She finally succumbed.

I've been having random fantasies of being in a room with lace curtains and overstuffed furniture and low piecrust tables with a 6 year old Cuteness, both of us in Victorian-esque frilly dresses, having a tea party with a fancy, flowered tea set.

LACE CURTAINS.

FRILLY DRESSES.

It is so sad.

What's worse, she's a full Aries. I cusp with Pisces. She'd probably be more interested in playing video games and not want to play British Ladies at Teatime with uncool, sadly-regressed Mommy.

*sobs*

( Queenie goes girly, AGAIN! )

Maybe I'm just freaking out because we have a fixed date to get our stuff back and worst case it goes into storage HERE and we're STILL living with Mama A and every other case, best, good and indifferent, means we have a house to move into and I can start slowly putting all those decorating ideas into play.

Maybe I'm just freaking out because I feel like I'm losing some kind of geek/dork/nerd/tough-chick cred because I do want lace and frills and flowers in the house and white wicker furniture on the wrap around porch and bedrooms my children can play and dream and have adventures in.

Maybe it's all of the above and I'm just being STUPID and I should just go see "Mamma Mia" this weekend with Wolf and admit that I want to see it because it's a musical starring Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan and I LIKE Abba and does that make me girly or a dork or both?

Gods, you'd think I'm afraid to be feminine. Never mind I bought underwears at Vicky's and got lacy, silky pairs on top of the practical ones and I wore skirts almost every weekend this summer and I can't wait to go to the farmer's market and use my Wic coupons and I really need to research Shinto wedding ceremonies for Speed Onis and figure out how to make a cussing, short tempered, motorcycle loving Akane behave herself at a formal lunch in a kimono, TWICE.

*blink blink*

I AM afraid to be feminine.

*headdesk*

Becca-chan is now 29" tall and 18.3 pounds. Still a little low for her age group on the weight, doc thinks adding whole milk will help, and now's the time. Also, start brushing those toofers and get her off the bottles. Sippy cup time!

She's right on par with her development, although she tends to freak out when made to stand alone. She can walk with one hand support, but prefers the security of two hands. Getting that much closer to walking! *squee*

Babbled for Dr. Monroe, who beamed.

The fun part was the bloodwork and three shots.

Ok, the bloodwork went better then expected. Phlebotomist had a little difficulty finding a vein, but when she did, everything went smoothly until the very end. The Cuteness just stared at this red tube in her arm. When it came out, she screamed. Didn't like that one bit. But she recovered fairly quickly and was lavished with hugs and praise and a bottle from Oka-san for being such a brave little girl. (Oni-san would have been screaming the whole time)

The shots, well. Those elicited red-faced screams with barely a break for air and took a lot more cuddles to soothe. It didn't help that by this point she was exhausted and Oka-san had forgotten there would be shots and therefore did not prep The Cuteness with Tylenol. Mama A was instructed to dose her when they arrived home and put her right down for a nap. She tends to be a little feverish after innoculations, so we'll keep her doped up on Tylenol until tomorrow.

Cause everyone looooves The Cuteness!

She's strong and getting ready to walk. Currently she can hold onto a couch or table or grown up hands and step herself along about two feet in either direction. She pulls herself to her feet in the playpen or anywhere else, for that matter.

Currently, she's 16.5 pounds. This is not good enough for the doctor, who is making only a small allowance for the fact she had pnumonia earlier in the month. "Increase her formula to 30 oz a day".

*blink blink*

The Cuteness is eating anywhere between 9-15 oz of baby food/cereal and drinking 15-18 oz of formula a day. Together that works out to about 30 oz of intake.

But she is crawling like a champ and takes great delight in chasing Oni-san and the nekos around the house.

I discussed it with Mama A and suggested she use a full 6 oz jar of baby food per feeding as well as increase the formula to 7 oz and see how The Cuteness does. We know Mama A only feeds her what SHE thinks The Cuteness will eat, and that's not always enough. Witness how quickly she'll plow through a zwieback or a few nilla wafers after dinner.

Her lungs are clear as mountain air, so she got her second flu shot, FINALLY. We go back April 1 for the year old checkup and immunizations.

Oh yes, and for the record. That paper the office beds have is THE BEST TOY EVAR!

Because you all want to know about The Cuteness, admit it!

She's almost 29" and roughly 16 pounds. I say roughly because New Year's Day was mostly spent in the hospital due to The Cuteness's inability to breathe properly and puking up her entire breakfast. Considering she had JUST finished a full round of antibiotics for what Dr. M thought was bronchitis, the coughing-till-I-hurl and heaving diaphragm meant Wolf was a mite concerned.

Ok, he freaked out. I wasn't as worried about the throwing up, as Markl does it EVERY time he has a major coughing fit, but there was concern about the lungs.

So off we went to the walk in clinic, which, thank the gods, was open.

An hour later, The Cuteness is riding high on Mommy's lap, buckled into a gurney in an ambulance as we head off to the emergency room. Turns out the nebulizor treatment they gave her in house didn't work well enough, and they wanted to rule out pnumonia, which required Xrays, which the walk in couldn't do on site. Woo.

Three hours after that, we're home with our very own nebulizor, a diagnosis of viral infection, possibly RSV, and a script for Xopenex, a non-steroidal bronchial inhaler type medicine. No pharmacies are open! Joy. The nurse gave us enough doses to get through the day.

