the weekend!

hoo-rah! it's the weekend! of course, yesterday was technically the beginning of my weekend, since i'm off every friday, but we spent most of the day at the children's hospital in norfolk getting c's second ci flipped on and programmed... and while it was a terrific experience, it was also wearing because she vacillated wildly between loving the new ear and freaking out over the fact she could now hear something out of her left ear. long story short... i am glad it's done. :o)

then we finally got home at about 2 or so, and i put her into bed for a very (very) late nap, which was even more disorienting for her but i didn't have any choice - she was so tired she was nodding off all the way home! she promptly fell asleep, but only slept about an hour, and woke up super C R A N K Y. which is very, VERY unusual for her, but i guess in light of the events of the day, understandable. so she was fretful, off and on, refused to eat dinner, and then we went to the last day of vbs. there, she had a complete and total meltdown - she played fine for about an hour, then she wanted to sit in my lap and just twirl my hair around her finger, then she freaked out when i scolded her for pushing another child. all i said was, "you don't do that, no no!" she just MELTED. i guess she was in an emotionally fragile state. ;o) so she was weeping copiously, and i was holding her, and she was snuffling and blowing her nose in my shirt and hair (yum!) and then suddenly, she gagged. i, ever alert for the impending Vomit Comet, leaped for the bathroom door which, THANK GOODNESS, was only about 3 feet away from me. holding her in front of me sort of like a human shield (that is, if human shields vomited), i fled for the toilet and aimed her in the general direction of it just in time for the entire contents of her stomach to be thoroughly, completely, without-a-doubt regurgitated.

those of you who know me know i have much experience with vomit, thanks to j, otherwise known as Vomit Comet Senior. so it doesn't really faze me... that's not to say i LIKE cleaning it up, but hey. at least i can do it without upchucking my own self (unlike m, who has great difficulty cleaning vomit up without gagging, so i usually do it as i do not want to clean up after him too ;o) ).

so i got her cleaned up, wiped the bathroom floor up, etc., and tried to comfort her. she was in FULL wail mode by this point - tired, upset, emotionally strung out, and she had just puked all over everything and herself. i was already a little tired myself from the very, very long (but very good) day, and my back was absolutely killing me. i don't know what is going ON there, but let's just say the smell of ben-gay is becoming my new perfume. it's all the rage in gay paree this season, i hear...... ;o)

so i texted m from the church to let him know we were on our way home, pukey and tired, and for him to draw c a quick bath so i could get her cleaned up before bed. well, in the truck, she puked again. and again. so by now i am a little concerned, because this goes beyond "just being tired" or whatever. then i notice she has a pretty good temperature running, so i am definitely a little on mommy alert at this point, running through all possible signs from the last 24 hours of anything.... realized she had been a little off her feed, but i had attributed to that to the excitement of the ci - however, now i think it was more due to whatever was wrong with her than that.

so we got home, i gave her a nice, cool bath, washed her top to toe - she kept her eyes mostly closed through the whole bath, half asleep, so i got her dressed, tucked her into bed with a nice warm bottle of milk, and she was out before i got to the door.

then i settled in to watch a movie with m and d - "the matador," with pierce brosnan. it was hysterically funny by turns, but also surprisingly profound in bits and pieces. i enjoyed it quite a bit - it's certainly a departure from his usual fare, i'll say that much. :o) sort of a dark comedy, i guess you would call it.

well, just as the movie was approaching its climax, what should i hear but the plaintive wail of MAAAAA-MAAAAA! coming from c's room. pause button. trundle down the hall. weeping baby standing at her door snuffling and sniffling and holding her arms out. scooped her up (with many complaints from my back) and got her diaper changed, and went into the kitchen to get her some juice to drink. by the time i got back to her room, she was already fast asleep again! lol. so i tucked her juice in beside her, and went back out and finished up the movie.

it was about 11:15 by now, so i said, ok, off to bed with me..... no sooner did i walk down the hall than i hear MAAAA-MAAAAA....MAAAA(sobbing)MAAAA.... so back i go. she was at her door. crying. so i got into bed with her - by this point, she is DEFINITELY burning up - i gave her some tylenol and we laid down together. she tossed and turned, but finally conked back out, as did i.

5 this morning, i feel a little fat finger poking me insistently in my ribs. i squeezed my eyes shut, thinking if i just played possum, she'd go back to sleep. well, guess what. that doesn't work! ;o) lol. so i got up, stumbled to the kitchen (not very well-coordinated at 5 am), got some juice and water for her, back to the bedroom, changed her diaper, and laid down and closed my eyes. she tried, half-heartedly, to wake me up for about 5 minutes, then i felt her lay down and settle into a very calm position, and she fell back sleep until 6:30.

now 6:30, while still agonizingly early for me, is a whole lot better than 5! so we got on up, into the family room, turned on the ever-present spongebob, and i laid down on the sofa, and she sat on me (her favorite thing to do). well, after about 10 or 15 minutes, she laid down on me with her head on my chest. i just absentmindedly rubbed her back while pondering the many unexplainably wise things about spongebob.... and then i felt her drooling on my arm. realized she was asleep!!! so i laid there, in this sort of semi-contorted position, for another hour while she dozed. :o) well worth it, as when she woke up, she was considerably cooler, considerably happier, and bouncing off the walls. YAY MOMMY POWER! YEAH!

