Lather, rinse, repeat

After a rough couple of days, I am starting to believe that I won't die. By Friday evening, I was starting to feel better. Saturday I was better with the help of Dayquil and Advil and today I haven't needed anything except the tea with honey Bjorn made me earlier. My voice, however, sounds like I smoke four packs of cigarettes and then ate gravel. I would think it would be sexy like Phoebe Buffet ala Friends, but apparently not as I think my voice makes Bjorn think I'm mad about everything.

In the midst of all this, Andy came to our bed at 7 a.m. yesterday morning, before Meg was even awake, naturally, to tell us that his ear hurt. Our pediatrician's office has walk-in hours Saturday morning so at 8:30 we traipsed ourselves over there to find out he was indeed in the early stages of an ear infection. I must say this thing where he can tell me where it hurts so I can fix it is so remarkable, I can't even believe it. This is almost bigger than him not crapping in his pants any longer. Almost. He's now on Augmentin for 10 days. The strep test, fortunately, came back negative.

Everyone was feeling well enough though that we braved the illnesses to hit the George Mason University basketball game Saturday afternoon. I've been meaning to go, well, for years and had finally psyched myself up for it. Lizzie G was even coming in from Alexandria to go with us. I drove by in the morning to buy tickets around 10:45 for a noon game and fans were already lining up. It was their homecoming, but still, it was pretty exciting to see. They also managed to win. The tickets for three adults and one kid were very reasonable -- $52. Four hot dogs and four drinks were a less reasonable $40, but that just speaks to bad planning on our part. We'll do better next time.

Meg was actually much less wiggly than Andy during the game, despite the fact that she was missing her normal nap at that time. But both kids were generally well behaved. The game was close, but Mason pulled out a win at the end. And we even got to watch a proposal on the court (it was Valentine's Day, right?) It was a combination of "aw" and "ew." The worst part was that sitting in front of us was a woman I play indoor against and her totally annoying husband. I recognize them because he comes to our games and sits on their bench and yells out instructions and criticisms during the game. I find it totally annoying and I don't even have to see him every week. I can only imagine what the other women think.

Tia trip

My sister Mary has been visiting this week. Andy has loved having his Tia around and it's been great for me, too (Meg hasn't noticed really, I believe). The plan was originally to drive up and go skiing in Pennsylvania, but a warm winter combined with an early spring meant that the slopes were barely covered in snow, less than ideal for skiing and tubing so we've had to settle for more local entertainment, like shopping, the zoo, the Smithsonian and the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Meanwhile, the NCAA basketball tournament starts Thursday and since I'm not working at the moment, I haven't found a March Madness pool to waste my $10. If you know of one, let me know. Next weekend is my favorite weekend of the year. There are games on all day, they're exciting with lots of upsets and it's not until the end of the weekend that I realize I'm totally out of the pool.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

This weekend is perhaps my favorite weekend of the year. Better than Thanksgiving and better than Christmas in that it's all fun with no work. That's right - I'm talking about March Madness, the NCAA basketball tournament. I love this weekend because the games are on seemingly 24/7 and at this stage, all my hideous brackets in the various pools are still viable. Come Monday, it will be totally obvious that I have no idea what I'm doing. "UCLA winning it all? Hahahaha. Crazy lady. Hand over your $5." But today, I'm still in the hunt. I tried a new strategy for losing all my money this year. I'll let you know if it works.

This weekend is also great because my folks are visiting from Dallas so we've been getting in some good time together. Initial plans when it was going to be 70 and sunny this week were to hit the zoo. Then Washington decided to get a freakish March snow/sleet storm so Mom and I hit the mall today instead. Hopefully the weather will improve and we can do something fun the rest of the weekend.

Andy also managed to pick up a cold this week. They called Thursday to tell me to come get him from school as he was running a fever. D'oh. I hate those calls. True, we noticed he had some sniffles in the morning, but it didn't seem like it was more than seasonal allergies until I picked him up and he was warm and sleepy. Poor guy came home, went to bed at 5 p.m. and slept until 7:30 p.m. when I woke him up for a quick dinner. He then went back to sleep about 8:30 p.m. and slept until 4:45 a.m. when he woke us up shouting, "Daddy! Daddy!" from his room. I'm clearly not the favored parent at the moment, but at 4:45 a.m., that's really okay with me. After a quick book and some water, Andy went back to sleep until 7:30 or so. Of course, Andy has a party tomorrow. It's a "Young Gentleman's Luncheon" to be exact. I hope he's well mostly because I want to find out what that is.

Two year visit

We went to see Dr. Staats today for Andy's two year visit. He weighed in at 28 pounds (on the standing scale, no less). They measured him at 34.5 inches, but he was really, really not into getting measured so I think he's a little taller than that. We initially tried the standing measurer, but the plastic thing on his head really freaked him out. I thought I saw him standing closer to 36, but whatever. Bjorn is freaking out that if the old wives' tale is true and doubling his height at age two (69 inches) means he'll only reach 5'9". Bjorn is the shortest of his brothers at 6'3", but since I'm only 5'2", the cards were stacked against him. Bjorn then consoled himself by vowing to make Andy a really good point guard for basketball.

The doctor said he seems perfect - that his motor skills and verbal ability seem right on target, which is always great to hear. The bad part was he had to get the flu shot and have blood drawn to check for anemia (apparently lots of kids this age don't eat enough iron). He didn't like the finger prick, but he really didn't like shot to his thigh. The nurse did distract him with a lollipop, which went over surprisingly well. You'd think these folks treat kids for a living. Afterwards, he'd forgiven me enough for all this that I had a hard time dragging him out of the waiting room which is filled with really awesome toys. I actually really appreciate that they have tons of great toys. The old pediatrician's office really had nothing for him to play with so it's great that there is so much to see out there. Plus, if he gets into something, I can take it back with us to keep him busy during the appointment. I also like that they have a ramp for strollers. We don't take the stroller out the way we did a few months ago, but it's so nice to have it as an option should I need it.