Bodily excretions

Andy came home from school last week with a new word - booger. It's not a bad word at all, it's just one I didn't expect to hear from him until, say, kindergarten. Clearly I live in a dream world. Fortunately, he's not into naming his other bodily excretions just yet, but I can see that pee and poop and the various variations (good and bad) are on the horizon for me, especially with potty training looming. Great.

I think I'm one of the few people in America that doesn't find pee and poop jokes funny, as evidenced by America's love affair with hideous Jim Carrey and Ben Stiller movies. To me, bathroom humor is just too easy. I want these folks to come up with some original material.

Meanwhile, the reign of the Special Cookies has begun in our house. When Bjorn was growing up, his grandmother in Sweden gave them "special cookies" for successfully going on the potty. Tonight, Bjorn told Andy he could have a special cookie if he successfully used it. So Andy attacked the Baby Bjorn with great gusto and actually put four drops of pee into the potty and he was justly rewarded with a cookie. He then spent the evening asking for more special cookies. Well, except when he was busy emptying out all the Q-tips and chewing off the cotton ends. I can't explain it, but I have photo evidence to post of it later.

Happy Easter

I swear I didn't have a kid just to dress him up, but damn, how cute does he look with his tie and sweater vest?

The big kids having a tickle fight.

It's been a nice Easter weekend here in Virginia, well, except for the 30 degree weather and freak snow we had Friday night. We actually got up and went to church today at the nice St. Stephen's Methodist Church in Burke where Andy was baptised. We've been, oh, three times since then so it was good to show our faces. We decided to let Andy come with us into the santuary rather than send him to class. Course, we didn't figure on getting there just late enough that we had to be seated on the front row. Fortunately, he lasted through about 45 minutes before Bjorn took him out. The only thing was he kept saying (loudly) "more singing" so we figured as the sermon finally started, getting him out was a good thing. Still, I thought 45 minutes was pretty good for a two-year-old. We had a nice Easter egg hunt at Bjorn's mother's in the afternoon as well. All in all, a pretty nice and busy weekend.

Homeschooling

I've heard of homeschooling, sure. But my frame of reference is off. The people I have known to personally homeschool their kids have been whack jobs for various reasons, like the guy Bjorn used to work with who got his wheelchair-bound brother's girlfriend pregnant and ended up moving to Hawaii and living in his van with her, her daughter, his son from a previous marriage and their new kids. Yeah, that guy homeschooled his kids.

With that as my reference point, I was surprised when my super nice neighbor told me she might not be sending her kids to kindergarten next year at the public school, but instead might homeschool them instead. She's perfectly normal and nice. Her kids seem well-adjusted and sociable -- they even go to preschool in the neighborhood. It just so happens that she's interested in homeschooling. When she told me, I was trying to ask questions without revealing my own ignorance about the whole thing. She explained that lots of people in the neighborhood do it and start rattling off names of families and kids that I don't know all within a few block radius.

What's particularly funny for me is Fairfax County is known for having really good public schools. In fact, in recent reports in Newsweek and others, it usually ranks up there as some of the best. I could understand homeschooling more if you were in a rural area or in a place where the public schools weren't great. So I'm totally intrigued by her decision and I'm very interested to talk to her more about it. I personally can't imagine doing it, but now I'm really interested to find out what motivates someone to do it.

Spongebob

We have at least three good places to eat in the house - the kitchen table, the dining room table and the little table in the living room. Yet it never fails that he wants to eat somewhere other than those places. As we were cleaning out the basement, Andy created this special eating place for himself - a table made of a plastic container with his blocks and his Spongebob Squarepants chair.

In other news, I have managed to get the cold that Bjorn had last week that Andy is on antibiotics for at the moment. It would figure I would get sick in time for a really busy weekend where we have an Easter part, an Easter egg hunt, a farewell party for a neighbor (at our place, no less) and Easter dinner at my mother-in-law's place.

HPV Continued

One of the perks of my job is I get to talk to people who are really making a difference in the lives of folks living with a diagnosis of cancer (don't call them patients, they don't think they're sick the way you think of a patient in a bed in a hospital). These advocates are on the front lines helping people and trying to make a difference. I have a lot of admiration for them. I had a fascinating chat the other day with a guy about head and neck cancers. Turns out, a lot of oral cancers are also linked to HPV, making it even more important for parents to consider giving their kids the vaccine (see earlier rant). Here's a great link to learn more about HPV and oral cancers. It's a slightly dense read (with apostrophe errors intact), but it's pretty interesting. And it's even more exciting to think that this vaccine could help reduce incidences of another cancer as well.

Field Trip

Andy had his first field trip to the National Zoo yesterday. They dressed all the kids up in cute matching green sweatshirts and drove them to the zoo. They plan was for them all to follow along holding onto a rope, but Andy refused and held Miss Diane's hand instead. I can't say I blame him based on the options. There may have been animals at the zoo, but all he can talk about is riding on the school bus. The whole ride home and evening he kept saying "bus, school bus." Did you see animals? "Yes. Bus." Did you like the zoo? "School bus." Freak.

Unfortunately, he napped on the bus on the way home and then refused to take a nap back at school spawning a series of tantrums unrivaled in our household. Liz even called me and I could barely hear her over the yelling in the background. And people say my life isn't glamorous!

Strange rash equals ear infection?

Andy has had a strange rash-like mark on his hip for the past week. I noticed is last Sunday night, meaning it definitely happened on my watch and not at school or something else. It was just a small mark, about the size of a quarter if you squished it a bit so that it was narrower in the middle and wider on the sides. I kept an eye on it and it didn't seem to change colors, but it also didn't seem to be getting bigger or smaller. It also didn't seem to bother him. It didn't hurt when I touched it or seem to itch. It was just, well, there. Bjorn finally noticed it Sunday and I noticed that it seemed a little whiter in the middle so I decided a trip to the doctor was in order. I got an appointment for yesterday afternoon. The only downside was the female doctor I really like isn't in this week. Oh well.

The doctor bothers me because he doesn't call me by name (or Andy by name), he just calls me Mom and usually doesn't look me in the eye or tell me what he's doing. He seems good at what he does medically, but he doesn't give me the impression of listening to me the way she does. After an exam, where Andy for the first time ever didn't mind the ear thermometer or the ear scope thingee, it turns out he has another ear infection and a sore throat. Apparently the rash can be related to the other illness. Who knew? The news was even more surprising since Andy has been an angel the past few days. He didn't seem to feel bad, he was chipper and slept well.

