Sunday Best: Missing Baby edition

Sam was conspicuously absent from today's #sundaybest picture. He woke up breathing like Darth Vadar so I made the executive decision to leave him home with Tom.  Anything not to have to deal with him at church, right?  Unfortunately, Sam continued to get worse throughout the day.  Tom took Ellie and Jack to his mom's house to celebrate his sister's birthday and I stayed home with the Wheezer.  At one point, he was just lying on the floor, not moving.  I kind of freaked out.  I was debating whether or not to take him to one of those Urgent Care places, but I had never been to the ER or Urgent Care and I had no idea where to go! I was texting and calling everybody for advice.  I like to think I am a level-headed person most of the time, but when my kids are sick, I get a little crazy.  Good thing they don't get sick very often.

Moments like these

I've already written about how Sam doesn't like to show affection.  He isn't comfortable with hugs or cuddles. So, yesterday when I was grocery shopping with the boys and Sam kept laying his head on Jack's shoulder? Well, my heart just melted.

In which I turn a little pee into a long story

Ahhhh, I missed a day!  I am a NaBloPoMo failure.  Yesterday was a bit of an off day, though.  I woke up at 2:00am because I had to take care of my neurotic dog and I was never able to fall back to sleep.  In my sleepy haze the following morning, I put Jack's lunch in Ellie's backpack (she buys), so I had to rush out during my conference period to go buy Jack a lunch. Even though Tom works in the same building as Jack's preschool, he apparently could not bring him lunch.  Anyway, what should have been a 20 minute errand turned into an hour because I was so out of it.

After school, we took our normal Thursday trip to Chick-fil-A.  After eating, I was hanging out with the kids in the play area when Ellie informs me there is a huge puddle of pee in the car that is suspended from the ceiling.  I check to make sure my kids aren't the culprits (they weren't) and then tell Ellie to go tell someone since my hands were full dealing with Sam and his obsession with opening and closing the playroom door.  Ellie brings back one of the hostesses...you know, those ladies who walk around asking if you want refills.  The lady can't fit in the tube going to the car so she hands Ellie a bottle of disinfectant spray and a few paper towels.  To be fair, her English wasn't the best so I think she might not have understood the situation.  I am still a little distracted by Sam, but Ellie goes up there and sprays the entire car. She doesn't want to touch pee so she hands Jack the paper towels and tells him to clean it.  At this point I have figured out what is happening so I am yelling at Jack not to touch it and to come down.  But my sweet boy takes a single towel and starts mopping up the huge puddle of a stranger's pee.  I alternate between yelling at Jack to stop and trying to nicely convey to the lady that my son should not be cleaning that, it is someone else's pee, and whoever cleans it needs gloves.  She nods at me and then just walks out into the restaurant area and resumes asking people if they want refills.  There is still pee in the car along with disinfectant and some used paper towels.  I take a million sanitizing wipes and scrub Jack from top to bottom and then go and get the manager who was oblivious to the whole situation.  He then went and got some skinny teenager to go clean it out...with gloves.

And that, my friends, is the most eventful thing that happened to us all week.  It is an exciting life we lead.

The Barbie dilemma

Yesterday, I was walking with Ellie and I asked her what I should buy Jack for Christmas.  She said I should buy him more Barbies.  Jack really does like his Ken dolls.  He likes to dress them up and do imagination play.  I don't see anything weird about this.  He also loves his Superhero men and his Imaginext toys.  I can see how Ken appeals to him because he can also change his outfits.  However, when people hear that Jack likes Barbies, they get all weird about it.  He brought his Ken Barbie all dressed in a suit to church with him last Sunday and I received some comments about it.  Poor boys, they get a raw deal.  Ellie can play with "boy" toys and even dress up as a boy character for Halloween and no one bats an eye.  Jack wants to play with a male doll and it is questioned. 
Anyway, I was looking on Amazon today because I thought Jack might like a little boy Barbie (like Skipper, but a boy), but I couldn't find one.  Then I looked for more outfits for Ken and they were surprisingly scarce.  I am not really sure where I am going with all this except that I think gender stereotypes and expectations are lame.

Veteran's Day

I love this photo gallery that is displayed in my parents' bedroom.  At the top is my great-grandpa who served in World War I.  The next two down are my paternal and maternal grandpas who served in World War II.  My dad is on the lower left; he was medically discharged from the Air Force Academy. I don't know if that makes him a veteran, per se, but he does have the picture. He even gets a very small disability stipend.  The lower right is my mom's brother who served in the Army. I feel like I should add more details to that, but I just know he works on airplanes.  And at the very bottom is my oldest brother, David.  When he joined the Army to help pay for med school, he never imagined the U.S. would go to war.  But then 9/11 happened and everything changed.  He has left his family to serve as an army doctor in several countries, the last being Afghanistan.  Even though he long since met his time commitment to the Army, he keeps renewing and is currently a Lieutenant Colonel.  I type that like I have any idea what it means. I actually had to look up how to spell it.  Anyway, he is an officer, but he spends his days drugging people for surgery.

Happy Veteran's Day.