunnel, but dang, last night was the topper to this entire experience.

On Sunday's Marcus is at the church practically all day. Normally Isaac and I attend the evening services at 6:00PM, but since he is teething and a bit more susceptible to illness we decided to hang out at home and rest. We had a lovely day and Isaac actually took a late afternoon nap, which kind of threw things off schedule, but hey, I'm cool like school and we just went with it. Since he took such a late nap he wasn't interested in his sweet potatoes for dinner...at all. No worries...I'll give him an extra ounce in his bottle and he should be fine.

So we go up to his room, get him in his sweet little pj's, read a story, say our prayers and then chow down. He's starting to doze off when he started coughing...like crazy coughing. He had been coughing a bit more than normal that day and I knew it was from his little nose running due to his teething. So I sit him up, rub his back and then BAAAAAMMM!!! The kid opens his mouth and every drop of the milk he just drank came SPEWWWWING out. I mean mouth WIDE open, a crazy amount of milk gushing out.

Now, I'm not a freak out kind of gal, but this scared the crap out of me. Of course kids are going to throw up, but are they supposed to throw up all Exorcist like? Seriously??

I called Marcus and thankfully our pediatrician goes to our church, so he high tailed it her way. She assured us that sometimes babies cough so hard that they throw up, but if he can't keep anything down then to give her a call. She also suggested putting a pillow under his mattress to elevate his head so the snot isn't draining right down his throat. We did that and wow...did it make a difference! He slept so much better and isn't nearly as congested as he was yesterday. Score another one for Dr. Cox!! She rules on so many levels...

Now if only his dang teeth would come in.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

She's here!

At this very moment I'm trying to adjust my eyes to the MAGICALLY DELICIOUS MONGO SCREEN that is my new computer.  Gracious it's big.  She's absolutely lovely, although lovely might be too feminine of a word for her.  Pictures are to come.  I'm just so amazingly thankful that we were able to get a new computer in an adequate amount of time.  God is good.  

So here we are...off on a new adventure.  Welcome to casa dePaula...

I think I'm going to call her Roz...the name says it all.  


Sunday, August 16, 2009

R.I.P Dorothy....



It's true folks...Dorothy, my trusted Mac PowerBook G4 of 4 1/2 years, has officially died. She put up a good fight, Dr. Marcus did all he could do, but alas, she has exited the building.

We have many fond memories of Dorothy. Like remember that time I accidentally sent that email that was slightly dogging an annoying editor to my entire address book when I meant to send it to only one person? Remember that? Wow...THAT was embarrassing! Or that time we went to London and you stayed in my bag the entire trip? That was great. Or that time you were struck by lightning and fried up? Well, that part wasn't so great, but it was memorable. You will be missed, oh wise and trusty Dorothy. You will be missed.

So now on to a more youthful, powerful, and sleeker computer that will hopefully be within our grips sometime this week. Will it happen? Prayers are being sent up and waiting to be answered. Until then, sharesies with Marcus and his computer. Don't tell Marcus, but I've named his computer Hector. For some reason he doesn't get a kick out of naming electronics as much as I do...although we did name our car Gladys. We are her 'pips'....

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Chow Time...


Apparently Isaac's highchair is delicious. He would much rather eat that than his carrots. Too bad you can't hear the sounds I'm making trying to get his attention. Just another day at casa dePaula...

Thursday, August 13, 2009

What gets my goat...

If there is one thing that really gets this Norwegian all fired up and wanting to pull every last hair out of my head it is incompetent people. Ooooo dogs...it's right up there with people eating with their mouth open or feeling the need to shove their faces with a huge handful of popcorn at the movie theater like it is the last ounce of food they will ever eat. Yeah...I'll have to do a post on that one later...

Monday morning was supposed to be the day that the replacement part for my computer was to come in. Actually, it should have been here on Friday because we paid for two day shipping and...well...now seeing how this particular company works, it shouldn't surprise me that it didn't arrive on time. So the part got in when I was at a lunch meeting and Marcus was going to take apart my computer when I got home to install it. Seriously ladies, if you're single and looking for a husband, look for one who knows what they are doing with computers!! Ooo, and one that can whistle...

