Instant karma

Did you ever say something one day that came back to bite you right away? On Friday, Mr. Fabulous took the day off from work and took the C.T. to the zoo. She hasn’t had an accident in a while, but I still pack spare outfits just in case. Mr. Fabulous called me en route to the zoo and mentioned that he had packed spare underwear for the C.T., but no other clothes. I laughed, and said that if the C.T. needed a change of underwear, she would need a change of pants as well – that she couldn’t possibly have an accident that required only new underwear.

Fast forward to Friday night. We went to see my nephew’s middle school production of Oliver (in which he played Oliver, and did very well indeed – good job A!). During intermission, I took the C.T. to the bathroom. She sat on the toilet and managed to keep her legs so tightly together that the pee went down her legs and, you guessed it, soaked her underwear while leaving her pants completely dry. Fortunately my aunt was a couple of stalls over, so I was able to get her to have Mr. Fabulous get the spare underwear that he had so fortuitously packed out of the car and bring it to us. As I waited in the middle of the packed bathroom trying to keep my half-naked preschooler from running out into the halls and streaking through the theater, one very kind woman passed by, patted me on the shoulder, and said “Don’t worry – in a couple of years you’ll laugh about this” Little did she know that I already was.

Happy days are here again!

I love living in Colorado. Yes, it can be cold and snowy one day. But the next it will be gorgeous and sunny and WARM! It was warm enough yesterday and today to let the C.T. wear her new sundresses to school, which pleased her convinced-she-is-a-princess-just-call-her-Jasmine self to bits. And . . . IT'S APRIL 15 TODAY!!!!! I get my husband back! The C.T. gets her dad back! The agony that is tax season is over for another year! HURRAH!!!

Now we get to decide on summer projects for the house. Mr. Fabulous loves trees, and thinks our yard is pretty bare, so I'm sure there will be some tree planting going on. My top priority summer project is painting the family room. I've been planning on doing it ever since we moved into this house two years ago. But it's got really high ceilings and stairs with really high ceilings. The high walls by themselves don't faze me - I'm OK with ladders. But . . . the high wall that goes along the stairway has been very perplexing. I'm going to have to do serious research about the kind of scaffolding or special ladder we will need to do the two-story wall along the stairs.



Of course, the other big obstacle to painting the room is color choice. I'm indecisive enough when it comes to paint colors - but usually I can tell myself that if I don't like the paint color, we can paint over it. It doesn't help that (1) the room will be such a huge pain to paint that I will probably never want to paint it again and (2) this room literally leads into almost every other room in the house (it's a pretty open floor plan) and will have to coordinate with many of them. So, I'm thinking of being timid and just going for plain white. That will give us the most options for decorating and coordinating. I don't know. Mostly I just want to get rid of the yellow, which is one of my least favorite colors.

Things on my mind

• I'm tired of the cold. I'm tired of the snow (even though we haven't gotten that much of it this year). It's supposed to be spring!
• I'm so happy that Battlestar Galactica is back on! It's been way too long. And So You Think You Can Dance starts next month. Now if they would just bring back Friday Night Lights, my TV bliss would be complete.
• I wish my camera had been handy a couple of days ago when the C.T. grabbed the piece of tin foil I had just taken off of the enchiladas we were having for dinner, put it on her head, and proceeded to dance around the kitchen calling it a hat. Prime blackmail material for later years, if I had just thought to capture the moment. Hmmmm . . . maybe I can get her to do it again.
• Maybe I'll be able to think longer thoughts tomorrow.

Goodnight!

It's the final countdown!

One week and counting until tax day. This past weekend was made more difficult by the fact that the C.T. had a nasty cold. It first manifested on Friday, when Mr. Fabulous picked her up at daycare. She had a runny nose, was flushed, hot to the touch (a 102 temperature it turned out later), and half asleep on a bean bag chair grumping at any of her classmates who wanted to play with her. When Mr. Fabulous asked the afternoon teacher if she had called me, she said no - it was probably just hayfever. WTF?!?!??! Needless to say, I have since complained to the powers that be about this teacher's lack of attention to the SICK CHILD in her care.

The worst was Saturday night, when her fever spiked to 103.5, she was crying uncontrollably, complaining of pain in her ears, her head, her back, and her tummy. When she vomitted and started to complain that she felt like she was falling every time she stood up, I decided a trip to urgent care was in order. Four hours we spent there - from 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm. They poked and prodded, took tests, dug two slugs of earwax the size of beetles out of her ears (NOT a pleasant experience for anyone involved) so they could determine whether she had an ear infection or not. And after all that, she got two popsicles and a piece of paper that basically said "we have examined your child and determined that she has a cold. Have a nice day!"

Sigh. I had already planned on taking Monday off for a mother-daugher bonding day. I just didn't expect that it would all take place on the sofa watching one Disney movie after another. Mulan. Mulan 2. Madeline. Jungle Book. Strawberry Shortcake. Mary Poppins. Please kill me now!

Fortunately, she has since completely recovered from the fevers. Alas, she has yet to recuperate from the relapse to normal TV viewing restrictions. With constant monitoring, however, the prognosis looks good.

I'm still alive

Hi, yes I know I have'nt posted in a while. I don't believe I've mentioned that Mr. Fabulous is a CPA with a tax practice. What that means is that I've been on single parent duty for a while, and will be until April 15. The C.T. is not dealing with daddy withdrawal well, so I've been trying to be extra available to her to make up for it. She' doing better than last year, but is still pretty clingy and irritable.

Her latest trick when she gets mad at me (at least a daily occurance) is to "call" my mother. She will announce that she is going to call my mommy, hold her hand up to her ear like a phone, and say "Hello? [Meg] is not listening!" Then she'll "hang up" and say "I called your mommy, and you're not getting any treats. Hmph!". It takes every ounce of self control I have not to burst into laughter at that point - the most I can do is try to calmly assure her that I'm pretty confident Grandma will be on my side with respect to whatever it is the CT doesn't want to do. Never a dull moment!