Finally, After Five Long Years…

The problem with this blog and http://eliminationcommunication.wordpress.com blog not showing up in the WordPress reader has been fixed!    It seems that I may have been posting too consistently back in the day for a very, strange, unknown topic and I got flagged as spam for both blogs!

I know it has been a problem.   I just couldn’t find a solution, was unsuccessful in getting help, and gave up.   I purchased a domain name for my new blog http://www.laissezfairelife.com, and an opportunity came up and the problem got fixed in twenty minutes.).   You can now also follow The Other Side of the Moon and Pottytunities for Two on Bloglovin.

Thank you for following and for your patience over the years!

Month 8: Climbing and Pulling Mischief – Day 239

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 8:  Monkey Climbing and Training Pants

10/19 Day 239 F:  Another night EC success.   We only had one miss and if I recall correctly two big wee catches.    Big wee wee means his bladder is quite empty and he doesn’t need to pee again so soon.    I’m a bit stuffy sounding but this cootie seems to be very mild and a minor annoyance so far.   Itty Bitty’s nose is better today and Mini Moose seems totally unaffected.

Itty Bitty has usually been sleeping in an extra hour to hour and a half, but today both of them were ready at 8:30AM.   A good thing, since Daddy Man accidentally shut off his alarm instead of hitting snooze and I had to wake him to go to work.   He’s got a scratchy throat too but none the worse for wear.

I decided to go to a Friday story hour at our usual library just to get Itty Bitty out for an hour.    It is very cold and rainy out.    There was songs to sing and a Halloween craft.   I think it is supposed to be an hour but it seemed to zip by in the 40 minutes we were there so I think they didn’t realize the pacing.   Daddy Man cam home early by about three hours and he spent the late afternoon playing with a delighted Itty Bitty who at one point pet him and say, “I missed you Daddy.  You go at work.   You play with me?”   Mini Moose was happy just crawling around finding bits on the floor and then later destroying an apple core.

Our outing was dry.   At home, there were three poops today and three misses.    We caught a lot of pee, but also missed several little ones and a big after nap one.   Totally my fault, I made the mistake of trying to entice more sleeping and he had to pee…so he did what I encouraged.  Went back to sleep just after peeing on me.  He woke up in the first place for a reason, duh!

I finally got a chance to blog a review of the L’il Baby Chaps by EC Wear today too.

Today’s Chore:   Litter Box (again), clean stove top, sweep floor (necessary to get up all the rice box rice off the floor)

Month 8: Climbing and Pulling Mischief – Day 238

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 8:  Monkey Climbing and Training Pants

Covered for going out on errands another day.

10/18 Day 238 R:  I think Daddy Man gave me cooties again.  My throat is scratchy and I’m stuffy…so is Itty Bitty.       We only had one miss last night and three catches!   Yah!     On top of that we had a really big morning wee catch after we got up.

Because I am unsure of our cootie status, we did not go to the Kid’s Gym today.  Itty Bitty’s nose has been less than pretty looking and I don’t think it is nice to leave snot all over play equipment.     We stayed in and I gave her a narrow neck glass bottle for the rice box and she amused herself for quite some time filling it and emptying it. burying a one eared ceramic bunny figurine and “cooking”.   Mini Moose was quite tired and clingy from his long night of nursing.

Boy, this nipple bleb is such a pain in my life.   Ugh!

It was quite funny when Itty Bitty, exhausted from trying to get more attention from a very, very tired mommy was “reading” a book on the stairs and prompty fell asleep!     She woke up a little disorientated and quite surprised that she’d been accosted by the sandman.   Mini Moose chose that time to wake up so I didn’t get the nap I was hoping for!

He also pooped FOUR times.   We caught one, but the other three were very unexpected poop grenades.  I’m not sure where he was hiding it.   He does try to produce when I potty him, but he doesn’t quite have it mastered yet.  Oh well, at least the biggest one went in the toilet.   Our catch rate otherwise was pretty typical 70:30      Our pee misses, by the way, aren’t always full misses.  More often than not he might pee a little and then we catch the rest in the toilet.

Today’s Chore:  Dishes and Quick sweep floor
Dinner:  Organic Macaroni and Cheese and Bone In Chicken Breast in convection oven.

