Milestones and memories

Anders is growing up. He's both vastly different from and strangely like Dagny. They share a common love for art projects, silliness, goofy noises, Disney movies, the beach, books, bubble baths, pizza and cantaloupe. And that's about it.

• Anders is more cuddly than Dagny (but I wouldn't call either of them snugglers).
  
• Dagny is more reserved.
  
• Anders will not hesitate to scream about his frustration, disapproval, resentment, objections, and excitement. Sometimes all at once.
  
• Dagny can rationalize like a AIG exec in front of Congress. The girl can TALK.
  
• Anders is more physical.
  
• Dagny has always understood the concept of delayed gratification.
  
• Anders wants it NOW and MORE.
  
• Dagny can entertain herself for hours.
• Anders won't let you out of his sight.

They both love to talk and I love talking to them. I love trying to figure out where they're coming from. I love to hear them talking to each other.

Dagny will sometimes ask to pass up her bedtime story in favor of some "girl talk" which can range from the injustices of first-grade friendships, to plans for the future (i.e., next week), to serious discussions about why she isn't allowed to chew gum. We were at the beach last weekend and Anders got cold playing in the surf and so I wrapped him in a beach towel and had him lie down with me in the warm late afternoon sun. There were some big, fluffy white clouds in the sky and immediately he started talking about what they looked like (me: dogs, ducks, bunnies. him: robots, giants, alligators) and then: why there is clouds? why there is sun? why is the water so shiny? Somehow, lying there in the sun, the why why whys didn't get to me like they can sometimes. The sometimes when I can't take another "Why?" and spit out a terse "It just is!" and then I hold my breath and don't dare turn around to see the expression on their faces, afraid that I will see hurt at my impatience, sadness because I won't (or can't) talk to them, or worse, a suspicion that maybe mommy doesn't know the answer.

The last thing I say to both of them at night is "I love you." Because I do. Do I ever.

I know, and have always known, how much my parents love me and how much they love their family. There is not a shred of doubt in my mind that they've always been there for us, provided for us, and supported us in all our endeavors. They've always encouraged us and believed in us and believed that we would be the best at whatever it is we wanted (whether or not they agreed with our choices). It is with love that they have always sought to understand us, to accept us, to counsel and advise us. I know that they'd never turn us away in a time of need. I know, and have always known, that our family is the most important thing in the world to them. I know that being an adult does not diminish the bond you have with your parents, but instead changes and enhances the relationship.

I strive every day to give back that same love, support and acceptance to my mom & dad, to my husband, to the rest of my family and, especially, to Dagny and Anders. I hope they know, and will always know, how much I love them.

Another sick day

Yup. I'm sick again. Never happens, but now I've got a cold on top of just getting over the flu. Poppin' the Sudafed, but at least I don't have a fever.

I thought everyone else was feeling OK -- and then I saw her Ear. It was horrendously, fiery red. So puffy she couldn't even hold her head straight. I called and got an appointment for after school today. Poor Fizzy.

Don't judge the book

Is it just me or is there a resemblance between Timothy Geithner and that creepy guy Carl* from the awesome movie Ghost, you know, the one who is laundering money offshore for some Very Bad People? Even Mr. J sees it and he doesn't ever think anyone looks like anyone else.




*And yes, I know the guy has a name and dang it if I didn't just look it up on IMDB and everything and I've ALREADY forgotten what it is. He'll always be Creepy Carl to me. Probably one of my Top 10 ickiest film moments ever is when he tries to kiss poor grieving Demi. Right up there when that awful Sean Walsh (shudder) tries to put the moves on Bennie in Circle of Friends. Ugh. Anyway, it's a shame our Treasury Secretary doesn't resemble someone a little more fiscally upstanding, not that looks have anything to do with the job. Or DO they? Nah. Probably not at the Treasury.

What a difference!

Anders had a four hour nap and 2 days of Cefprozil - what a difference! He was able to break the scary-high fever from this morning and is EATING!

Dagny will go to school tomorrow. We kept her home one more day to make sure she was A-OK.

Whew. What a week.

Full house

And now Mr. J has a stomach bug! Wheeeeee!

Relapse!

