the creeping crud

so, it's been a yucky couple of days here. in the middle of the night on thursday (early morning), i came down with the first case of stomach flu that i've had in YEARS. 2 and a half thoroughly unpleasant days later, i'm finally on the mend. luckily, brian was able to take a personal day on thursday and had off on friday, so i didn't have to fend for myself and the kids alone. THAT would have been quite possibly the worst thing ever.

this case of ickiness even sullied what i thought would be the most exciting day of this calendar year so far, the day we BOUGHT A VAN. thursday afternoon we went in, the van got the bob schultz seal of approval, and we did the paperwork and drove it home. however, i couldn't enjoy one second of it, what with the hot flashes/sweat surges and insanely frequent trips to the bathroom. now that i'm feeling somewhat better, though, i'm ready to enjoy our new purchase. i did manage to get the carseats moved yesterday and we took it to the library and to the grocery store during one of my better phases. this thing's got more storage than you can shake a stick at. it's AWESOME. i shall post a picture soon.

abby quote of the day:
a: "why is it so windy outside?"
m: "i don't know, sweetie."
a: "i think it's because we have too much air."

natural sponsor of sesame street

so our james earl jones-sponsored van search is at an end! hopefully at this time tomorrow, we will have our new van comfortably parked in our garage. we're purchasing a 2005 toyota sienna, with only 6700 miles on it, plus some nice bells and whistles. we're VERY excited about this whole thing, and hope that the schultz seal of approval and paperwork all go well tomorrow. think of all the room that we'll have!

other than that, not much else has been going on here. on friday, we hope to head to lodi and check out their city-wide garage sales. tomorrow is the van, and definitely either target or the grocery store, since we're running low on food.

i'm too lazy to go back in the archive and see whether i've written about this yet, so i'm just going to write about it anyway. for a few months, abby's complained on and off of tummy pain, which i've chalked up to eating too much, or something like that. however, it's been getting worse and worse, as well as more frequent, so i took her to the doctor last week. there's also some poop issues that go along with this, but the less said about those, the better. the doctor suggested doing a one-week-trial of no lactose, to see if she's possibly lactose intolerant. the idea of the dairy princess having to go without her beloved milk and cheese blew my mind, but we've been doing it. we're actually over a week now, because i wanted to make sure that it clears her system. she's been drinking soy milk, with little objection, and has been pretty reasonable about the no-cheese rule. i hate to say it, but things have improved. however, i think that she could probably tolerate a small amount of dairy, and that we don't have to eliminate it entirely. this has made meal planning a huge pain in the patoot.

get culverized

don't mind if i do.

mmmmmmmmm...butterburgers....custard...............

ok, i'm hungry now.

5 months (plus 3 days)

i realized that i missed my monthly ian-birthday update, so better late than never.

5 months! definitely hard to believe. but, he's made a lot of progress this month. he's gotten to be quite the pro at rolling, and seems to be not too far from crawling. army crawl is very close. he's gotten very good at grabbing and holding on to things, especially my hair. he can pass toys from hand to hand, and pick them up after he's dropped them (sometimes). he LOVES his big sister, and is constantly smiling and laughing at her. no teeth yet, but the drool and the chewing of everything in sight indicates that it may not be too much longer. i would say probably another month or so. abby didn't get her first teeth until she was 7 months old, so we just have late teethers in this family. he's sleeping on his tummy almost exclusively now...i put him in there on his back, and he immediately flips over. he still loves his jumperoo, and can be happy in there for quite some time. we've also put together the highchair, which he'll start to sit in at mealtimes in preparation for the introduction of solid food, currently slated for mid-may.

current likes: jumperoo, getting his diaper changed, bathtime, being naked, big sister, kishiru, pulling hair, snuggling a burp rag, the music of sigur ros and chris daughtry (what can i say, he's eclectic like abby is), mommy singing pretty much anything.

current dislikes: getting dressed, riding in the car for more than a trip 1 place, getting his fingernails clipped, sleeping for more than 3-4 hours at a time.

miss manners

our lives have effectively been taken over by the van search. in fact, "the van search" should be bolded, italicized, and underlined, with a voiceover from james earl jones. yesterday my dad came down to help us, and we test-drove 3 vans. they were all nice in their own ways and i did like them all, but i think we're going to keep looking because i didn't LOVE any of them. so, the search continues.

ian's sleeping issues have shown slight improvement. he has decided that sleeping on his tummy is where it's at, but there are issues that go along with that. he's old enough and skilled enough to do it without worrying about SIDS too much, so that's not a problem. the problem is that he gets turned over onto his back and promptly runs into the side of the crib or gets his legs stuck between the bars. so, we're borrowing a breathable crib bumper from jenny that lily never used, so hopefully that will solve that problem for now. but, napping has gotten insanely better since the tummy sleeping started...he'll nap for at least an hour now, and often for an hour and a half to 2 hours. it's awesome. a side benefit of all this tummy time he's getting is that he's looking closer to crawling every day. my bet is that he'll be crawling within the month. which means, i need to get cracking on the childproofing...it's been said before, and no, i still haven't done it.

spring has finally arrived here, so we're trying to start spending more time outside. abby's gone out on the patio a bit lately, but has complained because it's been very windy. but, this morning seemed to be okay, and she had a good time out there. i'm taking over the little garden area in back of our building, too, so we'll be able to be out in the backyard...abby playing, ian crawling around or in the bouncy seat, and me gardening. i'm looking forward to it.

collect all 4!

so yesterday was bodily fluid day here at casa rogers.

