september mama

rowan has been doing really well with the potty, until two days ago. she decided to pee on the floor twice in a row, and then again the next day. ?! no idea.

but she watched the french babies dvd a few more times and she was counting in french all by herself, and she came up to me, pointed to the apples, and said "I need a pomme!" :D. she even tried to sing 'mary had a little lamb' in french (marie avait petit mouton, petit mouton, petit mouton) which was totally awesome. so i think we're making progress, and i barely have to do anything... i'm a little worried that the nanny won't be able or interested in keeping up (or maybe she has an atrocious accent), but i guess that comes with the territory.

i'm supposed to bring home dinner and i have no idea what to get. ugh.

IUDs are always scary (at least, the non-hormonal copper kind like i have) because you're told that cramping and bleeding tend to increase, on top of other potential complications with regards to insertion. when you are like me, and have lived long years with excruciating menstrual cramps for 12-24 hours every month, "increased cramping" is not really an option. but i went for it anyway, because short of matt going under the knife, it's the only kind of birth control that was ever going to work for us. i never had much issue with heavy or long-lasting bleeding, so that didn't concern me.

6+ months and three periods later, i can say WOW! the menstrual cramping thus far has been laughable considering what i used to endure (it's likely that pregnancy alleviated it for me). sure, there's a little lower backache and some minimal cramp-like feelings, but i could endure without medication. and i'm finding my usual 4-5 day periods are now more like 6, but even that is nothing. the really interesting thing, for me, is that i have developed very distinct ovulation pains for about 3 days each month. i'm keeping detailed calendar records so that i can pinpoint my ovulation day and get better at predicting the arrival of my period. women are "supposed" to have 14-day luteal phases, but it looks like mine is more like 9-10 days (that is, 9-10 days after i feel the 'ovulation pain' i should expect my period). we'll see if it gets more exact as time goes on.

also IUD-related, still no problems with it, ah, interfering in the act. which is always nice.

in other news, rowan is using the potty (as least for pee)! she was 5/5 yesterday with NO accidents. the day before, too. she has been off-and-on for months, as i have mentioned before, but this time it was 2 days of 'i need to use the potty' right after peeing in her diaper, so we did it, and the next day she caught it before she went, and asked for her "pantypants," and we've been off diapers during the day ever since. she said "NO DIAPERS!" yesterday, and it was great.

as for liam, i have a strong feeling that Luvs are giving him a rash. he's never worn anything but the all-natural diaper types until now, and suddenly he has a horrendous rash on his butt. he's in pain, too. we're going to do some trial and error to figure it out, but in the meantime he hates diaper changes. also he is cutting the next set of FOUR teeth all at once, so it might be the yucky poo irritating him :(.

i caught a raccoon last night in the trap--probably the one that killed all our chickens--so i am hoping that problem is over. at least until next spring. i have 22 chicks coming in the mail this week!

rowan continued to be sick last week, though i have decided now that she was teething too. the combination of symptoms (night waking, gross diapers, snot, crankiness) is obvious in hindsight... but let me tell you about thursday.

rowan woke up way too early and i was changing her in the dark because i was still half-asleep, when she started saying "poopie hands" repeatedly. oh god. yep. so i turned on the light and it wasn't just her hands, which had somehow found their way into her diaper, it was also her sheets, the padded bumper around her headboard, and her blankets. yay for diarrhea! into the wash it all went. the morning was fine after that, and when i put her down for her nap in just a diaper and a shirt, i remember saying to myself "she needs pants, this is a bad idea" but i guess laziness took over and i ignored it. 30 minutes later she is wailing and kicking the wall for my attention, so i went to get her and it was a horrible and yet hilarious scene: rowan lying on her side as if paralyzed with her diaper undone and hanging off her body, with gross runny poo coming down off her, through the side of the diaper, and straight onto the bed. she was whining and upset and wouldn't move because she didn't want it all over her (i shouldn't laugh but it really was funny). it was, again, all over the CLEAN sheets, and now also on her favorite little 'pillow pet' --thanks grandma--ms. ladybug. she had been shat upon!

i washed a second set of sheets while rowan played in my bathtub (with the drain unplugged, of course).

then, because mommy is really stupid, we decided to give the 'big girl panties' a go that afternoon. i knew her tummy had to be empty and i figured she would not want to pee in the underwear, so we talked over and over about how she would tell me when she needed the potty and so on... all afternoon i asked her every 5 minutes if she needed the potty, and it was always "noooo," so i left her alone. i must have ignored her for about 10 minutes at one point, though, because suddenly her panties were wet and i didn't know when or where it had happened. sigh. eventually i found a puddle on my bathroom floor. i'm sure the reason she didn't bother to tell me was because she knew she isn't allowed in there and didn't want to get caught.

