Did you catch my Facebook posts yesterday? I wanted to let you know about some great sales:

Zulily - If you use the code DAILYCANDYKIDS, you get an additional 25% off their already discounted prices. I bought some stuff yesterday so I can vouch that the code works but it expires TODAY so hurry! Are you familiar with Zulily? It’s a members-only online club (free and they don’t hassle you); each day they have a couple of new “shops” open with major discounts. Most of the stuff is boutique-y kids clothes or nice wooden toys, that sort of thing. I bought some cute t-shirts yesterday from Fierce Hugs. LOVE the one of the marmalade jar chasing the strawberry!

Kushies - This is the Canadian company where I’ve bought lots of footie pj’s for my son. I also really love their taffeta bibs; good size, easy to clean and modern. Two of their lines are 50% off and if you use the code FAIRYTALE, you get an additional 20% off anything in the store! I love, love, love their raincoats (see pic of my munchkin!). This code is good today through 3/11. I’m going to zip over there and buy some more bibs and Lil Aviator pants.

Red Envelope is having their spring sale, with up to 50% off on some pretty great gifts. Check out this cute handprint growth chart for $14.99 (reg. $39.95) or this stud earring trio of semi-precious stones (peridot, blue topaz, and amethyst) – on sale for $29.99 (reg. $49.95).

Follow me on Facebook or Twitter; I try to keep my friends updated the minute I see hot deals or interesting articles! Happy shopping and I hope you have a great weekend! – Sherean

That sounds so cold and clinical, doesn’t it? “Feeding update,” as if it’s simply medical news that I have to share. It’s not, of course, that simple. Feeding — eating — are complex activities, bound up as they are in shared history, memories, nurturing, and love. I literally tear up when I see another child my son’s age greedily stuffing Cheerios or strawberries in her mouth. I wince when my friends lovingly tell me that their child was a picky eater, too, and that Hunter will grow out of it. (If only he were just picky, I want to shout!)

He still refuses to eat. I have been taking him to occupational therapy at Children’s Healthcare (CHOA) and I have enrolled him in a state-run program called Georgia Babies Can’t Wait. (Ironically named because it takes months to get in the program.) While we haven’t had a therapy visit yet with GBCW, I am excited about starting with them because their therapists come to the home. I believe Hunter will respond much better in his natural environment. He freaks out when we step into the small, claustrophobic therapy rooms at CHOA. “Let’s go in this small room where he won’t feel so overwhelmed,” they tell me and I think, “so small he can’t get far enough away from YOU.” You see, he’s still going through that stranger anxiety phase.

In order to qualify for the GBCW program, a team of occupational and speech therapists came to the house last week (week before last? It’s all a blur) and evaluated him. He had to be moderately behind in two developmental categories or severely behind in one to qualify. As a mother, this was a gut-wrenching directive. I want him in the program, but I don’t want him developmentally behind on anything! In the end, he was perfectly normal with motor skills, speech, and all other categories except feeding, in which he did have a severe delay. He’s at 6 months on the chart (instead of 16 months). <sigh> So we qualify.

In the meantime, we took him to a pediatric G.I. to determine what’s going on with his reflux. It’s important to make sure there is no pain with eating, or no structural defects, so all we have left to work with is the behavioral issues. She ordered an upper G.I., which we had this morning. The radiologist said it looked normal. They were looking for narrowing in the esophagus or anything else that might be causing him to choke and gag when he tries table food.

So that’s where we are. He’s on the highest possible dose of Prevacid for his age/weight to control the reflux. His “insides” look fine. We have behavioral food exercises we work on in therapy and at home (called “snack therapy”). We are working on a progressive de-sensitization program. Right now, we put food on his tray and encourage him to play with it, touch it, but we never, ever, suggest he eat it. (Weeks ago, he was hysterical at the thought of even TOUCHING a pretzel. Now he will happily shove it in a cooked carrot and make a tower.) We are working up to getting him to kiss the food, then lick the food . . . beyond that, I cannot imagine.

When he’s 16 and eating me out of house and home, I will not complain. This I promise you!

Roger Ebert doesn’t miss eating. He says, “I began to replace what I had lost with what I remembered,” and tells stories of root beer with his dad, favorite diners and tuna melts. His blog is a revelation.

Also, read this profile of him on Esquire that’s burning up the blogs. Beautiful. Touching, but not in a way that will make you cry. I wouldn’t do that to you (at least not without warning you first!).

Speaking of warning you: I warned you this blog was random-y. It’s about to become more so.

From my friend, Alistair:
I got the fat part of Tuesday right.

Suzy, our wonderful nanny, took some pics of our munchkin in the bath and these are the CUTEST PICTURES EVER! Eeek! I love, love, love these shots. Wish I’d been there to see the joy – but he shares these cute smiles with us often. The pics are so cute I just had to enter him in the Parenting magazine Baby of the Month contest. Vote for him here, if you’re so inclined!

