Today is Christmas. Oh, okay; TECHNICALLY today isn't Christmas, but today is OUR Christmas, because the kids are leaving tomorrow. Which means that there is currently a big mess of wrapping paper in my family room. My biggest concern with the whole timing thing was not, in fact, today, but last night. See, the elves bring new pajamas on Christmas Eve. And the kids had already been informed that there was no way that Santa could come early---he is far too busy in these last days before the holiday, after all---but that we would do our family gifts, and after they return we'll see if Santa...
We are now 14 days past when Monkey first fell to the flu, and a week past Otto's fall (Chickadee fell inbetween the two of them). I'm officially calling this THE YEAR I AVOIDED GETTING THE FLU. Every day for the last two weeks I've woken up every morning and laid in bed, tensed with apprehension, doing a quick body inventory. Do I feel hot? Does my head hurt? Is that something weird? I've certainly not felt my very best the last couple of weeks, but other than feeling a little rundown (which, HEY, I'm sure that has nothing to do with recent events at all!), it appears my nefarious plan of...
I was honestly ready to turn over a new "stop whining so much, SHEESH" leaf, yesterday morning. I was. Monkey had been better the day before---I only kept him home another day to honor the "24 hours fever-free" rule---and was ready and excited to go to back to school. I was giving myself every pep talk in the book, in my head. It's okay. It's going to get better. Any progress is progress. Keep the faith. Etc. And then Chickadee woke up with a fever of 102. So apparently that whole "Maybe he just has the flu on top of whatever else is going on" thing was true. At the beep of the thermometer...
I am not a Party Person. I mean, I am perfectly happy to come to YOUR party, particularly if you have food. I am just not a party planner sort of person. Or a party-having sort of person. It was not something my family did, growing up, and something I'm still not entirely comfortable with. [Digression: The easiest way to make people think you probably led an abused childhood, chained to a bare metal bedframe in the basement, is to tell them that you've never had a birthday party. I do not recommend this course of action while actually AT a party, because that many people staring at you with...
Before jumping into today's extremely cheery subject matter (see Mir use sarcasm; snark, Mir, snark!), let's check in on the children's medical state, shall we? Chickadee confounded the doctor with... a whole lot of nothing. Except maybe she has a slight eye infection. Or maybe she has mono, but we'll have to wait and see. I mentioned that this was giving me deja vu, except last time it turned out to be severe anemia, which shouldn't be an issue now as she's on iron supplements. Regardless, we got some prescription eye drops and directions not to wear contact lenses for a week, and the...
Someday I'm going to sit down and diagram what is---in my mind, anyway---okay to share with others and what is most definitely NOT okay. I remember once hearing someone say they'd never blog something they wouldn't share with a small crowd at a cocktail party, and at the time I thought to myself that that was not such a bad rubric, really, even though I personally would have to have QUITE A FEW drinks before sharing at a cocktail party the way I generally do here on the blog. Regardless. I have some sort of internal this-is-acceptable meter, and it may not match yours, and I'm not saying...
I totally meant to write something deep and meaningful for you yesterday, to make up for my absence, but it turned out that---it being my first day back home, and all---I was far too busy: 1) sleeping 2) playing with the dog 3) slurping vitamin C to ward off the cold I tried to bring home 4) wading through fifty gazillion emails 5) trying to catch up on work 6) whining about how much work I had to catch up on 7) inviting people to a party I haven't started planning yet (oops!) 8) trying to advise my daughter on the politics of cookie dough 9) trying to tune out my son watching every Annoying...
Hello from Chicago! It feels like I spent all day en route to getting here, which is dumb, because it's not really all that far away from where I live. Still, once you figure the ride to the ride to the airport, the time in the airport, the flight, the shuttle from the airport... it's been kind of a long day. Two items of note before I go to bed: 1) For the first time in a long time, I didn't attempt to smuggle any contraband hair product through TSA; everything I had was regulation size. So you can imagine my consternation when a TSA agent tried to confiscate my (very expensive) dry...
... guess I'll go eat... oh, geez. I can't even say it. Whenever one of the kids is having a "woe is me" moment, as befits my loving maternal style, I often suggest that the afflicted one go eat some worms, because that's what one does when life is so unfair and tragic, right? (Acceptable alternatives to suggesting a feast of slimy limbless creatures: Asking where the sad one lost their tail, or inquiring as to the tragedy of their lean-to blowing over.) As you might imagine, my ministrations are deeply appreciated by my offspring. FEEL THE LOVE! Obviously I am usually able to make...
