Keepin’ It Real Wednesday

What a difference 24 hours can make.

Last night at this time, Chad and I were strategically gluing the weights on Colin’s first “real” Pinewood Derby car, making plans about what we all needed to do finish it in the next 24 hrs, in order to be ready for the race tonight.

(I know Colin is not included in that sentence, and it is his car, so he really should be….. but this is Keepin’ It Real Wednesday).

Not long after, Gabe threw up in the bowl he had recently requested.  How sad – he won’t be ale to go to Colin’s race Wednesday night.

A couple of hours later, Colin joined him.  How very very sad. No race for anyone.

A couple of hours later, I awoke to the sound of Carina throwing up next to me. Poor poor baby, but I need sleep forcryingoutloud.

And who knows when…Oliver stumbled into our bedroom, eyes barely open, covered in vomit.   I think Chad is handling that, right? Zzzzzzzz

It was a loooooong day, followed by a long day of Smurfs, Mr. Popper’s Penquins, Saltines and Moneyball for Chad and I.  The “good news” was that Chad had already requested the day off to go the Dr. for what he thought was strep throat, so he was home and washed loads and loads of laundry and Lysoled everything.  

So here we are, 24 hours later, and while all the other Cub Scouts are racing their cars, Colin is sleeping with a bowl next to him.

Here’s to hoping to health by Friday…..

which is the big Chinese’s New Year celebration…..

and…

Chad’s birthday. Gulp.

Please don’t let him be sick on his birthday….

or me, because that is almost as awful for him.

Keepin’ It Real Wednesday

Four to five o’clock on any weekday evening is bad enough.  I have addressed that before.  Today, that hour was a real doozy.

It began with a baby who has turned very mobile in the last week.  Like, crawling, sitting, pulling-herself-up, into everything mobile.  I don’t mind that, but it has been accompanied by a sudden realization that she is a separate being from me….a realization that if she isn’t in my arms she doesn’t know where her next warm and milky meal is going to come from.  She alternates between blissfully roaming the floor,  sweeping every piece of dirt with her pant legs and stuffing every loose piece of trash in the house in her mouth, to crawling frantically to my feet and whining like a drooling little puppy dog. I haven’t quite realized yet right at four o’clock, the whimpering little sleepy puppy dog comes out in full force, making it nearly impossible to make dinner (remember tomorrow Katie – make dinner earlier!) 

So, right as we came home,  I was dealing with that, along with an I-was-good-at-school-all-day-so-I-am-ball-of-emotions fit from Gabe.  I sent Gabe to his room and Colin and Ollie outside to play.  I was feeding Carina while looking up a recipe when Ollie came inside and informed me that he pooped. In his underwear.  I feel like I talk about kid poop way too much on here, so I will spare you the details.  Let’s just say the underwear went in the trash and the kid went in the shower. 

No sooner than I got Oliver out of the shower, Colin came in and exclaimed, “Mom, there is green paint all over the garage!”  I ran in there to find that a can of paint had somehow been knocked off the shelf and spilled, rolled under my van, and then pooled in a big mess under there.  I grabbed two old towels and cleaned it up the best I could while Carina fussed in the house.

Washing my hands off, I swooped up Carina and headed to the kitchen to see how far I could get in the dinner preparation with a baby in one arm.  Carina reached her chubby little arm out  just enough to swipe at a glass sitting on the counter, and CRASH…one more mess to clean up.

Now, at this point I probably would have just ordered pizza, but I had just ordered pizza (and lots of it) the day before when I was grumpy, in a bite-me-bad-day sort of rebellion, and I had been eating the leftovers all day long. 

So pumpkin soup it was, made mostly by Chad when he came home.

Let me tell you something….pumpkin soup is not pizza.