Hug Twice

CJ had a little cold. Well, it was a pretty bad cold, for a day. And then he got over it.

He’s a nice kid though, so he happily shared it with his sister. And Alexa is taking a lot longer to recover. She’s not terribly sick, just sick enough to be miserable about it.

I’ve been giving Alexa medicine to lessen the amount of snot she produces under the advisement of our pediatrician because it is interfering with her ability to eat. Well, Alexa hates medicine. I don’t know why, she doesn’t seem to mind the taste itself, but she hates being given medicine.

She has a whole arsenal of tricks up her little sleeves to avoid the syringe going into her mouth. There is the head shake, the tongue thrust, and the raspberries. Then if it gets into her mouth there is the gagging cough, the spitting, and today she added a new one, the blowing a fine mist over everything.

I am so sick of winter. CJ, I know I’ve told you time and time again to share with your sister… but this isn’t exactly what I meant.

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Matt’s work is sponsoring a 12 week lifestyle/health assessment, where he can go once a week and talk to a nutritionist and learn how to implement changes into his diet and habits to become a healthier person. It sounds like a good idea, and although his cholesterol is not technically high, it is higher than we’d like, so I subtly encouraged him to take advantage of it.

And he has. The first class was today, and he came home with a questionnaire he has to fill out before next week’s class so that the nutritionist can design a custom diet tailored to him. I’m excited about this because it will add to my arsenal of healthy things I can cook for Matt that he might actually like.

He showed me the questionnaire just now, and on it, there is a place to list foods you like and foods you dislike. I am copying his lists verbatim, no joke:

Foods Matt likes:

• Pizza
• Sugary cereals
• Hamburgers
• Chips (especially Doritoes)
• Pretzels
• French Fries
• Ice Cream
• Cold cuts (turkey, chicken, ham)
• Peanut butter and jelly
• General Tso’s chicken
• Beef tacos
• Beef or chicken casseroles

Foods Matt dislikes:

• Yogurt
• Spinach
• Non-muscle animal parts
• Lobster
• Beans
• Green vegetables except broccoli and lettuce
• Any fruit I can’t pronounce
• Fish
• Shrimp

And to that, I say… good luck, nutritionist.

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I don’t mean it to sound like I see Matt and I as “Us” and the kids as “Them”. But sometimes when it seems all we do is work and take care of kids and we never spend any time just he and I together, it starts to feel that way.

Alexa is working hard now on walking, and like her brother, this has translated into not wanting to sleep. Ever. Walking is really interesting, even if you’re only doing it a few steps at a time, and the idea of sleeping is so… not interesting.

CJ woke up in the middle of the night Saturday throwing up, poor pumpkin. He had a fever, and fevers sometimes trigger vomiting in him. He spent Sunday pretty under the weather and needing constant company from me or Matt, but now seems to be fine. No more throwing up, thankfully, and the fever was gone by Sunday afternoon.

It’s hard to believe that a little more than a week ago, Matt and I actually went out by ourselves and had an actual adult evening alone. That seems like about 2 years ago already. With my new tutoring from home job and Matt’s working and the kids (rightfully) claiming a lot of our available time right now, it seems the only time I ever see Matt without a kid in my ear is when he’s asleep.

Hi honey!

Tonight my goal is to get Alexa to sleep at some sort of reasonable hour. If that doesn’t work, my new goal is to keep her awake and excited in the morning instead of letting her doze off and on, and getting her to sleep tomorrow at some sort of reasonable hour. CJ’s well now and he does great with the sleeping so he shouldn’t be a problem. And then maybe Matt and I can have a conversation. Or even watch a movie. Or even just a half hour TV show? Who knows… the possibilities are endless.

I’m not holding my breath though. Walking is fun.

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Sunday, Alexa decided not to immediately drop to her hands and knees and crawl when she couldn’t reach anything to hold onto. I know I have recently started complaining about how I don’t think she’ll ever bother to walk, but I don’t think that had anything to do with it, promise. I haven’t been complaining directly to her.

She first took four or five steps right past me when I was only half paying attention, and it didn’t immediately register in my head. But then, all of a sudden, I thought to myself - she’s walking! At which point she started crawling.

I picked her up and carried her upstairs to where Matt was and said “Look!” like she was a trained circus animal. I put her down on her feet, and she immediately turned to jelly and sat down. As well she should. I did eventually convince her that she should stand though, and she happily demonstrated walking 6 or so steps at a time, stopping, grabbing onto things, and then doing it all over. She got bored in a few minutes of being exclaimed over and went back to crawling. She is a super-fast crawler.

But I think… I think… she might be a walker. We’ll see if she remembers tomorrow.

She doesn’t fall down. I hated the falling down with CJ. He fell all the time, for weeks and weeks. It made me a nervous wreck. I don’t think I’ll have the same problem with Alexa. This slow and steady attitude might be a very good thing for my sanity.

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CJ’s class is going on a trip to the circus.  At a big auditorium in town.  He’s only 3!  And he’s going on a huge field trip to a very crowded place…

So I made Matt take the day off from work to take care of Alexa so I could go with CJ on his field trip.  I think I might be a wee bit overprotective.  I can’t bear to make CJ miss going to the circus with his class.  I mean, the child idolizes elephants, and I assume there will be elephants.  And they have been talking about going to the circus at school, so every time I say the word circus, CJ puts something over his nose and pretends to be a clown.

It is adorable.  Trust me.

I can’t make him miss it but I can’t let him go and worry myself to tears over him getting lost in a crowded circus tent.  So I have to go too.

He’s still my baby after all.

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