Being Sick Has No Value At All

I hate being sick.  Being sick is such a waste of valuable time.  As appealing as spending a whole day in bed sometimes is, when you have a kid that isn't going to happen, so that brings us back to sick=a big old miserable waste of time.  As much as I hate being sick myself, I hate when Dylan is sick even more.
He's been remarkably healthy so far in his young life, so it always catches me off guard.  I suddenly feel helpless, and unable to make the simplest decision.  Do I let him sleep through dinner, or wake him up and try to get him to eat something?  If he still has a fever after I give him one dose, how soon can I give him another?  I could go on and on.  I usually end up calling MY mommy.

He's had "the sniffles" for almost a month.  I figured there was no point in taking him to the doctor's because they would just say "cold", and send us home with more germs than we had before going in.
But Monday, he started coughing too.  The only appointment they had was at 4pm, so I took it.  We went to the library in the morning to get new books, then came home for a nap before the appointment.

The snow started on our way there.  We waited for 40 minutes before seeing the doctor.  I had to bite my tongue so I wouldn't laugh, when the doctor strolled in completely unapologetic, and Dylan said, "You know, that was a long time to wait!"  I couldn't stop myself from laughing at the end of the appointment, when he said, "Doctor?  You forgot something... You didn't do the hammer thing on my knee to make my leg go ... BOING!"(jerking his leg up).

Luckily, the doctor agreed to call in an antibiotic.  Unluckily, the snow was so bad by then, that I couldn't stop to pick it up.   A drive that normally takes 20 minutes, took us 1 hour!

Yesterday, Dylan was in a semi-zombie state.  He slept and sat staring into space and moaning, "I'm really sick".  It's a bit unnerving when a kid who normally cannot be still, and cannot stop talking is suddenly comatose on the couch.

Today he threw up twice, and slept a lot, but he also talked and played some.  I knew he was getting back to his normal self when he started asking me the kind of questions that have us going in circles, and me thinking I should look for a dictionary.  We were reading a book and it said, "Some things are worth waiting for".  "What's "worth"?, he asked.  "Ummm, they mean that it was okay to wait, because it ended up being so much fun".  "But, what's "worth"?  "Um... the value you put on something".  "What's value?"  "How much something is worth to you... Errr, I mean.... Sigh...let me get a dictionary".  So, yea, things are getting back to normal.  Maybe we'll even leave the house sometime this week?

Six Hours?!

Did you ever spend six hours sitting in a restaurant, talking to a person that up until that point you had never met?  I never did... until today.  The plan was that I was going to meet Jenn from Juggling Life at Max & Erma's for lunch, at 12:00.  I figured we would leave there around 2:00, and go to a museum in Pittsburgh.  Not quite.

I think we momentarily broke from our gab fest, around 5:00.  We looked at our watches, and I was stunned it was that late.  But, even then, did we stop?  Nope.  Just kept gabbing for another hour!  If you don't have the privilege of knowing Jenn, she is from California, and is in the Pittsburgh area checking out colleges with her son.  She got here Thursday.  Friday, the Pittsburgh area had its hottest day since summer, with temperatures in the 60's.  Tonight, when I left poor Jenn, it looked like this...

Hopefully, she was still smiling like this when she finally made it back to her hotel!

I told Jenn that I couldn't remember the last time I spent more than a couple hours with a friend.  Most of my friends have young children, and can only get away for a couple hours at a time.  I was also saying that I hate it when I'm out with a friend, and she has to call home every five minutes to check on things.  We agreed that women should be able to trust their husbands to look after the kids for a couple hours.

So, I was laughing, when I came home to complete chaos!  Dylan was on the floor crying pitifully, like life was ending, and Jim was on the floor cleaning up a mess, and looking extremely annoyed.  He was muttering something about spilled milk and having had enough.  Dylan was muttering something about he wanted a treat, but Daddy said he was done.  Ahhhh, home sweet home!

Oh well, Mommy swooped in and calmed everyone down, and all is well once again.  Oh, and did I mention that I'm moving to California, so I can hang with Jenn all the time?  Yep!!!!!!!!!!!! (Yea, I can see how that's annoying Jenn).

