Category - Family Life

Have you noticed that I’ve been a little quiet lately? You’re probably thinking that I’m busy winding hanks of yarn into balls. Not so much. My ball winder somehow got itself attached to my computer table and my children think it’s fun to spin. The one who loves it best is Bip. To his 2 year old self, it’s just about The Ultimate Toy. He likes to sit on the chair next to me, turning the ball winder while I’m reading homeschool forums doing important research. Which is all fine and good except that like the rest of my children, he never stops talking.

“Mama, Me-a turn turn.”
“Uh huh, yes, turn turn.”
“Mama, Me-a round round.”
“Yep, it’s going around.”
“Mama turn.”
“No honey, I don’t need a turn. Your turn.”
“Mama turn!!”
“Ok, ok, mama turn. Ah yes, very fun. Ok, mama all done.”
“Mama, Me-a turn.”

And thus it continues.

Bip starts almost every sentence with “Mama, Me-a.” When you write it out, it makes perfect sense. Especially if you know that he calls his brother “Boo-a.” See, when Pumpkin Girl is angry at Boo, she says, “Boo- waa!!!” (Can’t you just hear the level of whining and exasperation in her voice?) So Bip calls him “Boo-a” on a regular basis and somewhere along the way, started referring to himself as “me-a.” Cute, huh?

But say it outloud. Go ahead, no one’s listening. Mama, Me-a. Mama Mia. Yep. Bip has somehow become Italian. All day, everyday, it’s all I hear – Mama Mia! this, Mama Mia! that. Sometimes it makes sense, like “Mama, Me-a eat.” Other times he just follows me around the house saying, “Mama mia.” Honestly, what did I ever do that warrants me being harangued by a tiny pseudo-Italian baker all day?

So where was I?

Oh yes, the ball winder on my computer table. The one not so much winding yarn as it being spun by a talkative toddler. I had a point, I think. Oh yes – you’re probably thinking that I’ve been busy winding yarn instead of blogging. When really I find it very hard to compose a coherent thought while Me-a over there is talking my ear off and requiring that I actually interact with him.

That and every time I sit down to tell you all about last Saturday, just thinking about it makes me tired. It went something like this:

9:45 am Arrive at Boo’s last soccer game of the season.
11:15 am Soccer game over, return home for hot chocolate.
12:00 pm Return to soccer field for the league end of year awards and party.
1:10 pm Leave soccer field, go to bowling alley for the team’s end of year party.
1:25 pm Leave bowling alley.
1: 50 pm Arrive in Arlington for Mexican folklorico dance lessons.
3:10 pm Leave Arlington
3:25 pm Arrive at Gadsby’s Tavern, Alexandria for Cub Scout field trip.
4:45 pm Leave Alexandria.
5: 15 pm Arrive home

Five separate events in three different cities, one right after another. Mama mia!

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Halloween candy.

Birthday cake.

Sugar cookies from homeschool group All Saints Day party.

Must. Stop. Eating. Sugar!

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…and I’ve got pictures.

I can’t say that I got a whole lot housework done while I was on my break, but here’s what did happen.

I made Pumpkin Girl a tomato hat.

I also started and restarted knitting a sock. But I don’t like the way it’s turning out, so I may frog it. I’m not sure I really like knitting socks. They seem to take forever and then when one’s done…you’ve still got to do another.

It started raining and didn’t stop for four days. This is one of the puddles in our backyard.

It looks like Fall is really here to stay. I may have to make something with pumpkin.

Speaking of pumpkin – I found another little piece of heaven on earth. It’s a pumpkin latte. Not from Starbucks. I have never been to Starbucks and have no plans to go. I just happened to find a recipe for pumpkin lattes in Susan Branch’s book, Autumn. It calls for pumpkin pie spice, which I don’t have. I do know that it’s just a combination of the typical spices used in pumpkin pie, so I did a quick online search for the proportions. In doing so, I found a recipe for homemade Starbucks-esque Pumpkin Spice latte. I combined the two recipes – using Susan’s list of ingredients, but heating it all on the stove together – and it was delightful. Save yourself a few bucks and make ’em yourself.

I had a really bad headache. So bad that in the middle of school, Boo said, “Maybe we should stop here.” So we did, and Boo and Pumpkin Girl went off to quietly do their seatwork while I rested. They did a wonderful job of being quiet and finishing their work, piling it carefully for me to review later. While they did that, Bip also set to work at the dining room table, making this lovely sculpture, which he calls, Puntins!

I got this:

No, not a new houseboy! A new Dyson vaccum. It does wonders on my worn out government issue carpets.