The prescription was given for omnicef 125 mg at 3/4 teaspoon twice a day. I was also given a prescription for flucticasone, a cream to put on the rash and on his diaper rash until it clears up. I was smart and asked for the flavoring in the antibiotic only to find out the omnicef is already strawberry flavored. It actually doesn't taste half bad.

At least it took three weeks

It took three weeks, but I'm officially out of the running in any of my basketball pools. Bjorn had local favorite Georgetown winning it all and I had UCLA (well, I had four sheets, UCLA was the only one still left). We both lost yesterday. Sigh. At least we had three weeks of possibly winning this year as opposed to being out after the first weekend like usual.


We went to our friend Harriet's yesterday to watch the game at her place in Arlington. She's a Georgetown alum so there was lots of cheering and reciting the fight song. Andy played with a 3 1/2 year old during the party. It was great that they were able to run around and play together. That was a real first that they would just disappear to the safe rooms and play leaving us to watch the game. It only took 2 1/4 years to get to this point.

In other news, the basement reorganization has sparked lots of spring cleaning and furniture reorganizations. We moved the table from the basement to the kitchen giving us a usable kitchen table. I haven't gotten all the way used to it yet, but it is handy -- so long as we keep is free of mail and other crap, like Mark's shoes and Bjorn's portfolio.

Andy has his first field trip on Tuesday to go to the zoo with his school. I'm not sure how that works. I have lots of questions I need to ask tomorrow about transportation, naps, organization and that kind of stuff. I'm sure he's going to love it though.

Typo police

Although I am not immune to typos, I try to avoid them where possible and do my best to correct them when I can. My friend Bethany sent me this gem from the elevator where she works in publishing. She even tried to contact the manufacturer to have them correct it only to find out it's a custom made sign by the company (again, a company that has a publishing division) and like that until the building burns down. Naturally.

The basement and my Chippendale's dancer

Before (below) and after (above)

Someone asked to see before and after pictures of the basement. Viola. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of the new floor for the first week when it was still pristine and clean. In this picture, it looks a little cluttered, but really it's tons better than it was before. We're really psyched. Bjorn's going to be mad that he's in this picture, especially since he's all sweaty from the gym and was mad I was taking the picture.

After a rough day and night Tuesday, Andy slept well last night and did fine at school today. Bjorn also took him to my indoor game at the Fairfax Sportsplex where he picked up some soccer moves in that hour that are still hard for me to do. I know, I know, I've always said he could play the violin, be a mathlete, learn origami, but man, it would be cool if he liked soccer as much as I did/do.

Meanwhile, check out my Chippendale's dancer in training. I was cleaning out some clothes and came across this tie with Velcro on the back. I put it on him as I was getting him dressed for bed and then he didn't want to take it off. Classic blackmail picture of him sitting on the potty with a tie on.

Operation sleep exhaustion

Andy is sick. Again. This seems to be the billionth time this month or perhaps it's just the third. Regardless, the little chicken doesn't feel good and he's making the rest of us suffer. I can't say I blame him for exerting his power over us, but still. Andy refused to go to sleep last night, instead he woke up every 15-30 minutes crying. He didn't seem to have any obvious wrong - ears didn't hurt, stomach didn't hurt, he wasn't hungry. I kept thinking he was just overtired and would eventually tucker himself out, but he didn't.

About 3 ish after going back and forth from our bed to his while Bjorn slept through most of it, I took Andy down for a glass of milk and orange juice along with a small cocktail of children's Tylenol. He seemed in better spirits so I went up, plunked him with his binky and Jeff dog into bed with Bjorn, announced Bjorn was in charge and promptly went to sleep in the computer room. About 6, I woke up, moved Andy back to his bed and slept the extra hour until about 7. Boy, are we tired today. He doesn't seem to have anything obvious wrong (although now that I type this, I'm wishing I took him to the doctor to see if there was anything I was missing). He is getting his back molars that seems to be pissing him off somewhat.

To complicate matters, we're in the middle of a "I want Daddy, not Mommy. No Mommy!" phase which is a little hard to hear sometimes. I know, I got most of the first two years and the pendulum will likely shift again before you know it, but it's hard to be so out of favor. I'm sure that's how politicians feel.

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.

Let's just call it Mulva

The good thing about my playgroup is we're never short on interesting conversation. Witness last Friday when the discussion came up about teaching kids the names of their private parts. One woman doesn't want to teach her daughter "vagina" since it's really her "vulva" and she doesn't want to teach her the wrong thing. Someone else offered, "What about teaching her to call it 'labia' instead?" Being a good Protestant, I offered calling it "private parts" and leaving it at that. There was no consensus on the right answer. I also suggested "Mulva" in honor of the famous Seinfield episode where Jerry can't remember his girlfriend's name except that it rhymes with a part of the female anatomy (her name, turns out, was Dolores).

I was thinking mothers of boys have it easier, you've just got "penis" and "testicles" to worry about and they're all on the outside making it relatively easy to identify. Then I remembered all the controversy over the Caldecott winning book that has caused an uproar by writing "scrotum" on the first page. Sigh. It's funny, the first few months/years of parenthood are all about the physical aspects of survival - getting enough sleep (you and baby) and getting enough to eat. I'm realizing now that those are really black and white issues (baby is hungry, feed it), but as kids get older, there are more and more gray issues, like when and how to discipline, what religion (if any) to raise the child and how to describe their boy and girl parts.

Pictures

Mmmm...college basketball.

Andy and my dad. Oh, and Bjorn is there, too.

Mom and Andy at Jaleo. I love this one.

Hey, I'm actually in one of these pictures. And I don't look super hideous or anything.

Here are pictures from the weekend that came via my mother. Sorry that they're out of order. I always seem to do it backwards with Blogger and it takes too long to go back and do it again.

Meanwhile, here's a sad shout-out to Tertia over on So Close. Miscarriage totally sucks and I admire her ability to write so honestly about something so difficult. It's also sort of strange how with the Internet, I can genuinely mourn the loss of a child for a woman I've never met. It's like having a really articulate pen pal. It's also probably a sign I should get out more.

