Poo and vomit warning

12-14-09

Happy Birthday, Scott, and to his little girl Madelyn who turns one today!

It was a crazy weekend.

Friday evening, Dax and I went to the grocery store while Ken and Bobby flipped his bed. I don’t know how it came up, but it was pointed out to Bobby that his bed also is a bunk bed. So they turned it over and got it all set up. He was so excited. It was like Christmas came early!

Dax and I did quite a bit of grocery shopping. Luckily, we didn’t hit too many crowds. He was once again thrilled at being by himself since it meant that I would gladly use one of the car carts that he loves so much.

That night was a rough night. Sleep never really took place.

Saturday morning, I got up with the boys and let them watch Santa Buddies. We rented it because it is filled with 5 Luna puppies. It was less offensive than I had expected, and my girly tendencies got me all teary at all the right parts.

While the boys did this, and I got ready and did some light chores, Ken ran out to Toys R Us to pick up the bikes. Luckily, Facebook rules. There was a Facebook Fan Coupon up the night before in which all bikes on Saturday only were 30% off. Woo hoo! So Ken managed to get two of the Lightning McQueen bikes.

He got back and the 4 of us went over to my parents’ house. My mom had all the cookie stuff already out. She had trays of round cookies, little men, bears, trees, etc. The boys also had their set up which had the sprinkles of varying colors, marshmallows, frosting, etc. It was like we were in the Willy Wonka factory.

The boys actually decorated for much longer than last year. It was a lot of dumping and us prompting, but they had more patience than last year. I decorated quite a bit, but that is because I love this. It is one of the few things that I actually could do for a couple hours.

Then came then melt down. Bobby at one point took his knife to put some frosting on a cookie. Instead of adding it to the cookie, he shoved it in his mouth. I laughed, and pointed out that this was not where the frosting goes. The whole lot of us were laughing, but really, none of us thought twice about it. Until Bobby burst into tears. He was embarrassed that we laughed. He did the full melting, where he didn’t want to look at anyone, and when he held onto you, his deep sobs shook your soul. It was horrible. Ken took him into the other room to calm him down. I felt bad since I was the one who pointed it out. I also felt bad I wasn’t the one calming him down.

We continued to decorate. Bobby came back, but never decorated anything else. It was ok, since Dax lost his interest soon after. So my mom took them down and showed them some games she found on this web site.

After the cookies, and some game time, the boys were given the little trays they had with the cookie decorations. They proceeded to eat all of the stuff on the trays. I knew this would happen. I even made sure they ate a decent breakfast since I knew lunch would consist of processed sugar. They wolfed down gobs of marshmallows, to which I told my mother when she presented them with more that I would be sure to bring her the bag of vomit.

We headed home where the boys actually asked for a sandwich, which surprised me. They ate and headed for nap. The nap never happened. They just dinked around in their room.

While they were “napping”, I headed out to Target for Christmas shopping. I arrived and ended up being forced into the main lot due to the traffic. I didn’t expect to find anything, and even noticed a couple of spots in the far away lot, so I made my way towards that. However, on my way, a spot shockingly opened up right at the front. I had not cared where I parked, but when everything is parked up, you take what you can get, right? I parked and headed in.

It was a bit of a mad house. I went to get soccer balls. A week before, they had 6 or 7 varieties and colors, and really, I didn’t expect it to be a hot ticket item. They had maybe 2 balls left, and they were pink. I dug a little behind some things and found 2 more, good ones, but they were the more pricey of the ones I had seen. I was annoyed. I came across these fake soccer ball sets, where it is a squish type ball that also comes with a goal. They were $10 each, so we opted to pick up those for the boys. We will get real soccer balls another time.

I picked up Dax’s Thomas Lego set. Ken had some cool Bionicle sets for Bobby that he will love. I got them books, I got them some other little things like games. I even got Ken’s present. In all actuality, it was a pretty successful trip. Not bad lines, and it all was easy. This of course was until I got to my car.

It had started raining again. I tossed the stuff in the car quickly and jumped in. I then was stuck in my car in the spot for 15 minutes. No joke. I was in the main row where everyone decided to drive down to leave. So no one would let me out. I was stuck!! I was pissed! To make matters worse, it seems as though the entire store was leaving. It was all very strange. I finally had an opening and was able to escape.

We opted to take the boys to McDonald’s that night. They had gobs of energy that needed releasing. Since it was raining out, they couldn’t go out there. I didn’t need them sprinting through the house, either. We opted to go to a different McDonald’s. It was an adventure.

When we arrived, it was packed. It was filled with the guests from a birthday party. However, not long after we got there, they all left. We were left with a handful of kids. Most were fine except the two I had to yell at for throwing their hot wheels cars down the slide (one hit Dax). Once they left, the group was small, but it had the twins.

Sigh.

These two little boys, who were probably a year older than Bobby were out of control. It is one thing to have a kid who plays rough. It is another when there are two of them siblings and hell bent on being crazy. Oh, and for good measure, let’s add a dash of parents who don’t pay attention, and instead play cards while their sons steal toys, knock other kids down, and be a general nuisance. Of course, my kids decided to play with them.

