Its now Monday

Here is the thing. I went to work tonight for some OT. When I called home on my break at 9:30, the boss was a little weepy because Ellie was not going to be so good again tonight. I am not sure why this child just will not go to bed. Looks like we are going to have to be hard asses and just put her up there until she learns when bedtime is.

In other news, Kris and Ellie had dinner over at our friend T's house the other night. T has a little girl, H, and the girls always have fun together. Lots of pics were taken and then emailed to us from T. I was looking through them and saw this one.




Does anyone remember the post I wrote that had the picture of Ellie standing on a chair flashing us?? Well once again I have to say that judging by this picture, my little girl may be a hit at spring break. Lord help us:)

Greg

Early night and wine.

Well I think we have figured out why the child has not been wanting to go to sleep. You see it started with hating the bath (which she used to love), then it has moved to bedtime. Well tonight we put Ellie in the tub, and she started crying about poop being in the tub. Kris made sure E knew that the tub had been cleaned and that there was no poop or puke in the tub. After about 40 seconds of talking, Ellie sat in the tub and had a good ol time!!

Then the light came on. We thought maybe she was upset that she had puked in her room and on her sheets. So when it was time for bed, we went upstairs and made a production of cleaning the floor and changing the sheets so that there was no puke anywhere. Well guess what? SHE WENT TO BED!!!! It only took a couple of books and a sip of apple juice, and she was out for the night! HIGH FIVE TO THE PARENTS. For once in a week we used our heads and figured this thing out.

EDIT: The floor and sheets were actually clean, except in Ellie's mind!!!

So to celebrate we came downstairs and drank some of this.



Ohhhh delicious Cabernet, you are a trusted friend:) This one is from Chile. It is delicious.

Greg

11pm? Really??

Can someone explain to me why my 2 year old is still awake at 11pm? Also, can you explain why she throws a huge tantrum when we try and put her to sleep?

This is really starting to get to Kris and I. Fairly ridiculous if you ask me.

Greg

What a HAM!!

So the child was super grumpy during the morning today and nothing seemed to please her. After lunch she asks me to go outside and slide. So I says to myself, I say self, it is 70 degrees out and it would be nice to go out and enjoy the weather.

I tell Ellie to find her shoes while I put in my eyes (contacts) and we will go to the park. Now the shoes are on, I have my camera, and we head out the door to the park. I am telling you, my kid is such a ham when it comes to pictures now. When you ask her to say cheese, she gives you the funniest damn smile. Observe.




Ok, so at the park we went down the slide.



And we sent "baby" down the slide......


...then we sat on a bench and look longingly at the slide.....


.......and we touched some trees (exciting I know).


And shortly after this we walked home. Now I know my little girl has been tired, but just refuses to give in. This is why I was shocked to see this after we started watching a movie when we got home.




Thank you slide! You are a truly wonderful friend!

Greg

Blood Born Pathogens and Thank You's

Good morning all! First off I want to say thank you for all of your kind words. I am getting ready to call Daddy-O and ask him if we can talk soon, and feel like I am making a good step towards figuring out how to make me better. Yesterday was actually pretty good. I woke up and felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

Yesterday I had training for work. 8 hours of talking about how to pass medication and also blood born pathogens. Not real exciting stuff, but what can you do?

After training I was able to go and pick Ellie from daycare. I like when I get to do this because it is usually Kris that goes to pick her up. It is fun to show up and see Miss E's face when I pick her up.

Then we went to Daddy-O and BOO BOO's house for some dinner. Dis-patch also met us there, and we all had a good time together.

We came home and Ellie was obviously tired, but she would not go to bed. When we tried, she would just stand at her door and scream. So I brought her downstairs and rocked with her until she fell asleep. All was good.......for a while.

Then at 2in the morning Ellie woke up again screaming. I tried to rock her upstairs, but she screamed and cried so hard that she puked. Twice. WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!

