I am apparently absolutely unteachable. It was LESS THAN A MONTH AGO that I was convinced Nan's runny nose was simply allergies. I was wrong. Yesterday? Allergies, I told myself. When she woke in the night hacking her poor lungs out, I smacked myself in the head and resolved to call the doctor's office as soon as they opened. (I also had a dream that someone was standing over our bed, resulting in me screaming at the top of my lungs and scaring my husband. Sorry, honey. Umm... you passed the drill! The "wake when I scream" drill! Gold star!) So we trekked to Nan's pediatrician today, and we ended up seeing a different doctor in the practice, as our beloved Dr. O was out today. Dr. D was lovely, and Nan was a perfect patient. Apparently, the allergy attack is turning into a sinus infection, and we've caught it fairly early. And when I asked if she could go to school tomorrow, the doctor said as long as she wasn't running a fever, it's fine. Hurray! Way to absolve my guilt re. dance class! Thanks, Dr. D! So now we're giving Nan antibiotics, and the doctor is calling in a night-time cough syrup to help the poor baby sleep. She sounds worse than she feels, I think, so I'm hoping it will pass soon.

Second verse, same as the first...

I took my sick, snotty girl to dance class. Again. I know. I. Know. I REALLY think it's just allergies-- no green/yellow color, no fever (this time) and it's accompanied by watery eyes and the dark allergy circles, but ugh. It's gross. I did warn the teacher that she might need to keep a kleenex handy, and I mentioned to several of the moms that she was suffering from allergies, so I didn't get the "what the hell is wrong with you, lady?" looks I got last time. I'm so tired of snot. At least she's better about using the kleenexes on her own now-- I can just hand one back to her, and she'll wipe herself off. someday, soon, she'll be able to reach the box on her own. Someday, she'll stop using ME as a handy kleenex. Dare to dream.
One of the benefits of this allergy attack is that the girl actually wants to go to bed early, so Jay and I are able to catch up on some of the new! awesome! tv shows we've been taping. Hurray! I hate to let the tivo get so clogged, and I keep deleting Nan's backlog of 'Curious George' episodes to make room for the new episodes of 'Dexter'. Hee. It feels good to delete the shows we've watched NINE MILLION times, especially when it's replaced with something awesome.

We took Nan to the free(!) kid's matinee at a local theater yesterday morning, and it was a smashing success. It was the most recent VeggieTales movie, so that was a definite plus for Nan. She's been obsessed with the bloody VeggieTales series of late. We take out a stack of the DVDs at the library each week, and by the time the next Tuesday comes around, I'm speeding to the library to drop the stack off so I don't have to watch 'Dave and the Giant Pickle' ONE. MORE. TIME. It is a testament to the wittiness and cleverness of the movies that I haven't tossed any out the window. Yet. We did manage to talk her into 'Toy Story' for our Friday night movie-and-pizza extravangaza. Or, as she refers to it, "The Messy Room Movie". Which is technically accurate, and somewhat heartning-- maybe she'll grow into being a neat freak. That would be tremendously helpful. She sat through all of 'Toy Story', rapt, and didn't touch the pizza she helped me make. We're enjoying introducing her to our favorite children's movies, and the Pixar movies have been extremely popular. Hurray!
We had to have our picture taken for the church directory this morning. I dressed us all carefully-- Jay remembered to wear a shirt and tie, I wore a basic black shirt, and I put Nan in her colorful autumn-weight dress. /I/ did her hair this morning (sorry, Jay-- your hairdos are serviceable, but not picture-worthy), and I even put on lipstick. It started badly, when she cried from our house to church (about a 20 minute drive) because I didn't have her pacifier, which is only supposed to be used at home ANYWAY, and when we got out of the car she decided to wipe her snotty, teary face all. over. my. black. shirt. Growl. I did the best I could with a damp paper towel from the bathroom, but I have a feeling that our picture will appear in the directory with a perfectly groomed Jay and Nan, and me looking rather frazzled with faded lipstick and snot tracks on my shirt. At least it's an accurate depiction of our family.

