Bears and trains and laptops, oh my!

I hope everyone had a merry holiday celebration (or at least enjoyed some time off work). We had a good Christmas. Little Bit was so excited to see his presents under the tree Christmas morning. Unlike last year, he wasn't afraid of the large stuffed animal in the living room. He ran towards Winnie the Pooh, saying, "My bear! My bear!" and gave it a big hug. It's almost bigger than he is and very soft. When Little Bit has outgrown it, it's mine! It will make a great pillow for watching tv.

After opening some presents, we told Little Bit that he should check the front room for anything Santa might have left him. On Christmas Eve, DH and I had stayed up after Little Bit was in bed and put together his new train set. It briefly looked like this.

Within, oh, 10 minutes or less, Little Bit had begun picking up sections of track and throwing them onto the floor. DH and I expected that. We didn't expect that Little Bit would want to immediately start building up the tracks again. He wanted to do it himself, putting the pieces together like a big puzzle. Sometimes he'd ask us for help. He's only two and a half, but he already saw the fun in re-arranging the tracks. The tracks got put together and taken apart several times over the long weekend.

Little Bit also likes his baby doll from Santa. He's not too clear on all the intricacies of baby care ("No, son, don't beat the baby against the side of the couch. That's not nice"), but he did lay the baby down for several naps and told us, "Shhhhhh...baby sleeping."

DH and I got new laptops for Christmas. We actually bought them before Christmas when they were on sale, but got each other some accessories to unwrap on Christmas. I love the advance of technology. My new laptop cost about 1/4 the cost of my six year old laptop, and of course it has way more memory, speed, etc than the old one. Plus, it weighs almost half what the old one weighs. I love it.

More potty talk

Poor Little Bit is still suffering from that awful diaper rash. His rash seemed to be getting better over the weekend. Then, he went to daycare on Monday. I left the cream, asked them to apply it after every diaper change. On Monday night, his rash was worse again. We were back to his begging us not to change his diaper.

On Tuesday, I told his daycare teacher that the rash had gotten worse and to please be sure to apply the cream after every diaper change. When we picked him up Tuesday night and picked up the prescription cream to take home, we saw that they had gone through almost the entire tube. Let me spell it out -- according to my health insurance, this 50g tube of cream was supposed to last for 30 days. Daycare used most of the tube in one day. I don't even know how they could go through that much cream unless they were using it on every kid in class, too!

We tried to get a refill of the cream last night, but the pharmacist told us the insurance company would not pay for it. So, how much is the tube without insurance? $250! Two-hundred-fifty dollars!! That daycare blew through. $@#@#$@!!!

So, DH and I went home, trying to figure out how to handle this. Little Bit is in crying pain, begging us not to change his diaper with this diaper rash/infection, and we're almost out of cream. We looked at the ingredients on the prescription cream -- (0.25% miconazole nitrate, 15% zinc oxide and 81.35% white petrolatum). So, it's Monistat and diaper rash cream (the zinc oxide). For $20 we can mix up our own cream using OTC vaginal yeast infection cream and diaper rash cream.

Several people are going to hear about this -- first my HR person who can say something to our health insurance folks (maybe they need to see a video of our boy screaming and begging us to not touch his bright red bottom). Sure, daycare used way more than they should have, but the health insurance is crazy if they think that tube is enough to last 30 days. Then, our daycare folks will be in for it for wasting a 250-fuckin'-dollar tube of cream in one day. And then, our doctor for prescribing $250 cream without mentioning to us that we could just make our own over the counter for $15-20! Arrghhhhh!!!

Chri-mas Lights Inside!

Holidays this year are especially fun since Little Bit is old enough to understand something about Christmas. Over the weekend, Santa Claus came through our neighborhood riding a fire truck with the horns and lights and sirens blazing. Little Bit was slightly disconcerted by the noise, but he was excited to see Santa Claus.

