A Sick Baby and a Cat Attack

It's been another hectic week here.  Goober started throwing up on Monday and he's been sick all week.  I don't understand how he gets sick so much more often than the other kids.  Even as babies and toddlers, T and Princess were rarely sick.  It seems like Goober gets sick at least once a month.  I feel so bad for him.

He finally seems to be on the upswing, though.  He managed to eat crackers and some chicken nuggets today, and now he's asleep.  I hope he doesn't wake up crying every hour or so tonight like he has been.  I'm barely functioning with my sleep so interrupted, and it doesn't help that I have awful insomnia and I'm lucky to get 4 hours of sleep a day.

My cat Little Fart had an accident this week.  The boyfriend told me that he saw him outside and he'd been in a fight but wouldn't let him near him.  When I went to get him, he looked gnarly.  His nose was bloody and torn up, he had bite marks on his face and near his ear, and he was a mess.

I took him to the vet and found out things were worse than I imagined.  They took him to the back to clean him off and examine him because he had an accident and peed all over himself in the carrier.  The vet came in and asked me if I lived in a high rise building.  I was confused, since I live in a 3 story cape cod, and the cat was definitely outside when he got hurt.

It turns out that not only did he get attacked by an animal, but it appeared that he fell out of a tree or off something else high up.  His nose was bleeding because he split his palate and broke some bones in his face.  He also had brain swelling and damage from the fall.  I had to leave him there to get steroids and pain medicine.

The good news is that his x-rays showed all his internal organs are intact.  I got to bring him home with antibiotics and pain meds.  They can't do anything about the palate or the broken bones in his face-they should eventually heal on their own.  He got some stitches in his lip, and I probably have to take him to get a fractured tooth pulled at some point. 

I'm just happy to have him home and doing alright.  I was so scared when I found out he fell so hard.  I never realized he would try and climb a tree to escape from an attacking animal.  It kills me that I will never know what the heck happened.  The vet also told me his back claws were shredded from trying to escape.  He's happy to be home, laying on the couch, and attempting to eat with his cone collar on (so he doesn't pull out his stitches).

Yeah, it was a crazy week.  I made corned beef hash with poached eggs and brownies with irish cream swirls for St. Paddy's day today.  The kids loved helping me make the brownies.  The best part is that they turned out gooey and under baked-I love half raw brownies, but I'll give the kids the more cooked edges.

In the morning we're going up to the house in the Catskills for the first time this season.  I'm excited because I love it up there.  It is my favorite place to be.  There's a huge parade in my town tomorrow and I can't be far enough away from it.

I always hated the parade growing up because my town is mainly Irish Catholics who get crazy drunk all day.  My parent's house was one block away from the parade route, and I hated that no matter what I did, I couldn't escape it.  It was a little better as I got older, and I even went and watched it from my old job (across the street from my parent's house) a few times.

Then I moved.  My landlord and his son throw a party every year on the parade day.  This wouldn't bother me so much if the parents who were there gave a crap about what their kids were doing.  Last year was a disaster.  Kids were opening the gates to my backyard and running around all over it.  I asked them nicely to leave, since my daughter was getting upset with strangers on her turf.  A couple minutes later, they would be back in my yard.

The kids weren't too young to know better either.  They were 8-14 years old.  Their parents were too busy getting drunk to do anything.  It got even worse when the kids started terrorizing my outdoor cats and attempting to come in my house.  I stood in my backyard for the entire afternoon, chasing kids away and getting frustrated.  I don't know what the kids or the parents were thinking.  I would never let my kids run wild and aggravate people like that.

So this year, T, Princess, and I will be gone and I won't have to deal with the urge to smack someone's poorly behaved child (or a poorly behaved drunk adult).  The boyfriend is staying home with Goober (I don't want him to throw up in the car-it's a 2 1/2 hour drive each way), and hopefully, he'll scare the kids from the yard.  I'm sure his BB rifle can help with that.

Winter Vacation, Day 1- The Aquarium Debacle

T has off from school this week for winter vacation.  My parents decided to go to Myrtle Beach on a golf trip all this week, and my sister is panhandling her way from NY to Wyoming to go to a wedding.  I am here with all 3 kids, all week long, with basically no help.  T is not happy there's no school-he cried all weekend that he didn't want to have vacation because he loves school.  So I promised him we would have a great time and I would take him to a bunch of places.

He wanted to go the aquarium, the zoo, and to see the dinosaur bones at the Museum of Natural History.  Since the weather is super nice for February, I thought none of this would be a problem.  I didn't realize how hard it is to try to take 3 small children somewhere by myself.  In the past, someone has always insisted on coming with me, or taking one of the kids so I only have 2 with me.

