Vacation

Over Memorial Day, some friends and I got a beach house. The whole thing was quite impromptu and ended up being a husbands/spouses free weekend with kids. It also ended up being hilarious.

Meg and Liam. It's amazing to see someone else's kid grow up and to see him be so nice to my kid just makes me so proud.

It poured down rain so they went to Funland. I was home with a napping baby and even missed that it rained at all. Bless good friends willing to make my kid so at home.

Happy birthday to us!

It's a shame I couldn't match Meg's clothes in time for this group photo. Meanwhile, Limocello is not just for birthday girls.

She's not just my realtor, she's my tricycle crusher.

Hrmph

So the house has been on the market for approximately 72 hours and hasn't sold yet. What gives, universe? Don't you know how totally impatient I am? Don't you know how impossible it is trying to keep the house clean with 2 1/2 children in the house? I feel like I'm following behind a bull in a china shop, constantly trying to put things back in order and prevent disaster. Plus, Bjorn's down in Dallas finding all these amazing, 3,500+ square foot monstrosities with pools and playgrounds in a great school district and begging me to come down to make an offer on one. I know these things take time, but I really don't much like waiting. Sure we've been waiting to make this move for five years already, but now that we're here, I want to go now, now, now!

Speaking of going somewhere, my friend Catherine is headed to South Africa. for the World Cup and blogging about it. How cool is that?

And we're live

Isn't this finished basement awesome? And so, so clean!

The house officially went on the market today. I was half expecting that when it landed in the MLS at 3 p.m., that hoards of people would start calling demanding to make an offer on my house. As it is, one realtor wants to come preview it tomorrow. Right now it feels a little kind getting all dressed up for the prom and having my cousin be the only person ask me to dance. I know, it's early, way early, but I am an impatient person. Plus, I have an adorable husband in Dallas breathing down my neck to get down there and buy a new house already. Sure, he has to be separated from his family and venture out into the great unknown by himself, blah, blah, blah, but I think his job has been easier.

The house does look amazing though. It's so clean and empty right now it actually echoes. I'm not sure I could really live like this. Fastidious is not a word anyone would ever, ever associate with me unless it had something to do with AP style. But I will admit it's nice to come home and have the place not look like Toys R Us threw up on my rug.

The one with all the cake

It was my birthday yesterday. It wasn't even an interesting birthday like one that ended in five or zero of even nine or one. Nope, just your average middle, gasp, late 30s birthday and my friends (and husband) are the very bestest in the whole while world. Better still, some of my friends came over without even being bribed to help me get the house (somewhat) properly cleaned and staged. Liz even brought cake. While I'm doling out the thanks, I must say Bjorn's family and gone above and beyond in this whole getting the house ready to list ordeal. They even worked last weekend while I was out of town finishing cleaning, mowing and tidying. Stunningly awesome, those folks.

How much better does it get? Sure, I'm stressed out and sleep deprived, but I also want to cry out of happiness I am so honored by the whole damn thing.

The house lists tomorrow. I am ready to get on with it already, but it's sort of like having a baby, I'm sure. It's not like the work ends tomorrow. Rather, in a sense it's just starting.

The monster

Meg has turned into a monster. An adorable, lovely, cuddly, curly haired, sweet talking monster. We went to the beach this weekend where she played her own special game of Shit My Kids Ruined. At the beach, she managed to break my iPhone, my prescription sunglasses, my camera and my own will to live, at times. Actually, I can't really blame the camera's demise on her. It got some sand in it most likely, but still.

I must say that, my warranty expired on Sunday, but I went to the Apple store yesterday and they fixed the LCD screen for free in less than half an hour. They even didn't complain too much when a little soft serve Dairy Queen ice cream ended up on the floor in their white store with computers everywhere. It's a good thing they were so obnoxious actually. I might have ended up buying myself a Macbook. They looked dreamy and might actually work unlike my current laptop.

The big, big purge

Remind me again why we're moving? Oh right, higher standard of living for less money and the chance to be near my family. That's good to remind myself because moving sure is a huge pain in the neck. I have spent the last several weeks cleaning, purging and rearranging. I've practically got Purple Heart on speed dial just to get all the crap off my front porch. I really had no idea how much stuff I have. Really. I know everyone says that, but I have actually been working on getting rid of stuff for a while. When the big kids moved home, I got rid of a bunch of furniture then. I also routinely go through mine and the little kids' closets to donate and pass along to other kids. Yet I still have an enormous amount of stuff to get rid of.

My attic is just about filled with boxes. Fortunately we're just about ready to list the house next week so I think I've gotten up there just about all that is going to go up there. Jennifer moves into her new place first of next week, which gives me about a day to then clean up the basement and rearrange some furniture from other parts of the house. I have invited some friends over allegedly for my birthday, but in reality everyone is going to help me get the place ready.

