Ok, more like Catskills, because that's where I am! You know where Woodstock took place? I'm 5 miles away from there.

Being up here is very interesting. Lots of long, winding roads with very little cars passing, big empty highways, and I'm in the middle of nowhere. On Long Island, we have tons of public parks and stores aplenty. Up here, it's 30 minutes to the nearest Walmart.

I'm not complaining, it's a free vacation for Oliver and I and I love that I don't have to get up and worry about when Oliver's therapists are going to come. On the flipside, Oliver had many, many meltdowns the first day he was here. He was screaming about everything - getting into the elevator, being near my parents motorized scooters that they rented, etc.

There's lots of snow and freezing weather. I'm taking 15 degrees with the windchills. Funnily enough, I saw some cows outside. I didn't even know they could last in this weather.

This is just to give you an idea of what the weather has been like since I got here. I'll post more photos when I'm home :)

This is the second week of story time at the local library. It's a half hour and the librarians read three books, do music and bubble time, and we all sing nursery rhymes. Oliver loves the automatic bubble machine, I may have to get him one at home.

I think it's good for him to be around kids his own age, it's all one and two year olds. He doesn't seemed overwhelmed which is great. If he did, I would stop taking him to the library and figure something else out. We've also been going to the park a lot. I loooooove the cool weather, it's easier for me to get out and do more.

In addition to story time, there's pajama story time and there's also a parent/tot class. It's too late for me to sign up for the current session, but I'll certainly sign up for the next one which I think is in November. Pajama story time doesn't start until the end of Sept, but it's basically the same thing except toddlers go to the library dressed in pj's.

My boyfriend asked if I mind doing it and I said no, because Oliver is enjoying it and he needs to get out and experience different things. He needs to do something else other than therapy during the day.

Oh, and I went to Mitsuwa in New Jersey over the weekend. The ride up was great, it only took an hour and I had to go through Manhattan. Specifically the Throgs Neck and GWB and cross the Hudson. On the way back, my boyfriend and I stopped at his sister's apartment in Hamilton Heights because she went with us. I gotta say, for a city apartment, she has a big bedroom and huge bathroom.

It took 2.5 hours to get home because traffic through the city was awful. It took forever to get to the 59th street bridge, and then the LIE was backed up as well as the Cross Island Parkway, grrrr. On the plus side, Oliver was good the entire time. He didn't fuss or whine once.

My boyfriend's parents had a spare a/c window unit, brand new in the box. Works great and the bedroom is nice and cool now. It'll have to do until the central air is repaired.

Oliver's 21 month checkup was today. He's 29.5" inches tall, 21 lbs. So he gained half an inch and four oz of weight over the last three months. He does seem to have allergies, as the nurse practitioner noted that Oliver's eyes were red underneath. I said that they are always like that and probably due to envrionmental allergies.

I believe the plan is to refer Oliver to an endocrinologist just to make sure he's growth is ok. It's not like he doesn't grow, but he's at least three inches shorter than the average kid of the same age, both male and female. Between 1 and 2 years, Oliver should grow three inches per year until the age of ten. So far, Oliver's only grown an inch and a half since his first birthday and probably won't grow much more. He averages about half an inch every three months. But I'll let the doctor worry about it. He's not on the chart anymore for height but that's ok, I guess.

I saw Ghostbusters today with my friend and it was so, so funny. I have a girl crush on Kate McKinnon now.

Today is supposed to be near 90 F. It's summer, so it's to be expected. But I am heat intolerant, with heart problems. It's not a good mix.

The heat is messing with my stomach and giving me diarrhea and cramps, and I get a little dizzy at times. I went out and bought an extra fan and that seems to help a bit. I could go to my parents but I worry about my rabbits. They can withstand temps up to 85 F if necessary [55 to 70 F is ideal] but it's going to be warmer than that today and I want to keep an eye on them. If they do fine today, then I know I can leave them alone and I'll put the fans by their pens to help keep them cool.

Oliver is doing pretty well with the heat. As long as he's only in a diaper, he doesn't get hot.

I'm more aggravated that the technician came on Sunday and said it would be three to five days to get a new electrical board. It's Friday and I still haven't heard anything, so it may be another week without any air conditioning. I told my boyfriend we should buy a window unit just in case the a/c breaks in the future. It's central air so if it breaks, the whole house is affected. It shouldn't take two weeks. Heck, it shouldn't even take more than a week to fix. The only reason why we used this company is because we have a warranty, which apparently doesn't even cover labor. Soooo it's going to cost about $700 to fix. I told my boyfriend to never use this company again,

At least at night it isn't too bad. It cools down a lot and I'm able to sleep.

Oliver had an allergic reaction to what I can only assume is eggs, as he was eating toast that had eggs and bacon on top. He did not want to eat anything but the bread so he did, but there was still egg residue and voila....hives. Since the both of us [his parents] have food allergies, this is not surprising and somewhat expected.

