Home Again

No matter how good, how fun, a vacation is, it’s always nice to be back home. We made it home safely this afternoon and I’m actually looking forward to getting back into the groove of things come Monday morning.

One bad thing about getting back, however, is the frig being notably empty. I had to run out to the store this evening to pick out a few essential to last a few days. I could have just went tomorrow with Rachel, but it’s so much easier when Michele comes with us. Also there is the trouble of unloading all the clothes, doing the laundry and all the other stuff that is required with getting back into the routine.

A couple of days ago, I posted about how much I like pancakes and the disappointment with IHOP. Along with my love of pancakes, I love peanut butter. I spoon peanut butter out of the jar and eat it. My love affair with peanut butter has not gone unnoticed by my daughter. I guess while I was at the store, my daughter picked up an empty peanut butter jar and lovingly said, “Daddy.”

I must eat a lot of peanut butter for my daughter to think about me when she sees one.

Cold Medicine

This morning while my daughter and wife went to the pool I thought I’d check my mail before we headed back home and ended our vacation. I opened my web browser more out of habit than necessity and as it loaded Yahoo! I say this headline “FDA Experts Urge Ban on Cold Medicines for Young Children” Curious, I took a look into this as my daughter is nearing two years old.

Now, while I like a good rant, I’m usually not very outspoken and most of the time have a good amount of patience. One thing I do not have any patience for is stupid parents. It is sad that the government has to protect us to such great lengths.

“As for antihistamines, the group recommends adding a warning that the drugs not be used to sedate young children, the AP said.”

SEDATE!?! Do we actually need such a warning? Should this not follow common sense? Are these people the same people that need to be warned not to take their hemorrhoid medicine internally? Seriously, I think we should start giving a test before allowing people to have children.

“An FDA review of records filed with the agency between 1969 and September 2006 found 54 reports of deaths in children associated with decongestant medicines made with pseudoephedrine, phenylephrine or ephedrine. It also found 69 reports of deaths associated with antihistamine medicines containing diphenhydramine, brompheniramine or chlorpheniramine, the AP said.”

While any child death is not good, like any medicine you have to weigh the pros vs the cons. In the preceding quote, the figures are not given any reference. Are these deaths out of 100, or probably more accurate, 100,000 children that took the medicine? Also it doesn’t say how many where dosed incorrectly.

C’mon people! Are we actually stupid enough to give our young children (under 2 as described by the article) antihistamines when the bottle already says to consult a doctor for children under 2?

I feel I must mention that I do, and have, given Rachel antihistamines that said to consult a doctor. But I did. I talked to our pediatrician before I gave her any and still I use it sparingly. I have to be sure that is what’s wrong before I will even think about giving it to her. I respect the medicine.

We, as a county, have become lax with regard to medicine. It’s just too common place and we are too eager to dispense it.

Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments.

Nearing the end

With a little less than 2 hours left in Friday, this vacation is coming to a close. We will be heading out of Pigeon Forge tomorrow morning, stopping at the midpoint Saturday night and will be home sometime Sunday afternoon. Just like any other vacation, as it comes to an end I can’t help to feel fast the days went, but at the same time how long it seemed.

Although we dragged Rachel all over Pigeon Forge, Sevierville and Gatlinburg,  she has taken all the travel extremely well for a child nearing two years. It seems that something in this trip has exploded something within her. Before we even reached the state line coming here, she had done something new.

Although we have tried several different times, we had never tried with milkshake. Rachel now knows how to suck from a straw. Before she would take the straw within her mouth, but for some reason she would not suck. My mom, sitting in the back with her, offered her some milkshake and she took it like she always knew how to do it.

I’ve read and heard that babies learn and understand words long before they are able to say them. I have no solid proof of this, but her vocabulary exploded this week. Nothing extremely exciting though. Just normal, everyday words that Michele and I have been using, she is now repeating.

Although it would takes weeks, maybe months, to see all that is available in this three city stretch, not including the smoking mountains or Dollywood, we took it easy and saw what we wanted. We did not push Rachel or ourselves and had a lot of fun seeing the sights.

I must give props to Michele. She did a wonderful job at giving me a vacation from my job; one of the reasons I love her so much. I’m not sure Rachel would have had it any other way. She has been very mommy-centric this week. I’m a little concerned about how this will play out come Monday. I’m sure it will be fine as we’ve done it before.