It's going to be a real challenge keeping the place neat so it can be showed. I had a long talk with the kids about it last night -- how there can be no laundry not folded, dishes have to go in the sink, beds made and everything off the floor. Mark mostly groaned. The little kids I can boss around, but Mark, well, not so much. My realtor has said she'll throw away any of his stuff he leaves on the floor so that should be interesting.

I have survived okay without Bjorn. I miss him terribly, but I'm excited to hear the new job seems to be going well. I know he was pretty choked up when he left so I felt pretty sorry for him headed off to the big unknown as the advance team until I spent all last weekend cleaning windows and shampooing carpets. Then, well, not so much.

Now, who wants to buy a four bedroom, 2 1/2 bath on 1/3 of an acre in Fairfax? Come on, it's walking distance to Royal Lake, Laurel Ridge Elementary, Robinson Secondary and Commonwealth Swim Club. Plus, it's right off the bus line with easy access to the Pentagon, VRE and DC. I'll make you a deal!

The big, big move

So there's big news in Casa de Bennett, Internets -- we're moving to Texas! Bjorn got a new job down in Dallas, my hometown, and he's moving this weekend to start on Monday. I'm going to stay behind in Virginia with the kids to sell the house with the goal of being down there first of August to be ready for Andy to start kindergarten in the fall. Oh, and in the middle, we have an awesome two week trip to Australia planned. So we've got a bunch of once in a lifetime events crammed into one summer. I had no idea I was such an overacheiver.

When we got married, oh, back in 1998, we always said that after the big kids got out of school, we would move back to Texas. I had never really intended to be here that long. It was a three month internship (a three hour tour...) But then I met a great guy and the rest is history. But here it is, nearly 12 year later and we're really doing it. I am so excited about the move, excited to be near my family and watch my kids and nieces grow up together, get a huge house for what our modest house costs around here. It's a win-win except for all the family and friends we're leaving here. Fortunately, Bjorn is looking at houses so massive we could bring everyone down for a weekend not run out of places for them to stay.

We've got a neighborhood down in Dallas all picked out -- the Southlake/Carroll area near the DFW airport. I have some friends from high school that live there and love it, we can get a house twice the size of our current one and be in a good school district with a great football team (I've been making sure to watch Friday Night Lights just to keep up. Oh, who are we kidding. I was watching already.)

I have come out to my office and they have been amazing. I'll stay on through the summer and then transition to a part-time role to finish up some projects as well as go to our big meeting in the fall. It's a good solution for both of us, I think. Plus, my adored assistant director is getting promoted to my job. I'm thrilled about that part, too (although having my successor named is sort of like being a lame duck president, I've decided).

Selling the house is going to be hard, especially trying to keep it clean with two kids and a 21-year-old who ignores most of what I ask about keeping his room tidy, but hardest is going to be Bjorn going on ahead for a couple of months. I'm trying not to think about it too much, but certainly a couple of weeks at a time will be the longest we've been apart since we've been married. Sad.

Even though I've been yelling at him for his refusal to pack in general, he's a total champ for doing all of this. How lucky am I?

Personal Record

I hit a new personal record this week -- we had four trips to the pediatrician. Of course, tomorrow is Saturday so we still have one more day to make it a full week. They know my name when I call in now. I'm kind of impressed with our rock star power.

Sunday -- visit for croup and strep test
Monday -- visit for day three of croup and stridor, lead to steroid shot and nebulizer treatment
Tuesday -- still coughing, turns out I was really there for her "steroid psychosis." That's right, her 'roid rage. She was going from laughing to crying in one breath. He cut her dose down to half for Wednesday.
Wednesday -- no visit!
Thursday -- no visit!
Friday -- she went to bed early, like 7:30, and woke up at 10:30 a.m.! I know, who ever heard of a toddler to sleep that late? When she did wake up, she was feverish again and lethargic. I called to talk to the doctor and was able to get an immediate appointment. Diagnosis - sinus infection. Unrelated to the croup, just that her weak immune system couldn't fight both.
Saturday -- fingers crossed!

It's been a long week of ups and downs. And actually there has been a lot of vomit, too. I would like to say for the record that I am over cleaning up vomit (and off myself especially). Sure, sure, that comes with parenting, but there have been at least four separate vomiting incidents in the last two weeks, probably half of which were on me. I think I could go, say, a month or so without it next time. 'Kay?

I am hopeful that we're getting our full of illnesses out now. We've got a couple trips coming up. A beach trip over Memorial Day, not to mention our two weeks in Australia next month. Her being sick is no fun for anyone, especially her, but doing it in a hotel in Tasmania would be suboptimal.

Croup

Doesn't that look like fun? We had our first real bout of croup this weekend that turned into steroids and nebulizer treatments today, poor baby. What's amazing is how a few hours after her throwing up due to her inability to breathe, how fast medicine can turn it all around.

It started Saturday. I heard it in the morning, a slight bark, but dismissed it. Then she woke up from a nap coughing and crying. She had a fine evening and then a terrible, awful, very bad night. We took turns with her in our bed and the other sleeping in Andy's room (note to self -- Andy needs a new mattress that doesn't feel like I was in a sleeping bag outside it was so hard). I had talked to the doctor's the day before who said to give her half a teaspoon of Benadryl (generic of course thanks to the McNeil recall) and to come in the next day for a strep test.