He had patches of hives everywhere but it wasn't severe enough to impair is breathing. So at Oliver's 21 month old check up, I'm going to tell the ped. I also figure his eczema is also due to allergies, as it never really goes away. It'll dry up a bit with cream then flare up again. Who knows what else he's allergic to.

Also, Oliver is a super picky eater. He won't eat any kind of meat, he won't eat things like waffles or cut up cheese. But he does like pizza, crackers, rice cakes, yogurt and smoothies. I'm still experimenting with food to see what else he'll eat, or not eat.

He hasn't gotten speech therapy yet [boo!], and does seem to say a lot of words. BUT not in any sort of context, and he will only repeat words if you say it first. He has no idea what the words mean or what they're associated with. So he's a bit echolaliac but it might be temporary, it might not be. Only time will tell. I have to figure out what's going on with speech therapy. If there's no one available, fine. But I deserve to at least know what's going on with it.

Annnnnnd our central a/c broke, ugh. The utility closet where some of the electric is for it flooded and fried the electrical board. I don't know if it's because the originaly company who installed it last year screwed up the pipes, but we had a technician come in yesterday and he said he can get a new electrical board, waterproof it, and install either tubing or some other kind of draining system so water will never get into the closet again.

Sucks but at least it broke right as the heat wave died down, and hopefully by Wednesday, it'll be back up and running.

Other than that, nothing's really new. I've been driving around as usual and love my car so much. It cost $35 to fill up for the first month I had it, so hopefully it stays around that much. Not bad for an SUV, to be honest. My gas tank is 14 gallons and it's about 150 miles to use up half a tank, 300 miles for a full tank. And I have no car payments, which is great. Only thing is that I'm a new driver, so my insurance is almost 2k a year, yuck. Hopefully my rates drop over time. And I did take a defensive driving course to get an insurance discount.

So for almost a year, I've been wanting an embroidery machine. Even though I don't do a ton of sewing, I figure it would give me a little bit of motivation since historical clothes tend to be embroidered, and that's what I want to make.

I bought a Brother Designio embroidery machine. It's a lot different than a serger or sewing machine. For one, you have to use special bobbin thread, and that thread never shows on the right side. Second, it has no pedal. You just push a button to start it and it will stop when the design is done or if the thread color needs to be changed. Some designs use 5-6 colors or more, some only use 1 or 2.

Last night I set it up and it was a disaster. The needle that came in the machine broke. The needle I put in after that fell out of the shaft and broke [my fault, it wasn't in as tight as I thought]. It also took me forever to figure out the hoops even with the instructions. So after all that, I called it a night and went to sleep.

Then I woke up and decided to try again. I wanted to do a sample design to make sure my machine works properly. Everything went smoothly! I'm going to mess around with some more designs tonight.

The hoops also have a grid guide for exact placements, and I can upsize, downsize, and rotate designs if needed. I can also make vertical designs horizontal. It's pretty cool!

ETA: oops, the hoop was on wrong. It's been fixed, though.

Oliver started therapy this week. It's more overwhelming for me than it is for him, because it's three hours a day that I have to sit with him and the therapist. The schedule is a little more intense than I thought. Monday and Friday is only one therapy session, Tuesday, Wed, and Thursday are double therapy days.

It is what it is and it's in Oliver's best interest to do this, so whatever. I'll just deal.

I love my car.

I love driving.

I have a really great GPS which takes the stress and worry out of it. Tells me the speed limit and which lane to be in. I've been on a couple of  highways a bunch of times as my house is maybe a half mile away from one. They don't make me nervous at all. I just get in my car and go, and before I know it, I'm where I have to be. Granted, the highways I've used have stop lights, so the only thing left to conquer is the freeways where there are no lights at all. I don't think it's that different in terms of merging, so I am going to give that a try within the next couple of weeks.

I bought an Empire Passport which is a little sticker you put on the window of your car and it lets you get into all the state parks for free. Normally, the entrance fee for the parks is $8 per entry, so after eight times the pass pays for itself, and it's good until March of next year.

Also, I went to a park today and went on a three mile walk with Oliver, pushing him in the stroller. It's not easy because some areas have pretty steep inclines. Nothing crazy, but it gets cumbersome when you're pushing a 20+ lb kid and the weight of the stroller. I also didn't bring a water bottle so by the time I was done walking, my mouth was so dry that my lips were sticking together and forming mucus on top, yuck. I went out and got a water bottle with a flip top lid so it won't spill anywhere.

I know once Oliver starts therapy, I won't have time to visit my parents during the week, and I'll have less time to myself but I'll make it work.

