All posts by ihatehardware.

Adlani is 7!!!

We’ve been planning to have one birthday party for all 3 kids since their birthdays are fairly close together and a lot of their friends are siblings.  Maybe it was a stupid idea, but that was the plan.  A few days before Adlani’s birthday I realized that he thought the big party was on his birthday.  I didn’t want to disappoint him, so I made arrangements to take him to a movie (Smurfs in 3D) and lunch with two of his buddies – Griffin and Nicholas.  It was so funny hanging out with three 7YO boys for the day, although they almost got us kicked out of Friendly’s.

Did I mention that this outing was a surprise?

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACocbGiYI1s?rel=0]

I swear, I did not set out to get them all sugared up and then send them home.  It just worked out that way:

From the photo booth:

One of Adlani’s presents didn’t arrive in time for his birthday so he was waiting for the mailman every day.  Before his birthday he kept wanting me to come to the TV to see the commercial for what he wanted – the BeyBlades Metal Fusion Battle Set.  While we were waiting for the package to arrive I told him that I made a mistake and I thought he wanted a Bey BABE.  Luckily, he’s got my number.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW_REzl8qqI?rel=0]

Open up and say AAHcupuncture

I’ve been feeling a little stressed out lately. Actually, a lot stressed out and for quite a while. Over a year ago I started sleeping an average of 6-7 hours per night instead of 4-5 because I was feeling really crappy and guessed that the sleep deprivation had something to do with it. Eight months ago I started taking vitamins, including B12 to hopefully fix my deficiency and the weird symptoms. Four months ago I went cold turkey without caffeine. Three months ago I went to the endocrinologist for the very first time, even though I’ve had a thyroid problem for almost 20 years. I feel better, but not 100%.

When Norah was diagnosed with Graves Disease, one of the many things we did to try to help her was to take her for acupuncture (actually more like acupressure since she was so young). I really loved her acupuncturist, Robert, who is just awesome. I had a massage a couple of weeks ago (another attempt at stress relief) and the massage therapist knows Robert and said, “He seems like he can just look at you and know what’s going on.” When I first met Robert, I had to fill out a long questionnaire about Norah, and I commented that I had a lot of the symptoms on the questionnaire. He said, “All parents need acupuncture.” A couple weeks ago I finally decided to give it a try.

I showed up for my first appointment, not sure what to expect – Norah’s treatment was different from an adult’s. Robert had me sit in a sheet-covered recliner and then he checked my pulse in my left wrist and told me to stick out my tongue. When I did, he sat there peering at it until it started to freak me out. When I asked what my tongue was telling him, he asked me to stick it out again. After he took my pulse in my right wrist, he turned on the light and looked at my tongue again.

By that time I was really wondering what he saw on my tongue. It looks like a normal tongue to me. He explained that there’s a lot that he can tell from a tongue, pronounced mine “purplish with some cracking,” and said that it showed a weakness in my lungs. He asked if I get a lot of colds, and I said, “You’re going to say ‘I told you so,’ but every time I get a cold it turns into bronchitis and I can’t get rid of it. I go through several rounds of antibiotics every time.” He explained that when the lungs are weak, the liver sometimes overworks and results in tight tendons. He asked if my neck cracks a lot. Ok – now it’s getting weird. I carry all my stress in my neck and shoulders, and I crack my neck multiple times a day. He said that we need to work on some core stuff and then we can focus more on the stress if that’s still an issue. He was shocked at how little I used to sleep, and recommended that when I fall asleep while putting the kids to bed, I should stay asleep. I can’t say that I’ve been able to do that, but I have been trying to get 8 hours per night.

He told me to recline, and wiped an alcohol pad in a few spots on my arms and legs. I couldn’t really feel the needles going in, but sometimes when he adjusts them he literally strikes a nerve and I can feel it going right down my leg or arm. It doesn’t hurt, just feels kind of weird for that moment. He probably puts in about a dozen needles (maybe more – I’ll count next time) – in my arms, hands, ankles and right above my forehead. I asked him to put one in that would help me poop, and he obliged. The weird thing was, in my first two sessions I actually felt and heard gurgling in my digestive system and worried that maybe the results would be too immediate.

After all of the needles are in I’m left to sleep for 45 minutes or more. Other people sometimes come into the room to have their treatments so we’re all in there napping together. It costs $250 for 10 sessions so it’s well worth the price even for the immediate benefit of a nap in peace and quiet.

Since the pattern of my stress symptoms was several “bad days” followed by some days feeling normal, it’s hard to tell whether the acupuncture is helping yet. I haven’t had any bad days (and by “bad day” I mean feeling like crap and wanting to crawl back into bed) since I started, and hopefully I’ll continue to improve.

If you’re local and you want to give Robert a try, here’s a link to his website.

Indian Pipe / Corpse Plant

Last weekend when Aliya and I were alone at camp, I was on an early morning walk with Annie and I saw these plants that I had never seen before. I grew up in the woods, so I was surprised that they were something completely new to me growing not far down the trail. I thought they were some sort of mushroom because they were completely white and kind of rubbery. They were so white that the camera had a hard time focusing (or maybe that was me) – there was no contrast from one part of the plant to the next.

