While Daddy's Away....

Prepare yourselves people. It's been a LONG week and I am using lots of CAPS.

Any time Brian goes on a trip, it is a GUARANTEE that at least one of these will break: the kid(s), the car, the house, and occasionally - my spirit.. I find it a personal challenge to shake my fist at "the GUARANTEE" and say "BRING IT!"

I hesitantly post this as I know my my fellow AF wife friends read this and some of their husbands are gone now, and for much longer, but then again - I know they can commiserate. Brian has been in Korea for eight days. While we've had a great week, I am sad to report that we were no exception to "the GUARANTEE." Here's a glance at our week back on the ranch.

We dropped Brian off at the airport and started off with a nutritious morning at Krispy Kreme. This was approximately five minutes after James threw up on the side of the road. (BRING IT!) Please note how happy the kids are about wearing the hats.

How does the saying go? Starve a cold, feed a throw up?"
Dinner at Le Madeline that night.

Still, I am undeterred. I will take the kids to a school carnival! OK, I did elicit the help of neighbor & friend, Pilar. I imagined that there would be rides I would have to go on with James and then subsequent throwing up and that all seemed just a little unmanageable with Molly.

Molly & Pilar

Big boy James did all the "rides" by himself.

They played carnival games....

and there was a petting zoo! (and hand sanitizer!)

James had his first cotton candy....

... and his first snow cone.
Yes, both in the same day. Actually, both in the same hour.
Best. Mom. Ever.

It is the next day, while driving James to school, that I notice several dashboard lights lit up and a weird shuttering when pressing the brake OR the gas.

BRING IT!

Tuesday: I will summarize Tuesday morning by pasting the message I posted on the Old Town Moms listserv:

wow. watch your back today ladies... and maybe use the Wythe St post office - yeesh! I have been using the Washington & Cameron post office for two years. My son is always with me telling jokes, they give him stickers, it's one big love-fest.

Today, he took out one (ONE!) bubble mailer to look at the picture and before I could even open my mouth, the postal worker (black curly hair, bad disposition) said "don't you take out all of those envelopes! A woman was in here yesterday and let her son take out all of the envelopes and I had to spend MY TIME putting them back!" And then she went ON and ON and ON. My son & I just stood there - dumbfounded. This was the same woman who was laughing at his jokes last week and tell him how smart and funny he was!

So, we do my transaction and as I leave, I say, "hope you have a better day" and she says, wait for it..... "hope you become a better mother!" Seriously, she said that. I said "excuse me? Did you just say...." and she says yes and then we yell at each for like five minutes. I ask for her name and she says "if you could read, you would know!"

Needless to say, her supervisor has been contacted. He apologized and said he would talk to her this morning, but really.... it kind of made me want to throw all the bubble mailers on the floor and then make her stand there while my son told bad jokes.

Spirit waning....

The rest of Tuesday is a playdate with James best little school friend - Matty. Matty's mom picked him up, took them all to a park, and fed them dinner. I almost didn't know what to do with myself and just one kid. ALMOST. And how (how?!) does "the GUARANTEE" pay me back? By breaking a kid... I pick James up and he's all whiny and "I'm SO cold!" and "Can you hold me?"

So, we spent Thursday am in the ER. Strep throat and lots of high fevers. James is such a champ when he's sick. Very brave and compliant. He tells the doctors jokes, he lays down when he's supposed to and he thinks the whole experience is very exciting. He had to get a throat culture and a shot of antibiotics and when the tech came in, James said, "shot first, please!"

This all went awry when the tech announced that because of the high dose of antibiotics, they would need to give him two shots at the same time. James is still ok - "fine by me!" - until they take the caps off of the shots and he starts shouting, "hey! no points! no points! no points!" Apparently, he was picturing the flu shot which just looks like plastic and is a very quick situation. Well, the shots go in and instant tears and that look that kids have perfected - "how could you do this to me?!". We are all saying, "Good job! You're so brave!" and James is just crying and saying, "I'm noooooot brave! I criiiiiied!"


I know she's too young to grasp it all, but I like to think that Molly is grinning in the pic below like "Ha! Better you than me, buddy." Ha! Oh, little does she know. I am supermom! I can multi-task! At the ER for one kid? Let's go down the hall and get kid #2 up to date on all her shots. Ha!

Well, the joke was on me because after (AFTER!) the immunologist (?) gave Molly her THREE shots (more tears and dirty looks, by the way), she tells me that one of them (the DTap) will leave her fussy, feverish and cranky for two days. AWESOME. Now I have two sick kids and one of them is my own fault!

Spirit starting to crack....

So, where does one go when they are feeling bad? Hanging on by a thread? Just been stabbed multiple times in the legs?

PITA HOUSE!

Dinner last night and the kids were great.

Molly tried hummus.


and she liked it! Hooray! We can keep her!


Just what the doctor (er, momma) ordered!
Today is Saturday and we hit the zoo.
Car = fine.
Kids = fine.

Two sleeping babies + Brian called and his flight is on time
= Momma is fine and her spirit is intact.

BRING IT!