Author: maggie

To help you better understand the last SIX days of my life I could tell you that today. . .

• at 7:00 pm I still had my sunglasses on top of my head and hadn’t left the house since 3:00
• on the way home from running errands today, Wilson and I shared a bag of M&M’s and then he fell asleep. When I was taking him out of his car seat I noticed that he had missed his mouth once, because there was one under his chin. Our friend and my life coach, Tommy Boy, was right- “we are going to be okay here- there’s a thin candy shell”. That thin candy shell kept all the melted chocolate off his neck. How do I know the chocolate was melted? Because I ATE the M&M and THEN thought “that was probably a little gross.”
• I picked up Wilson to change what promised to be the runniest, nastiest diaper ever produced only to feel a very wet sensation between my arm and his shorts. I prayed to no avail that the dogs had gotten interested in the smell and licked him. Nope, just your run-of-the-mill explodo-poop.
• I read a book entitled Trains aloud four times in a row with no pause. I’d close the book, Wilson would say “men, men” (Amen at the table, The End when reading a book), and then open it to the front page. Finally a cawr that hadn’t been rolled in at least 5 minutes (there by breaking the law in Wilson World) distracted him
• I cleared my on throat so much trying to some how stop the never-ceasing rattling coming out Wilson’s head that I think I’ve given myself Laryngitis. I could honestly feel his crud in my throat!!

. . . or I could just show you this:

. . . ’nuff said.

My sweet in-laws dropped by a little earlier to bring Wilson some popsicles and check in on him (they didn’t forget mom- 2 tubs of Dibs or the dogs- a box of Frosty Paws dog ice cream!) My mother-in-law commented on how empty my freezer still is (see And the Frigidaire Has Never Been Cleaner). I’ve decided keeping it empty is the only way to keep it clean and prevent another incident!! Wilson got to show them his new swing set and his Aunt Lauren read him a book. If there were sound to go with the picture you would hear Wilson saying “Lalin, Lalin”. He is standing by the back door looking for her after they left, sporting his new Cars pajama bottoms that Granna made this weekend and his Mickey slippers that are hand-me-downs from Uncle John. He’s been a fairly good patient today. Mostly he’s just slept and played cawrs and watched cars on TV. We did make it to Walmart for more cough syrup and diapers- Woo Hoo! what a day, I’m wiped out!! Ha, ha, ha! I remember when “a night on the town” meant so much more. Oh well, I better go finish those Dibs before Dad gets home!!

Wilson is still not himself yet, so I haven’t had anything really memorable to photograph. We spent yesterday at Granna & Granddaddy’s and grouched all around their house and tonight we hung out at Pat Pat & Paw’s. Wilson did get to see his Aunt Lauren which is a rare treat and impressed us all by saying her name when we asked him who she was! He also got to see his Nanny & Pappa- boy does he love Pappa!
I’ve recently created a “favorites” folder from all the pictures we’ve taken since Wilson entered our lives. It’s fun go back and look at how much he’s grown, learned, and accomplished. It’s also nice to look at all the pictures of a smiling face when all I’ve seen lately is a swollen, red, sweaty, pitiful face complete with a mouth that is crying or hoarsely screaming!! The picture I’m including in this post is from last Christmas. He found this wreath of bells on my mom’s Christmas tree and fell in love with it. My dad insisted that we take it with us when we left. He is dressed in is Ralph Lauren PJ’s that Pat Pat brought back from her trip to NYC and his Bunnies By the Bay Flipper Slippers that Granna gave him for Christmas. He also still had his red hair.
He can be happy, he can be happy, he can be happy . . . .

The shameless product plug for today is for all the mom’s of toddlers & squirmy babies. In dealing with taking a temperature every few hours over the last day and a half or so I’ve used a garden variety of tools for the task. I’ve never been a fan of our ear thermometer- it’s never very accurate and is now one of Wilson’s playthings. So, I purchased a thermometer that is supposed to gather the patient’s temperature from their forehead and found it to be equally fickle in readouts- it is now in the WalMart Never-Never Land of returned products. I also used the same digital thermometer that I’ve since he was born, but it takes a year and half to get a reading- or is it just that long because it doesn’t beep when it’s done and I don’t clue in that it’s done because I’m Maggie the Crocodile Hunter trying to wrestle Wilson down so he doesn’t wind up with this skinny little probe up the hoo-ha. It is now in the garbage. The winner of taste test, if you will, is the Vick’s Baby Rectal Digital Thermometer. It is pictured above. This little device takes the temp in 10 seconds, is back lit when its finished (so you don’t have to turn the light on to read it), beeps until you turn it off, and, as you can see from the picture, is designed so that it can’t accidentally wind up lodged any further than necessary. It also gave the exact readout that our pediatrian’s did, FYI. This should be on every mom-to-be’s registry.