Month 8: Climbing and Pulling Mischief – Day 237

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 8:  Monkey Climbing and Training Pants

Mini Moose will soon have the strength to climb up there with Itty Bitty.

10/17 Day 237 W:   Our night was a bust as far as catches since I was practically in a sleep coma.   Mini Moose was either wet when he woke me up, or I would wake up, note he was dry and must need to go, and then dream I pottied him already!  Freaky.

Itty Bitty slept in so I made Mini Moose a water soda bottle with bits of odds and ends I found while doing a quick pickup.  After Itty Bitty woke up and got dressed, I was about to leave the house on time to make it to story hour early when Mini Moose crawls into the bathroom distressed (he had already had two big pees in the toilet that morning ) and I see that he’s had a big orange poo.  Nooooooo!

We were five minutes late sinceI had to wash Mini Moose’s butt in the bathroom sink.  It was not a cloth wipe situation!

After story hou and finger painting, we went to lunch on the way to a playdate across town.  So from 10:30 to 3:30 we had no misses, two outside pees, and three bathroom pees.    We got home around 4:00 and I parked in my driveway and let them sleep for an hour and a half and I just sat in the car and twiddled my thumbs ans daydreamed.     Moose had a pee in the bathroom after he woke up and Itty Bitty (the neverending pit of energy) wanted to go outside to play!      I complied reluctantly.  I was tired and it was getting cold as the sun was going down.     I think this time I was the one who was whining!    I moaned, “Aren’t you tiiiiiiired?  I’m exhausted!  We’ve been out all daaaaaay.  I want to go in the hooooouse, it’s cold sweetie!”

Not my finest moment, but in my defense I think Daddy Man gave me a cootie and everyone napped except me!    I couldn’t nap in the car because there was a dude mowing the school grass right beside the house.   My kids can sleep through noise, but I can’t fall asleep with it.

Anyway, the rest of the evening was a 60:40 catch rate.  Daddy Man and Itty Bitty did the recycling chore so I didn’t have to!   YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Today’s chore:   wash laundry and diaper laundry
Unexpected chore:   litter boxes  (gross-a-roo)

Month 8: Climbing and Pulling Mischief – Day 236

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 8:  Monkey Climbing and Training Pants

Working Together

10/16 Day 236 T:   Fantabulous EC night with no misses!    Though the reason is 80% because Mini Moose only needed to wee three times from 11:30 until 8AM when we got up because he didn’t nurse quite as much.

Today’s chore:  Clear Mount Doom  (aka laundry).

So there’s been a leaning tower of laundry in the living room for a week and a growing mountain on an overflowing laundry basket that I had separated into piles of  lights, whites and darks while fending Mini Moose off the catfood bowl with a foot two days ago and left them there in the hall.     I set my watch for thirty minutes and went to task putting a load in the washer and folding the laundry pile in the living room.   I tried to go fast before Mini Moose got tired of eating a sock and before Itty Bitty woke up at 9:30.

Today’s outing:  Operation Outfit (Moose has no winter outerwear and no long sleeve shirts or hats that fit properly)  and Kid’s Gym

While I know there are a few long sleeve shirts in Itty Bitty’s baby thing, mostly their sizes are opposite seasons at this age.   The two hats we have are knit and fit, but get pulled off with no chin strap.   Itty Bitty has a sweatshirt that is too small for her but really big on him.   We did score big at Children’s Place with 2 long sleeve thermal tees, 2 long sleeve regular tees, 2 fleece outerwear (one for this year and one bigger for next or for layering), 2 fleece hats with ear flaps and chin strap, and one long tee for Itty Bitty — all for 54 US dollars after markdown and discount coupon.  Go me!    I got one size larger so the thermals and tees should last the whole fall, winter and spring!

Itty Bitty was starved by the time we were done and Moose napped in the Mei Tai and car the whole time.   I stopped to pick up some homemade chili for Itty Bitty on the way to the gym.   She got out some energy which was good, but then drank water too fast and gave herself a belly ache — poor thing!

Moose had a bathroom potty opp and an outside wee then a pee at home.   Darned if the boy didn’t stealth poo me again!  But we used maybe 4 prefolds all evening which is great so…bam!