Indeed on Mother's Day, I dragged my exhausted self and her to the doctor where we waited for nearly two hours for a quick strep test and a diagnosis of "Yep. It's croup." He also checked that it wasn't in her lungs and that it should improve. And you know, it really did improve. She took a long, four hour nap and then slept well, just waking up twice. In the morning, she seemed better even -- no fever either. But I got the call from my babysitter only an hour after drop off saying the cough made her nervous and she had a little fever. I picked her up and we went home for a nap. And she did nap except about an hour in she woke up, coughed, cried and promptly threw up all over me. It was awful, because she was scared, she was breathing faster, and because she was breathing faster, it was that much harder. It was just like watching an asthma attack. I called the doctor's immediately and was seen 20 minutes later and probably 20 minutes after that she was getting a nebulizer treatment followed by a steroid shot to reduce the inflammation in her trachea. We left with a prescription for prednisone to give her twice a day for two days and to come back Wednesday for another appointment.

You know, I really like our pediatrician, but sometimes his people skills. Well, yeah, not so much. "Don't worry. We won't let her slip away." Um? Slipping away? That didnt' even occur to me! "At least her trachea won't collapse like it does on some nine-month-olds." Yeah, that didn't occur to me either. At least his clinical skills are excellent. My baby went from blue lips to running around the living room saying, "Chasing, chasing, chasing!" as she follows her brother around. I can live with some sub par people skills if he can give that back to me.

Regression

So both kids are in the middle of some weird regressions. Meg has discovered waking up at night is fun! I suspect she's 1) teething 2) having dreams/nightmares 3) she thinks me straggling in to give her a sip of water, hold her for a minute and set her back down is comforing and 4) she thinks Mama looks best with bags under my eyes.

To make it more interesting, Andy has been wetting the bed a lot lately. It's weird how it happens. Since around Christmas, he will be fine for two or three weeks in a row with maybe one accident, then he goes like three or four nights in a row having accidents. Naturally him having an accident means he comes to my room and tells one of us (hopefully Bjorn) that he's had an accident. Sometimes he will have changed into new clothes and crawls into bed with us to then kick me the rest of the morning. Other times like today he came in at 2 a.m. needing help with new clothes and sheets. Poor guy was so exhausted he could barely sit up straight. I made him wear a pull-up after this. I explained to the extent I could that his body is growing right now and it's so busy growing overnight that it doesn't have the energy at the moment to tell him to wake up. We'll see how well that goes over tonight.

Adding to the fun is that Meg has had the barfs twice in a week. First instance was Wednesday afternoon so she was home Thursday (after waking up at 3 a.m. to throw up and then rally into such a good mood she was up until 5 a.m. just being happy. Crazy kid). Then yesterday out of nowhere she woke up from her nap and threw up on me. I gave her some Pedilyte and she threw that up later, too.

Needless to say, I'm sleepy today.

You know, I've been debating changing the title of this blog beacuse until recently, they were pretty good sleepers a lot of the time. It just didn't seem right. But now? Now I am in desperate need of a good night's rest.

Beach trip

With all my need to tell the story of getting the baby locked in the car, I forgot to mention we still went to beach and had a grand old time. I want a beach house now. How awesome would that be? Now to just have an extra $500,000 laying around. Maybe next year, right?

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.

Mark your calendars

I got gas yesterday evening and didn't lock anyone in the car. Go me! I even remembered roll down a window and not hand her the keys with which she could lock herself in. How long do you give me before I do it again?

Child locks self in car; child fine, mother traumatized

A neighbor kindly invited us on Friday to her beach house on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. It's about an hour and 15 minutes away, not convenient, but she thought her kids and mine would have a great day frolicking on the private beach. We decided to caravan since they'd be spending the night. The first hour was great -- no traffic, beautiful warm weather. We stopped in Dunkirk, Maryland, so I could fill up with gas. Andy wanted to get out to help. In my minivan, the gas thing is on the right so I can't have Meg's side door open while I pump gas. She wanted to get out too, so I offered her my keys to appease her while I got the gas. I thought twice about giving her my keys and then left the driver's side door open, just in case. You see where this is going, right? Naturally the wind blew my door shut and when I turned around, Meg had locked the doors and promptly thrown the keys on the floor of the car.

Fortunately, my friend was with me so we put Andy in her car with her girls to watch a DVD while we tried to figure out how we could coax Meg into opening the door. Of course, she was still in her car seat and couldn't get out. A man at the pump next to us said to call the police and they'd come help. Sure enough, I dialed 911 and the local sheriff came with tools. Within minutes of the call, a sheriff was wedging the door opening to try to open a door lock, press the unlock button and/or slide the door lock up. I was so calm at first. It was all going to be okay! Sure, I'm an idiot, but help is here! It's going to be fine! But then it was 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, then 30 minutes and nothing seemed to get it open. Meg was doing fine those. She could reach Andy's pretzel sticks and was snacking away. She was loving the attention, but she was growing weary, too. At about the 35-40 minute mark, her cheeks started to get rosy and I tried not to panic that she was going to suffocate (she wasn't). Then she started to cry and then cry harder.

