March

Some things that happened this month in no particular order:

Jenny, Brett, Ella, and Maya flew down for a visit for the first week of March. We had a great time visiting with them and took a lot of nice pictures!

We had a couple more nice visits with Greg, Tina, and Gwyn.

Scott finally got a new smartphone to replace his old blackberry. He’s very happy with it!

Scott built a swingset in our backyard from scratch! Atom loves it. He’s now working on adding a platform and a slide to it.

I decided to find a new primary care doctor in Clermont so it would be easier for my parents to watch the kids if I ever need to go to the doctor. I had one appointment there already and I like it so far.

Scott has been very busy working on the Despicable Me ride for Universal and he’s working some crazy and erratic hours again.

Trillian laughed for the first (and so far only) time this month. She has also started reaching for objects.

Atom mastered basic potty training this month! He has overcome his fear of pooping in the potty (lots of treats helped) and now he doesn’t wear diapers at all during the day. I’ve actually started taken him out without diapers too and he tells me when he has to go. We’re so proud of him! We tried not having a diaper on him at night also, but after a couple accidents we decided to wait a little longer before we work on that part.

I broke down and bought a pretty expensive double stroller this month. I’ve wanted one for a while now, but I had a very hard time rationalizing that kind of purchase. Here's how I did it. First I sold two other strollers of mine on craiglist and made about $100, then I found a way to get the one I wanted (the City Mini Double GT) for 10% off, and finally for good measure I applied for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, which has a $500 cash back promotion right now for new members. Thank you excellent credit! So, now I can take walks again! Which brings me to my next point:

Trillian has been pretty difficult this month. It seemed to get worse as the month progressed. First of all, she hates the car seat. It doesn’t seem to matter if she’s sleepy or awake or even already asleep. When I put her in there and start driving, she wakes up and starts crying. This has really made it hard for me to want to go anywhere. Her naps are also terrible. She doesn’t want to fall asleep unless I’m holding her or wearing her in a carrier. Last month she would fall asleep when laid down on her stomach, or snuggled next to me on her side, but now she’s having none of that and will just start crying if I lie her down, even if I’m lying right beside her trying to soothe her. This has gotten more and more frustrating, to the point where I’m having feelings of intense frustration culminating in bouts of screaming into pillows, which is a new and troubling experience for me. The first few times I used the new stroller, I was elated because she was happy and even fell asleep in it, but then the last couple of times I’ve used it she’s started crying and I’ve ended up carrying her. I can only hope that this needing to be held phase changes quickly as most of these things do. It’s really stressful and rough on me right now.

Family picture

Atom playing on the trampoline

Atom drawing with his friend Gwyn

Atom still likes cuddling with Trillian

Scott works on the building the next part of the playground where the slide will go. I'm always impressed by how he can fix or build anything!

Trillian enjoys her swing

Atom enjoys his swing and his ball too!

The things they put in kids' books these days...

Being held again of course...



Checking out Daddy's new phone

Playdates and Conversations about Religion

I had a playdate at my house today. I posted on meetup as well as facebook but only one other mom showed up this time. We had a nice time. She has a five year old and a 7 month old. I had met her previously at other meetups but this was the first time we’d really had time to talk one on one. We talked mostly about the usual child-related topics that come up when you have kids, but inevitably IT came up. (I can’t even remember how exactly, I think we were talking about what we were doing for Easter.) 

“How about you? Are you religious? Do you go to church?”

I was actually pretty impressed that she asked me IF I went to church instead of asking “which church do you go to?” which is usually how it’s phrased.

“No,” I said. “We’re not religious at all and we don’t go to church.” 

This turned out to be one of the more positive times this question has come up. She went on to tell me how religion is a topic she feels very confused and conflicted about and that she doesn’t feel like she knows enough about it. She was raised Catholic and was trying to decide if she wanted to put her kids in religious programs similar to what she experienced as a child or not.

“I feel like they need it for moral instruction.” She said. “I got that as a child and if I hadn’t, maybe I wouldn’t be as moral.”

“No” I replied, "You don’t need religious instruction to be moral. You can definitely teach them that on your own."

This is so cliché really. It’s one of the most ubiquitous assumptions, that religion is necessary for morality, and if they just stopped to think about it for 2 seconds they’d realize it’s nonsense. In fact, immediately after I said that to her, she began to backtrack on that assumption, (probably realizing the implicit offensiveness of it.) “I didn’t mean that you can’t be moral without religion of course, you understand...”

As I said, this was actually a pretty positive exchange. I told her how I do online debates and stuff and how this is a subject I actually really like talking about. I tried to make it clear that I wasn’t going to judge her or make religion a big issue though. I specifically refrained from using the “A” word during this whole thing, referring to myself as “non-religious” instead because I thought it would be less intimidating then “atheist”. She seemed genuinely interested in my perspective and not particularly threatened by what I said.

I mainly bring this whole thing up to illustrate the point that I DO NOT go around seeking discussion of these kinds of topics (at least not in this context). Religion is ubiquitous in this area and other people invariably bring it up. And, if it’s not that, then it’s something else like anti-vaccine, alt medicine, pseudoscientific nonsense that gets brought up instead. There is no avoiding it. So, I guess I’ll keep doing what I’ve been doing. Not bringing controversial stuff up, but not hiding my opinions either when stuff does come up.  And if that results in me being labeled an “offensive, intolerant, argumentative, atheist/skeptic” again, then so be it.