Crap! Both kids back to 102+. Will have to go to the dr. tomorrow if they're still the same.

It's alive!

We must be getting better because Anders slept from 11 - 7 last night. No fevers for Dagny & I this morning, thank goodness! I'm giving her another day home from school just to make sure she's fully rested. I was talking to a friend last night who said it's a vicious bug going around - there were 5 kids out from first grade (and the teacher!), and the other grades were similar. One of Mr. J's coworkers said there were only 4 kids in her son's class on Monday (they go to a smaller school).

Another good sign: the kids are picking on each other again and making goofy noises. For the last 4 days all they could do was lie on the couch and moan for water.

It's been a brutal couple of days, but we're on the mend!

101

That's the average temp. in our house this morning. I'm sick and tired - was up several times with Anders last night, he just couldn't get comfortable. I think I'm going to have to get him his antibiotic this morning, because while he's certainly not a lot worse than he was Friday he's not quite better either. I don't want to prolong this illness anymore and besides I'm having a hard time getting better too when I'm up and down all night with him. Mr. J had to be up super early this morning for a meeting and I know he felt bad that he couldn't be around to help get the kids up.

Maybe soon I'll be able to blog about something besides being sick?

From bad to worse

Dr. Mom is officially diagnosing the Flu. Everyone but Mr. J is feverish, coughing, glassy-eyed. My head feels like it is going to explode. None of have eaten since Saturday morning, and while that's OK for me (maybe I'll get closer to my goal weight!) it's not so great for the kids.

I want my mommy.

Also, maybe some tomato soup and a grilled cheese.

Sick daze

"Mommmeeee, my ear hoits!" said Anders* (my 2-1/2 yr. old son) Friday morning. Hmm. On top of the major snooty nose and hacking cough, Dr. Mom sagely diagnosed an ear infection and called the ped for an afternoon appt. She checked him out, no lung problems, minor ear infection and sent us on our way with a antibiotic Rx to fill if he got worse. She wants us to let his body fight the infections once in a while. I smiled and thanked her, but left feeling like I was going to cry a bit concerned because I haven't had more than 2 hours of continuous sleep since 2002 and the prospect of being up all night ALL WEEKEND was daunting. Anders starts around 10:30: crying for mommmeeee, I have a snooty nose!, I need tissue! where's Dadddeeee? I need my ba-ba, I need water, rock me on the chair. He slept from about 3:30 - 5:00 though, and I, back in "nursing all night" mode thought I handled it well. Because the parenting books advise you not to scream at your sick children in the middle of the night, no matter how tired you are.

"Mommmmeee, I'm so cold!" said Dagny* (my 6-1/2 yr old daughter) Saturday morning. Hmm. Took one look at her reddened cheeks, glazed eyes, shaking limbs. Dr. Mom diagnosed a fever, which turned out to be 102.5.

I prescribed a day of movies on the couch: Free Willy, Veggie Tales, Wall-E. Sent the Mr. J* out for Tylenol chewables, an extra bottle of Motrin and some Diet Coke.

By noon I felt like I had a fever too. By 3:00 I suspected I was coming down with something as I hacked up a lung, sitting on the couch between the kids, eyes glassed over watching Free Willy. I knew I was sick when I cried at the end.

After we got the children to bed (note, I did not go so far as to say asleep!) Mr. J walked around the house spraying everything with Lysol. But it was too late for me and now I can officially join the ranks of movie-watching, apple-juice sipping, couch potatoes.

*Yeah, those are my kids/hubby. I'm tired of the initial thing.

And the winner is....

I never win anything except once I won this Pay-it-Forward. But, if this was a real thing, I would TOTALLY win a hot-buttered-toast eating contest. Unless my mom was entered too, in which case I'd probably come in second. I would also win a lamest-outfit-worn-to-morning-drop-off contest. I just can't pull myself together in the mornings what with all the kid-related tasks I've got to crank on in the 2 hours between alarm and pulling out of the driveway. Case in point: today's outfit featured ridiculously dark wash jeans from about 4 years ago, a white tee shirt and a cropped black sweater with my Merrell faux-Ugg clogs. Yay me! It is hard to believe that no one asks me when I got out of/am going back to rehab.

