Today's big stressors

It's been a while since my last post so I'll skim over the reasons and offer the standard holiday excuses. First I fell victim to ITIS: bronchitis, sinusitis, laryngitis and conjunctivitis. I was a sight. The holidays kept me busy. Then there was torticollis, which sounds like a lovely Greek family but is really a nasty stiff neck. I was unable to move my head beyond about 10 degrees without my eyes watering from the pain. This lasted for 2 weeks and the effects are still lingering. My chiropractor advised against too much computer use, especially at home were the desk and chair are not adjusted properly. Then there was the upper respiratory infection.

NOW ON WITH OUR SHOW: Today's big stressors

Blood as a general rule is supposed to stay within the body of a small boy. So when E bumped his chin on the stairs today I was very concerned when I got him into the bathroom and there was blood in his mouth. He refused to drink any water to clean out his mouth and so I could do nothing to see how serious the injury was. Thankfully he started sucking his thumb which calmed him and cleared the blood from his tongue. There is a small cut on the left side of his tongue. It's all better now, the tongue heals so quickly, but I felt terrible this morning when it happened. I was helpless. What could I do? I gave him some ice to suck on but he was more interested in crunching it.

Today reaffirmed the fact that my To Do list is mere suggestion and that I am easily distracted my fun, emergencies and more interesting tasks. Instead of washing dishes I took apart the ductwork from the dryer to the outside world and cleaned it out. There was enough lint in there to make E a sweater/scarf set (which we will not be doing). This interesting task should make the dryer work better and will decrease the chances of a fire starting in the ductwork. I used the vacuum to get at the areas I couldn't reach by hand and E found the sound annoying so he shut the door to the utility room on me. It was kind of cute, but I worried that he was going to pinch his fingers in the bi-fold door.

A Thoughtful Thief stole our shovel and left us with a crappy one, which is better than leaving us with nothing. The crappy shovel was placed in the same spot our good shovel was in. I thought this was a good neighborhood but now I'm beginning to wonder. I guess when you are faced with a foot of snow you do desperate things. I appreciate that I had a shovel to dig my car out with, I just wish I had mine back. The crappy one is metal, the top is bent to hell and the handle is wiggly. I hate it.

E got to play in the snow today while I shoveled us out of our parking spot. It's nice that they plow the street but because of the way we park here everyone is plowed in. It took me nearly an hour to clean off the car, and dig out. Of course some of that time was taken up with running E back into the house to change his pants and put on snow pants. I didn't expect the foot of snow on the car. A media-free lifestyle has its disadvantages.

After digging out we went to the grocery story to grocery store to get milk and a few other things, then on to the library. The library is one of E's favorite places and he wanted to play with the choo-choo train. I told him the train set was only at the little library (the branch near our house that is closed on Sundays). I learned today that the main library in Spamburg or do prefer Schamvegas has a train set. I didn't let E know this. I didn't want to take too long in the library because there were oranges in the trunk of the car threatening to freeze on me.

On the first floor of the Schaumburg main library there is a youth area with books and videos and the regular AV room. We always head for the youth section first. E has been talking about watching Kermada Frog for days so I knew we would be leaving with a Muppet movie or a Sesame Street video. He selected Muppets from Space as his Sunday movie and shorter TV shows (Sesame Street: Let's make music and Barney's imagination island) for later in the week. Mom selected Rudyard Kipling's classic stories because I want him to see the story of how the elephant got his trunk. I also checked out Just So Stories for bedtime reading but because there are more words than pictures he may not be interested in it.

After we got our videos for the week we headed to the checkout. He wanted to wander and I said no because we were next in line. He started to take off and I grabbed his coat. He was going too fast for me to keep a firm grip on him but I had enough of a hold on him that his feet came out from under him. He ended up on his back with his head knocked on the floor. Again I was helpless, this time in public. He cried and I picked him up to a standing position and hugged him while rubbing the back of his head checking for a bump, a lump, a crack, anything. He cried that cry where no sound comes out for a long time and I worried that he wasn't breathing. I worried that people would think I knocked him down. I worried that there may be and internal injury that I wouldn't be able to see but would discover when he was taken to the hospital because he's vomiting and hallucinating or has some other weird symptom. (I'll grant you that is a bit of a stretch but the thought briefly crossed my mind.) As I comforted him the woman who was behind us bent down and began picking up our videos and books.
"You take care of him and I'll get your things for you," she said. She and her teenage daughter scooped up our selections, placed them on the counter and asked the librarian for a bag for the items. He looked dumbfounded.
I stood up, still holding my crying child and informed them all that I hadn't yet check anything out. I set E on the edge of the counter, cradling him as best I could while I rummaged around in my backpack to find my library card. The checkout process began and I instructed the librarian to fill the backpack instead of the shopping bag the library provided. E calmed down and I was able to set him down by the time our backpack was full.
While we were walking out the man was in front of us in line was helping his daughter zip up her coat. I commented on her cute strawberry shaped hat (yes folks Strawberry Shortcake is back) and he asked if E was ok. I chalked it up to a hard head but I was still worried about what might happen.

We went home and put "Muppets from Space" in the VCR. We watched TV while the pot roast dinners I got at the store cooked. He was cautiously interested. He watched from the side of the couch or curled up on my lap, all the while sucking his thumb. It was only 6pm but he was already starting to stroke my throat, something he does when he is tired.
Dinner was ready and we sat in our usual spots at the dining room table. Tonight I didn't turn the TV off initially. He tried the pot roast but it was a bit too hot to handle for him. He sucked his thumb and watched TV. The meal cooled and I suggested he try it again. He didn't respond. I pushed the point again. Still nothing. I turned off the TV and he ate. (Mommy lesson learned.) He told me the movie was too scary so we agreed not to continue it after dinner. Two weeks ago he turned Shrek off when I went to make a second bag of microwave popcorn saying, "Too scary." I had forgotten about the whole fire-breathing dragon bit, it has been so many years since I'd seen the movie. By Wednesday he was asking, "I watch Ogre?" We finished the film last weekend, picking up where we left off -- no more scary dragons.

He ate some of the pot roast but avoided the mashed potatoes and peas as if they were poisonous. He stopped eating and began to whine at me "A mommy." It was only 7 pm but tonight it was already bedtime. His regular bedtime is 8:30-9pm but if you are too tired to eat you are too tired to do anything else. He dragged through the tooth brushing and the clothes changing and seemed very tired during the story reading. The minute the lights went out though he perked up, kicking the bed and using my arm as a bat. When he began pulling at his diaper I asked if he needed to use the bathroom. He was up and at his potty-chair in a flash. He sat there for a long time doing nothing but touch himself and make the pee pee sound (pssss pssss). He went to bed early tonight but just barely.

I fell asleep during cuddle time and woke up about 11pm. Monday morning is garbage day so I emptied all the trash cans, cleaned up after dinner and then dragged the bag to the street. I've folded a load of laundry and started another load to wash. Plus I've typed this treasure and still I'm not sleepy. Amazing what a nap will do for you. It's 2 am and I'm not sleepy. I'm tired but not sleepy. Think I'll give that sleep thing a try anyway.


Good night