Anyway, my brazilliant husband gets everything situated, his very tiny screwdrivers to open Dorothy (my computer) up and perform major surgery. We are talking heart transplant type of surgery for a computer. Yeah, totally nerve wracking.

So he gets all 87 tiny, itty bitty screws out, the speakers, the mother board, the whoo hahs, ya yas, and do dads out. Very meticulous and delicate work...makes my head hurt even thinking about it.

He gets to the source of our problem and takes the piece out. Success! Or so we thought. Marcus gets the replacement piece, takes a look at it and something isn't right. It's the wrong $%@# part.

When Marcus gets mad, it's like the room gets 15 degrees warmer and he goes from being a lovely caramel colored Brazilian to a beet red, horns coming out of his head, angry bull like man. Granted, this is a very, very rare occurrence, but when it does happen I suggest you just run away.

So we have a very upset husband who is now on the phone with the company he ordered the part from. Some sales yahoo gets on the phone and tries to tell Marcus that they didn't send the wrong part. Lesson #1: Don't tell an angry Brazilian that he is wrong when he's looking at the order form and the order number does not match the number on the replacement part. After talking the yahoo sales guy through this the sales guy goes, "Oh yeah, that's the wrong part." YA THINK?!?

So after talking to the owner of the company (yeah, Marcus isn't afraid of confronting people like this, where I tend to hide and run away from said confrontation) and they finally agreed to give us a refund and pay for the shipping. So my computer still isn't fixed and the new replacement part won't be here until Friday.

Until then, Dorothy's guts are still out on our dining room table, and her 87 screws are nicely lined up in front of her. Heaven help us if this replacement part doesn't work...eeekkk!!!

Friday, August 7, 2009

Good old mother nature...

The last few days have seemed to run together so I was quite surprised to find out today is Friday. Ahh, Friday. You don't mean as much to me as you did before, but I still look upon you fondly and think you're pretty cute. Working from home seems to wash away any sense of time or preference for particular days of the week because, well, they run together like a big fat blob. For example, last week I realized that I had not left the house in three days...threeeee days. Yeah, sad.

Anyway, there has been quite the commotion around our house this week. On Tuesday night we were watching the 6:00 news and saw that we were supposed to get some big storms later on that night. OK...no problem. I put Isaac to bed, we eat dinner, and while we are cleaning up the kitchen, the storm comes. Ooooo dogs, it was a big one. The thing that was so scary was the lightning. It was insane! We were finishing up when we hear this HUGE...I mean HHHUUUUUGGGGEEEE bang. BIG BANG! MASSIVE BANG! It seriously made us jump and run to the window to see what on earth the lightning hit. Marcus thought that it might have hit the cross on the church down the road, or even the water tower. But dang, it was really close.

So the storm starts to ease up and I'm not fighting the urge to go up, get Isaac and run into the basement. Marcus and I head into the living room to watch another episode of Damages, which we were watching from my computer. Our DVD player decided to bite it so we hooked my computer up to the TV and watched the DVD from there. When I sat down I smelled something. It smelled very...odd. Almost electric. Not a burning electric smell, but electric all the same. I asked Marcus if he smelled it and he started looking around to see what it might be. It wouldn't be until the next morning that we find out that there was a power surge that went through the sound system/TV which then fried my computer. Yep, toasted it up like a piece of burnt bread. Thankfully my husband is a computer genius (seriously folks, if you have any problems with your computer, mainly Mac/Apple products, he's your guy) and he figured out that the motherboard wasn't fried, just my power supply. Granted, this is still a major pain and puts my computer out of the running for several days, but it's not the disaster it could have been.

Later on that day Marcus was out walking the dogs when he discovered where the lightning bolt hit. When he got back to the house he took me over to the sliding back door and said, "Look up at the tree," which is all of 200 feet from our house. The lightning bolt hit the tree that was 200 feet from our house. Let me rephrase that...it was 200 feet FROM MY SON'S BEDROOM.

