WOW! Thank you secret valentine! part 2

I am speechless at how thoughtful Ronja Zigler is.  completely.   Thank you SOOO much!

The pretty ring!

Fuel for my all things Gallifrey obsession!

Nicey-nice Eternity products & hand-sanitizer.  How did you figure out it's my fav?!?!?!?!

An awesome knitted sampler square

This is the BEST!  Like the Kit-Kat Commercial!!!!  LOVE IT

Do need to make a quick aside...I loved this so much I put it up on my fridge...however, Bub also liking the picture very much indeed somehow felt it necessary to sneak it off the fridge into his room where he felt he must add to the wonderfulness of this drawing by coloring in the first row of Dalek bumps.   Yeah, that's my Bub.  I have rescued this fab work of art and am now contemplating where I can display it w/o any chances of further embellishment.  lol-kinda.

Thank you so much, I have been in such a funk lately and your thoughfulness has really cheered me up.  :)

Nubs!!!!!!

WOW! Thank you secret valentine!

Doctor who drawings, eternity stuff! I am SOOOO excited!  but I got it on my way out to work, and just got home from a crazy nite, so I will say a quick "THANK YOU! " and give a bigger one later in the day (or after tomorrow cuz I -maybe- work again tonite)...may be on call...may be in NICU or Mother/Baby...work is always an adventure! 

Nubs!

Thank you secret valentine & happy birthday Zbear!

Firstly, Thank you secret valentine from Cheeseblarg  for the lovely ring!  Joe & I decided years ago that nicey-niceys like jewelry, flowers, etc... were not as important as funding our Bub's therapies, so I have not gotten any in a long time (well, I have bought watches, but that's for work so I can time pulses and RR and IV pushes....and I get cheap <$10 ones..)  It was a very nice surprise!  But I don't know who you are!  there was no note, so thank you nameless valentine!  you made the day even nicer!  (Thank you Jodee for organizing the fun!)

So yesterday, at 2pm I decided I HAVE to do something for Z's birthday and not be super pathetic like I have been for the last few weeks.  So I called Grandma & my Sister-in-law's family and invited them over for cake/INFORMAL dinner.  at first everyone was coming, but in actuality, only Grandma came, Cousin K and Uncle K have been sick this week, so they decided to stay home...which was TOTALLY fine because I gave them what...a 2.5hr notice?  like I say, I-suck, I just wanted them to know they were welcome.

That said, w/ Bub's food allergies, desserts are always a challenge, and I get tired of making the same "safe" cakes over and over.  a few weeks ago I came across a recipe in one of my magazines for "Turtle-cake bars", it sounded so yummy, but they aren't an option as I have yet to find ANY caramel that is safe for Bub, even home-made (fyi- I am NOT good at making home-made candies...except chocolate dipped pretzels w/ sprinkles....)  But I thought I could do some kind of S'more thing.... 

So I made up a recipe.  I don't do that for desserts.  Main courses, yes.  Desserts, no.  But I did.  I made a s'more cake!  Bub ate 3 pieces.  Joe liked it, and GRANDMA liked it.  (she doesn't usually like most of Bub's safe desserts...she likes stuff w/ lots of butter, condensed milk, and whipped cream/cool whip- all off limits in this house)  so here's what it looked like:

Z loved the balloons Grandma got her...so did Bub.  in fact, Bub loved all the presents she got (although he did get his own presents too) and we had a mini-meltdown after having to break up an "argument" over who got to play with which toy first....but cake seems to cure sulking after melt-down-time-out, so happiness prevailed in the end.

behold the festivities!

Bub trying very hard to be patient

surprise, Joe took this picture....

Rapunzle...just wish I could find one that had her after her hair turned brown to match my Z

Nubs!

Bub had her beat by 11 months: Autism learning?

Last nite, while I was at work...changing teeney-tiny poopie diapers, mind you...My Zbug discovered how to get out of her crib by herself & sneak up on daddy to deliver a mini-heart-attack surprise.  plus before she came out to scare daddy, she pulled down a dress from a hanger and played "dress-up pretty".

Bub figured out how to crawl fall out of his crib at 13 months.  Z learned to do it 2 days b4 she turned 2.  So what does that mean?   was it that Bub is more physically driven to learn and perfect certain physical tasks as quickly as possible, or that Z's learning is more faceted than Bub's was and she focuses on multiple tasks that are completed at a slower rate vs Bub who gets "stuck" on a task and does it over and over until he feels he's perfected it, and then keeps doing it after it's perfected because it has now become a ritual?

this learning difference in the two of them has me laughing and sad at the same time.

Bub surprised me today, he came running out of his room naked...which usually means some sort of bodily material has exited his body and is lying in wait for me on his floor..but there wasn't anything on the floor.  so I took him to the bathroom expecting him to pee...cuz he prolly started in his pants stopped when he realized it, and stripped to go...but then got distracted.  So he pees then sits down on the potty and poops!  I am super proud of him.

