Yes, Virginia, it really was a Crap-tastic weekend.

Don't get me wrong. The actual Thanksgiving holiday was lovely. A nice, relaxed family day at the Coe residence. Thanks, Sissy and family, as always, for the warm welcome and complete hospitality.

But the days thereafter - not so fun. I'm not blogging about the weekend to gain sympathy or hear myself gripe, but only to have a record of what, in hindsight, was a frustrating series of events encompassing the "anything-that-could-go-wrong-probably-will," rule. I know I'm going to forget some things, but here are the highlights, or should I say - lowlights.

• The crud still has not left our home. This bug is a tenacious bug. All 4 of us, while not exactly sick, just didn't quite feel up to par.
• The bitch is back. Old Crusty, that is. Pardon my language. Not that she ever really went anywhere (her legs are much too short to allow her to go far - sorry, but she's a pain in my arse.) So Pat ran up to Big Steer Meats to grab some lunch on Saturday (they have very tasty sandwiches and soups, for any of you who frequent the East Side.) As he was walking back home, OC attacked. Again with the tree business. She told him that we really need to take that thing down, as it drops stuff on her roof. He told her that fine, if she wants to pay for it, we'll take it down. Aghast, she said that she couldn't afford that. Defiant, he said that neither could we. And walked away. Get a life, you old hag.
• We will never, ever, ever attempt to do a "family" grocery shopping trip again. What a nightmare. We've tried this in the past, and not had good results, so I don't know why we thought we should try it again. We even got one of the "car carts" for Josie to ride in, thinking that would make her happy. Not the case. She's in a phase right now where, basically, she needs to be eating something, at all times, in order to be happy. So to be in a store filled with food that she can't eat is not a good time. For anyone involved.
• The sliding door on the van decided to not work. Again. Perhaps we should have that looked at, you may say. And you may be right. Perhaps we should. Along with the brakes that started to squeak and the strange thunking noise that appeared, as well. Oy.
• After all the talk and hype about hitting the day-after-Thanksgiving sales and getting a camcorder, it didn't happen. Pat didn't feel good Friday morning and it sounds like he would have had to camp out over night to get one anyway. What a pain. And by the time we made it out the stores for anything else we wanted on Friday, those things were sold out, as well. Perhaps they should stock more than 10 items on sale per store. What a scam.
• In addition to the cold/cough that Eve has had, she started to throw up entire feedings on Saturday. It could be an hour or two later, and up it would come. She kept this up on Sunday, and we called the urgent care at the clinic. After a couple hours and not getting a call back, we called again. Oh - we don't have a record of you calling, they say. Oh - you're a bunch of frickin' idiots, I say. Okay - not out loud, but in my head. So they end up telling us that there is nothing they could do for her there, and we'd need to take her to Children's Hospital. Like they couldn't have told us that the FIRST time we called. So I took her to Children's around 5:30 Sunday evening. She checked out fine, they said her lungs sounded okay and were not concerned about her cough, and told me to give her some Pedialyte in small doses every hour or so, and gradually start adding in formula until she was eating fine without throwing up. So I stayed home with her Monday, we had an okay day, by late afternoon she was eating small amounts of formula and not throwing up. And she never seemed sick this whole time. No fever, no crabbiness (other than not getting a full meal when she was hungry and having to wait an hour for more food,) she was having wet diapers and not showing signs of dehydration. Then at 6:00 last night, up came what seemed to be all the liquids she had consumed all day. After a call to Children's, we started the whole Pedialyte process over again. We're at a bit of a loss. I'm suspecting something like GER (gastroesophigal reflux,) but we'll see how she does today at home with Pat and take it from there. Poor little bugger - it's so hard when they can't tell you what's wrong. Anyone know a good baby-whisperer?

Sorry - that got really long. And I'm sure there's more, I just can't think right now. I'd like to say it's a sunnier day, but have you looked outside lately - yuck!!

Giggles / Fun or Tears / Tantrums: Every day is an adventure

This morning was the toughest morning we've had so far. And Josie had some pretty, yellow goo coming out of her nose... coincidence? Methinks not. 'Tis the season, and we're already getting hit hard at out house. Eve busted out the raspy cough again over the weekend, Pat lost his voice and developed a lovely hack, I cracked open the Nyquil last night and chugged some Dayquil this morning and there's the aforementioned yellow goo for Jo. But we still made it to daycare in prompt fashion and got to work on time, so it wasn't all that rough. Onward and upward. Or something.

As indicated in the title, every day is truly and adventure. We never know which Josie is going to greet us in the morning, and even if we meet the giggle-girl, we could soon be face-to-face with tantrum queen. The joys of toddlerhood. :) But the good far outweighs the bad. She delights in brushing her teeth, then runs out to "show her teeth" in a big, cheesy grin. She had her last swimming class on Saturday, if she took anything away besides a love for water, it's a love for Wheels On the Bus. The parents and kids would sing this song in the pool while parents moved kids in whatever way the song said. We now have to do this at home. All. The. Time. The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round.

