Snow Shock

It's a good thing I'm finally posting today. If I had posted even yesterday, I would have sounded psychotically frustrated by Molly's nonstop crying. But after four days (yes, four) of her torturing the household with never-ending crying, a quick clinic trip (second one in the week) got us another ear infection diagnosis and the Augmentin has changed the volume in our home after just two doses. For the moment, I am thanking the world for antibiotics. The bad news is this is the second earache for Molly in just one month.

And shock, shock! of the world, we have made medical history here - the twins did not duplicate the sickness this time. Lily has stayed well, although Claire seems to have picked up a milder version of Molly's cooties. But Lily?! Staying well?! Amazing!!! This is truly my first experience with the twins not catching the same thing, and with Claire relatively unscathed. And certainly one or two sick kids is easier than all three at once.

I'm a little neutral on the day today - not overwhelmingly frustrated nor overwhelmingly happy. On the positive, Molly was far happier, took a full nap, and there was limited crying in the house today. Claire and I made chocolate chip cookies. Molly had me absolutely belly laughing while I watched her in the full length mirror tonight - she has finally "discovered" herself in mirrors, and she put on the best show I've ever seen out of a toddler. She winked and blew spit bubbles and pulled up her shirt to show off her bellybutton and smiled and tried to "touch" herself in the mirror and so much more. Absolutely hysterical and I regret we don't have a video camera for moments like that. And on the negative, Claire and I skipped tap/ballet class (one, because Kyle thought she had a high fever at 3am, and two, because Kyle had to work early today) and we didn't leave the house at all because it snowed. Yes, snow. Two days ago, it was 65 degrees. Today, it snowed four or five inches. Though Claire and I spent some time outside playing in the snow and she enjoyed the fun, I was annoyed by the blast of winter and was wishing for 65 degrees again. Kyle is also working again all weekend (today was snow plowing; tomorrow is a tile job), so I'm 100% on kid duty which can wear me down. I made sure to get some adult time last night with an old friend so that I could make it through the weekend.

Today's photos are from the snow scene outside and of the twins climbing on the box the new booster seat came in - as you can see, Molly looks pretty happy. Too bad that wasn't the case the past four days.

And for an unusual way to have twins, here's a news link for you:

http://www.uppermichiganssource.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=266665

Wasted Trip

I wasted a trip to the after hours clinic tonight. I took Molly in after dinner tonight because it seemed to me her breathing was too labored, like that of a child with RSV (and my experience with this is based off of Claire's bout of RSV when she was about 18 months old). I was wrong. She's just a sick, feverish child, one whose temperature registered at 102 degrees even after a dose of Motrin. Usually the clinic is a super fast, super easy trip, but tonight the visit took an hour and a half - which meant we got Molly to bed an hour late and I struggled to keep her entertained and happy at the clinic.

Claire still seems well and Lily seems fine too, although Lily just woke up a few minutes ago (a little past 11pm). I suspect Lily will be sick by tomorrow. Maybe the rest of us will escape this.

I was at work all day and Kyle was home with the kids, so he got to experience a whole day with a sick kid and two other children who needed his attention. Tomorrow Kyle and I will be splitting childcare - I've got the morning with the kids and he'll have the afternoon. I've got a customer meeting I can't miss. Claire told me tonight that she missed me today while I was at work, which I thought was super sweet. I feel like I gave her 5 minutes of attention today, and Lily 2 minutes. Molly got the bulk of my attention and concern.

The twins turned 17 months today. And I'm getting glimpses of a light at the end of a tunnel, though it's faint and only intermittently shows itself.

Here We Go Again

Molly spiked a fever this afternoon, Claire is super tired, and Lily got cranky at bedtime. Here we go again - a new round of cooties. I don't know what's coming our way.

Claire's preschool posted a note saying that a kid exposed the school to viral meningitis (it's not nearly as scary as bacterial meningitis), so that didn't thrill me. And then today at Claire's gym class I could tell that one little girl whose toys were shared with my kids was getting sick, and she also had the stomach flu a few days ago. So who knows what we'll end up with. I'm just bracing myself for the usual chaos and non-stop crying and frustration in the house.

