Winter. There is no doubt that we are in it. Even the 10 degree weather today can't fool you into thinking it's anything but winter. There's lack of sunlight (although we're getting more now than we were even a few weeks ago). There is extreme weather swings (-20 degree weather and four days later it's 10 above).
At least I'm beginning to see buds on trees, that means there's hope for improved weather soon. The local groundhog apparently predicted an early Spring this year, but a lady leaning down to her what Wiarton Willie whispers in her ear isn't exact science.
Harvey is developing in leaps and bounds right now. He's also got a large chunk of devilish attitude in him. If he's not supposed to do it, he'll attempt to sneak past you to do it. He thinks it's a great game. All it does is cause his daddy and I endless frustration.
He's also managed to break to two lamps in the living room. He rammed the one so often with the table that he's broken where the shade connects. And the other one, well he tried so often to get the light bulb out that he finally knocked it over, breaking the switch, and discovering that light bulbs that have been on for hours and hours are damned hot. Thankfully he broke that lamp while it was turned on, as I can no longer turn it on and off without the extension cord I bought for it (it had a built in switch). Otherwise we'd have had to throw out the lamp as we would never be able to turn it on again.
He's begun to endlessly torture the dogs in the family. Stanley (Rob's mother's Sheltie dog), has the patience of a saint, and the brains of a rock. Harvey endlessly chases him around, and is incredibly ungentle when he catches him. Yet Stanley can not figure out how to avoid him when he rally doesn't want to play that game.
Then there's Azteca (Rob's sister's Shih tzu). Poor thing gets tossed in our house because her owners have an exceptionally long day ahead and don't want her left alone for 17 hours. And throughout the day she gets bullied, bitten and poked at. Not to mention the hair pulling. She's a bit shaggy at the moment (and with the weather they've put off getting her trimmed so she's a little warmer). So Harvey was able to get some mighty handfuls of fur. By the end of the day she was getting a bit better at avoidance, but she still tries to battle her wills against Harvey's. Unfortunately, he wins more often than not.
And then Crackers, poor thing. Her life has been in upheaval since we bough him home from the hospital. I sincerely doubt she's fully forgiven us. And she's quick to snap at him, although she's only actually bitten him twice. Once she even broken the skin. She often does her gentle nip when he grabs at her. And she appears to be trying very hard to lick him instead of snapping, but her patience is very limited. She's much better than she used to be, and as they both age, she's getting better (mostly because she's getting better at ignoring him and getting away from him).
Harvey has a very odd taste for cardboard. He has slowly consumed many of his beloved cardboard books. What he hasn't consumed, he has torn apart. I managed to finally remember to pick up a roll of clear Duct Tape, and I finally repaired a few of his favourite books. And I reinforced a few of his new books in the hopes he won't destroy them in under an hour (which is his record for the destruction of a new book).
He has a check up later this month. We'll find out then how much he weighs and how tall he is. Last check he was 31 pounds and 30.5 inches. Which is just about perfect for a 2 year old. Harvey was 15 months old at the time.
He says a number of words now, and mumbles all sorts of conversations to himself, other people and toys. His favourite conversation toy is the little telephone we picked up or him. He answers the ring, says Hello, mumbles a bunch of gibberish into it then says OK and hangs up. He even gestures with his hands, twirls his hair and several other cute and adult type things when he talks into the phone.
He can call Crackers by name, he can sign "food" sort of when he's hungry - a fist to the mouth instead of fingertips to the mouth, but it's close. If he has a poopy bum and you ask him if it's dirty, he'll beeline to the gate by the stairs for a diaper change if it is. He likes going up the stairs, and has even attempted to stand going up instead of crawling up. He's still uncomfortable going down the stairs, but I'm kind of ok with that still.
I'm a bit worried about his ankles and he feet. He's got big feet, lovely wide ones, with very little arch (his father's feet), but his ankles are tuning a bit in attempt to walk with so much weight above them. We spent 80 dollars on shoes for him that he doesn't wear all that often. And even when I get him in them for the hour or so a day that I try for at the least, I've noticed the shoes are now starting to mould to the curve instead of helping to force him into a better stance. I'm concerned if we can't get his ankles realigned properly, that supports or even surgery may be in his future. And that would be horrible.
