Ooops - Where Does The Time Go?

Has it really been a month? Yes, yes, yes, I know the point of a blog is to update it on a quasi-regular basis, but all aspects of life sort of went sideways so I had to focus on survival and drop any non-essentials and as much I enjoy the blog, it is a luxury item in my life.

Here's what went down:

1) We listed and sold our place and bought another within three weeks. Yes, in this market. The gods were smiling upon us and the perfect buyers fell in our lap. Had they not come along, I'm sure it would still be on the market, or we would have given up and taken it off because keeping it clean for open houses was just about killing me.

2) The adorable baby M. - still not sleeping through the night. Turns out, I didn't actually have a sleep problem, I had a food problem. I was starving him to death. After going out to see Madonna on October 30 (a day that just about saw me check myself into the pysch ward at Lions Gate Hospital due to lack of sleep and house-selling stress combined with lovely but needy children - a padded room and happy pills seemed like a wonderful idea), after having two bottles from Nana, M. slept from 11:00 until 5:45 without a peep. I woke up, looked at the clock, and though he was dead. So after that, I did a little time at the milking machine I figured out that my milk supply was low. Instead of the recommended 5 to 8 ounces he should have been taking in at each feed, he was probably only getting 2 to 4, or less. Which explains why he wanted to eat all the time, all hours of the day and night. We started topping him up with formula which helped a little, but not as much as I would have hoped. I accused Nana of putting a nip of vodka or scotch in his bottle, only because I wanted to do the same, but she denied it. We were just at the doctor today for his 5-month check-up and the poor kid is still in the 20th or 25th percentile for weight. He had his first bowl of rice cereal tonight and gobbled it down like someone who had been lost in the woods for a week with no food. He's been ready for food for a while. He's one of those kids who watches you eat with an almost uncomfortable intensity. Probably because he was wasting away from hunger. I had an Orange Julius today at the mall and he was desperately trying to get it from me. I thought that would probably not be the best food to start him on. Maybe in a couple more months.

3) We all got sick. J. first, then D., then M. and then me. J. is now experiencing hearing loss again from blocked ears, but after a visit to the doctor, we're just keeping and eye on it to see if it goes away. I'm still fighting it after two weeks, but since I never get to rest, it will probably stick around until April!

4) J. turned 4 and I decided that this was the year that I needed to make his cake, despite having pawned it off on various other family members every year prior, when I had only one kid and was not going postal from sleep deprivation. I was trying to lower the bar on birthday parties and while I did in some ways, the Type A part of my brain still got its two cents in.

So I was really focusing on the bottom of the triangle of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and not really paying attention to that self-actualization bit at the top. But hopefully I can get back in the saddle and start doing this at least once a week. Okay, well my big kid who is even less patient than the 4-year old, is calling me upstairs because he wants to watch "Dragon's Den" now. Right now!

More about the new house later. It has a 24 by 17 basement room that is going to be the playroom! It has a lot of other things going for it, but truly that playroom is all I care about. I think about it all the time. It will change my life.

Better go before I have to deal with a temper trantrum!

M.