Household Stress

Financial pressures ... twin chaos ... a feisty 4-year-old ... busy working parents ... yes, we've got some stress in our household. As if I needed proof of our household stress levels, I got it in the form of an eczema outbreak out of Claire. Tonight the kids and I were playing in the master bathroom after dinner (hey, it's big in there, and we keep toys in the room so we can shower), and I suddenly noticed my child looked rashy. And spotted. I stripped her down, checked her over, and found a sandpaper-like rash in all the usual eczema kinds of places - bends of the elbows, back of the knees, torso. I doused her in lotion and her spots turned bright red so she looked especially bad then. When Kyle got home (he worked until past 8pm tonight, after the twins were in bed), I got on the computer and checked rash information. After panicking that my kid had scarlet fever or chickenpox, I went back to my original diagnosis that it's eczema. Owing to the fact I'm not a trained doctor, I have some nagging concern I'm wrong so I have checked her three times already to make sure she's still breathing. But really, all the women in my family have eczema issues (though not at age four), so that's got to be her problem - it's just that our eczema flare ups come at times of stress, so this must mean Claire is under stress. Poor kid. I wish I could fix our financial issues overnight and calm our overstressed household.

I don't know how I keep forgetting to mention this, but Lily finally figured out my name last Thursday (better late than never, eh?). So now I've got two babies following me around saying "momma" all the time. It's actually pretty cute. Lily seems to be adding a few more words to her vocabulary, so I'm becoming less concerned about her language development. I also watched Molly take about 20 steps, but she's still refusing to walk 99% of the time. I can only get her to walk on the carpet upstairs, where it's soft and safe, and usually just one time per day. When she does walk, it's the funniest walking stance I've ever seen - belly thrust out, legs splayed outward, and chin tucked in. Please tell me that's not a sign of a bone issue or something.

Monday was an office day for me, and it was not a particularly calm day because I had two different customers throw me complete curve balls that day. I worked hard on Monday. No goofing around then. Today was another WFH day and I took the kids to Claire's gym class. I was shocked to see the gym teachers coaching the kids on doing handstands up against the wall, and even more shocked when a little girl smaller than Claire could actually do it (along with several other kids). When we got home, I heard Claire berate herself for not being a good gymnast. I felt horrible for her, as this was truly the first time I've ever heard her do that to herself. No, she's not nearly as good as most of the other kids - her minimal upper body strength isn't helping her - but she tries hard and she will get better and we're only doing it for fun anyway. I had to have a long discussion with her about how it's impossible to be great at everything she tries, and what counts is that she's trying it and working at it. I also told her that her strengths, be it gymnastics or math or science or tennis, will become more apparent the older she gets and for now we're just trying different things. I wonder how much she understood of the conversation?

Midnight - I'm turning into a pumpkin. Goodnight.