I asked the officer what to do, call a locksmith? No, they'd do what he was doing and charge $100 bucks. Call Honda? Not one in Calvert County. Call my husband? He's too far away and would have go home to get the keys -- would she be calm for another 1 1/2 hours? Call a neighbor? It's still another hour. By the time Meg started crying in earnest, I asked the officer about breaking the window. He was kind and said he didn't want to scare her, besides, he'd only had one before he wasn't able to unlock. She was starting to get worked up so I was ready. I called Bjorn for the reassurance it was the right thing. The officer broke the passenger window sending tiny glass pellets everywhere. That really scared her, Meg bawled harder but I was so close! I was able to go in and grab her and console her while my friend and the officer triaged the glass. I think it took Meg about three minutes to calm down. I, however, was on edge about it the rest of the weekend.

Epilogue: Bjorn got a new window for me on Saturday, $259 with tax. Worth it.

Latest celebrity crush

Despite my obviously charmed marriage, I have lots of crushes, usually on random celebrity types, i.e. people I will never, ever meet so therefore totally safe. Most are quite typical -- think Pacey Witter from Dawson's Creek, Andy Botwin from Weeds  or Josh from Sports Night (yes, I do watch too much television). Others make my coworkers shiver, like Benjamin Linus from Lost (what? Sure he's not handsome, but he's devious and snarky) or Stephen Collins (think Jumpin' Jack Flash Stephen Collins, not 7th Heaven Stephen Collins. Yeah, I know....)

I'm now at a bizarro phase in my life where I have a crush on a children's book author. Worse, it's not at all because he's cute, but because his books are so darn awesome. There are billions of children's books out there, and most of them are total crap (I'm looking at you Dora). But Mo Willems? No, his books are awesome? I don't love the Elephant and Piggy series so much, but Knuffle Buffle and the Pigeon? Seriously great. Any kids' book that can make me laugh while keeping my kids interested in just great.

Awesome

Tina Fey = Awesome.

Edited to say damn NBC went and yanked this off YouTube. Try this instead.

Family of action

Lots of exciting things going on around here. A list seems appropriate.
1) Mark got a job. And there was great rejoicing.

2) Jennifer is actively looking for apartments, starting around June 1. Happy birthday to me! (We will really miss her, but I think we're all ready.)
3) Meg is potty training. I'm not ready, but she is. She pulls down her trousers in public places annoucing, "poo poo" which is universal for number 1 or 2. About 2/3 of the time, she actually goes. Amazing.
4) This potty training is tough because I can't keep her in clothes in general. She's constantly trying to take off everything so I have worked to find clothes she can't take off, making it that much harder when she announces her need to use the "flush."
5) I am going to have to rethink my strategy.
6) I've been getting my garden beds ready for planting vegetables.
7) I was bummed to realize I'm not supposed to plant my garden or annuals until Mother's Day. Boooring.
8) The tooth fairy came for Andy. He got $1. Just a plain dollar bill, too, although his name was written on it. A two dollar bill or a gold dollar would have been cooler, but my friends' advice to go for something easy to replicate made sense.
9) Shocking to me is how many of my friends give out $10 and $20 for a lost tooth. Seriously? I think Mark would start pulling out his teeth for casholinis like that.
10) Bjorn and I have been working our way through the Star Wars prequels. And you know what? They're really kind of bad. Natalie Portman's hair was pretty awesome, Hayden Christiansen's hair was remarkably bad and Yoda is downright awesome.

Lost tooth!

Andy lost his first tooth this morning, naturally right after I left for work. He woke up and talked to Bjorn for a minute, announced his tooth was really loose and then out it came. Thankfully Bjorn took lots of pictures with his phone (see above, awesome quality, eh Blackberry?) They then took the tooth to school in a plastic bad where his adorable teacher announced and early circle time so he could show it off. How cool is that? Now I have to figure out what the going rate is for the tooth fairy.

Easter pictures

Meg loves this slide that was donated "freecycle" from a neighbor a couple of years ago when her girls outgrew it. She and Andy were bouncing on it when we had friends over on Saturday as captured below.

Good friends. I normally would say "old" friends, but present company would have assaulted me for saying so.

We had an Easter egg hunt first thing this morning. I, er, the Easter bunny put out the eggs last night. Turns out that was a mistake as they were covered in ants this morning. Fortunately for Mark and Jennifer, they didn't want anything to do with the lottery tickets. We won $3 on a $10 investment.  Andy and I met some friends for church. It was a Presbyterian church that we've been to a couple of times. Cool thing though, they handed out bells and everyone rang them whenever they say "Christ is Risen." I liked it. Andy looked dapper in his blue blazer, but it was a little warm for it. At Bjorn's mom's house for Easter dinner, we had a second egg hunt. We had a great time hunting and playing ball in the yard in addition to a fabulous dinner. Luckily, the weather cooperated. It was 70 and mostly sunny all weekend. Just gorgeous.

