General Update

First, a BIG thank you to Drew and Jess!  They sent me a box of chocolate covered strawberries to make me feel better.  And it totally did.  Everyone at work was totally jealous of my awesome family.  As they should be.  Not everyone has chocolate covered strawberry delivery family.  

Notice that some berries have already been consumed by...someone

I am feeling better today.  Though, the medication makes me feel sort of dizzy, loopy, and foggy.  It also doesn't stop some breakthrough pain.  I emailed my doctor about it today, but she was sort of dismissive and told me to just keep taking it.  So, I will give it another couple days!  But, I think I am going to ask for a referral to a neurologist.  In the meantime, I made an appointment to get acupuncture. I have high hopes for that instead of medicine!

Wm, too, is feeling better.  We took him to the doctor today and she gave him a clean bill of health.  And, it became apparent a couple hours later that he did, indeed, feel better.  He has been quiet and docile all week...no more.  He has been one evil little man this evening.  All the energy (and evilness) that he has been saving up all week has burst free.  I couldn't even get him to face right way up for a picture to show the improvement.

Crazy, healthy kid

Then, unrelated to anything, we were sitting and eating dinner.  Steve looked very cute, so I just looked and him and said, "you are so beautiful."  Steve smiled...and...had black gunk all in his teeth.  Talk about a moment killer.

Gross Husband.

I MAY have also promised not to put that picture on the web.  No one tell Steve, I don't think he reads this anyway.

Crumby Day Update

Well, today has been a really shitty day.  Wm isn't showing much improvement, but he's OK.  Steve had his CT scan (for more hernia fun).  He said it wasn't as bad as he feared, but was not a grand time.  Meanwhile, I started having pain that radiated from my jaw and around the left side of my face early in the morning. The pain kept increasing in intensity until it made delivering a baby seem like a piece of cake (I would have rather birthed 10 babies).  So, by the time Steve got home from his CT scan, I went immediately to the ER.  After a horrific and lengthy ER experience (that included the gentlemen next to me pooping his pants), I have been diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia.  It is, basically, that some nerve in my brain hates me. It is also called the "suicide disease" since people used to routinely kill themselves to escape the pain.  And, according to Wikipedia, is the most painful disorder known to mankind (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigeminal_neuralgia).  So what this means is that I am badass.  Take THAT mankind!

I am now on some anti-seizure medication that also (hopefully) deadens nerve pain - and I am here to tell you that taking 6 advil in 2 hours does nothing for nerve pain.  I am meeting with my family doctor to develop a "treatment plan" tomorrow.

Here's hoping tomorrow is better....

Fever

Wm's little cheeks are all flushed with fever. He is a pathetic little man today. Steve seemed fine this morning and went off to work (and to drink gallons of pink goo and have a CT scan this afternoon). Lucky for me, SpongeBob is entertaining Captain Sickly. I just gave him some Motrin, so he will hopefully be feeling better soon!

Sickly Willie

Wm has his first yucky ailment of the winter. He woke up this morning with a fever, chills, headache, upset tummy, stuffy nose, and TB cough. Steve stayed home with him today and I am on tap to stay home with him tomorrow. He is a sad sack. But when he said something about what he was going to do at school tomorrow and I go, "dude, you are not going to school tomorrow!" Wm says, "why not?" I said, "because you're sick as hell!!" And he goes, "oh...yeah."

Steve now says his head hurts and he feels "weird." I am putting myself in quarantine!! That may he hard to do since I am in charge of Wm care and maintenance tomorrow. Wm is also currently "snuggling" with me - which involves draping himself across me, breathing/coughing/sneezing in my face, and watching cartoons. I am doomed.  Doooooomed!

Spanish

Steve has decided to learn Spanish.  He found an app for his phone from the Columbus Library that teaches you how to speak Spanish. I have been listening to him all night.  I could not resist sneaking a video...

Steve is unintentionally hilarious. Luckily, he laughed along with me and let me post the video when he realized I had taped him.

