Friday, November 28, 2008

Stuck, Stuck, Stuck

That title makes me want to scream, "Don't leave me guys, Don't leave me!" Bonus points to anyone who gets that reference.

It's the day after Thanksgiving. Quincy's constant running to the bathroom to poop has stopped, but this morning I realized that he had not peed in a long time. I had to threaten IV, then explain what an IV is, to get him to go pee. Now, I am like a drill sergeant. Every few minutes, I say, "Drink, Quincy, drink." I wonder how long until he starts pooping again?

Under dubious accomplishments for today, I did manage to make a Christmas list for my husband, Quincy, and myself. At least people will know what we want now!

In reference to the title, I am stuck here at the house when I have several things to do outisde the house because Quincy was so sick yesterday. I had planned on taking him with me, but my mom thinks he doesn't need to be out. My husband went to do his stuff, then I get to go do mine. By the time he gets back, it will be time for me to go to work. *sigh*

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Free Time on the Long Weekend!

Well, my interim position has ended. I am somewhat relieved as progress reports were coming up and now I don't have to chase anyone down for missing work, but I will miss those kids. I will also miss having a regular place to go every day. With subbing, I never know where I'll end up each day or what age group I'll have or how they'll behave.

The day before my position ended, the washer broke. It is the motor, which can be replaced. It's a 12 year old washing machine and I don't honestly know whether we should replace the motor or just buy a new one. It will be about a hundred dollars more to buy a new one though.

I am currently sitting around the house with a flatulent toddler who sometimes has diarrhea. It's awesome! We went to the pediatrician today and she said he was perfect. Of course, at that point in the day, he had not yet pooped. I thought the stomach thing was all fixed. Boy, was I wrong! Still, he isn't as bad as when he first came down with it. So there's that.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

My baby is 4!!!

4 years ago at 10:53 a.m., roughly 5 hours after arriving at the hospital, my son was born. My sister Sarah was there. She gave him his first bath, which he hated. He screamed and cried. He was tongue-tied and jaundiced. Somehow, we made it through that first year. It's amazing really, because he fell off the bed once. He also tried to climb the high chair and failed. That little fall resulted in a bitten tongue and a freaked out Mommy.

2nd year, I went back to work full-time and Daddy took over child care some days. My sister Sarah was Aunt Rara by this time. There was also "Granmudder." This was the year he spent a lot of time at the doctor's. Quincy had an x-ray around 16 months. Baby's first x-ray. It's not the milestone you'd think. I came home from work and Quincy was napping. My husband casually mentioned that he had cried earlier and then hadn't walked all afternoon and had, instead, opted to take a nap. I woke him up and discovered that he couldn't walk. He just cried. He had a small bruise on the top of his foot where he had attempted to climb the baby gate. The x-ray revealed no fractures. he was walking again in a few days. Around 18 months, he had coxsackie virus. I gave it to him and had no fever. He developed sores all in his mouth and ran 104 degree temperature and above. He pretty much cried for four days. It was horrible. He also went to preschool for the first time two days a week when he was two. It was a good place for him to spread his germs! We still lived in the little house with the yellow bedroom that we brought him home to. That summer, we moved from the little house to the larger house in the country. Quincy gained more room, but he lost his paved driveway. At first, all he talked about was his old house and going back there.


His 3rd year was when I started teaching full-time and was gone a lot and then busy when I was home. He managed to not get sick too much during the last year, which made it easier for me. I hate leaving him when he's sick and he needs his mommy. He did have a nasty cough last winter where he gagged and threw-up at least once a day. That was the worst. This last year saw him getting much more independent. Still, he cries when my husband leaves him at preschool because he "wants Daddy to stay all day too!" That just started recently. Also, this year he became potty-trained. We thought it would never happen, but it did. He stays dry all day, but still sleeps in a pull-up. Sometimes he slips up, but that has gotten more and more rare.

My baby is a big boy today. He tells me that every time I call him a baby. Still, sometimes he wants me to hold him just like I did that first day.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

I need sleep...and other stories

This week was the most tiring one of this Interim position. It was report card week. I hate report card week because, inevitably, there will be a few children who have slacked off since progress report time and then end up with a D or an F. They think that the A they had at the middle of the six weeks will just be there at the end and then their parents call or email and dealing with both whining kids and complaining parents is exhausting. Plus all the kids were crazy this week. I hope they are more settled next week, but they know that Thanksgiving break is coming up so most likely they won't be. I had to deal with assistant principals over something a kid had done about 5 times this week and that was 5 times too many. Also, on Friday, one boy got suspended. So, for this coming week, I'm really hoping for snow one day!

