The boy who cried "ouch"

I should've seen it coming.

Months ago Miles discovered that the cat can eventually be driven to nipping. After crying big cat bite tears and getting lots of comfort, Miles started to pseudo pester the cat and then whip his hand away and look up at us with a supremely offended look. He scored a lot of laughs that way, but apparently that wasn't what he was striving for...

Anytime Miles gets hurt or is sad we love on him. Recently however, he seems to have been conniving ways for extra hugs and kisses.

It all started with a sort of squinting grimace look that Miles gives while holding his head. Fearing an ear infection, but hoping for something as benign as a teething induced headache, we actually took him to his doctor. Official diagnosis: possible teething pains. Unofficial diagnosis: probable toddler hypochondria.

Since that appointment last week Miles has taken his tactics further. He has learned that when he throws something straight up, it comes straight back down. Yesterday we played with a stuffed tomato in his bedroom this way. Each time it hit him his face crumpled and he came to me for a comfort hug. Over and over he did this.

Now his pains are even more hypothetical. He almost tripped near me this morning and, not sure where the potential pain would've been, held his nose and gave a pained pout lip grimace.

I guess we'll have to teach him about the boy who cried "wolf..."

"is he always this laid back?"

Miles is such a sweet kid. In public he almost even acts...polite. People are impressed and we are proud. But sometimes the tantrum takes over.

Miles' tantrums primarily involve biting. When he is frustrated he will perform a war cry and proceed to bite the couch, a leg, his toy, or most commonly... the carpet. I have no concerns about him refusing to wiggle out loose teeth when the time comes.

In such a situation, when you see his emotions building to a crescendo, it is important to hold Miles in such a way that he can bite nothing but air. His attempt will result in arching of his back and banging of his head, but if you can hold on then all will be safe.

Post fireworks sleep, Miles had an especially long day. When it neared bedtime we could just feel his mood declining. It was that tangible. But, he managed to entertain himself sufficiently leaning heavily on the company of the cat, his cat. Suddenly I heard and then watched as Miles started scream-crying (almost like the sound of him getting his finger stuck in the shower drain.) Running over to him, I inspected him for injury, but merely observed angry frustration. With tears streaming down his face, I had to laugh (internally of course) when I realized what was wrong: Miles was holding the cat...collar! Houdini Holstein had managed to escape his playful embrace and Miles was crushed. He was sobbing, stumbling toward the cat with the collar desperately held out as far as his arm could stretch. Before assisting him, I beckoned for David to watch the drama. (Why I didn't grab the camera, I don't know and greatly regret.) To remedy the situation I simply picked Miles up (his arm with collar unwaveringly outstretched) and traversed the four feet to arrive at Holstein. Together we put the collar back on the cat which immediately stopped the tears and then brought the cat to a place where we could pet and hug him to our hearts (his hearts) content.

Thankfully the cat incident didn't invoke Miles' frustrated biting technique.

dog food on the toilet paper roll

Miles loves his naps.

Our routine is as follows: I take him upstairs, push "play" on his amazon jungle monkey sound maker, sit in his glider with him on my lap facing out and read one or two of the five books that I read over and over and over. (I tend to choose books that rhyme and have more than three words per page. Those work best. The only side affect is that I have them fully and completely memorized and find myself chanting the words in my head way too often.)

It is extremely rare to get through both books. One of two things happens: 1) Miles falls asleep discretely on the last page of the first book or 2) He squirms and twists to be held with his head on my shoulder. If he ends up resting on my shoulder then it is important to get him cribbed quickly. He finds my shoulder comforting, but uncomfortable and would rather toss it out in bed.

Upon being placed in his crib (provided he isn't totally out already,) Miles lifts his head up, locates his glow worm, presses it so that it glows out a song and then lays back down. After the song ends he does it again. And...one more time. Then he is out.

I love our video monitor. Recently Miles has noticed the pinpoint green dot on his bookshelf that is the eye of the monitor. Its humorous to watch him stand in his crib and look at it intently. Its alien like, actually, with the contrast it gives his face.

Instead of panicking and rattling the crib with urgency like he used to, Miles either wakes from his nap practicing syllables for a few minutes or rises silently and alerts us of his status by playing crib music contentedly.