So then yesterday was spent at home, watching her breathing carefully whilst playing Animal Crossing (Queenie has a Cube!), and waiting for Mama A. to get done with her morning errand so we can go to her doctor and then to Becca's doctor. Spent all afternoon at the various hospitals, then getting dinner and filling the script, finally.

I hope you all had a better New Year's then myself. The Cuteness is responding well to the treatments, I expect she'll be cleared up in a week or so.

She is now 9 lbs, 1 oz and 21" long.

Big growing girl!

Sadly, they changed their weight requirements, baby must now be 10 lbs before shots are given. Happily, the well baby visits have been expanded to one month, so we go back in July. She'll probably be pushing 11 lbs by then. ^_^

My interview went well overall. General "Describe a situation when..." questions. They did make me wait over half an hour, but that was because of a meeting that ran long. I have yet to be in an office meeting that didn't, so I let it go.

Markl got sent home from school today for wheezing and an upset tummy. I blame the tummy on him being stubborn and taking too long to get ready for school, thus cutting into his eating time. He's done this before, got up and watched television until after 8 am, then I have to yell him into his clothes and make his lunch myself. He spent the last two days home with a cough. No other symptoms. I'm going to wait and see what goes on with him. His younger cousin had a viral bug last week, I'm guessing it's what Markl has now. Coz had a fever, then a cough, then an ear infection. Gyah. If mine gets an ear infection, I don't know if it's feasible to take him to the doctor. The antibiotics don't clear him out completely and it's not helping his immune system to keep pumping him full of drugs. Meh. Once we have insurance it'll be easier. Everyone cross your fingers for the job!

Whee! Another userpic! I believe this shall be my ranting one. Not that I rant very often, but you never know when you need to break out the Ice Bitch. ^_^

My doc appointment went quickly. I now have scripts for...Da Dah DAH!!!...Sudafed and Mucinex. You know, stuff that's available OTC.

*bangs head on keyboard*

As the pain is a mere fraction of what it was yesterday, and I'm feeling generally better overall, I'm going to hold off on filling those scripts.

Bro-IL developed kidney stones. He spent the morning in the ER and is now high on Vicoden. Ah, Vicoden. I loved that schtuff. Gave me hallucinations, wooooooo.

Becca has lost her voice, poor thing. Every time she tries to cry she squeaks. No doubt it's because of a sore throat due to sinus drainage. Still no fever and she's eating well. *knocks on wood*

Markl's nearly healed from his infections. Wolf's doing good. Big Bro-IL is graduating from college tonight. I'm not going, someone needs to help preggie neice corral the kiddos. Besides, Becca doesn't need to go out again.

I can feel a sinus infection trying to take hold. Demned viruses.

Anyhew, you all want a baby update, don't you? Admit it. Tis about the only reason I post these days. So!

Becca is now 6 pounds, 5 ounces. This is a nearly a full pound gain in two weeks. She does have a touch of ezcema along with her baby acne, doc said keep her skin lotioned, use the baby-specific laundry detergent and try and keep her away from any irritants. Now if Mommy can keep her fingers off of Baby's face, we'll be good. Me and my skin obsession...

Speaking of, I'm detecting the first hints of lines flanking my eyes. This pleases me in a bizarre way. I can now look in a mirror and see a nearly-30 woman instead of a early 20-something pretending to be older. It's so nice to feel I'm beyond the 'You're 21, right?' stage. Now to get this mousy brown hair to turn silver! I'm so weird.

My follow up appointments are next week.

Wolf is doing well, Markl is getting over his infections, overall, life is good. Once I'm cleared to work, I start peddling myself big time.

Becca is now at 5 lbs, 6-7 oz. (depending on which scale you want to believe). She's also gained an inch in length, thus putting her in the top 25 percentile for -2 week old preemies.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Mommy Bloody will be starting the Zoloft tonight. Yay for Medicaid covering the full cost of teh drug. While this week, (read: the last three days) have been better overall, I can feel all the symptoms hovering in my mind and behind my head, just waiting for me to slip up so they can pounce like the dark vultures they are. I'd rather have the chemical help then wear myself out and have another breakdown.

We both have follow-up appointments in two weeks.

Also, for some odd reason, the scale at my doctor's office claims I've gained a pound. I HAVE been eating three, alebit (sp?) small, meals a day for the last three days, but I honestly didn't think it was enough to gain a full pound. Mebbe it was the frozen mocha cappachino I had with lunch. *shrug*

Wolf is having some Wog time right now. Kiddo's due to get ready for bed in about ten minutes. I had grilled steak for dinner.

Yeah, things are improving. Whoot.

Am currently trying to adapt my sleep schedule to match with hers. Little success so far. She is nursing well, expelling wastes equally well, and is getting lots of cuddles. First doctor's appointment Thursday.

Poor Markl is sick, inflamed tonsils and fever. He's on antibiotics right now, but can't go near his sister for two more days.

I need to make that appointment for myself sometime this week with Johnson City or I'm gonna hve issues with Medicaid. Also need to see if we can get the family switched to regular Medicaid or Family Health Plus, as I'm out of coverage in five weeks. Becca's covered for a year.

GAH!!!!!

*runs around waving hands, collapses on floor unconscious*