Back to the writing table

After 2.5 years of not blogging, perhaps out of sheer lack of time, or inability to make time, I'm back in the saddle.  I've decided that Dr. Mom needs to get out all these things that happen when you're a doctor, and a teacher, and a wife and a mother.  And ADD.  Apparently, the confessional blog is the latest and greatest.  So I'm following suit.  A supervisor told me a few years ago that I was a horrible example to the women I teach.  Perhaps.  But reality bites sometimes, and this is my reality.  This is not the reality of all doctors or maybe anyone else's life but mine, so please don't accuse me of putting words in someone's mouth.

In the past 2 years, we have moved from Chattanooga to a small community in NE TN where I teach at a medical school.  After having been at home with Elizabeth for 3 years, Jeff went back to the workforce, also at the medical school.  And Elizabeth went to preschool.  And my days became weeks, weeks became months, and here we are.

In my mind, Elizabeth is still 3-ish, mainly because I haven't been around to experience 3 and 4.  I'm making a concerted effort to be here for 5, and tossing a 10-spot in the therapy jar each time I'm not.  A few weeks ago, I posted an incredibly frustrated bit on FB about hating stay at home moms for all the time they have to get the mundane tasks of life completed, and I got backlash on demeaning someone's choice to stay home.  That was not at all the point.  That particular day I spent HOURS trying to catch up on laundry that had piled up over the span of a week and half.  So, instead of practicing letters, addition, play-doh, or going to the park, I was in the basement with the Shout spray.  When 60 hours a week is the norm (and this includes time at home spent behind the cover of the laptop), an entire Sunday doing laundry (that took a week to fold and put away, mind you) will have anyone at their wit's end.

Perhaps, also, cataloging my days will keep me accountable for my time.  Because every minute (even those spent writing this blog) must be accounted for.  Constant multitasking is nearly impossible for those with ADD, and it's incredibly exhausting.  I keep thinking...if I just get caught up.  (in > 2 years, I haven't even gotten close!!)  But keeping close tabs on my comings and goings may help streamline those 10 minutes here and there that I could be using productively...instead of going to the potty, or combing my hair.

Back to grading attendance forms for my 1st year students for the entire semester.  Then to buy the Christmas presents.  And it's already midnight.

Until tomorrow...or sometime in the near future

Putting Mommy and Daddy to Sleep

Have you emptied your bladder recently? If not, I recommend doing so now.

OK. Now, you are less likely to wet yourself as you read the following story:

All who know Elizabeth have seen her talk to, nurture, and feed her "babies", which is a loose term for anything she owns. Well, she has moved on to bigger and better things. Namely, mommy and daddy. Her new stalling technique before bedtime is to make mommy and daddy sleep on her bedroom floor. Tonight, she took it to another level, playing out an entire charade that went something like this...

"Mommy, Daddy sleeping, you go sleep, too!" I lay down on the floor next to daddy, whose head is covered with an afghan. "I have blankie for you, too!!" She covers my right scapula with a blankie, and pats my back. Then she hands me a stuffed puppy dog to snuggle with. Daddy, not to be left out, starts wimpering. So she gives him a tiny stuffed bunny. Not satisfied with this, he says, in a whiny voice, "I want the gorilla!!". To which she says, "O-Kay." Crosses the room to fetch the gorilla.

We both start whining about wanting a story. Again, she says, "O-Kay." She procures "Blue Hat, Green Hat" and "The Going to Bed Book". But before she can sit down, she decides she needs a bench. So she goes and hefts her stool with the carved letters that spell her name(which isn't light), nearly dropping it on my head in order to situate herself between us. She sits down with the book. Then changing her mind, gets up again. She fiddles with other books.

Continued whining about a story. "Please read us a story!!! PLEASE!!!" "I want THAT one!!!" cries daddy as he points to "Blue Hat, Green Hat". She repeats this little routine a few times, each time we get more insistent. We want a story. I fake a big snore, to which she says, "Wape up, Mommy!! Wape up!"

She finally settles herself onto the Elizabeth stool. She opens "Blue Hat, Green Hat" in the middle and stares at the page. Daddy says, "Well, aren't you going to read it to us????" To which Elizabeth replies succinctly, yet forlornly....