School pictures

In general, I am happy with Andy's new school. Some of it is still taking some getting used to like negotiating the parking lot when I go to pick him up along with the rest of Northern Virginia and the fact that the teachers I know usually leave at 5 so if I get there at 5:15, the teachers there usually weren't with him during the day to tell me how he was. That said, the most awesome part is the school pictures. These were taken on his first day (clearly, he was having a bad time). Of course, I spent the $60 on the whole package. Well worth it for me if it means I don't have to haul myself to Picture People in the mall, wait in line, try to keep Andy entertained and then pay outrageous prices at the end. Plus, look how cute these are?

Edited to add: Special props to my coworker Jenn for scanning these for me.

Behold

Here's an early picture of the new basement floor taken with Bjorn's camera phone. Am v. v. excited. Of course, now it will be obvious how old and crappy our couch and rugs are.

Young Gentleman's lunch

We did make it to the Young Gentleman's Luncheon yesterday and it was nice. It was more an organized play date with several little boys both older and much younger, ranging from four years to four months, and their parents. My friend made food that kids like, including macaroni and cheese, pigs in a blanket, chicken sticks and clover-shaped Jell-O. Andy didn't care for the food much so I ate his, but he did love the Jell-O and had two pieces. It was a nice event, especially since my friend is 10 weeks pregnant and hasn't been able to keep anything down for several weeks.

More Thomas

Andy is fascinated with Thomas right now, and not necessarily in a good way. It all started when I checked out a book from the library with several Thomas the Tank Engine stories in it. He loved, loved, loved them. Once we realized he loved that, we figured why not Tivo a couple of the episodes and watch them later. Now it's like a mantra he chants over and over again, "More Thomas, More Thomas," hoping that we'll eventually give it. It's like he's joined a cult or something the way he says the name over and over again. He even woke up the middle of the night a couple of days ago and in his haze of sleep, he called out for Thomas. It's like Dylan on 90210 only without the weird guy in the wheelchair. Well, kind of.

My folks were here this weekend and I have some fun pictures to post once we get done cleaning out the basement in anticipation of the new floors tomorrow. It was great seeing them and Andy can now say "Grandmother" (although it tends to come out "Grand-mare" instead) and "Pop." It was really neat seeing him recognize them from the pictures and immediately warm up.

Edited to add the picture of my dad and Andy "jumping" off the basketball hoop base.

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.

Camera phone photos

So when Bjorn and I were out on the town partying like it was 1999, Jennifer was chilling with Andy and has some fun camera phone photos of the event. It looks like they were having a pretty good time, too.

The funny thing about photos is what I notice in the background sometimes. Like looking at the top one, do you think I can take down the sticky thing for Robinson Football now? I'm sure Mark won't care, but I'll have to do it when Bjorn's not looking as I think he might be sad to realize high school football is over.

The dreaded goodie bag

The goodie bag. A rather deceiving name really for a bag of stuff that other parents give to kids in honor of a birthday. It sounds like a nice idea - to give kids something to remember after the party, but in truth it's a bunch of dollar store toys and candy that I probably don't want my kid to munch on. We had our first real exposure at school today. It was someone's birthday - I'm not sure who actually - and there were a bunch of adorable cartons (Batman for boys, what looked like purses for girls). I asked the teacher about it who said to take one. Andy was psyched and I know why - there were toys, bubbles, stickers and M&Ms in there. He was psyched for the toys and I made a point to hide the candy for a date when I'm desperate. No fights over it today, but I can see in the future a good fight over him insisting on eating another fistful of chocolate candy after eating four cupcakes and two juice boxes.

I find the whole goodie bag odd actually. So you invite people to a party where you give them entertainment, food and drinks. And in return for you doing this, you're also supposed to give them a trinket on the way out the door to further thank them for coming to your party? It seems like it should be the other way around almost - you do the inviting and hosting and the guests bring you a thank you for having us. The same goes for wedding favors. I could see if you were just having punch and cake that a trinket on the way out the door is a nice idea, but these days, folks spend at least $100 a head it seems on food and drink, not to mention entertainment and flowers, and then they get a gift, too?

Book report

Lately, I've been reading a lot of books in addition to the trashy magazines like People that I also like to read. The one I just finished - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - is one of the most engrossing I've picked up in ages. I started it Friday and had to finish it tonight it was so good. Fortunately, it was a fairly quick read narrated by a 15-year-old autistic boy in England. In some ways, it felt very much like The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 with the talk of A levels and him not understanding the terrible things going on with his parents and such. The main difference being Adrian is funny because he doesn't get it and Christopher isn't funny for not getting it. Still, a really great read.

What I found so striking was how difficult it was for the parents to understand what's going on in Christopher's mind when in some ways it seems to logical. I was also struck by how hard it would be for the parents to not be able to hug or even hold hands with him because he can't stand it. There were also some good twists and turns in this one that I totally didn't see coming, making it all the more riveting.

After I finished it tonight, I did make a point to go into Andy's room and rub his head, feeling grateful that he lets me. I was actually lamenting to myself just today that he doesn't let me hold him the way he used to so tonight I was just glad for the good thing I've got.

There's a reason we don't get out very often

Last night, Jennifer came over to babysit and we got out on the town with our good friends. They have a three year old and don't get out very often either. As evidenced by the picture taken with Bjorn's phone, we had a very good time. In fact, such a good time that most of us had headaches this morning. It all started with the Capitals game at the Verizon Center where Bill got us awesome tickets to sit in a box where they had free food and beer and ended with more drinks and a bad DJ at a bar in Arlington. We felt old compared to the rest of the crowd, but we didn't care.

Andy did great with Jennifer. Now we need to arrange for her to come back every weekend so we can do this more often. Then again, I'm not sure I could handle doing that more often. I'm sure tired today.

NCAA basketball is really starting to heat up in preparation for the tournament. I can't wait. Plus, I'm going to do a couple of sheets in Andy's name. That way, they're not MY bad decisions, they're his. I'm sure the folks at the office are going to buy that.

HPV vaccine

There has been a lot of talk about the HPV vaccine. Basically, it's a vaccine that when given to girls before they are sexually active, it can prevent certain strains of the very common sexually transmitted disease HPV or the human papilloma virus. HPV is a very, very common STD and a small percentage of women who get HPV will go on to get cervical cancer. Most women with cervical cancer also have HPV so the idea of preventing HPV and therefore reducing a woman's chances of developing the disease. This is all awesome news. Seriously, that we can give pre-teens, say 8 or 10, a vaccine that can prevent a really common STD and possibly cancer. What I find so stunning is the amount of debate over it.