We got to test out our family’s Halloween costumes at Boo At the Zoo. No one has guessed what we’re going as. Want a hint? Ok… (I’ll put the answer in the comments)

Philip to Boo: Boo, I am your father.
Boo: Nooooo!

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Had the doctor said “back pain and a fever” or “back pain and a high fever”?  I couldn’t remember. It didn’t matter much now as I followed my husband up the Beltway around 7 pm on Saturday night.  In the back of my car, my older children chattered away endlessly and the toddler talked to himself.  I don’t like driving to start with, let alone having to drive in the dark, so my full concentration was on the traffic.  I tried not to second guess our decision to bring Pumpkin Girl to the emergency room.

Very late Thursday night she woke up with back pain.  With a little motrin and her dad snuggled next to her, she slept peacefully through the rest of the night.  Friday morning she still had some pain, but more motrin fixed her right up.  She was her normal, happy self, playing with her friends at our homeschool group.  She was fine on Saturday morning at Boo’s soccer game, and enjoyed her Mexican folkdance class in the afternoon.

Still, something nagged at the back of my mind.  With our family’s history of vesico-uretal reflux (VUR) – reflux between the bladder and the kidneys- our doctor’s instructions were to take the children to the emergency room if they ever have back pain with a fever.  Or was it back pain with a high fever?

We went to Mass on Saturday evening.  Pumpkin complained of back pain again, so I snuggled her close and in doing so, I felt her forehead.  For the first time, she felt warm.

Church is a good place to be if you’re going to panic.

As soon as we got home I took her temperature. 99.8.  Not too high, but a fever nonetheless.  I turned into Highly Efficient Mom, complete with Calming Smile and Comforting Voice.  I instructed Pumpkin and Boo to pack some books while I heated something to eat. We ate dinner, warm comforting soup in a pumpkin tureen with our family’s favorite cornbread.  Pumpkin’s big eyes betrayed her nerves and I knelt beside her to comfort her.

And that is how I found myself driving to the emergency room on a Saturday night.

Pumpkin Girl did have the beginnings of a kidney infection.  In a couple of more days she would have become very sick, with nausea and vomiting.  But God was good and sent her just enough of a fever for us to know to take her in.  She got an IV bag of fluids and a big dose of antibiotics and we were able to go home once her bloodwork showed that her kidney function was good and her white blood count was fine.

The whole experience wasn’t scary for me in the way you would think.  I wasn’t worried about Pumpkin Girl.  She looked and acted healthy at the hospital, and I had brought Philip along to help me manage the medical folks if I ran into any resistance.  I knew exactly what I wanted them to do for us.  I knew she would be fine.

It wasn’t until we arrived home at 11:15 and had tucked our weary Pumpkin in bed.  I realized then just how easy it was, just how easy it should have been for Rebecca.  A simple test, some antibiotics, everyone goes home no worse for the wear.

Today Pumpkin Girl is pain free.  Now I am worried about what this means for her, long term.  She has never had a UTI before now and she had been off the daily antibiotics since January.  Monday I will call her pediatric urologist to see what we do next.

For today, we just wait.  And pray without ceasing.

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Waltzing Matilda has kindly provided me with today’s blog topic.  She asks, what is your guilty pleasure.

I have two, actually.  The first is an anthology of romantic Christmas stories .  That link isn’t to the exact book I have, but one in the same series.  Simple stories of love at Christmas time.  I read them every year.  I’m sappy that way.

My other guilty pleasure is, and I can’t believe I’m going to put this in writing and publish it on the internet, is the movie Center Stage.  The plot is predictable, the acting and writing passable, and I could do without some of the colorful language, but the dancing, oh the dancing!   I watch this movie every time Philip is out of town.  It’s the perfect movie to knit by, since I can focus on my project for most of the movie and take a break to watch the dance scenes.  I actually own the DVD.

So there, I’ve said it.  Hopefully your image of me has not suffered too greatly, but if you feel you can no longer read my blog, well, I’ll understand.  But I’ve just got to have my dance movie.

So, as Matilda asked, what’s your guilty pleasure?

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My actual life has been getting in the way of my blogging lately, so in an effort to post anything this week, I’ll share with you Bip’s latest creation. It’s a little piece that he calls “Car-Car Choo Choo.”

 He also wants me to point out to you that he is wearing his “Car-Car Moozy” shirt (that’s “Car Movie”, for those of you that don’t speak Bip) and that he’s been carrying that shirt around like a security blanket for two days.

And since we’re speaking of Bip,  if you ask him what his name is, he’ll happily tell you, “Me!”  How cute is that?

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