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Only two more days till Lilia is TWO. I cannot believe it. I am in awe of everything she does. I’m sure it’s just normal two-year old behavior, but it is so amazing to me. Yesterday, she wrote a song about Frog and Toad. It only has those 3 words, but it has a catchy melody.

We have a big weekend coming up! Thursday, Lilia’s Michigan grandparents arrive for a long weekend visit. We’ll be taking it relatively easy, since we are still getting over the after-effects of the flu. The biggest plan so far is that on Saturday, we will be going to Womelsdorf to Lilia’s Pennsylvania grandparents’ house for a little family birthday party.

Just thought I’d give an update on my ears, in case any poor soul who googles “perforated tympanic membrane” or “i broke my eardrum- help!” comes across my page, looking for info on how long it takes before feeling better.*

After blowing my nose on Thursday, February 7, my left ear felt like someone had shoved a pillow in it. It felt more serious than any other ear pain I’ve had, but I did not expect to wake up around midnight with horrible excruciating pain. It was so bad, that I called the doctor’s office, but was told my only option was to either page the doctor, or drive to the emergency room. I suffered through the night– 2 ibuprofen only helped for about 20 minutes, and soon blood started running out my ear. Around 6:30 AM, I gave in and paged the doctor, who arranged to see me at 9 AM. She confirmed that I broke the eardrum, and I started anti-biotics and super high doses of ibuprofen (declined the narcotics), which helped keep the pain away. However, my right ear decided to join the party, and started dripping fluid too (but never blood).

By Saturday evening (about 48 hours since I damaged the eardrum), the pain was under control, but the severe hearing loss was quite shocking. I was convinced it would never get any better. I walked around for the next week in a fog– my head was so congested. The following Saturday, I was sure it was getting worse. And then, my right ear started popping. And popping. After a few days of this popping, my hearing in my right ear cleared up considerably.

Now it is two and a half weeks later, and my left ear is getting much better. The hole has healed, and the congestion is better, so I am just experiencing tinnitus and decreased hearing. Sometimes I feel some pain, but not too often.

Anyway, just thought I’d put this out there for anyone suffering through this. My fingers are crossed that in another week or two, as the lingering congestion clears up, my left ear will be close to normal.

Part 1 is here.

*When I googled it, most broken eardrums seem to happen from accidents– scuba diving, water-skiing, etc.  I think having the flu/ear infection is what kept me in such a fog for 2 weeks.

I almost bought the Zen Panda Soy Puddings they have at Whole Foods, but I really wanted rice pudding (and they only had banana or chocolate). It occurred to me that I must have the ingredients in the house to make my own rice pudding, although I have never made a pudding that wasn’t from a box before (and even that was probably 20 years ago). Since Lilia can’t have milk, I googled vegan rice pudding recipes, and made this one.  Well… hmmm. It is sorta like our morning oatmeal, but sweeter. It isn’t creamy like rice pudding.  It tastes good, and we all liked it, but it’s not what I wanted.  I checked out Christy’s website, and I see this recipe that looks extremely creamy. But it uses half and half. Note that in the vegan recipe, it called for 3 and 1/4 cups of liquid (2 cups of water, 1 1/4 cups of a fake milk) and 1 cup of rice. Christy’s calls for 5 cups of liquid (half and half) and only 2/3 cups of rice. I wonder if I could just substitute rice milk for the half and half? Or should I buy soy creamer? Thoughts??  Any other recipe suggestions? We are okay with eggs– just no cow’s milk or cow’s milk products.

Radio
Saturday mornings mean listening to Saturday Weekend Edition on NPR with Scott Simon. I have harbored a crush on Mr. Simon for several years now, and confessed this to my in-laws at Thanksgiving. It turns out my love for Scott Simon was not shared– and my husband and his father actually dislike… or even hate Scott Simon! How could this be? They don’t like his guffaws– they sound fake. They don’t like when he puts on his regular “I’m a sports fan” voice. But what about his sensitive essays? And now, their dislike has poisoned my opinion of him– today as he guffawed with the Annoying Music Show guy, I understood! How could I have been so wrong? But then, Mr. Simon redeemed himself with another insightful essay, and my crush was validated.

Television

Having no cable really limits our choices. But we still get all the regular networks (albeit with snow), and even some hidden gems. Last week, we spent four hours watching the Temptations docudrama on the Ion network. Oh, poor doomed David Ruffin! Oh, the dramatic Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone scene!

We also watch Jeopardy! almost every evening. The past two weeks were Jeopardy! Teen Challenge, and I was rooting for Zia, who won $50,000 in his first match. But he was no match for sophomore Rachel, who just blew everyone away.

We are watching Lost this season. Wow, things are actually happening! We started watching it during the 2nd season– caught up by watching DVDs of all the episodes within a couple weeks. This made us unprepared for the slowness of the next few seasons! We almost gave up on it. I just keep reminding Joe– there are only 2 more years (is that right, even?). It has an end date. We can watch it, it will be over, and then we can throw our TV away when the country converts to HD, and we can be TV-Free. (Well, this is what Joe wants… I happen to enjoy the dumb box.)

The Internets

I think I’m an Internet addict. In addition to Friendster, and LiveJournal, and MySpace, I have recently joined the Facebook world. Why are there so many ways to waste time? I need to read more.

Books

I’m in the middle of reading forty books for Young Adults. I will share my reviews with you in April, after I turn them in for class. But I do want to recommend Whirligig by Paul Fleischman. It’s about a metamorphosis– “He was lodged in his own chrysalis but had no idea what he was turning into”…

Film

Oscars tomorrow. I used to know all the nominees. I used to try to see all the movies. I would put serious thought into guessing who might win. I’d make popcorn and enjoy the show. Joe has no patience for Hollywood or awards shows. If I watch it, I’ll watch it alone (although Joe is camped out sick on the couch, so he may be an unwilling viewer). In the past two years, I have seen two movies in the movie theater. The first one,Neil Young – Heart of Gold , about a week before Lilia was born. The second was this summer. The film was not nominated for an Academy Award. Can you guess what it was? Out of all the movies in 2007, what did we see?