Safe

Having a quality, properly-installed infant car seat took on new meaning this weekend.  We were involved in a 3-vehicle accident, including a semi-trailer truck, on I-65 in northwest Indiana on Friday.  I'll start out by saying that we are all ok (though as my dad pointed out, some injuries don't show up until 72 hours later, so we will find out for sure in a day or two).  

After a couple of anything-that-can-go-wrong-certainly-will days, our smooth sailing out of the city abruptly came to an end at a construction zone, with miles of not just slow but stopped traffic.  Just when the lanes had finished merging from two into one, there was a rest stop adding additional merging hazards into the mix, bringing the speed down suddenly.  Fortunately, no one was going over 20 miles per hour.  A semi rear-ended an SUV which rear-ended us.  I realized later that I had never been in a highway accident before, and was shocked at how hard the impact was.

Right after the impact, after my head hit the headrest, I whipped around to see Elijah's car seat moving a bit, and he screamed and burst into tears.  Not knowing if he was hurt, when the car stopped I jumped out and into the back seat next to him.  He was moving around just fine, apparently just very scared.  Poor kid!  It was quite a jolt, and a very loud noise.  

No one in any of the vehicles was hurt.  There were paramedics on the scene, but everyone was ok.  Lots of information to be exchanged with each other and the police.  I think we were there for more than an hour.  I wasn't sure which was safer, sitting in the car holding Elijah or walking way off the road (we were right near a rest area).  But he was not tolerating sitting in the car, so we walked off and found some shade under a tree.  It was incredibly hot in the sun.  

We finally go to our destination 2 or 3 hours later than we had hoped (we did catch the very end of our niece's birthday party, though).  But we got there, alive, and with relatively minimal damage.  

I'll have to post some pictures of the car.  I don't think it'll be totaled, but it's an older car so who knows what it's worth.  The bumper is damaged, the tail lights work but popped out, and the trunk is dented in.  (The car behind us was much worse...not drivable at all.  Strangely, they live near us...just a couple of suburbs over.)  We stopped and got some duct tape to re-attach the lights.  I'm hoping it's an easy repair.  This was my grandpa's car, that we received after he passed away, and I don't think I'm ready to part with it yet.  Plus, the thing is proving itself to be pretty tough.  It had a run-in with a deer a couple of years ago, and sustained minimal damage then, as well.

This holiday weekend is turning out a little differently than planned.  But it has caused us to reflect on what's really important.  And when installing our new car seat (always supposed to replace them after an accident...I knew that, and the state trooper told us to, as well), Will said that adjusting the seat seemed a whole lot more important than the first time around.

I have a lot of reasons to be thankful.

Playing at the park

Earlier in the week, when I put Elijah down in the grass in a nearby park, he didn't seem to know what to do.  He would put his hand down to crawl, then pick it back up and decide not to go anywhere.  I think the grass was a little too pokey for him.  I also realized that he hasn't really been in grass before.  We don't have a yard, and he hasn't been crawling until recently, anyway.  So we've stuck to the stroller for the most part.    

Today, Will took him to the nearby little league diamonds on a walk, and he LOVED the grass there.  It was a lot softer than in the other park.  He was out there, playing happily, for almost two hours.  I met them there for a picnic lunch.  Ahh, so nice to be outdoors.  

Clapping, his other new skill.  

I love this hat.  But he's not a fan.  That's why they make chin straps.

Oh, to spend all day in jammies.  And to wear them in public.  

Baby on the Move!

Elijah learned to crawl a couple of weeks ago, but it's just been in the last few days that he discovered he could go all the way across the room, instead of just to a toy a few feet away.  The other day, he was playing contentedly on the floor in his room, then took a look at me, turned, and crawled out the door.  He went all the way into the living room.  Today, he went from the living room, down the hall, through our bedroom and to the bathroom.  

One by one, objects on or near the floor are disappearing.  And I'm noticing how dirty the floor is, since I'm sitting down there all the time now.  Ehh, oh well.  I've lowered my standards quite a bit in the last year.

In addition to crawling, the little guy is starting to pull up on things.  Not quite standing yet, but getting there!  Between now and when he figures out how to open drawers and cabinets, I need to consolidate all of the dangerous stuff into a few places and install some locks.  I'm not going to go crazy and put locks on everything, but I figure we should probably keep him away from the cleaning chemicals.  

Wow, busy week!

I haven't posted much in a while...basically, I'm juggling even more things for now.  I took on some freelance work, because, well, the extra income is always nice.  But mostly, I want to keep doors open for the future.  So this week I'm trying to cram in this work between my regular 25 hours of work, plus all of my non-paying work that I do every day.  :)  (Though I know it's not really very nice to refer to the baby as "non-paying work."  But it's sorta true.)