Not today.  We had a little bit of a late start, so I decided to take them to the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, CT.  It's about an hour drive.  The trip started okay, until T wouldn't leave the touch tank.  Princess was terrified of the crabs and other creatures, so I kept an eye on her while she ran around to the nearby tanks.  Goober kept crying, so I finally got T to keep walking.

Then Goober threw up all over himself and my brand new Sit and Stand Stroller.  And I didn't pack extra clothes in the diaper bag because I have never once needed them on a day trip in the 4 years I've had children.  And I did the one time they weren't there.  We were right next to the children's play area when this happened, so while I attempted to clean as much as I could with the wiped I'd packed, there were 3 or 4 small children that weren't mine watching me, pointing out that there was a big pile of vomit all over.

Once my wipes were done, the mess wasn't that much better.  We had to head down in the elevator to get to the bathroom, where another child complained that my baby smelled.  No shit, kid.  I had to sit poor Goob in the sink to get him clean, and there was only cold water.  He was not happy.  I spent a good 45 minutes getting barf off everything.  But his shirt and jacket were soaked. 

We had to go to the gift shop to buy him a shirt.  We proceeded to walk down a long hallway, where I received a bunch of nasty stares and comments about my shirtless baby in the middle of February.  Did these people somehow think I brought him to the aquarium without a shirt?  Seriously.  Of course I had to buy 3 shirts, since it wasn't fair if only the baby got one.  $37 later, T decided he needed to eat. 

Not the snacks I brought, but cafe food.  We took the elevator upstairs (and I learned the baby is terrified of elevators), and the kids decided they wanted french fries and onion rings.  I also got a grilled cheese sandwich since the baby wanted to eat and I felt bad.  I figured it was less greasy than anything else there, and it was bland too.

After lunch, we went back to see more stuff.  Princess wanted to see the sharks, and T wanted to go back to the touch tank.  They were fighting about it, so I took them somewhere else entirely.  They had a boating exhibit where the kids could play on a fishing boat and pretend to fish and put on life jackets.  T had a bunch of fun.  Princess sat on the edge of the boat, glaring and yelling at kids who ran into her or were too loud.  I let the baby run around for a little, but his shoes kept slipping on the concrete and he wasn't too happy after he fell on his face a few times.

T didn't want to leave, and threw himself on the middle of the floor, so no one could get around him.  I told him we were going home since he wasn't behaving, and had to carry him out of the exhibit.  He screamed all the way outside.  Those looks and comments I got from old ladies were fun. I have a tip for them: if you don't want to deal with noisy children but want to go to the aquarium, don't go on President's Day when all the kids are out of school!

He finally told me he would behave, but we were already outside and at the parking garage.  So I promised him that if he was good all the way home, we could stop at Toys R Us.  Yeah, I bribe my kids and they're spoiled as hell. 

I couldn't find the highway entrance on the way home, got stuck in crazy traffic, and spent another $30 on a Power Ranger and Littlest Pet Shop toy.  Of course, when I got home, the boyfriend hadn't cleaned anything or taken out any trash.  I was exhausted, and he told me he would watch the kids for a couple hours so I could rest.  Instead, he went back to sleep after sleeping all day.  And Goob threw up all over my bed.

Well, it was an eventful day.  Tomorrow, I think we're going to go to the museum.  That is, if the boyfriend comes and the baby's okay.  Otherwise, I'll leave Goober with him (or take him if he's feeling better), and go to the Bronx Zoo.  The kids love it, and we have a membership, so it's totally free, except for food and the gift shop.

WoW Stole my Life and the Cursed Comforter

I just noticed I haven't posted in almost 2 weeks.  The boyfriend finally renewed my WoW subscription like he promised, so all of my spare time at night has been spent playing instead of writing blog posts.  It's a seriously addicting game, and I figured I should get my money's worth and play it.

T stayed at my parent's house last night, so all was quiet here.  I finally had a chance to take my white comforter to the laundromat to get washed since it's too big to fit into the machine here, and Goober puked on it a week ago.  I cashed in my lotto tickets from Christmas to pay for it, since I didn't have $15 laying around. 

Every time I pay to get the comforter cleaned (I have a backup, but it's old, and has tons of rips in it, and it does nothing to keep me warm-my legs freeze all night), it seems like the kids get it dirty almost immediately.  I probably shouldn't have a white comforter with small children around, but it was free (from the dumpster behind Home Goods because the pillows were missing-new and in the packaging, in the dumpster), and it's really thick and warm and awesome for winter.