The Easter Bunny

Tomorrow is Easter. We have plastic eggs to stuff with candy and a few lottery tickets for the big kids. We even left out some strawberries on the back patio for the Easter bunny. I'm a little at a loss about the whole ruse though. Is the Easter bunny just like Santa? I mean, is it a big surprise that he comes and does all this stuff? And does he bring presents other than the eggs and candy? I ask partly because due to the sheer awesomeness of Facebook, I see all these pictures and posts from friends who appear to go to great lengths with their Easter bunny surprises for their kids. Does everyone do that? We're just planning to hide some eggs and search for them.

Granted, I'm quicky admitting I'm not as awesome as my mom who must have dyed two billion hard-boiled eggs with us growing up. Last year I bought the kit and we never ever opened it. I was actually just fine with that, thanks. Maybe next year. Or the year after.

Andy's tooth is still working it's way out. It's pretty loose now, but I have no experience except my own vague ones from probably 25 years ago to know how loose is really loose, so loose I need to go ahead and yank it before he accidentally swallows it. Next question, what's the going rate for the Tooth Fairy these days?

Letting the terrorist win

Aw, sleeping baby. Adorable, right? Young Margaret actually has it out for me (and herself) these days. We've been having several power struggles where she looks right at me and does something she's not supposed to, like hitting or running into the street. I think it's a ploy for attention so I need to think about how best to address it. While she doesn't like being told "no" by everyone in the house, she definitely gets attention by it so I need to shift the dialogue and the attention to catching her doing something good. That has to exist, right? Right?

She's back to sleeping in the crib...for now. I am going to further remove everything interesting from the room and then try again. I initially thought this weekend, but maybe I'll wait a couple more weeks. She's also very interested in potty training right now (my girl went no. 1 and no. 2 on the toilet this morning!) so I might take one huge milestone at a time.

Operation big girl bed = fail

Young Margaret has figured out how to get out of her bed. I am not pleased by this development. Naturally I only want change in my children when it's charming and predictable, not when it affects my important television watching schedule.

Our of fear that she'd fling herself out and get hurt, I went on Craigslist -- the most awesome garage sale in the history of the world -- and found a cute little toddler bed. A cherry finish sleigh bed. I opted for the toddler bed, basically a low to the ground bed with rails that takes the crib mattress vs. a twin. For one, I liked that it takes up a lot less space in her relatively small room. And two, it's just so, so cute.

I moved Andy up to a twin  bed when he was ready to move out of the crib and I hated those add-on bed rails. I never could get it to work that great and they always felt flimsy.

Bjorn picked up the bed for me at the bargain price of $15 and brought it home. I invested in a cute new sheet and a Dora blanket and we were all set. On Friday at nap time when I knew she was tired, I made a big deal of her new bed. We read a book, sat nicely and I rubbed her back until she was almost asleep. It should have been perfect. Then about 20 minutes later, I heard the noise of a toy. So I went in, removed all the toys, put her back in bed. This continued for about another 40 minutes when I finally put her back into her crib.

I tried not to get too discouraged. Bjorn did the same routine come the evening and after about an hour, he too put her in the crib. After more of the same yesterday, I moved the bed out to the carport. We'll try it again in a week. Or never.

Astigmatism

Andy's going to need glasses. Not too much of a surprise really considering Bjorn's got a pretty serious prescription. On his four year check up, they pediatric nurse tested his eyes with their basic tests that I believe are left over from 1960 as it's the same stuff I remember using at Bradfield Elementary school in 1978 and it was old looking equipment then. She warned that he seemed to be having a little trouble with distance vision, but that at age four, a lot of kids have trouble with the instructions. At his five year check up, they noticed he was still having a little trouble with distance vision and that I probably should get him to an optometrist before kindergarten.

So a few weeks ago, I took him to an optometrist in Burke that our pediatrician recommended. Apparently a lot of optometrists (like our regular one) don't see little kids so I needed to find one who was willing to take the time. Dr. Katz was great. Nice, funny and comforting. The whole exam took about an hour and a half, which was surprising to me. Considering the length, I was so glad I left the Meg-er-rator with Miss Ayesha. Andy was pretty nervous about it, but he did pretty well. After doing a bunch of different distance vision and depth perception tests, he came back with a pretty good astigmatism in both eyes (I had to call my sister Mary to learn it's not "a stigmatism" and figure out what that meant). Andy was getting tired so Dr. Katz asked us to come back in a couple of weeks so he could dialate his eyes and make sure he wasn't missing something.

