JTOK Chatter > Page 356

I thought I killed Maggie.

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She likes to go out, just not for long (obviously) when it’s this warm. So I put her out and went upstairs for maybe 15 minutes (it might have been a little longer, but it was definitely less than half an hour). I came back down to let her in and she was under the patio table (in the shade) but came to the door…except she was severely panting and stumbling around and OH MY GOD THE DOG HAS HEATSTROKE.

She got a drink and I immediately wet a towel and put it on her (damn NC water won’t even get remotely cool) and she kept trying to move but was wobbly and stumbling and OH MY GOD I’VE KILLED THE DOG.

So while I’m holding the cool towel on her, I debate calling the vet, but think I just need to get her cool so I Google on my phone and basically the wet towel is one step, and another is to get her under cool running water, so I carry her upstairs and put her in the tub, but of course it’s just lukewarm water—not cool at all—and she doesn’t like the tub, but oh well and she’s still panting and she still feels quite warm and all I can think of is HOW WILL I LIVE WITH THE KNOWLEDGE THAT I KILLED OUR DOG. :'(

So I put a fan on and made her lay down in front of it while trying to get her to drink more (she didn’t). I kept following her around with the wet towel and after about 10 minutes she seemed to be doing okay (no panting, her skin wasn’t hot, she wasn’t stumbling anymore) and now she’s laying in her bed in the sun seemingly no worse for the wear.

Of course, I’m still freaked out that I damaged her irreparably, but logically I think she’ll be just fine.

And I learned my lesson—no going outside unless I am there to keep an eye on her. At least not until fall. :meh:

Smart kid!

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Typically in the morning, we give Owen a snack (granola bar) and a juice, then we eat breakfast an hour to an hour and a half after he gets up. Sometimes (rarely) we just skip the snack and eat breakfast a bit earlier. We just used to give him the snack, but lately he’s started asking for it.

So this morning, I decide we will eat breakfast early, and this is what happened:

Owen: Snacks! Snacks!
Me: No, it’s time for breakfast.
Owen: SNACKS! SNACKS!
Me: Okay. [Hand him a granola bar.]
Owen: [Finishes the bar in about two minutes.] Breakfast!

Scammer. 🙂

That was a fast month.

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Tom checked into work this morning. Well, I should say he’s there checking in now. He took a month off after leaving the recruiting station in Michigan…and man, did that month just fly by. Owen and I got REALLY used to him being around 24/7, and it’s going to be a big (BIG!) adjustment going back to “normal” with just us two here.

Old Navy Mannequins

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Owen was SUPER intrigued by the family of mannequins at Old Navy and spent most of the visit talking to them and petting (and ticking!) the dog!

And a real video…

And then being intrigued by the mirror (and knowing who he is, as well as who I am in the reflection)…

FAIL! x 3

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Fail #1

We had made plans to go visit friends overnight in Raleigh on Wednesday. So we got up early this morning, packed up the car, and set off. Five minutes down the road I remembered we forgot Owen’s bed. In the driveway it hit me that it was Tuesday. Ugh. Tom had even asked last night “Are we going tomorrow?” And I said yes, because I thought it was Tuesday at the time. And I even had the dog sitter neighbors set up a day early because I thought the days were off (well, I had them set to come on the right days, but I gave them the keys a day early since my days were off). It wasn’t a big deal (and I’m really glad we were only five minutes down the road) but it was frustrating. :meh:

Fail #2

Since Owen was excited about the car ride we’d told him about…and since we were already all dressed and breakfasted and in the car…we decided to take him to the local elementary school playground, thinking it would be a big treat since we no longer have a park down the street. Yay, right? Nope. He hated it. It was all sand and I guess maybe that freaked him out to start with, but even with Tom carrying him over it and setting him ON the structure, he wanted nothing to do with it. :**:

Fail #3

Once we were back home 10 minutes later, I thought we’d play outside in his water table since we haven’t done it for awhile and the temps were still cool…and he threw a tantrum. |-|

All this by 8am.

No jumping for Owen!

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We took Owen to a bounce arena (a new Jax business with lots of bouncy stuff), thinking he would LOVE it since he loves to jump and bounce on the couches, beds, and chairs. But apparently his love is limited to things he shouldn’t actually be jumping on because he was completely freaked out by the bounce houses and we got a lot of “NO THANK YOU”s. I guess we’ll try again in a few months.

How to Land Your Kid in Therapy

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http://www.theatlantic.co…kid-in-therapy/

Why the obsession with our kids’ happiness may be dooming them to unhappy adulthoods. A therapist and mother reports.