For the most part, they held their own. But on a couple of occasions, their rough housing sent the boys back to us crying. On the plus side, the twins did seem to understand when the boys came to us. At one point, a twin and Dax were bumping bellies (yeah, I know, it makes no sense, but both were giggling like school girls), and the twin accidentally knocked Dax down. I was impressed with how quickly the twin apologized.

At one point, we heard crying. We determined it was not one of ours, but knew someone was crying in the structure. Of course, grownups can barely get up there, so if a kid is really stuck, it would take a lot to get up there. The crying child was identified, and we saw him in a tube. His parents saw him, and the mom told us it was his first time at one of these, and he was likely lost. So we asked Bobby and Dax to go find the little boy. Bobby didn’t bat an eye. He shot up the structure, looking for Shane. Dax tried, but was a little confused at his assignment. Bobby emerged a few minutes later, and Shane was close behind. He did it! Bobby did tell us after that he couldn’t find him, but I think what happened was Bobby didn’t realize this was the kid, and Shane saw that Bobby seemed to know his way around, and proceeded to follow him out. Shame seemed super shy, but in awe of Bobby the rest of the night. It was very cute. Turned out that Shane was only a couple weeks older than Dax. His parents were very sweet.

Actually, those parents, and another lady there with her friend’s kids were all nice. I never chit chat with other parents, but I liked these folks. It was nice to see people attentive, especially when the twins’ parents were still off in a corner, not watching their kids once again steal another toy from a kid.

We knew something was up with Dax early on. He kept telling us he was hungry. Yet he wouldn’t touch his food. He was thirsty, and drank lots of milk and water. He also looked sad and out of sorts. At one point, he got on the bench and laid his head on me.

It was a little after 6, so we decided to head out. As we drove into our neighborhood, it was dark. Clearly, power was out. Crap. It had been out for about 10 minutes, and ended up being out for at least another 40 minutes. Not fun.

Since there was no power, we told the boys that they could sleep in the bunk bed together. Bobby on top, Dax on the bottom. They liked this idea. We got them all set up, all cozy and lanterns on in their room (thank goodness we have those LED lanterns!). I was maybe 7 pages in on the Lorax when Dax started crying out of control. I had noted when I got him dressed at how bloated he seemed. I hoped that all he needed to do was poo or toot or something. I even told him that was probably the case. He and Bobby did have a glass of milk while I read to them. I think I am thankful for Dax’s sake that he had milk for what happened next.

I got down to him and next thing you know, vomit. I had already started to pull back the covers to see what was up. He seemed in pain (which clearly he was). It was quite a bit that came up. I got him up quickly, and Ken came running in with towels and a paper bag in case there was more. Note to other parents, one paper grocery bag will not hold vomit.

Ken and I switched duties on this round of sick kid. Normally, I am the one who puts them in the tub and gets them all cleaned up while Ken handles the cleanup of bedding. This is mostly because Ken has a weaker stomach for vomit than me. So if Dax were to throw up again, he would have to deal with that, which isn’t good. You might think that clean up of bedding is worse since there is already vomit, but you can walk away from that if need to. You can’t walk away from the spewing 3 year old.

We opted to put him in his own bed at this point. If he was truly sick, there was no point in keeping Bobby up all night. He was a little upset at this, but went to sleep pretty quickly after this. Thank goodness!! Of course, Bobby was a little off from this, but thankfully he was so tired he also passed out. Oh, and by the by, we did all this by the light of flashlights and lanterns. Good times.

Power came back up right after. Figures.

As if kid vomit wasn’t bad enough, earlier we also had puppy vomit. Turned out, Luna got out while we were making Christmas cookies. We had left her and Lycos in the house due to the rain. Our gate must not have been latched since Luna got out of the living room and proceeded to raid the dog food container. When we arrived home, we had a giant, round puppy. Crap!

At first we didn’t realize it was kibble she had eaten. We thought she had gotten into something worse based on how giant her abdomen was. I quickly googled it and yes, she had bloat. We found some vomit, which was essentially a giant pile of kibble. All of the symptoms and signs pointed to our puppy having over eaten. Not good. Especially since this could cause big problems in dogs. However, based on her super perky self (she may have been a giant pig of a dog, but she still was super active), we knew she wasn’t in trouble, at least medically speaking.

I spent from the afternoon till after bowling worried she would die. Over night, though, she did manage to get out a lot of the offending material in the form of a giant poo the size of IO. She also did slightly smaller versions of these all over the yard. She has shrunk in size and seems to be back to herself.

I couldn’t sleep. Once again, rough night. Had bad dreams and stress. I didn’t want to bowl, but the boys love to do it, so I got myself up.

When I went in to get Dax, I asked him how he felt and he sat up, all perky, and says, “I feel good, mom! And I didn’t throw up again!” Awesome!

Bowling was a little less chaotic yesterday. Bobby bowled about the same amount. Dax bowled less. I had only one yelling match with Matt. I am sure there were hostilities from the day before still there. He kept criticizing where Ken and I shop for groceries and what we pick up. It was out of control. I was able to mostly ignore it, though. On Sunday, though, he was making it very clear that he doesn’t respect my parenting.

