Coordinated... Uncoordinated

Becca being coordinated:

Becca being uncoordinated:

The Importance of Good Dental Hygiene

So apparently at kindergarten this week the kids had a unit on dental hygiene, including a visit from a local pediatric dentist. It seems to have made an impression on Ben because all week he's been talking about proper dental hygiene, explaining to me what cavities are, and lecturing me about brushing technique. He told me he wants to start flossing (we brush his teeth twice a day but don't floss them) and brushing between meals. He asked me to buy him his own dental floss, and when I handed him his tube of toothpaste this morning and told him to go brush his teeth before school, he asked, "Is this fluoride toothpaste?" (I assured him it was). Then tonight he ate a Twizzler and as soon as he was finished he ran upstairs to the bathroom yelling, "I DON'T WANT TO GET TOOTH DECAY!"

And... Winter is Back

The wonderful warm sunny weather we had this weekend is gone... It is currently 34 degrees with a wind chill of 23. WTF?! That is like 20-25 degrees colder than it's supposed to be this time of year. I want my money back.

The other thing that reappeared this week, besides winter, is the stomach virus!! This time, I am the unfortunate one. I started feeling bad Tuesday right around dinner time -- wondering aloud why I had no appetite and felt so tired -- well I soon figured out the answer to that. I spent all day in bed yesterday, and today I think I am feeling a bit better. Yesterday I had nothing to eat or drink except gatorade and chicken broth; this morning I tried some breakfast and at the moment my stomach doesn't seem to be quite sure what to do with it. Hopefully nothing violent ;)

Otherwise, not much is going on. On Monday before I got sick I volunteered in Ben's classroom to be the "mystery reader" for the day, meaning I show up to read to the kids for half an hour and none of them including Ben knew who the Mystery Reader was going to be. Ben was so excited when he saw me! He couldn't sit still, he was squirming in his chair grinning. If only he would always be so happy to see me...

Rebecca is still unaffected by the stomach bug. This morning as I was getting her dressed I put her shirt on, and it was kind of a long shirt, and she kind of hitched it up over her fanny and explained, "I want everyone to be able to see my tushie." Oh dear.

Is Spring on the Way??

It may not be officially here yet, but this weekend was a great preview of the warm spring weather that will soon be upon us! It was sunny and in the 60s both yesterday and today. We went for a walk, spent a lot of time playing outside, and grilled hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner tonight.

This weekend we also had dinner with friends here, which was very delicious, before attending the annual silent auction for Rebecca's preschool. We bid on and won a 4 night stay here and a photography shoot here. There was also a raffle, and right as Joel turned to a friend and said, "You know, I have never won anything in my life," his name was drawn. He won a basket of stuff worth an estimated $1500, including VIP tickets to two Nascar races, a flip video camera, rounds of golf at two different country clubs, tickets to a Panthers preseason game, several gift cards, a bottle of scotch, and other items that I can't even remember at this moment. (Later he had the nerve to complain, "I'm not really happy with that basket I won.")

Here are some pictures from some of our time spent outside this weekend!

Some Pictures I Didn't Take Myself + Illness Update

Another parent took these pictures of Becca at the birthday party we went to last weekend.

The Illness Report -- Ben went back to school yesterday and other than looking pale and even skinnier than usual :( -- he seems fine. Joel and I seem to be recovering from our own much milder versions of gastrointestinal distress, and Rebecca has been fine all week. Hopefully we will all stay healthy now!

You Can't Say I Didn't Try

So around lunch time today on this, Ben's third day in a row home with the stomach flu, I told him, "Just tell me what you want for lunch. Anything! We'll go get it. Whatever you feel like eating." Ben considered this for a while and then proclaimed that he wanted to go to Burger King.

Okay. So. We never go to Burger King. I had to use the GPS to locate the closest one (2.9 miles away). We arrived, and Ben marched up to the lady behind the counter and asked, "Do you have Spider Man Happy Meal toys?" "Why yes, we do," she said. Ben turned and beamed at me. So now I understood why the sudden interest in Burger King, he must have seen a commercial for the Spider Man toys. Fine, I figured... he'll eat his lunch, I'll be happy, he'll get a Spider Man toy, he'll be happy... Ben took one nibble of a chicken nugget and said, "It tastes funny. I don't like it."

"Do you not like it because you aren't really hungry or because you really don't like it but you are hungry?"

"It really tastes funny. I don't like it," he insisted.

"If I get you a cheeseburger instead, will you eat it?"

"Yes... A plain cheeseburger with no pickles and no onions. Just ketchup."