The biggest probelm with the whole situation is that Michele does not have a steady schedule, so, to Rachel, mommy disappears at random times on random days for random lengths of time. I’m sure if she had a 9-5b job, Rachel would be a little better about mommy leaving.

IHOP

Tonight I’m slave to another allergy attack. Considering how much my head hurts and the fact that I can’t concentrate I will forgo the usual cute story about how my daughter reacts to everyday things. And instead I will go on a rant that is long overdue.

I love pancakes. Let me make sure you understand this. I love pancakes. I could eat them every meal: morning, noon and night. Pancakes: a gift from the gods. So, some time ago, when I got a chance to go to IHOP (International House of Pancakes), I was overjoyed. I love pancakes and this place is the international house of; it has to have good pancakes.

It didn’t.

They sucked.

They were small, and not very good. Now, I’m not a thrills kind of guy. Vanilla ice cream and normal buttermilk pancakes are my cup of tea. But a place that claims to be a international house of should have more than two types.

Fast forward to today. I am very upset to announce that I say an IHOP advertising steak dinner & monster cheeseburger. At it’s most fundamental this is wrong, just plan wrong.

Vacation 2

A lot has happened in the last couple of days. Vacation is such a wonderful, relaxing time. There is one caveat, however. As with all primary care givers, I can’t completely step away from my job as most can on their vacation. Michele is wonderful about taking Rachel more than normal to give me some free time; that is not what I am talking about. Most people can completely forget about their job for that week. I can’t. Call it occupational hazard.

She continues to amaze me with what she is able to pick up and repeat back to us. Every day she says something new and seems a little more like a little girl. Soon, my little baby will turn into a little girl - a little girl that has her own opinions and thoughts. She’ll have her likes and dislikes. While I may be able to influence them to some extent, she will develop by her own rules. Is this the beginning of the end? Is it all down hill from here? Hopefully, I will be able to teach her what is important. What is right and what is wrong. So that in the far off future she’ll be able to make the right decisions. And in those cases when she doesn’t (and there will be those cases), I hope that I can teach her that daddy and mommy are always there for her.

On a lighter note: Today is hump day. No, it is not Wednesday. Today is the day that Rachel has decided to fill her hump. Her hump, however, is in the front of her instead of her back like a camel. Once a week, it seems, Rachel decides to eat more than her weight in food. In the following, week she filters any nutrients out of the air.

Daddy, however, has been eating everything in sight. We are now taking bets on who’s stomach will be growing faster: mine or my wife’s (who is currently 13 weeks pregnant). I’m off now to stuff some more food in my face.

Car trip

We finished up the packing this morning and headed off for vacation a little bit early. The more Rachel has become aware of her surroundings, the less she liked being in the car. An hour or so she is not too bad, but as you pass the two hour mark, it’s like she’s transformed into a demon baby.

Songs help extend the time, but if we are not careful we will end up singing 101 verses to “The Wheels on the Bus”. And after wheels, wipers, moms, driver, babies, and horn, we had to start making them up. We ended up having a whole farm on this bus with dogs, cows, sheep, goats, roosters, and many more before we ran out of ideas.

We ended stopping for dinner with less than 30 minutes left on the first leg of our trip, partly because we were hungry, but mostly because she was going to explode.

Driving on any long trip is almost a love-hate thing with me. On one hand, I get very frustrated because I can’t do anything, but, on the other, I’m not dealing with her. It’s only really bad when she starts yelling, most of the time it’s just constant fussiness.

We still have about a 3 hour trip tomorrow before we reach Pigeon Forge, TN. We are going to try and get her to nap in the car, but this has always been a hit or miss proposition.

Vacation

My family and I will be leaving for vacation tomorrow. My mother will be joining us (Michele, Rachel and I; not the voices in my head) as we head to Pigeon Forge, TN. I hope that I will be able to keep the blog updated while on vacation, but don’t be surprised if there is limited updates until Sept. 30. I will be sure to take the camera and bring back lots of good stories and pictures.

Relaxing day, bordering on insanity

The day started off rather nice. I woke up with Rachel, did some house work, took a small nap and ended the morning eating out with family. Rachel has taken a liking to her cousins. While this is not a bad thing, her yelling Abb E!! and Av EE!! (Abby and Avery for those how can’t speak Rachelese) at the top of her lungs as we drove off to the restaurant.

