Dallas, PA

We had some sad news on Tuesday night. SNG and Dianaverse's grandmother passed away. It was not unexpected, but it's always sad to lose someone you love. So SNG, e-baby and Dianaverse will be flying up to central PA on Friday morning, and Friday evening after class I'll be flying from DFW to Harrisburg, renting a car, and driving to Columbia, arriving around 1am. We'll all fly home together on Sunday morning. Although the circumstances are unhappy, it will be really nice to see family that we very rarely see. E-baby has never met SNG's cousins. I'm pretty sure she'll give them all big sloppy hugs and kisses. Or at least, she'll give their children big sloppy hugs and kisses.

Right now I am blogging from a Doubletree in N. Dallas, and I just got back from dinner with three dear friends from SNG's college days and their four kids, who were SO GOSH DARN CUTE I could have eaten them up. Even when they got grumpy and tired they were irresistible. At one point the restaurant was transfored into a 5-and-under dance club. The oldest of the girls was gracious enough to let me join in the dancing fun, even though I'm too old to be cool. Oh, it was great to see their parents, too. :-) I wish SNG could have been there, and he's going to have to just come out with e-baby some time for a visit.

After dinner I ran into a Kroger for some soymilk and came out with a double issue of People magazine. Hey, did YOU know that Angelina is pregnant again? And that people wore beautiful dresses to the awards recently? Now I can read all about it! I haven't read a serious trash magazine in probably a year, and the first thing I did was rip-rip-rip out all the pages with ads on both sides. After I hit publish on this post I'm going to plug my brain right into the backside of the collective unconscious and find out who's breaking up and who has a crazy voodoo lifestyle. I can't wait.

It's the perfect end to a perfectly lovely evening.

E-baby is getting better after her most recent illness, although my head is still packed with goop. Tomorrow I'm flying to Dallas, which hooray is only one flight, but boo is still flying with a headcold (ahem-- flu!! with head congestion!!).

This afternoon we came home and found a gaggle of kids 3-6 years old playing in the neighbor's yard, and e-baby joined right in like a champ. She rode the tricycle and the rocking horse, chased the kids on bikes, pet the dogs, squealed at the cat, pushed the wheelbarrow and the babydoll stroller, tried to stand on the scooter (tricky business, that one) and splashed in a puddle. It was great. The bigger kids were really gentle with her and shared their toys nicely, and her friend from across the street (a boy who is the oldest of the bunch) kept an eye out for her to make sure she was included the fun. We kept her out way past her dinnertime, and by the time she came inside, her great mood had given way to low blood sugar and for the next hour it was meltdown central. Somehow we managed to get a couple of bites of spaghetti into her mouth and she was OK after that, but still really clingy.

I'm looking forward to the trip to D and catching up with some old friends.

I just realized I haven't posted any pictures in ages. Soon. I'll get some up on Flickr soon.

A Tale Of Two Snotties

It was the best of boogers, it was the worst of boogers.

E-baby has begun to recover from her Frank McCourt symptoms*. This is the 3rd cold she's had in a row, and I'm starting to think it's something on our end that's causing her to get reinfected-- because it's also the 3rd time in a row I've caught her cold. I am a compulsive hand-washer but also a compulsive baby-kisser so who can say what caused it all. Maybe those babies just spend all day licking each others' faces at daycare.

Caution-- this paragraph contains graphic medical content. She woke up Monday feeling lethargic, but that was the only symptom. She'd nearly recovered from cold #2 but I knew something was wrong. Tuesday she had dark green nose trails, like forest colored caterpillars oozing from her head. Tuesday evening I noticed some stuff in her eye and tried to wipe it out, which might have made things worse, because by Wednesday afternoon both eyes were oosing green caterpillars too, and they eventually crusted shut and the lids were nearly purple from being swollen. It was painful to the touch and she wouldn't let me near her with a warm washcloth, tissue, anything. SNG took her to the doctor who prescribed an oral antibiotic, 2t twice a day for 10 days. He was right that we'd NEVER get drops into her eyes. E-baby calls the pink medicine in the mouth syringe "Baby's Treat." Actually it sounds more like "bay-bee-thh cheet- Mmmm!" I'm so glad it was cherry flavored and not spinach or listerine or something. I fully expect her to get sick of it by day 4 or 5.

