Helpful Hint

Um, if you are ever stupid like me and accidentally use a Sharpie to write on your dry erase board, a little rubbing alcohol will take it off.

Not that anyone else would be so stupid. What the hell am I doing with a green sharpie anyway?

Sunday Show and Tell #7

It’s time for Show and Tell again. And I’m heading back to my travel theme.

Back in February of 2005, I had the amazing opportunity to go with Jake to Paris. We used miles for my flight, work paid for Jake’s, and we had enough Hilton points to make the one night of hotel we had to pay (an extra night over what Jake had to stay for work) free. We stayed at the Hilton Paris.

We arrived on a Thursday morning, having flown all night. We ate at a lovely cafe near our hotel and were able to check in to our hotel. And then we made the horrible mistake of taking a nap. NEVER EVER do that. Stupid amateur mistake. So we fought jet lag the rest of the trip, which was awful. But Friday morning/afternoon, we were up and about and on our way to Notre Dame. This is me sitting in front of our hotel waiting for Jake to go back up to the room to get something.

We were really that close to the Eiffel Tower. But here’s a secret  - the Eiffel Tower is not really such a great place to be in Paris. It’s not really all that close to anything else. But it sure is pretty. Did you know the Eiffel Tower sparkles at night? Here’s a picture from our hotel window.

Paris is beautiful and I loved the Louvre and Notre Dame, but it didn’t capture my heart they way it does with some people. I much preferred our last day spent in Normandy, where we lucked into a fantastic tour of the beaches and WWII sites.

This is Omaha Beach from the American cemetery there.

I’d love to go back to France and spend more time in the rest of the country. One day perhaps.

Roseola Confirmed

The doctor sure called it correctly. The day after Bridget’s fever broke, she woke up with an ugly rash on her tummy, chest and back. It’s also a bit on her neck and face but not as bad there. It’s slightly raised but not too much and it doesn’t seem to bother her at all.

Poor Monkey is still not back to her old self yet. She’s still sleepy and pretty clingy. She slept for about four hours today and then went on one errand with Jake that seemed to wear her our. Although I can honestly say that a trip to Frye’s wears me out too, so it could just be that particular errand that sucked the life out of her. When they came home she was crying and only wanted me to hold her. She was hungry but wouldn’t eat much. I made Jake give her a bath just because I know that I always feel better after a bath, especially when I’m sick.

I’m glad we are almost at the end of this particular bout of illness. This has sucked like a two-dollar whore. And you can quote me on that.

The Pizza Man Always Rings Twice

Or, rings then knocks.

I don’t know why but it annoys the hell out of me when someone rings your doorbell and then follows up immediately with a loud knock. It’s like I didn’t get my ass to the door soon enough for their liking. I just find that incredibly rude, especially when it’s someone ringing my bell unsolicited. If it’s food delivery or UPS - something that I ordered- that’s one thing. Annoying but tolerable. But when you are ringing my bell to sell me something, don’t be a double asshole by doing the ring-knock combo. That’s just jackassery.

Roseola Can Bite My Ass

Since Monday afternoon, poor Bridget has had a fever. She woke up from her afternoon nap with a fever of 103.9. We immediately administered Motrin and snuggles. Tuesday morning she woke up with fever again. I called the pediatrician who called me back and said that it sounded like a virus since she had no other symptoms, most likely roseola. But the thing is, you can’t know for sure it’s roseola until the fever goes away and a rash appears. So we wait.

Today, I gave her Motrin around 8:30 and she went down for a nap. When she woke up the fever was down and it stayed down most of the day, but was back right before bed, although not as high. I’m hoping this is the end of it because good lord, this suuuuuuucks.

Bridget is a very independent kid. She is not a lap sitter. She is a constant ball of motion. But with a fever, she is a lump. She sleeps, she barely eats, she drinks water and juice, and she wants to sit in my lap and watch Elmo. We are now completely out of episodes of Sesame Street on the DVR. I had to go out today and buy her three Elmo DVDs. Because really she only likes Elmo and if an episode of Sesame Street doesn’t have enough Elmo in it, she points at the remote and says “Elmo?” like I need to cut the crap and get her the good stuff.

Not that I think the rash is going to be a bed of roses, but hopefully she’ll eat again and be back in motion again soon.

Great News

We have wind damage over 50% of our roof. That’s fantastic!

I’m actually not being sarcastic. The claims dude reassured me that with the pictures he took of the amount of damage we have thanks to two very windy spring seasons, he just can’t see how they could possibly deny his recommendation of a whole new roof. And all we have to do is pay the deductible. Not an insignificant amount of money to be sure, but far far less than the cost of a new roof. Oh and I think we also get our bedroom repainted thanks to the leak from last week. Which is fortunate for us because we never painted our room and we have been wanting to, and we might get it done professionally with no work on our part.

Score!

Loving Tori and Dean

In 1991 I was the only freak in my age group who did not watch Beverly Hills 90210 or Melrose Place. My family always only had one TV in the house and you can bet your sweet ass that my parents were not going to watch teeny-bopper drama. So I can honestly tell you that I have no idea the character names or really even who starred on either of the shows. In college, when my friends would get together to make these shows an event, I was always annoying them by asking a zillion questions and making fun of the story lines and dialog. I was asked to leave on more than one occasion.

That being said, I know very little about Tori Spelling except some random bits I’ve seen on TV or in magazines. But last week, after watching Kathy Griffin’s show on Bravo and Tori and Dean’s reality show came on. I was just wrapping up some work and only halfway paying attention but I found myself charmed by Tori Spelling. I think she’s just adorable, and she calls her son Monkey just like we call Bridget Monkey. It’s a match made in heaven.

