A Few Weeks in the Infirmary

I don't want to be Queen of the Whiney Pants over here, but we can't seem to catch a break in the last few weeks when it comes to our health.

In the last few days of May, Felix got pink eye. I tried to be a hippie and cure said infection with breast milk.

On the first day in June I woke up with a really sore throat, but I figured it was just allergies. I took some Sudafed, and we were on our way for a fun Saturday. By the middle of the day I knew my sore throat was something more malicious than allergies. I had a fever off and on, and my whole body ached and throbbed. Meanwhile, Felix's pink eye was getting worse despite the frequent expression of breast milk into his eyes. I called the pediatrician's office, which is open on Saturdays until about 1, and they called in a prescription for me without making us come in. (Hallelujah for that. If I'd realized they would do that so readily I would have called two days earlier.) We missed a party that night.

Sunday came and my throat looked horrible. I was pretty sure it was Strep. I stayed home from church with Felix, and we missed another party that night.

Monday I woke up in so much pain that I couldn't sleep, and I anxiously waited to call the doctor's office to see how early I could get in. When Eric woke up he informed me that his throat was really sore too. But his did not exhibit the terrifying tonsil issues that mine was exhibiting, so we were hopeful it was a fleeting problem. He went off to work, and I hauled the kids with me to the doctor's office. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I was praying for Strep Throat - it's treatable with an antibiotic, you see. Viruses, on the other hand, are not, and you just have to wait those out.

I almost cried when the doctor told me that it wasn't Strep. He had a look in my throat (he hadn't seen it yet, because the nurse had taken the culture to test for Strep), and said it was "impressive." And then he said I needed to be tested for mono. That was negative too. (I can assure you I was not praying for a positive test that time.)

So I had this horrible virus which hurt my throat more than anything else I've ever experienced. The doctor gave me herpes medicine because I had cold sores in my throat. (I've never had a cold sore in my life, so this is totally mysterious to me.) This did, at least, explain to me why I was in such constant pain. (After careful examination of my throat numerous times I counted seven cold sores at one time.)

I took a bajillion pills, and Eric gave me a blessing, and by the end of the week I was doing mostly better. Eric's sore throat turned out to be a pretty bad cold, but he's a tough guy and he worked in the yard despite the sore throat and muscle aches he was dealing with. Also during this time Ike popped up with pink eye because that stuff is really contagious and toddlers and infants are not really great at hygiene.

Friday my brother and his brood came to visit for about a week. I went to a physical therapist that morning for my horse-bucking injury, and although I was sore I was finally feeling like my normal self. That lasted about three days.

Monday I came down with Eric's cold. It's worse than your average cold. Or, possibly, my immune system is so embarrassingly weak that it is an average cold that has beaten the snot out of me. One of the two. I plugged along but didn't go into the office a single day this week.

And then today Ike came down with the cold too. And I have pink eye.

Felix - Eight Months

My little Felix is a wiggly, happy baby. He loves to be held, but not to cuddle. He loves to watch Ike play, even though Ike pays little to no attention to him. Felix doesn't like to be left alone.

He's still very tiny (which is great considering how much he likes to be held). His clothes are all sized 3-6 months, even though he "should" have outgrown those clothes two months ago. There is a baby down the street who was born in February and has already outgrown this guy. There is a baby across the street who was born in March and has also outgrown this guy. (Neither of those boys are average sized. They are both really large, so I'm comparing two extremes here.)

Despite being small, Felix loves to eat. I've started giving him finger foods, and it's amusing to watch how little of the food actually gets into his mouth.

This month he's really mastered army crawling. A month ago he was getting the basics of it, but his arms regularly got trapped beneath his body, so he had a scoot-scoot-faceplant pattern. Now he can keeps his arms out in front of himself, and he can really move. He's also figured out how to sit up on his own. As with Ike, I found him sitting up on his own several times before I actually saw him make the transition.

We've gotten used to having him in our family. We love this little guy.

Rascal - An Apt Name

A few weeks ago Eric's sister and her family were in town for a short visit. Eric's sister really likes horses, so her mom arranged for Michelle to go riding on some friends' horses. I decided to tag along. I had a lot of fun. Except at the end when I got bucked off. (Since then I've been surprised to learn how many other people have been thrown off of horses. It seems like at least one third of the people I've mentioned it to have said that it's happened to them before too.) I started on a different horse, but midway through Michelle and I switched. This horse didn't want to keep up a quick pace, and he kept slowing down. I had to get off a couple of times to get my saddle and stirrup fixed. Finally I had him going at a good pace, but the saddle was still loose. Michelle shouted for me to slow down so I could get the saddle tightened. I tried, but at that point Rascal (the horse) just took off. Then I screamed for him to stop, at which point he probably thought, "Ha! She has no idea what she is doing!" (He was right.) And then he bucked me off.