Let's see. The beginning of last week was the time right after my sister's wedding, which I need some good pictures of to post. I have a few, but I need more. Last Saturday, which was the day of the wedding, was very tiring. It went well. Everyone looked nice. Quincy even put on his tux with no fuss. He went potty before the ceremony and had no accidents. He walked up the aisle like he was supposed to, but refused to carry his ringbearer pillow. He only stayed onstage for about 5 minutes, before loudly exclaiming, "I want some fruit snacks." That part is on video. He went to the back of the church to see his Daddy mid-ceremony. My husband filmed the whole thing so he was where the best view was. Quincy stayed back there a while, but then decided to come back up front. At that point, he came down the aisle walking on his knees. He was still wearing his tux and he stopped every few pews to grin at the person on the end. I watched it all from the stage, helpless. All in all, it went pretty well.

Oh, Quincy was also pinkeye-free for the ceremony. It finally went away. Now, he has a cough or maybe a cold. He picked this one up at preschool last week. He says that he got it from holding hands with a girl there! He could be lying. He has no fever or anything, just a cough. I think it could be just the heat drying him out and the fact that the high for the last few days has been in the 40's. It may be time to break out the humidifier!

Quincy's 4th birthday is Tuesday. I will be trying to get birthday stuff done tomorrow night before the big day since I'll be at school all day on Tuesday. I can't believe he's going to be 4.:)

Friday, November 07, 2008

Not as cute as Mickey Mouse

This week was pretty uneventful on the school front. Lots of grading, but that was about it. I am almost done with grades for this six weeks. Yay!

The most exciting event of my week happened Wednesday morning and it was not really exciting so much as it scared the crap out of me. I walked in the kitchen around 6:30 a.m.. I had planned on going out the back door and turning on the car to warm up. It has been kind of cold here lately and I hate driving to school cold. As I rounded the corner of the living room and headed into the kitchen, I caught a glimpse of the dog's water water bowl. It looked like there was something in it. I was about 6 or so feet away so I could not be sure what it was. I walked closer, got about 4 feet away from it, and realized that it was a mouse treading water and swimming in circles. I quickly ran back to the bedroom and woke up my husband and shrieked something about a mouse in a decibel I do not normally speak in. Once he understood, he walked in, picked up the water bowl, opened the back door, and slung the contents to the left of the door. I waited about five minutes to be sure that our visitor has run away and out I went. There was no mouse outside. It really did run away!

Fast forward to this morning, when I still naively believe that this was one isolated mouse who maybe came in the back door to get out of the cold. I heard a scuffling in the laundry room while making my lunch this morning. I woke up my husband (second time before 7 a.m. this week--he was not happy) and mentioned the noise. He told me that he had heard it and was convinced that we have mice (not one mouse---mice, plural) in the walls. Yeah, still, I thought maybe they (!) were in the garage.

Tonight, my sweet little son informed me that he had seen a mouse run across the kitchen floor. Since this was the first I had heard of it, and he is known to make things up, I called the hubby. He confirmed the story, although he did not witness this mouse first hand. I am now afraid to walk in my kitchen and I think every noise that I hear must be a mouse. I will be on the couch all night with my feet up. I am not going in the kitchen for anything. Oh, and maybe we should get a cat.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Stuck in grading hell...and Quincy

The end of the grading period is Friday. I have projects that were due yesterday to finish grading and, on top of that, I took it upon myself to give out a second progress report so students would know what their grade will be when reports cards go out (ie. "you are missing all this work--turn it in!") At the beginning of yesterday, I was all caught up on grading. At the end of the day, however, I had a stack of makeup work on my desk that was pretty large. I got that all done and brought home yesterday's classwork to grade and fell asleep. So it's 6:20 a.m. and I am heading to school to grade.:)

Quincy's pinkeye seemed to have cleared up by Monday and then got worse on Tuesday. He has a lot of itching now that he didn't have before and the itching irritates his eyes and then they get goopy from the irritation. His pediatrician thinks he might have gotten sensitive to the Polymyxin drops so we have to back off on those and use artificial tears some in the hopes that it will just wash on out. He has preschool color pictures today and I just looked at his eyes. They are glued together in the inner corners, but not all over. That's an improvement from yesterday!

Well, time to go to sneak out before Quincy wakes up (shhhhhh!!!) :)