The Mouths Of Babes

Ewww!

Erin accidentally broke a glass candle holder on the floor this afternoon in our bedroom. Ted was cleaning it up and I said to him, "I can't believe you're wiping that up with your bare hands. Aren't you afraid of getting cut?" He replied, "No, the real danger is the pink toe nail clippings."

Dang, I thought I got them all cleaned up...

School, Finally

The kids all had school today - yay! It was so weird having such a quiet house in which to work.

Teddy got home and said, 'Moo-oom, guess whaaa-aaat.' I said, 'What?' He said, 'I GOT MY STICKER TODAY!' He gets a sticker every day that he has good behavior - he's gotten 17 in a row. :)

Apparently Erin was also good today:

Erin: Mom, Ms. Smith didn't have to yell at me once today!
Me: Does she usually yell at you?
Erin: Yes. She yells at me LOTS of times but she didn't yell at me once today!

I'm not sure if I should be proud or not...

Flossoms

We were eating corn on the cob last night (always ripe for humor). Everyone is happily muching away on their corn until I looked over at Erin. The poor thing was trying to eat the corn by not using her 2 front teeth (they are VERY loose). She was trying to side munch it. It looked hilarious. We ended up cutting the corn off of the cob for her.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Teddy got a new skateboard for Christmas. He's named it 'Flossoms.' I have no idea how he came up with that name. He is not yet allowed to ride it outside (no helmet yet). So he rides it from the living room to the kitchen on our hardwood floors (gotta love that 10 year floor warranty). He is now making up tricks. He gives them names like 'The One Hander' (puts one hand on the board and the other up in the air behind him). He has about 10 tricks in his repertoire.

His other favorite thing to do is to pretend he is living SSX Tricky. SSX Tricky is a PS2 snowboarding video game that he loves. He has memorized all of the tricks that you can do on that game. He doesn't know their names but he knows the button combinations for each trick. So now he'll be riding on his skateboard and he'll yell to me, 'Mom, press forward!' Then I'm supposed to pretend I'm holding a paddle and pressing the up arrow (forward). Then he'll say, 'Now X! Now L1 plus Square!' If I don't pretend I'm pressing it right away he'll yell, 'L1 PLUS SQUARE! L1 PLUS SQUARE!!' Then he picks up the skateboard and flips it around himself as I pretend to press buttons. If I don't press them at the right time or fast enough he will pretend to wipe out. Then he'll say, 'You didn't get the tricky bonus or the gold medal! You'll have to do a restart.'

Recess

We are on our third snow day. Ted & I just finished writing a giant HELP message in the snow. Hopefully the schoolboard will see it and take pity on us. The kids are loving it. We are doing a lot of arts and crafts to get them through their depression from being off of school. We made snowflakes out of paper towels and then taped them all up on a wall (a very pink wall we have). It turned out really cool. Here's a picture:

We were having dinner last night and somehow the topic of recess came up. We were teasing the children (and unknowingly jinxing ourselves) saying that they'd have to go back to school today. There were lots of moans and groans. Then Erin said, "I like school, it's fun. We get to have recess! Not having school is more fun because we get to have recess ALL DAY!"

I was giving Rachel a manicure last night. When we started I told her that I wasn't a professional but I'd do my best. I started the cuticle trimming and she had this frightened look on her face. I told her, "Don't worry, this doesn't hurt. I'm just trimming the dead skin, so you won't even feel it." There I go jinxing myself again. I stopped after the second time I drew blood. So much for my dreams of being a beautician...

That's Not Fair!!

This is, of course, Teddy's favorite expression. It doesn't matter if whatever is unfair is beyond anyone's control, it is still unfair. His latest gripe is losing a piece while playing chess. See, we got a chess set and the children both wanted to learn to play. Initially, it involved learning which piece can move which way. They picked up on that pretty quickly. Now we're moving on to using a little strategy. In order to do this, pieces must be lost. Teddy is very possessive of all of his pieces and beomces quite agitated when he loses a piece. So, besides learning chess, he is also learning how to be a good sport. I believe this will ultimately be the more difficult lesson to learn.

I feel for him. I no longer play chess. I can play any other game on the planet and if I lose, I say 'oh well' and congratulate the other player(s). The last time I played chess (against Ted) and lost, I threw the board across the room - really, I did. I have absolutely no control over myself when I lose at chess. It makes no sense. I know I am going temporarily insane but am unable to control it. Alas, I have given up the game for fear of having charges brought against me.

The Quicker Picker Upper

Erin came into the living room yesterday holding up a sopping wet paper towel. She said to me, "Mom, look! The commercial was right! The quilted pockets are holding in the water. I walked from the sink to the trash can and it didn't drip once! Daddy says commercials are a scam to get you to buy stuff but this Bounty really works!"

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

There was a request for an update on my rib pain (Thanks for that, Geena!). I am still in limbo. I went to the doctor for the second opinion. He spent 5 minutes reading the results from all of my tests. Then he asked me a bunch of questions and did the exam. Then he stood back and looked at me and said, 'Susan, can you give me a more difficult patient to diagnose today, please?' I said, 'That's the story of my last 6 months.' He pretty much said the same as all the others - there's something wrong but he doesn't know what. Yeah, great, thanks. He wrote a prescription for the pain (even though I told him I was on Oxycontin). He said to try this and they might be able to wean me off of the Oxy. He wants to give it another month to heal before doing anything. He thinks the rib was injured and just isn't healing properly. He thinks it might heal in another month. Pfft. That's how I feel about waiting - I've already been waiting since August.

