All posts by Savvy Spoonie

I am an artist, writer, jeweler, and a Spoonie. Before becoming a Spoonie I was a very busy high achieving attorney and advocate bent on saving the world. Now I'm struggle to redefine my life to fit within my reduced energy level. Some days are better than others. I have fibromyalgia, trigeminal neuralgia, and chronic daily migraine.

parenting

The moments that make it worthwhile…

July 12, 2007 Savvy Spoonie 2 Comments

Okay, so life is normally insanity, or drudgery, or both. My days stretch into weeks, with nothing to separate them, as I sweep, mop, cook, clean, change diapers, shop for groceries, and entertain children.

However, from time to time, moments stand out of my weeks and make it all worthwhile. Here are the moments I had this week:

Otter’s first real laugh. Two days ago I tickled under his arms while changing him and got a solid baby giggle. I repeated my actions two more time, each time receiving a smile and laugh. I could have tickled him all day, but I am sure if I did it would result in not getting a laugh, and would closely resemble torture.

Otter’s first stuffed animal was purchased today. Monkey and I chose a “classic” Eeyore and handed it to Otter in the store. He widened his eyes, wrapped it up in his arms, and squeezed. He has been squeezing it ever since.

Monkey, upon getting an Icee at Target, described the frozen treat as “Delectable, Delicious, and Delightful.” She informed me that was from “The Upside down show” therefore vindicating the hours I have let her fry her brain on T.V.

Chloe, my PTSD cat, who had never purred in the entire 5 years I have owned her, due to her traumatic past as an abused kitten, jumped on the bed for petting today, and purred at me for a good twenty minutes!!

All these things make the rest worth it, and I was blessed to have so many of them this week.

Pets

Too many cogs, too many wheels…

July 12, 2007 Savvy Spoonie 4 Comments

So here I am, new house, new baby, new town, trying to get some semblance of normalcy into my life by enjoying a relaxing day at home with the children, and maybe taking a small trip to Ellen’s for lunch. It was a plan ill fated from the beginning.

Otter was an upset baby today, not a happy baby. He was a crying, screaming, fussing, unhappy baby. Therefore the morning lacked the longed for relaxation. Doubly longed for as he was a fussy baby all night and I haven’t seen the deep side of sleep in what feels like 50% of forever (as my mom would say.) To make things worse, every time I try to sleep in I am awoken by a. the baby b. Monkey or c. Lee, looking rather as though I am a bad person for sleeping in while he heads off to work. (It’s okay, I look at him like he is a bad person when he is sleeping at night and I am up with Otter, of course, he can’t see me, so it has less effect.)

Anyway, the morning is spent attempting to console the inconsolable child. Then we all bundled into the car to go to Ellen’s, where I spent two hours trying to console the inconsolable child. Our landlord was coming by to show the house to a visiting religious leader/friend of his, so I went home to let him in, while Monkey stayed at Ellen’s.

But my day gets better…

Ellen called to say she was bringing Monkey home in a few minutes. After I hung up, the landlord arrived with his guest. While they were coming in the door, Bella got out. I had a hold of Andy, and was carrying the grousy baby, but Bella was sitting pleasantly by my side, like her well behaved self. While the landlord was coming in, she calmly got up and sauntered out the door before tearing hells bells for freedom.

So here I go, 20 pound baby in arm, racing in fitflops down the street yelling for Bella. (The fitflops really do work by the way, I am quite pleased with them.) She disappears, and my ragtag team of me, Otter, landlord, and landlord’s honored religious leader visiting from India go searching for her.

A random cabby tells me he hit her when she ran across the street, but that he had just began moving and didn’t hit her hard. He points out the direction in which she ran. He spends a good 20 minutes trying to help me find her, in between frantic calls to his boss and assurances to me that he wasn’t speeding. (I wasn’t even wearing my “cross me and I’ll sue you” t-shirt they gave out on graduation day!)

At this point I was terrified for my sweet Bella, who spends all day every day following me everywhere I go and is an integral part of my life. I went home to get my car, and my daughter, and we left to go find her. I called Lee, he headed home, and I began driving up and down streets in search of her.

Then I got a call from the landlord telling me she was home but hurt. Apparently a nice man got her to cross the street while a cop blocked traffic and she limped in through the back door. I drove home, relaying the message to Lee on the way, and found my sweet dog, lying on the kitchen floor, with a bloody mangled paw. She looked up at me with eyes that said “make it better mommy” and collapsed in a heap at my feet.

I set the baby in his pack and play, laid out a blanket, coaxed her onto it, and gave her a bowl of water. Then I sat with her and petted her until Lee got back.

Lee raced her to the vet and, $600.00 later, she is now sitting at my feet with a cone around her head and a paw wrap. There is nothing broken, no internal bleeding, just a bloody mangled paw. (Sadly that $600.00 was our extra travel home money, so it is looking like just the visit in August and hopefully christmas. Also, Lee probably won’t make it home for the wedding in August, so it will only be me and the children. Sigh.)

I feel like such a bad doggy mommy. I was holding onto the flight risk dog, Andy, and the baby, because Otter screamed every time I set him down. Bella hasn’t run off in years, so I didn’t think it would be a problem. There were simply too many cogs squeaking on my wheel for me to handle, and hers is the one that fell off.

Sorry girl. I promise to slather your painkillers in peanut butter to make them more palatable.

Monkey, Moving, Otter

July 10, 2007 Savvy Spoonie 4 Comments

So many boxes, so little time…

We have too much stuff. Too many boxes littering the garage, the POD, and the house!! Argh! To make things worse, it is hot, hot, HOT. Oh, and did I mention Muggy? That’s right, we are getting closer to the time of year in NJ when the heat and humidity combine to punch you unpleasantly in the face when you leave your house. At least we have AC in the new place.

Unfortunately we are discovering that life on the east coast is a major pain in the a*&. We can’t get rid of the garbage generated from our last move. We are facing a crisis here, as the boro won’t accept the boxes unless they are packed as recyclables, they won’t accept more than three cans worth of thrash on pickup day, and the one hauler we got a hold of wants to charge us $475 to remove our stuff. I HATE IT HERE!!
Back home you can just lug it to the landfill, hand them a 20, and dump it. Not here, no… they have 4000 different municipalities, and ours doesn’t have their own landfill.

Mutter mutter. Shake it off.

On the Oliver front:

This young man needed a new wardrobe, as he has outgrown all the newborn, 3-6, and 6-9 month clothing so lovingly given us by our friends and family. Luckily I caught a bunch of summer clothes on clearance at Target, and managed to secure him some dappper baby attire at minimal cost. Still, 3 months old and heading into 12 month old clothes? My baby is a tall and strong young man, soon he will be moving furniture for us.

Marlena has loved playing with her brother, and had begun to ape me with her own baby doll. For her birthday she got a baby play gym and carrier for her dolly and has been caring for “Alina” while I care for Oliver. It’s pretty cute. She has also been reading bedtim stories to him. Oliver loves to hear her read, and watches her face the whole time with wide, excited eyes. Here she is snuggling her brother.