as for blackmail, it's a bit of an exaggeration: i'm refusing to eat any meat until matt quits smoking. you'd think that would have no effect on him, but he gets annoyed if i even suggest i might be vegetarian again, so i'm hoping it will give him some small incentive to stop spending money and being stinky over something as stupid as cigarettes. he likes cooking excessively large slabs of animal parts for us, and he'll miss it if i don't partake... besides, at the very least i should theoretically be able to lose some weight just by cutting out the meat and replacing it with veggies. we'll see.

we had a litter of bunnies a few days ago and another is on the way today or tomorrow, and matt bought us a few rhode island pullets the other day, too. they are living in a fish tank on our dining room table at the moment. karen has successfully hatched four chicks from our eggs this week, too, which is really exciting. i hate that we will have to segregate them and deal with the whole pecking-order deal for a while when they are big enough, but it beats not having any chicks. i'm going to try another round of natural hatching later this week, i think. our hens want about 18 eggs under them to sit, so 2-3 days of no collection should do it for a full nest. i hope matt didn't piss them off too much the last time.

i'm about 1/3 of the way through knitting rowan's birthday dress (i started early to ensure it would finished on time, but now i think she will wear it for easter too). it's a really pretty little thing evocative of a flower, with the petals as skirt and the...inner part thingie...as the bodice. i'll post pics when it's done.

liam is blabbering away all the time, lots of new sounds and accompanying facial expressions. i love that kid.

we've had an eventful few days, i think. tuesday my mom and i went and got rowan her last set of free photos (my one-year membership with the company ended):

...which meant a trip to the mall and, since we were in gville anyway, target. i got a mattress for the toddler bed and a potty chair for little miss. she LOVES the new bed--all set up with her cute dragonfly sheet set--though she hasn't slept on it yet. she has, however, figured out how to safely dismount from it, even if she can't get up onto it herself yet. so far she likes to pretend to sleep on it and put her baby doll to sleep on it. at least she gets the idea.

the potty is a hit too, to my delight and surprise! the first time i put her on it she strained to produce two drops of pee, and i was shocked. we've been sitting on it several times a day, either when i have a hunch or just because... yesterday after her nap she started farting, so i whisked her in there and she pooped on the potty quite happily! i was really, really happy about that (especially since we are back to 100% cloth diapers, lol). we made a big fuss and she seemed to get it, sort of. i'm not attached to the idea that she knows what's up or will continue to do it, i'm just riding the luck for now. no need to get serious with something that i want her to be comfortable about.

wednesday we spent the day at my late great-grandmother's home, helping to make some of her possessions disappear. i brought home a recliner for our now-complete living room (we have two places to sit!), a totally awesome, seriously vintage sewing table with built in sewing machine, some quirky 1960s drinking glasses, and a bunch of bakeware. tomorrow we're picking up a spare bed and a table and chairs for outdoors. and an upright vacuum. i felt like i had been to a great flea market and scored stuff at the best price ever... despite the pangs of seeing pics of my grandmother about the place. i have to say though, i know she would want family to take everything we can before the estate sale gives it to strangers. after "shopping" most of the day, i came home and organized/rearranged furniture and stuff to fit it all in. one of my most favorite things to do (really).

yesterday... i did something yesterday but i can't really remember now. rowan hasn't been going to bed well lately. tonight it took me FIVE tries to get her to accept bedtime--no idea why. last night was not as bad, but bad enough. oh, yesterday was the milking injury, that's right. to summarize: the cow barely missed stomping on my belly. it sucked a lot. and it (all) still hurts. also yesterday rowan surprised me with her ability to follow instructions... she was wandering the living room, and i asked her very specifically to: come into the kitchen, pick up daddy's socks (which she had left there), and put them in mommy's room; and she did it! i didn't have to repeat myself. multi-part instructions are mastered :). later, she was watching the grover disco DVD while i cleaned the laundry room, and they were doing this silly dance when i heard her squealing, so i came out and hid behind the couch to watch her actually do all the steps from a seated position! it was unbelievable. i mean, yes, she knows all those body parts and whatnot, but to see her to it right, and on cue, was amazing. she would twist back and forth instead of turning around, and she tilted her head instead of falling down, but she clearly knew what she was doing. needless to say, we sang that song all day so i could watch her do it over and over. lol.

i had wacky dreams last night that i don't want to get into, and today i baked a slew of items; sourdough pretzels, two loaves of bread, one loaf of sourdough. and i made yogurt. i need to make butter again--cream is piling up. we have too much milk. this morning rowan and i went with my mom to help her clean her church, and rowan slipped on the freshly-mopped floor and slammed her head on it... it was traumatic. in the bath tonight, she stood up (which i am always bitching at her about) and slipped, and went fully under the water for a second, on her back. that is an image i fear i will never get out of my head... she was staring up in panic through the water, somehow knowing not to breathe in but unable to help herself up. she would have drowned in no time at all if i hadn't been right there to yank her up. it was really fucking scary... i'm getting upset just remembering it.

blah. so today is over, and i am tired. i think i'm going to sleep now and hope i don't have any dreams... i'd rather just pass out cold for once. unfortunately that is highly unlikely. *sigh*