I usually only have it on my bed for 24 hours or so before one of the kids spill something on it, or get sick on it-the poor comforter has been puked on and pooped on more than I'd like to admit.  This time was no different.  I kept it off my bed for a few hours after bringing it home because Princess and Goober were up and about, and I figured someone would have grubby little hands that would love to get my comforter dirty. 

I put it on the bed when Goober looked like he was getting tired (since he and I share the bed).  In less than 20 minutes, he managed to get a dirty mouth print on it (even though his face looked clean when I put him on the bed).  Then T came home.  He mentioned that his stomach hurt and went downstairs to watch TV.  I ran to the store because we were out of milk.

When I got home, the boyfriend told me T threw up all over my comforter.  I was furious (not with T, but with the fact I paid $15 to get it cleaned and didn't even get to sleep under it one night).  I called my parents and they told me he was fine all day and hadn't even eaten since lunch.  I bitched and moaned about my comforter and how it is cursed, and my mom told me to come pick up a spare comforter set that she was going to return to Kohl's (with a normal sized comforter that will fit in my washing machine).

I picked it up, got the bed made, and took a shower.  T and Princess were in my bed when I got out.  He told me he threw up again-all over my new sheets and comforter, that once again, I didn't even get to sleep under.  I wanted to scream.  Instead, I did the laundry, and put everything back on the bed before it was totally dry because I hate having an unmade bed at night.

I banished T to the couch and he fell asleep almost immediately.  I attempted to wash the cursed comforter in my machine.  I practically broke a sweat shoving it to fit.  The machine made horrible noises the entire time, and the comforter is so big, the part at the top of the machine stayed dry.  I don't even know if the machine still works right, but I guess I'll find out.  Oh, and the comforter was still stained, so I have to go take it to get bleached at the laundromat anyway.  It's been in the dryer for 3 hours and it's still wet. 

Oh, and T woke up and barfed all over his grandma's computer keyboard.  I'm just happy it wasn't mine, and I'm hoping she doesn't see my comforter in the dryer because she will kill me.  I'm waiting for her to go to bed so I can sneak it upstairs and hang it over the bannister to finish drying.  I guess T won't be going to school tomorrow.

More Sick Kids and Skyrim

Sorry I've been absent most of this week.  There are a few things that have been going on.  Now T, my oldest, is sick.  He's had a cough for a while, but it's gotten way worse since Wednesday.  I sent him to school anyway on Thursday, and he was so much worse for the wear when I picked him up.

And another kid in his class was sick all week.  He had a cough and stuffy nose to the point where he was drooling all over himself.  The teacher was talking to the nanny about it as the poor kid stood there, looking like a Neopolitan Mastiff (aka Hagrid's dog in Harry Potter and my dream dog).  Seriously, though, that kid was too sick to be in school.  What the hell were his nanny and mother thinking?

T ended up with a high fever on Thursday evening, and he's been miserable ever since.  He's been hacking nonstop (to the point where his Grandmother couldn't sleep and had to miss working at the market on Friday).  He keeps getting a nosebleed because his coughing is so bad, and it is freaking him out (I would freak out too if I woke up covered in blood). 

And his doctor is on vacation, so I've been trying to treat it at home, hoping it is viral and will get better.  Children's ibuprofen, Robitussin, and a humidifier have become his friends (although I wanted to kill my MIL for putting Vick's Vapor Rub in the humidifier-that stuff is just awful and stunk up the entire house).

And if you're a gaming freak like me, you probably know that Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim came out the other day.  I have been waiting for this for what seems like forever (or maybe since I finished Oblivion).  Needless to say, I am super excited to play this game.  If things went my way, I would have played it for the last 48 hours.  In reality, I've only played it for 2 or 3, and those hours were interrupted by my kids.

The boyfriend has been playing it since it came out.  And it looks beyond awesome.  But I know if I ask him to watch the kids while I play, it won't happen.  They will run wild while he doesn't pay attention because he is playing the game with his headphones on, dead to the world.

So here's to hoping my kids feel better and sleep a lot.  Because I think I really deserve some uninterrupted gaming time.

On Sick Kids and a Dead Battery

This has been a trying few weeks for me.  First of all, Goober, my 1 year old has been really sick.  He had a 104 degree fever for 5 days straight and it was terrifying.  All I could do was think about T as a 1 year-old in the hospital with seizures from a fever like that.  Every time Goober twitched in his sleep, I was sure it was going to turn into a convulsion.  I did not leave his side until the fever finally broke.  Thankfully, he came through unscathed, except for all the crying and sweating and chills and misery a fever brings.

