Sick Kids

I have a sick kid. So much for my little pipe dream of M sleeping off whatever was bothering him.

He's been running a fever all day which always puts you on alert. It seems to be manageable so I'm not stressing too much. The silver lining to this is that it was a very chilled out kind of day. Well, as long as I kept Sesame Street going for him. The second it stopped he freaked out as only a sick child can do. "Mommeee!!! More! More!" as he wildly pointed to the TV. After the 3rd episode he was yelling as soon as Elmo started to sing his song to signal the end of the Elmo portion of the episode. Great. Now my kid knows that when Elmo starts to sing his word of the day to the Jingle Bells tune (really annoying, by the way) that this is the signal that his Sesame Street episode is ending. Today this triggered epic proportion meltdowns except he didn't really have the energy to pull them off so they came out as a big long whine.

There's the better part of my day. A kid who alternated between laying on his little couch, with a big pillow behind him because he didn't really want to lay down, or he was curled up on the couch beside me for some cuddles. All the while watching Sesame Street. He even managed to muster the energy to dance a little when Feist came on and sang the Sesame Street version of 1, 2, 3, 4. I am sad to say I sang along, it was pretty good.

During this chilled out sick kid day we have had a big storm brewing. I snuck outside twice to bring in some wood while it was lightly raining. This was done smugly with the knowledge that I was being proactive and building a nice fire in anticipation of a nasty afternoon/evening. What better than a fire to take the edge off the damp chill air. I should know better than to be smug about anything because there is always payback.

At about 2 pm the wind kicked up and the rain really started coming down. I understand what sideways rain means now. M had fallen asleep on his little couch and the racket outside wasn't about to wake him up. I'm sitting on the couch, reading my book, enjoying the inside quiet, when I see out of the corner of my eye, our patio table sliding along the deck. Naturally at this moment, M woke up. Now I have a patio table sliding along the deck, a toddler who's just woken up and isn't exactly Mr. Personality when he's still half asleep, and what sounds like a 400 lb man banging on the sides of my house thanks to the 90 km winds (seriously, they're calling it the pineapple express but I'm not feeling so tropical about it. It is not inspiring any happy, happy, joy, joy around here). I give M some juice mixed with Pedialite and a few crackers and pull out my waterproof jacket to brave to weather. I figure I'll go outside, move the table to a more secure spot and come straight back in. Nice and easy.

Until I get out there and realize the wind is blowing so hard I can barely move and not only has the wind blown the patio table it's also managed to blow the bar fridge about 3 feet, the door is open and there are full bottles blowing under the barbeque. Oh, and M has noticed I'm out there so now he's standing at the patio door screaming because I'm not inside with him. And let's not forget the driving sideways rain that's managed to get at me through the sleeves of my jacket. Decisions. Do I take care of the patio table or deal with the bar fridge that obviously has to come inside. I chose the bar fridge. I unplugged it, grabbed the bottles rolling around, picked up the fridge and shuffled it back in to the house trying to avoid hitting M or the dog. All right, now the fridge is in, I'm soaked, M's upset and I have to go back out there so that I can fix the table. Back out I go, grab the patio umbrella from the table, slide it off to the side of the house, grab the table (which seats 6, not so small) and flip it upside down, run back into the house and out of the gale force winds/rain.

Boy oh boy wasn't that fun. Oh, look, the hatch on the RV is open and letting in the rain. I put the really wet waterproof jacket back on, grab the keys for the RV, pop M in his crib (yup, now he's really mad) and run out the front door, around the side of the house. Open the rv, hop inside, close the hatch, lock the door, make a run for the front of the house. Grab the front door, open it, fight the wind to get it closed, toss the super wet jacket on the stairs, get M out of his crib and spend the next hour cuddling the poor guy and promising that I wasn't being a bad mama and ignoring his poor little sick self.

Dinner did not get cooked. Pizza was ordered. It took over an hour but seeing as half the town has no power I figure they're pretty busy. M went to bed around 7 just like he should with a little advil in his system. We watched a movie, finished it and popped in Star Trek even though we've seen it.