Miles woke up from his nap a little early today and gave a few yells. I debated going in his room, restarting his amazon music and tucking him in for another half an hour, but instead this is what his monitor revealed:

After fussing for a few minutes while laying down (an indicator that he isn't actually ready to be up from his nap,) Miles enlisted the help of his glow worm. After cycling through the four songs it plays he stood up, turned on his jungle monkey sounds and laid back down next to the glow worm. After a few minutes and apparently still feeling antsy, Miles sat up and gathered all his crib blankets. He methodically covered every inch of his feet and legs, but since he was partially sitting on his blanket he was unable to wrap himself to his satisfaction. At this realization he started talking to and biting at his blanket. This ended in him bunching them all up and then dog piling them. He added a few crib toys underneath his tummy for good measure. Again he tried to resume his nap. Eventually this failed as well. Miles rose, eyed the green eye of the monitor and waited for me. When I arrived, he pointed at all his things and told me what he had tried to do to nap longer for me. If I hadn't watched the whole spectacle play out on the monitor for those 30 minutes, I would never have fully appreciated his efforts.

Now I must go clean up the dog food, for the only way I found time to write this was by opening our closet and letting Miles play at will.

Brelynzie

Well, that's what David calls her.  Officially she's Brelyn Dakota Nilsen - our little girl!

Her birth story: 

David predicted she'd be born "next Saturday" a week ago and will always be proud of being right. No reason - just picked that date very adamantly.  

Friday, May 15,  I had a my weekly OB appt - the first one without an ultrasound - a normal  one! To our surprise I was 2 cm dilated and 70-80% effaced, but my OB was fine with that.  He said that if our little girl came that day she'd do just fine, but 4 more days (to reach 36 weeks) would be best.  Some women can be dilated/effaced like me and still go weeks - even overdue.   I had been having a little crampiness on and off that week, but that wasn't supposed to indicate anything.

David had taken Friday off for our special 3 day weekend we'd been planning for over a month. The forecast said sunshine and we had been hoping to take Miles to the zoo before his sister came - a special day just for him.  We had the BEST day.  Miles and 1,000 + other kids his age with monkey style back packs pulled parents down paths and into exhibits and explored electrical outlets (his favorite exhibit.) 

 

Much later that evening my contractions, which I'd had for months, started feeling a little painful.  Not bad - just a little different.  We went grocery shopping and had a regular night.  I did time them and they were about 12 minutes apart, but that was nothing too out of the ordinary.  

I had been waking up 2-3 times per night regularly for weeks, but Saturday morning when I woke up at 3:19 and felt a slightly painful contraction I was suddenly wide awake.  I spent the next two hours wondering if I'd actually go into labor that day.  At that time the contractions were about 10 minutes apart and I would've taken an Aleve if I could've, but they were definitely tolerable.  

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day and I wanted to "do something fun." That morning we went to Home Depot and bought some seeds for our garden.  When we returned I felt inclined to call the hospital to discuss my symptoms "just in case," but felt like a bit of a hypochondriac.  The nurse I spoke with said to "have breakfast, take a shower and come in in a few hours if you still feel the same." Having already done those things we opted to plant our garden instead and contemplated if we should call a grandparent to come be with Miles.  It was a hard decision because we knew if we did go in with a false alarm that we would miss hours of the sunshine and have taken up a grandparent's afternoon. 

David's mom arrived about 4 hours after we'd initially called the hospital seeking their opinion. We entered Triage at 1:30 and I was hooked up to all the monitoring devices.  My contractions were 7 minutes apart for the 2 hours they monitored me, but I was still 2 cm and 70-80%.  The on call doctor and nurse decided that my contractions weren't the type to cause cervical change and offered me medications to stop false contractions (nothing stops real labor,) but I declined.  (Been there, done that.)  They were non commital and said that the contractions could indicate that I'd go into labor in the next 2-4 days...or weeks.  

Part of me was mad at the situation because we'd spent two hours of the best part of the sunny day in a dank room without windows.  The other part of me felt that the doctor was wrong.  I remember the contractions I had prior to "active labor" with Miles and they were overly suspiciously similar. But alas, we arrived home at 4:00.

I wanted to go on a walk - anything outside to bask in the sunlight (in between contractions anyway.) When I had a contraction I didn't feel like walking anymore.  At this point they were about 4-5 minutes apart.  David was going nuts trying to appease me.  I wanted to do something fun one minute and then I couldn't feel like it the next.  We sat on the grass and played catch. 

