Rory and the Rotovirus

We have been fairly lucky with Rory during his first year in terms of illnesses - a sniffle here and there, a minor case of the runs, a chicken pox scare that turned out to be nothing.

Until now.

Rory has been diagnosed with Rotovirus, which apparently is a very common illness in children under the age of two. It's so common that our doctor was able to diagnose him over the phone without even seeing him simply by having us describing the symptoms. And oh, what fun symptoms they are! (You may want to pass over this next paragraph if don't want the somewhat graphic details.)

Rory has diahrea so badly that he literally explodes each time he goes to the bathroom, and then proceeds to leak through every diaper and every article of clothing we put on him. He also is having trouble keeping food down and had projectile vomited on several occasions (mostly when his father was watching him, thank God!). As you can probably imagine, our house has trash bags full of dirty diapers and piles of soiled laundry all over the place. Definitely not the most delightful place to be. And the best part about it? There's absolutely nothing you can do for Rotovirus - no medicine or magic pill. It just has to run it's course, which can last anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks. THREE WEEKS, people. Just shoot me now.

And to top it all off, the poor kid is TEETHING, which is traumatizing enough for a baby as it is. So basically we've got a pretty miserable little dude on our hands (and trust me, his parents aren't the most thrilled, either.)

I think that if I have one more sleepless night, or have to change one more totally disgusting diaper while my child screams in pain from diaper rash, I may have to throw myself out a window.

Okay, maybe not really throw myself. Perhaps I'll just bang my head against it for awhile...

11 Month Newsletter

Dear Rory,

As you can probably see, I'm at little late at writing your 11 month newsletter, and I have to admit that there's a bit of a psychological reason for this. Now that you're eleven months old, that means that you are that much closer to being twelve months old, and honey, I'm just not ready for that yet. I am not prepared to be the mother of a one year old, a TODDLER, if you will, and so I decided that if I didn't write this month's newsletter, than perhaps I could hold back time for just a bit, and keep you my baby just a little bit longer.

Well, it didn't work. Go figure.

You are hurtling your way into toddler-hood at warp speed, and nothing short of the world ending could possibly slow you down. I couldn’t possibly list all of the things you learned to do this month without writing a small novel, because you do something new EVERY SINGLE DAY. So instead I’ve decided to just list some of the highlights:

• Playing hide and seek. It’s the extended version of your favorite game Peek-A-Boo and it just keeps getting better and better.

•Talking – This month’s words are hot (pronounced “HoTTTTTTT”), ducky (pronounced “DeeDee”), kitty (pronounced “KeeKee”) and Woof Woof (pronounced as two grunts), Daddy and of course, the favorite from last month, light. (Notice there is still no Mama anywhere in this mix.)

•Singing and Dancing – Almost too cute for words! You’ve started tapping your feet and swinging your arms from side to side when you hear music that you like (I dance around you all the time, so we knew it was only a matter of time before it rubbed off on you!) You also “sing” – only one note, but boy, can you hold it! And you look so serious when you do it, like a tiny little opera singer. I melt every time you do it.

•Eating, Eating, Eating – My God, child, can you put it away! You only have two bottom teeth still, but that doesn’t seem to be stopping you in the least. Your favorites right now are Nutrigrain bars, teriyaki tofu, and Craisins, but really you will eat almost anything that fits in your mouth. People wonder why I’m losing so much weight… it’s because you’re eating all my food!

•Creeping around – okay, so you’re not walking yet, but I’m okay with that because I have a feeling that you won’t walk, you’ll RUN. But you are starting to get around by holding onto the furniture and that in itself gives us enough to worry about without you being totally mobile on your feet. Sorry to say it, kid, but I see leashes in your future.

•Riding on the bike with Daddy – This month you were finally big enough to go in a bike seat, a moment your Dad has been waiting for since you were born. He immediately went out and bought you your first bike helmet, and I’ll be damned if it isn’t the cutest thing on earth!



•Giving the High Five – Hitting things is a favorite pastime of yours anyways, so it seemed only right to teach you how to give people five. Of course, we taught you in Spanish (since we’re so multi-cultural and all, haha), so you only respond to “Dame cinco”, but hey, it’s still pretty cool.

