Our Life Update - Seven Quick Takes 16

--- 1 ---

After a two week (and 2 day) absence, our cars have returned to our lives! We had them shipped to CA using the shipper my husband's company told us to use and it took that long for them to go halfway across the country!! I think that is absolutely ridiculous. Now that they are here, I feel much more settled in. Driving our rental car (2012 Ford Explorer) was fun, but it made it seem more vacation-y than home-y. We have no boxes left to unpack, the walls are decorated, the beds are made and everything has a place. I've been grocery shopping twice, we've been to church twice, and baby G had a play date with two friends. I suppose we officially live in California. Weird. I do still have a few addresses to change and insurance to switch over.

--- 2 ---

Do you have Comcast? This is our first time with them and I'm already annoyed. We had a HUGE fiasco with our first bill this week and I spent WAY too many hours of my life trying to get everything straightened out. We were overcharged and then our service was decreased to "solve" me asking for the reduced rate we signed up for. Then when I tried to get our service restored at the rate we were promised, I was told it didn't exist! Finally things got fixed after about 4 hours of our time. I am beyond disappointed in Comcast's shady practices, and I even went in with low expectations.
What's your opinion of their customer service? I feel like people tried to help us just enough to get by and it wasn't until the fifth person we were fully heard. I am, however, beyond pleased with our price and products--so all the hassle was worth it. We've got digital economy cable and super fast broadband internet for $49.99 plus tax. Can't beat that!

--- 3 ---

G has developed quite a bit since my last milestone specific blog post about her. Regarding walking, her illness & the move seems to have set her back. In just the past few days she's got back to where she was before we moved. She will take many steps in a row, and often gets from one place to another without falling. Crawling is still her preferred method of getting around. G is getting really close to standing from sitting. She will get one leg out from under her, push up, and get the other leg half way up before flopping over or sitting back down. Once she gets from sitting to standing, I know walking full time is only a few days away. I really am not ready for that mobility!

--- 4 ---

Here are some other things she has started doing in the past few weeks:

• Usually sleeping from ~ 8 pm - 7 am, about half the time she will sleep through and the other nights she'll be up around 4:30, eat and go back to sleep
• Napping after lunch for about 2 hours
• Nursing about 4 times a day, eating 3 meals and 1 or 2 snacks
• Drinking from a straw cup like an expert
• Teething the two outer front teeth & her 1 year molars (it does not look fun, nor does she act like it is)
• Laughing hysterically when pushed quickly on her push-cart
• Dancing with her WHOLE body :-)
• She has put a MEGA block on top of a small tower I had built (major development milestone)
• Stacks cups inside, and tries them in various order...this is such a great skill, as she is learning how things fit together with respect to size and shape
• G has some separation anxiety issues to work through, and the worst comes out if I try to spray out her diaper (for some reason that makes her super clinging at the more inopportune time!)
• She seems to like going for runs in our new jogging stroller.
• She loves playing in our new back yard.
• Give hugs, gets into the food cabinet, knows where things belong, "helps pick up," and smiles at everyone.
• Loves bath time with Daddy, or just Daddy in general. She is a super daddy's girl & loves when he comes home from work. Yesterday she even squealed in excitement when he walked in.

Words G knows (but doesn't try to pronounce, save a few):

her name

Momma (can say)

Daddy (always says!)

girl

baby

teddy bear (she seems to say "deadey")

angels

Night-Night / bed

lunch, dinner, snack, food, cheerios (breakfast), eat

hug (my absolute favorite thing right now is asking for a hug and getting one!)

water / cup

nurse / milk

belly (love asking where her belly is and she lifts her shirt and thumbs her belly with both hands, seriously so CUTE!)

Elmo (she'll point to her Elmo and try to say something but it really doesn't sound like Elmo)

Super Why!

Shayla (her cabbage patch doll)

Hip-Hip-Hooray

phone / remote

outside / grass

car / bye-bye (she's said bye-bye before)

shoes / socks

kisses

push-cart (her riding musical toy from Grandma & Grandpa)

dance

-she also recognizes a variety of other toy names and will bring the correct toy when asked

--- 5 ---

Our new church is pretty nice & the priest really won me over last week when he started his homily by reminding people to respect the Eucharist. Apparently they had found some hosts in the pews, on the floor, and someone even let their kid play with an occupied pix. He didn't just mention this in passing and say, "hey, stop doing that." He spoke for a good 10 minutes about why the Eucharist is so vital to our faith, why receiving it on the tongue is preferred (and that America just has an indult to receive in the hand), and even brought up that people using canes or carrying children should NOT try to receive in the hand if they are going to just bobble the Eucharist around & potentially let it fall on the ground. He said, "If that is your case, you should just receive on the tongue and respect the Sacrament." I wanted to stand and say, "Amen Brother!" when he was done. The rest of the homily was really great too...he spoke about the things casual Catholics do/don't do that active Catholics should rise above so that during this RCIA preparation time, soon-to-be Catholics have good examples.

--- 6 ---

I am very bummed, however, that our new church has NOTHING for mothers with young children. There is a great women's faith sharing group on Wednesday mornings but kids aren't really welcome. What's up with that!??! There are several things for men, women, young adults, and lots of youth group/faith formation activities...nothing for families or moms. I was just so shocked to hear a good size CATHOLIC parish (over 1000 families) has no outreach  or fellowship opportunities for families / moms.  I suppose this means I need to start one, eh? I know what I want to do, I'm just not sure how to go about actually starting something.

--- 7 ---

I mentioned G's "illness" above and I also wrote about it last time I did 7QT... but what did she have?
Roseola.
Have you ever heard of it? I had not.
G had a fever that got really high right around the time we were moving. The urgent care doctor we saw, while at my in-laws, assumed it must be some type of infection and wrote her an antibiotic script. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to give it to her or not, because I felt it wouldn't do much good. We did end up giving it to her on the off-chance it would help (because she was sicker than I have ever seen her...very lethargic and hot). A few days later, her fever broke and she developed a rash of flat pale-red spots on her trunk. She was SUPER irritable. Turns out those are the classic signs of Roseola, which is a virus that many kids get at her age. Once I found that out, I stopped the antibiotic because it was pointless. So for any new moms out there, if your kid spike a super high fever with no other symptoms, consider Roseola, especially if a rash shows up!

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