Nothing much going on.

The girls and I just returned from a few days in Toledo.  It was fun.  The girls are the best travelers ever.  It took us nearly 7 hours to travel but we made 2 stops (one long, one short) both ways and everyone was happy.  I didn't get to see every single person I was hoping to see, but we left early to avoid the possibility of bad weather.  I am a big weenie when it comes to driving in the dark, snow or rain.

Avery has been good.  She is up on all fours quite often and is working toward crawling.  She is cutting two teeth right now and I think the worst is over.  She has been refusing bottles for a few weeks and once her tooth popped through, she takes the bottles fine.

Bailey is playing basketball and her team sucks.  They aren't that horrible, but the team can't quite get it together enough to actually win a game.  She participates in a weekly volleyball and basketball clinic.  She also attends a weekly sports club and Girl Scouts at school.  Piano is her least favorite extra curricular, but we don't give her a choice.  She is showing some talent at the piano.

I just checked my blood pressure for fun and it was normal.  I worry that my gestational hypertension would follow me into non pregnancy.  I clicked through the blood pressure history and my all time high was 168/117 which was at 4:30am the morning I went to the hospital.  I also weighed myself.  unfortunately, the pregnancy weight has followed me into non pregnancy.  I'm pretty much at my all time high.  Boo!

I feel the need to mention Nick.  He is good.  Nick is looking forward to seeing Nik Wallenda tight-rope walk across Niagara Falls this summer.  

My Flat Iron

R.I.P. Flat iron.  You won't stay on anymore.  I love you.  

I have a love affair with my flat iron.  I logged into Myspace and found my old blog post about how much I love my flat iron just to reminisce.   I posted it on February 17, 2006.  Today is February 17, 2012.  This little gadget lasted me six years.  That comes to about $1.38 a month.  

Luckily, I washed my hair yesterday and flat ironed.  Today I kept my hair under an ultra sexy shower cap in the shower and I was just flat ironing for good measure when I realized it wouldn't stay on.  My hair is slightly wavy, but I can probably manage to leave the house before purchasing a new one.  

I may need to go into full mourning over the loss of my companion. 

Here is my old Myspace Blog post.  

Flat Hair at Last

Current mood:ecstatic

For anyone who knows me (and my hair) I hate the bushy beast that grows out of my head.  I have a cheapo Conair flat iron that has served me quite well.  It does take me like 45 minutes to achieve a semi-flat state of style.  Today, I broke down and purchased a $99 product from Sally Beauty store.  I did get it on sale and I made the lady promise that it was the most amazing tool she could sell me. 

I am not the type of person to spend large amounts of money on my looks.  I have been known to spend some $$ on my skin products, but this is limited to acne solutions.  That is an entirely separate blog. 

I got the Jibere de Paris Nano tech Tools Ceramic Flat Iron.  The lady was comparing the titanium irons (1/2 the price) with the iron with "nano technology-A science of Micro Precision for Uncompromising Performance".  I asked her the difference, and she said this one was "nano".  Well hell, you can adjust the heat from 300 degrees to 450 degrees.  I asked the lady if you used 450 degrees, can you burn your hair.  She told me I could adjust the heat to a cooler setting.  I questioned again until she said "no". 

I tested the product on the highest heat setting "Coarse Very Thick Hair" setting.  In other words, blazing inferno.  As I ran it over my coarse locks, I read the directions:

1.  Do not let heated surfaces touch eyes or skin.  (ouch)
2.  Never drop or insert any object into any opening.  (that's how i ended up pregnant)
3.  This appliance should not be used by, on, or near children or individuals with certain disabilites.  
4.  Never use while sleeping.

This must be a serious piece of equipment i'm using.  And MY HAIR LOOKS GREAT!!!!  I'm so so happy.  I'm also so so broke.  

Teething Biscuits

Bailey liked Zweiback bread. Nine years ago I could buy it at the store. You could also buy Gerber biter biscuits, but they dissolved really fast and made a mess. I preferred the twice-baked rock hard toast. Now I can't find them at the store and I'm not interested in purchasing a dozen boxes on Amazon.