At 5:30 I decided I didn't' feel that great and wanted to go lay down upstairs while David and his mom went grocery shopping.  He kept saying "are you sure?" And I was.  David began to prepare for the outing, but at 5:45 I called his cell phone.  He was downstairs and picked up, but I didn't say anything, so he came to check on me at which time I announced that I wanted to go back to the hospital.  While he frantically made additional arrangements with Lynnette and Miles I put extra deodorant on, just in case.  When I confided this to David he snorted and said that he did too.  I just thought that was funny.

By the time we got out of the house and on our way my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart.  Our hospital is 20 minutes away and I think all the driver byers were looking at me.  When we arrived David jumped out of the car and jogged down the hall looking for a wheel chair because I'd told him I didn't think I could walk.  I thought his franticness was sweet, but at that time hadn't thought we really needed to rush that bad.  This was 6:40 PM and I was wrong!

David had parked in loading with the windows down and had to go relocate the car.  When he came back a few minutes later he said he was shocked because I was all "out there and ready to go."  The nurse concluded that I was 8 cm dilated and 100% effaced - all in the 3 hours since I'd left triage.  She also concluded (against my will) that I was too far gone for an epidural.  

I wouldn't accept the news and made things pretty hard for the nurses and doctors, refusing to position myself how they wanted me to or to push for that matter!  In my defense, I only had about 3 minutes to cope with the fact that I had to go natural before I...had to go natural. Apparently at one point the OB told David he needed to "get in my face and get me to focus." David said he was very scared of doing that considering my state of mind.  When I realized he was "in my face" I got a hold of him and wouldn't let go.  I felt much better that way, but apparently that's not what I was supposed to do and David's back was breaking.  They pried me off. 

A few minutes later our daughter was born - 7:33 PM - 45 minutes after re arriving at the hospital.  She gave a cry right away and had an apgar score of 9 (Miles was 1!)  David was able to "trim" the umbilical cord and hold her all swaddled before handing her to me.  It was perfect. 

At 4 lbs 6 oz and 17 and 3/4" , Brelyn was 1-1.5 lbs smaller than they'd expect from a baby born at 35.5 weeks pregnant.  Because of that she was transported to the NICU for monitoring, but David got to carry her all the way up there.  He said she was feisty and strong willed.  Probably due to the non epidural labor experience.  

"Brelynzie" is 3 days old now and is peaceful in daddy's arms. 

by david - based on a true story

"Well, Carrie made muffins recently that Miles absolutely loves. He wants to eat them all the time! Carrie was about to have one while checking her email when suddenly it was gone! She looked about and heard some chewing like a chipmunk and saw that Miles had clepted the muffin and was eating it in secret! When he realized that he was caught, he jumped up and ran with his muffin until he was cornered and laughing. Then Carrie let him have the muffin after a good tickling."

the libraries are against me

It took me a full 9 weeks as a stay home bed rest mom to become reacquainted with book reading. I am now addicted. This poses a problem because in less than 2 months I will begin another long term reading fast. I must make these next weeks count!

While I used to love browsing Borders for hours at a time, assessing various excerpts from the pages of promising novels to make sure the authors write well enough to support my habit, I realize this is highly impractical. David is sure book store days are numbered.

So, the library it is... (I have to add here that I am not a library fan. In fact, I passionately despise libraries. I avoided them like the plague in college. Too quiet, too hyper organized, too complicated, too musty. Somehow that doesn't adequately cover how I feel about them, but words do not suffice.)

Its been so long since I've entered a library that I've recently conjured up allusions of bringing Miles to library events - book reading circles or whatever moms are supposed to do with their kids. But no more.

Today in eager desperation I announced that I wanted to browse library books - I NEED something good to read - NOW. (David quickly weighed his options: 1) allow me a few minutes at the library to find a book and gain game playing time later while I peacefully read at his side or 2) follow his instincts and avoid the library. He opted for braving the library against his better judgement.) In the time it took David to park and unlatch Miles, I had obtained this information: 1) the library is where all the people go on Saturday afternoons at 1 PM. 2) The kids section is void of any actual children and 3) there is no "Christian fiction" section. ("But," said the librarian innocently, "I can show you how to look up a book if you know the author." I'd rather eat a dill pickle.) Result: I was in the library approximately 4 minutes, David and Miles: 40 seconds.

