the domestic zoo

missing my doggies today…

mamafish:

I was talking to some friends yesterday about how much we have changed now that we’re older, our kids are older and most of us have more than 1 child. It was easy before #1 to be arrogant about our ideals…after most of our “I will never…” statements have come to pass, we are humbled by what REAL parenting is about.

I will never give my kid a pacifier – Shayel has had one since day 1 and is 3.5 and still uses hers to go to bed at night and Aliyah has had one since a couple days after coming home.

My kids will not watch tv before they’re in preschool and then it will only be educational – Shayel was watching baby einstein at 6 months and while most of what she watches is educational…much of it isn’t….oh, and I have no shame in saying I occasionally use it as a “diversion” – read: babysitter

I will make all my kids’ food and they will not have fast food until they’re much older – Shayel had jarred baby food and was eating french fries as soon as she was eating finger foods – they’re potatoes right?

My babies will never have formula – Shayel selfweaned at 10 mo. so she had formula for a couple months, with Aliyah, my milk came in slowly over time so she had a few ounces  early on

I will only use cloth diapers – after 6 months of washing cloth diapers in coin operated machines, I was DONE with cloth. Aliyah went right to sposies.

….and I’m sure the list goes on. Parenting is a humbling profession for sure.

Posted 10/29/2005 at 10:46 AM

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I’m a big fan of indie music. And since I don’t have a CD player in my car, I listen to the radio. I guess I prefer the radio because I’m always being introduced to new artists and sounds, but really, I don’t many CDs to choose from so it’s a moot point.

For the past few months I’ve been tuned in to WXRV, Boston’s big independent station. And for the most part it’s been good, especially their after-hours programming, but they’ve also begun to play a lot of mainstream songs. As in, songs-that-are-on-popular-radio-stations-at-least-once-every-hour. And while it’s true that the artists are technically independent (as in, they’re not connected to a major label), I guess I’m just too much of a purist. It’s been bugging me for awhile, but yesterday was the final straw: a certain Green Day song was playing on both pop stations, and the alternative station, and the indie station – and so I decided to look elsewhere.

Enter: the local college station. No, not my college. My college radio station is mostly commentary, and when they broadcast from the same city as the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, they should know better than to try competing in the realm of talk radio. It’s not like it’s interesting programming either – just talk. The University of New Hampshire’s radio station is the complete opposite. With the exception of sporting events, it’s music (and underground music, at that). It’s a beautiful, wonderful thing. 

Shows like “Red Eye R&B”, “Soto/Uchi!”, and (a personal favorite) “Oscillating Discontinuity”. Sunday afternoons on the way home from church, tune in to Ceili, a Celtic music program that highlights bands like the aforementioned Halili (they’re good – seriously, you should check them out). This morning, as I drove into work, I heard (in a row, mind you): a Dolly Parton cover of a Joni Mitchell song, the “Lucy and Linus” theme from Peanuts, and a really good tune that I didn’t catch the name of, though I think I’ll check the archives later to find out just what it was…

I don’t think this entry had any real point, just to say that college radio is cool, and indie stations should try to be a little more, I don’t know…independent.

just a minute ago, the girls were in the living room toying with a spider. The spider made a beeline for Miko, she turned around to get away, and in doing so put her tail right in the spider’s path. He jumped on.

And suddenly both cats are looking everywhere for the spider that somehow just *disappeared*. Everytime Miko flicks her tail, I see this little passenger clinging for dear life. I’m doing my best not to laugh too hard, but seriously…quite the brilliant spider

Didn’t last too long, of course. This spider obviously hadn’t heard about what happened to the daddy long-legs on Sunday night

Regarding Scully’s bladder issues…

As I mentioned before, I couldn’t bring Scully to the vet right away due to a serious lack in finances. It’s been two weeks since her last “inappropriate elimination”, and she hasn’t peed out of the litterbox once.

Color me confused.

While I was waiting to get her checked by the vet, I bought another litterbox just in case. I’ve also made sure not to leave boxes or other such items within her reach, so as to remove all temptation she might have to pee in them. When she had a UTI, that worked for awhile, but eventually she started peeing in random locations. Two weeks without incident is a pretty good track record. So who knows what was really going on…

I’ll still keep an eye on her litterbox habits, of course. There’s always the possibility of an underlying issue. My only other reason for delaying a vet visit is, if it does turn out to be a problem with stones or crystals, the vet will immediately prescribe a “special needs” diet. Which I will politely decline (knowing that such diets can cause more problems than we already have).

When and if a diagnosis of that sort comes, I want to be prepared with information and diet options of my own. Which means, of course, that I need to start doing more research. The work never ends around here.

*eta*

We may soon be suffering a setback with regards to the new diet. Someone has been having tummy problems (stinky ones, at that), and witnesses say it’s Stephanie. To that end, I’ve eliminated all extraneous food and treats, to determine if it’s the food or if it’s something else that’s causing the upset.

If it’s the food, it means we’ll need to switch. Again. They’ve been eating the Wellness Chicken for just over a week, I’d like to give it a little more time before we have to move on to our next option.