Maybe I'd feel better about stuff I didn't spend ALL my free time yesterday (the 90 minutes that A was napping the afternoon) trolling through the archives of a bunch of new bloggers I had stumbled upon. Some people are soooo funny!

42

Most days I neither feel nor look my age. The former is due to having two little kids and the latter to good genes. But after a night like last night I feel AND look every day of 42* years old. A was up about every 40 minutes. Crying pitifully. Screaming for Mommy, Daddy, Both of Us. Wouldn't tell us what was wrong (Nightmares? Bogeyman? Appendicitis?) Finally, at about 3:00, as M left for the living room couch in a tirade of salty language, A was able to tell me that his ear hurt. Immediately (most of) my frustration, exhaustion, anger and self-pity was washed away by maternal concern. A healthy dose of Motrin and voila! he slept straight through from 3:00 - 5:35.

This morning he said he feels much better.

I, on the other hand, do not.


*M also** looks quite a bit younger than his actual age. But I am older than he is. As I like to tell him, "Dude, you were barely in your third trimester when I was born!"

**Hmm. Now that I think about it, maybe neither of us looks that young anymore. But we USED to.

10

Here's today's Public Service Announcement:

Top 10 Worst Foods of 2009

Except for Cold Stone (which I have maybe once a year) and Stabucks (where I always order as plain, lite and non-whip as I can) I don't eat any of these things. Yay! Go me! Maybe I have a fairly healthy diet after all? Or maybe it's just that mine is not quite that unhealthy.

In other news I DID make the NM Beauty Event yesterday. As my wise hubby pointed out, I'm going to have to buy this stuff at some point anyway... might as well get the freebies now. Smart man!

Did anyone watch and LOVE 24 last night? I still think it sounds like 10-year-olds might write part of the script, but even the ridiculous plot lines are fun. Just for the record, if you did watch, we had quite a debate about Jack opening the door for the terrorists at the end there.

Lead us not into temptation

Why oh why does this year's Neiman Marcus Beauty Event have to fall during Lent -- when I have sacrificed unnecessary shopping? And, is stocking up on products that you use anyway and thus taking advantage of some awesome giveaways and freebies really Unnecessary? Is it a coincidence that I just happen to be out of exfoliator? Please don't ask me to use drugstore substitutes - there are about 5 products that really truly work for my skin and they happen to be available at NM. And I love getting samples and free stuff. And I have extremely weird skin that manages to be sensitive, dry and prone-to-breakouts all at the same time. 'Bout the only thing I don't worry about is wrinkles (thanks, Mom!)

30

What can you do in 30 minutes? I can clean three full bathrooms top-to-bottom, including mopping floors, in 30 minutes. I can also change the sheets, do laundry and pick up the playrooms in 30 minutes. And I can usually pull dinner together in 30 minutes. 30 minutes is exactly the amount of time that it takes A to watch an average episode of Go, Diego, Go! on the DVR. Coincidence? More like examples of domestic precision, accuracy and efficiency.

M asked why A was watching "so much" TV while D never really did when she was 2-1/2. I had to think on that a bit before I remembered. We had a cleaning lady back in the day. We had a nanny. We ate out four nights a week. We took vacations and long weekends and day trips. And just like that I stopped feeling guilty for letting A watch TV.

0

I am no paradigm of Lenten sacrifice, but I am proud to say that I made it through Ash Wednesday's fast. I am a bit amazed because the average toddler has more willpower than I do. It was a hard day and I was dog tired from being up all night Tues. with A. But I did not eat meat. I did not buy a Starbucks on the way to swim lessons. I did not snack between meals -- which is like giving up breathing! And I did not succumb to the temptation of the milk chocolate Moose Munch bar I found at the bottom of my tote bag, which I don't remember buying so to my sugarless, tired, semi-hungry brain it must have been placed there by Satan himself.

I did pray a LOT.

40

Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the 40 days of self-sacrifice and reflection called Lent. Which is the prelude to the glorious celebration that is Easter Which is my favorite religious holiday of the year. Not to be confused with Memorial Day, which is my favorite secular holiday of the year.

Anyway, about Lent.

