Sally Says

Dying of Consumption (not really)

We always joke that I'm going to die of consumption like some 19th century tragic heroine.  I don't actually have tuberculosis, of course, and I know that I am lucky to live where and when I do since antibiotics are my friends.  It's just a running family joke because I get these miserable lingering chest coughs that last forever.  So if my absence has had you wondering...I'm perfectly well except the whole dying of consumption thing.  Coughing up a lung is no fun.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with Mel & Sylvia.  They're so relaxing.  It's never fun to be sick over Thanksgiving, but at least I was home and David and his parents were here to entertain the boys for me.  They all went out hiking at the petroglyphs one morning, as I languished on the couch with a book and some tea.  Dying of consumption has its advantages.

We cooked the usual yummy goodies.  We had cranberry bread and sausage balls for breakfast Thanksgiving morning.  We had a gigantic turkey - the best one we've ever cooked thanks to the Pioneer Woman brining method.  We also had rolls (but not enough of them), mashed potatoes and Sylvia's really yummy gravy, cranberry jello salad, green bean casserole, a corn and wild rice dish that wasn't cooked long enough to set, and marinated Brussels sprouts.  Dessert was sweet potato pudding and Julia Child's apple crisp. 

I've decided that family holiday meals are actually kind of hard on little boys.  They just aren't old enough to have any sense of nostalgia or food memories yet.  It's just a bunch of unfamiliar food with lots of waiting.  Tommy ate a turkey leg and some mashed potatoes.  Charlie just ate mashed potatoes, a couple of green beans ("what's on them, Mommy?") and one Brussels sprout.  The four adults ate everything else.

 

Yeah.  The pictures aren't great this year.  Cut me some slack.  I was dying of consumption.  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
  
 
 

Happy Thanksgiving! I am, once again, sick on this holiday. Thankfully, I don't have to do much besides eat. I don't feel particularly horrible, so I'm not having any trouble cooking, but I've completely lost my voice. It's a good thing David's parents are here to entertain the boys. I hope you all have a very nice day with friends and family.

The one with minor head trauma

Today was Tommy's long-anticipated field trip to the zoo with his kindergarten class.  Charlie and I met them there and were looking forward to a day with the class and many of the other parents.  We were just inside the front gates and waiting for everyone to use the bathroom when Charlie smacked the back of his head on the concrete.  Hard.  I was standing about 10 feet away and heard the thwack over the raucus sounds of hyper kindergarteners.

He cried really hard for about 10 minutes while I carried him.  Then he calmed down, and I asked him if he was OK.  He said "I hit my head, but I OK" so I put him in the stroller and continued on with the field trip.

Almost immediately after that, the ONE other little boy for whom I was responsible went missing.  The teacher found him pretty quickly.  I was more careful to keep him and Tommy in my sight after that.  His hat?  Not so much.  I'm hoping it made it home with him, because it's certainly not in my stroller.

Charlie's mood totally changed after his blow to the head.  He was absolutely not interested in getting out of the stroller or participating.  This made my chaperone job easier, so I didn't push it.  Then he started acting really sleepy.  He got up before 5 am this morning, so I wasn't too worried.  He's usually pretty sleepy in the stroller, especially after 10 am on a morning when he gets up really early. 

Now a GOOD MOTHER would have decided that a blow to the head combined with sleepiness was possibly a problem.  I was a bit concerned, but not too worried.

After about an hour, we all stopped for another bathroom break.  I took Charlie into the bathroom with me, took him out of the stroller and realized he couldn't keep his balance.  He was very dizzy and quite miserable. 

Now is the time to panic!

Charlie and I immediately left the zoo and headed for the pediatric urgent care, which is only a mile or so away from the zoo.  I'm glad it was so close because I was worried Charlie might fall asleep in the car.  David met us there because I didn't have our insurance card in the little wallet I'd packed to make carrying all the lunches and coats easier.  The triage nurse freaked me out a little bit by announcing that Charlie had a FEVER, but she was wrong.  Of course we didn't discover she was wrong until after she turned us out of the well-child waiting room and into the waiting room full of flu patients.  The doctor declared that he did not have a fever once we got to see him.  He also said Charlie definitely had some minor head trauma, but was pretty much OK since he didn't fall from a great height or have any immediate reactions like losing consciousness or vomiting.  Since Charlie was no longer dizzy and could stand and walk normally, we were good to go. 

