Category - Family Life

It all started about 2 weeks ago. The weather was nice and Boo was spending a lot of time riding his scooter with his posse. It was only a matter of time before one of them wiped out and this time it was Boo. Fortunately, he was wearing his helmet, which now bears the scars of his crash instead of his head. Unfortunately, he was wearing shorts but no knee pads. He came limping home, and one of his buddies wheeled his scooter home for him.

It wasn’t that bad, really. A couple of band-aids for each knee and one for each one of his hands. He was sore but ok.

The rest of the week was colder and he was wearing pants again, his band-aids fell off and he kept riding his scooter. All was well.

Until last Friday when the weather was warm again and he was wearing shorts. We had just settled on to the couch to start school and I turned to Boo, who was holding the books and saw his knee.

In a word – eeeww!

One of the scabs was clearly infected. It was raised and pus-filled and surrounded by red. I asked him if it hurt and he said only if you touch it. Apparently there’s this lever on his scooter which is used to raise and lower the handle, and it hits Boo on the knee when he rides. Instead of that particular spot healing like the rest, it kept getting reinjured. I managed to get him the last appointment available that day, which was good, because of course, it was Friday.

The nurse and the doctor had entirely too much fun at his expense – exclaiming that while that wasn’t the grossest thing they’d ever seen, it was pretty darn gross. The doctor poked it until it oozed, then pried the scab off. She swabbed it for a culture, then gave him Bactroban ointment and instructions on what to do if it looked worse over the weekend. I even got to fill out an injury report!

All was well.

Monday night Pumpkin Girl started not looking so good. Tuesday morning she skipped her ballet class and by that afternoon had a 102.3 temperature. Wednesday her ears hurt when she swallowed, which I know from personal experience can actually mean a sore throat. By the evening she had the tell-tale signs of a scarlet fever rash. Philip promised to get up at the crack of dawn to get her an appointment for today.

Meanwhile, the nurse had called to tell me that Boo’s culture had grown staph and that he needed to go through a round of antibiotics. Lovely.

Pumpkin Girl kind of freaks out at the idea of having her throat swabbed, so she lucked out that her fever, rash and very obviously painful throat all pointed to scarlet fever. Again. The doc didn’t even bother swabbing her, just sent in the prescription.

And with Bip’s daily antibiotics for VUR, that makes all the children on antibiotics. I’ve made a chart on the white board so I don’t forget. I’m hoping that with Staph Boy already being on antibiotics that Strep Girl won’t infect him, too.

So if you come around our house, don’t be surprised if you’re greeted by this:

Just run for the hills.

H/T to Mary Grace for the sign.

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Found in the garden: ladybug

Resting at the National Aquarium in Baltimore: African bullfrog. Sometimes they eat their siblings.

Created by Pumpkin Girl under Boo’s loft bed: stalactites

Being knitted: baby bootie

Seen from the freeway on the way home from Baltimore: a pineapple on top of a building. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Discovered on the internet: close-up of the pineapple

Flying by my house: CH-46 Sea Knight

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Towtrucks in the hallway

Firemen in the kitchen ( a commentary on my cooking?)

Pirates near the bathroom

R2D2 in the Barbie car

Sentries on the ottoman

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We can’t just “run out to the store” around here.  Our military base is wedged in between the Potomac River and the worst neighborhood in DC.  Plus, our base exchange, or BX, is small and it is a rare day when we can find everything on our list.  So we keep a running list of things to buy off base and when the list gets long enough, we load up the young ‘uns and mosey on out.  As much as one can mosey in a minivan.

Last week we hit the much bigger post exchange at Fort Belvoir.  Much consuming was going on and there was no evidence of a slowing economy.  We bought a toddler mattress, a garden gnome, wooden hangers, boy’s dress socks and a bunch of other stuff that has been happily stored away out of sight.  The only impulse purchases were from the Usborne Book lady lying in wait at the entrance.  If it’s one thing our family loves, it’s books.  We got off relatively easy with a children’s book of King Arthur stories and one sort of fairy stories with morals.   Hmm, I guess the garden gnome was an impulse purchase, too. But really, can one really have too many gnomes?  Don’t answer that.

We ventured out again on Sunday, this time to Target.  Oh Target, how do we love thee, let me count the ways:

Wide, open aisles
Bright lights
Nice things I’d actually display in my home
Decent prices
An actual selection of items, not just one

And Hello Kitty.  Target sells a lot of Hello Kitty.

Armed with my list, we shopped.  Since our little BX doesn’t carry binders (you know, the 3-ring kind) unless it’s back-to-school time, imagine my joy at finding not just file folders at Target, but color folders.  And children’s chewable Tylenol – also not to be found at our BX.  And there, minding her own business in the health care aisle, this cute Hello Kitty humidifier.