Have you ever seen Ghostbusters? Remember that scene where Bill Murray's character goes in to find Sigourney Weaver floating above the bed, talking in that crazy low voice, "There is no Dana, only Zool."?? Remember that? I don't think that Dana was actually taken over by crazy spirits...I think they told her that her son was 200 feet away from a lightning bold less than 12 hours ago, because my voice seriously lowered 20 octaves and had sparks coming out of my eyes. "WHHHHAAAATTTT??? LIGHTNING STRUCK WHERE??? 200 FEET FROM MY SON!!!!! AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Yes, I went momentarily insane. Out of my mind, crazy insane. I couldn't believe it. At the same time I was so overwhelmingly thankful that we were safe, that Isaac was OK and that my computer was the only casualty. Thank you, Lord!

Was I overreacting a bit? Maybe. But when danger is heading toward the baby cub, Mama Bear comes OUT! I'll take you bolt of lightning...yeahhhhh, you wanna mess with me?? I thought so...

Hopefully life will be restored to Dorothy (my computer) and all will be well with the world. Till then, hurry towards us Mr. UPS man with the stinking part!!!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Little fish butt...


Not sure which is cuter...his fat rolls or the little fish butt. Gotta love grandparents who keep their eyes open for such outfits. Will be a good picture to show his first girlfriend...

Monday, August 3, 2009

Lovely moments...


Sunday's tend to be rather exhausting days for Marcus because he is at the church from 7:30AM till about 8:30PM (sans a 3 hour window where he comes home before the 6:00PM service). Isaac and I have been attending the 6:00PM service because I can't get a shower in and get ready before Marcus leaves at 7:00AM to attend an earlier service. Excuses excuses...yep, that's my story.

But yesterday was a bit different because we tried to install a new napping situation. I know certain people will look down on us and go, "Don't they know they are NOT supposed to do that??" regarding how Isaac naps, to which I say, with all my love, "BACK OFF!!" :)

Anyway, Isaac has never been a big napper. There are a few instances where he slept for several hours at a time when he was really little, but he doesn't like to nap in his crib...at all. One day he was so exhausted and was fighting going to sleep when Marcus just took him into our room, laid down next to him on the bed, and he was out for two hours. TWO HOURS! This was monumental! He's sleeping for more than 20 minutes at a time...I'll take it. So that has been our napping situation for the last two months. He gets his sleep, we take our computers into our room and work while he sleeps next to us, and all is well with the world.

But I started second guess myself when I started to think about maybe needing a babysitter from time to time in the afternoon and dealing with the naps. Hmmm. That might cause a problem. So we decided to ease Isaac into napping in his crib.

Saturday it went really well. He cried for a few minutes but seemed to fall asleep shortly after that. Success!!! Wow, this just might be easier than I thought! Yeah...right.

So yesterday I fed him, we played for a bit, and when he started to rub his sweet little eyes, I put him in his crib. The little guy did NOT like that one bit. I let him cry for a few minutes, go in and rub his face and belly, and leave. The cries would get harder and harder, and more heart breaking every time. I stuck to my guns though and he finally fell asleep. For all of 20 minutes.

Later that afternoon we went through the same routine and ooohhhhh boy, did this mama's heart break every time I had to close the door behind me. Good grief, it was hard. I went downstairs with the baby monitor and sat on the couch and cried with him. Ufff...I hate hearing my sweet baby boy cry.

I sat there praying for strength, for comfort for Isaac, that he would actually sleep, and asking if I was doing the right thing. I had the most amazing encounter with the Lord at that very moment. I felt God say, "I know it hurts to hear your son cry. I've been there. " The image of Christ on the cross, crying out to his Father flashed through my mind and I can't even begin to tell you how my heart sank. When I talk with other parents about their kids, there is an instant connection of, "Oh man, I totally understand what you're going through." I felt that same connection with God, the Creator of the world, knowing how hard it is to hear our children cry. But even though He could have sent down an army of angels and saved His Son from dying, He knew the bigger picture and knew what had to be done.

Am I comparing my little Isaac with Jesus dying on the cross?? HEAVENS no. It was such a beautiful moment of understanding and peace that came from knowing that God knows exactly what we are going through when we hear our children cry. As simple as that is, it brought me such amazing peace.

And Isaac slept for an hour after that :) Sweet little baby steps...