February

February was a busy month filled with a lot of activities. We went to Sea World with Greg, Tina and Gwyn on the 4^th and then to we went to Disney World with them also a week later! Atom and Trillian did pretty well on those outings. Atom is just starting to appreciate some of the characters and activities in theme parks and Trillian was pretty happy as long as she was snug in the sleepy wrap that I take with me everywhere these days.

Greg, Gwyn, Scott, and Atom try to figure out where to go next in Sea World

Meeting Micky Mouse. Atom was excited about it in theory...

At the very busy Magic Kingdom

Atom reluctantly shares his snacks with Gwyn

They look like twins!

One of the unfortunate trends I’ve noticed this month however, is that being in the car does not soothe Trillian. If she’s not almost asleep when we start driving, then she just cries the whole time. This has started to make traveling with her very unpleasant for me and I kind of dread going anywhere right now. In addition, I’m still not having much luck getting Trillian to sleep anywhere but on me. She still spends most of the night snuggled in my arms and the same goes for naps usually. I have found that she does sleep much better on her stomach, but I’m too nervous to try that at night. I have been able to put her down that way for naps occasionally though, which has been nice. There still isn’t much of a nap pattern yet.

A rare nap in the bouncy chair

Atom is still very sweet and cuddly with Trillian most of the time.

Hugs!

Atom teaches Trillian his thumb sucking skills!

Trillian also had another transfusion this month on the 6^th, which we think may be her last one. Her labs have looked good ever since then, enough so that her hematologist said we could wait a few weeks in between labs now, instead of doing it every week. Fewer doctor’s visits makes me very happy! I’ve really had enough of dealing with doctors and insurance and medical bills over these last several months.

We had a great time visiting with Scott’s family this month. Matt, Mara and Vincent flew in from San Diego on the 16^th and stayed overnight at our house that evening. In preparation for that, I managed to clean out our office/guest room (which had become a catchall room) so they would have an uncluttered place to sleep and it looks great now! Having people over is always nice for it’s ability to motivate me to clean stuff up! Scott’s parents and Kelly and Travis all came over to our house on the 17^th and we had a nice day hanging out with them. Then on the 18^th we went to Gainesville for a party at Scott’s parent’s house. Atom had a blast playing with everyone.

Family brunch at our house

Kelly with Trillian (photo taken by Atom)

Atom with his Uncle Travis

Trillian naps next to Daddy

Setting up balloons for the party in Gainesville

Towards the end of the month everyone but me got sick. We might have caught it from Matt, Mara, and Vincent since they were fighting colds while they were here. It wasn’t bad, Atom just had a runny nose and a cough for a little while and Scott was similarly congested. Trillian had the same symptoms, but for her it was lasted a lot longer. As I’m writing this it’s about 10 days into March and she’s still somewhat sniffley, especially after sleeping. Hopefully it will go away altogether soon.

January

Holding my two babies, as Atom gives his little sister a kiss

The first month of 2012 seems a fitting time to launch a new blog. Thanks, Mama for giving me the motivation to do this! Hopefully I’ll get myself to post more stuff on here besides just the monthly review.

I spent most of the month adjusting to having a new baby again and learning how to divide my daily time and attention between a 2 ½ year old and a newborn, now that Scott is back at work. It’s hard. Trillian wants to be held all the time, Atom wants me to play with him, and I just want to rest.

As always, lack of sleep is the hardest part of having a baby. This month we’ve progressed to the point where at least Trillian knows that night is for sleeping and she doesn’t have it confused with daytime anymore. Other than that, there’s not much change. She’s still eating every couple hours throughout the night. On top of that, getting her to settle back to sleep afterwards without being right next to me has been a losing battle, and most of the time she ends up sleeping nestled in my arms in our bed instead of next to our bed in the co-sleeper like she’s supposed to.

Six weeks old and already holding her head up pretty well!

I’ve tried to give Atom some extra interaction from other people and activities to compensate a little bit for not being able to focus on him as much. I’ve gotten more involved with other playgroups this month and I even had a playdate over at our house to do some painting and drawing with everyone. I also take Atom over to my parent’s house at least once a week and he LOVES playing over there! Even though it’s hard to get out of the house with both kids, once we’re actually out the door Trillian is very portable at this stage and Atom is happy in the car with his dvds and always very happy to go to the playground, toy store, library, grocery store, or really anywhere that’s new and interesting. He is also incredibly talkative these days and he is constantly making me smile with the cute phrases he comes up with!

Say Cheese!

We also had a lot of doctor’s visits this month. I’ve been taking Trillian for weekly labs at the hematology clinic at Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando throughout the month. On January 5th she had her second transfusion and we don’t know yet if she’s going to end up needing another one or not. She is making more new red blood cells now, but her hemoglobin levels have still been dropping, so she hasn’t really stabilized yet. We’ll just have to keep checking frequently for the time being. I’m going to start getting her labs done at the hospital in Clermont soon so it will be more convenient and we won’t have to go into Orlando unless she actually needs a transfusion.

Trillian's second transfusion

I asked Scott to summarize what he’s been doing at work this month, but he just said it was a blur. Lack of sleep is catching up with both of us…