Stop laughing already!  Our humidifier broke while Phil was enjoying three hots and a cot and a daily exercise routine in Afghanistan.  We hadn’t replaced it yet, so I ask you, why not Hello Kitty? Plus, Pumpkin Girl and I look really cute when we smile pretty and bat our long eyelashes over our big eyes.  Into the basket went Kitty.

Onward to the toy aisle.  Not so much of a dangerous move as you’d think.  Boo needed some Storm Troopers (don’t we all?) and he had his own money.  Then we moved on to the girl toys to shop a gift for Pumpkin’s BFF.  I’m just glad we weren’t at Toys R Us, or we’d all still be there.

Indecisive Girl is wickedly tough to shop with.  Everything I suggested, knowing a thing or two about little girls, was met with a resounding, “no!”  Since she obviously had her own ideas, I suggested that she should pick something.  Oh yeah, that went well.

“How about playdough?”  Um no, honey, your friend is turning 9, not 5.

“My Little Pony?”  Again, with the turning 9.

Then Helpful Boy started piping in with suggestions like a tea set or an Easy Bake Oven or Storm Troopers.

I suggested a game.  Pumpkin spotted Mancala, her newest favorite game.  It was a great idea, except that it cost all of $5.   So then we tried the Barbie aisle.  Barbie is not without controversy, so I was reluctant to buy one without asking BFF’s mom.  But Pumpkin would not be dissuaded.  Thank God for cell phones, and yes, Barbies are fine.  So then it was a matter of which Barbie out of the 20 on display.  This one or that one?  Blond or Brunette, princess or ballerina.  Finally we had it narrowed down to 2 and I explained the pros and cons of each.  Then Pumpkin says, “I like the ballerina one.”  You mean the one you said no to ten minutes ago?  ARGH!  I was ready to lie down, right there on the Target floor, and cry.

What I actually did was walk away and tell Philip to deal with it.

Turns out that Pumpkin was cranky at the purchase of Storm Troopers.  Once the birthday present was decided on, she asked very nicely if she could spend her money on something, too.  Her choice – a Barbie car.  If your child has a Barbie, you are contractually obligated to provide Barbie with a car.  Even I had a Barbie car – a yellow Corvette with a luggage rack.  Pumpkin’s choice was this sweet little beach car, complete with drink cooler.

So, everyone all smiles again, we went off pick out some sandals for Pumpkin.  More drama, indecisions and mama on the floor in tears.

At least I got a Hello Kitty humidifier out of it.

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So the Pope arrived in town today.   Philip, as our intrepid parish council president had one (and only one!) ticket to view his arrival at Andrews AFB.  Sadly, I don’t have any pictures to share because Philip turned down the ticket because he felt he couldn’t take that much time off of work.  He just couldn’t appreciate the importance of the event, especially to my blog.  Short sighted man.

And even though on Friday he will officially be over 40, I won’t be trading him in for a younger, newer, more blog sensitive model.  Where would I be without him, after all?  OK, so I could’ve gone without following him to Korea, but still he’s very useful.  Did you see the Pantry of Love he made me?  He even cleans out the Mama Car, right down to bringing in all the extraneous bags floating around in it.

And if one of those bags contains say, extra diapers and wipes, one really can’t fault him for that, right?  Because after all, he was helping me out.

Wrong!

So it was my turn to drive ballet carpool this morning.  I have to bring both of my boys with me, which isn’t really that big of a deal.  Except that for the first time ever, Bip had a poopie diaper while waiting.  He didn’t smell particularly bad, but he kept saying very clearly, “Mama, me-a poopie!”  What could I do?  All the other waiting parents heard him.  I knew I didn’t have any diapers in my purse, so I went out for the spares in the car.

Of which there weren’t any. See above paragraph.

So what is a mom to do?

I searched and searched that car for any diapers.  And since Bip had a cloth diaper on, I also needed some sort of bag for putting the soiled one into.  What I came up with was one rogue cloth diaper-turned burp cloth, circa 1970.  My mom gave me a bunch of my old cloth diapers to use as burp cloths.  Why that one was still in our car long after Bip outgrew the spitting up, I have no idea. But there it was.  I also found some wipes, still wet.  And a Priority Mail bag, unused.  Just enough to get the job done.

The burp cloth was very thin, not like the luxurious cloth diapers I use.  But it would get us through the last 10 minutes of dance class and the 20 minute ride home.  Fortunately, Bip already had pins in the soiled diaper and a diaper cover or it wouldn’t have worked at all.  Back in the bathroom, I dunked the liner in gloriously clean toilet and stuck the whole thing in the mailing bag.  I twisted the top and walked out like it was no big deal, feeling very much like MacGyver.