I can honestly say it was truly an honor to see Itzhak Perlman play. I was ten rows from the front of the stage so I could see all his finger/hand/arm movements as well as facial expressions.

Saturday basically went like this:

-Went to Queens to visit boyfriend's side of the family [all the while tripping over the gutter in my driveway and skinning my knees and hand]
-Got picked up by Gabby at 3 pm
-Visited our mutual friend at a street far in Glendale [Queens], which is ten minutes away from where I was [we all know each other from college']
-Talked a bit with said college friend and had a nice time
-Gabby and I got pizza at 4 pm then hit the road. We basically talked for the whole hour and a half
-Went to NJ and got dressed/ready at Gabby's place
-Drove to MPAC [Mayo Performing Arts Center] to see Perlman
-Got out of the show at 10 pm,
-Went back to Gabby's place to get her overnight bag
-Went to Quick Chek for some food [similar to Wawa/7-11, I guess]
-Hit the road
-Arrive home at 1:30 am
-Go to bed at 2 pm

My knee stung a bit initially, now it's scabbing over.

Me: left, Gab: right

I helped her do her makeup, hehe

It was sad seeing Perlman in a motorized wheelchair. He contracted polio at the age of 4 and has needed to use one the last few years. I think polio primarly affects the legs so it doesn't affect his ability to play. He had a pianist named Rohan De Silva with him and played some Firtz Kreisler pieces and was totally awe inspiring and amazing. Personally I was hoping for a Paganini piece but I know the caprices are very technically demanding [not that the pieces he played aren't] and maybe they're a little harder to do in old age? I dunno, but it was still wonderful to see him.

Makes me feel guilty for not continuing with the violin because I reaaaaallly want to take lessons but I have to hold off for a bit until after I get a car and figure out how much insurance and gas is going to be. In the meantime though, I'm going to go back to my Suzuki books and do all my exercises [scales, arpeggios, intonation practice mostly] so that I won't be too rusty.

Sunday I woke up sore, stiff and exhausted from spending 3+ hours in a car so I didn't do anything special for Mother's Day. I didn't ask for any presents, I didn't go out. I was fine with that, though.

I took Oliver to an indoor playground because it was a rainy day, and my parents are under the impression that if he's socialized, he'll be normal. And my sister said Oliver isn't autistic because he makes eye contact and smiles.

Yes, he does make eye contact and smile but that's it. There was such a huge difference between him and every other kid at the playground.

There was a 15 month old, 21 month old, then 4-5 toddlers ages 2-4.

Virtually every other kid was playing with anything and everything, dressing up, playing pretend, etc. While Oliver stuck to the same two or three toys the entire time. And they were all toys that had wheels and that's why he liked them so much,

Now, he did have fun playing with the same toys. He was laughing and happy screeching the entire time. But he could care less about the other kids and just focused on the toys he was interested in.

He also has a thing about constantly needing to carry something with him, even if it's an insignificant object. For him, it was a straw my dad gave him, you'll see it virtually in every picture.

Also, Oliver was the smallest one there and got knocked over about a half dozen times :/

Also, t-minus three days until I see Itzhak Perlman :DDDDD

Ok, exciting news:

An old college friend of mine who lives in New Jersey managed to get tickets to see Itzhak Perlman play at the Mayo Peforming Arts Center. For those who don't know who he is, Itzhak Perlman is a world famous, Israeli violinist. What makes him different from other violinists is that he contracted polio and was basically expected to be disabled forever. He beat the odds and went on to become an amazing violinist. I am very much looking forward to going next month.

What's even sweeter is that she went out of her way to make this a surprise for me. I feel so flattered! Luckily it's on the weekend, so my boyfriend can watch Oliver while I'm going.

Speaking of Oliver, he has been having really bad meltdowns. I think separation anxiety has kicked in, big time. Every time he sees me or my boyfriend leave the house, he screams and cries and is very inconsolable. It was particularly bad during Easter, all he wanted to do was cling to me and cried pretty much the whole day. I guess it doesn't help that he can't talk so he's unable to tell me how he feels. He still only says mama and dada, and that's pretty much it. He does seem to understand everything I say, though.

His 18 month appointment is coming up later this month so I'm going to yet again have a chat with the pediatrician about my concerns and if the pediatrician still insists there's nothing wrong with Oliver's lack of height, lack of vocabulary and some of his behavior, I am going to start looking for a new doctor. Sorry, but there's no reason why an 18 month old should be wearing size 6-9 month old pants.

Yesterday I had my knee MRI. There was a bit of a hoopla because of my loop recorder but 1. the company says it's MRI safe and 2. it was an open MRI so there were no magnets anywhere near my chest. Otherwise, I could have had the MRI done over the weekend.

I'll find out the results Thursday, unless the doctor calls to tell me first. TBH, I'm prepared for him to say that there's nothing wrong with my knee but whatever.