I Forget. What is Calgon? Because I Need It To Take Me Away.

I've been having a week.  What kind of week?  Well, let's see...

On Monday, (Valentine's Day), Dylan and I met a friend and her son for lunch, and
she told me she might be moving.  I don't have a lot of "lives near enough to see on a regular
basis" friends, so I find this completely unacceptable.

On Tuesday, I found out that there's a possibility that I broke my mom's toe. (She's seeing a doctor
today).  I was also asked, by my dad, to make a very last minute, stressful decision about going on a
vacation with them.  There are many factors involved I won't go into, but I will just say, "Got guilt?"

On Wednesday, I was working on something online, and became convinced that I am going
senile.  I really thought I was getting better with computers, but on Wednesday, I could not
figure out even the simplest thing.  When my dad brought Dylan back, (he was at their house for the
day), he asked if I gave him extra syrup with his waffle that morning.  Seems he was "a bit of a handful".

Last night, he was acting like he was possessed.  First he started singing in a very strange, scary voice.  Then, while "cleaning up" he threw a foam (thank goodness!) letter at Jim's face.  Time out.  Jim puts him to bed, and I felt bad, listening to the yelling and complete madness going on upstairs (not bad enough to go upstairs, though!)  When Jim came back down, he informed me, "That was THE WORST he has been in, oh, about FOUR YEARS!!".

He hasn't had a time out in months, but in the past 2 days?  Well, the count is now at 4.  The last one was right after lunch, when I was at the table, busy reading some papers he brought home from school, and he threw a small basketball right onto the table, resulting in flying food, papers, dishes, and a screaming lunatic mommy. (No, it wasn't an accident.  He wanted my attention).  His teacher at school confirmed that they've been having "some trouble getting him to listen to directions" lately.

I'm not sure what is going on, but I'm supposed to meet one of my favorite bloggy friends, Jenn, from Juggling Life, this weekend.  I hope, by that point, I don't look like this...

(Image found at...http://www.computerclipart.com/computer_clipart_images/insane_person_in_straight_jacket_0515-1007-0603-5227.html)

A Little Wacky

Jim thinks it's weird that I remember the way my first grade teacher would hug us as we came into class.
He thinks it's weird that I remember the name of a certain boy, in second grade, stealing my vowel squares, so I couldn't make any words.  He thinks it's weird that I remember the name of almost every teacher I ever had.  He thinks it's weird that I remember books from my childhood in vivid detail.

I think it's weird that he doesn't.

Lately, I've been getting books for Dylan from the library each Monday.  This past Monday, when I saw the book "Wacky Wednesday" on the shelf, the memories came rushing back.  I'm not sure how old I was when I got the book out from the library, but before I even opened the book, I remembered what was on the first page.  I remembered loving the book as a kid.  I remembered how silly I thought it was, and how fun I thought it was to try and find all the wacky things on each page.  I grabbed it to bring home.

Dylan is a very discerning reader.  He will often decide he doesn't even want to look inside a book, simply by looking at the cover.  If the book doesn't feature a character he already knows and loves, it might take me a bit on convincing to get him to "allow" me to read it to him.  That was the case with this book.  But, I know my kid, and all I had to say was, "It's really SILLY!", to get him interested.

At this age, anything that is not quite "right", or that doesn't make sense, is "silly", and usually results in loads of giggles.  The book was a hit.  After reading it a few bazillion times, he had to make his own "wacky" drawing.

We've also been looking for "wacky" things all around the house.  "This huge pile of papers on the kitchen table, where I need to put dinner?  Well, that's just WACKY!!", I yell, followed by a round of giggles from my sidekick.  "This dustbunny on the floor in the bedroom that could probably eat a small child?!  WACKY!"  "The fact that I am the only one who seems to understand that the things on the bottom steps are there because they need to go upstairs?  WACKY!!"

There's a lot of wacky things going on in this house.  I really should have posted this post on Wednesday, instead of a Thursday, but I ran out of time.   I'm wacky like that.

What Happened Last Night

Last night we celebrated my dad's 70th birthday.  On the way to meet my parents at Olive Garden for dinner, we passed the car of a Steelers fan.  They had their window down, and were waving a Steelers flag, shouting, and beeping the horn.  Jim remarked, "If we lose this game, they're going to need to put Prozac in the Pittsburgh drinking water tomorrow".