The people against it are saying giving girls the vaccine will make them more likely to have sex. Right, like teenagers avoid things like cigarettes in high school because they're dangerous long-term. Kids that age aren't thinking about turning 30 or 60, they're worried about math class next period. Their attention spans are so short that I think this argument is bunk.

I also disagree that this is a "cancer vaccine." It is, only kind of since it only prevents a factor of what can lead to cervical cancer, not the cancer itself. Also, this needs to be put into perspective. There are about 11,000 cases of cervical cancer diagnosed a year in the U.S. True, 11,000 is a lot of women and any cancer we can prevent is a good one, but 178,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year so cervical cancer isn't really a wide-spread health hazard the way STDs like HPV are. I will give props to the marketing folks at Gardasil for dubbing this a cancer vaccine instead of an STD vaccine. (STDs are dirty somehow, but cancer is no one's fault, right?)

We give our kids vaccines for lots of communicable diseases, like polio, TB and even hepatitis (which I believe can be a sexually transmitted disease although I'm unclear if the vaccine they give kids prevents the STD one). Is this one so controversial because it's about sex?

I don't have a daughter, but I would absolutely recommend this for my stepdaughter or my nieces. I just think it's important to clarify that we're preventing an STD that can possibly lead to cancer, not cancer itself. I also think that if medicine cancer outright prevent and possibly eradicate a public health hazard like this, we should totally do it.

Rant over. Talk amongst yourselves.

Yeah, thanks

Andy is learning to shorten his words. It's fun and kind of strange at the same time. For a while, when you asked him if he wanted something, he would reply in the affirmative, "Yes." Lately, he's been shortening that to "Yeah." And just this week, he started saying "Thanks" instead of "Thank you." Both are fine of course, although I'm less likely to melt when he says "Thanks Mama" compared to "Thank you, Mama." Maybe it's just the inflection.

Week two at the new school is going fine, but my friend was right - it is almost harder. He's figured out that it's not a one time thing, it's a regular gig. Yesterday I dropped him off during our freakish "Alberta Clipper" snowstorm and he cried. It was so sad to see him look around, get scared and them tighten up his face. I was so sad to leave, even though I knew it was the right thing to do. Sure, he was fine minutes later, but it really did put a damper on my whole day.

Andy did like the snow though. Yesterday afternoon he wanted Bjorn to make him a snowman. Unfortunately, it wasn't the right kind of snow, it was too powdery somehow so it wouldn't stick together. Andy was quite disappointed.

Night night animals

A couple times last week, I woke up to hear Andy telling his dogs that he sleeps with to, "Wake up, dogs. Wake up." He did the same thing to his Thomas train that I had put under the covers on the chair next to his crib the night before as I tried to convince him that Thomas was going to bed, too. After that, I made a little spot next to his bed and we made a bed for all his stuffed animals. Now before he goes to bed, we make a point to kiss a few of them good night and then cover them with a blanket. Fortunately, right now he's only interested in a couple of them. Should he want to put all 15 stuffed toys to bed, it could take all evening. He also makes a point in the morning of going over to wake them up and pull their covers off. It's amazing how his little imagination works sometimes.

Day two at school was today and it went fine, I think. He was having so much fun playing with his toys that it took 10 minutes of me trying to coax him to put on his jacket and 10 seconds of his teacher telling him before he'd agree to leave them and come with me. I take that as a good sign. Some of the day to day stuff is going to take some getting used to. Like his teacher before would have him dressed and ready for me, now I need to go in and lure him away from what he's playing with. On the one hand, I like interacting with him at school and see what he's been doing and talking to his teachers. On the other hand, the new way takes a lot longer to disengage at the end of the day.

Your a bad speller

This week, Andy and I were making a thank you card for his babysitter. We did some drawing and were putting stickers on it when I noticed a sticker in the bunch that said "Your a winner." Seriously? The people who make children's educational products can't be bothered to proofread their stuff? That kind of stuff makes me crazy. I'm not sure where the stickers came from (I think they were left from our play date with the girls last week) so I can't return it to the store. I also looked on them to see if there was a manufacturer name on there for me to send a complaint, but there wasn't anything. Lucky for them.

This kind of stuff really makes me crazy. How can we expect children to learn to read and write well if the stuff we use to teach them is incorrect? My biggest pet peeve is things misspelled to be cute, it's like getting young actors to have a cute lisp.

Speaking of spelling errors, my friend Viv is a realtor and comes across misspellings in listings all the time. She's now started her own blog to chronicle "remodelated" homes with "commodius rooms." Take a look and send her your own.

Last year

Here are some pictures from last February and March. Andy looks the same, more of less, but he's definitely lost some of the baby look he had a year ago. His face is a little longer and less round and his muscle tone has improved quite a bit. His arms aren't nearly as pudgy now as they were last year. Funny, I was expecting to look back and see this huge difference so I'm surprised that it's not as dramatic as all that. Intellectually, he's leaps and bounds away from these photos, but physically he hasn't changed that dramatically.

Meanwhile, the house in the top photo is for sale if anyone wants to buy it and have the honor of living across the street from us. Today being Saturday, I have been scoping out the potential buyers as they come and go. It would be great if a nice family with either another two year old or a 13 year old interested in babysitting moved in. You know, since it's all about me.

Best Week Ever ... sort of

It's been a week of changes around here and I, for one, am exhausted. We said goodbye to our babysitter on Wednesday. It was hard. I teared up a little and we promised to stay in touch. Bjorn drove Andy to his new school on Thursday. He reported that the drop-off went well and that within seconds he had jumped into the gym/movement class they were having. Bjorn stayed for a minute and said goodbye - no tears were reported. When I picked him up, they said he had done great. In fact, everyone was surprised it was his first day because he seemed so natural there. Clearly, this is a gene from Bjorn's side. I was always anxious on first days. They reported that he didn't each much of his lunch (it was tacos, something he wouldn't eat at home either), but that he did take a nap. They sleep on the floor in these cute little sleeping bag type things and I was worried he would have trouble. I'm glad I was wrong. The only time he cried was right before lunch which is right before a nap. With all the excitement, I bet he was just tired.

Phew. So glad the first day is over with. A friend warned me that the second week might be harder just because the newness wears off and then they're fine the third week. It wasn't what I wanted to hear, but I'm glad to be prepared.