I got up and went to get the cheeseburger and put it in front of him. "Mmmmm," he said, taking a bite. Then he started picking at the sesame seeds on the bun. "I don't like the seeds."

"You can't even taste them. Just eat it!"

"I'm not hungry."

Fast forward a few hours to dinner... Joel was working late and having Ben home with me during a busy day of work meant I hadn't had any time to think about cooking something for dinner. So again: "Ben, what do you want to do for dinner?"

"I want to go to the Pancake House."

"If I take you to the Pancake House are you really going to eat your dinner? Because if you're just saying it and you're not really going to eat I'll just pick up some Chinese food for me and Rebecca."

"No! I am going to eat my dinner! I want to go to the Pancake House!" he insisted.

Off we headed for the Pancake House, after collecting Rebecca from preschool. Fighting rush-hour traffic, to get to the Pancake House. Sitting at the world's longest red light waiting in line for the world's shortest green arrow for a left hand turn, and in sight of the Pancake House (so close yet so far), Ben had the nerve to announce: "I don't want to go to the Pancake House."

"Ben," I said, "I am going to pretend I didn't hear you."

At the Pancake House, Rebecca plowed through her pancakes like a machine (ending up covered in syrup) and Ben ate less than 1/4 of his before announcing he was done. ("I'm not hungry anymore.")

More Tales of Vomit*

*Warning: Not for those of you with weak stomachs!

So Ben seemed fine all day today. Sure, his appetite was off... but he had kept everything down for the last 30 hours. As I was putting him to bed he started complaining that his stomach hurt again, and I, horrible mother that I am, assumed he was just saying so to earn a third day home from school. He even asked me if he was going to school tomorrow, and when I said I thought so, he asked if he threw up again would he get to stay home? So, I was a bit suspicious of the sudden stomachache story.

An hour later Ben wandered downstairs covered in vomit from head to toe. It was all over his pillow, his sheets, his pajamas, his hair.... so he made up for in spades all those times yesterday when he considerately made it to the toilet. The worst casualty was his favorite stuffed animal that he sleeps with, which is (very unfortunately) a white seal pup that is motorized and makes noise when you pet it, so understandably cannot be put in the washing machine. And even if it could, I am not sure that it would help considering most of Ben's stomach contents consisted of Sunkist orange soda. After putting Ben in the shower and putting everything else in the washing machine, I had to tell Ben we needed to throw away his seal. He was very upset.

And, speaking of stomach aches, my stomach is starting to hurt. Joel's stomach is starting to hurt. Ben's stomach, apparently, still hurts. Rebecca (see previous post) thinks she's a rock star, and if her stomach hurts, she hasn't shown any sign. Yet.

Rock Star

Skip This Post if You're Not Fond of Vomit

It would be nice if I could have had the option of skipping this whole day but... doesn't work that way. My day started at 4am when Ben woke me up to say he had thrown up. This was not entirely unexpected news, since he'd been complaining of his tummy hurting the evening before and Joel had also seemed to have a stomach bug Sunday night/Monday though he had thought it might have been something he ate. Apparently not.

Anyway so fortunately Ben had made it to the bathroom, so I put him back to bed. And then I put him back to bed 20 minutes later when he came to tell me he'd thrown up again. And half an hour after that. And so forth. And so on. At 6am, with Joel already heading to the gym I told Ben just to climb into bed next to me since all the back and forth upstairs to put him back to bed was getting a little ridiculous. So then he proceeded to use my bathroom to throw up at 20-30 minute intervals.

Joel took Rebecca to preschool since Ben was quite obviously not up for a car ride, but around 9am Ben decided he wanted me to take him to the grocery store for gatorade, ginger ale, chicken noodle soup and saltines, which is a special treat for our kids when they're sick because they don't usually get to have soda or gatorade otherwise. Despite my misgivings I agreed and we made a quick trip to the store. Ben was tight-lipped and decidedly gray for the entire trip, and as soon as we walked in the door back at home he ran to the bathroom and threw up again.

The vomiting continued at about 30 minute intervals all morning, and then slowed to about once an hour, and I am happy to report that the last incident was at about 1pm. Since then he has had chicken noodle soup, crackers, and lots of gatorade and ginger ale, so I am hopeful that he is beginning to recover. He'll be spending another day home with me though tomorrow. I don't think he minds. He seems to think that spending the day home vomiting is better than going to school. Another day of that would probably change his mind.

Rebecca woke up this morning saying, "my tummy hurt... my tummy hurt...." but has had no evidence of the stomach bug yet. I myself have been feeling queasy all day. I am not sure if I have a touch of "the bug" too, or if listening to my son retch 15 times (and cleaning 3 toilets, 1 bowl, and several unintended vomit receptacles) has just started to get to me.