9:30pm  M wakes up and he is not going back to sleep. I go get him (I interrupted typing this just to cater to his little fellow needs) I give him a bottle and I think he's going to fall asleep with me until he spots daddy eating popcorn. Daddy has just given him the big pay attention this is Star Trek, it's a great movie speech. As I type this M is curled up with his daddy in the recliner, right by the fire, eating popcorn and hollering Mommeee to his daddy every time he wants another popcorn. I'm praying it all stays in his stomach because my hubby is looking pretty Scotch happy and I'm not sure if he could deal with puke on his chair. It'd be funny though. Huh, now I'm kind of wishing it would happen just so I could watch and laugh at the outcome. No, no I wouldn't really wish that (ok maybe a little)

Well, I guess I'll let you know tomorrow if everyone survived the evening. Wish me a night of solid sleep. I'm betting I'll need it with my sick boy tonight.

Dining Out

Tonight I tried to go out for dinner with a friend and M. Note that I said tried.

A friend (I'll call her L) from Whitehorse is in town this week for work. Glenn's working tonight and I had suggested she come over for dinner. She offered to take M and I out instead. This is a nice treat and not something we get to do often. She came over to the house, got the tour, we drove back to her hotel, dropped her car and all piled in to my vehicle to head for White Spot. A reasonable choice for a family friendly place and not available in Whitehorse.

We get seated, M's in a high chair, he has crayons and a cool paper menu, we give our order and we have a nice chat while waiting. M starts to get antsy about half an hour into the wait for our main meals. He's drinking apple juice but he's not really interested in our zucchini sticks. Actually he had a couple of vehement head shakes, an "All Done" and then spit it out over the floor. So, we stopped giving him the zucchini and figured he'd eat the french fries when the food came. The stage is set now. One, starting to get cranky, toddler, one very patient friend (who happens to have 2 toddlers) and one slightly panicky mother. I was at that "please don't freak out in the restaurant" stage. You know the one, you're trying everything you can think of to distract them until the food gets there. Banging spoons on the table, handing them the laminated menu, I got so desperate I actually tried a Kit Kat bar. He didn't want it. You know it's not going to be good when your kid turns down chocolate.

I finally take him out of his high chair and let him play in the booth beside me. This seems to work. He's trying to talk to the people in the booth behind us, he's drinking from his cup, he's basically happy he's sitting like the big people. Our meals arrive, mine is wrong. The waiter takes it back to get the proper burger (that would be chicken please, not the beef) and brings back the fries and gravy so I have something to eat while I wait. I hand M a fry because french fries are an ultimate treat to him. He takes a teeny tiny bite and puts it back on the plate. I'm pretty confused because he hasn't had anything other than apple juice and a halloween size Aero while we were driving to the restaurant. And then it happens.

He's standing there, looking at my plate that once had fries on it and he gags slightly. I am on full alert now. I've got my hands on his waist, trying to angle him away from the booth because he has started to spew chocolate coloured apple juice. All over the table. All over my pants and he even managed to get some in L's dinner. I'm now stunned/mortified. L and I are scrambling for napkins. She gets up and grabs some from our waiter who comes over with a cloth (he obviously has no children or he would have just brought us the whole stack of napkins) L made 2 extra trips for more napkins until we had the table cleared off. She was also sensible enough to request my burger to go. Which arrived just as we finished cleaning the table.

L sends us out to the car while she pays. This now requires me to slink through the entire restaurant with a child who has puke splatters all over his front. Let us not forget the very obvious wet spots on my black cord pants and the lovely smell that I'm sure trailed behind us. This was not one of my finer moments.

We dropped L off at her hotel and headed home. So much for dinner. I didn't get to try my burger until about an hour after getting home at which point it was pretty cold and soggy. There is now a quick casserole in the oven because I'm very hungry.

M has passed out after a bath and some Pedialite. Now I'm hoping that converting him back to the crib will pay off tonight and he'll be back to normal tomorrow. Maybe a good night's sleep is all he needs. Maybe it's wishful thinking and I'll wake up to a sick kid but for now I'm sticking with my sleep theory.

Sleep

Today (Last night's) rule: I will wake up as early as I can and be really loud and annoying.