So I'm surrounded by piles of laundry, piles of mail, piles of work, piles of toys, and piles of emails...but remarkably, I'm still in a pretty good mood.  Just really tired.

More later.  :) 

A Big Week!

This has been a big week for our little guy...he learned to clap his hands, to crawl, and to sit up by himself (go from laying on the floor to sitting up).  At this rate, he will be walking by next week....and I will be woefully behind in the baby-proofing department!  Actually, I think if we had furniture that was easy for him to pull up on, he would be doing that by now.  Now I'm glad we removed the coffee table: he would be running into its sharp corners.

Cute LIttle Hands...

Perspective

“

Personally, when we're feeling exasperated, we like to think in terms of "the last time"--as in, there will be a last time for everything. When will be the last time I give her a bottle, or the last time I put her to bed in her crib, or the last time I can actually cradle my son in my lap, or the last time he will let me hold his hand in public?  It's amazing how quickly that puts things in perspective.  One minute we're thinking we'll have to shoot ourselves if we have to dress her up in a princess costume again, and the next we could cry because soon enough we'll be shopping for prom dresses.

” 

-Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile, in I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids.  

It's a great way to think of things, when I get caught up in the repetitiveness of wake up, feed, change, play, nap, wake up, feed...  There will be a day when Elijah doesn't wear cute bibs or pajamas with feet.  There will be a day when I don't change him anymore, which will also mean there will be a day when we don't share giggles while he's laying on the changing table.  There will be a day when he won't give me huge, slobbery kisses, and I will miss it terribly.  There will certainly be a day when I can't pick him up anymore, and a day when he will be taller than me. 

Live in the present, and enjoy the moment for what it is.  

More organizing

This may not look like a big deal, but the photo below represents hours of hard work, cleaning and organizing our closet full of tools and cleaning supplies.  This half-closet (below the heating unit) is our only place to keep tool boxes, power tools, glue, duct tape, brooms, a ladder, and a variety of cleaning products.  

After living in our condo for 5 years now, we'd accumulated quite a few specialty items that were tossed into a couple of large bins, completely disorganized.  (There were 2 kinds of silver cleaner, and 3 bottles of WD-40!)  There's something about a messy closet or corner that makes my blood pressure rise whenever I see it, or actually, when I have to find something that has descended into its depths.  So we bought a shelf, took everything out, sorted, cleaned, and put it all back.  And there's all sorts of extra room now, and hopefully we won't fill it up too quickly!

Gettin' crafty

This week we are taking a "staycation" and on Monday, I was able to do some things I've been wanting to do for a long time...mostly shopping and errands totally by myself!  It's amazing how much I can do without a baby in tow.  (I went to 8 stores in 3 shopping centers in a couple hours...completely amazing compared to most outings these days.)  

Another thing I did on Monday was start and finish two different projects I'd been wanting to do for a while.  The first, which I haven't photographed, is an oversized hooded towel for Elijah.  His baby hooded towels are too small, and a bath towel doesn't cover his head (though I suppose I could have gone and bought a giant bath sheet).  So I found a 6-piece towel set on clearance at Bed Bath & Beyond for under $10, and then sewed a hood (made from a hand towel) onto the main towel.  I think it'll work well.  It's pretty boring...plain, solid color...but the only place I've seen these for sale is the Pottery Barn Kids catalog, and I am NOT paying $25 for one towel.  

My other project was to make some new baby bibs.  Someone gave us a homemade one that was better than all of the store-bought ones we have (covers more area, very soft, adjustable size), so I bought some fabric, traced a pattern, and made 4 of them for myself, for about $6.  If I would have been content with whatever fabric was available in the bargain bin, it would have been dirt cheap, but I was going for both cute and functional.  Here it is (funny expression on E's face!):

Not quite what I planned...

I've been on a home organization/rearranging kick for a while now, and today I decided to remove the coffee table from the living room.  It's rather sad, actually...it's a really cool table that I made myself out of an old door and some IKEA table legs.  I love that thing...but it was getting really unstable, and had sharp corners just waiting to injure Elijah whenever he starts moving around.  So we dismantled it, and it cannot be easily put back together again.  Someday, I will rebuild it, but for now we are going to store the pieces.  

I thought I found the perfect deal on a storage ottoman today (cheap to begin with, $20 off on sale and another $9 off because I found a minor defect), but when I got it home, it was way too small for the space.

So I have no coffee table, and no ottoman.  I really can't afford to spend the money on a "real" ottoman from a real furniture store.  So now I'm getting used to having nothing in this space.  It's not a terrible thing to have more open floor space.  Just not what I planned.  Oh, well!