Gone Boy

I have to work today, so Steve and Wm went to visit NE Ohio.  I'm both lonely and excited to have a boy-free weekend!  

Wm had his first ever snow day yesterday, so that was fun!!  I actually had a bunch of administrative stuff to do at work, so I just stayed home with him and worked from home.  I can get a lot of stuff done if students leave me alone!  I also finally finished Wm off and became Monopoly Grand Champion.  Wm took it fairly well - since at least he beat Steve.

Wm came home from school Thursday and told me he has to do a report on Roberto Clemente.  I had no idea who that was, so Wm told me he was a very famous baseball player who can jump 6 feet in the air.  Then Wm says, "6 feet.  That's as tall as Daddy!  That just...not normal."  Haha!!!  Wm also said some kids at school tease him for being short.  So I thought of more reasons being short is awesome.  I'm not 100% sure I convinced him, but I think he's feeling better about it!  I don't want him to develop some weird Napoleon complex.  And, at this age, he doesn't really appreciate my argument that clothes that fit short people are always on sale and this is a huge bonus.  I was all, "if you can still fit into kid sized shoes as an adult, you will save so much money!  It's ridiculous!"  That got a blank stare.  But it's so true.  And since Wm is still in toddler sized shoes now, it's a distinct possibility.  I'm still a kid's size 4.5 (I wear the same size shoe as Wm's BFF). And, let me tell you, shoes are a scam.  I can get the EXACT same shoes in kid's and they are like half as much.  I told Wm one day we will be the same size and I will steal all his clothes and shoes.  He looked truly bewildered and said, "why would you do that?" 

Boardwalk

Wm developed an intense love of Monopoly at Mimi's and wants to play all the time.  As anyone who has played knows, each game takes HOURS.  So now we have a perma-game laid out that no one can touch.  And each night we continue to play where we left off.  Wm was having a GREAT time.  UNTIL I managed to buy both Boardwalk and Park Place...then proceeded to build them up with houses and hotels.  Wm landed on one and I cleaned him out.  He has $18 left and all his properties mortgaged.  Now he seems sort of crabby about it and is trying to broker an alliance with Steve.  I just need one more of them to land on my Boardwalk hotel and I WIN.  Donald Trump up in here.

Wm also made me laugh my butt off.  He ran to Steve the minute he came in from work and was all...

Wm: Mommy is being mean!

Steve: What did she do now?

Wm: I wrote up House Rules and Rule #1 was "don't be mean."  Then, Mommy said she wanted to make Mommy Rules.  And she INSTANTLY wrote "no kids or dads in the house!"

Steve: Mommy!

Mommy: In my defense, Rule #2 was "house must be filled with chocolate."

Wm: Well...that one was good. I left that one on there.

Birthday

I had a great birthday!  Dinner at Knead in the Short North, karaoke at Mickey's, brunch the next day - and Steve cooked me all sorts of goodies (city chicken, chocolate chip cookies).  I took today off work and hung out with Wm.  Steve left at lunch and we partied.  Mimi gave me a Barnes & Noble gift card for my birthday so we hit up the OSU bookstore and got some Ohio State gear (I am also looking forward to buying zillions of books for my Nook!) At the bookstore  I told Wm he could get one thing - and he weirdly picked out a pen.  Not even a fancy or exiting pen.  Just...a pen.  He came home and wrote a long story with it. He's an interesting one, that Wm.  Here he is with inflato-Brutus:

As usually happens after my birthday, I am heartily sick of winter.  It is around this time I start insisting to Steve that we are moving to Arizona.  Today was gorgeous and 50 degrees, so it was a nice break from the cold.  But we are all SO ready for spring!  

