It just keeps getting funner

Oct 31, 2008

I got a phone call this afternoon from our pediatrician, who gleefully announced “Your daughter is the best thing that has happened to me since med school!  Every time she gets sick I learn something new!”  Apparently, A has somehow managed to get infected with a parasite that my pediatrician had never ever heard of, and this particular parasite only rates a one sentence mention in her very large book on infectious diseases.

On the upside, the two weeks of vomit and poop have been explained nicely.  On the downside, I now have to try and convince the child to take the most revolting medicine ever.  And it doesn’t come in a liquid formulation, so we have to crush tablets and try to hide them in food.  Today I promised her a toy-store worth of Barbies, and managed to get 1/2 a dose down her.  We have to give her three doses a day for ten days.  I will go bankrupt.

I would love to end this post in some witty way, but really, there is nothing witty about a mother who spent the afternoon the verge of a nervous breakdown and a small child with parasites living in her belly.  Plus, she worked herself up into such a state that she vomited all over my new(ish) shoes that I loved more than any pair I have ever owned.  They were green.  And suede.  And are now garbage.  Sigh.  Serves me right for trying to wear cute shoes.

In Lieu of a Real Post

Oct 30, 2008

A gratuitous cat photo titled: “Dumb Cat Puts Himself into Time Out.”

Have had sick children at home for two full weeks.  Please, please send tortilla chips, chocolate and wine.

Overheard near the Thermostat

Oct 23, 2008

M: “Did you HEAR what they just said on the news?  72 is the optimal temperature for energy savings.”

Chichimama: “Yeah, for a New Yorker, maybe.  Just think how much MORE we are saving by keeping the thermostat at 64.”

M: “I didn’t grow up in New England you know.”

Chichimama: “Yeah, well, I did.  64 is plenty warm.”

M: “Hmmph.”

Green Grass

Oct 22, 2008

I have spent the last several days trapped in the house with a sick child.  The first two days, despite the vomiting and pooping, were somewhat refreshing.  I had company while I puttered.  When I spoke out loud, there was actually someone there to listen.  I had a reason to stay in and bake bread.  When someone asked me to do something, I had a built in excuse to say no. By about 11pm last night, I was fairly confident that I knew why many of my friends had decided to have third children, and if permanent measures hadn’t already been taken, I probably would have started campaigning for a third.

Then, the sickness abated.  And today I was faced with a perfectly healthy child who no longer had any interest in the quiet pursuits of the past few days.  There was no snuggling and reading on the couch.  There was not a lazy morning spent in pajamas, watching PBS kids and checking email, but instead a repeating refrain of “What are we going to dooooo?????  I want to doooooo something!!!!”  By the time C arrived home and started whining about his choice of Halloween costume, and the unfairness of homework, I was unclear why I had ever thought that having children was a good idea.

I am glad that A is feeling better, for her sake.  I am also quite pleased to report that she should be returning to school tomorrow.  But I now also understand why the older parents I know reminisce about the days with young children at home, when I used to look at them with two heads.  Because for a few brief days, I had that time back again.

Yes indeed, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

Heat Update 10/20/08

Oct 20, 2008

I finally turned on the heat this morning.  And it smells funny, so I turned it off.  But then I remembered that I seem to think this every year.  It always smells funny the first time it kicks on for the season, right?  Because I really think I will lose it if there is something with the almost-brand-new furnace.  Plus, I am really, really cold.

It is a good thing I haven’t had to turn on the heat

Oct 19, 2008

So far this week, we are down:

1. 1 vacuum cleaner
2. 1 outlet (the cause of the vacuum cleaner’s demise)
3. 7 light bulbs (the expensive, halogen, must be order from the internets kind, damn you previous owners)
4. 1 microwave
5. 3 stove burners
6. 1 pair of glasses (child-sized).

At this rate, I figure I can probably afford to turn on the heat in March sometime…

Heat update

Oct 18, 2008

Yes, I am still alive.  No, I still haven’t turned on the heat.  I think this is the longest we have held out since the kiddos were born (and we moved out of the city where we had no control over the heat whatsoever…).

Real post to come soon.  Maybe.

The annual whine

Oct 4, 2008

Can I turn the heat on yet?  I am coooollllllddddd.  Apparently I am starting my whining a week earlier than I did last year and the year before.  Sigh.

The best debate tweet so far

Oct 2, 2008

“If John McCain is Maverick, does that make Palin Goose?”