Last night we finally put up a Christmas tree (yes, we are lame). We usually get a real tree, but with all of us alternating being sick and with DH's work schedule, the last few weeks have just disappeared. After we put up our new fake tree (pre-lit, too! how convenient!), Little Bit toddled over to the entertainment speakers where a few presents were gathered, picked them up, and put them under the tree. He just knew that was where they went. Too cute.

Then, he asked, hopefully, "Open now? Open now?" We laughed and explained again that he could open the presents on Christmas Day. He seemed to accept that he would have to wait a few more days.

We left the lights on the tree lit for the evening. Every now and then, Little Bit would point to the tree and exclaim, "Chri-mas lights on! Chri-mas lights inside!" Because up till then, he'd just seen the lights outside in neighbors' yards.

I'm so looking forward to Christmas morning - to seeing his face when he sees his new toys. He just loves trains so much. I know the train set and train table are going to be a big hit. He will play "train" with his toy cars, saying, "Choo-choo!! All a-boar-d!"

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This morning, when I was sitting next to him on the couch, Little Bit put his arms around me and said, "I love my Mommy!"

*cue melting heart*

We Might Need to Start Bare-Butt Time

Poor Little Bit has the worst diaper rash of his life. It's gotten worse and worse the last few days since he also has an intestinal bug. He tries to bargain his way out of diaper changes, mostly just telling me to put the diapers, wipes, and cream over there and to leave it alone and nooooooo! He cries and cries because it hurts so much to wipe his bottom and to apply the cream.

I'm home with him today. He woke from his afternoon nap earlier saying, "My bottom hurt! My bottom hurt!" He began crying and screaming. We went to change his diaper. No poo this time, so his urine must have really, really burned. I talked to the pediatrician on the phone earlier, and she advised to use the prescription cream we have for yeast infection rashes. I applied that liberally. Within a few minutes, Little Bit finally stopped crying.

He said, happily, "I feel better! I feel better!"

Oh, thank goodness. It kills me when he's in so much pain and I can't help him. My nerves feel scraped raw.

In happier news, I won something way cool over on We Covet - the Ultimate Planetarium from the Discovery Store.

This computer-aided, motorized indoor planetarium allows kids and adults to view the night sky as it would appear anywhere in the world. Projecting 88 constellations, 12 celestial objects and more, it transforms an ordinary room into a stellar display. The planetarium also contains a searchable database with over 600 star facts and interactive talking computer with backlit navigational screen.

How awesome is that? Since I majored in astrophysics/astronomy for my undergraduate degree and worked in astronomical research for several years, this is the perfect geeky gadget to entertain the family.

All I Want For Christmas

We already have the big Christmas gifts for Little Bit -- a new KidKraft wooden train set (he adores trains) and a used KidKraft train table (gotta love ebay for saving me $100). I also got him a Playdoh set (Playdoh is another favorite in our house), the cutest Max and Ruby beanie babies, and a few Max and Ruby books. I was idly surfing on Amazon for stocking stuffer ideas. I clicked on the "Under $10" link, then the link for "Boys".

What immediately struck me was how the boys' toys were all violent toys - soldier figurines from Halo or Transformer battle robots or Nerf "blaster" guns or "Battle Brawler Deluxe Monsters". Besides the fact that all these toys were for older kids, was this seriously the only thing Amazon's listmakers could come up with?

(As an aside, there is a link for "Preschool" that has a mix of things like puzzles, trucks, Mr. Potato Head, and dolls, etc., but I'm sad that the older boys' toys are all violent.)

One of the things I love about our little guy is his warm, affectionate nature. He snuggles up against me or his dad while watching tv. He just wants to be touching one of us. He will just run over to give us hugs, saying, "My mommy!" or "My daddy!" I don't want him to lose that as he grows up. Sure, I find myself falling into the stereotyping of young boys sometimes...when he wants to run and jump and falls, but picks himself up and says, "I fine," I think or say, "He's such a boy!" Really though, that just seems to be active, outgoing toddler behavior.

So, one of the other things he's getting for Christmas this year is a baby doll. This Corolle doll. He has stuffed animals that he carries around, but now he will also have a baby doll to love and nurture.

