Where I live Part 1

This is not my house. But it is the view from my side porch. It's a small lake formed by a dam on the Raquette River. I think you can see that the shoreline is still icy even though we hit 72 degrees today. Every weekend this winter there was an ice fishing hut out there.

We're on a dead-end road where about 20% of the houses, including this brown one, are seasonal. Just around the corner is a public beach. Hannawa Falls is only about 3000 people, the surrounding area is all dairy farms and quarries. I miss my Adirondack mountains, but there are a lot of rivers with hiking trails.

Potsdam, where Dan works, is a college town. That was very obvious today when every frat was out bbq'ing and setting up kegs on the front lawn. It's the "Cultural" center of Northern New York - according to the sign I pass each day. I think the term dubious distinction applies. The SUNY here focuses on music, so there are a lot of concerts, which is a big part of the reason Dan's parents have stayed here instead of moving south after retirement. Janet is taking Nathan to a Peter and the Wolf puppet show tommorrow. Potsdam's other claim to fame is that Wes Craven was inspired by some students who shot a horror film spoof at the frat houses on Elm St.

Sprite

Joy's not the only one with a cat. This is Sprite, whose only purpose in life seems to be to find the sunniest spot to lie in and try to stay one step ahead of Nathan and Claire. She also likes to wait until I finally can relax on the couch, at which time she positions herself right behind my head so I have to use her as a pillow.

In praise of Dan, father supreme

Okay, I feel bad about picking on Dan now. Yesterday we all went for a hike to find another geocache. It was only a mile from the car, but in toddler strides that takes an hour. And it's not too great on a mother who's been hibernating all winter. We were within a few hundred feet when Claire started crying in her backpack. So Dan took her out to hold and rock her in his arms and she promptly fell asleep.

Now, you're probably thinking that I'm going to praise him for carrying her back to the car. Not quite. Halfway there he put her back in the backpack and carried Nathan the rest of the way to the car. Two kids, 55 lbs, half a mile. My man, you can't have him.

Not even 8:30 yet

Just had to add a note that Dan is already snoring on the sofa. Nathan, who's watching "Little Einsteins", is snuggled next to him.

BTW, if you're thinking of having kids, get a Tivo or DVR. Ours is half filled with kids shows, which means that we can watch them anytime Nathan wants without having to have a library of tapes. And we can pause our shows whenever they start crying. I love my Tivo.

Questions, Questions, Questions

My parents always said that I asked a lot of questions as a child. I thought that was pretty cool, and that it would be fun to her a child say "Why is the sky blue?" or "Why do dogs bark?"

But those aren't the questions I'm getting. I get "Mommy, are you mommy?" and "What did I just say?" and "What am I doing?" When Nathan actually does ask a real question and I give a reasoned response, he says "huh?". If I repeat the answer he says, "huh?" again. Maybe if I spoke louder he would understand.

Going on a Treasure Hunt

I first read about Geocaching at least a year ago, and thought it'd be a fun way to add some extra interests to our hikes when Nathan got older. People hide boxes, sometimes filled with toys and gifts, then upload the GPS coordinates on a website for other people to find. When we had the contract on a house with 8 acres bordering state forest land, we got a GPS for Christmas so we could hide a cache on our property. Oh well.
Finally took the GPS out today and found our first cache. A nice 40 degree day with a little sun and not too much mud. Someone hid a cache just around the corner from our house. We live near a public beach on a lake, and the parking lot also intersects snowmobile and hiking trails. Trecked a little ways into the woods, following a trail of tacks in the trees, and then found the cache a few feet off the trail. It was set up last Halloween and had some cute skeleten and witch lawn ornaments. Inside the box someone had left a Goofy toy in a Santa hat, Nathan has rechristened him Max (from the Grinch) and is totally in love.
There are at least a dozen other caches in the area, some on trails that Dan and I hiked 15 years ago when we first started dating. 15!!!, yikes. After we visit some more, I'll set up one and find a cool place to hide it.

Well, let me at least upload a picture

mmmmmmmmmmmm

I think I've had about a dozen topics that I was considering writing about today, but now that I have time, I can't think of any of them. And I've got a kitchen to clean, and laundry to fold, a cat to feed, a son to put to bed. I'll think of something tomorrow.

Buying out the Pharmacy

Now that I have Claire mostly weaned (one last feeding tonight), I'm going to start my new medication on Sunday. I had to buy one of those pill organizers to make sure I keep things straight.

20 mgs of Methotrextate once a week, which will suppress my immune system to stop my joints from being attacked by my body. It will take a few weeks to a few months to work. Side effects may include naseua so I am also taking.....

5 mg Folic acid everyday, which should combat many of the common side effects of the MTX and...

10 mg of prednisone everyday, which may be the only thing keeping me moving these days. I had so much pain in my knees in January that I could barely walk, and after two days on the prednisone I was running around and packing my house. I have to wean off this when and if the MTX starts working, long term use will shut down my adrenal system.

I still feel stiffness everyday, and pain that comes and goes. I told Dan that last night my wrists felt fatigued just from holding the book I was reading in bed. And the stiffness and pain moves around a lot, so that for a few days it's in my shoulders, today it seems to be more in my elbows, and my hands are always stiff in the mornings.

I'm also going to be a pincushion for a few months, getting labs to see if any of this is doing any good, and also making sure the MTX doesn't damage my liver. Probably x-rays too, I had some done on my knees which indicated there may have been thinning of my bones already. Wish me luck.