Since he didn't have a concussion, he got to take a long nap this afternoon and seems to be feeling completely better.  I suspect that one of the three of us will have the flu by Thanksgiving day because that's they way we roll around here.  There were some very sick kiddos in that waiting room.  Someone in our family is always sick on Thanksgiving.  David's parents left this morning to come visit us, so it's too late to warn them away.  Maybe we'll be lucky this year (but I doubt it).

I'm just glad Charlie isn't in a coma.  I would feel so guilty for pushing him around the zoo in his stroller for an hour after he hit his head if he'd actually had a concussion.

Enquiring Minds Want to Know

I found my shoe!  It actually WAS with the drumstick.  I knew it!  Both were wedged behind the suitcases in the back of my closet.  I had to take everything out of the bottom of my closet to find them.  Now my closet is as de-cluttered as the rest of the house.

We had a nice night out last night.  We spent the majority of our time having a leisurely dinner at Scalo Northern Italian Grillin Nobb Hill.  We'd never been there before, and were quite pleased with our meal.  When I got into David's truck I was surprised to hear his "new" CD player for the first time.  I gave it to him for his birthday last March.  Since I only ride in his truck when we're out without the boys, that gives you an idea of how long it's been since we had a babysitter.  Some friends of ours watched the boys a few months ago for that semi-formal awards dinner, but we took my car that time.  Other than that, it's been over a year since we went out alone.  

We had 90 minutes or so to kill before our dinner reservation, so we went to Toys R Us to do our Christmas shopping for the boys.  I know that's not a terribly exciting thing to do, but it's more fun to do it together.  We like to get the important stuff early so that we don't have to worry about things being sold out or price hikes.  We bought a real drum set and a Tinker Bell play set for Charlie and the newest big Indiana Jones Lego set and a Star Wars Transformer (Vader to Tie Fighter) for Tommy.  I'm not sure about the Tinker Bell set for Charlie.  I may return it and get something else.  Now I just need to order their traditional book/movie/video-game combo gift.  I'm only mentioning it here because there's no way for me to delete or note the purchases on their wish lists without them noticing.  There is a downside to Tommy learning to read.  I used to just put notes on his wish list telling folks when I'd already bought something.  He would totally be able to figure that out this year.

We all absolutely loved the new babysitter, and have already arranged for him to babysit again in December.  David was impressed that he's worked as an EMT.  I was impressed that his top priority was playing with the boys.  Charlie's last words before he went to sleep last night were "I'm going to dream about Mister Isaac visiting again.  Ding dong!  Who's there?  It's Isaac here to play with Tommy and Charlie!  I'm going to dream about that."

In other news, Tommy lost his other top front tooth this morning.  What a cutie!

Pay up Tooth Fairy!

Speaking of money, have a told you that Tommy gets an allowance now?  It's five dollars a week, which seems like a lot, but I wanted it to be enough to actually buy something real if he saves for a few weeks.  We've tied it to five chores, and he has to do all five each week to get the full five dollars.  So far he's gotten all five a four times, and only four dollars one time, so I think it's a good system.  He has to clean and vacuum his own room, scrub the toilets (mwahahaha!  this one was his own idea and I'm stoked to no longer be doing it myself), put all of his own clean and folded laundry into his drawers, empty the household trash cans the night before garbage day, and practice reading to me or David.  That last one is kind of a freebie.  He's been doing a great job, so I don't mind giving him a bit of cash each week.  He actually had three weeks worth of allowance plus the $2 from his previous missing tooth in his wallet when we went to his school book fair last week.  He chose to spend it all on books.  I'm so proud.

Lesson of the week

Early this week Charlie started singing "Cock-a-doodle-doo.  Mommy's lost her shoe, and knows not what to do."  I told him that it was a nice song, and went about my business.

Now I can't find one of my shoes.

We cleaned the house from top to bottom this morning because a new babysitter is coming over tonight.  (Yippee!)  I couldn't find my shoe anywhere.  As I sit here in my completely uncluttered house, it occurs to me that maybe I should have followed up on that "Mommy's lost her shoe" thing.  He must have hidden it somewhere, hoping to play hide-and-seek with me.

It's probably with the 2nd drumstick.  How can a full-sized drumstick and a birkenstock sandal disappear so completely?

Sigh.  I really like those shoes.  Maybe I can get the babysitter to find it.  Would that be a reasonable test of his babysitting acumen?  Actually, I'll be happy if he can successfully navigate Charlie's tendency to run around naked (the little boy is in a nudist phase) and Tommy's tendency to burst into tears over silly things (the big boy is in a fragile and moody phase.)  I hope he wants to come back and babysit again next month!