Monday, January 12, 2009

A Sickness and Escaped Mental Patient

I have just crashed the server at an online photo printing company trying to process photos that I've taken in the last five months. The system can't handle my kind of volume. How wimpy! I mean, I don't think 900 photos in five months is that bad.

Hi. My name is Katie and I'm a photo-a-holic.

(You: Hi Katie!)

(They really need to fix their website. How can they not handle 900 photos?)

What can I do about this? Really. I need help. When your photos from a couple months start crashing shit online, it is a sure sign. Please someone help me.
****
So, the kids. They are just being little darlings these days. Andrew is finally going to bed at a normal hour (somewhere between 7 and 8 p.m.). This means I finally have a couple hours in the evenings to myself, which is just plain awesome. I'd forgotten how it felt to be a complete person. A person who can paint her toenails without having to stop after two nails. (I'm not kidding, I went around with two nails painted for about two weeks before I got around to finishing the job.) The bad part is that he is now awake a LOT during the day. And he expects someone to entertain him. I guess he isn't cool with just being stuck in a bouncy seat in the corner anymore (damn.) He is laughing and reaching for things and being totally cute. I'm actually quite sad that my favorite baby stage has already passed. This was my favorite age. Right at 3 months. When they are smiling and oh-so cuddly. When they stay where you put them and don't grab your hair. And now he no longer wants to sleep on top of me. He might as well be a grown-up at this point! *Sob!*

Becca and I are getting along quite nicely right now. She is starting to get a little OCD--maybe that is why we are getting along so well? I didn't realize you could inflict your problems on your children at such a young age. She is really into carrying around her "nice neat pile of books." She gets kind of freaky about her pink toy bins and insists that the pony one go on this shelf and the accessories one on this shelf. She has spent hours the last couple days "making Daddy's birthday cake," by dumping chocolate chips, marshmallows, Craisins, peanuts and Goldfish into a big mixing bowl and stirring it around. Seriously. Hours. When we go in to let her out of her room in the morning, John says it looks like the room of an escaped mental patient. She is allowed to get out of her bed, but not to open her door. So, she takes EVERY book off the shelves and she takes things off the wall. We hear shit banging into the walls from our room. She takes the clothes out of her dresser and they are all piled on the floor, or arranged in strange configurations. I asked her why all her pajamas were in a heap at the foot of her bed. She said, " The stepsisters wanted me to do their laundry." She wants to wear her red "Fancy Nancy" shoes everywhere (also pictured: the World's Most Hideous Kitchen Floor that will one day be GONE!) Getting regular shoes on her is a feat (feet! Ha!) She loves taking her vitamins and wants one when she wakes up in the morning, and cannot understand why she can't have one after her nap as well. I was going to post some recent photos of her, but I don't HAVE ANY. How is that possible? With 900 photos, none of them are of her and decent? That is sad. I better go take some more. (This is where someone steps in to HELP ME, people.)
***
I'm glad January is almost over. Wait. No it isn't. Damn. Is it really only the 12th? I hate January. I want to punch January in the face. I just sit around shivering waiting for ice storms or illnesses to show up. Today in Target I overheard a lady on her cell phone saying "It is bacterial and it is airborne. When I get home tonight we have to wash all the sheets and towels and clothes that we've touched." AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. I would have run from there immediately, but I was waiting on my tall Espresso Truffle from Starbucks and couldn't very well flee without it. I have a few sicknesses, I suppose.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

I want to have another baby just so I can have one more time w/the newborn - 6 month phase. I love it. Crave it. Am pushing aside, with all my power, the thought of getting pregnant every day. Though, it's not so hard to do, actually, when your two-year-old has the shits.

Liv does not leave her room either. She, generally, will not open the door until she calls for us and we give her permission.

Tell me, how do you get Becca's room cleaned??? PLEASE, for the love of GOD, tell me! Olivia as dolls asleep, on blankets, on the floor. They cannot be woken up. She also has a carseat with dolls in it, also on the floor. It cannot be moved either. To do so is to traumatize her. We have a housekeeper, who does it once a week and she cries EVERY time. It's all very tragic - but, I have to let someone clean and if I wait for the housekeeper to do it, I have someone else to blame. But, we won't be able to afford a housekeeper in the States. So, tell me, what is your trick for getting her room cleaned w/o inflicting trauma on the poor kid. Toys and fancy shoes moved out of "place" - OMG!!!!

Katie said...

Natalie...I'm with you on the baby thing. If they stayed non-mobile and cuddly I would have more than two. But they don't. So I won't! I can't take what happens next....

