Bad Mommy

About a week ago Alex was sent home from daycare with a 102 degree temperature.  By the time we picked her up and got her home she was clearly not feeling well but wasn't registering an abnormally high temperature so I figured she was teething again.  She went to bed and the next morning when she woke up she had a rash all over her face, legs, and arms.  Crap.  She was also clearly miserable and Marcus and I spent the entire weekend tag-teaming her as every 15 minutes (it felt that way) she would start crying and would be rather inconsolable until some solution was found whether it was a sippy cup with milk, a toy to preoccupy her, or Tylenol.  We even took her to the doctor on Sunday because by then we were at a loss as to what was wrong.  Naturally, we spent the $25 copay to only be told it was a virus that had to run its course.  Side Note:  Come to find out someone in her class had Hand, Foot, Mouth disease so I'm thinking she caught a variation of that.  Anyway, long story short for about a week she had the remnants of a nasty looking rash all over her body and face and in an attempt to help clear it up I went out and bought Aveeno baby bath wash and lotion.  Aveeno works wonderfully for me so I figured it would do the same for Alex.  After a few days of lathering her up in the tub with the Aveeno wash and then making sure she had a liberal amount of lotion applied to her body before bed I expected great results.  Only, the rash was getting worse.  It was getting more red and angry looking.  I was perplexed.  That was, until I noticed one night as I was about to lotion her up that what I was actually applying to her skin and sending her to bed in was body wash.  I was generously applying body wash, putting her in her PJs, and kissing her goodnight all like the dumb a$$ I am.  The poor baby took it like a champ and never seemed bothered by it though I suppose if it had gone on much longer she would have started to complain.  I'm just glad I caught it when I did and didn't find myself at the doctor wondering what this unexplainable rash was and why it wouldn't go away.  So, here we are, a week later and Alex's skin is looking marvelous.  I'll chalk that one up to being a blonde because there really is no other explanation.  

My Friends Just Call Me "Crazy"

So, remember that time I said, and I quote, "The fact of the matter is while another child is definitely in the future for us I need to become one of the women I despise in order to go through it again. With that being said does anyone have any suggestions on how I can drive myself bat-shit crazy because that’s the only way this is happening" in regards to being pregnant for a second time?  Well, uh, hi.  Nice to meet you.  I'm Bat-Shit Crazy.

How, you ask, did this happen? Other than the more conventional way, my guess is the following, all of which took place at the end of December/beginning of January in what can only be described as a comedy of errors:

1. At the end of December I bought a pair of really nice jeans that I knew wouldn't fit but could act as a goal to work towards because I was still carrying about 8 pounds of pregnancy weight.  (Kuddos to a few friends of Marcus's who asked if I was back to my pre-Alex weight.  That was very thoughtful.  It must have been my pregnancy glow.)
2. Shortly after I bought the aforementioned jeans I took a HPT which came back positive. After digesting the news I realized I would be pregnant for my sister's June wedding so I hurriedly (read: totally jumped the gun) purchased a maternity dress for the occasion. Soon after getting the positive results on the HPT it turned out to be a false-positive (more on that later), so I sent the dress back only to find myself pregnant (for real) a month later.  Did you follow all of that?  I then went back to re-purchase the dress and discovered it was no longer available thus I had to start the search for a maternity dress for a wedding all over again. (In the end it worked out for the best because the new dress is gorgeous.)
3. Also, after realizing I wasn't pregnant I decided to pick-up running again because damnit, those jeans were super cute plus I wanted to lose the last few pounds before even thinking of getting pregnant again. Ha!
4. I then paid a $65 registration fee to sign-up for my first race in over a year as the motivation needed to continue running.
5. Finally, during the mid-January time-frame, right before I knew I was pregnant, I reconnected with my ballet instructor from years ago and promised that I would come back to class in March. In between the time I saw her and the time classes started I discovered I was pregnant but the last thing I wanted to do was go back on my word (because that's what she would have expected after all of these years) so I found myself in class for the first time in 15 years during one of the worst few weeks of the first trimester, twirling and leaping and fighting back nausea all at the same time.

And that's it.  My 5, fool-proof ways for ensuring you will get pregnant.  We'll call it the "Tepaske Method."  Also, I suppose I should look into changing the title of my blog.  But "You and Me Equals Three Plus One" doesn't have as nice a ring to it.

*This post will be a good test to see who actually reads this blog.

Not Much To Say

I haven't written in a long time for a few reasons.  1. I have been inspired to write about a few things in particular, and those posts are waiting in the wings, but I'm not ready to release them yet.  2.  There is just not that much going on right now; we are dull, dull people.  Our day begins at 6:30 and ends at 10:00 and I honestly can't tell you what we do of interest during those times.  Other than looking forward to, and promptly forgetting, certain TV shows during the evening our lives revolve around waking, eating, and making sure Alex is happy.  Every now and then we're jolted out of our humdrum existence by a get-together at a friend's house but those last only a few hours for us as we revolve our schedule around Alex's.  While it would be easy enough to find a babysitter it's not easy enough to part with $10 an hour so we can hang out at someone's house for a few hours (and it would only be a "few" because we certainly aren't going to pay upwards of $50 for a night of sitting around and chatting).  I guess what I should say, in an attempt to not offend any friends, is that for $10 an hour something really major better be taking place.  We've tried to hold get-togethers at our place but that gets harder as Alex gets older because the last thing we want is for her to wake up during the night while we're having a few bottles of wine.  Not to mention, we ourselves can barely keep our heads lifted after 10:00 at night making us very dull hosts, especially for our friends who somehow have the energy to keep the party going well into the night.  Ah, I remember those days fondly.  Although, I do not miss the mornings that resulted from nights like that.  In fact, I can distinctly remember the very last time I had a morning that was beyond miserable and it was in November after seeing the Jay-Z/Kanye West show at Verizon Center with a few best buds of mine.  One best bud is quite the instigator when it comes to drinking more than should legally be allowed and I'm quite the follower when it comes to drinking more than should legally be allowed so together we make a very fun pair at night and a very gnarly pair in the morning.  I suppose what has really changed is that now, when we do get the chance to go out, it's that much more special.  The time spent with friends and enjoying our "freedom" means much more now than it did pre-Alexandra.  Alex has added so much more to our lives not just because she is who she is but because she gives us pause to really appreciate what we have.