He got all confused on how to wipe up afterwards....so momma had to help teach that.  yayee me.  (no)

It's so odd how he does things, and his rate of learning.  He will get something for a day, then regress for weeks as if he's "thinking about it", then out of the blue he'll try it again...and again, nothing for a while.  then one day he just "gets" it and then does it the right way almost always after that.  it's so odd, and frustrating to deal with.  Joe hopes verbalization will happen this way.  I'm just happy Bub understands speech and directions.

anyhow.  I'm tired, NICU shifts wipe me out.  It's funny when you consider most NICU babies are under 3lbs and they just kick my a**.  but there it is.

nite...off to make Zbug a birthday cake for her "towe" birthday tomorrow.  :)
Nubs

well, that's another...maybe I should worry.

last week I was put on LOA all three of my shifts.  Thankfully, I was able to pick up one in the NICU, and another at my PRN job.  last night I got LOA'd again, but I will be picking up a shift tonight,...in the NICU.

sigh


Anyhow, I made up Bub's Valentine day party "Bags".  I got all the stuff to have a nice bag for the kids, and then forgot to get bags.  So they are in ziplock baggies.  I swear, I don't mean to be shabby, it just seems to happen.  But I got Bub to give starbursts (one of a few gfcf candies I can buy at a normal store), a valentine day eraser, a valentine stencil/ruler, and a card.  Plus wonderful Hubby Joe signed us up to bring plates, utensils, etc... for the party...last august...and I found out on Friday.  joy.

I hope whoever supplies the cake/cookies supplies something Bub can have, and the other kiddo in the class who is gfcf.  But I doubt it.  I think I will make Bub a treat for at home once Joe takes Zbug to the healthy-hideaway.

nubs

so where is the panic?

So the last three days I have been sitting up all night in my scrubs playing FF13 waiting for a call from work telling me there are enough sick kiddos in the hosp for me to work.  the last three days I have been on call.  Our unit has been on minimal staffing, which means, 1 charge nurse, and one PCT.  that's it.  me and another nurse have been just sitting at home, waiting to find out if we have to go to work or not.

I don't have enough PTO to cover this.

I am not panicking, and I don't know why I am not.  I am continuing to feel listless tho.

I told Joe we would pick up Turbo tax today and I'll do our taxes.  if it's like last year, we should be fine...no new dishwasher after all, cuz that's what we were thinking about getting with our refund.  (FYI- our current dishwasher is called "Nina and Joe"   It would be nice if our current dishwasher was called "Nina, Joe, and Bub", but all Bub does at the sink is play with bubbles and fill up cups with water of varying levels of volume.  ...and giggles.)

we also have to get new shoes for Bub, sometime yesterday he managed to rip the sole off the OUTSIDE of the shoe...we discovered this as he came home w/ a duct-taped foot.  the shoe was somewhere in the duct-tape.  Bub liked his shiny silver shoe and didn't want to take it off.  Z thought it was nice too.  Today Bub is sporting his 6month-ago shoes which thankfully are not TOO small for one day.  I don't think Bub gets PE, so he'll prolly be ok.

I am trying to get Zbug to count to two since she will be that old next week.  I can get her to point w/ one finger.  I can get her to verbalize "two"   (but it sounds more like "Towe")  I can't get her to do both fingers.  Bub gets frustrated with her lack of progress, he has figured out what I am doing.  (!!!!)  and he grabs little Z's hand and tries to make 2 of her fingers point up...which she doesn't like and then starts crying and bapping Bub which then concludes our little lesson for the day. 

Joe continues with his project: a chain-mail duster. (over-coat, trench-coat, whatever you want to call it.)  He shows me his progress everyday.  I can't lift this thing up anymore.  He says he's almost happy with the shoulders and collar.  He's as happy as a clam.  made me look at some clasps he wants to order for it when he's done.    I smile cuz he's happy.

nubs

LOA'd

I got a call that I am LOA'd from my shift tonite.  (LOA- leave of absence d/t not enough sick people in my unit to justify paying me today, and not enough sick people on our sister units to justify floating me today).  So I'm on call for a few hours, in case enough people get sick to justify paying me to come it.

Anyhow.  I've been not here.  I've been really blah.  I have no idea why.  I think Joe is really getting tired of it. I am, but I can't kick it.  I have a couple of days in a row when I feel good, get the house clean, cook a bunch of good things for the kids and make up easy to "cook" stuff for Joe to serve up the kids when I'm at work...and then I go blah and sit around sighing and not doing anything.

well, today is a little better, did my hair and makeup before I got the call, Zber joined me in te bathroom and got a "pretty" in her hair (barrette) and some green eyeshadow on and some chapstick.  she's was strutting her stuff for about 2 min before everything got smeared and the Pretty got pulled out of the hair and found it's way to her mouth.  silly little girl.


Her birthday is next week. I have nothing planned.  I suck.