Here's hoping for a better tomorrow.

3 Day Weekend

I thought I would mention some of our other weekend highlights, aside from the buying-furniture-off-the-back-of-a-truck part.

1. It snowed about 2-3 inches on Friday night. The kids woke up to the nice blanket of new snow Saturday morning, and neither one made any move towards the door to go play in it. Ben's only concern was if his friend's birthday party, scheduled for that morning, was going to be cancelled. Fortunately, it was not. We dropped Ben off at the bowling alley for the birthday party, took Rebecca grocery shopping, and picked Ben back up after lunch. By that time, the snow was almost all melted (no exaggeration - it melted really fast).

2. After furniture shopping in our neighbor's driveway (as previously posted about), we went out to dinner with Joel's parents to a yummy Italian restaurant called Mezzanotte, which I have been to twice now and I've enjoyed it quite a lot which is saying a lot because Italian food just generally doesn't excite me that much. After dinner we stopped at Red Rocks and picked up 3 slices of cake (1 coconut and 2 chocolate) for dessert. Red Rocks charges $8 for a slice of cake (as Joel pointed out to me after spending $24), AND IT IS SO WORTH IT.

3. Sunday the kids were both invited to a birthday party for one of Rebecca's classmates, at Gymboree, which puts on a heck of a birthday party for the 2-3 year old set. Rebecca LOVED that party. Ben managed to entertain himself fairly well too, though I have a feeling he only decided to come because of the birthday cake. Joel's parents met us at the birthday party and took the kids and Joel and I went to The Bonefish Grill for dinner, where we ate way too much and felt rather ill afterwards, but spent no money because we had a $100 gift card courtesy of our American Express rewards points. Can't go wrong there.

5. Today Ben had school to make up for the snow day a couple weeks ago, but Rebecca and I had off for President's Day. We put Ben on the bus and then did some errands in pouring rain, none of which were particularly fruitful and all of which involved, well, going out in the pouring rain. At one point I commented to Rebecca that I was sorry for taking her on a wild goose chase in the rain, and then she kept asking to see the goose. Explaining to her that there were no geese just was not getting through to her, so I decided to make it up to her by taking her to the pet store. She greeted the parakeets with, "HI CHICKENS! HI CHICKENS! HI CHICKENS!" and forgot all about the geese, which was fortunate. So she was happy. Then we went home and she took a 2 hour nap, and Mommy was happy.

Hopefully it Won't Break in Less than a Week

My sister likes to tease me about the time I bought a laptop off the back of a truck. I did not really buy a laptop off the back of a truck, I bought it at Aldi's, though the difference between the two may be negligible. The laptop broke a week after I got it.

Today I really did buy this leather recliner off the back of a truck. We were sitting at home minding our own business when a couple of guys knocked on the door and said, well, that they were selling furniture out of a truck, would we like to see any? They were from a furniture company and had a police permit (hopefully legit!) They had pictures of all the furniture they had on the truck so you could see what they had without them having to unload everything. Joel had them bring some recliners off the truck since we had been planning to get one for our bedroom. We ended up buying one, as did one of our neighbors. After they left Joel prompty called a local furniture store who carried the same chair in stock, and was happy to find out that it sold for $300 more than what we paid for it. And of course, no delivery charge ;) How's that for service, bringing the furniture show room right to your door...

My Little Mother

1. When I dropped Rebecca off at preschool this morning she took off her coat, presented herself in front of her teacher, and said, "Lindsay! Look at my outfit!" Then she turned to one of her classmates and said, "Oh, let me see your outfit!"

2. Tonight to save time I put the kids in the bathtub together. I usually don't do this, preferring instead to bathe them each on alternating nights, but we'd somehow gotten behind on our bath schedule and I didn't feel like doing two consecutive bath time routines. Rebecca picked up a wash cloth and started scrubbing away at Ben's head with it. Ben turned to me and said, "Aww, she's so cute. She's like a little mother!"

Basketball Practice

Yesterday the kids and I did some errands, went to the bookstore, and went to Ben's basketball practice. Basketball practice for 4 and 5 year olds consists mostly of dribbling, passing, and shooting drills with very little actual game play. They did do about 10 minutes of game play or so yesterday, during which time Ben bounced around excitedly all over the place but did not pursue the ball very vigorously. When someone passed the ball to him, he dribbled and managed to take a shot and scored. Then he waved to me and bounced around excitedly some more, forgetting about the ball entirely for a while again.