Egg

Wm likes eggs, so I hardboiled up a few to have on hand for snacks (unbeknownst to him).  Yesterday evening he asked for a snack and I reached in and grabbed an egg.  I waited until he looked over at me, held it up and asked, "how about an egg?" Wm nodded happily, so I yelled, "Good...CATCH IT!" and tossed it at him.  The look on his face was PRICELESS and he screamed, "I am going to miss it!!!!!!"  When the egg hit the ground behind him, the horror that spread across his face was awesome.  Then he looked back, saw an intact egg, and goes, "wait...what?"  It was pretty much the best thing ever.  

Wm heads over to Mimi and Guy's tomorrow for an overnight so Steve and I can go out and celebrate my birthday.  The Big 3-5.  Jesus.  How did that happen?  I am really looking forward to a night on the town, though!  I just hope my old bones can take it.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to the best husband ever!  

Steve also surprised me by having flowers and chocolates sent to my office!  My whole office smells like roses (and the chocolates are long gone).  Steve got some major points for awesomeness.

Love all the colors!!

Emoticons

Wm is very excited for Valentine's Day!  His classroom is having a party, so he has been making his little Valentine box and writing up Valentines for all his classmates.  I wanted to get him a box of chocolates, then I realized that that is a no-go due to dairy.  It would seem weird to be like, "here is a dark chocolate bar...happy Valentine's Day."  So he may be the happy recipient of a Valentine's Day Lego mini-figure.  Wm is looking forward to an awesome week - he has no school tomorrow for a teacher in-service day and then he goes back on Thursday for his party, next thing he knows it's Friday.  And he has a three day weekend because of President's Day.  Must be nice to be 6.

In funny Steve news, I was annoyed with his lack of emotion at something exciting I told him, so I sent him the texts in blue below.  Then, when he replied (in gray), I laughed my butt off.  Zing!

Lots of Kisses

We ran to the library to take back some books today and I also had a reserved book to pick up.  From there, we were heading out to Polaris.  I noticed Wm had been weirdly quiet for quite a while so I peeked into the backseat and saw him totally engrossed in the novel I had just gotten for myself from the library.  Only it was a  trashy romance novel, which I'm fairly sure, has some graphic "adult" scenes in there (as most good ones do).  So I go, "WM!  No!  That is a book for grown ups only!" He goes, "Why?" I just told him, "It's an R rated book - there's stuff in there only grown ups should read."  Wm puts it down, thinks for a minute, then says, "there WAS a lot of kissing."  Ha! (Pretty glad I caught him during the kissy parts before things...took a turn.)

Redeemed

Wm has already redeemed himself...

Me: Steve, this is your weird shirt, can you fold it?
Steve: No. It's your job.
Me: Do you see what I'm dealing with, Wm?
Wm: Yes, I do!
Steve: Do you see what I'm deal with, Wm?!?!
Wm: Yes, I do.  You have to deal with the best wife ever.
Me: HA!
Steve: Wow. Seriously?
Wm: You just can't handle Mommy's prettiness.
Me: YES.  I have long said that same thing, Wm.

(I don't know where Wm even gets half this stuff, but he is awesome. And I have decided to keep him.)
 

Evil Wm

Wm is an evil little sprite.  I think he's gets it from Steve.  Steve was talking about how he wants to see the movie Identity Thief.  So I go, "I think Melissa McCarthy is really pretty."  And Steve goes, "NO." I said, "Really?  Wait, let me show you a picture, she looks really bad in the movie, they did her up really funny."  So I pulled up a picture of her and showed it to Steve who said, "Hmmm...no."

Here is the picture of Melissa McCarthy I showed Steve for those of you who don't know who she is (totally beautiful, right?!?)

Wm comes over, looks at the picture and says real matter-of-fact, "yeah - she's fat."  Wm is now on notice.  Totally sad that a 6 year old boy has already gotten the message that fat isn't pretty.  I just gave him a big talk about how thin doesn't equal pretty and women of all shapes and sizes can be beautiful.  His response? "Mmm-hmm." Now he's on double notice.

Show

Me: What the heck are you watching?
Wm: It's called Pair of Kings.
Me: What's that?
Wm: It's one of those shows where they make jokes and then the audience laughs.  I like those once in a while.

