Cooper’s ear infection from last month never truly cleared up…being in daycare meant that while his immune system was fighting the ear infection, it was also beating off the plethora of nasty germs coming from the other filthy toddlers in Coop’s class. So we’re on a different type of antibiotic…one that may only add to the diarrhea he is already experiencing. And in the few days between Cooper’s 1-yr check-up on Monday, and when I brought him in Saturday morning, his bottom gumline has started to whiten and we are now suspecting some teeth soon! Which probably accounts for the diarrhea (cuz really, it’s only loose stools at his normal pooping times…yes, my kid’s regular poop schedule still means he goes 2-3 times a day). And the runny nose he had when I picked him up Friday evening. But needless to say, this poor child is a bit uncomfortable.

Last night we had a slight lapse between pain killers…where one wore off a little sooner than planned and the dose given at bedtime hadn’t yet kicked in. I put Cooper to bed at 7:45pm and he cried and cried and cried. When I went in his room, he wasn’t sitting or standing up in his crib, wanting to be picked up like he is when he’s just mad about going to bed. Instead, he was laying there on his belly just crying piteously.

I gave him some homeopathic earache drops (go in the mouth under the tongue) and rocked him for over a half-hour…the first fifteen minutes of it he cried nonstop. I just kept rocking him and singing to him until he finally calmed down…then rocked a little longer just to make sure he wouldn’t get bent out of shape if I set him down right away.

Thankfully he slept well…not thrashing around restlessly like he had been for the past several nights. And this morning? He got up in a great mood and resumed surfing…this time with a couple of granola bars.

And turns out Gavin had a fantastic time at Justin’s company party. He even came home with a little balloon animal. I was surprised that he had it since Justin (yes, Justin) is afraid of clowns, but I guess the balloon-animal guy wasn’t a clown, so Gavin was able to get this fun little guy (who also doubles as a wrist corsage):

I did go out briefly. But only for about 2-1/2 hours.

Today was Justin’s company picnic. I look forward to it every year because they do have a nice picnic…rent a pavillion, grill, play softball games, and the place where they go each year includes a water park. I couldn’t go last year because Cooper was just over a week old, so I was not up to sitting in 90+ degree heat with a newborn and post-partum heat-flashes.

This year I was all about it. I even made sure I had a suitable bathing suit…nothing too matronly since I try to be hip, but nothing that might get Justin fired because it got yanked off by one of my kids while playing in the waterpark.

But Cooper has had diarrhea all week. Mild, but still not suitable for public pool situations. And he’s been fussy, so since the pediatrician still saw fluid behind both his ears on Monday (leftover from his ear infection last month), I thought I’d best bring him in this morning to ensure it hadn’t gotten ugly again.

It had.

So since he was already banned from the pool due to the poops, the ear kind of cinched it that I would not be going at all. Which is just as well since Justin and Gavin left for the picnic shortly after I left for the doctor’s office.

Tonight was also the dinner for a friend’s upcoming birthday, so I had a babysitter coming at 5pm. Justin was supposed to drop Gavin by around the same time (or so I thought) and go on to the Rush concert with the Alaskan students he’s been playing ambassador to all week. By 5:20, no Gavin. And no responses to my calls or voicemails to Justin’s phone.

I go to dinner…play fifth wheel to my friends, and have a couple margaritas with my yummy dinner. Uninterrupted dinner. Well, besides when I called Justin two or three more times, and called the babysitter wondering if my eldest child ever showed up.

He hadn’t.

I finish my dinner, socialize a little more, and arrive home a little after 8pm. The house is completely quiet and the babysitter informs me that Gavin just went to bed…literally passed out from all the water and sun and fun he had today. He’d only gotten home an hour prior. I thank her, pay her, try calling Justin again, then started pouring myself some cosmos.

And since I didn’t have anywhere else to go and no husband to impress, I went from this:

including these:

and exchanged it for this (including swapping out my saucy butt-floss for some saggy maternity undies):

I know. Don’t say it. I am one sexy beast in my ratty t-shirt and old strawberry pj pants.