By Lori Gottlieb

Consider a toddler who’s running in the park and trips on a rock, Bohn says. Some parents swoop in immediately, pick up the toddler, and comfort her in that moment of shock, before she even starts crying. But, Bohn explains, this actually prevents her from feeling secure—not just on the playground, but in life. If you don’t let her experience that momentary confusion, give her the space to figure out what just happened (Oh, I tripped), and then briefly let her grapple with the frustration of having fallen and perhaps even try to pick herself up, she has no idea what discomfort feels like, and will have no framework for how to recover when she feels discomfort later in life. These toddlers become the college kids who text their parents with an SOS if the slightest thing goes wrong, instead of attempting to figure out how to deal with it themselves. If, on the other hand, the child trips on the rock, and the parents let her try to reorient for a second before going over to comfort her, the child learns: That was scary for a second, but I’m okay now. If something unpleasant happens, I can get through it. In many cases, Bohn says, the child recovers fine on her own—but parents never learn this, because they’re too busy protecting their kid when she doesn’t need protection.

More words…and short sentences!

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Ballerina
Broccoli
Crab
Delicious
Dirty
Doctor
Flying
Funny
Hammer
I cannot believe it!
I love puzzles!
I’m painting
Ladder
Lobster
No thank you
Octopus
Picture
Race car
Silly
Sleeping
Strawberry
Sun come up
Thirsty
Thunder
Umbrella
Watermelon
Where are you
Whistle
Yucky

Crappy packing tactics.

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All our TVs and electronics were handled pretty badly. Nothing was ruined (thankfully) but everything should have been packed MUCH, MUCH better. The worst offender of the bunch was the quite-heavy receiver which was set on its side, with the buttons and knobs facing out, with barely any padding around it. :##

Earlier today we discovered a bunch of broken plastic baskets and containers—which really isn’t a huge deal since the items are cheap—but none have ever been broken during past moves, which points to crappy packing skills this time around.

And they apparently thought it would be a good idea to jam two lamp shades together that are the identical size (i.e. no bottom flare so that they nest appropriately). I had to use force to pull them apart. They got a little damaged but not too bad, I guess, considering. :##

The topper for me was today when I pulled a barely-wrapped [somewhat] expensive Thomas Kinkade canvas print out of the same box as—are you ready??—three heavy lamp bases. Who taught these morons to pack?! On ALL previous moves, ALL artwork was specially wrapped AND THEN specially boxed…so we didn’t pay attention to them this time while they did it nor did we ask for special treatment of any pieces. Don’t get me wrong—I’m glad the canvas didn’t get damaged—but I almost wish there was damage so we could report it and they’d have to be accountable for their shoddy work.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

It’s cool again.

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It was a pretty warm night sleeping—it was actually cooler outside than in, so we had the windows open (something I’d never have believed had you told me it would happen)—but it was still WARM. Thankfully the A/C people were able to get out in the afternoon (by which time it was 88 upstairs), and the first thing the guy said was “Man, what did I do yesterday?”

Come to find out, the capacitor blew up. Tom said it looked like it was shot with a .22 with guts hanging out all over and everything. The A/C guy said he’d NEVER seen one that bad before.

They waived the service call fee since they had just been out (yay!), so it was only a $125 repair. Only. And had it blown one day earlier or we had waited to have them out, we could have saved $75.

:**:

Whoa. This was a surprise!

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Imagine waking up in the morning, lazing about, showering, then going to put your contacts in and seeing this?! 😮

I had NEVER had this happen before! And I didn’t remember sneezing or exerting myself in any way…so I must have just rubbed my eye the wrong way. Yuck. At least it doesn’t hurt or itch or affect my vision in any way. And from friends who’ve had the same thing, it will be sticking around for about two weeks. 🙁

Three for three today, plus more.

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My day started at 3am when I woke up in a deflated [sleep number] bed. I had no idea what was wrong and I somehow knew pumping it up wouldn’t help, so I just tried to power through and didn’t get much sleep (and what little I did get wasn’t comfortable) and I was even more sore than when I went to bed. :##

The, we had three things scheduled for today—and none of them happened.

First, the cable company (that’s you, Time Warner) screwed up and sent a subcontractor who isn’t allowed to carry cable cards (which we SPECIFICALLY told them we needed when we called to set everything up). Tom called to bitch and they at least sent the guy back to install internet and do the cable drops to prepare for when we get the cable card…NEXT WEEK. :##

Second, the A/C guy didn’t show because (as I found out when I called at 4pm to see where he was) they were behind about three hours due to the rain…and apparently no one was going to let me know!?! :## At least he should be here tomorrow.

Third, the UPS freight delivery of a new desk got canceled because it wasn’t on the truck and they didn’t know where it was. :## At least they called me AND apologized. But now it won’t get here until Monday.

And then I messed up ordering dinner and ended up spending $40 when it could have been $25.

And we apparently have a wasp problem because we’ve killed three in the house today.

And we also have a cockroach problem because we’ve killed a handful of those since we’ve been here.

:meh:

Are we having fun yet?