The Adventures of Lil Mouse

Here at the mouse house, we prefer to be prepared. Knowing that Keeley’s birthday and Christmas would likely net some long sleeved items of clothing, we did serious recon in August and September. Summer clothing, mission, not so impossible. Most of the items, we picked up for $1. Some were $2.39, and a few were $3 (for a ‘whole’ outfit). The only iffy thing might be the ‘whole outfit’ ones, if they are too short in the stride, but we can pick up some extensioner things if need be. We scooped up a whole summer wardrobe (minus shorts, because I wasn’t sure what size, and pjs) including 4 sundresses for about $42 plus tax. Not bad. Want to see the loot?

Summer 2010 clothes

Another rude awakening. Same time, same place.

Hey I WON this giveaway last week, I won 2 diapers, but they are giving away SO much more now, this would be totally awesome for someone who is new to cloth diapering! They are also giving away a video camera and our simple digital camera takes really grainy videos. Call me greedy, but I am ALL over this one! Click here for Fluff Friday and do all the commenting you can to enter to win!

From today until December 4th you can….

Go here, now! Do it! Make your comments and try for a cloth diapering package. What do you have to lose? Want the scoop? This would seriously give you at least half of what you need to cloth diaper your baby from birth to potty training, and if you win, it’s free, of course!

-Gro Baby “HALF” Cloth Diaper Package

• (6) Gro Baby One Size Diaper Systems (Waterproof Shell, Snap-In Soaker & Booster)
• (3) Gro Baby Snap In Soaker Refill Packs (Packages contain 2 ea. refills.)
• (1) Gro Baby Booster Pad Pack (Packages contain 2 ea. boosters)

This gives you a total of (6) Waterproof Shells, (12) Soakers, and (8) Boosters

• one (1) box of Gro Baby Disposable Bio Soaker Liners
• one (1) box of Tiny Bubbles Cloth Diaper Detergent
• one (1) The Natural Baby Company Cloth Diaper Wet Bag
• one (1) Magic Stick Diaper Ointment

1:30 AM, banging something around. Pots and pans? Pitching a tent and dropping the metal poles? It doesn’t matter. Of course you know what happened. WAIL!

Keeley has been pretty happy go lucky since I ranted on my blog. Maybe she can secretly read and became distressed! Ha!

It seems like she finally got the hint that screaming at us wouldn’t make us move any faster, feed her any more, or do anything for her any more than usual. She seemed downright complacent today, then again she hasn’t been pulling at her mouth, either. Maybe her level of frustration over pain and not being understood matched mine with the neighbors being annoying. Maybe her tooth is ready to poke through, or maybe she just got over it.

It seems like the rain should be letting up soon, hopefully our carseat will be delivered soon, and hopefully they can start working on our house pretty soon.

The holidays are coming, and that typically gets mixed reactions from me. I’m happy to be with family, but I’m not an easy person to ‘get’ and each year I get older it seems to get worse.  I worry about everyone thinking I’m fat, I worry about making a good impression, and now of course I have to worry about the baby making a good impression. Will she cry or won’t she, how many diapers and sets of clothes to take, what am I going to wear that won’t show that I’ve had 2 operations in the past year and haven’t been able to exercise? Answer: none. It doesn’t matter what I wear, it’s still going to show. Everyone else seems to magically lose baby weight and go back to a size zero, and while my pants are loose, they basically fall down. Halloween candy has taken it’s toll, and I’m afraid I might just bite someone’s head off if they make a comment.

I guess I should point out, in case anyone missed it from the previous post that an  ACTUAL insane person would deny that there was anything wrong. I am sane and perfectly capable of being a normal, everyday, stressed out mom. At least the baby is happy go lucky!

Sometimes I only write about the good, and sometimes only the bad. Usually it’s good about the baby and bad about everything else, it seems. Maybe that isn’t quite fair. The baby has bad days too, granted, a LOT of it is spurred on by the ‘everything else’ (like stupid neighbors)…our six month lease was due up Nov. 1st. We really thought we’d be kicked out by now, but the downstairs and the top garage apartment are both empty, so I’m thinking she wants to keep our money here, which is good for us.

Here’s what’s going on, really, and it pains me to be so honest:

1. I’m not kidding about feeling mentally ill (you notice I didn’t say crazy, right?) I’m just overwhelmed and if you read on, you might see why.

2. Baby girl just screams EHH! every time she isn’t getting what she wants, or fast enough.  It really pisses me off.

3. I try for hours on end to get her to say ‘please’ or ‘ma ma’ when she’s in her high chair and does it.  Now she says EHH! and I say ‘what are you supposed to say’ and she says ‘peas!’ THAT is music to my ears and I fought for that really hard!

4. Sometimes? It all gets to be overwhelming. I yell at the baby. Then I cry.  I know it’s not right. But unlike a lot of people, we don’t have visitors once a month/week who whisk the baby/child/whatever off for a grand adventure to give us a break. The only way I get a break is by being driven an hour and a half to visit family, and handing her off to anyone who will take her. Then I just sit still hoping if I don’t make any movements, it will be like I’m the rabbit that ‘freezes’ and baby girl won’t see me and cry.

5. Granted, it’s nice for her to like me, but lately,  I just don’t know what to do with her. She screams no matter if I’m holding her or not, so what’s the point of having my ears bleed? Not that I don’t hold her, hug her, fly her around the room like an airplane, but still, sometimes, it’s downright annoying.

6. I’m sure it’s just a stage we’re going through and in a few weeks it will be something different, but right now it’s kind of hard to handle. Plus my husband is work overtime and we’re in the mid stages of house stuff and it’s almost too much for him at the end of the day when she screams, too.