We went back yesterday for the dialating. Dr. Katz first tested that the measurements and vision tests from a couple weeks ago held up and then he put the drops in Andy's eyes. Andy did not appreciate that part since they stung a little. The good news is that the inside of his eyes are perfect, it's just that his eyes aren't completely round so he'll need glasses at some point to correct his 20-50 vision. What I liked was the doctor wasn't in a hurry to put him into glasses. He said for what Andy's doing, he can see fine. He suggested we tell his kindergarten teacher that he needs to sit closer to the front of the class and then bring him back in a year. So he'll definitely need glasses at some point, but I appreciate that the doctor's not in a rush. That said, he recommended monitoring the situation and if it seems he's having trouble that might be related, to bring him back in and we'll get the glasses sooner.

Health insurance reform

There has been a lot said about health insurance reform. Certainly the politicians went on and on and on about it. And certainly everyone in the Facebook-o-sphere has been posting stuff pretty incindiary on both sides (seriously, people). I have nothing to add except my own personal rant du jour about it. Which I can do. Because I control the keypad (at least I do between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.).
I am for insurance/health reform. I am for this because I have children and I believe American children everywhere should have good, quality health care if they are ever going to have a chance to make something of themselves. This all came to me because I have seen first hand how insurance makes a difference in the growth and development of kids. Take Andy. He had bad ear infections. If I hadn't had insurance, he wouldn't have gone to the doctor 2,700 times for antibiotics. He wouldn't have necessarily had all those ear infections treated and eventually the tubes put in so he could, you know, hear and learn to process words and language skills. If he hadn't had all that, there's a good chance he would have been language delayed. It would have taken years for him to catch up, if he ever did.

I think about kids with less resources. Those kids have the same problem and enter school with a language delay. Because they're poor, they probably go to a crappy school and have fewer resources there, too, which puts him further behind his peers like Andy. By the time he finishes school, if he does, he's now several years behind a kid like Andy. That's not to say other things wouldn't have been a factor, but if giving him antibiotics would have fixed it, why not? It's a relatively cheap fix with such a serious positive upside for the entire country.

I also work in cancer care. I hear stories from the doctors I work with all the time about how lack of insurance keeps patients from being diagnosed earlier. That means they present with a worse disease and likely have worse outcomes. It probably also costs our healthcare system even more than the insurance would just paying for their Medicaid claims while we spend $250,000 on end of life care when if they'd had insurance, a $50,000 treatment regimen would have cured it. In fact, the American Cancer Society several years ago began a campaign lobbying for health reform because the simple fact of having insurance makes a person significantly more likely to beat the disease than without -- far more than any new screening, mobile mammogram program, surgical or radiation treamtent.

So, yes, I do think it's a good thing. I'm not sure about it being an entitlement. I'm not sure health care is a right per se. I'm not sure how much it's going to cost in the long run. But something had to be done and I'm proud of this big first step.

Rant over.

Movin' on up

Young Margaret probably only has hours left before she moves up to a toddler bed. Hours. I had planned to keep her in her crib until the summer, but the little bugger has demonstrated she can just bend at the waist just right and try to get out. She hasn't successfully gotten out. Yet. But the clock is ticking. I have casually been looking at toddler beds. I have some specific wants. I want either a bed that uses a crib mattress or a twin, but I don't want to get one of those in between beds that requires a whole new set of sheets. Right now, we're down to three sizes -- twin, crib and queen.

I am loathe to go to the toddler bed. Unlike Andy who I don't think realized he could get out of his twin bed for probably two months, Meg absolutely knows. And absolutely knows how to open the door knob already. On my list is one of those door handle protectors to keep her from letting herself out. I also will have to bolt everything to the wall that isn't already or take it out. She's turning out to be quite the thrower these days. Sigh.

All this is at a time when she's been struggling to go to bed. Last night the little brat darling refused to finally go to bed until after 10:45 p.m. She might have been up later, but I finally crashed. It's now almost 10 p.m. and she's finally quieted down after a 90 minute struggle where poor Baby Elmo and Daddy Elmo were sacrificed overboard as she protested the sheer injustice of bedtime.

Houston, we have a loose tooth

I took Andy to the dentist on Friday. (I must say, having Fridays off is pretty handy since inevitiably I am at the peditratician's, dentist's, optometrist's, ENT -- you name it). It was a new dentist for us. We used to go to a dentist that came highly recommended in Tyson's Corner. He was great and had a really cute jungle theme, highly efficient and amazing hygenists. Really. But he was just geographically undesirable. With traffic, it took practically half a day to get to there and back. So, off we went to the new dentist.

The dentist herself was quite nice and friendly. I cared less for the hygenist who seemed quite irritated that Andy was whining a bit. "Stop crying You'll get done faster that way." A fair point, but as I have learned through my outstanding parenting, firmly stating "stop crying" doesn't really work all that well. He did calm down enough for the example.

Fortunately, no cavities (phew). And as a total surprise to me, he has two loose teeth. The front bottom teeth are wiggly -- one very wiggly and the other just a little. She suggested we practice wiggling it a little every day to ensure it's loose enough for the permanent tooth to push up and out, otherwise, it might come in behind the baby tooth. She expects the first tooth out within a month, the second probably a couple months after that.