The boys were putting away their little blue and red soldiers. Dax has little red guys, and Bobby has little blue ones. There is a container for each set. As they were putting them away, Matt kept telling them to just throw them in the buckets, it didn’t matter what color. I pointed out that I wanted them to put them away correctly, that it was a good exercise for them. Plus, the boys seemed to want to do it right. Yet Matt kept telling the boys to put them wherever. Finally, I told Matt to get away from us and that it was my call on how my children did things. Matt got all pissy, proceeded to walk away, not of course without a standard outburst, where he called me a whore at the top of his lungs. Lovely. My dad yelled at him. I didn’t bother with it, and continued helping the boys. I did apologize to my dad later, explaining to him that the outburst was from my yelling at him. My dad told me it didn’t matter what I had done, as Matt needed to not do what he did. So that was good.

We stopped by Target to pick up some things I had forgotten. I parked far away, even though the store was not that crowded.

Once again, the kids did not nap. I am so scared that naps are a fond memory of the past. I will still do quiet time, though. The problem is, they only get like an hour of that, and no longer do I get those occasional 2 and a half hours of quiet.

We told the boys to put on their boots and we sent them to the yard. It was about 1:30 at this point. They played out back, getting nice and muddy, for close to 3 hours. They didn’t fight too much, if at all. In fact, when Luna was being too rough with Bobby, Dax would run to help Bobby. It was gobs of teamwork and nice play. It was perfect, since we then were able to do a lot of housework, including laundry, and Ken set up the “fort” under Bobby’s bunk bed. He converted Bobby’s bottom bunk into a tented area. Very cute.

The boys got caked in mud and dirt. It was cool, actually, to see them that happy and filthy.

We stipped them down and got them nice showers. Afterwards, they ran around in the fort, bringing in every “friend” they could get their hands on. This worked out while I cooked dinner, my homemade chicken noodle soup.

The boys, who have eaten my soup before, we being picky at first. I didn’t want to force them to eat for fear of another reversal. But they did say they were hungry (I think Dax really meant it this time), and I knew they would ask for something else later. So I used bribery. Luckily, it worked, and they tried the soup. They then both seemed shocked that they liked it! YAY!

We got to bed kind of early, but it didn’t help much. I woke up all congested and sore. My back is killing me. I think that is from all the cleaning and moving stuff yesterday. I took some drugs this morning, and the pain has dulled, but my mind has also gone dim. I have to go to a meeting this morning, which is just them going over our new employee handbook. It is probably a good hour long, which will be tough to stay awake for. I am just hoping there is some comedy, which will keep me alert.

Ok, it was pretty painless. The new handbook was actually pretty well done. They have taken out a lot of the silly stuff like a real “dress code” and they have made a lot of it more open. I also was figuring it out that with my vacation days, holiday time off, and sick time, I get about 5 weeks off a year with pay. Not too bad.

Ken has a tournament on Saturday if I remember correctly. I am hoping to try and go see Christmas lights on Sunday evening. The weather report looks like it should be ok. I am sure it will be packed. But if we walk around, it should be good. I think my folks will be joining us. If anyone else would like to, awesome! I will know more details in the week.

Grammie is coming tomorrow and I guess we are doing dinner and their Christmas presents. CRAP! That means I forgot to get her anything. CRAP CRAP CRAP! Although, my mom will tell me not to worry about it. I may need to run out to the mall tonight. I will see how it goes. Maybe we can make her something. I have macaroni and glue, right?

I am hoping my out of sorts-ness this morning is due to the drug induced haze I put myself in with cold medicine.

I am trying to stay focused on work, but I just can’t seem to. I keep looking for distractions. Of course, I am in the midst of the really boring and monotonous part of my job, which is just faxing notices. Sure, I could call these people, but who wants to tell someone they owe money 2 weeks before Christmas?

Holy crap, I must be out of my mind. I just emailed a photo of me as a 3 year old to the holiday contest crap for Thursday.

Ken was watching the last half of War of the Worlds yesterday afternoon. I watched bits and pieces, and I can safely say I don’t need to see anymore. It was not good for me. It was a lot of suspense that made me uncomfortable. It was a lot of really gruesome death, which normally doesn’t bother me, but this seemed without purpose other than to say, these bad guys will f you up. Like, I enjoyed the hell out of Independence Day. I could still watch it today. You got to know the characters, and you felt for them. This? I just wanted them to die so the credits would finally roll. And to see of course the main folks not die? It seemed not right.

Ok, not to toot my own horn, but I have to say, my chicken noodle soup is awesome.

I am being grouchy for no good reason. Ok, there is good reason. I hate it when people come to my desk and without really asking just assume I will drop everything I am working on to do their stuff. It seems rude, really. So when MaryAnn came to my desk right now, and basically sets up shop with her stuff, she then asks me about my weekend and how the boys are. She wanted to know if I did anything exciting. Normally, I would tell her about something like Christmas cookies. But today, I just told her it was just a basic weekend. Is that wrong?

Well Merry Christmas to me! The boss just emailed and he is leaving here at 1:30 and not coming back until Wednesday! Woo hoo!