Well after a day of running 102-103 degree fever, I decided that Wilson must be suffering from more that teething and decided that we would go to the doctor. What finally pushed me to make the call was when he first laid in my arms for about 15 minutes for no reason and then saw a cawr and decided to get down. While my lap was free I made a break for the bathroom only to come back to find Wilson kneeling on the floor in front of the sofa with his head laying on a cushion with lion underneath it. No car noises or motions coming from the den- just a little pile of boy with cawrs strewn all around him. It was really kind of sad. I gave him some more Motrin and we went to the doctor. An hour later his fever was still 103 and a blood test confirmed that he has a fever virus. Nothing we can do but wait it out. He did pull himself together enough to play cawrs for a minute while we waited on the doctor to come to our room. Unfortunately, Parker(our pediatrician) scooped him up a little too fast and put him on the examining table. Wilson is terrified of heights and it scared him to death. He completed the chest listening in my lap and then I had to hold him down on the table for his ear and throat inspection. We then went to the lab to have blood taken and the nurse made the mistake of putting a band-aid on his thumb. Wilson hates having anything extra on his person- no dirt, sand, stickers, or pen markings. He was furious when he woke up last week and a scratch from Tate was still on his leg- it refused to be wiped off!! Anyway, we returned home and after a well rounded supper of ketchup and raisins (don’t ask- I don’t know why) and a dose of Tylenol he was back to his old self just in time for Dad to walk in the door and enjoy the same smiling face that he left this morning when he went to work. Wilson’s asleep now and went down with only 99.7- looks like double timing with Tylenol and Motrin seems to be doing the trick.

I’ve decided to give up clothes for the summer. No, no, it’s not what you think- I’m not going nudest. I’m just resigning “good clothes” in exchange for an old swimsuit. Over the last few days I’ve come to realize that small boys are incapable of realizing that it is 1002 degrees outside. We’ll go outside to swing (on our new (pre-owned) swingset- yea!) and within a couple of minutes I am soaking wet, Wilson has multiple beads of sweat rolling down his chubby, red cheeks, and the dogs have all but passed out from chasing the swing- and Wilson is just getting started! Unfortunately, I am beginning to run out of clothes- there’s only so much laundry one can do. Additionally, I’m down to only one bra because Tate (the dog) has chewed threw the only other “good one that fits” out of frustration that I left him in the bathroom during a storm while I ran errands. So this brings me to the old swimsuit- a $10 Walmart frock that I bought for water aerobics about 3 years ago. It is so tight now that it actually does wonders for the stomach (of course it ‘also squishes the chest completely flat- so without what little was there to begin with as a reference point- it makes no difference how flat your tummy is!) Sorry about the rabbit trail- but now I won’t have to explain if you drop by and I open the door wearing only the world’s worst swimsuit.

Now, what has Wilson been up to lately? Well, he has been quite the socialite over the past week. His friend Lily and her mom and big sister, Maggie, dropped by last Thursday. I think their mom was a little frazzled over it being the first day of summer- Maggie has just finished the first grade. So, we introduced Lily to the joy of the sprinkler and Maggie played with all my craft stuff and then joined the babies in sprinklers!! Pictures follow. That night Wilson spent the night with his Granna & Granddaddy while Mom & Dad went to see the Da Vinci Code and then a couple of nights later he spent the night for the first time with his Pat Pat & Paw while we went to hang out with some friends (Lily’s mama & daddy) and watch the season finale of Desperate Housewives (thank goodness for TiVo). He had a great time hanging out with all his grandparents- and we had a great time playing with our friends for a little while. Then this week we returned to Itsy Bitsy Yoga- which had hated and cried all the way through, until I pulled out his cawrs- he played with them and tried to ignore the fact that yoga was going on around him. Yesterday we had swimming lessons which were tons of fun especially because Dad came to watch! Today we had a play date with Lily at her house. The babies played great together, until Lily made the mistake of TOUCHING Wilson as she was handing him back one of his cawrs. He responded to this by screaming bloody murder! We pulled ourselves together though, played a little longer, and then headed home. When we got home I realized that he had a fever!! Still not sure what’s going on because he has been super happy all day and nothing seems to be wrong. Hopefully we didn’t get Lily sick and hopefully it will be gone tomorrow!

Wilson watching as Lily “tests the water”

Wilson taking a sip- a trick he learned from Tate

Baby Friends

Wilson looking on from his mower as Maggie & Lily play in the sprinkler

Last night we went to a party at Daddy’s office celebrating the release of their newest product. It was lots of fun- great Mexican food, tons of babies and kids to play with, and all our fun “work friends” and their wives. Below are a few pictures.

It’s not a party without the cawrs

This is our buddy Lily

Since hanging out with Wilson, Lily has developed an affinity for cawrs- Wilson scoops them all up when he sees her coming!!

One last shot- if you look closely in the background, you can see baby June sucking on daddy’s beer bottle. It seemed like all night long as the dad’s relaxed and enjoyed their success, you could hear mom’s voices everywhere (not necessarily directed at her own child) saying, “no, baby, that’s daddy’s juice!”

I thought I’d fill you all in on a great little product I picked up at the grocery store this week. It is called Shout Color Catcher. They are little sheets you throw in the wash with your clothes. They catch all the excess dye floating around thereby keeping your clothes brighter. This is great news for sloths like me who refuse to sort laundry and throw it all in on warm and hope for the best! It might be a time saver and a small step towards a more relaxed lifestyle for those of you who keep two laundry baskets- one for whites/one for colors (you probably also obey the handwash only warning too!). Anyway, to the left you can see the box and a before and after shot of the sheet. Wilson’s new red swimsuit was in this load and none of our white socks are pink!! Happy washing!

Just wanted to let all you pet owners know that there are some great dog & cat toys and accessories on the dollar aisle at Target. We got a new harness (one of ours had somehow gotten twisted beyond repair) one of those hard nylon bones with the teeth cleaning bumps (like the hartz ones) and a tennis ball nap covered flip flop. Here are some photos of Tate cuddling with his new toy (I’d show pictures of Jack with the bone, but he’s always under the bed with it!!) Anyway, they have leashes, collars, harnesses, placemats, toys (ropes, balls, bones, cat toys), and all sorts of other paraphernalia in a Hawaiin theme if its time for any of you to replenish or freshen up your stash!