This morning, when I woke Dylan up, we were talking.  

"We had fun with Mi-Mi and Bubba last night, didn't we?", I asked.

"Sure did!", he smiled.

"Too bad the Steelers lost the game".

His face crumpled, and he honestly looked like he was gonna cry. "They did?!  But, Bubba said they were gonna win!"

"Well, Dylan, sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose".

"Yea, that's just what happens".

So, there you go Pittsburghers.  Kids have a way of putting things in perspective, don't they?

But, it wouldn't hurt to drink lots of water today.

Free Is GOOD!

A few days ago, I saw a contest over at Burgh Baby.  A contest to win four free tickets to see Madagascar Live, to be exact.  Here's where it gets a little weird.  As I was leaving a comment, I had a premonition.  I saw myself on the phone calling Jim, saying "I won tickets!"  

Now, I'm not saying I believe in premonitions, but I'm not saying I don't either.  But, I really didn't want to get my hopes up and then be all mopey later, so I put it out of my head.  I really, really wanted to win, because I thought Dylan would love it.  Plus there is the little detail that if we had to pay for tickets, we might be able to go... when Dylan is a teenager.

So, I had put the contest thing completely out of my head... until I saw an email from Burgh Baby's Mom in my inbox.  There may have been some shrieking before I even opened the email.  That was at about 11am yesterday.  Then, I called Jim, and said, "Jim!  I won tickets to Madagascar... for tonight!"  He said at first he thought we were flying to the actual Madagascar.

The confusion continued when I called my dad, whose birthday is on Sunday, to see if he wanted to go with us.  "What is this?  Some kind of CAR show?"  Perhaps I was so excited I wasn't being very clear?

When I picked Dylan up at preschool, I told him.  "Is there going to be a stage or a screen?"  (His only experience with a screen, at the Science Center, did not go over so well).  When he heard there was a stage, all was well.  I told him that we would watch the movie "Madagascar" when we got home.  One problem... I discovered we don't actually HAVE the movie.  Luckily, there were a few stories with the penguins on On Demand that we watched.

My dad, Dylan, and I were supposed to park in the garage that Jim parks in every day for work, and he would meet us there.  Well, I got completely disoriented and parked in the wrong garage, so we might have had to walk several blocks in the FREEZING COLD.  By the time we finally connected with Jim, I didn't care where we ate dinner, as long as it was as close as possible, so we ducked into the first place we saw.

I think we were the only people in the place, and I know Dylan was the only kid in the place.  It wasn't exactly a place that I imagine a lot of kids frequenting.  The waitress went bananas over Dylan.  He was eating it up, and was completely won over when she brought him ice cream with chocolate sauce - for free.  Not the best idea to give an already hyper child sugar right before the show, but what was I gonna do?  As we were leaving, she kept saying "Come back and tell me how the show was, okay?"

The show was AWESOME!  I won't say that Dylan sat STILL, but it certainly kept his interest, and we stayed for the whole thing.  When it was over, he asked, "When is the next part?"  It was past his bedtime and he was ready to MOVE IT, MOVE IT.  "Well, now what are we gonna do?!", he yelled, looking up at the tall buildings.  I don't think my kid is a country boy.  He loves the city.  Of course, he said we had to go back to the restaurant to tell the waitress how the show was.

Today, when I woke him up, the first thing that groggy kid said was, "Can we go see that show today?"

Good/Bad

I really should carry a little notebook around in my back pocket, because Dylan is always saying something funny, that I want to remember.  Sometimes, though, by the time I get to where I can write something down, I've completely forgotten what he said.  But, here are a couple gems from this week...

The Good:  "Mommy, what does "bored" mean?"
"Bored is when you can't think of anything to do.  You don't really have anything to do".
(After thinking about that a few minutes)  "I'm never bored!  I can always think of something to do".

The Bad:  (Showing me a broom handle) "Mommy, what does this say?"
"It says "Dirt Devil" ".
"Dirt Devil?"
"Yep".
"That's you!"
"Excuse me?!"
"You're a dirt devil!"