And I'm going to bed early, knowing someone will be up in the middle of the night. I have an office day tomorrow and Kyle will be home with the kids. He'll get the fun of dealing with cranky kids during the day.

On a hopeful note, Molly has started consistently telling me when she poops. She points at her bottom and says "poo poo", which is endearing despite the topic. Now this may not sound like much, but those who have recently potty trained a child know this means we're at the first stage - "recognition" of the event happening. I know I've got another year or so to go before we really try potty training, but I'm happy to see we're progressing in the right direction. I'm tired of diapers and my dry, cracked, old-looking hands need a break!

Booster Seat Safety

My weekend went exactly as I predicted ... I was home with the kids all weekend, cooped up, other than tap/ballet and Science class. The only additional outings I threw in were a trip to Target (where Molly screamed the entire time, so we hurried out as quickly as possible) and lunch at Culver's today because I couldn't stand the thought of cleaning up my kitchen one more time. Friday, Saturday, and tonight Kyle returned home after the kids were in bed, so I've had some very long days. Despite the kid time overload, I'm not totally burned out. It's the workweeks that do that. After some serious introspection this weekend, I've realized that when I juggle my job on WFH days and the kids, I see my kids as an "obstacle" (props to my friend for the right word that captures my feelings), whereas on weekends when they are my sole focus I find them much more enjoyable. So the irony here is my WFH days are supposed to be a gift because I get more time with my kids, yet the reality is they are causing me to find my kids frustrating. I guess there's no winning here, as long as I must be a gainfully employed mother.

Tonight I spent my evening doing carseat research. Claire is about two pounds away from graduating to a booster seat, so I decided to check into ratings and prices for different brands. I admit I'm a carseat safety freak, so I was surprised by how many people (actual friends and also people doing online postings) are unaware of booster seat safety. Booster seats, as most parents of older kids know, should not be used until a child is both four years old and weighs 40 pounds (don't make the mistake of thinking it's an "or" ... both criteria has to be met). Boosters are slimmed down carseats that help position the safety belts in the car properly on the child's body.

But most parents like me are not quite ready to let go of that 5-point harness, because we feel our child is safer with it. So a lot of us buy "combination" car seats that progress from regular carseat to booster (and we keep using the harness after 40 lbs, unaware of the danger), or we keep our children in their current carseats for the sake of the harness. Here's the scary thing: most carseat harnesses are not rated past 40 lbs, and if you keep your child in the harness past 40 lbs, there is risk of ejection in an accident. Only two brands were regularly noted online for having 5-point harnesses that are rated past 40 lbs - Britax and Safeguard. So basically that means if you have something other than those two brands I researched, you better be using the car's safety belts instead of a harness with that booster seat. With Safeguard running half the price of Britax, I bought one of their models. I still want the 5-point harness around my kid, and it can grow with her up to 60 pounds on this model. As another plus, my particular model folds into a small carrying bag for travel if needed, which could potentially come in handy for a summer trip to Atlanta that Claire and I might take.

I'll test drive this new seat once it arrives, and if we're happy with it, we'll buy a second one for Kyle's truck. If not, I'll have to find something else, and I'll be back to the debate over whether we're ready for the car's safety belts or whether we still want that 5-point harness.

As another note on carseat safety, I hear that the state troopers suggest that no harness/carseat should be used for more than five years (even though I believe the Britax/Safeguard warranties are more than five years). This usually happens when we give our carseats as hand-me-downs to someone else. Please take this into account when passing on your carseats to another child.

Curiosity Killed Kate

For the second time this week, and third time in recent memory, Lily decided that fishing around in her poop diaper would be interesting. You may remember the recent disaster with the poop smeared all over the bed, her body, and even some on the wall from a few weeks back. I thought I had learned my lesson: don't stick her in her bed with just a diaper on. Early this week, she got her hands in her diaper despite having clothes on. Addendum to lesson learned: don't put Lily in her bed without a onesie on, which will make diaper diving noticeably more difficult. I was sure I had beaten her at her game.