They’re actually not mushrooms, they just lack chlorophyll, which is why they’re white.  It can’t make its own food so it gets food from a fungus, which in turn gets food from a tree, so the Indian Pipe is a parasite of both the fungus and the tree.  Don’t say I never taught you anything.

This morning I took my macro lens out and at first I was disappointed that the plants were dying, but the black really made them look cool I think.  Note that the flowers have also changed position from hanging down to pointing up.  I like this photo because itshows the life cycle – there are new flowers under the dead leaves, and dead ones from previous seasons laying at the bottom of the photo.

I noticed when I zoomed in that there’s a tiny spider on one of the flowers:

I tried out my macro lens which I’m still learning how to use.  I had a tripod today which helps a lot, and I learned how to use LiveView which is crucial when taking macro photos.

HBD2Me!

Last Monday was my 44th birthday.  I don’t really have high expectations for my birthday – I’m good with any small recognition that it’s “my day.”  The weekend started off with Aliya and I heading to camp by ourselves.  Norah had a birthday party to go to on Saturday so she and Adlani stayed home with Ben Friday night.  It was so quiet and peaceful at camp, just what I needed.  Aliya is pretty low maintenance (most of the time) so it was very relaxing.  She slept until 11 on Saturday morning and I read and crocheted until I actually felt a little bored.  I can’t remember the last time I felt bored.  Saturday evening the rest of the clan showed up, and it was instant chaos and noise – AAAAHHHHH!!!

Sunday afternoon our friends from Texas came to visit and the kids had a great time playing in the water.  Their kids are in the same grades as ours, so everyone has someone to pal around with.  Aliya asked if their oldest daughter could stay overnight, and after much discussion about the fact that her parents would be many miles away and there was no going home in the middle of the night, she assured us that she would be fine.  You can probably already see where this is going.

We had a big day planned the next day – a visit to the Mystic Aquarium, so the girls agreed that they would go to bed by 9:30.  That stretched a little, but all seemed quiet by 10:30 and I eventually fell asleep around 11:30.  I’ve been trying to go to bed earlier (and I’m doing much better compared to a bedtime of 2-2:30 a.m.), but it’s so nice when everyone is asleep that I end up staying awake just to enjoy the peace.  At 1 a.m. I woke up to a sobbing 10-year-old standing next to me.  Oh no.

I felt so bad because 1) I hadn’t heard her crying before she got all whipped up, and 2) there was nothing I could do about it.  I was at camp, alone with 4 kids.  I would have had to pack up clothes and whatever else we needed for the next day, get 4 kids into the car, drive an hour and a half to Mystic, and get a hotel room for the rest of the night.  There was just no way to make that happen.  She was upset that she had woken me on top of being homesick, and she knew that I couldn’t get her back to her parents right then.  She came up with the plan that if I promised to leave the house at 5 a.m. and drive to Mystic, she thought she could make it through the night.  At that point I would have agreed to just about anything.

Silly me, I thought if I got her back to sleep there was no way she’d wake up at 5 a.m.  I thought about taking the clock out of her room but I didn’t want her to see me sneaking in there.  I waited until around 2 a.m. to make sure that she was ok, and then I passed out.  She made it until 5:28.  Oy.  I couldn’t break my promise and have the kid end up with lifelong trust issues, so I got up and started getting ready.  I stalled as long as I could but we still had everyone in the car before 6:30.  This wasn’t how I planned to start my birthday, but what can you do?

We had a great time at the Mystic Aquarium – the highlight for me was watching the beluga whales interact with the kids through the glass.  Adlani volunteered during the sea lion show, so that was pretty exciting.  The kids loved touching the rays, and I loved taking photos of the pond – lots of frogs, turtles, and lily pads.  (More photos here.)

I was pretty tired by the time we got back in the car, and I think the kids were too.  Norah was a total PITA on the way home, and we still had to go back to camp, pack up, and drive home.  We finally got home around 7 p.m. and I crawled into bed and passed out.  I woke up later to eat leftovers, and we never got around to eating my birthday pie from Mad Willies.  Next year I’m heading to a deserted island for my birthday.  You’re welcome to join me if you’re over 35, female, low-maintenance, and promise not to wake me up in the middle of the night.

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This video is of the same whale that was responding to the kids. It really makes me think that she was reacting to the kids excitement (open mouths – laughing and screaming) because her reaction to the music is completely different. Very cool.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS_6-IwMPjM?rel=0]

Concert on the Common

It was a beautiful night for an outdoor concert, although a lost 3-year-old freaked out the crowd for a few minutes (he was found!).  The bass player in the band is someone I know from town, and I heard that he’d had a heart attack about  a week ago, but there he was on stage.  After the concert I went to say hi and he kissed me on the cheek.  Adlani went running to Ben and said, “DAD!  Mom just KISSED that guy!  Do you know what this MEANS?!  She’s going to BREAK UP with you!!!”  🙂

The unsolved mystery…why can’t I take one picture of 5 kids without somebody making a weird face?