From the Mouths of Babes in March

Eileen:  Some people are so 1980s.

Robin: Eileee-een! I have a surprise for you!
Eileen: What?
Robin: I'm going to time out.

Robin is playing in tub alone.

Eileen: Waaaa! Why can't I take a bath? Robin is so clean and I am so dirty!!!

cries in room

Eileen: Mama? Will you give up yelling at me for Lent and let me take a bath?

Eileen: We keep watching Martha Speaks to make you have a baby.

(When I was pregnant with Robin, the kids were into watching Martha Speaks.  Whenever I hear the theme song, I immediately feel that pregnant/slightly nauseated/no food sounds right feeling.  I told the kids this, and now they are plotting against me.)

Eileen went to the Everett Children's Museum today and had the best time.  Her teacher did a wonderful job capturing the essence of Eileen during a science exploration.

Go Team!

It's been a week.

Last week on Wednesday we took Eileen for a 6 month follow up on her food allergies.  She is doing so much better. The boys were perfectly behaved in the waiting room. Everything was going swell and the doctor starts to do general vitals.  Eileen has a low grade fever.  Huh.  Eileen has a giant swollen lymph node on the left side.  Double huh.  Doctor recommends that after we do a quick retest of blood for food sensitivities that we head on over to Children's for a more extensive blood draw.

Eileen was brave, but not strong enough to ward off a vasovagal reaction --almost vomiting twice, cold sweat, shaking.

Okay team.  Let's go.  Eileen-you get to cheat on your diet.  We're all going to Dicks for burgers and shakes! We get to Children's and wait forever to get into the lab.  Linus is being super big brother and giving Robin rides around the waiting room and playing with Eileen, even bouncing her on his lap.  When it came time for the blood draw, I watch awe and sympathy go across his face as Eileen bravely gave them her arm.  Another vasovagal reaction.  By the end we were ready to just all go home and go to bed.

The next day (Thursday) we leave school early to get downtown for an ENT appointment for Robin to address his snoring. This time Eileen and Linus got to be perfectly behaved.  As luck would have it, the doctor had an opening in her schedule the following week on a day I just happened to have the morning off for school.   Surgery?  Sure why not.

By Friday, I am a little emotionally spent.  We know that Eileen has some sort of infection and it's not mono or mumps. The doctor tells us to wait a week and then head back to Children's.

Yesterday (Tuesday)  I woke all the kids up at 5 am, got them all dressed in comfy clothes, fed Linus and Eileen, and headed downtown for a 6:45 am check-in for Robin.  I give props to the surgery center for having complimentary coffee.  After an hour, Robin is finally called back.  I leave Eileen and Linus (and the ipads) in the waiting room.  Robin and I spend another 45 minutes waiting in pre-op.  The big kids were perfectly behaved in my absence according to everyone around them.  Robin's surgery went quick (it was just adenoids).

As I predicted, Robin had a hard time coming out of anesthesia. It took longer then expected.  Once awake, he was so so incredibly sad and sounded terrible.  Robin proceeded to cover me in coughs, spit, boogers, and melted popsicle.  He started to do a little better once they put some pain meds in his IV.  Robin wouldn't respond to any questions until I finally asked if he wanted Linus and Eileen, to which he answered, "Yes."  About the time we were wheeled into recovery, Linus had apparently started getting worried and alerted the receptionist. The nurses went and got the kids so they could join us.  The staff told me how well behaved they were in the waiting room.

Linus and Eileen immediately climbed onto the bed with us.  It was one of those times when you can just feel the love between these kids.  The nurses came in and asked if they could take our picture because it was all just a little too sweet.

Eventually, we were finally released.  I drove home, mildly stressed and pretty exhausted.  I dropped the kids at home, changed my clothes (since Robin had done a number on them) and headed to parent teacher conferences.  Why? Because I am awesome.

After two days of parent teacher conferences, I'm a little fried.  I'll cap off tomorrow with a trip to the dentist for me with all three kids in tow as soon school gets out.  From the dentist we will head to Children's for another blood draw for Eileen.  Good times. Good times.

It's been a week.  Motherhood can be pretty crazy.  And sometimes your kids rise to the occasion, with zero complaint, and are all kinds of awesome.  I'm so proud of them.  Go Team!  We'll rally in the morning.

Rainy Day

It's been a dreary wet winter.  So much rain, and worse, no sun. Make all the jokes you want to make about the Seattle rainy festival, it's been a brutal one this year.  Linus of course loves particularly dreary days.

Notice the river of water running past my house and the high backsplash of rain droplets on puddles. The drains in our driveway were overwhelmed.

We started out our Saturday morning with swim lessons for Eileen and Robin.  Eileen wouldn't let me snap a pic of her. Robin was all smiles, even when he got water in his face.

Linus and Dave have started going on morning runs during swim lessons.  Sometimes it's nice to have a fireplace to dry things.

After a good run and a hot shower, Linus was in good spirits and decided that it was a good day to learn some cooking skills.  He made gluten free, dairy free pancakes from scratch.  He cracked the eggs himself.  Robin and I were both impressed by his griddle skills.

