Argh!!

We were going to walk to MES and pick up Eliana today. As we were getting ready, Olivia announces she's going to ride her bike. So I get out the bike, the scooter for Eliana, buckle Corbin in the bike trailer, and off we go. FIFTEEN MINUTES and a HALF OF A BLOCK later, Olivia decides she can't ride her bike after all. At this point, we've run out of time, and have to drive. I was so angry.

BTW, my belly gets in the way of pedaling.

Whew.

I scored myself a few minutes of breathing room today. I'd been trying to get Corbin to play out back all morning. I was cleaning, and he was getting into stuff. But no. He wanted to read, do puzzles, and play Hungry Hungry Hippo. After we picked up Olivia from school, I made lunch, unloaded the dishwasher, switched the laundry, yadda yadda yadda. I looked out the window and commented, "Oh look, Olivia's jumping on the trampoline." And ZOOM ... he was gone. hmmm. Shoulda figured that one out earlier.

In other breathing news, I can't. Malachi has completely maxed out the space in my enlarging abdomen and is in desperate need of some more real estate. Since I can barely fit in most of my pants as-is, and I have 7 weeks and 3 days till d-day, this worries my slightly.

Well, I'm off again. Time to pick up child number one from school. I promised we could walk/ride bikes today and spend some time playing on the playground. Should be fun!

Malachi

Corbin has been feeling a little bit under the weather. Since he doesn't seem all-out sick, the end result is that he follows me around all day. Including to the bathroom. I'm constantly answering his question, "What you doing, Mommy?" After the second or third time he followed me to the bathroom and me telling him I had to pee, he says, "You already pee, Mommy." I replied, "Yes, but Malachi's pushing on my bladder, so I have to pee a lot." He thinks about this for a moment, seems satisfied, and that's the end of that. About an hour later he hollers at me from the other room, "Mommy! Mal-chi sitting on your bladder 'gain?!" I chuckled at his observation of my frequent potty trips. Awhile later he says, "Mommy, MY Mal-chi sitting on my bladder in my tummy. I have pee too!!" Apparently if he has to pee, now it's Malachi's fault, too!

Funny Stuff

This evening, I was making cupcakes for Olivia's class tomorrow. Olivia saw a picture of Red Velvet cupcakes on my favorite food blog and decided she HAD to have red cupcakes with Tinkerbell green frosting. They should be interesting. Anyways, I was in the middle of making frosting and had gotten the box of food coloring out when I was interrupted for bedtime stuff. While I was distracted away from the cooking, Eliana decided to taste food coloring and see what it would taste like. We're all sitting together to pray before bed, and Eliana is drooling red drool. And her lips are red. And her gums are red. And her teeth are red. When she finally admitted why she was drooling and dyed red (apparently food coloring tastes awful) I could hardly contain my glee. I could not have arranged a more perfect love and logic moment. She had a horrible punishment and I had to do NOTHING. I did make her brush her teeth until they were no longer pink ... which took about four rounds of serious brushing ... but she went to bed still complaining about the yucky taste in her mouth. It makes me shudder every time I think about how awful that must have tasted when she was expecting something yummy!! I love natural consequences.

After Steven got the kids down, Olivia asked him to come give her one more kiss. As he leaned his head close to her, she whispers in her most dramatic five-year-old whisper, "Never forget Daddy, the Lord is always with you!"

Computer Rant

I hate my computer.

Actually, I love my computer, which is part of the problem. Macs are supposed to be hardier than most computers and not EVER have issues. Especially mysterious ones that no one seems to be able to diagnose. 

Today I found places for all the kids and scheduled an appointment with a macologist at the mac store. This very intelligent, helpful, cute, and VERY young gentleman helped me out, gave me what seemed to be excellent advice and sent me home. I got home, spent a couple hours dealing with backing up my entire computer on my recently-purchased external drive, and proceeded to attempt a disk repair. It didn't work right. So, after a seemingly helpful call the mac store, I tried another attempt. My blasted computer froze. And after yet another call to the mac store, they said I'll need to bring it in. 

So now I have to schedule another appointment at the mac store and try again. I don't know what's worse, the fact that I'll probably have to pay the $90/hour rate, or that I have to find childcare and drag my computer and 7-month pregnant belly through the mall.

Ugh.

The Sick Month

It seems that every year, between the beginning of January and the ending of March, we have a sick month. All the colds and flu bugs that are floating around wipe viciously and rampantly through our family. First Corbin, then Steven, then me, then Corbin, then Eliana, then me again, then Corbin, then Eliana, then me. And you did read that correctly ... Olivia has NOT gotten sick at all during this month of mayhem. (knock on wood) Just when I think we're coming out of it, bam! Someone else gets sick. And I run myself ragged trying to keep things together, and I get sick over and over. Most of the time, I'm well enough that I can't completely collapse. So I function while I'm feeling awful week after week after week. I think Corbin gets it so often because he isn't at school yet and not built up all those antibodies. But his sisters bring home the germs. Eliana seems to recover quickly when she gets it. My only guess with Olivia is that maybe 'cause they're so strict about washing hands and using hand sanitizer at her preschool that she's safe ... 

So now we're dragging towards the end of the month, and I'm drained. I'm so burnt out that I'm ready to scream. I had a wonderful date with my husband this past Sunday (we went to a great garden store together), and I thought I would recover nicely from the bout of sickness. I was hopeful and excited to put myself and our house back together. But that night, Eliana started barfing, and then Corbin joined her the next morning. And when I was ready to send Eliana back to school, she barfed again. Now my throat feels like someone scraped it down. I napped on the couch this afternoon (not very restfully, since I was refereeing every five minutes), and I sent the kids outside to play in the beautiful sunshine. (Eliana seems completely healthy, despite her barfing last night) I'm so so so done with this. 

Please, can I have my life back?

What happens when Mommy is sick?

My incredibly sweet husband took an extra sick day for me this week when I woke up yesterday morning so sick I couldn't function. I slept basically from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and went back to bed at 7 p.m. (and I spent most of the hours in between laying down). But somehow, life doesn't seem to stop for Mommy.

I was woken up every hour or so by Corbin "checking on me" ... he would come in, get really close to my face, and say, "Hi, Mommy!! Hi, Mommy!! Hi, Mommy!!" until I responded, then ask if I was sick, and then leave. 

Twice, Corbin came in to ask me to take him potty, even though Steven was completely capable (and already in the room with Corbin before he sought me out).

Olivia came in twice to ask for a drink of my water or to tell me she was hungry. 

Steven woke me up once to tell me he made me banana muffins (which were delicious). I got up long enough to eat one before I collapsed again. 

Our dinner was pizza. Lunch was mac & cheese. He took the kids to ice cream for a snack.

And I got up this morning, still feeling icky but at least functioning, (Steven went back to work) to the kitchen looking like a tornado hit it ... the pizza box still out, the empty milk carton in the sink, and dirty dishes everywhere. 

To Steven's credit, he was feeling icky still himself. 

I hope I never get sick again.