1. 5am, ian pees on brian while getting his diaper changed.
2. 8am, ian poops all over the place while nursing.
3. after nursing, i stand him up to burp, since because of the poop he couldn't just sit, and he spits up all over himself and me.

at this point, i make jokes all day about how all we need is blood and we'll have the whole set of bodily fluids, but that i hope we won't.

4. 4:30pm, i rip off my fingernail and it bleeds.

complete set! wish we could sell it on ebay. :)

zzzzzzzzzz...huh? what?

so, ian's sleeping issues have not improved yet. he'll tease us by having a night like tuesday night, where he's only up twice, but then brutally rip the hope from our grasps by having something like last night where he was up 6 times. we really can't handle too much more of this. whatever this PHASE is, it needs to end now. now, i tell you!

anywho, abby returned yesterday from spending a few days with grandma and grandpa schultz. she had a super time, but did seem happy to be home. she played golf with grandpa in the basement, and generally ran them ragged. hahahahahaha. :)

so, our upcoming project is purchasing a minivan. we've gotten our truck paid off, and ready for trade-in, we just need to get the show on the road. my goal is to have the van by june at the absolute latest, since we'll be traveling to minneapolis on a family vacation in mid-june. i've had it up to here with having no room in the car for groceries, stroller, etc. so, i want this to happen in the next month or so, ideally.

ok, ian's freaking out in the jumperoo. sigh.

quick question

"hey...have you seen my lips?"

hey hey ho ho this here pigeon just won't go!

supposed to be 64 here today! wooooooooo for spring! we're going to try to go for a walk this morning when ian gets up from his nap.

we have a busy weekend coming up. today, i'm making a batch of caramel brownies for auntie bunna's birthday dinner tomorrow. they're her recipe that she makes frequently, so if i screw it up, i'll never hear the end of it. :) we're also having pulled pork sandwiches, chips, and coleslaw. the kids will probably have grilled cheese, although i'm hoping abby tries the pulled pork. she's been doing excellent with trying new foods lately, so i'm optimistic.

ian's night-sleeping problems continue, although they have improved. he's up 3 or 4 times a night, and eats 2 out of those times. this mobile that we've finally gotten installed has been wonderful, especially during the day for naps. i put him in his crib awake, turn on the mobile, turn on the fan, and he goes to sleep. he might cry for a minute or two, but that's about it. it's been AWESOME to not have to stand in there rocking or swinging him to sleep.

now we have an installment of our recurring feature, "abby says the darnedest things."

(scene: abby and brian watching a youtube video of an elephant painting)
b: "that elephant has 3 legs! what does that make him?" (background: abby has recently learned the prefix "tri" and its various usages, including tripod)
a: (pause) "happy!"

(scene: driving home from church)
a: "someday i'll be a dad!"
m: "well, only boys can be dads, but you can be a mom if you want"
a: "but i want to be a boy."
m: "you do? well, you're kind of stuck being a girl. don't you like being a girl?"
a: "yes, i like being a girl. but when i get bigger i will get turned into a boy!"
m: (pause to figure out how far into gender identity issues we should get, decides to take the easy way out) "ok, have fun with that!"

let's see that come back to bite me in the butt in about 15 years.

virus

we've had a slight outbreak of comment viruses here...i'm deleting them as soon as i see them, but if i haven't done it, do NOT click any link that appears in the comments. the virus is in the link. hopefully these losers will move on.

rejuvenate, revitalize, relax

well, april fool's was fun, wasn't it? if only...

the past 5 nights have been very bad in terms of ian's sleeping. last night was quite a bit better, but he was still up 4 times, which makes for cranky mommy and daddy. we're not sure what exactly is causing this problem, but there are many possibilities: growth spurt, developmental leap, teething, ear infection, my medication, etc etc. the medication's out of the running now, though, because i've been off of it for 5 days now. so, hopefully this is just a phase that's on its way out.

abby's sounding more and more like a big girl every day, and the stuff that comes out of her mouth is pretty unbelievable. on monday we visited the preschool that she'll be attending in the fall. she walked in there like she owned the place, and threw a fit when it was time to leave. needless to say, i'm not worried about her adjustment.

new developments

it's been a busy day here at chez rogers!

the day started with a phone call from yale university's director of admissions, letting us know that they'd like abby to enroll in their accelerated pre-law/pre-med program immediately! i explained to them that we'd already gotten a good offer from harvard, so they would need to be competitive with theirs. we're leaving them to fight it out between themselves. we are having some doubts about her entering the law or medical fields...we feel that she should be utilizing her musical talents, and maybe she should accept the offer from the new york philharmonic to be their musical director. or maybe that offer from the lyric opera in chicago to perform the lead in their new production of wagner's ring cycle. just so many choices, we don't know what to do.

then after that excitement died down, ian walked up to me and asked me for some milk in french, spanish, german, russian, and japanese. he also provided us with a cogent explanation of string theory, and effectively disproved the meteorite theory of the extinction of the dinosaurs. he's just growing up so quickly.

brian's accepted borders' offer for him to take over as ceo, so we'll be moving to ann arbor as soon as we can find a house. we figure we won't move any of our stuff, we'll just buy all new things when we get there.

overall, this has been a pretty good day.









oh, and by the way....









april fool's!