I spent the afternoon getting a pedicure and then heading over to work to scour the faculty room.  It was a serious job.  I even brought my own cleaning supplies.  In my absence, games were played, rooms were cleaned, work was done in the garage.  After dinner, Eileen and I went to the bookstore to buy birthday presents for a few people and accidentally came back with a bag full of books for the family and my classroom (plus birthday presents).  We finished the day with books.

By contrast, Sunday was a different beast.  I woke up to sun, birds chirping, and Robin's cold infecting my body with renewed vengeance (decreased lung capacity, hoarse voice, cough, lots of nastiness).  Robin was very sick all week (we even took him into Children's Thursday night).  That's 4 weekends in a row of sickness for anyone who is counting.

While I fought every urge to spring clean, I watched my kids play outside.  Who knew how invigorating fresh air and sunshine could be? I found myself singing, "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah."  You know that part, "Wait a minute.  It stopped raining.  Guys are swimming.  Guys are sailing."  Baths were definitely needed by the end of the day. I did manage to finish writing/planning a new unit for 6th grade science so that's fun too.

Dave went for a run today with Robin.  They went to a park Dave had not been to before.  Dave told me we should go there sometime again as a family when we are all finally healthy.  That sounds nice.  I'm looking forward to spring -- fun, fresh air, and the epitome of health.

Insta-Fail

I tried to hop on the Instant Pot bandwagon.  I kept hearing about this miraculous device, not just on Facebook, but from those around me.  Could it be true?  Could I have an awesome dinner in 20-30 minutes that used real ingredients?  I finally took the plunge and ordered one.

My instant pot arrived and promptly sat on my dining room table for a little over two weeks.  Sunday I unwrapped it, perused a few recipes online, and planned to finally give it a try this week.  I selected a honey sesame chicken recipe, served over a rice.

I am not mechanically inclined.  Directions and schematics frustrate me, mainly due to the required brain focus that I just don't always have the energy to give.  I battled through my work fatigue and set up the instant pot.  I decided to heed the manual's advice and do a test run.  What I thought was going to be a 2 minute test run ended up being more like a 20 minute test run.  The cushion I built into my meal planning time was gone.

While preparing the sauce, I discovered my honey supply was significantly lower than I thought.  I called my mom and using the promise of dinner, had her bring me some honey.  Another delay.  Get everything in the pot and it to go.  I'm thinking, "Sweet.  Here is the 20 minutes of magic."  Silly me. Try 20 minutes to warm up, and THEN 20 minutes of magic.  Dinner window smashed.

When the chicken was finally done, I followed the directions to use the quick-release valve.  Immediately, the sauce began spewing everywhere.  I couldn't stop the spewing because well, you know, threat of scalding burns.

Upside?  I paired it with steamed carrots and jasmine rice.  The rice was perfect.  Linus liked the rice. Eileen liked the chicken.  Robin ate nothing, but did so politely and without throwing anything.  The sticky mess all over everything motivated me to do the dishes and clean the kitchen, so that's done now.

In conclusion, I am not a convert to the Instant Pot craze.  I will try again.....eventually.   With the time it took me to do this, I could have cooked dinner on high in my crockpot with way less mess.  I think I need an Instant Pot tutorial.  In the meantime, I will just mess around on pinterest and see if something amazing pops out at me.  Winning recipe will not have the possibility of spewing sticky liquid.

Old Faithful

Behold Old Faithful

This trashcan from IKEA and I have been through a lot together.  It was purchased on a whim sometime in the early 2000s, unaware of its destiny.

Old Faithful's destiny was realized in 2008 when I became pregnant with Linus.  It was my near constant for companion for 9 months.  I suffered morning sickness 24 hours a day from 6 weeks pregnant to the last bitter push of labor.  It was with me when I scared Dave half to death, vomiting in bed at 2 am.  It came on car rides.  I came to know its inner rings quite intimately.

Old Faithful got a brief reprieve before the next pregnancy.  Despite morning sickness not quite as severe,  he rendered services frequently and without judgement.  Two years after that, Old Faithful answered the call once more.

Old Faithful's main service as a vomit receptacle came to an end with the birth of Robin.  Pulled out of retirement for occasionally sickness,  Old Faithful found a new home beside Linus' bed as a trashbasket.

Until this past weekend......

Saturday started out lovely.  I took Robin and Eileen to swim lessons.  Linus and Dave went to the Pinewood Derby.  As swim lessons ended, I began to feel less than awesome.  Over the course of the 5 minute drive home, things became touch and go.  And then just go.

I alerted Dave to the fact that my body had become a volcano.  He texted back he wasn't feeling so hot.  And then began many many hours of fevers and violent illness.  The kids have never enjoyed so much screen time in their lives.  I was reminded of the old Hallmark Hall of Fame version of The Secret Garden when everyone is dying of cholera.

Amazon Now saved the day.  With the touch of a few simple buttons on his phone, Amazon delivered Gatorade and Wheat Thins in less than an hour.  God bless technology.

Dave and I were still in illness moving towards recovery yesterday.  Today I think we are just plain tired.  I am happy to report that Old Faithful is now safely back next to Linus' bed.  The weekend was a less than pleasant reminder of how much I hate being pregnant.

Farewell old friend.  May the road rise up to meet you....instead of me.