So, the next day I went to the pain center. I told them about seeing the other doctor and the prescription he wrote for Neurontin. The pain doctor said that was a good idea and to give it a try. He didn't ask the dosage so I volunteered it, 'He put me on 300 mg, three times a day.' The pain center doc reacted with, 'OH NO! Don't take that much!' He said you need to build up to that level. If I took that much at first I'd start twitching. He found that out by prescribing that same dosage for himself and a patient at the same time. The patient came in to see him and said he was twitching. The doctor said he looked down and both of them were twitching like crazy. I'm glad I told him the dosage - I'd have been freaking out if I started twitching! The pain doctor asked about the Thoracic Surgeon so I told him that guy refused to make me an appointment because he deals with organs and my organs are fine. So, now he wants me to go to an orthpedic doctor for a biopsy. God, I hate that word. Of course, if it's normal it will really help me sleep better at night. If it's not, I'd rather know sooner rather than later... So, I called Friday and left a message and they didn't call back.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On the weather front... We have 6 inches of snow and it's still falling. The kids are in Heaven - no school and a new sled they want to send on its virgin run.

It's All Good

I'm happy to say that the first week of having Rachel with us has been a great success! She had her first test yesterday in Algebra. The teacher told her she didn't have to take it since she hadn't been there for all of the lessons the test would cover. Rachel said she'd like to take it to see how she was doing. She got 100% on the test!! That is amazing and just goes to show how hard she has worked the past week to get caught up at the new school.

Erin and Teddy are both adjusting well. Teddy, who doesn't like change, will ask Rachel, "Will you go home now?" every night at bedtime. She's been very good-natured about it and seems to understand that it's not that he doesn't like her, it's just that it will take a couple of weeks to adjust to the change. :) Every other time of day he's very sweet to her - he wants to sit with her and cuddle and sit next to her at dinner. So, I think she knows he does like her. :)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

More proof that I should not be the coffee maker in the morning... This morning I brewed coffee. When I went to get a cup of coffeee, the coffee pot was full of... hot water. I forgot to put in the coffee grounds! I put in the filter, so at least the water was filtered. :)

Hodge Podge

This morning I made my coffee, half asleep. Then I was sitting on the couch watching the news and partaking of the Elixer of Life, doing my best Homer Simpson impression, 'Uuuuhhh, Coooffffeeee.' Ted went in the kitchen to make his coffee and said, 'Where's the coffee?' I said, 'Huh? I didn't take all of it.' He replied, 'No, the coffee POT. It's not there.' Then I started cracking up and said, 'Check in the cabinet where we keep the coffee cups.' Sure enough, there is was in the cabinet. It's a catch-22 - I'm not awake enough to make my coffee but I need the coffee to wake up...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A few days ago, in the kitchen, Teddy asked if he could have 2 marshmallows as a snack. He wanted to take them up to his room where he was playing with Erin. I told him he could but that he had to take 2 for Erin also. Then I said, 'Be very careful with them and chew them up really well. They are choking hazards.' He took the 4 marshmallows and headed for the stairs. As he was walking up the stairs I hear him yell to Erin, 'Erin! I got you TWO choking hazards!!'

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Erin's friend at school was not there yesterday and I asked her, 'Was she home, sick?' She replied, 'What's homesick?' I said, "Well was she sick and at home.' She said, 'Yes, she was homesick.' I just let that one go... Then Teddy yells, 'Yesterday, I was desk sick!'

Fun with Algebra

Having majored in Mathematics in college I, of course, love doing Math. Call me crazy or weird. I can't help it. It's just so much fun. I was so excited to have someone in the house doing Algebra homework. I couldn't wait to check Rachel's homework last night and jump back into Math. I don't want to do her homework for her so I just told her that if she needed any help to ask (thinking 'I hope so!'). So then she asked for help and the first problem was this:

                      1
                     ---
                      2           1        3
                   ------ X  -  ----- =  -----      ,  solve for X.
                      3           6        5
                     ---
                      6

I have to admit, my Algrebra wasn't as fresh as I thought. I had to work it out! I was surprised that I had to think about it so hard. I'm really out of practice. It sure was fun once I got into it, though. I explained how to work it out and she caught on right away. She's a bright girl so I'm hoping she learns to love Math, too. I will do my best not to push her just because I love it so much.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I meet with a new doctor today. This doctor used to be my doctor about 4 years ago, but when we moved back here, after living in another state for 3.5 years and I started having this issue this doctor wasn't taking new patients. I spoke to him last week and he said he'd make an exception for me and seems very concerned and wants to help me. I really, really like this doctor and am so comfortable with and have confidence in him. I am going to switch to him as my primary physician.

Poor Little Chickies

This morning when he woke up, Teddy was feeling fine. He bathed, got dressed, and ate breakfast. His school just called and the nurse said, 'Teddy is throwing up all over the place. He threw up in class and has thrown up twice in my office... and Erin's already been in here complaining of a headache.' They were both healthy as can be, all smiles heading out for school. Three hours later they're coming home from school sick. It's shaping up to be a fun afternoon. Ted just left to pick them up.

Rachel's first day of school was today (same school as E & T). I really hope she is feeling OK. It would really suck if she came down with something on her first day at her new school. I was feeling a little sick for the past hour. I really hope it's nothing we ate...

I have to go get the big plastic emergency throw up bucket ready...