I also have to say that this new one or two chores a day is really helping me destress.  I know that some rare people delight in chores, but for me the mundane, the monotony, the tedious nature of the same routine day-in and day out  like Sisyphus eternally doomed — makes me seriously depressed.   I need to know that my life isn’t going o be wasted on dust, scum, scuzz, and drier lint.   Sure, I get that my modern environment means I don’t have to forage, build a shelter, or watch out for predators…BUT that how I am biologically built.  THAT is what comes natural.  I am not made to endure vacuum tedium which produces neither the hormone of love nor the hormone of energetic rush.   It doesn’t even get the happy glee hormone.

Viva La Strike!

Oh, and when Daddy Man got home he picked up one of the two remaining laundry piles and attempted to put it in the wash and switch the clothes from washer to drier ,but the drier was being a stupid non-drying beast.   But just the attempt without being asked took away such a big load of stressed that I practically skipped down the cellar later to switch the clothes.

Month 8: Climbing and Pulling Mischief – Day 235

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 8:  Monkey Climbing and Training Pants

Leg Warmer Season!

10/15 Day 235 M:   We had a night full of misses but also a morning full of catches, well, except for a “Really!?” Poop.   The R!?P is the poop where you take them to the bathroom and hold them over the toilet and they fart so much it echos off the bowl.  You wait a minute for them to finish grunting and then decide you are tired of breathing in farts and have to pee yourself before your eyeballs float away o you back teeth.   So you replace the prefold, put the baby down, and try to have a nice solo bladder emptying moment.   Just as you are in the middle of your moment getting ready to sigh with happy relief, your baby is staring at you with big, Kewpie eyes and “bbrrrrrrrraaaaappppppptttttt”.     And you stare back and say, “Really!?”

And if that wasn’t confounding enough, and hour or two later one of our cats knocked over my freshly pumped 4.5 ounces of milk (a fantastic morning haul from Turbo Boob) which I needed for work tonight.   I can only pump exactly what I need!   My best output is first thing in the morning, only one side produces for the pump, my single electric is on its last legs, and afternoons usually nothing or very little.     The only thing that saved me was a 2 ounce pump output from Thursday when I got home from work and was engorged.  Oh, I was so mad!    The cat knew it too and she slunk off upstairs to pout and nap the day away.

Today’s chore was:  clear counters while wearing Mini Moose on my back which was 50% successful for the chore and 100% successful nap and EC

Itty Bitty was very attention clingy and then took an early 1:00 nap after her several attempts to make sit on her sleeping brother and to incessantly roll herself burrito in the blanket I was using.  Looking back, I think she just wanted to cuddle close, but makes bizarre decisions when she’s sleepy.   I felt bad for snapping at her, but now I know hat she was attempting.

Daddy Man was home early so I got to take a long shower before work.  He plead with me to pump again and wasn’t convinced that I couldn’t produce any ore after managing to get 2 more ounces earlier.   Four ounces for the 4 hours I was gone would have to do!     GMa came to visit so Itty Bitty got one-on-one attention which was great.  When I got home Daddy Man said he caught a big poop after a fart waning!  Yay!   On the downside GMa got peed on BIG.   We need to remind her to put him down or give him a pee break every 45 minutes to an hour.   Because she was soaked, he HAD been holding it a while.

Month 8: Climbing and Pulling Mischief – Day 234

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 8:  Monkey Climbing and Training Pants

Hey, Sis. You aren’t going to finish that pancake are you?

10/14 Day 234 Su:  No misses last night!   I still am not well rested but this too shall pass.  Moose woke after the first 3 hours and did a nurse and pee, the he woke and nursed 2 hours after that dry and not needing to pee, and 2 hours after that he needed to pee big and nursed big too.    We didn’t have any misses until 5AM and the each hour until I decided to get out of bed at 8AM when I realized it was raining and all the cleaned toys that were outside were getting soaked (they are very old!).

I spread two towels and am trying to wrangle a very angry Moose who is delighted with the look of the choking hazards while I set them out to dry.   Among the flooded was an old 1972 Mattel Putt Putt Wood train, Ideal Toys 1974 Friction Car, a 1950s Marx Toys Lazy Day Farm and Fort Apache, various 1970s Fischer Price Little People, some die cast cars, army men, and other figures.    Daddy Man was awakened by the commotion of an excited Itty Bitty and mad moose.

He didn’t look like he went to bed at a reasonable hour!

