The barfs

So, what's the protocol when your daughter vomits all over the bathroom at Wal-Mart?

Poor Meg. We went Friday night to the super Wal-Mart so I could get a few groceries and some stocking stuffers (I also need to enjoy that she's still young enough I can slip those past her; Andy is starting to ask some serious questions about Santa). We hadn't made it past the produce section.

"My tummy full. I need to pee."
"Really? Because I just asked you before we left. But okay..."

So we abandon our cart and go into the bathroom. For some reason, I picked the handicapped stall. The toilet's too tall, but there's room for me to stand with her.

"I can't go!" She whines. And I start to get annoyed because she's doing this a lot lately when she wants a change of scenery. Not this time.
"Meg!"
"My tummy...." And then she proceeds to throw up forward all over the floor. Fortunately, she spares my clothes, but I'm looking around wondering how in the world I'm going to handle this. She then throws up another time. The first was all red, compliments of the "red" party at her school on Friday where everyone brought in something colored red. I know, good times.

By now, she's crying and I'm trying to comfort her without covering myself or stepping in the mess all over the floor while wondering if the barfs are done. After a brief assessment of the situation, I hang up my coat and purse, take off all her clothes and start cleaning her up in the sink. Naturally the other lady in the bathroom at Wal-Mart is as nice as she can be and is talking to Meg helping calm her down, too. I take off my sweater after I wipe her down and put it on her. I sneak out to get a plastic bag and put all her stuff in it -- clothes, jacket and shoes - and we make our exit. I do tell the manager at the check out that my daughter threw up in there. "It's okay," she says cheerfully. Clearly she's not going to be the one cleaning it up.

After we get home, she throws up a couple more times, mostly dry heaves. By the next morning, she's back to normal. Go figure.

Lots going on this week. My sister is having her ACL fixed tomorrow and my uncle with lung cancer is leaving his occupational rehab on Tuesday and my mom flying out to Odessa, Texas, and driving him him back to Dallas so she can better look after him. Please keep them in your thoughts. Oh, if that wasn't enough and then we have Christmas. I am mostly prepared. Mostly.

Edited to add that since I wrote this at 8:33 p.m., she went and threw up again. This time, all over Bjorn and the bathroom off the kitchen. I am hoping it's just that she drank some old milk she found (don't ask) but it could be an extension of Friday, strep or just one of those things. She doesn't have a fever, for now anyway.

Another new crush

Oh Craigslist, how I love you so. Seriously. I love this free service. So I wanted a toddler bed for Meg. I went on Craigslist, did some trolling and found a cute one nearby for $20. Sold. Then when it was clear we needed a second mattress to go with it, I went back on Craigslist, did some sorting by neighborhood and found one less than a mile away for $30. Done. Sure, they're both used, but both are in good condition and perfect for my needs. It's so easy! Why didn't I do this earlier.

Now I'm looking around the house during some spring clearning and holding a virtual garage sale. I've been hawking some of the bigger kids' toys that they never play with anymore. Today I sold an awkward piece of kids' furniture for $40. I know! I got $40 and the guy came and carried in away. Next weekend I think I'm going to sell the weight bench no one has touched in two years.

As for the big girl bed, Meg slept in it one night last week. She did fine going to sleep (it helped that it was late because Bjorn was gone and I tried to do too much so she was exhausted). The problem was when she woke up screaming at 6 a.m., which is before my wake up time. I did manage to coerce her into my bed where we snuggled for another hour, sleeping off and on. It was marginally better than trying to sleep on an airplane, what with the poking and kicking, but I did really love it.

One of those days

My kids had one of those days yesterday. That alone isn't that notable, but they chose yesterday to both have a bad day. At the same time. At the same time as it was pouring down rain. It started with Meg's ear follow up appointment. I was surprised to hear that her latest ear infection didn't clear up with the Suprax as expected. Next up, Augmentin. She had that last about six months ago (ages in the life of a 16 month old) and it caused some diarrhea. But that could have been due to something she ate or the antibiotics. I guess we'll see. The concern now is that this may be speeding up the timetable on ear tubes.

In any event, after the visit, we dropped off the prescription at the CVS drive-through (we're now good friends with the folks there). Then I needed to go to Target for a few things. There, they both proceeded to whine and wiggle through the entire store. If one wasn't crying, the other was and then they both were. Meg is now of an age (and temperament) that when she doesn't want something, she can really arch her back and make it difficult to carry her. So I couldn't contain her in the cart or control her on her feet. And Andy was just crybabying the whole way. Ugh.