Last night we had our first non-book reading book club meeting where we drank wine and avoided talking about books. We didn't even talk about our kids. It was great! We laughed a lot, told funny stories and drank a lot of wine. I haven't slept well this week due to a late soccer game, the Oscars and anxiety so the glasses went right to my head. I'll admit I was a bit groggier than usual this morning. I had intended for the club to be every other month, but it sounds like everyone wants to try to do it monthly. Fun!

And to cap off a stressful but exciting week, Andy went back to the doctor's office and the ear infection is officially gone. After many weeks and three rounds of antibiotics, this is great news. I just hope being in a new school doesn't mean he'll immediately pick up a whole new set of germs.

My legions of fans

Susan and Ben from Dallas. Both she and Ben read faithfully.

Me and Mom in Mexico. Mom reads daily, thankfully someone does.

Laura and her sister, Bec, who are both expecting. Laura lives in St. Louis and leads the midwest contingent. She's going to be furious at me for posting a pregnant photo of her, but she's just so darn cute!

Hair

See? Photo evidence that the bangs on the right were clearly longer than on the other side. I'm not sure I made it much better, but you've got my back, right?

Meanwhile, charming face the boy is giving me. He's actually saying "cheese", but the camera delay is just enough to make it appear that he's shouting obscenities at me. You know, since toddlers do that.

Name game

Mark taught Andy how to say his name over the weekend. Now when you ask him what his name is, he will proudly say "Byron Bennett." Andrew is his middle name and he clearly knows his name is Andy, yet I can't get him to say the full thing. It's rather precious though. I did worry last night (as I like to do) that when he starts his new school, he'll confuse everyone by declaring his name as Byron Bennett, but what can you do. I swear, this first day at a new school is giving me way more stress than him.

Meanwhile, I keep attempting to change the photo in my profile. I keep trying to replace it with the URL with the photo on the left, yet when I do, it tells me the link is broken. Anyone have any hints on fixing that?

Leaving well enough alone

I'm not really a person to leave well enough alone. I'm a meddler. It's compulsive. But damnit, when it comes to my kid's hair someone needs to stop me. Bjorn took him to get his hair cut yesterday. It looks great. They left it a little longer in the back like I asked, that way, the sprouts on the back won't stick straight up, rather, the weight of the hair keeps it down a bit. The problem was the bangs. They were uneven. So I took the initiative to even them up. Yeah, because "evening them up" works on adults, much less a kid that won't stand still. It looks better. Sort of. But I shouldn't have done it. Now I'm going to spend the next two months looking at it wondering if I should have just left it alone. Glad to know in advance I have something new and important to obsess over.

Three under three

Today we babysat the four year old twins of my neighbor. She and her husband needed to be at a meeting for a couple of hours so we volunteered to watch them. The dynamic was really fun actually. Andy really enjoyed playing with them although there is a big difference between two and four. The girls were very into drawing and we made some birthday cards for their mother for next week. They generally were interested with him, but found themselves annoyed when he wanted to scribble and not draw beautifully. One of the girls announced it was okay that he play with any of her toys so long as he didn't spit on them. I wondered what crowd she's running with where they routinely spit on her toys, but she was so earnest about it that it was hard not to consider it a valid request. By the end of the two hours, all three kids were in the tents connected by a tunnel pretending to be cats and meowing. Loudly. I was in tears from laughing so hard.

Meanwhile, we had our first announcement at playgroup today for someone expecting her third. She'll have three under three. Wow. That's just crazy talk.

Date night

A friend came over a couple of weeks ago with her two girls. Andy and Molly had a ball sitting at the small table in the living room having a tea party, where they poured imaginary tea and practiced putting pasta in different bowls and glasses. It was really a hoot to watch the interaction. Later on, we served them grilled cheese sandwiches, grapes and juice boxes at the table. I think it was his first date.

I went by Andy's new school today to drop off some more paperwork and basically give me an excuse to check in again. The teachers are more familiar now as are a few of the kids. Andy marched right in like he'd been there for ages. After a bit, the teachers suggested I leave him for a little bit so I ran to the grocery store and shopped - unencumbered, which was great - while he stayed and played. I told him I was leaving and he sort of waved without taking his eyes off the toys. I was back within about half and hour and they said he did great and was participating. I am hoping this bodes well for the big transition next Thursday.

My son, the cat

Andy has decided he's a cat. That's right, at various times of the day he likes to drop to all four and start meowing. At that point, he's to be treated like a cat, meaning he must be petted on the head and his meowing praised. When he's acting as a cat, he likes to get down and crawl around on all fours, especially weaving in and out of the dining room chairs. It's adorable. Tonight though, he wanted to not only be a cat, but be a cat carried around like a baby. I can't explain what he was thinking, but it was really funny to be carrying him around in my arms while he meowed.

The other thing he's doing lately is specifically asking for Doris our next door neighbor. Last night he was irate with me that I wouldn't take him over. Tonight I did and I figured out his obsession - she give him lollipops. What a brilliant grandmother move - bribe children into loving you! I also am realizing I need to teach him to call her Miss Doris. I prefer the last names generally, but I think forcing him to call her Mrs. Something is going to be confusing. Well, mostly because I'm not exactly sure of her last night either.

Welcome baby Mary

My cousins had their baby, named Mary. She came in at an extremely healthy 10 pounds, 11 ounces. Fortunately for her mother's sake, she was born Ceasarean. Congratulations Frances, Ben and George!

Good night video

Bjorn sent this while I was gone, but I didn't get to listen to the audio until I got back. How sweet are they? And how badly does my kid need a haircut?

My, how fast he learns

I've been gone for four days and I'm amazed at everything Andy has picked up in my absence. He has figured out how to pee on the potty somewhat consistently (well, if twice in two days counts), he can say "No, un-uh," and he can officially call Mark's girlfriend Jamie by her first name. It's hard to be away, but it's so nice to come back and have the perspective to see what has changed. The other bonus to this trip was getting to spend time with my mother who came along. It would have been better had American Airlines not forced me to spend a night in Dallas, but otherwise it turned out well. The hotel was amazing. Seriously. Check out the link - http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1298. It actually looked that beautiful in person.

Andy has now finished his second round of antibiotics for his ears and we went to the doctor for a follow up appointment only to realize he still has an ear infection. The good news is they're better than they were at the two earlier appointments, but she didn't think they would heal on their own so he's not on another antibiotic, zithr-something or other. At least it's not as nasty tasting as the earlier one and the other good thing is it's only once a day for five days. That's a little more manageable than twice a day for 10 days. We go back next Friday to see if it's improved. She said this is classic for the two-year-old age group for them to get an ear infection and have it improve only for him to get another cold and have it come back. She said the antibiotics and warmer weather coming this week should really help improve things.