D -- being 6-1/2 -- is participating fully in Lent for the first time this year, including going meatless on Fridays. I had spent some time explaining the concept of sacrifice to her and we discussed some examples of what she could sacrifice. I also asked her to think of a way that we could, as a family, spend more quiet time in prayer. When she came up with her original list of sacrifices it included "Sprite" and "school" until I explained to her that 1) since we don't drink soda at home, she couldn't very well give up something that she hardly ever got anyway and 2) school is not optional.

So I was amazed when she told me that she was going to sacrifice TV watching for Lent (she does get 30 minutes to watch after homework time and usually some Saturday morning cartoons) and, as for prayer, she was going to say the Hail Mary three times each day! I am so proud of her and impressed by the amount of thought she gives things.

I hope the rest of us spend our Lent so wisely.

A, apparently, decided to give up sleeping through the night, but I think that is due to the awful bug he has come down with. Poor baby. Tired mama. I will need prayers to get through the day, that's for sure.

24

2/23 - 5:00 - 6:00 pm - Negotiate with kids to eat dinner (parmesan chicken, cheesy rice & broccoli)
6:00 - 7:30 - Bathe, shampoo, brush teeth, pajamas, read stories, say prayers, tuck kids into bed
7:30 - 8:30 - Eat dinner with M; clean up kitchen
8:30 - 10:00 - Fold laundry, make D snack/lunch for next day, set coffee maker and WATCH TV
10:00 - 10:03 - Fall asleep while reading in bed
10:03 - 11:30 - Sleep
11:30 - 11:45 - Woken up by screaming kid
11:45 - 1:00 am - Sleep
2/24 - 1:00 - 1:15 am - Woken up by screaming kid
1:15 - 3:00 - Sleep
3:00 - 3:15 - Woken up by screaming kid; suspect something is going on with kid, too tired to deal
3:15 - 5:45 - Sleep
5:45 - Woken up by alarm
5:45 - 6:15 - Shower, make up, get dressed, do hair
6:15 - 6:25 - Down a cup of coffee, estimate Benadryl needs for day
6:25 - 6:50 - Deal with screaming kid, who now has a 103 fever and is hacking his lungs out while simultaneously getting D ready for school
6:50 - 7:30 - Breakfast for D; medicine for A
7:30 - 7:45 - Change into clothes appropriate for morning drop off, i.e., not flannel pajamas and mismatched lounge pants
7:45 - 8:00 - Take D to school
8:00 - 9:00 - Clean up breakfast, check emails and blogs; A alternates between watching Diego and screaming
9:00 - 10:30 - Errands: post office, grocery store, CVS
10:30 - 11:30 - Read stories for A
11:30 - Try to convince A to eat lunch
11:40 - Opt for nap instead (A, not me!)
11:40 - 2:00 - A naps: 2 loads of laundry, clean downstairs bath, balance checkbook, order rug samples, check on retreat at Church, go through mail, respond to RFI from Jr. League council
2:00 - 2:45 - Play Cariboo with A
2:45 - 3:00 - sit in car line
3:00 - 4:15 - dispense snacks, do homework, read with D
4:15 - 4:55 - Make breakfast for dinner, put away laundry, vacuum up 3 bushels of dog hair
4:55 - 5:00 - Negotiate with kids to eat dinner; remind self that bedtime is just around the corner

Jack Bauer has it EASY.

Out of ideas

3:00 and the dreaded dinner hour is facing me down. I have a love/hate relationship with cooking these days -- I love to cook and my kids hate the stuff I make. They would eat cereal and macaroni and cheese for every meal, every day if I let them. Oh sure, D will also eat fruit and frozen peas; A also eats beans and peanut butter once in a while. But mostly they don't eat anything. It makes it very hard for me to get excited about cooking a meal because I know it is absolutely unappreciated. I had to make a dinner time rule that, even if they aren't going to eat, they can't complain throughout the whole meal.

I've got chicken breasts, rice and broccoli planned for tonight, but I might as well throw it all in the garbage and give them bowls of Cheerios.

I've said it before, but meal planning is seriously the hardest thing to do.

On vacation

No, I'm not really on vacation. However I will be guest-posting here for the next few days:

Monkey Me, Monkey You. Come on over and check out Monkey's North American tour.