We'll see what the pediatrician thinks when we see him on the 25th. Last time he recommended good shoes with arch support, which we think we got. But I could be way off, and we could have been suckered in by the salesperson and the shoes are useless. We'll see.
He's also taken to walking on his tip toes every once in a while. Just a few steps here and there. Very cute. At first he'd fall over every time he tried it. Now he doesn't, and I think he's pretty pleased with himself for it.
He's also begun temper tantrums. If you tell him no, and he really wants to, he kicks, whinges, screams and has a right fit of temper. If you ignore him, he calms down and goes on to something else. The more you pay attention the more he acts out and tries to do the undesired action. Some days I can deal with it for hours and hours. Some days I can only take it for five minutes then I want to bury myself in the darkest little cave I can find and shut him and everything else away.
I recently picked up a book by the Drs Sears (Dr William Sears and his wife whose name I can't recall) on Discipline. I'm not that far into it unfortunately. And some of it comes across as very hippy trippy. But it at least offers some help and guidance on what is going on. And coping measures to deal with it.
As cute as Harvey is, I'm going to move on from talking about him.
I early January, I had to end a Karazhan raid in WoW early and Rob had to take me to the hospital. I was in some serious pain. They gave me some drugs, suspected kidney stones, gave me an xray, booked me for a CT Scan and sent me home. The following Tuesday I had my CT Scan, and the Thursday following that I was at my dr's for better painkillers than the wimpy things the hospital had given me. She gave me oxycotin (which she kept whispering in a conspiratorial way every time she said it or narcotic). I took one, slept for four hours, took another the next day when things were not so great and slept again. Despite the discomfort, I haven't taken anymore as the high and crash are so not worth it.
I'm a little worried there are other things going on down there however. I went out with Rob's sister last week and over the course of conversation discovered it had been 5 weeks since Christmas, and I hadn't had my cycle yet. Now Rob and I are not particularly caring about birth control anymore, but not actively trying to get pregnant again. And we had only just decided that when Michelle pointed out the timing. She gave me one of the pregnancy test from her hospital lab. Negative. Phew. But ok, so I'm not pregnant, why no period then? Maybe I screwed it up. But another pregnancy test or two and try it again. I waited a week and tried again, still no go. Ok. So definitely not pregnant. At almost 7 weeks since the last cycle, maybe even closer to 8, obviously I would be getting instant positives, or there's something else going on.
Maybe the drugs they gave me caused some havoc. Maybe the kidney stones themselves, if they are in fact kidney stones, caused something to be disrupted. There was a trace of infection when they tested me at the hospital, maybe there's something going on with that. I don't know. Im past due for a physical, so I should really get into the dr's. So I call. My physical is booked for May (she only does them on certain days and they're all booked until then). However they got me in for the 25th (morning) for the lack of cycle. It's also a follow up about the kidney stones. At least the receptionist was able to confirm they found kidney stones in my CT Scan. I hadn't even heard that much. She did indicate multiples, but no other info than that. I'm sure if the dr wasn't going out of town for a week starting this wednesday, I could have gotten in a bit sooner. But as it stands I'll have to wait a bit of time.
I'm trying not to worry about it. And I'm sure I'll probably take at least one more preg test before the appointment. But being more than a day or three late hasn't happened in a really long time. Probably three or four years even. I know there's nothing I can do until the dr checks me over and suggests something. I imagine she'll have me go get blood taken for testing, joy oh joy. If for nothing than to confirm what the pee tests are saying.
Ah well, aside from some abdominal pains here and there, I've been pretty decent since mid January. I know I haven't passed the stones (or at least not all of them) yet. But for now they're not really bothering me. I'll battle against them when the time comes.
Alright, so that's where I am currently. Harvey needs a snack, so I'm going to spell check this and then go get him one. Hopefully I'll get back to the rest of the updates later.
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