New Cars for Everyone!!!

Isn't she cute? I don't have a picture of my new car, so I thought this would illustrate the entry better.
I'm not a car person, and I did not do regular oil changes on our 190,000 mile Camry. So yesterday, while we were an hour from home, it died. Kaput. The service station guy who put over 3 quarts of oil in it told us to drive it home, park it in the driveway, then buy a new car.
So we went out today, and just like with the Camry, we're buying the first car we looked at. It's a Subaru Outback, doesn't quite make me a Volvo driving Soccer mom, but it's definately a station wagon. My dream car is really a Honda Odyssey Minivan.
Ahhhhhhh, Noooooooo. It's not. My dream car is a 1960 Corvette Convertible, or a BMW Z4, or even my old Honda CRX two-seater . Who is this woman who wants a minivan? Someone must have stolen my password to post to this blog. 

All hail the King

Given that Dan is on his feet all day and his back always hurts and I have an entire body that is rebelling against me, it seemed like a new mattress was called for. We haven't had a boxspring for a few years, the movers couldn't get up one of our stairs. And the mattress dated back to our last sojurn in upstate New York. So we went bedhopping the other day and not only got a new bed, but Dan talked me into a Kingsize. It's yummy.

I had my doubts, I still cherish the newlywed ideal of snuggling at night, and it seems we can hardly see eachother in this monster. But Dan's body temp is at least 10 degress higher than mine and he needs some space to cool off after work. Besides, we're not newlyweds anymore, we're a family now, and Nathan had a great time hiding under the covers of the big, big, big, big, big bed this morning.

I just wish I'd found softer sheets for it. We had perfect sheets for a few years, absolutely frictionless, and softer than a baby's bottom. The fitted sheet wore out, and none of the other sheets or pillowcases have labels for me to track down replacements in kingsize. My dry winter skin felt like it was being sandpapered last night. I may have found them on the Bed, Bath and Beyond website, but I'm leary of getting them online and the nearest store is 1 1/2 hours away. We'll see how my skin feels tonight.

Take me out to the ballpark

Spring is here. Birds are tweeting. The thermometer has cracked 32 and the cows are out in the pastures. And baseball's back. I've actually been watching the World Baseball Classic, getting in the mood for summer and waiting for my man Varitek to play for USA. Too bad A-Rod is on his team and he can't hit him in the face with his glove again.

Plus, I'm trying out my latent geek/tomboy tendencies by giving fantasy baseball a try. It's hard not to want to stack my whole team with members of the Sox 2004 team. I want Damon and Mueller and Millar back on my team. Who cares if Millar sucked last year, he's funny. Probably not the attitude to have if I want to win my league. All I know now is that I'm not picking anyone who's part of the steroid scandal. Or any Yankees. (Except Damon, he's not really a Yankee yet.)

Claire was almost named Damon by the way. I found out I was pregnant as the Sox were battling out for first at the end of the 2004 season. So when Johnny hit a Grand Slam against the Yankees in the play-offs, I started lobbying Dan to name the kid Damon if it was a boy. I'd also asked Dad down for a visit, planning to tell him about his new grandchild. To keep it a surprise I said I wanted him to visit so if the Red Sox made it to the World Series we'd be able to watch games 5-7 together. I think we were the only Red Sox fans who were mad that they swept it in four.

Breast is Best

I never thought that I'd still be exclusively breastfeeding Claire at three months, never mind nine months. It's been pretty amazing to be there for her, to be able to feed and soothe her anywhere and anytime. But it's coming to an end soon. I have to have her weaned so that I can start taking medication for the Arthritis and my next doctor's visit is Mar 16.
We've gotten past the big challenge and found a bottle that she was willing to use. So she's been getting lots of formula at meal times, and has finally started accepting the bottle at other times too. We're down to just two breastfeedings a day now, and it could be one if I was stricter with her.
Now I just have to prepare for the last day. So I think of all the pluses to bottlefeeding, being able to leave the house for more than a three-hour stretch, not having to take her out to the car or some other out of the way place if she needs feeding while we're traveling, giving Dan a chance to feed her and bond more (something he's been missing) and maybe being able to sleep for more than six hours at a time. It dosen't outweigh the pluses to breastfeeding, especially that satisfied look she gives me when she settles down after being upset or hungry, but it's got to be done. Right now she has a bottle in her hands and is giggling like mad, so I guess we'll be okay. 

What happens to a Movie fan with two young kids.

I knew that I hadn't seen that many movies this year, not even rentals. But it's still disappointing that the only Oscar winning movie I saw this year was Wallace and Gromit. That, Madagascar and Harry Potter are the only things I've seen in the theater since Claire was born.

That should change soon. Claire's going to be on the bottle full-time soon, and the in-laws will be nearby to babysit, so maybe we can get to see something other the Pixar's Cars this summer.

Picasso

What to do with two kids when it's below freezing everyday? If it was just Nathan, we'd probably be outside more and give sledding a try. But with Claire, I don't want to spend as much time in freezing temps. So we're inside just about everyday, and I'm not winning any Mother of the year awards letting Nathan play X-box games. He'd play Star Wars Legos all day every day if we let him.
But today I picked up a watercolor book of Nemo, even though all my attempts to get him to color lately have led to him saying "It's too hard, you do it." But he really got into the paint. Maybe the fact that the water makes it messy was the thrill. But he actually picked the right colors and focused on where to put them instead of just scribbling everywhere. Yay!