"But...I can't read!!!!"

ABC's

Elizabeth loves to recite her ABC's. Last weekend, as we were driving in the car, I caught it on video. Sorry for the whirring of the car in the background.

OOPS!!

Elizabeth has been under the weather today, with a little bit of a fever, just feeling pooky. She perked up for her bath, and we had a grand time, and she proclaimed "Naked Lady!!" running out of the bathroom without a towel. She then returned, shivered, and said, "Mommy, it's very cold!" Wonder why...

We toweled off, and she was standing outside her bedroom door as I looked for her jammies. Then I hear this dripping noise hitting the hardwood in the hallway. "Elizabeth, did you pee-pee on the floor?" I asked, as my child stood aghast. "Yes mommy", she replied, with downcast eyes. Then she proceeded to giggle, run into her room, and track urine everywhere. Hmm, and I thought little boys were the only ones who thought having pee-pee everywhere but the toilet was funny.

No more naked dollies!

I just had to blog about this. All toddlers get great pleasure from undressing. Both themselves and their toys, dolls, pets, etc. It's the re-dressing that's the difficult part. Due to this little issue, Elizabeth has toted around two dolls in various states of undress, since Christmas.

Tonight after dinner, as mommy and daddy were fixated on DIYnetwork, Elizabeth was putting the jammies back on her baby doll. Ever so gently she pulled the arms through, and even velcroed the back closed.

To add to the absolute cuteness of it all, a few minutes later, she had a paper towel over baby's face, saying "Blow! Blow! Good job!" as she wiped its nose. Lucky for Elizabeth, the plastic baby doll doesn't squirm and scream when she wipes it's nose. I'll bet it doesn't kick her in the face when she changes its diaper either. But that's another story.

The "Beach" at last...

We took our annual trip to Florida, in mid-February. After a marathon all night drive from Chattanooga, we arrived at the "beach". Elizabeth's pronunciation is improving, thankfully, so it sounds more like "beach" now. We LOVE Marco Island. It's very peaceful, no crowds (esp in February), and laid back. This year, we stayed on one of the canals, and watched the fish under the dock day and night.


Elizabeth, of course, had a blast. She loved playing in the sand and swimming in the pool, especially the pool at a friend's complex, which was nice and warm. The ocean...not so much...She's terrified of it. She wouldn't even let mommy go in, for fear mommy would get swept away. We're going to have to work on that. She stood, horrified, hanging on to grammy yelling "No, mommy, No! No ocean, no ocean!"

While in Florida, dad took Jeff, Karen, and I to this place called Goodland. "The little drinking village with a fishing problem." Live music (which we never really heard b/c they were setting up for 2 hours), bar food, lots of alcohol, all on a Sunday afternoon. What more can you ask for?

We enjoyed an afternoon on John and Sue Siegfried's boat, and Elizabeth is now quite the seasoned boater. Not timid at all, she ran up and down the boat looking for dolphins, which we saw quite a few of. We tooled around the canal, to say hi to papa, who stayed back at the condo.

After a week hanging out at Marco Island with grammy, papa, and auntie Karen, mommy and daddy headed off for some time on their own. Stayed for a few days at the Hilton Clearwater Beach, quite a nice hotel that nickel-dimes you to death. Luckily we weren't too keen to hang out on the beach, b/c 2 beach chairs were $31/day. We thoroughly enjoyed our sunset cruise on Captain Memo's Pirate Ship, though. Probably a little too much...

On our way home, Jeff and I stayed overnight in Atlanta to have dinner with Ian. We stayed at the Hotel Indigo in Midtown, which is a totally neat old hotel. Went to this great little wine bar called Eno. Spent Saturdayshopping at Ikea, Harry's Farm Market, and Trader Joe's. Luckily we didn't have Elizabeth, as she wouldn't have fit between all the loot.

All in all, we really enjoyed the break from reality. And have been quite productive since returning home.

Wishing Nemo Would Get Lost

I'd like to take this time to publicly thank Grammy and Papa for bringing a copy of Finding Nemo over the holidays. I'm sure that, by now, I'm a foremost authority on all things Nemo. I can recite the whole movie. In my sleep. Backwards.

