Video

I'm heading out of town (and, naturally, toward the blazing wildfires of southern California) so I'm posting this video mostly for me. He's been having a week of monster temper tantrums so it's actually quite nice to see video evidence him acting like an adorable and reasonable little boy here rather than a kid willing to throw himself down in the school parking lot screaming that he does NOT want to go home.

After this trip, I'm home for the duration. I am about to hit my third trimester (finally!) and the countdown is almost under the three-month mark. Sure, that's still many, many days left; days where I'm only going to become more and more enormous, but it's nice to see the finish line appearing ever so far off in the distance. Once I get back, I need to spend some time cleaning out the computer room in preparation for moving all the equipment down to the basement and turning this into the nursery once again. I'm rather looking forward to it. Well, right now anyway.

Meanwhile, I tried in vain last night to get Blogger to upload this successfully, but it turns out it's not good at videos over a few seconds so I had to go back to YouTube. Let me know if you have any problems.

What Would Miss Manners Do?

Recently, Andy was invited to a birthday party for a friend of his who will be turning three next month. Shortly thereafter, I got an e-mail from the hostess to the guest list telling us that the party location is relatively small and therefore other siblings (mostly youngest) are not invited. She copied all of us so that we would know who else was invited to make babysitting arrangements.

Having only one kid, it didn't really occur to me about not inviting the other siblings, but upon thinking about it, I did recall a friend complaining that her four-year-old daughter's party at the Little Gym ended up costing $200 extra because parents brought other siblings and they went over their allotment of kids at the group rate.

The whole thing was interesting and made me wonder what Miss Manners would do. I know for adults, the deal is you put on the invitation the names of who you want to invite. So if Bjorn and I are invited to a party and Andy is not, the envelope would be addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Awesome, not Mr. and Mrs. Awesome, Mr. Andy Awesome.

But for kids this age, obviously the parents have to be invited, too. Do you get that specific on the envelope? And what if you know the kid, but not the parents? I'm glad this isn't a problem we've run into, but it made me think. You're thoughts?

On the mend

Amazing how a course of antibiotics can do a body good. After Andy got his first course Saturday afternoon, by Sunday morning his eyes were goop free and even his nose had started to clear up. He was still a little ornery, but generally his symptoms were much improved. What a relief. I'm still washing my hands every 15 minutes to make sure I don't catch anything else, either from him or life.

Going into the marathon that is work for me for the next week, I know that working 16 hour days is tough enough without getting sick. And of course, being 6 months pregnant is going to make me tired enough as it is. I just can't wait for it to be November 1 and this busy season is over for me for another year.

Infection: 39, Maternal Instinct: 2

Once again, my maternal instincts have been trumped by the all-knowing infection family. Turns out Andy didn't just have a cold, he has a massive sinus infection complete with two ear infections. Although he first showed signs on Wednesday, the only thing particularly notable about this cold was the fact that his eyes seemed, for lack of a better word, goopy. At first they were really watery, but that turned into eyes full of "sleep," in fact, so full that we had to put warm compresses on his eyes to get the goop to soften and come off.

I have been so totally swamped with work (which will end, more of less in two weeks, thankfully) that I couldn't get him to the doctor yesterday. In fact, I kept looking at him, gauging his demeanor and figuring it was just a cold. By last night though, I finally got a chance to Google "mucus and eyes and cold" only to find about four dozen entries on pink eye, which apparently can be caused by a cold or other infection. "Great. Just friggin great," I told myself. "Now not only is he sick, but he's got something super contagious. Is my eye itching?" It would be just my luck with this pregnancy to end up with the stomach flu, strep throat AND pink eye.

Bjorn took him to the doctor's this morning. Apparently they have sick only walk-in hours from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturdays. The diagnosis was a sinus infection with a double ear infection with the possibility of conjunctivitis (she wasn't going to do a culture because apparently the treatment for both the sinus infection and the conjunctivitis is antibiotics). So he's now on Supramax to the tune of $50 for a 10 day supply (damn my new Aetna insurance bites if antibiotics cost that much). The doctor expected that by the third dose, he would be much, much better although we have to come back in two weeks to get the ears looked at again. I just hope this doesn't turn into another string of ear infections that we just can't cure like last spring.

