Couch Mountain

On Tuesday night, Jeff got us some Chinese and Thai food. Henry seemed to enjoy the Tom Kah Jay soup (coconut base). He and Miss R ate chicken lo mein and rice. Miss R loves her starches. Henry ate a bite of broccoli. Toward the end of the meal, I tried him on a piece of tofu. He liked it and wanted more. After several bites of tofu, he started coughing. Spit up a bit (more mucous than food). I want him to get better soon. The kids were a struggle to get to bed. Jeff started out the endeavor. But he was coughing and miserable, so I took over. That made Henry upset b/c he wanted Daddy. Somehow, they eventually went to sleep with much protest.

On Wednesday morning, Jeff took Henry to school, hung out at my parents' house with Miss R for a little while (its close to the pediatrician's office), and then took Miss R to a doctor's appointment. She has an infection in her right ear (so that makes three family members with ear issues). She was also given steroids for her lungs b/c of her cough. My mom took care of Miss R for the rest of the day. That was a fairly easy task as Miss R slept 2 hours 45 minutes for her nap.

Jeff and I picked up Henry at day care. When he saw us through his classroom window, he blinked and then let a very loud, happy squeal. He ran to the door and gave Daddy a big hug. I got a quick hug too, but then it was back to Daddy. We met my mom in the parking lot with Miss R who was happy to see us. Apparently, she'd mentioned Henry a few times during the day.

I made pasta primavera in an alfredo sauce for dinner. Jeff thought it was delicious. Miss R wouldn't touch it. Henry wasn't interested in it either. I asked Henry, "Isn't the pasta yummy?" He gave me a very blunt, "no" and shook his head. Sigh. I thought that it was pretty good. I broiled the vegetables before sauteing them. The alfredo sauce was homemade. Not bad.

After dinner, Daddy looked exhausted, so he got a break from the kids by cleaning the kitchen. I took the kids to the living room. We did a quick couple rounds of ring-around-the-rosie and then made a mountain out of the couch cushions. Henry liked climbing "Couch Mountain." Miss R was testy. Henry barely grazed her arm, and she burst into tears. Basically, she was a complete pill unless I was holding her. Next to me wouldn't do. She had to be on me, which I found a bit cloying. Henry was very cute. When I started to put back the cushions, he wanted to climb more. He bounced up and down on the remaining pile and burst into a song singing "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on a Bed." His favorite line is "...fell off and bumped his head." He pretended to fall of the cushions and bump his head. I sang part of it, and he'd finish the lines, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed."

Miss R got super cranky. I asked her if she wanted to go to bed. She said, "Bed." So we went to bed at 8PM while Jeff played with Henry in the living room. I slept until 10:30PM and then got up. I didn't mean to sleep that long.

Around 6:20AM, Miss R woke me up. She wanted her morning bottle. I had scheduled a nurse's visit at my doctor's office for 8:15AM, so we needed to get up a little earlier than usual anyway. Jeff fed the kids while I got ready. I had a hard time undoing Miss R's braids (there were five small braids in her hair). It looks good when I make then small, but they are very challenging to undo. We were out the door by 7:40AM.

As we walked across the parking lot, I asked Henry to hold Miss R's hand, so that she was in the middle of us. Three different people smiled at us as we made our way to the door. Henry and Miss R holding hands was very cute. We dropped off Miss R first. Her class was on the playground. She walked through the gate, toddered over to Miss Josie and gave her a hug, and then waved goodbye. No tears. Then, Henry and I went to his classroom. A teacher named Abe was watching the class while Miss Lulu stepped out for a moment. Henry almost went into Abe's arms but then changed his mind. He then saw Miss Lulu and went to her a bit grudingly. He cried but it wasn't his most convincing guilty-inducing performance.

I went to the nurse visit at my doctor's office. Turns out that I may have pneumonia, so I had to drive to another office to get x-rayed. We'll know the results in 2-4 days. Sigh. I believe that this has been the sickest year ever. I'm just awaiting for the plague of locusts to descend upon the household.