Blogiversary

Thunderbolts and lightning very very frightening. (name that tune...) That's the weather we have now. We have had rain almost every day since last Wednesday. I've got a morning routine that includes sucking up water off the concrete slab around the perimeter of my Whine Cellar with the carpet shampooer. This morning it was not as bad as it has been but it's raining hard now so it will be. I could go stay upstairs in the computer room but I'm fiercely territorial and just want to be in my space. Once the construction starts I may just find me a little cabin in the woods. Or move to the computer room. But really, I just love my nest, even when it's damp.

Cosette has her first notable illness - an upper respiratory infection. Doctor thinks it's viral so no antibiotics. When my babies were babies they gave you antibiotics regardless. I'm glad they've stopped that practice because developing a resistance to antibiotics is no fun, especially if you're allergic to one strain of antibiotics and another doesn't work. They told Tasha to watch for fever or shortness of breath but she's ok, just irritated by people wiping her nose.

Cosette has gained a few ounces and is up to 14lbs, 13oz. It was fun on Christmas to watch people go from holding Cosy to holding Ollie or vice versa - you can definitely tell a difference! Cosy is all long legs and arms, like a little spider monkey. Ollie is a little butterball, very solid and compact! My guess is that Ollie weighs about a pound more than Cosy at this point. I can't wait to see them as toddlers because the older they get, the three months separating them will become less and less noticeable, especially if he continues to outweigh her.  They both have a habit of bouncing or taking a dive right out of your lap so you have to be careful.

Then when we add Baby Boy Gant to the mix... he's due in February but that ten months and seven months between him and his first cousins, once removed will not be noticeable as they get older. We could never have guessed that we'd get three babies in the space of a year! Four, if you count my brother David's baby who was born in June - but we don't count on ever seeing him as we never see/hear from David or any of his kids. 

 

I figured out it's cheaper (and lighter) to buy powdered gatorade instead of liquid. I still have the problem of having migraines if I skip a day of drinking gatorade. My doctor says it must be an electrolyte issue but we haven't figured it out to the extent of being able to replace those electrolytes without gatorade. I panic whenever I'm out of gatorade or advil, my migraine weapons. Lately I've been sort of cycling through fibromyalgia symptoms with the headache, fatigue, sore throat, feeling fluey, body aches, muscle spasms... and I know it's fibro and not flu because I can feel miserable one minute and ten feet tall and bullet proof the next.

That big bundle of bows I bought for Cosy finally came this week. It was a deal on Amazon back in November where I got a whole mess of bows for $3.92. They have a pretty sturdy metal clip on them that would cut into her little head if we put them on her stretchy (not really elastic) headbands. We decided that Nana and Mama could use them. So if you are in White County and you see a curvy girl with a little bow in her hair - it's probably either me or Tasha. Pictures above are comparison of Marquee holding Cosy and then holding Ollie. Below are the two of them playing on the couch. They can both sit up to some degree or another. Cosy slid down and just kind of stayed there. Ollie was mesmerized by Cosy's toy and then by her tutu. I was about six inches away from them... they're not quite ready for us to just turn them loose on each other.

I finally decided to splurge on the Ancestry.com DNA test and ordered a kit in November. I got it for 30% off so I decided it was the time to go ahead with it. I realized last week that it had never arrived so I called Ancestry. It turns out that the mailing address they had for me ended up being half of my Cleveland address and half of my old Riverdale address so it was returned to UPS but not to Ancestry.com. Ancestry's customer service is based in Utah and I got the perfect stereotypical Morman fellow with the "Oh gee, I'm sorry that happened. Let's see what we can do to turn your frown upside down" right out of the Book of Mormon (the musical). It was almost worth the delay to have that little exchange. The kit came the other day. You have to collect what they say is a 1/4 teaspoon of spit after not eating or drinking for thirty minutes. I have terrible dry mouth because of my meds so it took quite an effort to come up with enough spit without drinking. There is a branch of my family tree that only goes back to a great-great-grandfather when all my other branches go back for hundreds of years. I'm hoping the DNA test will give us some clues on that branch. Otherwise I'm just interested to see if we have any unusual ethnicities in the mix.

Yesterday was my 11th anniversary of blogging. I know this because I began blogging on the day my niece Jamie was born and she turned 11 yesterday. Some of you who know me in real life didn't know I was blogging back then and since it was in the time before heavy Facebook usage, we were probably out of touch a bit then unless you were at the ball field or theatre or my office since that's what consumed my time then. Those of you who I met through blogging probably know more about my life in that time period than even my real life friends as we would read each other's blogs and were deeply invested in each others' lives. I have probably two dozen friends that I met through AOL Journals that I remain (cyber) friends with today. We have watched each others' children grow up - and watched each others' weight go up (and down, hopefully, for some of us) for eleven years. These are the "bonus" friendships in life that I never could have imagined having but that have sustained me through the rough times.

Anyways... I guess that's all for today. Hope you're all safe and warm and dry! This may be my last blog entry for 2015 unless I feel chatty tomorrow. Either way... praying for lots of joy, peace and love to fill your life in the year to come! Love and hugs!