The Patient

Andy is still sick today. He did sleep better last night, as did I since Bjorn got up with him twice while I slept through the whole thing. Poor guy still has fever, runny nose, goopy eyes and loose stools, but generally he's in pretty good spirits. Bjorn stayed home with him most of the day until I got home about 3 p.m. so Bjorn could head to the office. Fortunately, he has a few retail clients that are open until 9 p.m. so we both ended up having a mostly full workday despite Andy illness.

Meanwhile, if you're familiar with the Thomas the Tank Engine toys and shows, you will likely get a kick out of this. More proof that to me that wine and children do mix.

Figures

It was bound to happen. After I have had the stomach flu and strep throat and Bjorn has had a sinus infection, odds are Andy would be the next in line to get sick. Naturally this comes during the busiest season of the year for me at work so in addition to stressing about him not feeling great and waking up every half hour last night, I was worried about my schedule. Sigh. It's never easy, is it? I haven't figured out how this is going to work with two yet.

Also, my digital camera is acting weird and I'm taking that as an excuse to start looking for a new one. I have a Kodak EasyShare that I have liked, the second generation for me, but now I'm looking for a pretty small camera that I can more easily put in my purse. Heaven forbid I not have the ability to whip out the camera and take adorable kid pictures. Like the TiVo, this is required gear for a new baby, right? Anyone have a camera they can recommend?

Burke Fall Festival

We had a blind date of sorts yesterday, meeting a friend of Andy's from school and her mother at the fall festival at the Burke Nursery. The kids are BFF and play together quite nicely at school, but her mother and I don't know each other that well so it felt a little blind-date-ish, although clearly we have a lot in common. It was nice talking with her and definitely made me think more outings like that would be fun in the future. Plus, the festival was way more fun when I had an adult to talk to while he had a friend to play with.

It was a nice day to be out -- the weather was sunny, but cool. Plus the festival wasn't that crowded in the morning. It was better for us than Cox Farms this year in that it was smaller and more geared toward the younger crowd with more short slides and climbing stuff than lots of big tall slides. Not to mention the exciting hay ride that doesn't have any hay either on the tractor or the bed (why not just call it a tractor ride?) I figure Andy has another year at this festival before he's totally bored with it

Welcome Tivo 2.0

Sure, with a new kid on a way we have lots of reasonable things to be spending money on, like baby clothes and supplies. Heck, maybe some bedding and decor. Perhaps a stroller than can accommodate two. But rather than do any of that, Bjorn so kindly bought me a new Tivo. He is clearly a sweet, kind man who will be honored now and in the afterlife. Sure, he bought it partly to make up for all the hours and hours he's spending reffing youth football. And sure, it turns out my love and forgiveness can be bought (although sad that the price tag is so low).

In any event, I wanted one that we could use upstairs. Andy loves watching Thomas and Friends that we have Tivoed downstairs since it comes on during the day. Letting him watch one Thomas before bed is easy since they're only five minutes, but afterwards, he pitches a fit about having to go to bed and I'm getting too big and he's getting too heavy to carry all the way upstairs. This also means I can record the programs that Bjorn would mock me for recording on our communal Tivo (namely anything on SoapNet).

The new system installed like a charm although my cheap Trutech TV from Target won't work with the Tivo remote so I have to use two remotes, one for Tivo and another for power and volume. I was also surprised to realize that we have to pay separately (on two bills, oddly) for each Tivo in the house. The new deal is only $6.95 a month, but still...it's irritating after already sending them $12 a month. I do love it though.

Penises

In addition to showing more interest in potty training, Andy is showing more interest in his penis. It makes sense really. That's where pee comes from and it's got to be pretty cool for him to be figuring out how all that works. Of course, now we're getting into the awkward gender stuff.

Andy: Daddy, you have a penis?
Bjorn: Yes, just like Andy.
Andy: Like Andy...And Markie, he has a penis?
Bjorn: Yes, Markie has a penis, too.
Andy: And Mommy has a penis?
Bjorn: No, Mommy is a girl. Girls don't have penises.
Andy: Girls don't have penises?

So naturally that set up a whole list they had to go through of who had a penis and who didn't. This is all good. He's learning about his body, he's using the proper terms. The only bad part is now he feels the need to announce a random times, "Mommy, you don't have a penis?" It hasn't happened yet, but I feel sure the time is coming when he asks that during check-out at the store.

