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.

Nope. Not what you’re pry thinking, you dirty bird.

All I was going to say is that was a quick 24 hours yesterday. Twenty-four hours where nearly everything went smoothly, worked out, went my way. Twenty-four hours where even though I was stressed from work, I was also elated because I was busy enough for the time to go by quickly and also got a certain sense of satisfaction in getting things done that were critical. It felt really good to be the “go-to-girl” for all those people, if even just for a day. And it felt good that other things were working out and I looked and felt good. I haven’t felt that good about things in general in quite some time and man I wished I cherished it a little bit longer.

Because today kinda sucked. Back to real life, eh?

BTW, the garter thing was ALL Justin…he just kept pulling things out of his jacket while using my gigantic puff-ball dress as cover. His friends kept saying “she’s either going to be REALLY PISSED or laugh her head off.” Luckily for him I found it hysterical, and watching our friends/family laugh their heads-off was well worth the banged-up shins from him bumping my legs with the crowbar until he finally “removed” it from my dress. I need to find the non-photographer shots, you know, the ones from my mom and aunts and stuff…those ladies got better shots of the contraband in my dress (well his jacket) than the guy I was paying. If memory serves (and Justin, be sure to chime in), he “pulled out” a comb, handcuffs, a slinky, a squirtgun (I think), the crowbar, and finally the big ol’ granny panties.
We actually had a lot of crazy stuff going on at our wedding, now that I think about it. My uncle took a wrong turn, and my grandmother, who could barely see, was hollering at him that he turned the wrong way (we waited for them to arrive to start the wedding). There was the cake in alternate faces, the crazy garter-toss, my one little cousin danced with me like 8 times during the money dance, a ton of family drama (including one gal coming out to her parents in front of her guy date…she’s now married with kids, so we call her a Hasbian), when they introduced the wedding party my cousin (Maid of Honor) was partially on the back of our friend (Best Man), but since she couldn’t put her drink down, she nearly fell on her head (and she proceeded to steal his drinks the rest of the night), and I made a rule to visit a few people specifically (like elderly guests, etc), but after that, I was a dancin’ fool! Anyone else have a ton of craziness at their wedding they’d like to share?

So anyways…what did we do for our anniversary?

Friday night my Mom and Stepdad were gracious enough to watch the kids so that Justin and I could go to Bonefish for dinner. We scarfed-down our food in record time, I think due to habit from trying to eat while wrangling two kids, and thought, “let’s go see a movie!”

So we called my parents and they were cool with putting the kids to bed so that we could see a beautiful film with an incredible story and fantastic camera angles: You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.

What? You guys think I have the time or patience for some real cinematic creation? Heck no! I love Adam Sandler flicks, and with my Religious Studies background (and my desire to get my graduate degrees in Mid-Eastern studies), this movie was a shoe-in. It did not disappoint. While we sat in that packed theater on opening night with 700 teenagers, us and two other “adult” couples laughed our butts off! I honestly laughed the whole way through. And even though John Turturo gets second billing, I think it really should be hummus. Or Adam Sandler’s cod-piece.

On our actual anniversary, we battled with the kids, ate a quick (but fancy!) dinner of salmon steaks and sauteed squash, cleaned poop off of Cooper’s back, cleaned the litterbox, (Justin) worked on work-stuff, I finished up some laundry, and we went to bed a little early because we were so tired from being back at work after being off for a few days. OH, and Justin got some stellar anniversary cards and one of them new-fangled digital picture frames (got it for SUCH a bargain!) and I got some gorgeous roses at work to make my co-workers jealous.