Nope. Tonight our usual bedtime routine was in effect despite Kyle's absence (he worked late again) - Lily in her bed (with a onesie on) drinking one last bit of milk, Molly in the master bedroom drinking her milk, and Claire and I wandering around cleaning up. I got Molly changed and went to get Lily changed, and found her crouched on the bed, in a squatting position, with her hand snaking into the diaper, bypassing the onesie I thought would keep us safe from a bio hazard accident. The room was wretched smelling and I instantly knew what she had done. I went ballistic, knowing the effort ahead of me to fix the mess her curiosity had created. I can't even count the number of times I yelled "no hands in poop!" at the poor kid, and all the while, I realized not only was she not understanding what she had done wrong, but she was not going to stop doing this to me.

So my last resort is now making a rule that she cannot be in her bed alone without footie PJs, the diaper safely zipped up inside away from wandering, curious hands. My issue with this solution is that it's a lot of extra effort to dress and re-dress her all day long just to ensure we don't have another poop disaster ... yet I guess that is still less effort than bathing a baby and washing sheets. Tonight I was so exhausted and frustrated I didn't even wash the sheets. I just Lysol'ed (it's a verb, don't you know?) the sheets and bed and left it at that, but I did give her a bath and made it a very, very unpleasant experience hoping that might deter her from diaper curiosity.

Urgh. My saving grace for the day is that Claire spent all afternoon at Lauren's house (her best friend from preschool), so I had an afternoon of peace while the twins napped and I could actually get some work done. And because I wasn't juggling an unusually demanding Friday afternoon of work and the chatterbox Claire, I had slightly more patience for my solo flying this evening and that might be the only reason Lily is still alive at the moment. I've had a lot of solo flying the past few weeks with Kyle's late nights, and it's definitely wearing on my mood and patience with the kids. So thank God for the playdate today.

Oh, and after the playdate, I did do a quick clinic run to have the doctor check Claire's eczema (I barely even register the inconvenience of doctor visits anymore as I've done so many of them now). Claire hasn't slept through the night for two nights now, and it's killing me, and I assume it's related to feeling itchy, so I wanted some official advice (and yes, my diagnosis was correct). So tonight I used hydrocortisone cream and if my Benadryl hadn't already expired I would have given her a dose of that too. I have a script for a mild steroid cream if I feel we need it in a few more days. I pray she sleeps through the night so Kyle and I both can actually get a decent night's sleep.

Normally I'd be overjoyed it's Friday and I have a weekend ahead of me, but Kyle will be working all weekend and I'll be 100% on kid duty so I know I won't get the break I need to recharge for the workweek ahead. Sigh. I will take Claire to tap/ballet class and Science class, but that will be the extent of my excitement for the weekend. We also have two cold (low 30s) days ahead of us, so that will likely keep us cooped up all weekend. I am so ready for Spring.

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.

Weekend Boredom

We had another low-key weekend. Kyle worked most of Saturday so I had to be home with the kids again. With Molly still in short-napping-crying-all-the-time-mode (day four of this?!), I was fried by Saturday at lunchtime. My mom came over to visit briefly in the afternoon and I had high hopes of a nap, but Claire and grandma were too loud and then Molly woke up too early from her nap again. So no nap for me either.

Today was not very interesting either. We did take the kids out to lunch (where I got busted by the restaurant patrons for feeding Molly a packet of sugar to keep her calm before the food arrived ... amazing what I'll do to keep the peace in public), and I took Claire to Science class, but the rest of the day was just big grocery shopping and dinner prep.

And tomorrow starts another workweek. My weekend was not nearly interesting enough to give me a mood booster and energy for the workweek ahead.

Photos today are of the kids drawing on one of those "Aqua doodle" boards. Hey, like I said, it was a boring weekend so I had to stretch to get a few photos for today.