Floor!

My baby is almost 2.
And she is so much fun.  Well, most of the time she is.  There have been a few "terrible two" moments, but by and large she is just a party waiting to start.  She loves to dance.  Her favorite song is J-Lo's "On the Floor."  Whenever she hears it on the radio, just jumps up, starts shaking her little booty and flapping her arms in a style similar to the chicken dance.  It's hysterical.  She even sings along.  One word.  "Floor! Floor! Floor!"  Which reminds me of my mom.  Mom has a great voice and loves to sing along even when she doesn't know the words to a song, in which case she'd just sing the last word of every line.  I used to mock her mercilessly.  I guess I'm still teasing her by mentioning it, but now at least she and SB can sing "Floor!" together. Here's a version with the lyrics in case anyone wants to sing along with Sarah Beth and Grandma.




In other SB news...she has a boyfriend and his name is Elmo.  Grandma and Grandpa got her an Elmo for Christmas and he is becoming quite a companion for her.  She sleeps with him, dresses him up in her shoes and clothes, puts him down for naps, using a washcloth as his blanket.   She hollers for him when he gets out of sight.  Not in a screechy toddler way, but in the manner an old lady would call for her farmer husband out in the barn.  "ELLLLLLLL--MOOOOOOH"  I think she fully expects him to answer.  I guess I'll have to break down and get her a baby doll or something because she loves dressing him up, but his squishy Elmo body isn't really designed for clothing or footwear.  Have I ever mentioned my unnatural fear and loathing of dolls?  I think they're creepy.  I had a few when I was little and for some reason got it in my head that they were evil so I'd put them in my window seat at night and stack books on top of it so they wouldn't get me.  I don't know why I just didn't tell my parents I didn't want them.  Maybe I was afraid they'd come back seeking revenge.  Anyway, I will probably have to suck it up and get her a doll.  Not one of those realistic ones that could pass for a real baby though.  I don't want to take any chances.

Father's Day.

Yesterday was Father's Day #2 for Kurt.  We had a lazy morning but rallied and headed downtown to the Green to let SB splash around in the fish fountain and run around the park.  Much to our dismay, the fountain was not running, probably due to the fact that there were 35 MPH winds whipping through the buildings.  Dare I say I was a little chilly in the middle of June in NC?  Mother Nature will get back at me for that with a 100 degree day this week, I'm sure.  Anyway, the weather wasn't great so we took an impromptu trip to the Bechtler Museum of Art.  The building itself is very cool.  Sarah Beth is a fan of elevators so she enjoyed the trip up 4 floors to where the art was.  They had some amazingly cool art there, and I would have loved spending more time studying each piece, but after about 20 minutes SB was getting antsy in the stroller and becoming highly interested in some of the colorful sculptures on the gallery floor.  I envisioned her running rampant in the gallery, practicing her climbing skills on the priceless art, knocking down a Picasso and a Warhol in a toddler tornado.  So we wisely made it a short visit and headed up for lunch and a nap.

Dinner was almost sushi, but Kurt made a game time decision to go to Fiamma again.  (We were just there on Friday with friends.)   Tragedy struck when we learned they were out of highchairs ( a lot of  Father's Day diners, apparently) and we had to try out a booster seat.  That worked for all of five minutes until you-know-who realized she was not tethered down to the chair and could escape at will.  Our usually mild-mannered child started getting up and down from the banquette over and over, squealing with delight that quickly would turn to anger when she decided it was time to go for a walk and Mommy was being too slow.  We then became "those people"  at the restaurant.  The ones with the squirmy, loud kid.  Oh the horror!  So dinner was not the relaxing affair we were hoping for, but we all survived, including restaurant patrons and staff.  I think we'll be dining at home for a while.

Happy Father's Day to an awesome Daddy who has no problem helping his girl push Elmo in the stroller.

And finally, if you haven't seen this video yet...it's hilarious.  I hope all good Dads out there had a wonderful day yesterday!

RA RA Sis Boom Blah.

I haven’t written about my RA much.  Mainly because it’s not a fun topic, actually, it’s very sore subject, no pun intended.  When I feel bad, I don’t have it in me to sit down and type about it.  When I feel ok, the last thing I want to do is think about it.  But maybe if I write about this, it will possibly help someone else out there somewhere dealing with the same thing.

So it’s been 3 ½ months since I was diagnosed.  I have bad days, and not-so-bad days.  On not-so-bad days, I wake up stiff and feel slightly better after a hot shower.  The inflammation in my hands is not horrible and I manage to get through the day without wanting to cry or throw things.  I can go about my daily routine with only moderate pain. 

