It's the little things in life

My daughter has a favorite stuffed animal which is a frog. When she says frog, the 'r' is silent, the 'o' sounds more like a 'u', and the 'g' is pronounced 'k". So, she's walking around this evening holding her favorite stuff frog saying 'f#ck mommy, f#ck' over and over again. Hubby and I just look at each other and start cracking up.

Don't even get me started on the silent 'r' in shirt.

My list

I'm sure everyone has a list of things they'd like to do sometime during their lifetime. Haven't had much time to think about mine lately, but I thought I'd revisit:

Completed Items (in no particular order):
- graduate high school in 3 years
- become a lead on a project
- run a marathon
- natural child birth
- jump out of a perfectly good airplane
- marry my soul mate
- produce adorable offspring
- get my ears double pierced
- start my own business
- take my kids to Disney World

Items Yet to be Completed:
- complete an ironman event
- create a successful business
- raise well adjusted, self sufficient, empathetic young adults
- quit my day job
- become 'rich' - i.e. passive income exceeds monthly expenses
- buy a hot car that's totally impractical
- scuba dive
- open a bed and breakfast
- write better
- play the drums
- sing in a band
- become a better person
- travel the world
- live overseas
- visit every state in the U.S.

The logic of a child

The boy tells us that his sister's nose is running. Daddy asks where is it running to? The boy answers her mouth. I start laughing and the boy is now confused and asks if Daddy said something funny.

The boy

The boy has been taking things out of his classmates bags at school which then end up in his bag. His teachers and ourselves are taking these acts of stealing very seriously. Trying to come up with appropriate discipline measures, the husband acts, where can we get a paddle? I answer cpscomeandtakemykids.com has a good selection.

I stopped at Sam's Club on the way home yesterday and the boy checks out each sample station to give his cute face for preferential treatment. He is disappointed at the toothpaste station until the lady gives him a little tube of toothpaste. He has to show it off to the cashier and she asks him, do you brush your teeth in the morning and at night? He says, I do at night, but sometimes my mommy forgets in the morning. Thanks, kid.

Political labels are not encompassing

I have been unable to fit myself into the label republican or democrat, liberal or conservative. I see strengths and weaknesses on both sides. I also see the hypocrisy. The right tends to believe that people can be trusted to make economic choices for themselves, but their personal lives are corrupt and must be regulated. The left holds the opposite view. I happen to agree with neither. The smaller our government, the better.

Eric at Eric's Grumbles Before The Grave explains political beliefs as a grid, versus a 2-dimensional scale. I like this model much better. Looking at the two spectrums, totalitarianism versus individualism, I definitely fall closer to individualism and between socialism versus capitalism, closer to capitalism. Knowing this, it still does not help me find mainstream politicians who support my views.

Be prepared

Getting farther away from the trauma of the weekend, I can begin to see the humor in certain situations. First, I didn't pack any bags to go to the ER. Figured we'd be there a couple of hours and back home in time to catch the news at 10. The girl threw up once in the middle of her breathing treatments and I happened to have her sitting in my lap at the time. I was soaked and the nurse brought me some scrubs to put on. After the morning shift change, the new nurse came in to check on her new charge and looked at me funny and asked- do you work here?

My mother became quite jumpy sometime in the middle of the night at the ER. They were pushing new meds on the girl to get her lungs to open back up and every time they suggested something else, my mom would pounce. What is that? Why are you doing that? Her reputation got around because when the fellow came in to talk to us, he was shaking a bit and stumbling over his words.

When I got back home Saturday morning after being awake for 30 hours straight, I wanted nothing more than to get clean and go to sleep. I found out that yes, you can fall asleep in a bath tub.

Before my daughter was discharged, the hospital provided asthma education. Just to make sure I was paying attention, there was a pop quiz at the end. I can only presume I passed as they let us take her home.

My poor, sweet baby

This weekend was close to my worst nightmare. Picked kids up from school on Friday afternoon and the school tells me the girl has been crying all afternoon. Still not sure why they didn't call me, but when I got to her, I realized she was having difficulty breathing. I rush home to give her benadryl, which has helped before. Waited an hour and she wasn't any better, so I called the pediatrician. He hears her in the background and tells me to take her to Texas Children's Hospital. Hubby is not home from work yet, so I call my parents. My dad stays with the boy and my mom rides with me. Hubby meets us at the ER. Several hours later, we finally get a room in the ER. They give her breathing treatments of albuterol which she fights terribly.

Several hours later, around midnight, we think we are leaving soon as she is breathing fine. They send us to x-ray for a chest x-ray, just to be sure it's not pneumonia. We get back to the ER and wait for the results. Doc comes and checks again and this time she's wheezing really hard. They start her on continuous wet breathing treatments and start pushing steroids and eventually trying several different meds to get her lungs to open up. She slowly starts improving and my husband comes back to relieve myself and my mother Saturday morning as we had 15 minutes of sleep in the night.

She moves to the progressive care unit, which is one step below intensive care Saturday morning. By the time my mom and I get back that evening, she is off the continuous treatment and doing much better. She continually improves through the night and we are discharged Sunday around 11. This morning she's not sounding as good and we are going to the pediatrician's office this afternoon. We also have a follow up with an ultrasound on Friday as they found a calcification on the x-ray. The doctor is sure it is nothing, but needs to follow up on it.

Needless to say, we are all exhausted physically and emotionally and seeing my baby girl hooked up the all kinds of monitors and an IV was almost more than I could bear. She was such a trooper. She fought the first treatment, but after that, she took every poke and prod so well. She was so brave.

Day 2

It's day 2 of hell week. I didn't think it was possible to cram so many meetings into 1 week. 7, in case you're curious.

Great birthday weekend

Well, it all ended Sunday morning at 12:01 am. My twenties, that is. Overall, it was a very nice weekend. My mother cooked my requested meal Friday night - artichokes, crab cakes, cold boiled shrimp, asparagus, and salad with strawberries and walnuts and my brother and his wife joined us. They gave me a cute outfit which I wore Saturday night when hubby and I met some friends at Japaneros. Had sushi and then we headed to my favorite hangout where I haven't been in years, Gingerman in the Village. Then my folks took just hubby and I (sans kids!!!) to brunch at C&H Steak house and then my in-laws took us out for dinner Sunday night. My parents gave me a custom headboard and hubby got the yard landscaped for my present. In-laws gave me a Lenny Kravitc CD and my son bought me flowers. Couldn't have asked for a nicer birthday. And my 30's look to be even better than my 20's.