Friday, October 11, 2002

 
Ah, my girl, my girl. I called Jennifer tonight in hopes that she was having a great time with her Scottie. And she was. Thank goodness. She has a cold though, which unnerves me. *I* have a cold --- I would happily just take hers on to relieve her and let her have a good and healthy time while he visits. Arrgh.

Spent the afternoon and most of the evening with the Next Doors, as Morgan calls them. Michelle and I sat out on the bench in her front yard after the bus came, while the kids were riding their bikes up and down the street. Then we conconcted a plan to have spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner. She ran and I boiled water for the pasta.

Poor Emma. She wants to be one of the Big Girls (like Olivia & Jamie) but she's just five and they don't include her. She ends up just being their patsy. She won't stop playing with them though. I heard her stand up to them tonight though and say, "I'm not playing that *anymore*!" and I was proud of her (and told her so later). She and Victoria are only months apart but Emma wants to be a older girl so badly. Morgan spent the entire later evening playing with Lola and Michelle's cat. That sweet cat endured long bouts of Morgan rocking him in the plastic rocking chair while she crooned, "It's okay baby...". I now love that cat. Poor Emma J. comes home from school exhausted and rubbing her hair, and *then* she played for 5 hrs. with the neighborhood girls. They are ASLEEP. Zonked, out cold.

We're going out on the boat tomorrow. Carlyle, I think. We're going to catch the fish and cook them, right THERE, for the kids enterainment/joy. We've got a little shopping list for our outing. I think they'll love it. It's supposed to be 74 tomorrow for a high and then 50 the next day. Wow, dropping. Yes, Halloween is coming and I need to list my costumes on eBay!

posted by Lisa 11:01 PM

Wednesday, October 09, 2002

 
Morgan: "All of the Altoids are gone."
Me: "That's because you ate all of them yesterday."
Morgan: "Well....they were so freaking yummy!"

posted by Lisa 5:03 PM

Monday, October 07, 2002

 
Okay well, here's a sign that you drank too much wine the night you ordered Chinese (god love them, they've started delivering, BUT the delivery persons are NOT English speakers *or* map readers, apparently) because when you delve into the leftovers, expecting half of the box to be left, you discover about three tablespoons of fried rice. Shit. I heated it up anyway. I ate all of the chocolate. That's all there is that is tempting, except for some stuffed olives (good ones too, gargonzola, feta & garlic gloves), but after chocolate it's hard to go *back* in dinnertime to olives. I could *really* run up to Jack In The Box for a double-fudge cake, but I couldn't leave my kiddies home alone in bed. I'm quite conviced that leaving one's yard while children are sleeping causes the house to spontaneously combust.

Morgan is recovering. She's still lapsing into baby talk, which is making my brain explode, but otherwise is coming along. She actually resisted a nap today. Of course, that could have something to do with our being at Goodwill (and 7 other stores) all day long. Hey, we needed some shit! We finally have more than 3 washcloths. (All bow to Martha Stewart). I'm doing this Europa distressed thing in the bathroom (because the walls, sans wallpaper, are naturally distressed as hell) and I was looking at Big Lots and Value City for some gold junk. Gilded baby, that's what I have in mind. Maybe lion's heads and all. They have some dandy ones (to hold up scarf type curtains) at VC. A gold lame shower curtain and some grapevines and I have it made!

Morgan's pox-inflicted face has gotten a multitude of comments. All of the moms who have been through it know immediately what it is. And, as predicted by the web, the second child *always* gets it worse. Poor muffin. Of course, the Mom tonight at dance had her daughter end up in the hospital (second kid-in-hospital story I've received from the general public and I don't talk to that many people). She did go on to say that this kid dehydrates every time she is sick so she almost always ends up with an i.v. no matter what her malady. Some smart-mouth at ballet did inform me haughtily that 'they *did* have to get it before kindgarten 'No Matter What'. I haughtily replied that I had signed a waiver and let my daughter get a LIFELONG Natural Immunity. Don't fuck with the Christian Scientists bay-bee.

