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2003-03-19-12:02 a.m.
[ye gods.... What a week. I finally finished all my work so now I've allowed myself time to update and email again.]
vacation continued
So, after the harrowing plane trip, the rest of vacation was nice but mostly rather tiring due to managing the wayward schedules of two babies. It seemed like either Ro baby or Boo-boo was either crying or sleeping at incompatible times. Two crying babies - joy, joy.
Trip low points
- Ro baby's "mommy fervor" really escalated during the visit. Because of this, no one could really help me with him because he would fuss until I turned up to play, bathe, or feed him. So, basically I found him to be even more work away from home than he was at home. It was difficult to have any real conversations with anyone because I always had to be with Ro baby and he insisted on my undivided attention.
- Ro baby was jealous of Boo-boo if mommy held him but otherwise he didn't seem bothered or interested in him much at all. Every time someone gave Boo-Boo a bottle, Ro baby would make a sad face and then start crying for one too. I had slowly been weaning him off and now I'm back to square one.
- We slept on a mattress. I hated it. I forget how much I hate mattresses because we all sleep on futons - even Ro baby. We have a very nice futon - not a cheap one. Ro baby has cotton futon in his crib. Mattress springs are awful and hard and weirdly bouncy. We all slept badly but especially Ro baby. After five nights of giving us fits, he finally slept through the night when we gave him a feather pillow to lay on rather than the rock hard plastic baby mattress.
Fun things about vacation:
- Playing outside with Ro baby. It was so nice for him to be outside after all the months of miserable weather we've had here.
- Eating copious amounts of good ol' Southern cooking. (Why is there no Northern cooking?)
- Seeing my brother and other family.
- Our family reunion where Ro baby attempted to feed a cat his bottle. He really liked the cat. He also met his new Chinese cousin, Em, and was smitten and they had a few shoving matches because they're both little spitfires. They're the same size even though she's 10 months older.
- I read two books in their entirety - About a Boy by that English guy, and Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris. (I wouldn't have picked those two books necessarily but they were laying around and I read voraciously and compulsively. I simply can't help myself. If there's a book - I will read it.)
- I even watched two movies straight through - My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Anna & The King. They were ok. Not stellar - just ok.
- We discovered Natural Cheetos and boy were they tasty. I've always liked cheetohs but I never eat them. These were organic and made by Frito-Lay. I haven't seen them up north yet.
- Oh, and I also learned to knit. I'm making a scarf with some strips of merino wool. It's not really yarn as such. You can see it in the picture below. I've wanted to learn to knit for quite some time --- but I don't know why really, because I have little enthusiasm for knitted things. I hate the sort the things grandmas seem to knit - baby booties, lumpy sweaters, and afghans. ugh!!!!!! All out of wretched acrylic yarns - double ugh!!!
Unfortunately, I'm also fairly apathetic toward most modern knitting projects - though there are a few nice things here and there. I have my own ideas as well but they're too complicated for me at this stage. I love the yarns and maybe afghan wouldn't be horrible if it was made out of $10 a skein yarn rather than $2 a skein yarn. I'm not sure though.
What I REALLY like though, is just the process of knitting. It's a very soothing activity. It made the flight home much more calming for me -- plus Ro baby was much, much better. Daddy was able to soothe him much better than I. I think because Daddy isn't scared of flying. He talked to him very soothingly during ascents and descents. I probably don't sound all that reassuring since I'm pretty freaked on a plane myself. I was wishing I had a valium on the way down, but I bet everyone else on the plane wanted Ro baby to have one. This article talks about a guy who really tried to do it. yikes!
Knitting has been helping recently too. Roen's been pitching major fits about napping and going to bed. Screaming to the point of throwing up. Tonight, I tried a different tack and I sat by his crib and knitted calmly as he shrieked at me. It helped me get through the ordeal without thinking about throttling him at all. I know that sounds awful to say. I don't really want to throttle him. I more wanted to throttle myself -- but I really just want the noise to STOP. Staying in his room (and staying calm) helped shorten the crying time to under 30 minutes tonight and I wasn't stressed out afterwards because I was happy working on the knitting. However, I still think mute buttons should come standard on children.
I've also been thinking about getting my hearing checked. I don't know why sound is bothering me so much. It didn't use to. It's just been a gradual thing with periodic flares. At Christmas, it was so bad that I was wanting to stick an ice pick down my ears to see if I could deafen myself. I just didn't want hear anything ever again. Then things seemed better. Now, I feel really irritated by sounds again. I keep wondering if I'm developing something strange along the lines of Meniere's Disease.
My first knitting project
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