For instance, Marlin and Dory have just been sucked in by the whale(one of my favorite scenes)...it goes like this...
Whale: Makes big loud whale noise
Dory: Oh, that one was a little tougher, he either said he wants us to go to the back of the throat, or he wants a root beer float.
Marlin: Of COURSE he wants us to go to the back of the throat, that's EATING US!!! How do I taste Moby? *slapping whale's taste buds with a fin*

Catch my drift? (sorry...bad pun...)

One day...we watched it 5 times in a row. 5 TIMES!! Now, I know, it could be worse, we could be watching Barney reruns. And Nemo on a large TV with a great sound system really IS cool beyond words. But, after the 50th run, it gets a little old. So Nemo is going on a little vacation. To...well...somewhere.

From the top of Mount Wannahockalugee...NO MORE NEMO!!!

Amen. Hallelujia. Has anyone seen Wall-E?

The saga of the beach continues

You know, I read somewhere that toddlers don't have any conception of time. Not until age 3 or 4 can they understand the difference between tomorrow and two weeks from now.

So...last night, I was getting some of Elizabeth's things together for the beach, packing up the swimsuits, etc. Of course, she wanted to put one on NOW. But that's not the best part. She goes into the closet and grabs her coat, and says "bye- bye". I asked her where she was going, and she says. "B*tch!" For the next hour or so, she was insistent on going outside, so she could go to the "B*tch!" Why did I mention the trip again???

Later in the evening, she comes up to me, jacket zipped up, and says, "B*tch!!!" (you know, if we tell her it's a bad word, she's just gonna say it all the time...) I say, "B-ee-ch", sounding it out. Then she walks up to daddy, who's not heard the rest of the conversation. "B*tch!!!" So, daddy says, "I know mommy is grumpy, but is it that bad?" Thanks, daddy.

Elizabeth goes to a Lutheran preschool. I can see it now, as she puts on her coat and saunters up to Miss Emily, and says, "B*tch!" My kid is going to get expelled from preschool.

Out of the mouths of babes

I know I need to post the holiday pictures. But first things first.

Elizabeth, who has the smallest feet of any two year old, is finally outgrowing size 4. We were talking about how we'll need to find her some shoes for the beach. (we're headed to FL in a month)

Elizabeth says, "B*tch!!" (I'm thinking, oh, boy we're gonna have fun with this, especially because "SIT!!" sounds like "S*it!!!")

So, we're sitting at dinner and I say, "Elizabeth, show daddy how you can say 'beach'!"

"B*tch!!" says Elizabeth

Daddy follows with, "Elizabeth, can you say you'd like to see the 'Sun on the Beach'?"

'Nuff said. I hope you're laughing so hard you're crying. I know I was.

The Christmas Tree Adventure 2008

It's been raining for nearly two weeks here in Chattanooga. And with all the work in the basement, we STILL didn't have a tree. So...the sun peeked out for a mere 30 minutes this AM which tricked us into thinking we could have a pleasant drive through north Georgia.

As we got off the interstate, the perpetual fog rolled back over Lookout Mountain, and by the time we neared the Blue Goose Christmas Tree Farm, it was misting. Again. As we got out of the car, it was starting to rain. Lucky us! Despite the weather, we found a nice tree.Here in TN, the cypress grow better than the pines, so we picked a fairly tall Leland Cypress. Taller than my car is long, in fact. And quite heavy. Hefting this tree onto the car was an interesting event...especially because by this time it was starting to pour.

All in all, we got the tree wrapped and properly tied to the car. Where it remains. It's STILL RAINING!!!!

Our giggle bug

Elizabeth loves to be tickled. Everywhere. Daddy's gotten the best of her this time!

The basement is no longer a "basement"

Though not completely finished - the trim still needs to go in, the floor needs touched up, the TV isn't here yet, and the entertainment center is therefore not finished, and the backsplash needs to be tiled. OK, that's still a lot to do. But, it's ready to be lived in. In fact, we had the UTFP Holiday Party here on Friday night. 30+ people was nothing for our ground floor living space.