Good for Philip, cleaning out my car.  Not so good with the removing of my spare diapers.

I’m starting to think I need my own theme song.

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I am a wife and a mother.  These are my chosen professions and each title comes with a number of jobs.  Beyond the usual “mom taxi” and “chief cook and bottle washer,” I am many things.  Add to that the fact that I am homeschooling my children, it’s no wonder that my house is in the shape that it is.

On any given day I am preparing meals, changing diapers, and teaching school.  Some days you may find me administering spelling tests with my notebook balanced across the kitchen sink as I prepare lunch.  As my children grow older and their friendships become more complicated, I also find myself carefully guiding them through the world of interpersonal relationships.  I can correct both manners and math tests without skipping a beat.   I can fold laundry, talk on the phone and tie a shoe at the same time.

It hasn’t always been this way, of course.  Once upon a time I was just me.  My time was my own and I could do with it as I pleased.  If I wanted to do absolutely nothing on a Saturday, I could.  I could spend a Sunday afternoon watching football and reading the paper.  Nobody depended on me.

I got a little taste of being Just Me today.  I met a longtime friend in Old Town Alexandria.  We attempted to have lunch at a new restaurant, but 45 minutes after ordering, our food didn’t arrive.  We walked out.  But honestly, it wasn’t too bad because we were chatting the whole time.  We even talked to two English guys sitting next to us.  We found a different place to eat and talked the whole time.  Later we went to a local knitting shop and I bought too much yarn knit some and talked even more.

I was gone most of the day.  I relished the adult conversation and the chance to only  worry about myself.  I got to drink my soda without sharing. It was fun to remember the Me that used to be and still exists deep inside.

You know what else was fun?  Walking in the front door and having three little people run up to me calling, “Mama!”.  Because that’s Me, too, the Me that I am right now.  A Me that needs a break every so often so that I can return home, refreshed and renewed.

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Our 2nd night’s performance went much better than the first.  We all had a better idea of the timing and pacing of the costume changes and how to best use our down time.  It was a huge learning experience for all of us!  Boo, Pumpkin Girl and I got to watch most of the show from backstage which was really cool!

The polka that was a disaster at most practices and especially at the previous performance was a resounding success last night!  They have never danced the polka better! Some of the other moms and I took charge and lined the dancers up in the lit hallway way offstage and walked them into the wings of the stage and made them stay in place.  The children were much more settled and confident when they took the stage in the dark and just danced their hearts out.  I don’t have any pictures from the polka because it moves way too fast.

The next dance for them was Los Machetes and it was just as good as it has always been.  Boo leads the boys out and then generally stays in one place, which makes for good pictures.  While he’s flashing his machetes, the girls are swirling around him with their beautiful skirts – much harder on the picture taking.  But here’s what we’ve got to share:

This one’s blurry, but that’s Pumpkin Girl in the turquoise dress. (click on it to see it better)

And there she goes, swirling away.

Here comes Boo, working those machetes and the sombrero.

One more of Boo.  That’s Pumpkin in the back, on the left.

The last dance was a merenge for carnival.  That’s another really fast moving one, not so good for the pictures.  Last night’s performance started an hour earlier, so it was only 9 pm when they took the stage for that last dance, instead of 10 pm like the night before.  It really made a difference in their energy levels – and you could tell they all had fun.

So now we’re done with any major activities for a while.  We can settle down and get some school done and enjoy the ride.

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We made to the first folklorico performance last night!  Our stomachs had all settled down, even though our appetites had not fully returned.  Boo and Pumpkin Girl played with their friends in the morning and were more than ready to dance in the evening.

Our entire theater/dance experience to this point has been Pumpkin’s dance recital last year.  She showed up, dressed and ready, sat on the floor in front of the stage with all the dancers, took the stage when her group was called, did her thing, and sat down.  It was wonderful in it’s simplicity.

This weekend’s performances are significantly more complicated.  Three different dances times two dancers equals six costumes, one set of props and three hair changes.   And one stage mom to rule them all.

It was quite an experience.

The dance that I suspected would be a disaster was exactly that.  But the other dances were great.  Boo totally rocked the machetes and Pumpkin was beautiful in her dress.   The crowd cheered louder for the boys at the curtain call than for anyone else.

I don’t have any pictures, unfortunately.  Philip will be in the audience tonight, so hopefully he can get some.

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The costumes are pressed and waiting in the hallway.

But the dancers (and their parents) have the stomach flu.  We already missed last night’s dress rehearsal, so we are just waiting and praying that by Friday afternoon we’ll be feeling better.   I think Pumpkin Girl will make it, Boo is still iffy at this point.

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