So I set some season passes and am now ensconced on the couch while Bridget snoozes off her Motrin stupor, watching all my recorded episodes. And now I’m going to make sure that I always have some of this fluff to watch for mindless entertainment.

Mystery Fever

Today Bridget napped for over three hours. I thought that was a bit odd but I welcomed the respite because I pulled my hamstring at the gym today. She cried out a few times but settled quickly and kept on sleeping.

When I went to get her, she was burning up. Her head, her arms, her stomach were all very hot to the touch. I took her temperature and was shocked to see that it was 102.8. And nothing else seemed to be wrong with her. She acted like she felt fine, chatting and walking around, demanding “shishies” which are goldfish crackers and “wawer” to drink. We gave her some Motrin and the fever started to go down. She was sleepy from the Motrin and sat in my lap for a good half hour to watch Elmo (thank god for DVR so that we can record Sesame Street and watch when Elmo is demanded) which is not like her to do.

By bedtime, her fever was down and she was sleepy still but went to bed with little crying.

I don’t know why this bothers me so much. It’s just a fever. And I’m glad she doesn’t seem to feel bad. But it worries me that I can’t seem to pinpoint the reason for the fever. At least if she had a cough or a stuffy nose, I could understand. She’s not pulling at her ears or anything but I know that doesn’t mean she couldn’t have an ear infection. I’m about to go check on her to see if her fever is back. I guess if she still has a fever tomorrow I’ll take her to the doctor.

Poor monkey. As nice as it is to have her sit quietly in my lap for a stretch of time, I know that it’s not really her.  Although I am secretly hoping she wakes up when I go up there in a minute, because I’ll get to hold her if she wakes up. And I love to hold her in the middle of the night when she’s all sleepy and limp and just wants to put her head on my shoulder and be rocked. Better than crack, that is.

Sunday Show and Tell #6

Time once again for Mel’s Sunday Show and Tell.

Today is my parents’ 40th wedding anniversary. Can you even imagine being married for FORTY YEARS??? I guess that’s hard for me to fathom, since it’s longer than I’ve been alive. But wow.

When they got married my dad had just turned 20 and my mom was about to turn 21. Their parents had to sign paperwork giving them permission to get married because in Missouri in 1968, you had to be 21 to get married. Can you imagine the 20 year old you getting married? I sure can’t. I think of who my choice of a spouse would have been at that point in my life and I shudder. Thankfully, they chose wisely.

Here they are, 40 years ago today. Mere babes, aren’t they?

Totzilla vs. Mommy Zombie

Everyone said it would happen. I just never thought it would happen to me. I have the sweetest child in the universe. Or she was, until she turned 19 months old.

Holy crap.

I don’t have the energy or writing skills to lay it all out in any sort of entertaining way. It’s just bad. Could be a combination of Jake having been out of town, moving to one nap per day, and just being a toddler. But the fits. Oh dear, the fits. I call them Screamers. The other night, she had two Screamers at bedtime - one right before the bath because I took the thermometer from her so she screamed through her entire bath, then a second one after she got calmed down because I read her the wrong book.

I know it’s her age most of all. She’s reaching a point where she understands more and recognizes her own wants and needs. But she lacks the ability to communicate them a lot of the time and other times she can communicate them, but she gets no say in what happens to her. That has got to be so frustrating. I try to sympathize and communicate clearly so she understands what is happening. It doesn’t always work, mind you, but it’s all I can think of to do.

All this I can handle. Believe it or not, the Screamers are easy enough for me to handle because they burn themselves out fairly quickly if you just ignore them and speak softly to her. (That trick really does work, by the way. Talk just above a whisper and eventually they have to shut up so they can hear you.)

What I can’t handle is the crying at bedtime. We were so lucky with Bridget and her sleeping. We got it under control within a day or two of moving her to her own room, never really had to let her Cry It Out, and always put her to bed when she was awake. She was a natural born self-soother. So I have no Cry It Out callous. These days, she cries every night when we put her to bed. Every.single.night. And I hate the idea of her crying herself to sleep. At the same time, I know that me going in there is not going to do her any good at all. It will only prolong the process and cut into her desperately needed sleep time. She really doesn’t cry for long, less than five minutes but it rips my heart out.

The other new development is her separation anxiety. We started her at Mother’s Day Out when she was 13 months old. She cried one time there, on her first day. And it was not when we left her - it was when they made her take a nap. And then every day after that, she never cried again. Even when her fingers got caught in the door. But twice this past week, when I dropped her off, she was clingy, asking to be picked up and crying for me when I left. It didn’t last long, I know for certain because I stepped to where she couldn’t see me, but I could hear and the crying stopped almost immediately. Wow, does that really sting, to hear your normally independent kid crying for you and to NOT go to her. Ouch. How about you give me a paper cut and pour a little lemon juice on it while we’re at it, huh?

I think that I’m going to go back to two naps a day on her non MDO days, because she does better all around when she has two naps. I may have rushed her into that for my own convenience. Jake’s home now and that’ll help a lot, I think. I also don’t think he has another long trip planned for a while. I know that she really did miss him, although now that he’s home, you’d never know it. She threw another fit tonight at bedtime because Jake put her to bed instead of me. She’ll be over that tomorrow, though, I’m sure.

However, I am really getting worried about leaving her for four nights when we go to Mexico. I feel sick to my stomach right now just thinking about it. I know she’ll be fine. I know she’ll go with the flow and be mostly very good for Jake’s mom. But I worry that my last picture of her will be of her crying for me and I’ll be expected to go sit on a beach and try to relax, when I’m worrying over how she’s dealing with life without us for five whole days. I can’t think about it anymore. Oh look, a puppy.

If you are keeping score, I think Totzilla is kicking Mommy Zombie’s ass right now. Hopefully I can come back in the sequel.