As for cleaning. Luckily she isn't OCD about the placement of stuff on the floor. So that hasn't been a problem. Her bedroom gets trashed every morning and John usually cleans it up every day. I just leave it! :)

But, our house NEVER truly feels clean to me. If I leave her on one floor to go clean another, when I get back, there is a new juice spill and new crumbs and every toy out on the floor. It never ends....

Jen said...

Is that espresso truffle latte good? I haven't tried it.

I LOVE that first picture of Andrew. No wonder you have so many pictures to print. CUTE CUTE CUTE.

I think Becca and Kate would get along splendidly, excecpt for the fact that Kate would likely boss her around so much that Becca would end up hating to play with her. I love the stepsisters comment, and the OCD thing. And that you've documented them here so that you will be able to show her one day.

Erin said...

They are both SO adorable. Seriously, how do you stand it?

Calum is a NIGHTMARE during naptime now that he's getting out of his bed. DON'T LET IT HAPPEN TO YOU. Naptime is seriously OVER. Like, OVER over. Over. Done. No more. OVER.

Help? HELP. HELP!

Joel and Angela said...

900 photos! Wow! And not one good one of Becca? I can relate! but probably 800 less photos. Sometimes I download pictures and I realize that I have 5 more photos of one child than another. Talk about equality! It's hard! Loved the first picture of Andrew! He is so cute!

Katie said...

Oh God, Erin. I feel for you. Have you tried taking ALLLLLLL the toys/books out of there? Someone else suggested to me to let her nap in the guest room where there is NOTHING to do/play with. Would that work?

Jen, the Espresso truffle is a little sweet for me, but I still like it. It is like half hot choc half espresso.....decadent!

Anonymous said...

You need a bulldozer to clean a kids bedroom, Thats no shit!or a box of 55 gallon size garbage bags!You'll fill all of them up with shit!( stuffed toys and other asst crap)No you have to clean the kids room when they are away from home.

Angie said...

Is 900 photos in 5 months a lot? That's less than 200 photos a month. It doesn't sound bad to me. Now, you've got me thinking. I've taken over 10,000 photos in the three years that I've had my camera. So that is (using my calculator here) an average of 277 photos a month. Of course, at least a third of those photos are deleted, so that leaves 185 photos a month. Maybe I have a problem, too.

Which online photo site are you using? I've been uploading photos and, all of the sudden, it is taking FOREVER. I think maybe our sad, nearly dying computer is the problem.

And, Natalie, can you make Olivia clean it? I think Allen is making Ashlyn a little OCD, because he's teaching her to line up all of her shoes, nice and neat, and all of her books as well. I would just start throwing crap in the closet, but Ashlyn puts it away better. Also, maybe she needs a couple more doll beds, but limit the number of dolls who can be asleep to the beds.

Unknown said...

Angie, Liv has a doll pack and play, doll bed, and has snagged Lila's doll bunk bed. But, still, some babies have to sleep on the floor. I do not know why.

When we ask her to clean it, she says it is clean and her babies are sleeping and will cry if we move them. It looks very messy to everyone BUT her.

She is OCD about lining things up. As in, Barbie will sleep with her in the bed. Her shoes will have to be off and lined up directly in front of her water bottle on her nightstand. Shoes have to be facing the right way too. All the baby bottles have to be lined up too. If she has a cold, tissues need folded to her liking and w/in her reach at a very specific place on her nightstand.

It's all very tiring. Maybe the chore chart we plan on implementing will help. Olivia thrives on routine...

Katie said...

Oh, and Angie...900 is just the ones I'm actually ordering. And I was VERY discerning and only took the ones I HAD to have. There are probably another 1000 I didn't order. WHAT THE HELL??

Anonymous said...

Doing laundry for the stepsisters - how funny!! Becca is going to be on stage for sure!

Angie said...

Ok, you are ORDERING 900! That's totally different. I thought you were just saying that you TOOK 900, which actually seemed like a pretty small number. What are you going to do with 900 photos? Even though I don't recommend procrastination, I think it helps with how much you like photos. I know that my recent photos, I like them ALL. But, in older photos, I realize that my kids got even cuter, so I don't need near as many.

Tracy said...

900 pictures? Did you ever get them ordered. I haven't ordered in a while. If it can't handle your order, I am DOOMED.. Oh well such is life.

Andrew looks so edible!! Now is the time that you can teach Becca to entertain Andrew. Becca, meet prince ANdrew...

Lysandra said...

Yes, I love the Espresso Truffle. Had one today. De-lish.

The Quinn Report said...

Ah, the Espresso Truffle, my FAVORITE thing over the holidays. I had to make them part of my resolution and promise not to drink them anymore....I was going there EVERY SINGLE DAY for one! $200 a month on Starbucks is NOT in our budget,damn!