I'm writing from Nan's room. Again. It's becoming a tradition. I lay her down, I leave the room, the party hats and noisemakers come out from under her mattress, I come back into the room, sit in the rocking chair in the corner, and she zonks out within seconds. I could probably leave now, but it's very peaceful back here. No phone, no yowling cats, no doorbell... in a weird way, I've come to enjoy the twenty minutes or so of peace every afternoon. And she's getting to sleep. I've probably set up something that will bite me in the butt, but for now, I'm gonna live with it.
I had a sanity-saving evening out yesterday, with my dear friend Sue. Sue and I have known each other since I was 15 and she was 16-- nearly twenty years. She became an adopted member of my family. We would spend hours with each other every day, and then go home and talk on the phone until our parents demanded we free the line. We have remained close, and we have been fortunate enough to meet at least once a month over the last few months-- no small feat with my work/kid schedule, and her three kid circus, now with a new job added on top. We drank beer, ate delicious soft pretzels, and laughed and laughed and laughed. I felt like a new person. And then today I got to meet my friend Pam for lunch-- I feel so decadent. Outings without the child TWO TIMES IN ONE WEEK! God bless preschool, and bless Grandma, to boot. But I feel recharged, and ready to tackle my toddler anew. Not literally. Figuratively. (Earlier this week, it was literal...) I forget how much I thrive on people. My job is great, and I'm glad I'm able to stay home with Nan and work, but I miss basic human contact with people to whom I'm not related by marriage or blood. Every time I have a lovely evening out, I resolve to do this more frequently, but it inevitably falls to the wayside as life intervenes. I hope that doesn't happen this time.

This has been a long week. Like, "it's Wednesday and it feels like next Thursday" long. Construction near our house severed our phone lines (!!!!), leaving us without phone service OR, more importantly, DSL. Which meant no internet service. Which meant I couldn't work. For a day and a half. I /did/ get the laundry folded, and the dishes washed, and Nan's lunch packed for school. And I got to take a nap. But it wasn't a happy nap... it was a "there's nothing I can do so I might as well sleep" nap. Grr. I am happy to report that services are back up as of this afternoon, so I /should/ be able to get my day's work in. I'm only about four hours short for yesterday. I packed Nan up and we met my mom for dinner, and then went on to her house, where I could work for a few hours while she played with Nan and then bathed her and got her ready for bed. Yay, Grandma! Jay's deep in the throes of auditions for the high school's fall musical, so he didn't get home until late last night. I must say, I have a whole new respect for all the teachers who did so much while I was in high school. The people who directed the plays, the band and choir directors who spent hours of precious afterschool and weekend time making sure everything went well, for little to no additional compensation. Now that my husband is one of those people, I feel like sending thank you notes to those teachers. I understand the family time that was sacrificed so the show could go on. As does my poor messy house. Something must give, and in our case, it's housekeeping. Hope Nan doesn't get eaten by a dust bunny.

I write this from Nan's room. She is supposed to be napping. She is not. I am definitely at my wit's end... how can you MAKE a kid sleep? Right now, my strategy is simply waiting her out-- I sit here and glare at her every time she makes a sound, and she eventually gives up and falls asleep. This is not a viable longterm solution. I prefer not to spend an hour or more of my precious afternoon time scowling at my progeny. And that's when it WORKS... yesterday, she was napless. We were due at a family party, so we eventually gave up on the struggle. Did we set a bad precedent? Does she think she can just outwait us now? I suppose I'll find out today...


Edited:
Ok... she fell asleep about 10-15 minutes after I got in her room. Hurray! I had to wake her for dance class. Booooooo. Now I'm dealing with the shortened-nap aftermath. We have had about seventeen bursts of tears since 4:30. Jay is coming home late. Send chocolate. And liquor. And a nanny.

Yesterday was Jay's birthday, so Nan and I decided to bake him a birthday cake. Rather, I decided to bake him a birthday cake and Nan sat at the counter and looked at some cheapo shape and color flashcards I picked up at Target. His favorite is german chocolate cake, so naturally I decided to bake a caramel apple upside-down cake. (Don't worry... he'll get his cake. I plan to bake the german chocolate one for his party on Saturday.) I had some apples that were about to go bad, so after some internet searching, the caramel apple cake seemed ideal. Silly me. I thought it looked easy. I ended up with four dirty pans and apple detrius all over the kitchen. And a crabby toddler who wanted to HELP NOW, MOMMY!! Sadly, there wasn't much she could do to help-- she couldn't peel or slice the apples, she couldn't make the carmel sauce on the stove, and I mixed the few ingredients for the cake portion in my Kitchenaid. She /did/ get to press the apple slices into the carmel sauce at the bottom of the pan, and that was super fun for her. She wanted to eat the cake right away, and was a little unhappy when Mommy explained that she had to wait for it to bake. I then moved onto dinner prep-- steaks with dijon-rosemary marinade, and bleu cheese spaghetti. Nan decided to "help" with dinner, too. Sigh. It involved her dropping the flash cards from great heights, crying and trying to reach the cards, me stopping what I was doing to retrieve the cards, and repeat ad infintum. Finally, Jay finished the video game he was playing (it was his birthday-- I let him play unmolested) and coaxed her into the living room. Then, GRANDMA arrived, and she was sufficently distracted for me to finish the meal. Dinner came together well, and the cake smelled heavenly. It tasted good, too-- to everyone but Nan. She took a bite, declared it "yucky" and refused to eat anymore. (She did, however, enjoy the bleu cheese spaghetti-- I was surprised! A rather potent taste for a two-year-old.) Oh, well. More for me. And Jay, of course.