lol

then j woke up whining, "i have a sore throoooooat, mommy! IT HURTS!" i thought, lord, why? lol i should explain - today is my daddy's birthday, and as a surprise we are all taking him to see a norfolk tides baseball game tonight. dad is a huge baseball fan, and j has never been to a "real" game before, so it'll be terrific. however, of all days for the kids to be less than 100%, ya know?! however, i dosed him with some cold meds (we have all been sneezing and sniffling a bit) and gave him some ice water, and once he had breakfast, he said he felt "mostly" better. i gave him a nutty buddy - that topped him over into the "all better" category. ;o)

oh, i forgot to mention, fire hydrant lady was back at vbs last night. lol last night's topics of conversation were how she disciplines her children (often and heavily) and her mother-in-law. that, plus the c puke episode, made last night most memorable. ;o) 'nuff said, my friends. 'nuff said!

so today is going to be busy bee. the plan is for me to pack the kids' stuff pretty soon here (c is napping), do some laundry (ever-present!), then we're leaving at about 3:30 to go to my parent's house and surprise my dad. can't wait. :o) mom is in on the gig, but dad has no idea.... it will be so cool. i love my daddy. :oD

i did talk to my mom about keeping j&c tomorrow through tuesday, as she hasn't had a visit with them in a while THANKS TO THE FACT I DO NOT HAVE A CAR *ahem*. she said she'd love to... so that means tomorrow night i can take d to the mall to spend the rest of his birthday money, and maybe find myself a few pretty somethings. although i have profound difficulty spending money on myself, i need to try that. :o) then monday and tuesday will be MINE. ALL MINE. hooray!

i just got the tickets printed for tonight. it is going to be *so fun*. daddy is so hard to shop for - one of those "oh, i have everything i need don't buy me anything" types, but i want to give him something because lord knows he has done more than i could ever talk about for ME! so the baseball game was m's idea, and what a terrific idea it was! they are a minor league team - so the ticket prices were insanely reasonable - $11 for box seats. gotta love it, eh wot? :oD

of course, the food will probably be prohibitively expensive. the tough part is going to be keeping daddy from buying US dinner. lol!

potty training update - c is doing ok with it. she kind of goes off and on with the whole potty thing - sometimes she'll tell me she has to go potty BEFORE she actually has to go, but sometimes it's a little after the fact. ;o) it's kind of a back and forth thing. i've actually set up a reminder on my cell now to remind me every half hour to take her to the potty and see if she has to go... maybe that will help. we'll see! oh, i learned A Very Important Lesson this morning. do not ever - repeat - EVER leave a two-year-old in a bathroom unattended, even for two seconds, while she is on the potty. i did that this morning - walked into the attached bedroom (my room) to get something, peeped back in, and found that my little sweet girl had disappeared and been replaced by something resembling a toddler mummy. coincidentally, the toilet paper roll was nearly empty...................

and yes, it was doggone funny. *snickering* *marsing* *milky waying* *three musketeering* *butterfingering* (killing the joke here)

i am currently purchasing tickets for "walking with dinosaurs" for j's birthday in september. my parents are giving him 2 tickets (i'll be the one taking him) to go see this AMAZING live-animation dinosaur show. it's a $12M budget show, and if you go to ticketmaster.com, look it up, and look for the movie - or try this link, see if it works: http://media.livedaily.com/tmvideo/wwdinosaurs_1117759.html

it looks AMAZING. and we scored awesome seats, head-on to the stage area, so - it should be interesting. he'll either love it or be terrified of it. ;o) probably both! i should point out the dinosaurs are going to be pretty close to what size they WERE when they were alive. in other words - H U G E!

and while i'm on the subject of tickets, i have a problem with ticketmaster! what is WITH the time limits on every page? i don't object to the time limits in general, but my lord, some of them are prohibitive! i type fast, and i barely make it under the gun... lol! YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE TO COMPLETE THIS PAGE. and there's something like 10 fields to fill out. rofl. whatever! ;o) it does give one a sense of accomplishment to actually purchase tickets, put in fresh credit card information into one's account, and do it all under the gun.

ok, i got the tickets! j is going to DIE. he is going to absolutely die. lol. it looks like an amazing show, i have to admit. i hope that movie link works. the show is not a movie - it is actual live animation dinosaur models that, apparently, move amazingly realistically, roar, stalk prey, everything. the terrific thing is that the show is running right over j's birthday weekend in september, so i can take him to see the show on sunday after his birthday on saturday. perfect! :o)

so that's about it from la la land here in hicksville, usa. ;o) i better get my patootie into gear - with my back hurting, it takes a little longer to do what needs doing, but it'll get done. you know that. ;o)

tonight is going to be fabulous... i'm going to take scads of pictures, and j is going to wear his tee-ball baseball cap, and take his glove, "just in case, mama, they might hit a ball up to me!" ;o) i love that boy to pieces.

ta-ta!