OK, It Was Closer to 2 feet

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

SNOW!!! In Houston! It snowed here yesterday and last night, ya'll. The last time it snowed here was Christmas Eve in 2004 (when DH proposed to me BTW).

This was Little Bit's first snow, and it was miraculous. We bundled up Little Bit to take him out and show him the snow falling before his bedtime. I loved watching the white flakes come swirling out of the darkness. The snow frosted the tree limbs and bushes, the cars and houses. It sprinkled powdery fine on the grass, melting on the warmer street. It swirled around the Christmas lights.

The sound of our neighbor's kids laughter rang out in the darkness. They scrounged snow from all over their yard and built a snowman. DH took a pic of Little Bit standing next to the snowman this morning. I'll have to post it later. I think Little Bit was about the same size as the snowman.

I actually had to scrape icy snow off my car's windshield this morning. I don't know where my ice scraper is (bought when I lived up north and packed away somewhere), so I used the edge of a magazine to loosen it.

Kyla at The Journey has some great pics of them playing in the snow. Our local paper has an article with pics too.

It was warm and in the 70s here on Tuesday, then snow last night, and we're going to get back up to the 70s by Sunday. Gotta love that crazy Houston weather. At least we had a little wintry weather to really get us in the mood for the holidays.

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Poor Little Bit was feeling under the weather this past weekend. He lay back on a pillow on the couch, watching cartoons most of the weekend, and didn't even want to lift his arms to hold a cup to drink. I gave him ibuprofen for the fever, but even with the fever held at bay, he was listless. There's something very pitiful about a little feller saying, "I feel bad."

I made him as comfortable as I could and gave him lots of mommy love. I held the cup with a bendy straw to his lips when he wanted a drink. I got him his stuffed monkey or his Mickey Mouse to snuggle. DH would come and give him Daddy tickles that would bring out a brief smile.

Little Bit felt started to feel better last night. When he ran back and forth carrying armloads of stuffed animals from his bed to the couch (just because), it was a clue. (Blue's Clues!) He felt well enough to go to daycare today. DH dropped him off, telling them that he had been sick, so to call us if he got feverish again. The daycare manager asked Little Bit if he felt better.

He said, "I feel better...Daddy feel better...Mommy no feel better."

I had to laugh at that. I was in bed when they left, because DH let me go back to bed and snooze in a bit.
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A random cute conversation with Little Bit --
Last week, when driving Little Bit home from daycare at the end of the day, I heard him say, "Moon!! Far away! Very high!"

The crescent moon, Jupiter, and Venus were putting on a great show. I said, "Yes. It is very far away. You need a rocket ship to get there. Mommy's working on that."

He agreed, "Need a rocket ship!"

A few days later, when he noticed the moon shining again outside the car windows on our evening drive, he said, "Moon! It far away! Need a rocket ship!"

Did I mention he's only two and a half? He's so smart. *proud mama grin*

My 100th post!

Woo-hoo! 100 posts!

DH has been working unusual hours, including some evenings and weekends. While I enjoy the time with Little Bit as special mommy-son time, I know Little Bit misses his dad being around (like I do). He will ask many times, "Where Da-da?" When his dad comes home, Little Bit jumps up with the biggest grin and peeks over the couch to the back door, crying with glee, "Da-da!"

This last weekend, DH worked Saturday morning, then had the afternoon off. We all went shopping at Target. Little Bit sat in the basket of the cart, DH pushed him, and I got things from my shopping list. DH sped him around the store and around in circles while Little Bit said, "Whoahhh!! Whoahhhh!!" They both had the biggest smiles. I laughed to see Little Bit having so much fun.

At the end of shopping, we stopped in the Starbucks inside the store. We gathered around a little table and shared a fresh baked blueberry muffin. DH and I got Eggnog Lattes. Nummmmmm.

I was enjoying the moment when Little Bit made it ten times better. He looked up and said, "I happy!"