Answers to Our Pressing Questions

No, I do not have anemia.  I do, however, have a wart on my thumb.  Those two facts are not related and they have nothing to do with the dizziness I've been feeling.  That, the doctor believes, is related to some low blood pressure and that I have probably not been drinking enough water when I go outside to work. 

Nonetheless, my blood has more than enough iron.  That doesn't make me happy for understanding Conor's anemia.  Perhaps it was that I wasn't feeding him meat?  We were doing protein through tofu, but perhaps he needs meat?  We are giving him meat (chicken and lamb).  We're giving him beans and peas.  We're giving him broccoli.  We're giving him prunes.  We're giving him iron fortified cereal.  We were doing all of that except the meat beforehand, so I'm hoping that was the problem.  We are also giving him iron supplements, so in 6 weeks, his iron should be back to normal.

My thumb, to get back to normal, needs some help.  I'm going to try duct tape.  Just because I think that is weird and sounds like fun. 

As for more Conor information, we're not really having a problem with constipation.  In fact, because I've upped the prune intake, it's just the opposite.  We are not Dooce.  No, not at all.  Plus because we give him so many fruits and veggies per day, he's doing OK on his fiber intake. 

And Conor has a new tooth.  This one sneaked up on us, because it's not in the right place!!!  He's bypassed his upper two teeth, the ones that should match his lower two teeth, and went straight for an upper tooth beside where his front two teeth should be.  At least, we're hoping it's one of those. Because if it is actually one of his front two teeth, the poor child is going to have a 1 inch gap in his front two teeth.  And that would definitely be my fault.  I had some butt ugly teeth as as child with both an underbite AND and overbite.  The movie Deliverance comes to mind when looking back at my teeth before braces.  I'm really, really hoping that there are some fill in teeth on the top front coming in soon.  The other kids might start to make fun of him at school, otherwise.

And lucky me:  Conor "made" me my first Mother's day present at school this week.  It's an adorable picture of him (with a big grin and his two bottom teeth showing) in a colorful frame with "I Love You" across it.  I love it.  He's so cute in that picture, I can't stand it. 

Off to a busy and exciting weekend.  I'm bummed my blood is good.  I'm hoping his blood turns good soon, too.

9:20:34 PM     trackback [] Comments? []

Easement not so Easy

 

We have good news.  We’ve had some major flooding in our backyard during the rains.  It hasn’t been helped by a neighbor’s damn dam up against our shared fence, but it’s the city’s responsibility.

 

A city surveyor/official/water dude came by this morning at 8 am.  They want to re-install a pipe down our and 5 of our neighbor’s backyards to stop the flooding.  This is very good news.

 

However, they also want to take the drain of the pipe up our fence and to the road.  OK.  We don’t mind being the conduit to the road because it’s important for us not to have our backyard turn into a pond every time it rains.

 

Nonetheless, they need a 10 foot easement to put in this pipe.  They will need to take down our front fence to bring all the heavy machinery into our yard to do the work.  More worrisome is that they will essentially destroy our frontyard landscaping, take out all our dogwoods beside the house that give us privacy in the summer, and, most likely, take out one of our backyard landscaping beds including the $300 kick ass osmanthus fortuni tree we just had planted and our 4 small but growing camellia trees.  We also have $100 worth of encore azaleas arriving in two weeks for this bed. 

 

I’m glad to have the flooding fixed.  But I’m not happy at all to start over on all our landscaping work!!!  Especially the beds are finally getting established and looking good!! 

 

I don’t want to be a NIMBY chick.  I am pro neighborhood enough to make some sacrifices for the good of the people.  There are more than 6 of us on our block who are suffering from serious flooding in the rain, including a family 2 houses down that have their foundation flooded with every big storm.  But, still, couldn’t they go down another neighbor’s fence who didn’t just install a boatload of landscaping? 

 

I head to the doctor later this morning.  We’ll see what he has to say.  (not about the landscaping, so much, as the blood work)

 

And on Another Note

 

I totally have to be premenstrual, which according to my calculations, I am.  I've already burst into tears twice this morning:  once at the picture of an American soldier comforting a dying Iraqi child in this story and once during Cary Tennis's advice column over the idea that a mother who doesn't want to see the child she let go for adoption but still wants to protect her.  And yesterday, crying in the halls of my office when my chair told me that he didn't think there was any negative comments to be made on my sabbatical proposal, they just didn't have enough money to fund everyone.  I cry easily.  But not usually so profusely over such modest reasons.  I'm not used to the sort of "womanhood" that I experienced in my teens.  (I should also mention that my face looks like a teens face, too.  Lovely)

8:47:41 AM     trackback [] Comments? []