House of Germs

Saturday started out like most but I had a big day planned for myself and the boys. I was going to feed them, throw together a chicken marinade, make a new Pinterest dessert recipe that was supposed to taste like the Pay Day candy bar and then head to the gym. After working out we were going to meet up with my sister and my niece at a little craft fair of sorts called the Honeybee Festival in downtown Kernersville. Then grab lunch, play at the playground and head home for naps. That was when I was going to whip up a quinoa Mac and cheese with zucchini and a salad. My battle buddy and good friend Beth was going to come over for dinner and drinks or a “lady date” if you will. Those were the plans.

I was SO exhausted Friday night I knew something was up and when I got up in the middle of the night to feed the baby I could feel my throat scorching. I refilled my 28 ounce water glass for the third time at four AM and returned to bed. When I woke to the sounds of Grant “calling out” to me two hours later I struggled to get out of bed. Nonetheless there’s no lally gagging when you have children.

Ten minutes later Grant was with me in the kitchen watching me whirl around and prepare both his breakfast and Nolan’s. Then as planned I fed them and still with high hopes for some well needed adult time I marinated the chicken and made the dessert (yummy by the way).

At this point my throat was SO sore it felt like I had been singing at a concert the night before. My head was pounding and my nose was starting to not only to run but also create a disgusting drip into my already hurting throat. I was ready to crawl back to bed. If I didn’t have kids I would’ve instantly gotten on the phone and canceled all plans and then slept peacefully until I woke up on my own. Instead I made the decision to give Beth the heads up about my symptoms still planning to host our date. Being the good friend that she is, she gave me the a-okay to reschedule and I took her up on that a few hours later but I was not happy about it.

My sister also gave me the option to cancel our plans but I really wanted to take the boys to the playground and fresh air is always good medicine (minus the pollen). So after skipping the gym we met up with Anita and her daughter Natalie (Lala) and went to the honeybee festival. We walked around for just over an hour and headed to lunch. After letting the kids play we all headed home. The three of us napped. The more accurate description for what I did was passed out.

My friend Jen (the one I wrote the post about, An Angel Among Us) stopped by my house with some groceries she had picked up for me. This lady is 23 weeks pregnant had just worked 9 1/2 hours on her feet and offered to take grant for me while Nolan continued to sleep. Angel, yes!!! So she went home changed and returned to grab Grant and I quickly passed out again. About an hour and a half later she returned my baby and I counted down the hours until bed time.

The boys never give me too much trouble with bed time so I was relieved to make some Theraflu and hit the sack just a short time after they did. About 15 minutes into my deep drug induced sleep Grant woke up hysterically crying. He has been teething and I’m not talking about one tooth coming in here and there, he’s had four teeth come in the past two weeks. This poor baby has got to be in so much pain. I have him some Tylenol and rocked him while trying to keep my eyelids open. He finally fell back to sleep two hours later. I went back only to be woken up again two hours later and we stayed up for two more hours. Then asleep for one hour, back up for one hour. Back to sleep for one more pitiful hour. I did the math so you don’t have to but that is a grand total of four hours (and 15 minutes if that really counts) of well needed sleep. Great way to start sick day #2.

I’m not going to bore you to death with how many tissues I went through or how many cough drops I consumed. Day two I was super sick and Nolan was cranky but Grant slept well so I was able to take a nap. I also spent the day doing a lot of laundry, changing sheets, switching out Grant’s wardrobe. I found that every time I would sit down to rest I would realize just how crappy I felt. So, I stayed busy. Right after dinner Jen, her husband Justin, and their son James came over to watch the boys while I rested for a bit. Have i mentioned that I love them?! That night Grant decided that sleep wasn’t important either.

That brings us to today, woke up feeling horrible yet again and fed Grant while Nolan slept until seven AM. He woke up and was sick. Wonderful. Poor boy had a fever and simply refused to eat. When my toddler is sick, my philosophy is to let him do whatever he wants. Today he wanted to sit/lay on the couch and watch the movie Cars (big shocker) and take a bubble bath (fine by me). Instead of viewing today as a sick day I saw it as a chance to spend some extra one on one time with both boys. Grant did quite a bit of sitting, “crawling”, and a TON of eating. Nolan and I read books and played cars and because he has now viewed those movies 3,689 times he told me what was going to happen before it happened. Kind of cute in the obsessive sort of way.

I still feel craptastic but it’s just a cold and hopefully by the time my little alarm clocks ring in the morning we will all feel better and be able to spend tomorrow playing outside. For now, everyone should stay clear of our house of germs or you too will get sick!

Mama Race Car

There are two things in this world that our two year old loves, they are books and the movie Cars. Not just the movie, he loves everything about the movie especially the actual characters Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater. I am somewhat frugal and I understand how children go through phases of loving certain objects so when it came to purchasing these toys for him I opted to buy him the cars that hold bubble bath. Two for one?! Can’t go wrong with that!

This “phase” has lasted longer than expected and in hindsight I should’ve spent some extra money with the initial purchase. I say this because Nolan wakes up and runs to the “garage” where he had to put his cars to rest at bed time and he cries when it’s time to say goodnight to them at the end of the day. He spends the majority of his day with his hands attached to these vehicles. Nollie always gets to be Lightning who he fondly calls “ish car” and without fail I pretend to be Mater or otherwise known as “chi chi guck”. Don’t ask, I can barely understand the name myself. Well, his race car has been played with SO much that the wheels are literally falling off. When this dramatic event happens it goes to the “shop”, the shop would be me with a dwindling tube of Krazy Glue and the magic power of putting the wheel back on.

I bought him a new car this week since it was definitely time for one. He has since named his old race car with only one functioning wheel and peeling stickers “Mama Race Car“. His new car is “Daddy Race Car” and our friend Jen gave him a small lightning matchbox car which is now “Baby Race Car”.

This whole car naming situation had me laughing at first but then I started to think about the thought process behind it. I may be reading too far into this but after all, the race car that has my name is the one that could be thrown into the garbage tomorrow without a blink of an eye.

Does Nolan really see me as the one who is breaking down all the time, even if I don’t literally breakdown. He holds his daddy in such high regard it’s no wonder that he gets to be the shiny new functioning car that gets hugged non stop. Is he giving the old race car the name Mama because he isn’t getting enough of my attention?

Of course that would make sense. I am one person trying to give two children the attention they not only need but crave and desire. It is approximately one more month until the love of my life returns home to his family and I could not be happier! He will be able to spend time with both of the kids or just one at a time while I spend some quality one on one time with the other child. I won’t have to hear myself say “Sorry Nolan, I can’t play right now I am feeding your brother” or “not right now I have to clean up“. It is a feeling of frustration and guilt that I have to tell our two year old over and over again that I can’t read books or play cars with him because I have to also dedicate my time to Grant. I’m sure both of these boys will be fine in the long run and I know this because I DO play cars and read books. I do spend a good portion of my day pushing that tow truck around perfecting my best Larry the Cable Guy accent. My heart says that Nolan is just giving his cars names because now he has an official race car family. My mind thinks that I need to keep my wheels and stickers on for at least another month, then I can park in that garage for a decent rest. After all, it’s hard to be the apple of a child’s eye whether you are a race car, a tow truck, or some old broken down Mama. I think I’ll buy some more Krazy Glue just in case.