Then there was the freak snowstorm.  My house didn't have damage or lose power, but my mom's house, which is right down the street, was hit pretty bad.  There were huge branches and tree limbs down all over her street, and a power line came down between her house and the neighbor's.  They still haven't fixed all the power outages or taken care of all the huge downed trees blocking some streets.

The night before Halloween, T got sick.  I thought he had food poisoning, because his dad wasn't feeling well either, and they shared a sandwich.  I was wrong.  We managed to go trick-or-treating for an hour before things got worse.  Princess was sick.  Then Goober was sick again, with another fever and whatever stomach virus everyone else had.  Now the kids are all okay, but the MIL is really sick and the boyfriend is still a little under the weather.

Then, on Friday, when I tried to take T to school for the first time since Tuesday (my mom drove him the other days because I was taking care of the rest of my sick family), my car was dead.  My dad has been telling me since last winter that I need to get a new car battery because I've been driving for 7 years with the same one.  I didn't listen, and he was right (he usually is). 

So I called my mom to come pick T up to take him to school again.  I went with her and we stopped on the way back to get a new battery.  I figured the boyfriend could change it for me, even though he still wasn't 100%. 

I didn't know that a Hyundai battery is notoriously difficult to change.  You have to unscrew half the damn bolts under the hood to get the battery loose.  And then there is another bolt by the bottom of the battery that locks is down.  It took over an hour to get most of the bolts loosened.

Then we stripped the socket wrench trying to open the battery lock (and by we, I mean me-he couldn't turn it because of corrosion so I tried and stripped it).  I walked to my mom's house to get my dad's socket wrenches, but he took them with him on his golf outing (I don't know what he could possibly need a socket wrench for while golfing).

So I borrowed my mom's car to go in search of a new one, although the boyfriend found a ratchet and only needed an extension bar.  The first store I went to was a bust.  I asked someone to help me because I wasn't seeing what I needed, and the store associate told me he would be right with me.  I waited, and waited, and waited.  Until about 4 store associates were chatting it up with each other, not helping anyone.  I left, extremely irritated.

Next I went to the automotive part of said store.  They couldn't help me because I bought my battery somewhere else but they would help if I brought my car for them to change it.  Yeah, my car is sitting in my driveway with a bunch of crap under the hood taken apart.  Unless they could teleport it, the car wasn't leaving my driveway until it was running again. And I share my driveway with a landscaping company the landlord owns, so it's always a hectic place.

Then I went to AutoZone.  It was like walking into heaven.  I was helped immediately, and when the lady didn't know much about tools, she got someone else to help me who did.  So Fernando, thank you for making it easy for me.  You found my extender bar, and when I needed a longer one, found that and an adapter so it would work.  Yes, I needed to buy a new ratchet in the process, but it was so worth it.

I am seriously buying everything car related from Auto Zone from now on.  Once I got home, the new battery was in the car and it was running in 15 minutes.  After we spent hours trying to get the old one out.  So now I'm happy.  But the boyfriend is exhausted since he wasn't feeling well to start off with.

Taking a Sick Day

This post will be a shorter one, since I feel crappy and would really rather be sleeping than writing.  Not that I'm really going to get much sleep.  When you're a stay at home mommy, you can't call out of work and take a sick day.

I've tried to do this and failed.  Even with the boyfriend at home, someone still always needs me.  I yearn to have a sick day where I can just lay in bed and throw myself a pity party with no interruptions.  I would even settle for more than 4 hours of uniniterrupted sleep. 

It's not at all like when the boyfriend gets sick. He gets to hole up in a room on a bed or a couch, alone.  He gets all the sleep and quiet he needs.  I make the kids walk on tiptoes and speak in whispers.  When this becomes impossible, we go to the zoo.  Or my parent's house down the street.  He gets to be miserable without the kids around.

When I am sick, however, I find myself schlepping around the house in a medication induced haze.  I also tend to have a child in my arms.  It's not so bad when the baby needs carrying, but trying to keep myself upright while sick with a 45 pound toddler in my arms is not an easy task.
So now I am not only sick, but exhausted.  And my brain is foggy I can't even see straight.  2 of my kids are screaming because they can't grasp the concept of sharing and I need to mediate.

I want to either get better asap or get a lot worse.  Because if I'm worse, I can go to the hospital.  That's practically a vacation when you have 3 kids under 4.  And even though it would suck to be that sick, at least I would get some peace and quiet.