It happened really quickly. I landed on my shoulder/back first and then continued my flip and banged my lower hip/back. I didn't break my neck, but I'm still having a little trouble with my back. I'm not really sure how long to let it bother me before I go see somebody. And I'm not sure who to see. A chiropractor? Maybe, but I definitely don't want the kind who will tell me that my eyeballs are in backwards and my liver has traded places with my spleen and I need to come see the chiropractor for the rest of my life to keep my body in order. Maybe a physical therapist? But do I need a referral for that? But maybe if I just give it a bit more time it will get better.

Virtuous Pet Names.

My friend got a canary for Mother's Day. When I asked her what she planned to name it, she said she wanted to give it a name that would remind her son to behave. Something like, "Don't Say Potty Words." Or "Be Obedient."

If our family were to get a pet and name it some sort of quasi-virtue name, these would be on our list of possibliities:

• Don't Run Away. (Either that, or Stay By Mom and Dad.)
• No Shouting.
• No Hitting. Or Kicking. Or Biting. (That's a new, really weird thing he's been doing.)
• Take It Easy.
• Don't Stand on Mom's Feet.
• Eat Your Dinner.
• Don't Throw Toys Down the Stairs.
• Put It Back.
• It's Okay. He's Just A Little Baby.

If you were to name a pet some with a name that serves as a reminder to your children, what would it be?

Sleepovers

We love to play board games with friends. Now that we have kids it's a bit harder to get together with other couples to play board games late into the evening. For the most part we've had good luck getting Ike to sleep in a playpen in other people's homes. Now that he sleeps in a regular bed and is fully capable of climbing out of a playpen we weren't so sure he'd be such a good sleeper in strange places.

Two weeks ago we went to hang out with our most frequent board game friends. When we arrived at their house their older two kids were pretty much down for the night. We made a few suggestions for what to do with Ike like having him sleep in a room by himself and putting a child lock inside that room, but ultimately we decided to put him down on the floor with our friends' kids. But there was one caveat. The dad of the other family would be the one to put him down.

It worked like a charm. Jon (our friend) told him to lie down and told him that all the kids were going to sleep and he needed to go to sleep too. He had his monkey and his blanket, and he needed to be quiet, close his eyes, and go to sleep like the big kids. No yelling. No getting up.

I suspected it would work because he sleeps on the floor at his sitter's house, and she's only had to send him back to his napping spot once. He's very obedient for people who are not his parents.

We went to play games with another set of friends this past Saturday. This time Ike slept on the floor in a guest room, and again the dad in the family told him to go to sleep and stay on his sleeping spot. He did end up waking up before we were ready to go, but it wasn't a matter of disobedience at that point. He was just disoriented and scared, so I held him while we finished our game. Once that game was over we headed out.

On the way home from our friends' that evening Eric and I discussed how good our little boy is for other people. We're working on a plan to have other people put him to bed every night. Any takers?

Where I've Been

I have felt for a while now like I'm always on the brink of having my life in order. Life is so different with two kids. More so, life is very different when one of those kids is a toddler who used to play independently for large chunks of time but now demands a lot more attention and interaction. And the other kid requires more attention than the first one did as a baby. You would think after seven months that I would be in the swing of things. In reality, after seven months I'm just learning to let go of a lot of things. One of those is this blog. I'm not quitting altogether, but it's just not a priority for me right now.

Cleaning is also not a huge priority. Earlier in the year I figured out that I am capable of working, preparing good food for our family and maintaining a clean house. But I'm not capable of doing all of these things simultaneously. So I basically called it quits on cleaning. I notified Eric, and we've just been doing the best we can to maintain some semblance of tidiness. I try not to beat myself up when it gets chaotic, and Eric has filled in a lot of gaps. (Our house is still not as clean on a day-to-day basis as I'd like, but it's something I'm learning to deal with.)

I'm learning, much to my dismay, that I don't know how to play. When I deliberately set time aside to interact with Ike I usually find myself in a pickle because I don't know what to do with him. We read a lot, but occasionally reading doesn't interest him. We sometimes watch movies or clips on YouTube, but if I'm setting aside time to be with my boy I don't want that time spent in front of a screen.

I'm getting better at playing (mostly by just mimicking the things that Eric does with him), but it gets tedious very quickly for me. I'm not a kid at heart. I'm a grownup at heart, and I think I always have been. When Ike grows up and looks back on the activities we did together they will revolve around him "being a helper" to me as I cook and clean. I'm sure those things are important, but they're probably not as fun. (Especially when the whole time we are cooking I am telling him, "Don't touch that." "Put that down." "Don't stir too much." "No, the oil doesn't go in yet." "Plug it back in." "Don't sneeze into the bowl." "Don't lick the clean dishes.")

So that's where I've been. Trying to balance the responsibilities I've chosen.