I finished sorting while he had the littles and then he went to get us some muffins while I fed Moose.   We had misses left and right and only a couple of catches.     We didn’t really synch up until after Moose took a nap (Daddy Man took a 3 hour nap in the meantime).     Itty Bitty amused herself with some of the “new” old toys, but was still vying for some attention so when Daddy Man got up she ponced on him immediately and I told them to play with Fort Apache to see how it held up.    They got the bright idea to knock over the figures with water so I spread open one of the towels from earlier and Itty Bitty was pleased with the game.

I got many after nap pees and missed the poop.  Dagnabbit!

Dinner:  Bucket ‘o Chicken

Bad I know, I know.  I’m trying to do a sanity reset though!

Month 8: Climbing and Pulling Mischief – Day 233

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 8:  Monkey Climbing and Training Pants

Hanging Out. Stayed dry, napped, and then had a big pee after being taken out after an hour and a half.

10/13 Day 233 S:   The air conditioners have been put in hibernation nd last night I used our little Honeywell heater to warm the bedroom since we keep the thermostat low for the rest of the house.

It was a really rough night.  Mini Moose was restless and nursing non stop.  We had a catch at 12am and then at 3AM I woke to go to the bathroom, he had a gigantic pee and didn’t want to go to bed (he’d had an unusually long late evening nap so his “night” started early).    Daddy Man was indulging in late night movies so I handed him off.  At 5am Daddy Man brought him to me and said he cuht two pees and missed three!  I must have been in a deep coma because I was drooling and my neck was stiff!  Around 7:30 or 8, both littles were ready for the day.   I was not.

I zombied around doing only the basic necessities for survival.   At around 11:00AM Daddy Man wakes up and joins the crew.  I must have looked in despair because he suggests we go out for brunch  and since the littles were ready for a nap after we ate (cranberry walnut pancakes!) he drove us around for an hour and a half to look at the fall foliage and I got a chance to relax in the car in quite and destress as I watched scenery.   I felt refreshed enough to finish washing the inherited toys in the big storage bibs outside so they could be sorted into indoor and outdoor fodder.  Itty Bitty “helped” as I wore Moose on my back.

We had no pee misses until late evening, and also had two stealth poo misses.   It seems we either catch big or miss big!

Dinner was take-out subs.

Month 8: Climbing and Pulling Mischief – Day 232

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 8:  Monkey Climbing and Training Pants

10/12 Day 232 F:   Happy 89th Birthday to my GrandMa!

Diaper cover because we are out, but he was dry the whole 2 hours with pee break halfway.

After we called to sing Birthday wishes, I just took it easy because my head was still hurting and I was exhausted from the night’s ordeal.   We did have two catches though..I can’t even think about  not trying because it is such a habit now!

Itty Bitty was rowdy and our friend E. called to see if I wanted to go to a Pilates class.  I declined but we decided to meet up at the Kid’s Gym after.   It was really hard to get out of the house.   And I realized that Mini Moose has only one long sleeve shirt that fits and he wore it yesterday!  Itty Bitty was rambunctious and Moose was Cling Crab.   This is why Itty Bitty left the house with backwards pants and shoes on the wrong feet!   She got dressed and that’s all that mattered.   I told her thank you for her thoughtfulness with helping me with the door (I made no mention about the pants until hours later and she chose not to fix them right away).  Moose peed before we left and that was a plus.

I stopped to pick up some homemade chili from a neighborhood hot dog truck called the Dogfather knowing Itty Bitty would be a starving bear after her workout and it would be cool enough to eat by then.    We saw some familiar faces and a couple of new ones.      Normally, I try my best to let the Littles work out most issues unless it looks like there is going to be hitting, pinching, hair pulling, scratching, or other such injuries.   Same-age quibbles about shirt pulling, hand yanking, age appropriate squabbles over space and toys, and some wrestling I tend to let go or observe from a distance to see how it plays out.    It is very hard though when other parents interfere constantly and you feel like you have to intervene just to keep them away from your little.   The mom of a boy who was about a year older kept interrupting though it seemed to me that the boy didn’t seem to mind Itty Bitty pulling his arm to invite him to play.  Itty Bitty is a child who likes and invites physical play — and she likes to hold hands, wrestle, and hug.   I don’t see anything wrong with that, but she’s three and doesn’t always use her vast vocabulary to ask/invite and doesn’t always “get” why other kids aren’t as energetic.

