Seven Quick Takes

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~1~

Why won't men go to the doctor? It's a mystery I'm hoping to solve before I die. Superman has his yearly bout of bronchitis, but refuses to go in for the medication that will help. Instead he insists on powering through, and hopes that it will fix itself. This happens EVERY YEAR. And every year he refuses to go until it's bad enough he's actually starting to worry about pneumonia. Why, why, why does he always wait til it gets this bad? I need a man manual.

 

~2~

I spent most of yesterday in bed. My mother came to take my healthy kids Wednesday night just before their bedtime, kept them all night for me and let me spend yesterday recovering. I slept straight through until 10 a.m.- can't remember the last time I did that! I slept most of the afternoon too. I was hoping I'd feel better than this by this morning, but no such luck. I'm just as achy and grima s before. Maybe the get well vibes will work tomorrow. Thank goodness for my mom and her willingness to jump in to care for my kids so I could get some sleep yesterday.

~3~

Little Bit has a little bit more ornery in him than his brother. Okay, okay- he's the very definition of ornery.  Earlier this week when I was making breakfast for myself and the boys I realized that Little Bit was *very* quiet. I thought he had surely made his way upstairs so I went to the base of the stairs to call for him. After saying his name I heard mad splashing in the downstairs bathroom, which is about 5 steps away from me.

 

"Great- he's playing in the toilet." I think to myself. I went in ready to wash hands and give a little "we don't play in the potty" speech for the gazillionth time. But no- he's not playing in the toilet, he's using a little toy spoon to scoop toilet water into his mouth!

 

I'm really stringent about cleaning my bathrooms. My dishes may not be caught up every single day and I know my laundry isn't, but my toilets are. I still almost threw up when I saw him drinking toilet water- it certainly didn't help that I was already feeling ill.

 

Later on I was telling my mom what he'd been doing. She laughed- laughed!- and said, "He'll probably be your healthiest kid." I have caught the child licking shoes, putting rocks in his mouth, and one time I fished part of a ladybug out of his mouth- another gag inducing moment. Now I have to add drinking toilet water to the list. Boy, his future wife is in for a handful.

 

~4~

We will find out in the next few weeks whether or not my mother-in-law will be laid off from the job she has held for almost 30 years. She is almost certain she will be. She has survived many other layoffs with the company, but she says this time is different and she' almost 100% certain that she's on the chopping block. She was going to retire in 2 more years. So now she is in her mid-50s, and looking for work that will be difficult to find as her company will be laying off thousands, many with the same credentials that she has.

 

Superman and I both work in service industries, so we are thankful that work has been steady for us. I've been warned by 3 families of probably layoffs or cutbacks, and that music lessons would have to be one of the first things to go. I completely understand (food before music and all that) and I know this wouldn't be an easy decision for any of those families. Superman takes as much overtime as he can right now- we're trying to take nothing for granted.

 

~5~

Need cheap entertainment for your kids while you moan and groan on the couch? Close the curtains, turn off the lights and hand them each a flashlight. For the price of 4 double A batteries you can keep them busy for 20 minutes.

 

~6~

Age-old question: How much t.v. is too much t.v.? I know the APA recommendation is none under 2 years old, and very limited viewing after that. The boys usually watch 1 show a day so that I can get something done- a shower on the days that I work, and on the days I'm off they watch while I make dinner. Over this week they have watched an obscene amount of television. When this bug first hit over the weekend it seemed like we watched an unending loop of Backyardigans and Wonderpets thanks to the magic of the DVR. All anyone could do was lay around, so t.v. it was. And as I started to feel really sick on Wednesday that's what they did much of the day because it was all I could manage to supervise. After feeling guilty about it for awhile last night, I'm okay with it. We rarely watch that much television, we did what we had to do to make it through.

 

~7~

I'm just getting into the facebook thing. I found a friend I haven't seen since 10th grade- we were best friends for 5 years before I moved away. It's also been a good way to keep up with my siblings who are starting to scatter all over and the college friends that I exchange emails with every 4 or 5 months to catch up.

 

I knew I had to get into facebook when my dad called and told me he had just set his own page up. My DAD. And then he told me he was helping my mom with hers... It's highly embarassing to have my parents be more technically advanced than I am, so I had to go for it. I may be the last 27-year-old in America to sign up for facebook, but I'm there now.