Red Pencil Diaries

Zack goes to Mom’s Tyme Out on Thursday mornings for about 4 hours. Today, after his “school,” we were in the kitchen making some kool-aid and I asked him “What did you learn in “school” today? He said “ABCs!” I said “Really?!” (thinking wow, I’ve never gotten him to go much further than F… and he’s always confusing the letters.) So I said “Tell me how it goes.” And he replied, “Well… there’s A, there’s B, there’s C, and there’s B!” I laughed so hard. I was half expecting him to go “there’s D, there’s E, etc.” through the whole alphabet. It was just too funny. But of course, he got confused and stopped at the “second B.”

I’m sitting here listening to the “whack twack” of a hammer and the “buzz” of a saw. My master bathroom is in progress. Somehow, Lola manages to sleep through all the racket. But I have a very difficult time getting Zack to nap until they’ve finished for the day. Man, I could use a nap, too. Lola woke me up at 4 am, hungry. Maybe she’s having another growth spurt. I don’t know. But I do know I am T-I-R-E-D. 

So I spent most of this past weekend emptying my walk-in closet and my bathroom. We are having our master bath remodeled. They were supposed to start today, but called at 8 am to say they can’t start until tomorrow. And they are estimating it will be completed in 8 days. I’m thinking it’ll be more than 2 weeks. Dave and I are sleeping in the guest room (why didn’t our guests tell us that bed isn’t so comfortable??? lol). It’s been difficult finding a place for all of our clothes and shoes. And wow… that closet in the bathroom was so full. How did we accumulate so much stuff in there?

I’m VERY excited to get a new bathroom. For those who’ve seen our old one, it just wasn’t very well designed. Too many doors that opened into each other and the tub and tile were old and stained and peeling. Ick. I cleaned it with bleach and it still always looked dingy to me. I showered with my eyes closed for 4 years because I hated looking at those depressing peach colored tiles. Ick!

Our holiday went very well. We had family over. The turkey was EXCELLENT this year, thanks Dave! It was a very laid-back day.

Lola is eating baby food now. She’s been eating peas, but today we started squash. Yum! Next will be carrots, etc. She’s doing very well so far. My big girl! And she can get up on her hands and knees and she rocks like she’s going to take off crawling any day now. So exciting!

Zack is doing well. He has tons of toys from his recent birthday, but still wants everything he sees on TV for Christmas. And every day he wants to “put up Kissmass twee.” We haven’t yet just because we’ve been gearing up for the big bathroom renovation, oh and we had a pipe rust through from our kitchen sink and flood the garage on Thanksgiving night. woohoo. Poor Dave was in there fixing it for nearly two days. Thank goodness it’s fixed and all working really much better than it had been. Yay Dave!

I’m plowing through the Christmas shopping list. Have a few gifts left to purchase. I may do more online shopping just because once they begin the bathroom renovation, I have to be home every day. So… fun fun fun for me.

Well, the night before Zack’s sheduled “surgery” to repair his blocked tear duct, the anesthesiologist decided he wouldn’t do it because Zack had pneumonia two weeks prior. So… we’ve rescheduled it for January 11th. Let’s hope he stays well up to that date. Ugh… I hate waiting longer to get this done! It bothers him and us too!

Dave and I got to go out again last night. Our new babysitter stayed with the kiddos while we went and played Texas Hold ‘Em at my friend’s house. It was a lot of fun, but Dave and I both ended up running out of chips on the same hand. So I guess neither of us are great poker players. But now I kind of know the game and I actually kind of liked it. I just need more practice.

To be honest, it’s such a relief to come home and the kiddos are already in bed and the house is quiet. I love having a babysitter.

I am very behind on my holiday shopping. I really need to get out there and get it overwith. But the kiddos had been sick and I had been sick and then Dave was sick. Now we’re all pretty much well again, so this week I officially kick off my holiday shopping!

Also, last week I took Zack to a new Mom’s Tyme Out program. He calls it going to school. It’s only for a few hours one day per week. But he loved it. And it’ll give me a slight break and some bonding time with Lola.  I wish they took younger kids, so I could have some “me” time, but oh well. Can’t have it all, I guess.

So Zack has totally recovered from pneumonia! Yay! His doctor gave him the all-clear on Monday. So he’s all go for his outpatient surgery on Thursday to have his blocked tear duct cleared. Yay! I don’t think he understands what is going on about it, but once it’s done we won’t have to worry about his poor eye tearing up or being all gunked up anymore.

Last Thursday, I took Lola to the doctor. She has a double ear infection. She seems to be doing much better today. She’s back to eating a full bottle and ate some cereal from a spoon again—she had stopped wanting to be fed with a spoon when her ears were hurting. She still has a cough, though. But she’s on antibiotics and hasn’t had fever, so I think she’ll be ok.

Dave went to the doctor (finally) today after I nagged him for over a week. And YES, he does have pneumonia! So… we’re all full of sickness. I’m worn out. I want a vacation. And a massage. And a drink. In that order.

I was reading this article this morning and it says a lot of what I feel about upcoming elections. I don’t really feel a connection with any candidates currently in the running. I like a few things each of them stand for, but there isn’t one person out there (in any party) whom I feel could get this country out of the hole we’ve dug. If I thought I’d have a chance, I’d run. Heck, I’m old enough now.

So last week, Zack was feeling bad. He was congested. Then one night, he was up all night coughing. I took him to the doctor and he had pneumonia in his lower left lung! I felt like the worst mom on the planet—I wished I had taken him to the doctor two days prior, but he didn’t act really sick! He ended up missing trick-or-treating (he did get to wear his costume to the zoo Halloween party the Friday prior). He’s been on antibiotics and is doing so much better. No more fever (so he’s not contagious!) and he’s playing and eating normally again. And he seemed to have slept really well last night. Yay!

Lola is rolling all over the place. She loves her exersaucer and her Jumperoo. And now—she has graduated to the walker. I know a lot of moms don’t like to use them, but I only put her in it when I’m here to watch her. Zack had one and loved it and he started walking at just before 10 months. She’s so cute pushing herself around and invesitgating the room. She loves being on eye-level with the dog and LOVES being able to try to get to her big brother Zack and chewing on my curtains. Gotta figure out something to do with the curtains—don’t want her to pull them down on herself!
Speaking of big brothers—Zack will be 3 years old tomorrow! My baby is growing up too fast! He shares his birthday with my mom and my brother-in-law. Pretty cool, huh? We got him a new train table and train set for his birthday. He’s so in love with it. He’s used up so many batteries already!