It was quite refreshing when the mom of the regular was so nonchalant about a running, head bumping crash our two running girls got into as one was coming out of the tunnel and another going in.   I was more worried and stressed about parental reactions than the bump the crying girls got.    Five minutes later after 5 seconds of gym provided ice packs, the girls went right back to playing as if nothing had happened and their tears not even dried on their cheeks.

Mini Moose let go an explosive poop in the bathroom partway through playtime, yay!   Itty Bitty ate the entire half quart of chili (good grief, thank EC that output will go straight into the toilet!) before we left and Moose I had to pee in the grass outside my car because I forgot to stop at the bathroom after lunch and I knew he couldn’t wait.   We again had 7 plus hours using the same prefold!

We then caught a small poop and home, and a huge unexpected poop after Daddy Man got home.   Woo Hoo!   We had some pee misses after that, but that’s normal for us.

Month 8: Climbing and Pulling Mischief – Day 231

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 8:  Monkey Climbing and Training Pants

Local town libraries have been invaluable resources for out-of-home activity especially on a cold, wet day.

10/11 Day 231 R:   Our night catches continue to be hit and miss and last night was more miss than hit.      I’ve got an annoying headache and I’m really drained of energy.    It’s not particularly bright out either plus it’s cold and rainy, which doesn’t help the energy level.

I caught a really big pee an hour after we woke up and then it was a bunch of misses all morning because I just couldn’t get in synch.     I decided to take Itty Bitty to a library (not our usual one) that had a music gathering, but when I got there it turns out it was last week and only occurs once a month on the first Thursday.  My plan was thwarted, but they had a very nice play area in the Children’s Library so we stayed and Itty Bitty had  a grand time playing with it, though when another little girl showed up things got a quite territorial.  It was like watching and episode of National Geographic where the female is establishing territory using arm blockades.         Itty Bitty has gotten to the age where she is getting more aggressive about territory especially since she’s been on the receiving end of similar behavior.      Taking turns becomes an attempt to convince the other party to take a less popular toy.   Can’t say that the littles aren’t clever.

Mini Moose refused two potty opps but stayed dry and on our third potty opportunity after a grocery store run he finally peed though because we were already outside and ready to go, I had to pee him in the grass.      Itty Bitty had bit of a freak out because it was drizzling and the worms were out for a party.  She was both fascinated and scared by the “Wormies”.  I had to shrug off my own aversion to picking up slimy wiggly things to…PICK UP A WORM WITH MY BARE HANDS…and show her that it wouldn’t hurt her and that it was okay to touch it.   The girl was shaking from both fear and excitement and hesitantly touched it with a finger and acted like she got jolted with electricity!      We continued this interplay for about 10 minutes when I finally had to let the worm go explaining that it needed to be wet and had to go home or it’d get sick.     She cried!     She didn’t want the worm to go home, she wanted to touch it…but not touch it!       She was quite unreasonable for thirty minutes and I also knew she was hungry, and she get’s difficult when she’s hungry.     Before we even got halfway home both of them were passed out in the car.

I had to get home so I could pump for work tonight.     It was a bit of a crank fest but I set up the rice box in the house to appease Itty Bitty who wanted to play in the sandbox.     I gave her some of the cleaned up, inherited miniature farm critters, random cowboys and indians and a few spoons and cups to play with.  She just dumped them all in and amused herself for quite a while.

When I got home from work, I was in such excrutiating pain!   I had run out of my usual cheap stretched out bras (I’m on laundry strike if you remember) and I had to put on one that was a little snug.  Darn my girls were looking lifted and 20 years younger!     I guess it was too tight and I got a nasty plugged duct in my right breast in just the three hours I was wearing it.     It felt like I had marbles in my breast, it felt bruised, and the ache went all the way around to my shoulder blade and up my neck.   Ouch!

I pumped, nursed Moose, had Itty Bitty Nurse, then pumped, then Moose, then pumped, then Moose, then hot shower and hand expression, then back to Moose, then Itty Bity…

It would not unclog!

Finally, at around 3AM I could see a bubbling, sore white blister on my nipple and it just REFUSED to release so I had to touch it lightly with a clean pin and FINALLY I got sweet, sweet relief.   I nursed Moose again and though it was still quite sore I was able to sleep a little.

*thud*