Oh my

See the picture of the playground to the left? It's a public playground in McLean called Clemyjontri and all I can really say about it is, "Wow." It's a park that is built to be handicapped accessible, but it's just so darn awesome that half of Fairfax County was there at 10 a.m. this morning even though this is virtually no shade at the park and it was nearly 90 degrees and humid, even that early.

The problem with the park though is it's, well, too big. There was so much to see that Mo and I spent most of the time trying to keep an eye on where the kids had run off to so we didn't really get a chance to visit. Course, it was hot and sunny so there really wasn't a good place to sit and visit.

We did go on the carousel in the middle of the park. Andy quite adamantly said he didn't want to go, but I did force him to sit on the seat with me. After initial protests, he did like it, but I am growing tired of being the lady forcing her kid to try the moon bounce, the slide, the pool, the carousel, etc.

This is bringing me to a bit of a dilemma. I want Andy to feel comfortable and not force him into situations that scare him. But at the same time, I find myself wanting to just make him try something before he decides it scares him. I know, he'll get there at his own pace, blah, blah, blah, but I find myself irritated as I watch all his friends just jumping right in with both feet, so to speak. I appreciate his caution; it certainly makes for fewer trips to the emergency rooms at the moment. I just hate to think he's missing out on something his peers are doing just because he doesn't want to give it a try.

On a completely different side note, Andy and I took a walk last night and ran into a neighbor that we regularly see on our walks. He's a nice enough guy, is about my age and has two kids under four, much like we will have eventually (all though not soon enough is this heat!) As we talked, I mentioned that I was 5-6 months pregnant. His answer, "I thought you had put on a lot of weight."

Seriously, I know I've gained weight, I really do, but was that necessary? Asshat.

Fall Festival

We went to the fall festival today with Andy's playgroup where, luckily, our friends Mo and Mia were going as well with Mia's school. It was unusually hot for October in Virginia (high 80s) and you can tell from how sweaty we were. Andy is proving to be a careful sort -- he didn't want to ride any of the slides "too scary" making the visit sort of a waste since a lot of the festival is riding the slides. I did force him against his will onto the hay ride, which he did like once we got moving, but it took some convincing. His favorite part was driving the tractor and climbing up hills, well, the ones that weren't "too high."

Spiderman

Behold, the cutest Spidey ever. Well, on our block anyway. It took a few days of talking about the costume and touching it before Bjorn was able to convince him to finally try it on (over his pajamas, hence the bulky look). Since then, he hasn't stopped talking about it. There is a mask that goes with the polyester jumpsuit, but I don't believe he's going to be putting that on his face. I can't say I blame him though. I tried it on to get him interested and it's hard to breathe in that thing.

Also, my doctor called today to say I did have strep throat, you know, a week ago. Turns out going to your OB for a strep test isn't the right place to go since I just found out about it now, but hey, they did give me the antibiotics and I did recover so that's good. My ailment this week is back pain. I'm so far attributing it to sleeping funny as I'm in denial that I'm pregnant enough to have this already. Not that I'm not ready to go ahead and not be pregnant anymore, but I have more than 120 days left of this (hey, I was in a really, really long meeting and somehow counting back from February 2 seemed like a good idea at the time).

Say cheese

Andy loves to get his picture taken. Although I'm not sure if he likes getting the picture taken as much as he likes to see himself on the screen of the digital camera more. Lately he's been quite obsessed with taking my camera out so he can look at the pictures saved and take more (of course, it also gives me a good reason to take more pictures, like getting out his Spider Man costume that my mom got him for Halloween last year to see if it fits and take his picture in it). Now that I've figured out how to upload video to Blogger, I wanted to take some video of him on my camera, but the little bugger can only stay for about 20 seconds in front of the camera before demanding to see the picture so not the highest quality video shoot.

We're still working on potty training. He's not waking up and asking to go, but when we remind him at night, he will sometimes go. He will go often enough in fact that I've had to switch to smaller cookies. Andy's not going at school really yet, but they do put him on the potty there as well and I think eventually it will sink in. Certainly before third grade starts, I imagine.