Leaky Green

In the last 24 hours I have had two items crack and leak for no apparent reason. The reason that this is noteworthy is that both are made of hard green plastic, and have no relation to each other.

1. the Christmas tree stand - This is sad, because now I cannot keep much water in the stand, so the tree will die soon. The only way around this is to water the tree small amounts every hour or so, or to completely undecorate the tree, and put it in a new stand. Neither one of those options is gonna happen.

2. A bottle of Gain laundry detergent leaked underneath my bathroom sink, coating other items, none of which are convenient to clean.

Puke

Yep, K threw up all over a race car shopping cart in Martin's today. That's why you should never put your kids in those things. Do you really think that the store is going to properly clean it off? Hah.

It's partly my own fault, because I'm a doofus. She was acting funny all morning, wanting to be held, and she took a nap at 11:30 am. But she didn't have a temperature, so I figured it was just some minor thing. WHY, oh why didn't stomach bugs cross my mind? So I had to go the post office, even though I had planned on NOT going at all in December. I was just going to put regular stamps on my Christmas cards for the first time ever, and I have no long distance presents to mail. But I accidentally took my father's car and church keys with me when we left their house the other day. Since it's 3 hours away, I had to go the darn post office to mail them back, with 3 kids in tow. Oh, the agony. Coats, shoes, car seats, lines, just to do one little task. I hate it. But I did it (and got Christmas stamps), and figured that since we were already out, we would go to the store.

I figured K might be germy, so my plan was to just keep her with me, and not let her go to the store's babysitting room. She didn't protest - another red flag I ignored. The babysitting was closed, so I to keep S with me too. So with S and K in the race car and M in her carseat in the front, we did our shopping. When almost finished, as I selected milk, I heard suspicious coughing noises. I darted to the front, and yes, she was puking all over herself (coat and shoes included), S and the cart. In a nutshell: long search to find employee and paper towels, lots of crying from K and M, bottom of race car has holes, left groceries in store, stripped her down in parking lot in 30 degree weather, and went home.

Where did it come from?

I'm in the pediatrician's office this morning, nursing M, while K and S have their 3 and 5 year old checkups. I finish feeding M and put her back in the carseat. Soon thereafter I notice a wet spot on my shirt, near my waist. "Who leaked on me?!" I exclaim. "Or did I leak on myself [breastmilk]?" I mutter. The doctor looks slightly alarmed (note: pediatricians without kids themselves take everything a little too seriously, especially mysterious bruises on 3 year olds). Anyway, I discretely lift my shirt and give a sniff, hoping to smell breastmilk. Nope. It's pee. Gross. I pick M back up, and give her clothing a feel. It's completely dry, and she has a onesie shirt on with pants overtop. There's no way pee could leak out without getting her clothing wet. So where did it come from? Makes no sense to me.

Questions

Background: S turned five last week, and so missed the kindergarten cutoff. I am going against conventional wisdom, and not sending her to preschool, for various reasons.

She has a full-blown case of ask-a-question-a-minute, and has had it for quite a while. She follows me around most of day, firing them off like a machine gun. It drives me crazy most of the time, as ninety percent of the questions fall into two categories: questions to which she already knows the answer, or questions to which there are no answers. I enjoy answering the other ten percent, as I feel that I am actually helping her learn. I do realize that the other questions are developmentally appropriate, and help her make sense of her world, but they are so fatiguing! However, I did have a realization today that helped me feel a little better. If she were at preschool, there is no way she would be getting the same adult attention that would allow her to ask so many questions. So I guess I am doing some good!

Weddings

Why are they usually so complicated, and so much work? I could answer that question, but I am too tired from helping get ready for my sister-in-law's wedding tomorrow. Heck, I didn't even do that much. Other family members have done much more.

It's supposed to get down to 40 degrees tonight! I love sleeping when it's chilly. Now, as long as it warms up quickly in the morning . . . . I dug through my 3-6 months clothes, and I couldn't find a little jacket or sweater for M to wear tomorrow morning. How is this my third girl, and I don't have anything like that for her to wear? So it's either a full-on winter dress (I'm not ready for that yet), or she wears a summer dress with a blanket that will be instantly pulled off.

Guilty Conscience

This afternoon, I got up from my desk to get some housework done. I say quietly to myself, "Alright . . . ," just thinking out loud, kind of like "alright, I guess I'll do some laundry now." S was in my path and heard me. She whimpers and takes off running to the other end of the house! What had she done?? I'll have to try that next time I need some peace and quiet. Heh, heh, heh.

I'm back, maybe.

It's been a while, and the itch to write is getting to me, so I think I'll start this up again. This time I'm staying away from the politics, and focusing on ordinary, daily items. I'll sometimes change certain details to protect the innocent (or not-so-innocent) children mentioned here. Wouldn't want an 11 year old S to read something here that she did when she was 5 and be mortified.