It's funny, I was a little proud and nostalgic about the whole thing. I certainly wasn't expecting it (I was more expecting the crushing news of a cavity).

Next up, figuring out the Tooth Fairy. Someone gave me a really neat gift after I had Meg that's a tooth fairy pillow. Her reasoning was that with second kids, you already have the basic stuff. I thought it was a super cool gift. Now I just have to find it.

Got willful?

The last couple of months, I've really been enjoying the kids. We've had a nice run of them playing nicely together, handling school/daycare well, more or less following instructions and sleeping somewhat decently. And then I got a two year old. Seriously, my darling angel baby has turned into a terror seemingly overnight. How did I forget this stage? It's like she's a new walker again somehow.

Here at the classic traits:

• Throwing things on purpose.
• Throwing things and then stepping on them for good measure.
• Throwing her dinner.
• Stepping on her dinner once it hits the floor.
• Pouring her juice on the floor.
• Stepping in it for good measure.
• Putting toilet paper in the toilet.
• Turning on the water.
• Pouring it on the floor.
• Stepping in it for good measure.
• Running away from me in public.
• Running away from me INTO THE STREET.

Today she also managed to take off her diaper when she was supposed to be napping, pooping and throwing it on the floor. Fortunately she was in her crib so she couldn't step on it for good measure.

I've decided it's time to crack down. We're doing time outs now (I think she had five this afternoon, including when she ran away from me at the grocery store parking lot. And laughed. I could have strangled her I was so scared. And mad.) I figure I need to try to instill some discipline now or it's just going to get worse. Groan. I don't like that part! And what happened to my precious darling angel baby? Sigh.

Oh, and completely unrelated, I saw (500) Days of Summer. It was good. Bjorn watched the second half and liked it -- high praise since it's a teen/twentish romantic comedy.

Yo Gabba Gabba Blah

I'll admit it. I have a weakness for pop culture -- television, movies, celebrity trivia. I subscribe to the awesome Entertainment Weekly. I started that subscription back after visiting my friend Armando when he was in graduate school. At the time, I was working nights so by the time I arrived in Phoenix, I think I'd been up for 36 hours. I took a long weird nap and proceeded to be up most of the night, reading his roommate's back issues of EW. It was awesome. Lots of snarky entertainment analyses, which were new back in 1996. I have subscribed off and on since then.

Unfortunately, I have an issue with my beloved magazine. They had an article this week singing the praises of the kids show Yo Gabba Gabba. They raved about the music and the show saying it was a rare show that was good for adults and kids so I thought it was worth a try. The show was fine, but the music was not really that interesting or clever and the story was incredibly boring. The music was more punk and the story was incredibly basic -- not much interesting dialogue, actually, no interetsing dialogue. Was it better than the all time worsts, like Dora the Explorer and her trolls? Yeah, maybe. But there are a dozen shows better than it. And there are two -- Jack's Big Music Show and Phineas and Ferb that are really good. I actually can listen to the Phineas and Ferb soundtrack without the kids with me. And sometimes, I might watch a show by myself.

Paperwork

We took the kids on Saturday to get their passports in preparation of our Australia trip this summer. I had scouted out the post office a few weeks ago, getting the paperwork and asking exactly what we needed to get their passports. The biggest thing was we needed both parents in person, official birth certificates, not copies, and that we should not sign anything until asked in person. I also learned we could get their passport pictures taken there, which seemed just as good as trying to do it at Costco and be told later it was the wrong size.

I scouted out the Burke post office on a Friday and it was dead. Not so at 11:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning. It was packed. We waited about 40 minutes until our turn. At a certain point, they split out the passport people from the regular post office people. Unfortnately, by 12:10, the kids were luggage. Andy was toast from gymnastics and together they were an unstoppable, whining force. I was so proud. The guy at the desk was taking the whole thing incredibly seriously and was not amused by the kids. Kind of a bummer since there were a dozen families like ours there.

It was time to take the kids back for their pictures, or as Bjorn and I like to call them, their first mug shots. God, they are awful. Just awful. Part of it was they had to have both eyes fully open (no squinting when saying cheese) and looking right at the camera. So after five minutes of each not doing it right, he finally settled on pictures where they look half resigned, half crazed. I love that they'll have to carry them around for five years.

By the end, we were settling up at the counter and I turned around to see Andy lying on the floor with his hands in his pants. Naturally right in front of an entire line of folks waiting to mail packages. Course, he wasn't crying or whining anymore so I think the rest of the patrons prefered it over the former.

The best news is that the passport applications are on their way and we'll have them within four to eight weeks. Jubilee! Bjorn needs a new passport, too, but he just has to get new pictures and mail them it with his old passport and an application. Far easier.

Things to haunt them later

Meg's babysitter has nicknamed her "MooMoo." All the kids have of deminutive -- Nicholas is Nicky-boo-boo, Haddie is Haddie-pie. What's funny about MooMoo is she likes it. She likes it so much Meg calls herself MooMoo. "No, Andy. MooMoo's!" Certainly this girl has no idea that calling herself by a cow's name will not be handy in middle school.