So we came downstairs again and she wanted to lay on the couch. So I put her on the couch and she eventually fell asleep. When we went back upstairs, she slept the rest of the night.

She has been doing this screaming thing for the last few days, and I do not get it. Hopefully it will be back to normal soon, because this getting up in the middle of the night stuff is driving us crazy.

Well that is about all for now. I have to work the next couple of nights, then have the weekend off.

Greg

Really?? Has it been 4 days?

I can now see that I have neglected my posting duties the last few days. I can't believe that it has been 4 days!!

Not a whole lot new. I worked the last 4 nights, and overall it was not horrible. It was not great either, but I think that is because I am just generally unhappy at my job, and not because of the job itself. I have become supremely stressed out with work. All I think about, all the time, is how much going to work is going to suck. It has really taken a toll on my mind, and things are not going good. On Saturday night, a crazy guy (not just a name for him, he really is crazy) had an episode at 4am. He was not in any real trouble, and he was still breathing fine. We tried to talk with him, and he wouldn't say anything. This went on for about an hour until my Sgt told another deputy and myself to just lift him up and put him on his bunk. There was more that went on, but the real problem with this whole situation is that while I am there to help this guy (because that is what I get paid to do), all I really wanted to do was kick the guy and yell at him and tell him to stop playing his f**king games. I was so angry that I could have screamed. Well, I wrote my report, came home, slept, went back to work, and all the time was thinking about this incident from the night before. I could not shake the awful feeling that I had because I didn't want to help this guy. For the first time ever I really didn't care if the guy was ok or not. This, as you can imagine, is not a good thing for someone in law enforcement.

I recently have been reading a book called "The Will To Survive: A mental and emotional guide for law enforcement professionals and the people who love them." It was written by a State Trooper who got shot in the face and lost his sight and career.

Long story short, this guy and his book have shed a lot of light on things for me. In the midst of this thing going on at work, I remembered what this book had said about stress and how it affects your career. So last night I did one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I went to my Sgt and asked him for the employee assistance phone number. This is a program provided by the county that puts you in touch with a counselor to help you through your problems. It is basically going to the shrink, and it is free of cost for up to 6 sessions with them. I am ridiculously nervous about this. I am also scared to find out why all this is piling up on me. I have always been good at not letting things stress me out and carrying it with me (more than the norm anyways) and I just can't figure out why this is going on.

So now I have 3 choices as I see it. One: I can not do anything and continue on (which I know is not the correct option); Two: I can talk with Daddy-O and see if that helps (he was a cop for 30+ years and he would know some of the stress I deal with); and Three: I can contact these people and start seeing a shrink. I think I really would rather talk to Daddy-O first because he is someone who knows what it is like, and he is someone I trust.

I am fairly embarrassed about this whole thing. It makes me feel like I can't handle myself, how will I ever help raise little Ellie.

Oh man. That was a lot to share huh? Sorry to drop that on all of you.

Greg

Can you spell H O S P I T A L

Well we can! We were there yet again today for Ellie. She has continued with the puking and now has become lethargic. She is also very, very warm when you touch her skin. Yet she has not temp. How weird is that?

So it was determined that she has yet another ear infection, fluid in her other ear, a sinus infection, and maybe some sort of respiratory infection. What the hell? Could this little girl be anymore sick this winter? They gave her yet another shot of antibiotics called Rosefren and we are suppose to go back tomorrow for another shot. The doc is thinking that Ellie is one of those kids who needs longer than the standard 10 day treatment to get rid of the junk in her body. So who knows. She took a 3 hour nap when we got home and has since eaten about 3/4 of a banana and has kept it down.

I hope we are to the end of this crap. I am sure Ellie is tired of being sick, and I know Kris and I are tired of it all to. I think I may move myself into a bubble to keep the germs out. HA HA......bubble boy!

Well a new episode of Diego, or Dora (I can't remember which) is starting and I must devote all my attention to it or Ellie will flip out.

Have a nice night all!

Greg