7. My parent’s house is being torn out to remodel. I hope they do it soon, as there’s no real place to put the baby right now.

8. My in-laws hate me. I never thought I’d say it, but it’s true. They won’t even see Keeley if I’m in the car, and it’s over an hour’s drive, and with Keeley nursing, it’s pretty much impossible for me NOT to be in the car, unless Matt were to let me out to stand in the road. They really hate us that much. I’m not going to say why, I don’t air that kind of dirty laundry in public.

9. If you really want to know why, comment and I’ll send you a private message. They’ve canceled Christmas, it’s very very sad. I’ve done all I can at this point to make things right, even though *I* shouldn’t have had to grovel, considering the situation, I did so and it still wasn’t accepted as ‘good enough’.

10.  The neighbors are still jerks.

11. The washing machine is acting up.

12. The toilet still doesn’t seem right and our shower is still broken.

13. Our vacuum cleaner was on its last bag and started smelling HOT! They don’t sell the bags anymore, so we had to get a new vacuum. It has a really short cord.

Now here’s some good:

14. Keeley sometimes sits and plays on her own so I can get things done.

15. She hugs or snuggles or kisses her stuffed animals, but doesn’t hit them or  yell at them, which leads me to believe that we’re still doing okay!

16. She recognizes several of her toys by name and can go and get the one we’re talking about.

17. If you say farmer or sing old macdonald, about half the time she will say ‘ei ei’.  We haven’t gotten to ‘o’ apparently!

18. I’m still in love,  and he’s still in love, even if we’re too exhausted, have no time, or anything, the bond is still there.

19. I have a lot of shopping completed. I still want to go visit some other stores around the holidays, just because I like to, but they’re out of my reach on a drive. That’s kind of half good/half bad.

20.  Did I mention being exhausted? At least that means I sleep at night, which is a good thing, I guess. It also feels like another area in my stomach herniated. I officially give up. I haven’t even started to exercise and my body is telling me no. Why do I even try?

That’s about all I have today. My life in a little nutshell. As you can tell, it’s a lot annoying, and a little sweet. So far most days the sweet still gets me through.

Today is the day. The day we remember that so many kids in the US (over 10% in all but 2 states) are born prematurely. Check out your state here.

My own baby was born prematurely. 3 weeks. Technically she was 36 weeks and 6 days (4 if you count the 2 I spent in the hospital). Most first time mothers are OVERdue, as in 42 weeks or more. Ours was born severely jaundiced, although the main complication was that she didn’t end up getting to be a great nurser right off the bat (if you don’t count that we weren’t allowed to hold her outside of feeding her from Friday morning (a few hours old) to Monday morning on discharge). I however, do count that. She was in her bili-bed the whole time and it probably made bonding a lot harder for me, especially.  Once she was 3 months old and had been somewhat reliably nursing on one side, I took the plunge and cold-turkeyed the pump. Yikes. That was insane, but she is still doing well. She seems to be hitting her milestones around average, and seems smarter than the average bear (right, Granddad, right, she can UNDERSTAND YOU when you say throw that food over your shoulder, I don’t care if she’s 1, she gets it!) Ha!

Every baby deserves 40 weeks! What can you do, what can you give to support the research and awareness for expectant mothers? Check with your local March of Dimes and see what you can do to help!

Keeley in her Bili-bed

Okay, guess who leaves the side door WIDE open every time they go in and out? Ding ding ding, it’s the neighbors! And guess whose is the ONLY apartment without a SOLID OUTSIDE DOOR? Ding ding ding, it’s ours!!! And guess who has to go and close the door every time the neighbors come in because they leave it open and kick our heat on? Ding ding ding. It’s ME!

I tried knocking on the door to talk to them about it. I knew they were there, the cars where there and the little girl was running back and forth at top speed. They were ignoring us. So I wrote a note and stuck it on OUR door, so as to not ‘besmirch’ their door or the outside door. It simply said to please keep the door closed so our heat doesn’t kick on.

The jerks ripped it off our door, balled it up, and threw it down in the hallway.

Every time our baby goes down for a nap? They send their little girl on a running spree (I’m half convinced that the landlady is trying to force us to move and that she’s paying them and has a camera installed, it’s THAT reliable). Keeley hasn’t had a decent nap when they’ve been home since about 3 weeks after they moved in. We TOLD them there was no insulation in the floors and that the front hallway echoes. Apparently, they don’t believe us. Either that, or they just don’t care.

No matter what, I shouldn’t have to police their comings and goings so our heat bill isn’t $400 a month, it’s already almost $150, and our monthly bills have already gone up $12 a month because of a faulty toilet, and $150 for insurance on our property, and $400 a month on land interest payments. Needless to say, the budget won’t stretch much further. I do what I can to save water and electric costs, but having to police the neighbors is just too much.

I can’t take it anymore.

Ari is hosting Fun Monday this week. Her question is: What is the oldest possession in your house or flat? Describe it or show us a picture. Where did it come from? Why do you hang on to it?

Up until this weekend, I would have said the table my parents bought second hand as a dining table. Now, we have a new antique table in our house. It is the first table my grandparents bought together. We are going to put it in the corner by the couch and put our small Christmas tree on it (to keep baby out of it).

PLEASE! Scroll down and give me your email address in the next post, or just add it to this post and read my plea, I’m trying to donate 1,000 meals to Feeding America by Christmas. All I have to do is send you an e-mail, and Kraft Foods will donate 10 meals! If you link my blog post below, maybe your readers will add their email too. Note: I won’t use the e-mail for anything other than this one e-mail. Thanks!