Looking for more great photos? Grab a cup of tea or coffee and check out these sites that host more Wordless Wednesday entries: SevenClownCircus, 5MinutesforMom, and WordlessWednesday.

My AZ buddy, Brian:

Spoiler alert! The last episode of lost will be titled, “Found.”

I am BEYOND flabbergasted right now. I’m also a redhead, with all the attendant cliche-ridden tendencies . . . so feel free to picture flame coming out of my nostrils, unruly curls that look like they could shape shift into sea monsters, and of course, a voice at a decibel level that IS BEYOND HUMAN.

OK? Got the picture? Here’s the story:

My car needed an oxygen sensor. The very nice guys at Toyotechs fixed it. In order to fix it, the battery had to be unplugged and whenever you unplug a battery, it takes a while for the car’s computer to reset. They told me to drive it 30-40 miles before I took the vehicle in to have its emissions tested. (Incidentally, my husband’s oxygen sensor ALSO went out in his BMW and the mechanic told him to drive it 40-100 miles, so apparently, this is “standard” for cars.)

So I drove it the required miles, took it to be tested, and it failed the “readiness” portion which means the computer isn’t ready. It hasn’t re-set yet. Chris drove his car the required miles and it passed. Harumph!

I drove it some more . . . 163 miles in total and took it back in. Again, I got a “readiness fail.” Now, my tags expired last week so I am driving around with expired tags. I did, however, go to the DMV and pay the taxes so I can at least show the cop I am TRYING.

Back to Toyotechs I went. They ran it through their computer and received a set of instructions on exactly what we need to do to re-set the computer. It has to be followed EXACTLY LIKE THIS, in this exact order. Here’s what I have to do — and before you read on — this is for real. THIS IS NOT A JOKE.

1) Drive vehicle at 40-55 mph for approximately 3 minutes (no stopping, no slowing down). No sudden acceleration.

2) Then drive it at 35-45 mph for approximately 7 minutes.

3) Car must have 1/2 – 3/4 tank of gas. No more, no less.

4) Let the car sit overnight or for 8 hours. (No pesky trips to the grocery store or pediatrician visits!)

5) Drive vehicle at approximately 45 mph for about 5 minutes.

6) Drive vehicle at approximately 25 mph for about 15 minutes, and include a minimum of two stops for approximately 30 seconds.

7) Steps 5 and 6 must be completed on smooth roads to minimize fuel sloshing.

Let the car cool.

9) Start the car, let it warm up until the engine temp is 167 or higher.

10) Run the engine at 3,000 RPM for about 10 seconds.

11) Allow the engine to idle with the A/C on for 15-50 minutes. (Which is it, Toyota? 15 or 50?)

12) Drive vehicle at 43-56 mph for a period of 3-5 minutes (no more than 5).

13) Let the engine idle for 3-5 minutes.

14) Drive vehicle at 43-56 mph for a period of 3-5 minutes again – but you cannot allow the throttle position to exceed 30% and you must avoid sudden acceleration. (How am I supposed to merge on a highway to get back up to that speed? Anybody?)

15) Let the engine idle again for 3-5 minutes.

16) Pray that the car will now pass.

There are actually more instructions to do with outside temperature (can’t be too hot or cold — like the three little bears, it must be “just right”). . . Joe at Toyotechs printed out the 5-page instructions for me. After I passed out and he revived me (a bit of redheaded exaggeration), I started racing through the possibilities. Where in the hell in Atlanta can I maintain a speed of 43-56 mph, pull over and let it idle, then somehow get back up to that speed WITHOUT ACCELERATING too fast?

Never mind that the Corolla is our only car that can fit a car seat (we can kind of cram one in the back of Chris’ car, but it’s a 2-door and not easy). Besides, he has to go to work, and I have to take the baby in for his 15-month well visit tomorrow, followed by a doctor’s appointment I have to check on my — are you ready — HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE. I cannot imagine what is causing that, can you?

Oh wait, maybe it’s the CONDEMNED stove in this lemon house. (Gas company came out Monday and said the stove is causing carbon monoxide to leak.) Landlord is supposed to replace the stove. We’re still waiting.

Or maybe it’s the roaches. Landlord has sprayed but whatever he’s using, it isn’t working. We bug him about it (”bug him,” haha) all the time because we see at least one roach a day. I decided to start emailing him every day with the roach count. I hope I irritate the hell out of him because his irritation at getting daily roach count emails from me is nothing compared to MY IRRITATION AT DEALING WITH FREAKIN’ ROACHES every day.

Anyhow, back to the car. This is how great Joe at Toyotechs is. He said he’ll take my car home tonight and try and do all this. He said he has the advantage of being able to drive around with the computer to see if it passes each step. So now I just have to figure out how to get a car rental and get over there (or have them come pick me up) and get the car seat in there because today, of all days, is a day my nanny has to leave early.

