On a happier note, I'm pleased to share this chronicle of Micah's 2nd year. Once again, made using Scrapbookmax software and many products from www.thedigichick.com and published in hardback using www.shutterfly.com.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Thunk postscript
It was lucky Micah fell out of bed; in changing the mattress over to the car bed, we realized that he had somehow acquired a million fellow bedmates: bedbugs! Yikes! The last few weeks have been upsetting, difficult, and expensive as we try to get rid of them. Nothing makes you feel quite so terrible as a parent as seeing your child covered with signs that he's been nibbled on in his sleep for weeks.
So that you, my loyal readers, can reap the benefit (and hopefully avoid some of the cost) of getting rid of the critters, here are some of the lessons I've learned so far:
1) Accept no hand-me-downs or yard sale purchases that cannot be washed in the clothes or dishwasher. We think ours arrived in some plastic truck toys given to us by a neighbor (who later told us that they had bedbugs.) Bedbugs die at around 120 degrees F, so tossing things in the dryer on the hottest setting or the dishwasher will kill them, but with thick things like stuffed animals, it is hard to know whether they've reached the right heat inside.
2) Wash everything that comes into your house right away.
3) When arriving home after travelling, wash everything that's been in a hotel room right away.
4) If you do acquire bedbugs, don't go for the most expensive remedy right away. We had an exterminator come in and perform the less-invasive treatment of steam-cleaning one room. We had to take everything out of the room and wash it (a good opportunity for giving away a lot of his outgrown clothes and toys). The more expensive option would have been to bring in generators and fans to heat the ENTIRE HOUSE to 160 degrees..... costs about $1/square foot, at least in our part of the world.
5) Don't assume that one treatment solves the problem. We bought new mattresses and a new bed (threw away the car bed; it was either infested before we got it or got very infested in just a day with us), and new changing pad. However, the next day, we found a well-fed bedbug on the plastic-encased mattress, so we moved Micah out of the room and set up a full booby-trap situation.... heavy-duty chemicals and a carbon-dioxide "lure" to draw out all the remaining baby bed bugs. We've had that set-up for about a week and still are drawing a few babies out of hiding, so can't let Micah back into the room yet. I'm not sure when we'll be able to declare "mission accomplished," but I don't want to do so prematurely.
6) Don't buy expensive products when inexpensive ones will do the job. We bought a $75 "bed bug beacon" (instead of paying the exterminator $100 to rent his detector) only to discover that the active chemical ingredients are sugar and yeast. D'oh! An adequate bed bug lure can be built using common household items for about $10......
We have had some fun adventures while dealing with this unpleasantness, so my next post will be back to our usual happy family fun.
So that you, my loyal readers, can reap the benefit (and hopefully avoid some of the cost) of getting rid of the critters, here are some of the lessons I've learned so far:
1) Accept no hand-me-downs or yard sale purchases that cannot be washed in the clothes or dishwasher. We think ours arrived in some plastic truck toys given to us by a neighbor (who later told us that they had bedbugs.) Bedbugs die at around 120 degrees F, so tossing things in the dryer on the hottest setting or the dishwasher will kill them, but with thick things like stuffed animals, it is hard to know whether they've reached the right heat inside.
2) Wash everything that comes into your house right away.
3) When arriving home after travelling, wash everything that's been in a hotel room right away.
4) If you do acquire bedbugs, don't go for the most expensive remedy right away. We had an exterminator come in and perform the less-invasive treatment of steam-cleaning one room. We had to take everything out of the room and wash it (a good opportunity for giving away a lot of his outgrown clothes and toys). The more expensive option would have been to bring in generators and fans to heat the ENTIRE HOUSE to 160 degrees..... costs about $1/square foot, at least in our part of the world.
5) Don't assume that one treatment solves the problem. We bought new mattresses and a new bed (threw away the car bed; it was either infested before we got it or got very infested in just a day with us), and new changing pad. However, the next day, we found a well-fed bedbug on the plastic-encased mattress, so we moved Micah out of the room and set up a full booby-trap situation.... heavy-duty chemicals and a carbon-dioxide "lure" to draw out all the remaining baby bed bugs. We've had that set-up for about a week and still are drawing a few babies out of hiding, so can't let Micah back into the room yet. I'm not sure when we'll be able to declare "mission accomplished," but I don't want to do so prematurely.
6) Don't buy expensive products when inexpensive ones will do the job. We bought a $75 "bed bug beacon" (instead of paying the exterminator $100 to rent his detector) only to discover that the active chemical ingredients are sugar and yeast. D'oh! An adequate bed bug lure can be built using common household items for about $10......
We have had some fun adventures while dealing with this unpleasantness, so my next post will be back to our usual happy family fun.
Monday, August 8, 2011
THU-nk
pimp my baby.....
Vrooommmm! Daddy's "my-come" going for a ride in the garage. Yes, that is a naked boy on the motorcycle....nothing comes between me and my "mycome! "
That loud THUnk you heard on Sunday afternoon? That my friend was the sound of the future being ushered in by our son. We had just settled down after a hot and sweaty bike ride -- Micah for a nap, and Adam and me for a nice quiet lunch. A quiet that was disturbed by the aforementioned Thunk. We instantly knew what it was, even as we were racing to his room, even as we were thinking to ourselves "but he's never tried to climb out of his crib before." The crying we heard when we got to his room proved what we already knew.... he had somehow climbed out of his crib and landed on the floor.
What could have caused him to do that? He actually seemed to be mostly asleep even through his tears. Was he dreaming of his successful climb of the monkey bars at our local playground only a week ago? Was he dreaming of trying to get into the front seat of the car to pretend to drive? Sure, there have been other "big boy" signs that we've gotten recently..... in fact, earlier that day I had purchased the next biggest sized diapers for him and, strolling through the baby aisle, realized that we wouldn't be needing anything from that section (except for diapers) any more. And he's started to demand a big fork when he sits in a big chair at the dining table -- not even a salad fork will do. Regardless, I thought I had a few more months to enjoy the safety and peace of mind of the crib. But that was all left behind by that loud Thunk. If he could do it once, even in his sleep, he could do it again. No sooner were the tears dried than we started planning a trip to our brand-spanking new Ikea to buy a big boy bed.
But even that plan was put into fast motion. Later that day, on our way to go out to dinner, Adam excitedly pulled a U-turn, exclaiming "Look, a car bed!" Silly me, I thought he was directing my attention to some flatbed truck.....no, it was a bed in the shape of a car, bound to delight a transportation-crazy little boy (and his daddy). And for $10, the bed was ours, and the crib dismanted before the day was done. Micah actually did a big ol' happy dance when it arrived in his room -- I thought that was just a figure of speech, but now I know it is something that 2 year olds actually do (along with melting spaghetti imitations, but that's a story for another day.)
I hope that its a long time before he has a pretty blond in his bed again!
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