Then we needed to head into the library to return DVDs from our trip and pick up a new one. This whole exercise usually takes five minutes, but Andy was still whining about everything (including all the "strangers" in the library and Meg was running away from me and/or climbing on chairs. It got so bad I had one librarian helping Andy who was crying because I had to run to grab Meg and he was crying that I had left. Then as we checked out, Meg ran off and I had a nice lady behind me with three kids of her own holding her while I checked out and Andy cried about not wanting to check out at a certain station. Big stuff.

We went home for a nap (hers at least) then we trekked into town to see an old high school friend who was visiting with her two kids and staying in Dupont Circle. In the afternoon, they were better, but I did discover upon returning that when Andy was having "quiet time," what he did was write all over his pillows with markers. Good times. I had several glasses of wine last night.

And then? Both kids slept until 8 this morning, which is unheard of. Then they were then precious angels most of the day, playing, smiling, eating properly. Meg took a power nap in the afternoon and I even got a nap in (which always makes me in a better mood.) What a difference a day makes sometimes.

Persistence

Andy is getting more an more persistent about things, which is surprising, charming and annoying all at once. Here's a recent dialogue:

Andy: I want to watch Thomas.
Me: After breakfast, you can watch one Thomas. Then you can help me in the yard.
Andy: NO! I want to watch Thomas NOW!
Me: Holding back a laugh. Why don't we have breakfast first?
Andy: NO! I want Thomas first!

This goes on and on until we come to some agreement or one of us wears down. Charming, eh?

To the right is a not very good picture of Andy wearing his new blue blazer. My friend Laura works for Macy's and scored us a great discount on a blazer so now he can look just like his father and brother. Plus, now I have something dressy for holiday stuff. The kicker though is just how darn cute he looks in it! It's a 4T so a bit too big still and I need to find the right shirt to wear underneath (a Child's Place sells plain white Oxfords, but I want to find one that's permanent press as ironing a shirt for a kid seems senseless).

Last year I had good luck at Wal-Mart of all places that sold a permanent press shirt complete with a tie that Velcros (Velcroes?) at the back of the neck. I looked a few weeks ago, but at the moment I think it's too early in the season for the holiday wear to be out. Then again, all the stores here have taken down their Halloween decorations and gone straight to Christmas so maybe now is the time to shop after all.

What's scary is I'm having this much fun dressing a boy. Imagine with a girl all the fun I'll have with Mary Jane's (apostrophe or not? I struggled...), tights and velvet dresses. So long as it's not pink.

Tia's here!

My sister, Mary, is visiting this week. It took "Tia" (Spanish for aunt) about five seconds for Andy to decide he prefers her over me. At least he gave me the courtesy of a few minutes before chucking me completely.

We've had a fun few days. Thursday I took off work and we went into town to rent kayaks on the Potomac River. The folks at the rental place were friendly and the kayaks were serviceable enough. I thought they were fine, but Mary is a real kayaker and was less impressed. But for $8 an hour, it was still a bargain. We paddled for a few hours up toward Great Falls and back. It was a beautiful day with sunny skies and low humidity. It was also great that we went Thursday before the article in the Washington Post on Friday saying the water is filled with fecal material and unsafe for swimming. Yum! I'm glad I did wash my hands before we settled into one of the slowest lunches ever at Tony and Joe's afterwards. Granted, it was on the waterfront on a beautiful day, but should it really take 2 hours to get soup, salad and crab cakes at a seafood restaurant during peak hours?

Friday, we went shopping at the Leesburg Outlets. We both needed new purses and the Coach outlet delivered. Good thing, too, as my friend Armando has been researching purses for me and it turns out the "stylish" ones from Louis Vuitton and others start at $2,000. Seriously? Who are the people who drop that kind of money on a purse that is so trendy it will be out of style next season?

Today Mary's vet conference started downtown, but we met for dinner and then went to the Goo Goo Dolls concert that was playing for attendees. It was a good show although it was funny to see all these really smart doctors dancing around, most of whom had probably never heard of the Goo Goo Dolls. The best part was a cute couple two-stepping to Slide. I did feel my age, though, as we only lasted about an hour before we declared it too loud and left. Granted, I think they start turning up the volume as they went along. It was fun though.

Picture is of Mary at the concert despite their instructions to not take pictures. I know, we're rebels. Anyway, that's the Goo Goo Dolls on the stage. You can see that, right?