We had a nice meal and put Rachel down for her nap about an hour late at 1:00. It was not a big deal, we have done it several times before. This time, however, seemed to cause a weird transformation in my daughter. The daughter that wok up at 4:30 was NOT the daughter I put in that room at 1:00. Granted she is normally fussy, like her dad, when she was up, but today she was downright moody.

As the day progressed into evening, it was a relaxing inside day, punctuated by the tantrums of a 21 month old. Even when she was “quiet” she was flashing me dirty looks like somehow, I had ruined her whole world already. If this is the terrible twos, I’d hate to see 13.

On one level, as I look back, it was kind of funny watching her try and eat through fussy wimperings. Now I don’t want to sound like a heartless dad, but after 2 hours of trying to figure out what was wrong and getting no where. (Except the “You should know look” which I was surprised she already knew. I’m gonna have to talk to Michele when she gets home from work.)

These next year(s) are going to be tough. Both for us and her. From what I know, that being not much, she’s only 21 months, most of the tantrums are thrown out of a communication issue. She is growing into a little girl. A little girl that has thoughts, ideas, and, most importantly, wants. The trouble begins when she tries to convey one of these and gets confused when we don’t understand. I saw this today and probably will see many more soon. I just have to be patient and try to keep my sense of humor.

Too Close. . .

Today we went off to our ten-week doctor appointment with little one, Rachel, in tow. At this point there, is not a lot that needs to be done. This was are first actual visit with our second child with the doctor. On these early visits he takes a hand-held ultrasound dohicky. There is only sound, so the point of it is to check the heartbeat of the baby.

He tried for a little bit to find the heartbeat. In his best, which was pretty good, nonchalant voice he says, “Let’s put you under the scope just to check it out; make sure everything is ok.”

He says a couple more things then leaves the room as we have to wait for the ultrasound tech to get free. Michele turns to me with a face I immediately recognize: she is trying to hold back from crying. She says, “No, baby?”

I quickly comfort her by saying, “Let’s not get worried. He said this happens more often than you think.” I immediately drop my gaze as in that second it took me to say that, I lost all believe in the statement.

When we found out about our second and the weeks proceeding this visit, I was unsure about how to think about having another child. I was not “ready” for the first and I hear how much harder two is than one. So in these few weeks, I worried about how I would handle another child to take care of. In those few seconds I did not care about me, but focused on my little baby, hoping that he was still ok.

I’m happy to say that the ultrasound showed a nice, healthy and very small baby. When it was all said and done, I was surprised at how attached I became to that little living baby inside my wife. In the first few months of the first pregnancy, it took me a while, until Michele was showing, to really get my head around that we are having a baby. I guess I needed this little scare to get my head around having our second.

By All Accounts . . .

By all accounts today should not have been as bad as it was, but something, somewhere, somehow put me on edge today. Rachel woke up at an astonishingly late 8:30, 2-2.5 hours later than usual. Her nap was on the long side of normal. She was not terrible fussy. She ate well and went down for her nap easily even with the late morning. We took an easy day and stayed inside for most of the day. In the late afternoon we went into the backyard for awhile. By all account it should have been a good day.

Sick
As I have mentioned in previous posts, I’ve recently been floored with an attack of allergies. This morning, it seemed, some had drained into my chest and caused a little congestion. Not enough to get me really sick, just enough to wind me and make me tired all day.

Rachel
As I said, she was pretty good today, but there was something (maybe me being sick) that caused me to be easily aggravated at her. Sometimes, I wonder if I am even getting to her at all. I have been trying to teach her her colors, but everything ends up blue. She won’t even repeat the color when I correct her. Then she’ll repeat some obscure word I say. I’m sure everything will turn out all right, but sometimes, I get a real sinking sensation I’m screwing her up.

Blog
I wonder if I’m sitting here yapping to myself in all these posts. And really what does it matter if I am. I would like someone to be reading it and commenting, if they like or don’t like what I have to say.

Computer
I recently got a new computer. There are always hidden things that you forget, or can’t transfer. I ran into that today as I tried to pay my bills online. I ended up getting our Discover account locked because I guessed the wrong password too many times. By this time it was the hay and the camel’s back.