While I was there, I also asked about my freak rash on my leg and she said it's entirely possible to get poison ivy in winter and possibly from firewood or some other wooded area. I always knew I was special, but the ability to catch a rash in winter isn't what I was thinking.

Snow and soccer

It dropped snow, sleet and freezing rain all over the D.C. metro area yesterday. It's beautiful. And very slippery. I leave for Mexico tomorrow so I'm hoping the airports are back to operating normally by then. I'm meeting my mom in Dallas and continuing on to Cabo together. I hope the travel gods don't conspire to missed connections.

In other news, Arlington County where I play soccer is trying to change the residency requirements and limit team sports to only Arlington County residents, which means folks like me won't be able to play any longer because our team which is made up of residents from many counties will have to break up. I get limiting reserving activities for residents when it comes to individual classes like yoga or swimming, but for team sports, it's hard to require that everyone come from the same area. It's hard enough to find good, reliable and funny players, much less mandating that they live in a certain county. If you are interested, please sign the petition telling Arlington not to do this. It's online here http://www.petitiononline.com/ACK/petition.html.

Someone needs to warn the potty chair

After Andy's success standing up with the potty, he's now fascinated by it. Of course, he's never fascinated with it at a time when he could do anything with it. Rather, he usually does his business and then later gets an interest. This morning, Bjorn took off Andy's diaper and asked him if he'd like to go to the potty. Andy sprinted over to it and continued to thrust his body at it in the hopes that some pee would come out. He was practically mounting the poor Baby Bjorn potty trying to shove his boy parts at the potty trying to get them to work. Unfortunately, all this excitement made him poop. On the floor. It was totally gross and I couldn't convince him to turn around and actually get it into the potty. Clearly, we're a ways off actual potty training since I don't think he is able to recognize when his body is telling him it's time to go. The whole thing is pretty amusing. Well, when it's not totally disgusting.

Andy is also going through a bit of a hitting phase. Over the weekend, he kept hitting me and Bjorn and didn't get that it wasn't funny. I tried to give him a time out, but he still seemed to think it was a game. I eventually put him to bed and he seemed to forget about it overnight although this morning he hit me and smiled, waiting for a game to begin. I held his arm and said, "No hitting" and after about 30 seconds, he began to sulk, which is how he usually reacts when I tell him no. I definitely need to read up on this discipline thing.

"Mama, Broken"

Tonight Andy did something that will haunt him the rest of his life. As I undressed him in the bathroom for his bath, he started to pee on the floor. Quickly, I grabbed the plastic insert from the potty chair and put it under his stream and caught what was left. He was fascinated. Seriously. I moved it over and put it back in the potty, directed him over to it and encouraged him to keep peeing. He squatted, bent his knees, leaned forward, bounced on his toes a bit and generally hung over the potty. At one point, he was pushing his stomach out so far he couldn't see his penis, which confused him. After a bit, he turned to me and said, "Mama, broken" and pointed to his penis. The whole scene cracked me up so I had to call Bjorn en route from the George Mason game (they lost to Hofstra) just to relate the story. It was truly amusing.

The good news is he's showing an interest in the potty again. The last few weeks/months, he's really wanted nothing to do with it.

Attack of the strawberries

Attack of the dried strawberries.

This is from last weekend at our quasi Super Bowl party. Andy looks like such a kid there - not just a toddler, a full-fledged boy. When did that happen?

I tried to meet a friend for a playdate this afternoon. We planned to meet at the Hidden Oaks Nature Center in Annandale. It says very clearly on the Web site that it closes at 5 p.m. in the winter, but apparently the folks that work there don't care because they have a big sign outside that says it closes at 4 pm. So when we showed up at 4:10 p.m., there was a big "closed" sign outside. We took Andy and Madeline down to play on the playground for a bit, but it was cold - much too cold for the mothers anyway.

The backup plan was Einstein's bagels in Fairfax City, which closes at 5 p.m. although they clearly sensed the day we were having and were closed by the time we got there at 4:50 p.m. We decided to hit Trader Joe's for a bit. I didn't need anything, but wandering the aisles is always fun since it's not a regular supermarket. I found a few things, including some dried strawberries for Andy. He loved them (see picture) and nearly had a fit when I tried to pry them from his hands to pay for them. Those suckers really do stain though - good to know if I ever want to shoot a horror film in my backyard.

Earlier in the day, I went to drop off some paperwork at Andy's new school, talk to the teachers and reaquaint him with where he'll be going. He immediately felt at home and was participating in their story time. The teachers were nice and friendly and Andy was eager to play with all the toys. I liked that I felt like I could just walk in at any time. When your babysitter is at someone's house, it's not as easy to just pop into the classroom the same way. What was strange though was seeing 16 kids all in the same class with three teachers. The ratio is really good and I think he'll like all the activity, but it's still strange to see so many kids all together. It definitely felt more like a school and less like a babysitter, which is exactly what I was going for, fortunately.

Shoes, letters and tantrums

It's official - I have now spent $30 on a pair of kids' shoes. I had tried to avoid it as long as possible, but I finally broke down and did it, buying a pair of Merrell shoes from Nordstrom. In my defense, I did have $20 left on a Nordstrom gift card. He has been wearing a pair of hand-me-down Stride Rite brown saddle oxfords that I love (and Bjorn hates, naturally), but he has now outgrown the size 6 shoes. I figured he needed another somewhat nicer style shoe, you know, for all the formals and proms he goes to, or more likely the occasional event where just sneakers wouldn't be enough.

Andy continues to amaze me with his numbers and letters as well as his ability to throw a temper tantrum. He now proudly can point to A, O and Y when he sees them. Just this morning he pointed out about half the letters on my George Mason t-shirt and managed to get most of them right. He also points to things and counts them. He can usually get to four or five before he starts skipping to seven or nine. I'm quite impressed. Similarly, his ability to just throw down and have a temper tantrum is impressive. I guess I thought a tantrum was him jumping up and down demanding more ice cream, but his is different. Rather, he just starts to scream/cry hysterically often because he can't have something (like going outside when it's 20 degrees). I try to be mindful that he's like that when he's tired and hungry, but in those situations, usually he won't let me feed him or console him to calm him down. It's not his most attractive moments, nor mine for that matter.