Rebecca spent the basketball practice carrying a ball around and attempting to engage anyone and everyone in playing ball with her. The other parents find her quite delightful, and I overheard phrases directed towards her like, "adorable" and "cute as a button" and "so much personality". Then another tag-along sibling tried to take her ball away from her and Rebecca burst into instant screams of fury. Then I overheard phrases like "oh dear" and "we certainly don't want to make her mad, do we." Yes, that about sums up my girl: cute but potentially volatile.

Splish Splash

This morning I took the kids to Ray's Splash Planet, which is an indoor water park that is part of the Mecklenburg County parks and recreation department. I had heard of it but had never been until today. It is not the most conveniently located - uptown where I hardly ever go - but only a 20 minute drive so not too bad.

We had a really fun time there, which I was pleasantly surprised at because when I announced to the kids that we were going to go, Ben started crying and saying he didn't want to (insert baffled look here). But by the time we got there and got changed into our swimsuits he was totally excited and had a great time. There was one big slide, which I didn't let him go on because he just barely met the height requirement and the sign said you had to know how to swim and he's really still learning. So he was disappointed at first, but there was a lazy river kind of thing where you ride an inner tube around in a circle and I let him do that which seemed to make up for it. There were also a couple of small water slides that I let him do, so he ended up being quite content.

Rebecca spent a while just walking in and out of the wading pool area, and then started playing with the water fixtures more, getting her head wet, splashing herself in the face, and having a great time. We stayed in the water for a good two hours, which I thought was a pretty impressive amount of time to keep them both occupied. It ended up being a lot of fun for them, and not too much work for Mom (except for the changing into/out of bathing suits), so successful all around. The only problem was I was busy in the water with them the whole time, so could not take any pictures! But at some point when Joel is around we'll go again I am sure. It is a good way to have some fun when the weather is not conducive to outdoor activities.

We rounded out the day with a play date/ dinner at a friend's house, so I am hoping that after such a full day the kids will sleep in tomorrow! Highly unlikely.

I'd Rather Be Napping in Footed Pajamas

Today is a very gross, rainy day. The kind that makes you feel really sleepy - YAWN! This has been a long week. Work has been busy, and Joel is in Las Vegas (lucky him) so the kids and I are on our own. Ben got his 2nd quarter report card yesterday; he got "3s" (the highest score on a 3-2-1 scale) in 18 out of 20 categories (the two "2s" were in "works independently" and "takes care of materials"). So, a good report card overall - Good job Ben! We also have been working on his 100 Day project, which is a project for the 100th day of school next week. It is a poster of 100 reptile stickers, which he painstakingly numbered from 1 to 100. Of course the minute I turned my back to pay attention to Rebecca, he accidentally skipped one which was not discovered until he finished and only had 99. We did some hasty sticker rearranging and moved the one he skipped to the end. Fortunately it was not stuck too tight and we were able to make room ;)

Tomorrow is supposed to be a very gross, rainy day. If I have the energy I was thinking about taking the kids to Ray's Splash Planet. I have never been there, but Rebecca keeps asking to go back to the "water park" (meaning Great Wolf Lodge). Since Great Wolf Lodge runs about $300 a night, she's not getting her wish any time soon. But Ray's Splash Planet is an indoor water park that is co-owned by the parks and recreation department and the Charlotte school system. As such, the admission is only like $8 for adults and $6 for kids, and they have water slides, spraygrounds, etc. So. Maybe we'll check it out tomorrow. Right now I just feel like taking a nap. But I can't, of course. Sigh.

Snow Day

Charlotte-Mecklenberg schools were closed today because of the snow. But, you say, the snow was on Saturday, and you only got an inch or two! Yes, that's what I said too... Although seriously, the inch of snow did freeze solid, so our street was an ice-skating rink Saturday night. But today everything was fine as far as I could tell. The explanation for schools being closed is that the district is very large, and areas north of the city (we're south) got a lot more snow.

So anyway -- Ben had off, and Becca's preschool had a delayed opening. After dropping her off at 9:30 we arrived back home and Ben sat down on the futon and played video games for three hours straight. I sat at my desk and worked uninterrupted. Around 1pm I forcibly dragged Ben out to get some lunch with me, to make him take a break from the video games. Around 2pm he sat back down on the futon and played video games for another FOUR HOURS. Work was very busy, and I ended up sending Joel to pick up Rebecca so that I could stay at my desk until almost 6 to finish up what I needed to.

Here is what I learned today:

1. I don't need to be paying exorbitant sums of money every month for Ben to go to the After School program at the JCC and take Tae Kwon Do lessons because the TV will babysit for me for free

2. Thank God I pay exorbitant sums of money every month for Ben to go to the After School program at the JCC and take Tae Kwon Do lessons!