Reading Partner

One of the best things about having Lena visit? She hasn’t had to read the “ahhgh ahhgh” (Ian’s weird name for trains) books one billion times. She is, in fact, quite happy to snuggle on the couch and read the same book twenty times in a row.

The Big Lena

Ethan has been driving me crazy all week, wanting to know how long until “the big Lena” (so named because she’s taller than he is and because he has a playmate with the same name) comes to visit. At this point the answer can only be: “not soon enough”.

My cousin Lena is 16 years younger than I am. When she was a baby I spent part of one summer helping her Mom out and spending time with my family in Western Kentucky. Now, 16 years later, she's coming to help me out with my boys and spend time with me. We’ve always lived six or more hours away from each other and, thus, haven’t been as close as I would like. I’m looking forward to getting to know the young lady she is so quickly becoming.

Of course I’m not really sure what to do while Lena is here. It’s been a long time, if ever, since I understood what was cool for a teenager to do. I can only hope that shopping trips in the city, a night out in Old Town, and a trip or two to the movies will make up for all of the playing trains and sword fighting she will have to endure.

But before Lena gets here, I have to clean the house and finish a thousand little home improvement projects. I don’t think she’ll mind if the house isn’t in immaculate condition, but since we’re getting ready to put the house on the market, I will take advantage of any excuse for a good deep cleaning!

The Best of Two Holidays

Today I got a double treat. Today was Mother’s Day and Ian’s 2nd birthday. It has been a day of presents, cake, ice cream, good friends, singing, Wii games, rainy-day naps, and lots of hugs.

Ethan helped me make Ian’s cake. Ethan also made a very special present for me:


Isn’t it beautiful? He picked the colors and painted them on the heart. Then his teacher fired the heart in a kiln. I have to tell you I’m a weepy sap; I cried when he gave it to me. The boys also gave me, via their Daddy, a new computer game to play.


While the cake was baking Ian and I took a nap. After our nap we all got dressed and cleaned up for Ian’s party. Amy, Steve, Tyler, Alec and Lena came over for Ian’s party. We had cake, ice cream, singing ( which Ian found embarrassing) and lots of laughs.

Ian loves all his gifts. His big brother likes all Ian’s gifts too! Thank you to Nana, Granny, Granddaddy, Aunt Holly and everyone else who sent gifts. A big thanks to Uncle Tom and Aunt Gel who sent Ethan a cool Liverpool soccer- er, football- uniform.

Follow this link for more pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/redamy/2483793483/

Ssso Proud!

Most of you will read this and think “Eh? She’s all proud because he got his face painted? Huh? It’s not liked he painted it himself. He didn’t DO anything!”

But some of you will understand because you know what Ethan is like. This is the boy who plays soccer and refuses to put his hands down on the grass; this is the child who still insists upon wearing shoes and sock in the sandbox. Ethan flips out if you don’t give him a napkin with dinner and refuses to finger paint. So the idea that he sat still and let someone get his face “dirty” is just so COOL.

He came home and proudly ran right up in Ian’s face and growled (yeah so much for all those hours of Diego teaching him about animals). Rather than scream in fear, as Ethan was clearly hoping for, Ian grinned and said “Hey!” (And when you say that, you have to be able to drawl it out with the twang and lilt of a 16 year old Kentucky girl flirting with her boyfriend). Ethan’s face, paint and all, fell. “Daddy! He’s not afraid of me!”

It was all ok, though. Mamma summoned an appropriate girly scream.

Take 2 Zyrtec and shove them you know where…

Ethan came down with a high fever, runny nose, cough and vomiting last Wednesday. After two miserable days the fever and vomiting finally eased but the headache and cough continue. Ethan has what pediatricians like to refer to as a “productive, wet, cough”. I like to refer to it as “Makes his rib cage cave in to make him look even more anorexic than he did before” cough.

So I took him to the pediatrician. Not our normal, understanding, informative, intelligent pediatrician. No, instead we got Dr. Oblivious.

Dr. Oblivious: “Is it a barking cough or a wet cough?”

Me: “Wet. Though I don’t know if he’s coughing up anything, why don’t you ask him? He’s five. He talks.”

Dr. Oblivious: “His nose is runny and swollen and he’s scratching his eyes. He has allergies. He should take Zyrtec.”

Meanwhile I’m wrangling a squirming, irritated, Ian and giving the doctor a look of complete disbelief. Since when do allergies cause a fever and a cough like that? But, ok, whatever. There is the distinct possibility that I was over reacting to Ethan being sick, since it’s happened all of three times in his whole 5 ½ years of life.

Now the regular pediatrician would have glanced at the squirming younger brother and said “Has he shown any symptoms?” Dr. Oblivious couldn’t wait to be out the door.

Fast forward 5 days. Ian has a nice barking cough, a constant low-grade fever, refuses to eat (though that’s normal) and is generally fussier than normal. (Imagine a rabid howler monkey with a festering thorn stuck in his foot. That *might* come close to the level of irritation.) Also, because allergies are contagious, *I* have a barking cough, sneezing, runny nose, low grade fever and general malaise.

Basically, we all have spring colds. A betting man would place money right now that the boys will recover within a week and I’ll piss and moan until I have a good case of bronchitis before finally going to the doctor. Where, I’ll be informed I have asthma and should take Zyrtec on a regular basis.

I should have gone to med school…