Numbers

Andy is really figuring out his numbers. He recognizes a few on site now and loudly points them out. Like when the news is on, he points to the corner of the screen and shouts "Four!" It's awesome when he's right. He also can count in order (most of the time) up to five and sometimes 10. It's really amazing to watch the learning. Somehow I thought we'd be sitting around a book one day and he would learn his numbers that way rather than just picking them up through life. Same goes with his letters. He's figured a few out and happily points them out, like the O and the A, when he sees them written somewhere. Watching this stage of development is really pretty amazing.

The new antibiotic seems to be working, at least he's less cranky today. I think the stuff tastes terrible, but he doesn't seem to mind. I am irritated though that this one says to give him three CCs when the other was teaspoons and the Tylenol is in mL. Seriously, what's up with that? I'm a fairly bright person and usually read labels. I worry that other parents are accidentally overdosing (or underdosing) their kids, which could be pretty dangerous. Why all the different measurements? My flaw with this dose was not asking for it flavored. Apparently if you ask the pharmacy, they'll throw in a bubble gum flavor (or similar nausea-inducing gunk) to make it more palatable. Good to know for next time.

The double ear infection

It turns out the ear infection from two weeks ago has decided not to go away after all. Instead, it spread to the other ear. Dr. Staats gave Bjorn a prescription for another antibiotic and suggested that his ears bugging him could be the reason for his colic-esque behavior of the past week where he comes home and manages to let little things set him off. I was blaming the antiobiotic, turns out it's his ears. Great.

In better news, a little snow is expected tonight. Not much is expected, but considering it's 12 degrees outside (seriously, it is 12 degrees-I'm not exaggerating), whatever does fall is guaranteed to stick.

Random pictures

In jeans and a cute zippered sweater, he just looks like such a boy and not a baby, especially as he refuses to divert his eye to look at me for even a second in this picture.

Andy pretending to sleep on a big bath sponge that is making its way to the "new baby pile of stuff" for friends. Right now he's pretending to sleep on just about every pillow. Note that he's got his big thing of raisins in his hand still. No sense acting too hard.

Here his is dancing naked to the iPod with attached speakers (thanks to Mary for the awesome Christmas present). Surely this picture will be blackmail material for later.

Chocolate lovers' fiasco

Liz and I took Andy to the Fairfax Chocolate Lovers' Festival yesterday. It sounded like a fun time for all of us what with chocolate as the main theme. There was a good crowd and things were generally well marked. The problem was no one had organized the inside of the buildings so there was no good flow. Every where we stood someone was bumping into us or trying to get by. I'm not typically claustrophobic, but the whole scene made me a little uneasy. They also advertised this as an event for kids, but most places wouldn't let you take a stroller in. Andy hasn't willingly gone into a stroller in months, but yesterday was cold so he happily ploppped right in only to scream bloody murder when we tried to take him out. After a little of that, we decided someone needed a nap and headed home.

Opinionated

Who would think I'd have a kid with lots of opinions? Crazy, right? Lately, Andy has taken to wanting to eat at the small craft table in the living room instead of in his booster seat at the dining room table. Fortunately, everything at the table and under it is wood so I can easily wipe it down afterwards.

The word of the week is "yes." Before he either said no or shook his head yes, but yesterday he started saying "yes" to questions. It's funny because it sounds so authoritative. He's really picking up words these days although I don't always know what he's saying. I do find myself listening closely and figuring it out sometimes. I remember seeing friends listening to their kids and having to translate and now I'm doing the same thing.

Big plans tomorrow, Liz is coming by and we're going to hit the Fairfax City Chocolate Festival. I have no idea if it's good or not, but it has chocolate in the name so how bad could it be?

What a difference a year makes

Here is Andy with Henry. Both boys share the same birthday, just 365 days apart. What's fun is Henry isn't walking yet so he's at that stage where they really start to bulk up before becoming a more active toddler (and getting so busy he won't eat). In this picture, Henry looks the same size although he's four pounds lighter and easily four inches shorter.

Non-book reading book club

So I've been talking to some of my soccer friends about how we can get out to games, but set a social event and we can't figure out how to do it, usually because our spouses aren't as supportive of happy hour as they are a scheduled event. So my sister recommended we have a book club that doesn't actually read books. Rather, we'll get together and talk about how we'd like to read books over wine and snacks. Our husbands can't argue because hey, who lobbies against reading. My friends are totally down with the idea and have even suggested we pick really hard books like Ulysses so at least we'll be a very literate non-book reading book club. We will also discuss trashy magazines we would like to read if we had time. I'm rather looking forward to it.

In less fun news, my temper-tantrum throwing child is still in residence. I've decided the antibiotics must be finally taking a tool on his tummy making him uber cranky. I've half-decided to cut the dose for the weekend and see if he doesn't start to improve. He's been on it a week now so I think it's done most of it's damage and at this point, another cold would be an improvement over this misery.

The Break-up

It's official - Andy got into his new school. The start date is March 1. I'm ready, I think he's ready, the only obstacle was breaking up with his babysitter. Nasrin has been very good to us as a family and it was painful to have to say we were leaving. I know, I know, teachers are used to it, but it really felt like a break-up, "No really, it's me, not you." I focused on how I wanted him closer to where I work and how it would be so much more convenient for us without getting into me wanting him to be in more of a pre-school environment. She took the news fine and I cried a little. Very mature.

To top off the break-up yesterday, Andy is going through a phase where he likes to yell and whine. Loudly. At me, it seems. I think he's struggling to get rid of his cold still and his molars are likely coming in, but damn, it's hard to take sometimes. It usually starts with him wanting something unreasonable (like staying outside in 20 degree weather) and then he manages to throw a fit for 15-20 minutes. If anyone has tips on handling temper tantrums without losing your mind, please hit me up.

The Girlfriend's Guide

The Bible among expecting mothers these days is not the boring "What to Expect When You're Expecting," but Vicki Iovine's awesome "Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy." It's witty, it's relevant and it is reassuring without being patronizing. That's saying something - most of the pregnancy books for new moms tend to err on the side of you being clueless. I just got all my pregnancy books back from a friend to lend to a woman in my office expecting her first. I gave her the original and I also wanted to send her a link to the updated version. During my search I was surprised to realize she was also a Playboy model. Really? Having read four of her books now, I don't think that's something I would have guessed. I don't think law school graduate either, but that seems less strange. I don't know - after reading how and why she ended up in Playboy in the first place, I think I might like her even better. She definitely bumped herself up a couple of notches on my list of famous people who are funny and interesting who I might actually want to have dinner with someday.