I used this recipe and made my own. It took quite a long time because there are like ten zillion steps. Today it was rainy and I didn't leave the house. Perfect for a day of kneading, baking and slicing. It wasn't that hard, especially for someone who likes to be in the kitchen.   I'm not very domestic and don't particularly enjoy this type of "fun". I hope Avery likes them.

I know this post was dumb and pointless, but it was basically to show Pattie what I was tweeting about.  :)
 Note:  The last step of baking where you lower the temp of the oven to 200F and then bake the slices for 15 minutes didn't work for me.  It took quite a bit longer than the recipe stated to get the slices hard and crunchy. 

Dodged a Bullet. . .

Bailey chose Mad Libs Valentines for her class this year.  They were cute!  Here is an example of one:

My _____(adjective) Valentine, Have a/an _____(adjective) day and don't forget who your _____(adjective) ______(noun) is! 

Bailey read us a completely random selection from her completed cards.  It goes a little like this:

My black Valentine,  Have a groovy day and don't forget who your spiky cow is! 

You probably guessed where this was going. . . this card was addressed to her friend Denzel.  Denzel is African American.  That makes this Valentine card a do-over.  Bailey was offended I flat out told her she cannot give this card to her friend.  She said "But, I was talking about the color black!  Black  is an adjective!"   She made a new Valentine and used orange instead of black and maintains the whole thing was a coincidence.  I believe her and apologized for making her scrap her first one. 

I'm pretty sure I made a good move since I've never met this kid's parents and Bailey would not appreciate it if I stapled a disclaimer letter to her Valentine. 

No sock this morning.

I can tell this is going to be an awesome weekend. Avery was up sick a lot last night, Cheeseburger was M.A.D. We had to pin Bailey down for a good old fashioned tooth pulling last evening. This means we used paper towels (which I keep put away). He took this opportunity to be a punk and do this:

Squiffy smile

I am posting this for informational purposes only.  Avery has a harmless facial oddity that I am documenting here because I can include diagrams and pictures.  Pinching Avery to make her cry just so someone can see her mouth is just plain FUN! mean.

Avery was born with a squiffy smile.  I was doing some Googling and found some British parenting message board that described her condition as "squiffy mouth".  I Googled squiffy and came up with a British slang word for drunk. 

When Avery was born, I got to see her for 10 minutes or so before she was taken to the nursery and then transferred to the other hospital, but I  noticed her lopsided mouth in those few minutes. 

The NICU discharge papers noted "possible depressor angularis oris absence".  Her pediatrician said the muscle is missing or underdeveloped.  The muscle is the one on the corner of your mouth that brings that side of your mouth down.  So the side of Avery's mouth that is affected is not the "droopy" side, but the one that isn't drawn down.

Here is a picture of her at 8 weeks.  She is clearly very angry and shows her frown/cry face very clearly.  The left side (Avery's left) of her mouth is the affected side.  It is supposed to be drooping like the other side, but it doesn't. 

The physical therapist was thinking of stimulating that side of her mouth so she builds up some strength over there because she doesn't close her mouth very well now.  She needs to check with her therapist comrades first.  My Speech Language Pathologist friend suggested having a speech evaluation earlier rather than later to prevent eating and speech problems in the future.

Here is another thing for you to Google.

 Congenital Hypoplasia of Depressor Angularis Oris Muscle

Congenital- Exists at birth or before birth
Hypoplasia-Underdevelopment or incomplete development
Depressor Angularis Oris-The muscle in question (see highlighted muscle in diagram)

Source

I love her crooked smile.  Between her crooked neck and her sideways mouth, I think it all balances out.  My dad says Ellen Barkin has a crooked mouth and is beautiful.

Sock of the day.

I don't know what is worse, kid posts or cat ones. But that is my life.

Cheeseburger likes to leave dirty socks, and the occasional pair of undies in the kitchen at night. I've caught him bringing them up from the basement. I've been documenting his work and he has left me out! He has left items of Nick, Bailey and even Avery. My socks must be too gross even for him.