No. This is not some perverted euphemism (although you know I’d be laughing at it). I was on my way to drop off Cooper and was coming up to this stoplight at the bottom of the off-ramp, and saw flashing lights from a cop car. As I got closer to the intersection, I saw on TWO police vehicles on the shoulder of the far lane of traffic. In front of these police vehicles was a huge dump truck and the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile. Unfortunately when I got my new phone in February, I just got another RAZR (for free!) instead of coughing up money for a real camera phone, so you’ll just have to bear with my pictoral witnessing:

You can’t tell in the pictures, but there’s a little bit of damage to the weiner. As you probably already guessed I was laughing too hard to think about going up and around so that I could come up upon the accident closer. Otherwise I’d have much closer crappy pictures.

This morning Justin took the truck, even though I would need it for bringing my cousin, Jill, and her daughter, Meghan, to the airport. Turns out he needed 2 vehicles (our truck and the minivan he was renting) for picking up the students from Alaska and their chaperones, and all their luggage.

Now shoving Jill’s gigantic suitcase, stroller, and Meghan’s infant seat into my car wouldn’t have been a big deal except that I didn’t send Cooper to school because he had his 1-year check-up today (22 lbs 8 oz, and 30.5 inches tall…50th and 75th percentile, respectively), so his carseat needed to remain. And since Justin wouldn’t be picking up the Alaskan group until after 5pm at the airport the OPPOSITE direction of our house, I had to pick up Gavin, so I couldn’t dump his carseat out of the car, either.

We ended up putting Cooper in Gavin’s seat (since he can be forward-facing), putting Meghan in Cooper’s seat, and shoved her infant seat on its side in-between the two carseats. The stroller and suitcase didn’t quite fit in my trunk and we don’t have bungee cords…but we thankfully had some rachet straps that worked out (after Jill and I figured out how to work them…ha ha!)

I really don’t know if the Fire Marshall has jurisdiction over my car, but if he did, I think we were cuttin’ it close.

“My” Meghan…she’s just a few days shy of 3 months old.

I know…too friggin’ cute. Until he popped her in the head twice with that rattle before I could set down the camera and rescue Meghan. He wasn’t jealous…just curious and wanted to touch her. With a rattle.

Cooper sitting with Jill (for about half a second…).

Last night, or rather, way early this morning, around midnight, I realized I forgot to make the mini-cupcakes I was planning to bring for Cooper’s class today. I got sucked into Twitter and Plurk for the n’th time this week and totally lost track of time. I figured at midnight that I was actually getting to bed early for the first time all week…but read Burgh Baby Mom’s post about homemade grilled pizza and thought, “OH CRAP!!!!”

I rushed through a few other computer-related things I needed to finish then went nuts.

• Pre-heated the oven, then saw the fine print on the cake mix indicating non-stick pans needed a lower temp.
• Mixed the eggs, water, and oil with the Funfetti cake mix by hand even though the mix called for an electric because I was terrified of waking up the whole house with my very noisy hand mixer. And I’m a rebel. No really, I am…went to TF South High School, home of the Rebels!
• I put the pan of mini-cupcakes in the oven, then realize I have NO idea how long to bake because the mix didn’t have time for mini-cupcakes. So I got to babysit the oven.
• Got Cooper’s cups of formula made for school while suspiciously eyeballing the rising cupcakes in the oven.
• Wiped down most of the horizontal surfaces in the kitchen. At least the ones not covered by dirty dishes or mail/papers.
• Since I got to babysit the oven, the dang timer went off three times and it is louder.than.sin.

I pulled them out and was arranging them in a dish to bring to the daycare when I heard Cooper fuss over the monitor. I froze…it was 12:30am. A minute later when he was done and quiet again, I realized that I had involuntarily hunched down behind the kitchen island and was holding my breath. I wonder what that says about my parenting. I mean, it made sense a few months back when I was putting some folded clothes away in his room and he stirred in his bed, that I dropped to the floor and crawled out of his room on my belly. A little extreme, but not for a mother tired of a baby getting up twice a night (at that point). Now that Cooper has been sleeping through the night since coming home from Chicago, I get a little testy when he rescinds on our agreement. And apparently it triggers some sort of Post Traumatic Stress response, as well.

The fiftieth time I checked on the little buggers…

No, I did not wipe down my stove…thank-you for asking.

YUM! Actually, I didn’t have a single one. And I did not frost them because while I love the teachers at daycare, I know that they stragetically give the kids the sweet treats at the end of the day, right before parents pick them up.