Child falls down stairs, mother traumatized, kid fine

When Andy was a baby, I heard stories from friends with kids his age about the horrors of their kid falling off the bed. That never happened to us and I always congratulated myself on my obviously brilliant parenting. When I heard those stories, I was was sympathetic, but smug on the inside. Of course that wouldn't happen to us. I'm got this shit down. Yeah, and then today my kid fell down the stairs and I take every single smug thought back.

I had made a playdate for the afternoon with a soccer friend whose son is exactly one year to the day younger than Andy. She was going to bring back some of the baby stuff that Henry didn't need any longer and I was going to send her home with some of the 12- to 24-month clothes that Andy has grown out of. I was in Andy's room happily sorting through the clothes while he played with one of his trucks. We were happily busy - at least I thought - when I heard the tell-tale thud. I was at the top of the stairs in an instant to hear the first sob. Bjorn was downstairs in the basement and came flying up (presuming it was both of us had fallen, actually). It was terrible. Andy was scared and I was horrified. Since I didn't see it, I'm not sure how far down on the stairs he was to know how far he'd fallen or what he hit. There were no obvious red marks or bruises, but Andy was crying and I was close. We checked him out - his eyes were fine showing no sign of concussion (although wet), he was crying (also a good sign that he was mentally okay), he had full command of his arms and legs and a couple of minutes later was angrily pointing at the stairs showing us where he'd fallen. He was back to himself and perky again not 10 minutes later, but I've had a knot in my stomach all day.

The funny thing is that for the past month we've been practicing going down the stairs with him scooting on his butt. Recently he's been insisting on sliding that way rather than holding my hand. I've been preferring it thinking it was safer. In all this time, I don't think he's had a slip that made me worry. Not until today, of course since I wasn't watching. He'd been so good that I'd gotten out of the habit of putting up the gate at the top of the stairs, partly because I didn't think he needed it any longer. I guess I was wrong.

In other less scary news, Andy started calling me "Mommy" today. Up until now, it had been "Mama." I kind of like "Mama" and was thinking I preferred it over "Mommy," but apparently this kid has other ideas. I noticed it this morning and then he stuck with it off and on all day. I can't remember now if he's been calling Bjorn "Dada" or "Daddy" until today, but he definitely was calling him "Daddy" today, too. He's also decided that Bjorn is his favorite and half the day today he called for his father and even named the book "Gumman" (the Swedish book) that he wanted him to read. That was pretty cool.

The Great Playgroup Debate of 2007

Last week at playgroup when I wasn't in town, apparently things got a little heated over when and how often can moms serve their kids snacks at playgroup. The worry is some kids spend the time wandering from parent to parent getting treats and not eating what their mom wants them to eat so the suggestion was made to perhaps limit food to certain times. There was also discussion of adding in an activity since our two-year-olds aren't always content to just hang out for two hours any longer. And more importantly, it might keep the kids occupied longer letting the moms stick around a bit longer. A nine paragraph e-mail went out about this (no kidding) as apparently some folks got a little more heated and sarcastic than normal, resulting in some hurt feelings. The good news was this is a first serious dust-up in two years, impressive actually for a bunch of educated, opinionated ladies. The message was for folks to respect each others differences, and in the meantime let's try to come up with some consensus on how to handle this.

While we were on the subject, I talked to my friend who is our defacto leader who wrote the e-mail to let her know about the tension between the working and stay-at-home moms that Betsy and I have been struggling with. I explained to her that I'm perfectly capable of saying something to the main offender next time it comes up within my earshot (right now I generally just avoid her), but that I thought she should know what was going on since offline another working mom friend told me she doesn't feel welcome going anymore because she feels judged for going back to work.

I asked if she'd think about it and let me know if she had ideas on how to handle it since we certainly didn't want to build a culture of us vs. them since the women in either column is always liable to change as kids get older and.or circumstances change. She was saddenned and exasperated (and knew immediately who the main offender was) and we talked for a long time about it, especially since many of the stay-at-home moms are getting into the preschool thing for their kids (the main offender doesn't care for preschool either).

I feel better working to address it a bit. I think this is one of those things that some people feel really strongly about. I appreciate that, but can she not feel that strongly about it in front of me?

Meanwhile, apparently there is a much bigger dust-up going on nationally over the concept of cocktail playdates. I wish I had friends that lived closer to me because the idea of unwinding in the afternoon with a couple of friends, a couple of kids and a couple of glasses of wine sounds awesome.

The patient

Funny, after two days of Andy acting fine, but being sick, today he is actually acting sick as well. It is mostly strange since he's now on the path (allegedly) to wellness due to the doctor visit and antibiotics. Today he's been hacking twice as bad as yesterday and generally seems to feel achey and sad. Poor chicken. The good news is he doesn't have strep throat - the doctor's office called early this morning to tell me. I appreciated the call, but we were all still asleep at that hour.

To get us both out of the house briefly (it's too cold for much else) I took him over to A.C. Moore, a craft store similar to Michael's, because I heard they had cheap(er) Thomas stuff and I wanted to see for myself. The prices aren't significantly cheaper than anywhere else, but they do have coupons for 40-50 percent off one item on certain days so I'll need to come back and get some stuff on sale and keep it in my closet for a special occasion. I did walk away with some connector track so we can now marry up the pieces that can't come together because it ends up being two female ends (of course, as I type this, I'm imagining the hate mail I might get from the freakish conservatives in Virginia who think marrying females to each other is a bad thing. It makes me smirk just to think about it.)

The trifecta

We went to the doctor today and Andy has the trifecta - ear infection, runny nose and sore throat all with a nasty cough. The good news is it's not in his lungs so no worry about pneumonia, but he had a cold that went to his ears and throat. The weird thing is he's been an angel this week and except for the cough, I didn't seem to notice him not feeling well. And now except for the cough, he seems in good spirits and rather cheerful and funny. Go figure. He got his first prescription for antibiotics and started after lunch. I hope it doesn't tear up his stomach the way the antibiotics messed me up around Christmas.

It's cold here and getting colder. An artic mass is pushing through and it's really windy, too, and makes screeching sounds as it whips around the house. We also have a little bit of snow flurries, but nothing is sticking. It really feels like winter now.