10 on Tuesdays - 11/18/08

1) We've got a new cleaning lady and it is amazing how clean she can get things. She only worked 5 hours and only got 1/2 the house done so she is coming back Friday for another 5 hours {she was very blunt - "Your house was filthy!" Thanks!} She said she had to go over our kitchen floor 3 times because of all of Roman's milk spills & droplets {apparently milk leaves a bad film}. Our toilets are glistening, my kitchen sink is back to its original stainless steel color instead of coffee stains mixed in with cereal chunks with a dash of pomegranate juice {those suckers stain!}. She even scrubbed the base-boards which kills my back just thinking about cleaning them! Between Roman's clinginess and no-naps and the excess dog hair, I just can't keep up anymore. Roman is potty-training so the toilets are at an all-time high on the gross-factor. The upstairs rarely gets vacuumed because I can only vacuum while Roman is napping so that leaves just the bottom 2 floors that get done. When I try to vacuum while Roman is awake, he just follows me around unplugging it or he dumps giant bins of toys in the next area I need to clean and then it takes me an hour to reason with him and get him to clean it all up. When I put him in PDO with the intentions of coming back home to clean, I always stray and find some pile of paperwork I need to go through and yada yada yada I've started yet another project or made a bigger mess instead of cleaning. I feel like a total loser that I don't work and I still can't keep up with the house-cleaning but I figure paying this lady is cheaper than therapy and I'll be a much happier person {and we'll all be healthier with her cleaning up the mold, dust, dander, germs, etc...} I used to enjoy cleaning and had thought about being a cleaning lady myself at some point in time, but somewhere along the way it started.... well.... sucking. Having dogs & a 2-year old, it SUCKS putting in so much effort & time cleaning the house just to see if all ruined by a fly-away milk cup or a dogs who are stuck in the shed cycle.

2) So speaking of Roman's potty training {it was buried somewhere in the above long run-on paragraph} he is doing really good! He hates wearing pull-ups and often he indicates that he needs to go potty but it means he's already gone, but so far we're chugging along. I think Santa may bring him some underwear but we need to emphasize what an honor it is to wear it. He has been wanting to really keep up with the big boys on our street and I've been telling him that when he is a big boy and sits on the potty and wears underwear he can do all of those things.

3) I'm reading The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman at the advice of my sister. I'm not too far into the book because {oddly enough} just by reading the introduction, I've identified that Roman understands love through "Quality Time". So I've been really working on being there 100% for Roman in the afternoons & mornings when it is just us 2 and not peeking at my email or taking personal phone calls, etc... So far the book is extremely interesting and I can't wait to read the rest. The 5 Love Languages are 1) Quality Time, 2) Words of Affirmation 3) Receiving Gifts 4) Acts of Service and 5) Physical Touch. These languages can be applied to anyone and they have specific books for specific relationships. For more information visit their website.


4) Hopefully Roman's little body is on the mend. October and the beginning of November were just not good to him. He had an ear infection that went undetected for about 10 days {no classic symptoms like fever, ear tugging, etc...} Then when I finally figured it out {the poor boy hadn't been sleeping and had been obsessed with a page in his book where the man's ear hurt because the dinosaur roared too loud} I took him in to the doc and he was put on amoxicillin for 10 days. Well a few days after his last dose he was still cranky, not sleeping, etc... and one of my neighbors said her sons don't respond to amoxicillin so I asked Roman if his ears hurt still and he said yes. So I took him back in and sure enough... not only was the original ear infection still there, but he had developed one on his right side. So he was on an different medicine for another 10 days. Meanwhile, I mentioned to the doc that we were wanting to start potty training but Roman's #2's had never been "solid" since we brought him home in March {and that's NOT FUN to potty train}. So he gave us a few vials that we had to load up with poop and take to Children's Mercy within 30 minutes of putting it into the vials. Well most of the time it was very inopportune and finally one day worked out so we went up there and yada yada yada... he had a parasite so that meant another medication. So he has been without any meds for 24 hours, so hopefully Roman starts feeling & sleeping better soon {and if he sleeps WE sleep!}