On the bad days, I cringe when I have to change Sarah Beth’s diaper first thing in the morning, and I struggle to put her little shoes on her wiggly feet.  Carrying her 30 lb self is exhausting, and getting her car seat buckled is accomplished only through sheer willpower.  I try not to make a big deal out of it and hope people don’t notice when I have to lift my glass with both hands or give up on cutting something because I’m having trouble gripping the knife.  It sucks.  It really really sucks.  The cruelest thing is, I always feel much better at the end of the day than I do first thing in the morning.  But every night as I go to sleep, I know I’ll wake up feeling somewhere between 6 and 10 on the crapola scale. 

So I mentioned I was going to try the holistic route, using diet, herbal supplements, acupuncture, and a myriad of other kooky Chinese medicinal techniques.   So far, success has been spotty, but I know with this method, it may take many months before I’ve got my body under control.  Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

Your body doesn’t do random.   The inflammation HAS to be triggered by something.  It makes no logical or anatomical sense that some days are worse than others unless something is triggering the inflammatory response.  So the key is, figuring out the “something” or more than likely “somethings” that are the cause.

The “something” is probably diet-related.  Food sensitivities are usually the culprit in these cases.  I have already figured out that I am affected by Nightshades.  No, Nightshades is not a bad eighties cover band.  Nightshades are a family of plant that includes tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant and peppers, including paprika.  These plants contain a chemical called Solanine which when ingested can interfere with an enzyme in the brain that is responsible for flexibility of muscle movement.  For people who are predisposed to joint problems, it is like adding fuel to the fire when these foods are consumed.  I’ve cut all of these foods out of my diet, but let me tell you how hard it is to do for this Irish lass who loves Mexican food.   Potato starch is found in tons of processed foods, even in some medications.  Red pepper and paprika are used in everything.  And any food where “Spices” is listed as an ingredient is off limits, because it likely contains pepper in some form.

Food sensitivities like to travel in packs.  If you’ve got one, you’ve probably got several.  The trick is figuring out what they are.  So right now, I am avoiding, gluten, dairy, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, coffee, soy and red meat.  (Let me come clean right now and fully admit that this weekend was my birthday and I consumed everything that was on the above list with the exception of caffeine.  And I am paying for it now.)  On the bright side, I am fitting into clothes I haven’t worn in years.  However, avoiding everything is next to impossible.  If I could just stay in a bubble and eat my brown rice and beans all alone it probably wouldn’t be that bad.  But the world is full of delicious things, some which reside in my very own refrigerator.  I still have to feed Sarah Beth and Kurt “normal-ish” food.  There’s bag of shredded cheese calling my name right now.  But I will do my joints a favor and ignore its taunts. 

Even harder are social situations.  I mean, I’m going to have a glass of wine now and then, but you never realize how much of our social lives are centered around food.  You meet friends for lunch or coffee.  You go out to dinner on special occasions with your family.  When you have to be a super-picky eater, it’s awkward and slightly embarrassing to say, hey thanks for the dinner invite, by the way, I can’t eat the following 17 items...

Honestly, I shouldn’t even be eating chicken, fish or eggs.  But I can’t go vegan without soy or gluten.  I read somewhere that corn can also be a trigger.   I think I really would starve then.  I may have to try it at some point but I’ll warn everyone far in advance because I will be super cranky when that happens.

What takes the cake on food sensitivities is that it can take several months before you’re completely “free” of a trigger food in your system and start seeing significant improvement.   Ugh.  So why did all this happen anyway?  Who knows, food allergies are weird, but my theory is, I have a genetic predisposition for joint issues.  The pregnancy and c-section got my body chemistry all out of whack and combined with the emotional and physical stress of new baby, it created a perfect storm of sorts in my body and now I need to get everything back to normal. 

So as not to be such a Debbie Downer on this post, there have been some positives about this experience.  I have learned the importance of paying attention to what I put in my body.  My Holistic Acupuncture guy said to me, “I can treat you once a week, a doctor can treat you once a month, but you treat yourself every single time you eat.”

Diet is not just about staying thin and looking good, it is absolutely essential to your health.  Every time I eat or drink anything, I think to myself, am I doing my body a favor or doing harm by consuming this.  Again, there are times (like this weekend) where I say F-it I’m eating cake and I’ll apologize to my body later.   But the majority of the time nowadays, I can feel good about what I’m feeding myself even if it doesn’t satisfy my love affair with salsa or crusty baguettes.

Another River Monster.

Enough creepy amphibians.  Here's a few shots of our own little River Monster.   She LOVES splashing around in the cool streams up near Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Endless supply of rocks, sticks, mud and water.  Seriously, does it get any better than that?

 

American Hellbender

Sounds like Mad Max-style movie, right?

Wrong.  It's a salamander.  A HUGE salamander.  We saw one while we were frolicking in a mountain stream over Memorial Day weekend and we caught it on video.  It took me this long to identify what it was.  This sucker crawled over Kurt's foot, over my Dad's foot, and went on its merry way.  It was over a foot long. 






Here's the wikipedia link for all you nerds like me who are interested in this funky creature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellbender