Dear Tasha…

Comment from my last post…

“Hey, are you all sick still again? I hope it is a busy-good reason, not a busy-sick reason you haven’t been on!”…Tasha

First of all, thanks for asking about me.  That’s awful nice.  Second of all.  Yes, Abby was sick last week with some sort of Roseola-ish ailment, followed by a nice finish this week that looked much like an unfinished ear infection – what the pulling on the ears, poor sleeping, fussiness and all.  So I took Abby to our trusty pediatrician only to be told (within 2 minutes of the visit) that her ears looked crystal clear and the tugging was due to referred ear pain from her teething. 

For this I paid $110, as we have not met our deductible for the year yet (though we our mighty close thanks to the January/February RSV awesomeness).  For $110 dollars, I’m pretty sure I should’ve gotten a free mammogram or something.  Or maybe something a slightly less weird like a free teeth whitening or a haircut.

Sheesh I need a haircut.

In an effort to save money or in one of my odd stand-off things that I randomly do (one year, pre-kids of course, Mark and I saw how long we could go without turning on our heat.  It turned out badly for my toes, but that’s a whole different story)…anyway, I haven’t gotten a haircut since October.  It’s getting pretty wicked, the hair situation.

But that’s not really what I meant to say here.  What I meant to say is that even though Abby’s been sick, the real reason I deserved a freakin’ haircut AND a tooth whitening and massage and a glass of champagne at the doctor’s office for my $110 2-minute ear-check-up is because Mark has been out of town on a business trip for a million years now.

Well maybe not a million.

But close.

And I am on the very edge of sanity.

I was really worried that I would delve into this deep valley of depression with Mark being gone and Abby and Will’s birthday approaching this spring.  But I was sorely mistaken.  I am far, far too exhausted to be delving.  Despite the fact that I am the kiddo’s primary caretaker…the very absence of escape is exhausting.   I find it hard to fall into a real sleep, as if my brain continues to trot on the treadmill even as my body goes through the motions of nighttime.

I’ve watched the coverage of the protests and massacres in Tripoli until it turns my stomach at 3AM.  I’ve watched the insides of my eyelids.  Listened to the kids sleep.  Last night, I practically ordered Alyssa Milano endorsed WEN haircare products until I came to my senses.

So, here’s my take-away from Mark’s recent trip (cue Doogie Howser, M.D. Casio keyboard music)…

1. Single parents have it tough.  I am in awe.
2. Mark does more than I usually give him credit.
3. Mark is definitely the fun one.
4. I lose my sense of humor on business-trip day 3.
5. I stop making the beds on day 2.
6. I HATE walking the dog.  We need a fence.
7. I’m glad we get to be a family together usually.
8. I’m glad Mark usually walks the dog at night.
9. Mark owes me a day at the spa.
10. Or at least a haircut.

You Down with RSV? Yeah, You Know Me!

Where have I been?  You ask.

Well…let’s see.

1. Abby had RSV last week.
2. Thus the finale in a showcase of illness from our entire family, most likely caused by our friend, RSV.
3. Abby’s RSV led to a nasty ear infection (note the word ‘nasty’, I’ll be using it liberally).
4. Abby’s nasty ear infection required amoxicillin, thus leading to a right-nasty poopy blow-out diaper each morning.
5. Abby’s RSV ear-infection poopy-blow-out-diaper-nastiness spread from her tush to her neck and soaked through her onsie right into her sleeper and quite often into the sheets.
6. Abby’s RSV ear-infection poopy nastiness no-doubt spread onto her hair and extremities while trying to free her from her night-night clothes, despite my best attempts at throwing as many wet-wipes into the mix as humanly possible…
7. …all this while Sam circled us as if he was playing duck-duck-goose while plugging his nose and yelling “Ewwwwwww!  Abby stinks!”.  Though he was of some use as he would unhappily ditch the doubled-bagged and knotted bag of diaper and wipe nasties into the dirty diaper box in the garage and put the other bag of night-clothes poopy nastiness in the laundry-room for me to tackle later…
8. …and the reason he was home was because we were SUPPOSED to have a blizzard.
9. So, of course Abby’s daily poopy morning mess meant that she also received a morning bath…
10. …often before I had a chance to take the dog out….
11. cue dog peeing on the floor….
12. ….and definitely before I had a chance to fix the kids breakfast….
13. cue Sam whining that he was hungry throughout the entire poopy ordeal (apparently, this kid’s appetite is hardy)…
14. ….and often before I also had a chance to go to the bathroom….
15. …cue my own special potty dance whilst my hands are dipping in pleasantly warm bathwater.
16. Of course, Abby got the most demonic diaper rash ever.  So, that was no fun for me to torture her with the zinc creams and certainly less fun for her.
17. And we didn’t even get that blizzard anyway.  We did get some ice, and then a whole lot of sleet…which is like tiny little frozen ice pellets.  A random guy being interviewed on the news said this, “It’s like driving on them dippin dot things”.  I thought that was an accurate descriptions.  We got several inches of dippin dots.  And then some snow.  Not a blizzard.
18. But I was still stuck at home with a sick baby and a bored -out-of-his-gourd 4 year-old.
19. On Saturday, we got a surprise maybe 4 inches of snow they didn’t forecast.  Weather-men (or ‘persons’) are sort of like doctors.  They can tell you what they THINK will happen most of the time, but they don’t really know.  It’s all just a guess. 
20. Laundry, as I’m sure you can imagine, has been a special treat.
21. Abby is feeling much, much better now.  She is back to insisting upon eating dogfood and those dang-on little fake ash things they put in gas-fire places that I try to block – but this kid is stealth I tell you.  Stealth.
22. All in all RSV wasn’t so bad, it was the ear-infection antibiotic that I think really put us in the toilet.
23. Literally.
24. So that it where I’ve been.
25. Where’ve you been?

Random alert.

Here’s a picture of Sam and his snowgirlfriend.    It wasn’t meant to be a snowgirl…but I swear this looks like a prom pic if I’ve ever seen one!