Holding down the fort

Bjorn's been out of town this week and I'm so proud of myself for not stressing about handling everything with Andy on my own. It's only been 2 1/2 years. That's progress, right? I've been taking this as an opportunity to catch up with folks. Something I should do when he's in town, but somehow we all get busy. Last night Viv came by for some fine boxed wine. And by fine boxed wine, I mean hangover in a box. Tonight, Andy and I met Liz at Chipotle. I just realized there is a Chipotle in Springfield near BuyBuyBaby. That store totally irritates me because it's overpriced, unorganized and the folks who work there are generally unhelpful. BUT it being near a Chipotle makes it more interesting.

Andy loves eating at the "burrito store." I like it myself and appreciate that this is a way to get him to eat beans, rice, chicken, tomatoes, cheese and corn. Considering he's had yogurt two days for dinner the two previous evenings, I consider that a victory. They're also opening a Chipotle even closer to us in Burke. I am very excited.

My only complaint about the store has to do with their Web site at www.chipotle.com. They have updated to Flash 9, which my computer at work doesn't have. Even more irritating is that there is no option to not have Flash. I was so irked since all I wanted to do was look up a location, not place an order or anything wacky and there was no way to do it save confessing to my IT guy and asking him to install the software. I even wanted to write to the powers that be a the restaurant to complain about the software, but once I finally got on the site, there is not one contact phone number or address. Asshats.

Pictures

Andy loves the freeze-dried strawberries at Trader Joe's so I buy two - one for him to eat while I shop and another for later. The problem is the red residue. It gets everywhere.

Seriously, look how grown up he looks?

I was making cupcakes for a party and Andy really "helped" as you can see from the chocolate all over himself and the floor.

Another milestone

We reached another milestone this weekend -- I put away the high chair. For weeks, Andy has been refusing to sit in it and I've been nearly killing myself tripping over it to get to the booster chair at the table in the dining room. It was simply time. It was not, however, time for what abandoning the high chair means.

I have been in denial for some time, but it seems clear that I have a little boy and not a baby on my hands. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. I've grown so accustomed to handling a baby that dealing with a little boy seems so scary. Pretty soon he'll be asking me where babies come from, wanting advice on calling girls on the phone and trying to get his driver's license. I'm not much of a planner, per se, so this fills me with fear and dread. Plus, I really like Andy as a baby (well, most days) that the thought of him growing up seems so foreign. Sigh.

In other news, Bjorn's mother came over today for a belated birthday celebration. We've been celebrating for so long now (starting with Mark's birthday two weeks ago) that Andy clearly believes all cakes with candles and all presents are meant for him. Well, duh. Except we went to a birthday party yesterday and I had to restrain him from rushing over to blow out the candles on Charlotte's birthday cake. It just seemed so obvious to him that candles on a cake plus singing means he needs to be there to blow out those darn candles. He loved today's celebration as well as the awesome V-tech toy she brought him. It's aged for 3+, but he figured a lot of it out already. Clearly he's gifted. The best part was he loves it so much I took it with us to Old Navy and he happily played with it while I shopped. I imagine the other patrons didn't want to hear "The Wheels on the Bus," but given the choice of a tantrum vs. the song, I think they'd choose the song.

Movin' on up

I've been in denial for some time now, but I think it's officially time to move up to size 6 diapers. This disturbs me because this is the final frontier for diapers - they don't make size 7 diapers. This is it. This particularly scares me because while we've had some successes with the potty, he's not ready. Take a look at this list on the signs of readiness to potty train. I don't think he can do any of these. Although we have been practicing with him pulling his pants up after a diaper change, he can't quite pull them off on cue. Not that he knows what that cue would be necessarily. The good news is that he's been in size 5s for ages now, it seems, so I'm not expecting him to blow through these they way he did size 1 diapers for example. Still, it's unnerving to know we've maxed out. It also sucks because not all companies make size 6s. I have really liked the Costco/Kirkland brand diapers, but they only go up to size 5. It seems that it's generally the more premium (therefore more expensive) diapers like Huggies Supreme that go to size 6. I think the manufacturers are trying to get him into Pull-ups, but from what I hear, they're confusing for potty training since they're not quite a diaper and not quite real underwear.

Speaking of pants, getting them onto his increasingly strong little body is turning out to be a challenge of late. The good news is that I think I've figured out that he'll wear pants, so long as they're sweats or pajama bottoms. I can't really argue with him as I'm sure they're way more comfortable than jeans. My main argument is that he has some cute pants that finally fit and that I don't have enough sweats to keep him in clean ones. I stopped by Target this weekend to get a couple birthday presents for him and stocked up on a couple pairs. They're not as cute as the Old Navy version, but their Hanes sweats were on sale for $1.88. Hard to argue with that price.