11 pm: I go to bed for some desperately needed sleep

1 am: "Mommeee, mommeeee, MOMMEEE!!!" this is followed with tugging on the blanket because yelling mommy at one o'clock in the morning is not quite enough to wake me up in his little boy mind. (he may have a point since his daddy did not wake up during this episode) It's way too early for me to process anything other than "annoying little person trying to disturb my sleep" Therefore I do what any good parent does at 1 am and I lift him up on the bed so he can curl up between us, kick daddy in the back (still no movement from my other half) and finally after a lot of twisting and turning he falls asleep with his foot in my neck. I figure I'm super smart so I pick him up, shuffle my way to his room, get him into his bed, go back to my bed, promptly pass out. It's about 1:45 am.

2:45 am: "Mommeeee, Mommeee, MOMMEEE!!!" more blanket tugging, no movement from the other side of the bed. Grab M's hands, pull him up, pray he'll go to sleep. He twists, turns, huffs, kicks and then about 3:30 he starts to cry. Loudly. Loud enough to finally wake up the spouse, who rolls over and attempts to comfort the spazzing toddler by putting an arm around him and trying to cuddle. It didn't work. Actually I think it made him cry louder. Now it's my turn to suck it up, pick up the tired writhing mass and shuffle off to the living room hoping to get some sleep on the couch.

4 am: lying on the couch, pretty sure I could sleep through a  marching band in my living room. M will not lay down with me. Instead he has declared his independence and is sitting straight up halfway down the couch with his feet in my belly. He passes out and starts to droop sideways. I manage to move him so he's lying down by me, he wakes up (of course he does) but he's too tired to fight it now so he goes back to sleep. I attempt to sleep which is pretty difficult because I'm on the couch, have M kicking me and a 75 lb dog trying really hard to cuddle on the other side of me.

6:30 M has woken up and there's no way he's going back to sleep. I get up, make him a bottle, turn on the morning news, turn on his bedroom light, watch my spouse get up, crawl back on the couch and try to pretend I'm sleeping. It doesn't work. Now I have a dog nudging me to go out, a cat purring and kneading me because I'm up so I might as well pay it some attention and a little boy trying to give me every toy that exists in his room (at least that's what it feels like as he brings me one after the other)

I fought it until just after 7 at which point I broke out the really good coffee (the stuff you save just for these kind of days because it's too powerful to waste on a regular day)

Today I am putting the side of the crib back on so there will be no more MOMMEEE's at 3 am. Or if there are, I know he's safe in his bed and I can just go back to sleep. Screw the toddler bed.

I did not think of this myself. This was my logical spouse who said "Why don't you put the crib back on, it's not like he could get out anymore" Huh, why didn't I think of that.

Fingers crossed we will sleep with no interruptions tonight.

Naps

Generally nap time is not a big deal in our house. M is pretty good about going to bed and it's usually a simple process. That was before he started having his toddler independence streaks. Now, if you don't catch him at just the right moment it is a fight to get him to sleep. Today was a fight day. Completely my fault as he had woken up disgustingly early this morning and I knew he was going to be tired earlier than normal but I had to get groceries so I took the risk. That meant that after lunch he was absolutely not going to sleep. It meant that he was running around grabbing toys and pointing at the TV yelling "MORE!" in M speak this means he wants me to put Sesame Street on the television.

I caved. I caved because I couldn't bear the thought of standing over his bed, fighting with him to stay there until he finally fell asleep. So, I turned on Sesame Street and let him sit on his couch with a bottle. He was asleep within 15 minutes. It worked so well I was able to pick him up and put him into bed for what turned out to be a nice long nap.

Today's toddler rule was..... I will not nap unless I get to watch Sesame!

Strangers and Wooden Spoons

Toddler Rule # 1: All people exist to play with me, stranger or not.