I started taking Airborne on Wednesday night, but by Thursday afternoon I had the same lethargy that e-baby seemed to have on Monday along with a sore throat and chills and general body aches. This one? Not a regular cold. Definitely a flu. So much for that flu shot I got last Fall. I seem to be holding it mostly at bay with Tylenol and airborne. Since the last 2 colds I had also coincided with air travel, and (of course) next week I've got to fly again, I really don't want a head full of crud. Ascending is OK, but it's those descents that make your head explode with pain.

The good news is that the antibiotic is helping e-baby a lot. Her nose went from dark green to clear in about 24 hours, and by this morning the eyes had stopped oozing. She even went back to daycare today. Fingers crossed that she's actually getting better, and it's not just that she has blocked tearducts...

SNG needs to boil all our toothbrushes and bedsheets. Oh, and he has not caught either of the last 2 things.

* If you haven't read Angela's Ashes, you might not have caught the Frank McCourt reference. In it he describes working for a coal mine/delivery service as a youngster and having chronic conjunctivitis, causing his eyes to be described widely as "two piss-holes in the snow." Sorry if the colorful language offends-- it is literary so that makes it OK, right?

Oh for goodness sakes...

I feel like all I ever post anymore is "I have been meaning to post something but busy busy busy blah blah blah excuses-cakes."

Well, I am still busy busy busy blah blah blah excuses-cakes. I will post something more --- um, hopefully-- maybe-- I dunno -- tomorrow? -- this weekend?

The truth is that it's late winter, not much is going on except that SNG, e-baby and I have taken turns being sick almost nonstop for I don't know how many months (gotta love daycare germs), this morning e-baby's eyelids were swollen and puffy and now she looks like Frank McCourt, I've been CRAAAAZY busy at work, and the whole world is standing between me and getting a decent workout. That might have something to do with why I haven't blogged much lately.

But I'm in a great mood because five boxes of Girl Scout cookies were waiting at my desk when I got to the office this morning. Best of all? They've gone back to the REAL cookie names. What the heck are Samoas? Caramel DeLites, I love you so.

Another quickie

You just have to see the pictures of Dianaverse's dog Daisy and her loverboy, the neighborhood tomcat Singer.

Honestly, I've started several posts and had to run off and do something else before I could finish any of them. I will finish one of them soon. But for now, I just wanted to say I have nothing to say.

Nope, that's not true! I have an e-baby update: she has started using 3-word sentences with subject-verb-object structure. Today she said "Baby go outside!" and "Baby got teeth!" She also loves to tell us what belongs to whom (mommy's shirt, daddy's shoes, baby's jacket, baby's mommy, baby's bike...). As you guessed, she calls herself Baby.

Ummmm

I have nothing to say, but that's never stopped me before.

I decided I wanted to learn to create wikis, so I made one at work. It was easy. It is useful. It is a good way to share information with colleagues worldwide. So then I decided to make one for myself at home. Then it occured to me, what the heck will I do with a wiki?

You might never see the personal wiki unless I come up with something clever to do with it, but I will let you know if that happens. Up next... a Sharepoint site! That I have nothing to put onto! Woo!

I got back from Hartford last night. SNG kept e-baby awake for me, and she was in the tub when I got home. She did a little splash-splash of joy and swam a victory lap before sticking two fingers right up my nose and saying "Mommy-MINE!" She was right, of course.

What else? Oh, did I mention we joined Netflix? We have the $5 a month plan that they only offer so they can say "starting at $5 a month" in their advertisements. We can only have one video at a time, up to 2 in a month, and if someone else wants the DVD instead, we have to hand it over right away or get beaten up before they take our lunch money. We've watched the first 2 3/4 seasons of the "new" BBC Dr. Who series and I want the rest of season 3!! Netflix hasn't sent it yet and we've waited a long time. I'd complain, but I kind of get the feeling that Netflix hopes we'll go away and join Blockbuster.

And now I'm going to bed because it is Friday night, I'm brain dead and we're going hiking with Zen and Season first thing in the morning tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!