+++
An excerpt of a fine coversation in the bathtub this evening.

Andy: "So when Meg gets bigger, her nipples will get bigger, right?"
Me: "Yes, Andy. When she's about 12 or 13, she'll start to grow up and her breasts will get bigger like mine. When you're about that age, you'll get bigger, too. You'll start to get more hair on your body and your voice will change."
Andy: "And I'll get hair on my butt, right?"
Me: "Um?"
Andy: "Yeah, like Daddy. Daddy has a really hairy butt."
Me: "Do all boys have hairy bottoms? Like does Markie have a hairy bottom, too?"
Andy: "No, just Daddy. It's because he likes candy."

For the record, he doesn't have a hairy butt. And I have no idea how candy consumption relates to such a thing.

Your daily adorableness

She knows how to say "cheese" and smile. A future, gasp, model perhaps? Or a CEO. They also get their pictures taken alot, right?

This is my young Lady Gaga who believes in a "Choo-choo" Thomas shirt and snow boots. The little darling pranced all around the house like that for about an hour. Fortunately, no accidents. She even used the toilet once.

Adorableness

I'll admit, there were times over the past two years that I've had my doubts about my ability to manage two kids. But the last few months have made me realize how totally awesome it is two children, not to mention how great it is for them to have each other. They have settled into a routine of playing together that just warms my heart, and even allows me to finish my breakfast sometimes. I love getting them ready for a bath while Andy tries to make her play Magic School Bus while she pretends to do what he wants. Half the time, she even plays the game. The other half of the time, well, she knocks down his toys and he cries. I do fiind that I'm spending a lot of time trying to smooth out their disagreements -- he cries that she broke/messed up/ruined whatever it was he was doing. And if he stands up to her or tries to keep her out of his room, she cries to protest. This will surely get old, but I do love their relationship and how it's evolving.

Terrible. F.

Today was one of those not so great moments in parenting for me (and it's all about me). Andy had his swimming class. The first three classes went great, then I went out of town and he missed a class. And then we had three feet of snow and classes were cancelled. We went for his first class in three weeks and Andy cried for the entire 45 minutes, refusing to get in and just being sad and scared no matter what I tried to do -- calm him, listen to him, guide, bribe, cajole -- you name it. It was rather horrific. For me most. I had Meg with me, which I haven't had to do before, but Bjorn was reffing basketball. Trying to keep her from diving into the class with the other kids while thinking how much easier it would be to just throw him in and do sit on the stands was a challenge. A challenge I did not meet. He cried all the way home, mostly because since he didn't get into the water, he wouldn't be rewarded with lollipops and Wii. Then he got home and had the nerve to tell Jennifer class was fun. Seriously?

I have decided to pull him out of the class though. He's missed too many classes and I want to sign him up at the beginning again and start over. We had enough of a fight that I need to let some time pass and start over. Problem is I can't get into any of the classes that start in three weeks. Gah. Let's hope I get him swimming before middle school.

Meg has turned into a two year old. She spends a lot of time saying, "No!" to just about everything and then willfully throws things on the floor and laughs about it. I am doing my best to just ignore and wait for her to get over it, but I must say I patience runs a little thin when she takes the cats' water and intentionally spills it all over the floor. She's also figured out how to get around my baby gates. I definitely need to rethink my strategies. Fortunately, it will soon be warm(ish) again and we can get to spending more time outside where she can drop and throw things to her heart's delight.

In fun news, we have booked our trip to Sydney, Hobart and Melbourne for this summer. I'm psyched although after weekends like this, I wonder what the hell we're thinking attemping to spend 23 hours on a plane with little kids -- each way. I have no idea how they're going to handle the jet lag and sleep issues, probably better than the adults.

Happy January birthday!

January is a great time of year because right after Christmas, we go into celebrating three birthdays within three weeks. I don't think you could plan that timing if you tried.

So we had three family parties and one gymnastics party. It was awesome, but I think we're all glad it's over with. Mark and Andy are cute and all, but they don't compare to Meg wearing her new tutu, Elmo shirt, tiara and waving her wand. That girl can celebrate.

Great room swap of 2010

Below are pictures from the Great Room Swap of 2010 when we switched three kids' rooms all in one day. We moved Meg from the yellow room into the middle room with the carpet. We moved Andy's stuff into the baseball room that had been Mark's and moved Mark into the yellow room. In the meantime, we threw away a ton of crap, including the carpet in the middle room. It was a pretty remarkable effort. Jennifer helped and it was fantastic having another adult so Bjorn and she could move stuff while I wrangled kids out of harm's way or vice versa. Everything looked pretty amazing for about a day.

The last picture is one Andy took just this weekend of his room as it now, complete with Legos strewn everywhere. Sure, it's good for his development, but it's a pain to step on one of those little suckers at 3 a.m. when I am returning him to his bed after a bad dream.