And 'round and 'round.

And 'round and 'round.

You get the picture. She was kind of flinging her cabbage patch doll, Hazel, around the other day, and I didn't really think too much of it as she does tend to fling her babies around from time to time. Then Pat realized what she was doing - she was trying to sing wheels on the bus and do the motions with the doll. Now that we know what she's doing, we sing for her and she tries to sing along and dances with Hazel. Super cute.

Josie also LOVES to be chased around the house, running or crawling. I prefer running. She laughs, and laughs and has gotten pretty good at finding new places to run around and try to lose us. So if you call and I'm out of breath, it's because we can keep this game up for quite a while before she tires of it.

Being the big girl she is, she has started to want to pick out her own clothes. Not even daytime clothes so much, but pajamas are a must. Sometimes we get some interesting combos of shirts and pants. Perhaps a lovely soft pink princess top with blue cloud leggings. Or pink camo print pants with a purple kitty shirt. She's so proud of her selections, you just can't say no. And she definitely is my daughter - Pat told her we needed to go pick out some clothes the other morning, and she ran into her room - and picked out a new pair of pajamas! That's right, we'd stay in comfy clothes all day if we could.

And Eve. She's just growing and grinning and gurgling. She's moving around more and more, arching her back, stretching her arms and so close to that final push to roll over. She talks and talks to us - I swear she's going to form full sentences before Josie does. Eve looked right at Pat the other morning while he was walking around the kitchen - not paying attention to her - and screeched. He looked. She smiled. Smart little bugger.

So there's an update on my girls. There's so much more, but not enough time. It's a short work week, so I'd better focus. Happy Thanksgiving to you all - safe travels and enjoy the holiday!

Back in the Saddle

Week 1 back at work is coming to a close. It's gone... surprisingly well. Me, being the worry-wart I am, had built up the horror of getting out of the house in the morning and being here all day to such a level that the ease we've found in making the transition back has been delightfully, well, delightful. Our mornings have gone quite smoothly - Josie hasn't really seemed to mind rising at an earlier hour, she's been excited every day we've pulled into Betty's driveway and Eve has been an absolute peach for us while we get ready to go. I honestly think the whole thing has been hardest on Patrick, who has to get up earlier and function at a higher level right away in the morning than he's been used to for the past few months. Although Brewster is taking it pretty hard, too. He's been spoiled by having someone at home with him all day since the middle of June. Poor dog just hangs his head as we leave the house in the morning. Very sad puppy.

And I can honestly say that I am really enjoying my new assignment. My team has been very welcoming, I'm busy enough so the days have been flying by and it's been great to be back in somewhat familiar territory. So for having to come back to work, it's not too shabby.

Of course, don't get me wrong - I do miss my girls terribly during the day. I find it's best to try not to think about it too much. Which is an almost impossible task. But we're surviving. One day at a time, right?

Bittersweet

I'm sucking up every ounce of Evie and Jo that I can. My maternity leave is at an end and I go back to work on Monday. It's been a bittersweet week. I'm going to welcome the adult interaction, but loathe bundling up and leaving the house at 7:00 in the morning. I'm going to enjoy working with a new team, but miss my kidlets so much I am brought to tears just thinking about it. I'm going to luxuriate in being able to go to the bathroom by myself without a helper right there to tear off toilet paper for me and help me pull up my pants, but will miss my new good friends - Ellen and Oprah :) But the calendar and our empty checking account say that it is time to rejoin the workforce, so what's a girl to do. *sigh*

I guess we have had an eventful couple of weeks, now that I think about it - so I have more to say than I thought. We went to a Halloween party in Spring Lake Park with friends and their kids (a week before Halloween - got good use of borrowed costumes!,) celebrated October birthdays in Pat's family, battled a bug and stayed up with a sick Josie, took the girls to watch Pat's cousin in a high school playoff football game (they got walloped,) Josie and Daddy did a little bit of Trick-or-Treating (just too darn cold for the rest of us,) had a couple of fun playdates with new stay-at-home mommy Meg and kids, and had a Mommy/Daddy/Josie fun day yesterday while Eve went to daycare in Jo's place.

Josie can now officially jump. Not the pretend jumping in the air where her feet don't really leave the ground, but all-out-bend-the-knees-and-catch-some-air jumping. She's so proud. And she discovered walking backwards yesterday. It's a good time. Until she smacks into the wall or doorway. Next year I think we can just have her dress up as a bruise for Halloween. Oh - and she's successfully been sleeping in her big-girl bed for the past week with the aid of a siderail. Whew.


Eve is a roly-poly bundle of joy. She's all smiles (except when she's screaming,) and can grab onto toys or blankets and gravitate them towards her mouth, and rolls to her side with ease. She was so exhausted after her first full day at daycare yesterday that she sucked down a couple of bottles last night and crashed without much complaint, except to shake her little head when she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. Frickin' adorable.