5) Speaking of feeling better, Roman had his best day YET yesterday. He was an absolute angel! He was funny, he was charming, he wasn't cranky... he was "just right". I took him on a long walk and we went down to our path through the woods and we found sticks & rocks and when we couldn't carry any more, we worked on our numbers and threw them all into the creek {"Roman. Throw 2 sticks!", "Roman - 1, 2, 3, - throw the rock!"} He was happy to be able to throw things and I was happy because I finally realized that Roman learns best through play and so he is finally catching on with counting, the alphabet, etc... We still have a way to go on the colors - everything is "lallo" {yellow}.

6) Roman has been an absolute chatterbox lately! I know I always say it but he is really on a roll. A month ago he wasn't even saying 3-syllable words and now he is linking up to 3 words together! Just some examples:

• When we get ready to eat, we take the dogs downstairs so we can eat in peace without all of the doggie drama of whining, begging, snatching, etc... So, we let Louie out our back kitchen door that goes onto the deck and the Louie went down the deck stairs into the yard. Then when we were getting ready to eat, Louie was still outside so Jason took Casie down to the basement and then let Louie in through the basement door. Roman was concerned because he didn't see Louie come back in through the kitchen. I told him not to worry about Louie because he went inside already downstairs. Roman thought for a little big and said "under the deck?"
  
• We went over to Nana & Pop's for dinner & playing the other night. Pop likes to wrestle around with Roman and he calls it the Pop Trap and Roman has to wiggle his way out. Pop had a tight hold and Roman was yelling "Nana help me!"

7) Roman has been quite the little fish lately. He and Jason have been logging several hours at the indoor YMCA pool a week. I'm determined to have Roman ready for next summer at the pool. I can't deal with his "I'm going to go stand by the deep end and dangle my leg in the water and refuse to wear any lifevests, water wings, etc..." attitude again next year.

8) We had our Christmas card pix taken last Friday at Potrait {not so much...} Innovations. That place drives me CRAZY but they're cheap and you just have to go armed with the word "no". I flat out told the guy at the beginning "1) I don't want the cheesy Christmas background, 2) I only want family shots and 3) I'm only buying wallets". So what does Mr. Moron Photographer do? Starts us off in front of the Christmas tree. He snaps a few there meanwhile I'm fuming inside and it is showing on my face. Then he gets some pix of Roman looking at ornaments of the tree and opening fake Christmas gifts. I'll bet you've already guessed that he threw a few ornaments and sat on & crushed one of their fake gifts. So then Mr. Moron takes us to the room with the solid white, black, red backdrops and starts off trying to get pix of just Roman. I reminded the guy that I wasn't here for that and I only wanted family ones but he said he'd "just take a few". Well "just taking a few" started wearing on Roman who starts getting cranky & uncooperative, thus ruining my dreams of a nice family picture in front of the solid white background. I could've killed this guy. Jason ended up playing around with Roman in an attempt to improve his mood. I asked Mr. Moron to take some candid pix of them playing and you'd think I was asking him to shove his camera up his butt. He seemed really against it, but I'm glad he finally did. Because below is the outcome. The pic of the right is the one I had done {in an attempt to improve Roman's mood} at the July photo shoot and so now they're both 10x13 in sepia tone in nice mats & frames about to be hung in our bedroom. As my friend Dana said to the photographer the LAST {she'll never go again} time she was in there "For Portrait Innovations - you're not very innovative!" And don't get me started on Mr. Moron during the sales process. I stood my ground, though and stuck to the wallets except for a few 5x7's for the grandparents and the 10x13 sepia of Roman & Jason.

9) How cool are these new Gap commercials for the holidays? Watch them all!

10) I can't get the song "We Are the World" out of my head. Jason and I sang it at karaoke night on Saturday. Jason nailed his Bruce Springsteen and Ray Charles impressions while I tried to channel my inner Tina Turner & Cyndi Lauper.