•Getting Your First Haircut - Quite the adventure! At first, you sat still because you were interested in what was going on, but after a minute or two, you were like, GET ME OUTTA HERE! It's a wonder there's any hair left on your head at all considering how much you squirmed!



And last but not least - TEMPER TANTRUMS! Yup, your temper has reared it's ugly head and you're determined to show us who's boss. You throw your arms up over your head so we can't hold you and then arch your back until your head slams on the ground behind you. Kinda graceful, actually, but I can imagine that your head is getting a bit sore. I realize it's because you are frustrated that you can't communicate what you want, but couldn't you find a more gentle way to assert yourself? Like Baby Sign Language? Just something for you to consider...

Don't worry though, little man, I still love you, temper tantrums and all.

Happy eleventh month...
Love,
Mama

Our Television Debut

Last night Rory and I were on the KTLA 10 o'clock news!

Here's how it happened:
We having dinner at this whole in the wall pizza place in Calabasas with our good friend Holley when a KTLA news van suddenly drives up and this reporter and his cameraman pop out and start heading our way. This first thing he says to us is "Hey, are you smokers?" and we all sort of look at him like he's crazy so he's says, "Well, have you heard about the new law that they are trying to pass tonight in Calabasas that would ban smoking public? So even if you were just walking down the street and you wanted to light up, you couldn't. What do you think of that?" and then the camera light shined in my eyes and the guy stuck a microphone in my face and I was like, oh shit, think of something interesting to say, QUICK!

So here's what I said:
"Well, I would like to think that we still live in a society where people are courteous enough to each other that we wouldn't need a strict law like that. If someone is smoking near my child, I would hope that I could ask them to move and they would. I think this law is going a bit overboard. It would certainly be a different world, but I think it's too strict. Definitely too strict."

Not bad for having to think on my feet, eh? I was pretty proud of myself!

Now here's what they actually put on the news:
"It would certainly be a different world, but I think it's too strict. Definitely too strict."

Oh well, at least Rory and I LOOKED good!

Happy 11 Months, Rory!

Thanks to Sara Cameron and her early birthday present to Rory, we have new pictures!





And, right in the middle of the photo shoot, Rory stood by himself without holding onto to anything for the first time!

Look at the concentration on his face...

One Big Caffeine Headache

The Mother of All Coffee Houses can really suck the big one sometimes.

Recently, they put a new policy into place that required the work schedule to be posted at least two weeks in advance, which was major progress considering that I had previously been getting only a few days notice and it was becoming unbelievably difficult to plan ahead for ANYTHING. And this short notice wasn't just a problem for me - it also affected my husband and my mother, who watch Rory when I'm at work. None of us could have a LIFE. So, when I got my schedule for the next THREE WEEKS, I was thrilled. I passed the information on, and all of us were able to make appointments, and actually make plans in advance for a change. How refreshing.

Yesterday, however, I happened to notice that the schedule posted for this week looked slightly different from the one I had at home, and I was told that yes, some changes had been made. Was anyone planning on telling us that? Good thing I happened to look at the schedule! I orginally was supposed to work on Monday from 6pm-10:30pm, and it had been changed to 4:30pm-8:30pm instead. Not a huge deal, thankfully, since Hoby was available to watch Rory either way. But shame on them for changing the schedule and not telling anyone!

Well, tonight I received a phone call at 8pm telling me that the schedule had been re-done AGAIN this afternoon, and I was now required to come in tomorrow morning 7:15am -1:45pm. SAY WHAT? That's less than a twelve hour notice! So I told them that I couldn't work that shift because I had no one to watch Rory. And guess what they told me? That it was my responsibility to find someone to cover the shift! My answer to that was ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! You can't go and change the schedule at the last minute and then expect me to drop everything and accomodate you. I have a son to take care of. I have A LIFE OUTSIDE WORK. And so I told them that I would NOT be there in the morning, and they would just have to deal with it. I'd be happy to come in during the evening shift like the past TWO schedule revisions had me down for, but that was the best I could do.

Who the heck do they think they are anyway?