Thank God

I’m thanking God for two things especially:

1. For Caffeine
2. For not being Mormon (most the Mormons I know abstain for caffeine—oh well, more for me!)

Duc was kicked out of daycare for two days this week because he had a fever.  I suspect it was related to teething because it only lasted a few hours and I never medicated him.  Poor baby has been sick though, but the MD says it is viral (I’m not sure I agree since we are going on 3 weeks of ick).  He was tested for RSV (negative) and had to go to the hospital for a chest x-ray (also negative).  I think he has bronchitis. 

I have been so productive the last two days I am amazed at myself!  Seriously, I woke up Saturday morning exhausted.  I woke up after 8 hours of sleep and was still tired.  When Duc went down for a morning nap, I went down too.  When he got up he was still in a mood so I decided to seek greener pastures—Oma & Opa’s house!  Have you noticed your kids turn into angels when they visit their grandparents?  Yeah, it was night and day.

I hate to say that Duc is starting his terrible twos because I don’t like the label.  He’s going through a stage in his life that is causing us both to have some growing pains, just as I continue to go through stages within my own life.  It is complicated by the fact that he is developmentally ahead of where he is physically and emotionally.  He can do things that many children his age won’t be doing for another year or two, but emotionally he is still age appropriate.  He gets frustrated so easily and so frequently these days and I know his inability to communicate certain things is a big factor.  He is able to speak 3-4 word sentences and he can say some pretty complex words, but it will take some time until he is able to communicate more clearly.  The family joke is that he is more understandable than my 4 1/2 year-old niece. 

Anyway, back to what I was saying.  Last night I came home from my parents’ to find that my ice maker went nuts while we were gone.  It had poured water for hours and I had puddles all over my kitchen.  My freezer was a mess.  I had to throw out 90% of the food that was in there.  All the drawers were filled completely with water in various stages of freezing.  All the sides of the freezer with slicked with ice.  I had been meaning to defrost and clean it out since some of that food had been in there for quite a while, but never got around to it.  Well, I got it done last night.  I also got every single stitch of our clothing washed, dried and hung up (for those that don’t know me, this NEVER happens).  Today I also washed all the sheets and blankets and all my dishes are washed and put away. I went grocery shopping for the first time in 2 weeks (and saved $30!), made apple sauce and apple butter (I collect apples like they are shoes, don’t ask why), made BBQ chicken in the slow cooker, meatloaf.  Took the babe for a haircut (totally hate it—I told her I wanted to keep the Beetle-esque essence to his ‘do because he actually looks better with longer hair on top and with sideburns.  Yeah, she whacked it all off).  Oh, and she cut him with shears.  Yep, he had blood around his ear where she grazed him.  Mama was not happy when she found this later.  Getting his hair cut is very traumatic.  He clings to me, screaming and crying, red-faced with snot flying.  It is awful.  I have no idea what to do so that he doesn’t get so upset.  At this rate he will probably only get a haircut several times a year.

I was getting frustrated with my photography this week.  All the pictures looked like crap!  The red tones are too red, the whites blown out even when taken in low light.  I couldn’t figure it out and I was wondering if something was wrong with the camera or with me.  I kept looking over my settings and I couldn’t figure it out.  Until I came around the couch one evening to find that Duc had figured out how to get the camera out of the bag, figured out how to turn it on, chose the menu button and began adjusting the settings.  I had NO idea he knew how to do that, but he obviously pays more attention to me than I realize.

Duc sits like this a lot and despite what EVERY single person who sees him doing this thinks, he is NOT POOPING.  He actually sits like this.  And now I have figured out how to do it too and I use it alot.  It’s actually pretty comfortable!