I went home trying to get this library encounter out of my head, but another idea took root: the reservation of books online for pick up at the library. I like online. I could do that. It would still require entering the dreadful place, but might actually worth it and I could probably even get David to do it for me. Upon logging on, I developed an instant dislike for their website that matched that of the library itself - extremely complicated and uninteresting. And as far as I can tell, you can't search by genre - only "librarian picks" and "current world interests" like the swine flu etc. So how, pray tell, am I supposed to "browse" for a book in my area of interest?

Low and behold I still have my King County Library card - with my maiden name. Hm. Will they be able to tell I live out of county? I think I can get that past them. Okay, forget Snohomish County.

Though I found their site similarly complicated, at least KCLS is searchable by genre, as all libraries should be. 3,948 titles fall under Christian Fiction and are sorted by release date. What I find is a gold mine of 2009 Christian Fiction releases - just like browsing at Borders! Unfortunately I am unable read excerpts to see if authors will be holding my interest (understandable) and in many cases there are not even plot descriptions (what on earth?) No matter. I can reserve as many books as I'd like and simply reject them upon receiving them if they lack appeal.

I am giddy about this. I browse 6 (of 248) pages of books finding title after title that I'd give a chance. But I am generous - don't want to horde all the books - so I pick four to start. When I view my "book bag" and try to place holds on these items in Bellevue for David's convenience, there is a pop up: "trouble with your account - see a librarian." Uh...no thanks. I do some further investigation to discover the trouble: a late fee from September 15, 2005. Guess how much - TEN CENTS. Are you kidding me? Anyone thinking Seinfeld right now? So I can't reserve the books unless I opt to pay my late fee online with a credit card. But see, they're on to me. I don't live in King County anymore and to pay with a credit card using my billing address - I think its a conspiracy. So, back to square one.

I ingeniously developed a system of browsing books on the King Country Library System site and then individually searching for those specific titles of choice on the Snohomish County Library System site. (The librarian who suggested such a search would be beaming with pride.)

my decorations are irritated

The first 12 years of my life were lived with a perfectly square, plastic or metal encased, brown wood grain colored tv with a rounded gray screen (if my memory serves me correctly.) We would watch Perry Mason, Hawaii 5-O and listen to Paul Harvey while eating macaroni and cheese and drinking milk. The picture was static gray and white - much resembling Pennie's fur now that I think about it.

I think the VCR was introduced when we moved to my parent's current residence. We had one channel - 12 - and Home Improvement was our re-run. For some reason Perry Mason didn't play there, but we would sometimes watch movies on the weekends. I remember that TV being black and having a remote. Brett threw it at me once, but I dodged and it hit the tv screen. Pretty solid thing; didn't phase it.

In college I inherited a 214 pound tv like my original one (only there was twice as much tv box as screen and it was oblong) from a graduating student. I should have perceived the relief on his face better - I thought it was due to his finishing school. We used this to watch the news in the mornings when the reception was favorable.

Once married my tv situation changed slightly. We had a more recent model and the rim around the screen was a smaller percentage of its overall size. We could fit a large radio with speakers, stacks of CDs and DVDs, cords, cables, remotes, video game systems and that TV in our entertainment center. Still, seeing no need for cable, we had few channels and little need to turn it on. In fact, one night, studying for some of my classes, David experimented watching American Idol. We haven't seen that show since that night almost 7 years ago. I think he may be afraid of it.

THEN, a few years ago David won a 40 inch flat screen TV the likes of which we never imagined in our home. It actually filled up our entertainment center. Still, we resisted applying for cable. For four years now we've watched Seinfeld and the occasional news broadcast on our glorious tv...in static...with bunny ears. We are fine with this. We are even fine with the scoffing of our friends who shake their heads at the shameful waste of such a tv minus cable. And I had come to terms with the bunny ears all askew on our mantle.

But the countdown has begun. Soon, all tv will be digital or nothing. And yet we've avoided the necessary black box. When contemplating what to do we just shrugged our shoulders. And then Ben came to visit. He insisted that we must already have digital capability, but we'd gone over that and we didn't...or so we thought. With a few twists of a dial and scans of the controller he produced a perfectly clear channel 11 (with the potential for more!) WHAT?!

The problem is this: the digitalness still requires an antenna. And that antenna is sitting ON my vase.