Healthy!

Well, I did knock out the cold!  Cory's Plan of Health wins again!  Although, not before I gave it to Steve, so now he's all sick and pathetic.  He is not an adherent to Cory's Plan of Health, so he is all mopey.  There has been some interest in what, exactly, Cory's Plan of Health is, so here it is (easy peasy):
Every single day...
- take a multivitamin
- take calcium
- take a probiotic
- take vitamin D
- take astragalus
- take a 30 minute walk (recently, snow shoveling has been subbed for this)
- 15 minutes of weights/yoga
When I start to feel like I may be getting sick (throat tickle, stuffy nose), I add...
- a tablespoon of honey in the morning and at night
- an extra astragalus capsule
- use neti pot every day
- gargle with salt water morning/night
until I feel all better.  So now it's been over a year and I haven't gotten a cold that would impact my daily life.  I'm sure it's only a matter of time, but last year at this time, I'd had 4-5 yucky things.  So, going from 5 to 0 is a big improvement!

Wm said two HILARIOUS things last night, but Steve says I am not allowed to post them.  He's always ruining my fun.  I guess Wm may be embarrassed by the fact I posted them online when he's older.  Shame.  He is one funny dude.  He did do something funny that is web appropriate...

Yesterday I was out shoveling and Wm was playing in the snow in our backyard.  So I yell out, "Wm, I'm done!  I'm cold and wet, so I'm going inside now!" Then, I went inside.  About 10 minutes later, I hear from outside, "MOMMMMMMY!"  So I run out to find Wm in tears.  He was like, "you left and I couldn't find you!"  So apparently he didn't hear I said I was going in.  I was like, "Dude, what is your deal?  You were lost in your own front yard?  If you couldn't find me, just...WALK INTO YOUR OWN HOUSE."  He was like, "Hmph.  Don't leave me places."  I was like, "I LEFT YOU IN YOUR OWN YARD."  But Wm was mad at me and ignored me for at least a half hour before I was forgiven for abandoning him in his own yard.

Cutest.

We drove up to NE Ohio to celebrate Ya-Ya's 90th birthday this weekend.  Mimi got the cutest picture of Wm!  I couldn't resist sharing even though I am worn out and will probably be snoring by 9PM tonight.

Prepare for the The Cuteness.

PREPARE...

BOOOOOOM!

Conference & Cold

We had a great parent/teacher conference with Wm's teacher last night.  He is doing GREAT!  He had many more things in his "Commend your child on...." list rather than his "Encourage your child to..." list.  Really, the only things Wm needs to be "encouraged" to do are slow down in his work and stop talking so much.  Ha!  Sound familiar, Mimi?  I always got my worst marks in neatness and never shut up.  A chip off the 'ole block.  When we were walking home, I told Wm that I always needed to work on those same things and Steve said, "and I needed to work on the opposite."  Wm was like, "how is that possible?" and Steve goes, "well, I was always slow doing my work and never talked in class."  Wm was baffled that that could even be a thing.  So I reminded Wm that Daddy still got in trouble for not talking.  I am always nagging him to talk more.
**I don't know if you could call it "nagging" really since I am still working on just getting Steve to respond with a "yeah" if he hears that I have spoken. Such as...
Me: Don't forget to put out the trash tonight.
Steve: [silence]
Me: Don't forget to put out the trash tonight.
Steve: [silence]
Me: STEVE! DON'T FORGET TO PUT OUT THE TRASH TONIGHT!
Steve: I heard you both times!  Jeesh.
Me: Well, just NOD or something, man!  Throw me a frickin' bone!
Steve: [silence]
Me: You are on notice, sir.
Steve: [silence]

In other news, I am fighting off my first cold in a year.  Cory's Stay Healthy Plan has worked for a year, and I thought I had beaten the common cold...but it is clawing at the door.  I am re-doubling efforts and plan to fight the beast off!  I blame Wm, Germ Factory.