Today I had to take M to the walk in clinic for a mild rash. One of those better safe than sorry kind of things. We had a pretty short wait by walk in standards and I had packed some toys to keep him occupied while we were there. The Bert and Ernie dolls were brought out and he was happily playing at the kids table. Until he noticed the other people in the waiting room. He proceeded to do a run around the waiting room scoping out the other people for potential play mates. M has no internal Stranger Danger alarm. After a couple of turns around the room he chose his victim and started to be his oh so cute self and say Hi numerous times. She responded not realizing just what she had started. He took this to mean that she was a willing participant and he bestowed on her the greatest gift he could. He gave her the Bert and Ernie dolls. And waited. And waited. This poor woman had no idea what to do so she gave them to me. M took great offense to this, stomped his feet, grabbed the dolls and gave them back to her. She sat them on her knee which satisfied him and he ran off again to tour the room and say hello to anyone who would respond. The second he left she gave them to me and I followed him. There's nothing I can say after that other than thank you. Thank you stranger for humoring my toddler and pretending you really wanted to play with Bert and Ernie while you are no doubt not feeling well or you wouldn't be sitting in the clinic.

Toddler Rule #2: Kitchen utensils belong everywhere but in the kitchen

Once we were home he had his nap and came out to play for the afternoon. He was playing blocks, throwing them over the stairs and putting them together on the coffee table. He got bored with that pretty quickly and started delving into the kitchen drawers. He found the wooden spoon that I had left there just for him to grab. After banging the spoon on every surface in the house he started following me around, waving the spoon and hollering loudly. I stopped and looked at him, he grinned and promptly stuck the spoon up my shirt. Every time I tried to take it out he yelled and put it back up my shirt. I walked around for half an hour with a long wooden spoon up my shirt. This is what one does to avoid a meltdown over a wooden spoon.

The day is not done yet and already M has established two toddler laws. We'll see what the rest of the day/night brings.

Chicken Soup and a laugh

Today I felt the edge of a sore throat and just didn't feel quite right. My other half has been complaining of this for a couple of days. That made today a chicken soup day. I'm a total cheater when it comes to chicken soup. I buy some good organic broth and a couple of chicken breasts. I cook the onions, garlic, celery and carrots and then I cook the chicken breasts and add them in after breaking them up. Some frozen peas, curry, cumin, cayenne, thyme and ginger and I'm pretty much done. It's enough to clear up anything and everything.

So, the combo of soup and some good Monday night comedy has me feeling pretty good. Thank god for laughing because it really does make a big difference.

Happy days

I am doing my uber happy, oh so proud, feeling fantabulous dance now. It's almost midnight. I've spent the last two hours trying to catch a cat. Said cat is now in our guest room. Probably feeling trapped although he has food, water, litter and a nice big bed. I am feeling victorious. I have been trying to catch this cat for four months. He has eluded me. I win!

Cody the Siamese cat belongs to the woman who used to own the house we bought. She was unable to catch Cody so he has been coming to eat on the front step and running away as soon as he sees/hears a human. I vowed to catch him the day we moved in and I finally have.

Cody was outside meowing so I opened the window downstairs and tried to entice him in with some super yummy kitty treats. He was not fooled by me and simply stuck his head in, grabbed a treat and ducked back out. I thought I'd be smart and go outside to sit on the step so that Cody could go in the window and just maybe I could shut the window from the outside. Again he mocked me. This time he came up to me, sniffed and shot to the other side of the steps. I went back in the house, got some more treats, went back downstairs to the window. Rattled the food, listened to him meow in response, rattle, meow, it was a bit repetitive. I had one hand on the window and decided not to look directly at the opening. I heard him take a few treats off the window. I peeked and saw him halfway in. I quickly looked away as he saw me because I didn't want to spook him. I stood with one foot half off the floor, arched to the left with my hand on the window, head down and eyes closed so I wouldn't scare Cody the cat. It took about 10 minutes. 10 very long minutes. I could hear him slowly moving in and I took an occasional peek to check his progress. In my sneakiness I had put the treats on a chair away from the window with a trail leading to them. As soon as I heard him step onto the ledge I slammed the window shut. He responded with a very loud meow.

He's not happy to be trapped inside. He was sitting in the window yelling when I left. I am beaming because I finally achieved my goal. Now I have to decide whether or not I tell the woman who lived here or if I should just let him chill out for a couple of days first. I will tell her because if I were in her position I would hope that whoever had my cat would let me know. I also know that she really wants him back and so does her daughter. Is it really bad though that I want to keep him? After all this work I feel like I've bonded with him.

It will be interesting to see how he is tomorrow morning. I guess that will help decide when I let his human mom know that he has been caught.