I can see my last entry below this one. It makes it sounds like I worked with people AT a Chinese restaurant. Alas, this is not true. I speak MUCH too MUCH English to have done this. God knows I love the China Restaurant people but their turnover is high and they have a seemingly endless pit of non-English-speaking employees to draw from. But man, that fried rice was GREAT, even in small quantities of leftovers.

We've been doing a lot of Girl Bonding here lately with Daddy at the River full-time. Saturday night (before going on ice cream run) we watched Trading Spaces and then, "While You Were Out". Unfortunately, they just re-did a back patio, but it was fun to see the Dad (who the Mom had sent off with the 3-year-old and TWO-MONTH-OLD [you don't even **have** to ask how I feel about that]) growling and bitching at the cam that his Mom was taking for the show. He was really a crabby ass (but who could blame him) and I hope he as *ashamed* when he found out that it was taken for the show. I'm sure they had to edit it a LOT to get the few seconds that they did. But, of course, on the other hand, she sent her tiny, weeks-old-infant AWAY on a plane for the fucking weekend. FOR REMODELING! Jesus.

I had quite a few auctions end last night and exchanged some snippy, curt e-mails today with a buyer who couldn't follow simple instructions. Ya know what, ya skinny bitch - if you're so superior, you could just buy your pants at the Abercrombie & Fitch store at the mall instead of on eBay. Hmmph.


posted by Lisa 10:56 PM

Sunday, October 06, 2002

 
The fierce hand of the chicken pox virus has relaxed it's grip a bit. My last blogging being Thursday the 3rd is no coincidence. It has been quite fierce here since then. True to rumor, Morgan's case has been much worse than Emma's. She has many more spots on her face and all of the spots HURT. It was like she was covered with 300 searing boils. And they itched.

Thursday she was mainly cantakerous, turning into She Who Must Be Obeyed. She has a tendency toward this anyway, even when not ill, so it wasn't surprising. However, it was more pronounced than it had ever been. I went to dinner with the friends I used to work with at a Chinese restaurant. I brought home my leftovers and she was pissed, PISSED that I hadn't brought home her 'Favorite Rice'. PISSED for probably an hour. Refused to eat, although starved. And pissed anew every time she saw the take-out box. Grammy tried to eat some and she went berserk. Daddy came home and ate most of it and we all feared her wrath.

That night (and the next night) were complete horrors. She slept anywhere from 20 to 90 minutes, waking in between in MISERY, scratching and screaming. We did everything we could think of, including Aveena anti-itch cream, oatmeal baths and homeopathic remedies. The nights were the worst, especially after the sleep deprivation increased and the agony right along with it. Steve was working 14-16 hours days and then coming home to help with this overnight. He tried to change beds, but her crying drove him back. He got up (while I slept) and put her in the bathtub. He was a saint.

I purchased Benedryl yesterday (to take orally) at CVS (imagine us standing outside at 8 a.m. waiting for them to open) and that helped with the itching. AND it made her sleep. It was just short naps, but to lessen her tiredness certainly helped (as it helped to not have to be holding her while she said, "Mommy, ninny, Mommy, ninny" over and over again. I don't know what this means, but it is all part of her Baby Talk that preceeded the outbreak and has continue throughout. To show you how dreadful this has been, this has been one of the least irrirating parts.

And then, and THEN, last night she slept. She slept and slept. She itched while she slept, but she slept. She nursed several times throughout the night, but I didn't care (although my nipples are in critical condition. Morgan said, "But Mommy, they aren't bleeding!"). I'd forgotten how exciting and invigorating it is to get sleep after NOT for many days. Steve said he didn't remember us ever being so tired and I said that I thought that it had been since each child was a newborn.

And today I wake up with a bladder infection. Dammit - that's no reward! I did go Hog Wild last night and eat too much chicken fried rice and then a pint of Ben & Jerry's. OH, the guilt. The horror. The calories. The fat grams. And, of course, I haven't been to the gym as the babysitting room is unavailable to those with the plague. Should it stop raining today I am planning to go out with stroller, dog and child and at least move for a bit. I could also aerobically get up on the latter and remove the bathroom wallpaper. I've been inexplicably stricken with decorating fever. It's the fall, nesting syndrome I guess. I know I'd better jump on it before Aw Fuck It resumes!
posted by Lisa 10:04 AM