Where did it all come from? Well...I designed the kitchen area and entertainment center with a tool from HGTV.com; Jeff gutted the space of paneling, old carpeting, removed the linoleum floor, cleaned off the glue, and finished the concrete floor with products from Behr/Home Depot. The cabinets and countertops came from Southeastern Salvage, and were assembled and hung by Jeff and Casey. The drywall/framing/electrical/plumbing/carpentry were carefully mastered by Jeff with help from Casey (and a few tips from my dad). Did I mention that Jeff did all this while watching Elizabeth? The range was upstairs and we replaced it with a salvage model from the Habitat store until we redo the space upstairs. Our groovy vintage stove that was just too big to save went to the Habitat store. The dishwasher also came from upstairs, and we treated ourselves to a nice new Kenmore Elite for upstairs, which we worship daily. The fridge was in the house when we bought it, and will be replaced with the french door stainless fridge upstairs when we remodel the kitchen.

Before: Can you say dated and dark? And who puts carpet in a basement?











After:




This project has been 2.5 years in the making, and I think that we never thought it would be done. The office furniture will move down here once the trim is in, and we'll never need to be upstairs...This is why the "great room" idea is so functional. We're already enjoying spending time together as a family, instead of all of us in different parts of the house.

In fact...I'm sitting at our cool new mod pub table as I type...

Did I mention that we have a guest room down here? And that once the bathroom is finished, it'll be nicer than the Hyatt? And much cheaper...we're easily bribed with food and wine...

Fly away with me

Elizabeth now loves the beach. And the sand. And most certainly her "sto-l-er". It was so windy last week on the Isle of Palms that her jogger didn't need a "jogger". Nevermind the sprint it took to catch up with it before it headed for the surf.

One...two...four...

Elizabeth loves The Count. A few weeks after watching Sesame Street, she started couting all by herself. She just hasn't quite mastered the order of the numbers yet. Check out these two videos - one week makes a difference! She still has issues with three and eight...why is that?

Drowning in the shallow end of the gene pool

You know your dog is a moron when...he leaps to catch embers in his mouth as they waft out of your fire pit.

Never said he was bright.  But I didn't think he was THAT stupid.  I can see it now: "So, how did your dog get third degree burns on his tongue?"  DUH!!!!!

Going back out to enjoy the chimnea.  And an adult beverage.  With my hubby.

The birthday party - of sorts

Well, the theme to our party was...there was no theme. We had brats, homemade and homegrown mashed sweet potatoes, beer/"juice", cupcakes and presents. A good time was had by all. Especially when Auntie Karen "Ti-Ti" and Grammy and Papa all called at the same time and sang to Elizabeth collectively on speaker phone. (wish I had THAT on video!)

A newfound love of opening presents - For the first time she's got the realization that something fun is in that wrapping. I have a few "present opening clips", but we'll put the "un-PC"' one with Jeff and Casey making snide remarks on the back burner for now.

Despite the fact that her forehead bruises belie her inexperience in walking and her cheeks are proof she got in a fight with the cat, she looks good for two. At least it doesn't set a flawlessness precedent that she'll never be able to live down. We'll wait a few years to give her THAT complex.

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

She's "two" today, and is happy to tell everyone just how old she is. Hasn't gotten the fingers thing down yet, though. Her birthday t-shirt is laid out on her dresser, and mommy needs to go get a little cake (wish I had time for baking one, but she'll never know...). And wrap her presents. And go to work. And hopefully get back in time for Uncle Casey and Auntie Kim to come over. Small "party" tonight, maybe we'll have a big one once the basement is done. When she's "three". ha. Gotta go make the salsa. Can't believe she's two.

ELIZABETH WALKS!!!

While at grammy and papa's, Elizabeth broke free from her baby walkers. On September 23, she walked from one side of the living room to the other, bribed by grammy of course. Here's a cute video proof. She loves to "wear" her bathtowel. It's wonderful to have her walking. Even in the few days she's been home, we can do so many more things. She can help put stuff away. She can follow mommy down the hallway. She can play on her baby slide without help. She's not running yet, so I'll get back to you on how wonderful walking is in a few weeks.