Would you like some cheese with that whine?
After my daycare triumph over the weekend, I anticipated two mornings completely clear of parenting tasks, wide open for me to complete lots of paying editing work. Umm....right.
Sunday night Napoleona came down with a little 24 hour earache/fever combo. She woke at 10:30 pm with an earache. I thought she might go back to sleep on her own, but no dice. I whipped out my Lilipoh Holistic Wellness Guide, and made a chopped onion poultice for her ear. I'd never tried it before, but it seemed to work quite well. She finally got to sleep at midnight, then woke up at 5 am with a fever of almost 102F. She didn't seem very uncomfortable, so I just massaged her legs with a cool wet cloth. I would have done a lemon calf wrap, but we were out of lemons.
(You may be getting the idea that I don't like giving medicines to the kids, and that I use old-fashioned and somewhat uncommon remedies. You are correct.)
She really wasn't terribly ill, just unhappy enough to "need you Mama!" all the time. I did sneak in two 15-minute increments of editing, but she just didn't want to read books on her own, she wanted me. So, I gave up any pretense of trying to get anything done.
By lunchtime Napoleona was feeling better, even hungry. All went well until naptime. Of course, she was pretty exhausted, but big brother totally refused to nap.
Now, I've been easing off the naps for SillyBilly over the last few months. So we have a routine where he sits on my bed reading books or "crafting," which is really just playing with felt, yarn, blunt needles, scissors......did I say scissors? I was doing something on the computer when I heard an ominous cutting sound. I turned around and asked him what he was cutting. He showed me a piece of felt that was a bit cut up. Then, I noticed the chunk taken out of the front of his hair. After I tried to straighten it out, he looks like this:
(He was just pretending to be grumpy--he was pretty amused by the whole thing. I told him I wasn't mad at him because I did the exact same thing at his age. Don't do it again and no more unsupervised scissors, however. Now we just have to wait for the high-forehead-Prince-Valiant look to grow out. Just in time for Easter. Sigh.)
The rest of the day was pretty purgatorial: the kids decided it was "silly" day, where they would pick really annoying phrases and words and repeat them over, and over, and over again. So while I was trying to remain calm and cook dinner, I was treated to the delight of "Are we there yet?" about 57 million times. WE WEREN'T EVEN ON A ROAD TRIP!!! Grrrrr.
***
Today was much better. Both kids went off to daycare, I did about 3 hours of work plus took the ever-coveted shower, and they both took a nap. At naptime Napoleona told me that if she could make a wish with a penny in a wishing well, she would wish for "you Mama, because I love you." It was about 70F outside so we even got to take a walk before dinner. I feel much less whiny today.
6 comments:
too funny - my DS did the same thing a few weeks ago
I shouldn't laugh but the combination of hair and expression is priceless. I do work from occasionally and even with supermum intervening and just ONE child, very little seems to get done. I'm really impressed with how much you got through. And I bet it was a lot more than you thought.
That haircut looks strangely familiar! I laughed when I saw the picture. After what feels like months, Kiko's is finally growing out.
It sounds as if Napoleona is feeling much better. I remember having earaches, sore throats, fevers etc when I was a kid and my mum putting "the vapouriser" in my room - but all I wanted was her to be there. Once she moved her typewriter into my bedroom so that she could work while she was there. I can still remember the sound of the keys and how relieved I was that she was around (I was probably about 10 at the time, by the way!)
Kids and scissors, huh? Two of my nephews ended up with very close crops when their sisters decided to try their hands at being hairdressers. Their career plans have changed... :)
I am laughing at your onion poultice remedy -- as I have a book I pull out whenever the kids are sick. A grated potato for a bruise, apple-cider vinegar for a cough, and the garlic clove in the sock. I will be sure to tell my kids they are not the only ones subject to my kind of medicine. That day care sounds like heaven.
When I was about 5 or 6 I was quite jealous of my teenage cousin's Farrah Fawcett-style feathered hair. I decided that I just needed to cut my hair, and it would magically look like hers.
On Fourth of July, with all the relatives over.
That year's school picture featured me with a shag, the only way to repair the damage.
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