Well, I can tell you there’s nothing like being given an 11 month old who most likely has separation anxiety, refuses to take naps, freaks out at the sight of his crib and has the strength and moves of a professional wrestler. Holy cow! I have never seen such an inconsolable monster in my life nor has the energy been drained from my core faster. I was so sick from exhaustion yesterday I thought I might kick the bucket at any moment. But alas, I have survived another day. Perhaps as a reward for my survival, General Alexander took a two hour nap today.
Desperate to find anything that soothes this savage beast, I have discovered that he is quite fond of Tony Bennett and flamenco, this video in particular:
I wish I could find a whole dvd full of this stuff or even a cd of whoever recorded this song. I haven’t had any time to research it. All I know is that as soon as that guy starts singing, Alex freezes and seems very calm, I believe I have played that video at least 5,000 times in the last few days.
Hey cheese queen, any chance you’re an authority on flamenco artists too?
The good news is that the wee boy took a nap today. Several days without a nap has made very cranky campers out of everyone but we’re so much happier today. Let the nap gods smile on us again tomorrow, please.
The bad news for me today happened when I went to the Dr. to have him look at my knee. I could have cared less what his diagnosis was, however, in his lengthy description of my problem he used the phrase “common to middle-aged people.” Why you stinking bastard, how dare you. It’s bad enough when someone calls me ma’am, but to come out and call me middle-aged right to my 39 year old face, I should have bitch-slapped him right then and there.
I can’t believe I actually have two seconds to sit at the computer today. There were about 25,000 unread emails waiting for me, and my clients are wanting their projects completed. I’ve apologized and told them I thought I was going to have eight weeks to do their work and it was reduced to one. But, that’s not their problem, oh well I’ll have to find time somewhere to do it.
Mr. Alex has refused naps for a couple days and is very tired and punchy. I on the other hand would love a nap because I am very tired and punchy. The upside to my exhaustion is that for the first time since last August I have not needed to take Lunesta to fall asleep at night.
H, the person formerly known as the associate (I’ll explain that later), has just taken the wee boy out for a drive and I am going to make a mad dash for my bed. Hopefully I’ll make it there before I collapse.
Big changes have been made to the house in a little over a week.
Here are my before and after shots:
I had wanted to paint it and spackle all the cracks so it was all perfect and new, but alas there was no time. I settled for painting the baseboards yesterday since they were in hideous shape. The important part is that he’s got a place to sleep, I’ll get to everything else later (someday).
They called last night and it turns out that nobody there was even aware that there was an earthquake. It would seem that the news created a big sensationalized drama out of nothing which was what I was hoping was the case.
I guess they were playing in the pool when someone came and told people that there had been an earthquake earlier—they just shrugged it off and had no idea that the news was making it out to be a really big deal back here.
So that’s that. I’m grateful it was essentially B.S.
GUATEMALA CITY - A powerful earthquake shook Guatemala on Wednesday, U.S. seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries in the capital.
The magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck at 1:29 p.m. local time (3:29 p.m. EDT) and was centered 70 miles southwest of Guatemala City off the Pacific coast, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
I haven’t heard from them since finding this out, this makes me want to puke.
Well shave my head an call me Baldy! The wee boy is real and he is now with my associate and Nina. From what I understand, it was a real tear jerker. The foster mother really loved him. I can’t imagine spending a year with a baby and having to hand him over. I spent two days fostering my Piglet and would have killed someone who tried to take him away, I had to keep him, I can only imagine how sad she must be. This was her first foster baby.
I’m told he’s cute and giggles at everything.
I spent all day cleaning, fixing up his room, rearranging the kitchen cabinets to make room for his food etc. and organizing the attic/studio/office. I took a drawer out of the very old dresser in his room to fix it, set it on the floor and promptly forgot about it. Two seconds later I stepped back right into it and broke it even more. IDIOT. I love causing myself even more work. What a dolt. I guess I have my first task lined up for tomorrow.
On a different note, did anyone watch the Sopranos finale? What a pitiful pile of crap that was. It may be the worst final episode I’ve ever seen. The last five minutes of tension were good but the other 55 were useless. If it were just any old episode it would have been fine, but come on, it was the very last one. Eh, whatever.
Today is the big day. Well, for my associate and Nina anyway. They will be given the wee boy at 10:00 a.m. (I think that’s what they told me). I suppose it’s a big day for me too as I’ll be glued to the computer waiting for any chance of an instant message describing the day’s events and what it was like to actually meet him. They’ll also be meeting his foster mother who we’ve seen in numerous pictures for a year so that will be very interesting too. With my luck, I’ll be out scooping Chihuahua poop off of someone’s lawn when she tries to contact me.
I spent a good portion of Monday cleaning the house and trying to get the attic/studio/office in better shape. Somehow it still looks like a dump truck dropped it’s load up there. I doubt I’ll be seeing much of the outdoors for a few days. (Next week’s photo will be very, very different!)
I may have a friend coming over tonight to help me baby-proof the house. I’m sure this is a good idea since I think it’s probably a deathtrap right now.
I’m so tired I think I could sleep for a solid week.
Well, the last few days have been jam packed with a flurry of activity as we prepared for the big trip to Guatemala. I haven’t been this exhausted for a long time.
We picked Nina up last night and then divided the baby clothes and misc. items between their carry-on bags and the rest of the luggage. The dogs paced around wondering what the hell was going on and not liking it one bit. Poor Josie is a mama’s dog, and her mama is the associate. Josie gets herself all sick every time mama leaves on a trip. She’ll usually throw up numerous times a day and pant and drool like a nervous wreck until her safe return. This could be a long week for us.
Piglet isn’t such a basket case. He’s disturbed by all the changes in the house and you can definitely tell he misses the associate when she’s gone, but at least he doesn’t get sick about it. He may just mope around a bit and look forlorn, much easier to handle than Miss Jo.
We all got up around 3:30 a.m. this morning and left for the airport around 4:00. I think I got about one hour of sleep, looks like I’ll be getting a nap today. They’ll arrive in Guatemala around noon (their time). We’re so incredibly grateful Nina was able to go on the trip, I hope everything goes smoothly and that they’ll have a good time.