So there you have it. And because you made it all the way through my rant, here’s a cute picture. Even with all this insanity, he makes me smile and keeps me sane. I know you all know what I mean.

It seems that the trend these days is to go with travertine in showers. It’s a natural stone but it has to be sealed and re-sealed and you can’t clean it with bleach or any harsh chemicals. So my husband and I don’t get it. All the houses we looked at before we decided to build advertised “travertine master showers” like that was a big selling point. What my engineering husband hears is “maintenance issue.”

We also just got bored with travertine. Everywhere we went, we saw beige/taupe travertine “caves” like this:

So we’re rebelling against travertine a bit.

We like the look of marble, but marble chips, dings, scratches, and STAINS. I asked my decorator why it’s all over the decorating magazines and she said people love the look but that yes, it is hard to keep looking nice. With a young boy and me — a clumsy momma — we’re going to stay away from marble.

There is a quartz that looks like marble if you want a marble-looking countertop without marble maintenance. And for floors, there is a porcelain that you would swear is Carrera marble from a distance. And porcelain is virtually maintenance-free.

So that’s the tile lesson. Later, I’m going to show you what we’re thinking of doing. I’m trying to get some images and pics together and frankly, find my brain.

. . . cuz Monday kind of sucked. We took my car to a repair shop that specializes in Toyotas. On the way back, my hubby’s car stalled out over and over and check engine light came on. Made it home and I tweeted and Facebooked to find a repair shop around here (we’re in a new neighborhood, and don’t have all that sorted out) that can work on BMWs. Found one; they came and picked Chris up and we were home all day with the baby and no transportation.

Not a big deal, really, but kind of comical. We have to get the cars emission tested because it’s our birthday month (both of us). They were both fixed late yesterday and the techs told us NOT to take it to emissions until we’ve driven it at least 40+ miles and started the car several times. Not an exact science, apparently, but if you get your oxygen sensor replaced (both cars needed that), the computer won’t reset in the way emissions testing needs it to “for a while.”

Every day we wait now is a day I have to pay fees on my darn license registration.

Totally my fault, er, my husband’s fault. My check engine light came on last summer when we were visiting Dad. Dad and Chris figured out what was wrong and fixed it (or thought they fixed it). Check engine light remained on. Dad said to unplug battery for five minutes to reset it. Which my husband finally did. Saturday. It didn’t work and so that brings us to Monday morning and the story you’ve already heard.

But just cuz that wasn’t fun enough, our little lemon house had a surprise in store for us Sunday night: a LEAK! Rain dripping in to my baby’s room.

The fun. It never ends. I cannot WAIT to move into the new house. Please, please, please, Brian, hurry up and build it. Be the first builder in history to come in AHEAD of schedule. Please. I’m begging you. Get me out of this house.

The house is framed up and looking like a real house! Last week we looked at granite for the counter tops and tile for floors, showers and backsplashes. It was fun but a bit much to process. I still don’t get how to pick stuff out in such a silo. I need an idea of the whole room – then I can pick the finishes.  In fact, the kitchen, which is the only room I’ve thought through, was easy and quick. We’re planning to have white kitchen cabinets with black counters and a black island with a white counter. White subway tiles on the wall. So at the granite store (shop, factory, warehouse – whatever you call this place), I just needed to look at the black granite in our price range. And since we’d ruled out marble because it stains and chips, but we wanted something that looked sort of marble-like, we just looked at the white granite that had veins and striations. Easy. And the subway tile? The sales person showed me two different white ones and said she had another one she could pull out that was a few dollars more per square foot. Huh? I said, no thanks, I can manage just fine with my choices here. Plain white subway tile. Really.

So we were cooking along till we got to the part where the decorator told us we had to pick out granite and tile for ALL THE OTHER BATHROOMS. That’s three more full baths plus a powder room. Then it was just a free-for-all. It all looks good. But I have no context – no idea to build this all on. We went ahead and picked some stuff but have a few weeks to change our minds so I will be frantically looking at pictures all weekend to get ideas.

But hey, that’s kind of fun! I’m certainly not complaining.

Yesterday, Chris met the electrician and figured out stuff like which rooms to pre-wire for speakers. I totally don’t get that. Today, I asked the builder, “why do we need speakers in our master bedroom ceiling?” I mean, like, where is the radio dial to control that sound? And you know where it is, don’t you? In the basic system, it would be DOWNSTAIRS. Why would I run downstairs to turn on music? Why wouldn’t I just stick my iPod in a desktop speaker system? Exactly. Our builder said we don’t need speakers in our master bedroom and that he never uses his. Maybe just the dining room and porch so if we have company over, we can have the same music playing throughout the main entertaining areas. OK, so we have that solved.

Back to the granite and tile!

Here are some pics from my camera phone if you’re interested in what we selected:

The white granite for the kitchen island

Possible master bath tile