Neither Here Nor There

I’m sick, but unable to take off of work to recuperate, so bullet points it is.

~ My son has been quite sick this week, but my in-laws are miraculously in town and have taken him two out of the last three days. It is so nice to have them back.

~ But it’s also bittersweet because they leave in two weeks with one-way tickets to Texas. We’re not sure when they will be coming back. I have complicated feelings about this that I haven’t taken the time to untangle. My husband has even more complicated feelings about this, which he will probably never attempt to untangle. Our kids are just really, really sad.

~ Work lately has been… surprisingly reasonable. Not sure why, maybe because we’re still less than a month out from that amazing break. Whatever is making work seem manageable, I’m not complaining.

~ I took my son out twice in the last month to practice on his balance bike and he’s finally getting it. I plan on taking my daughter out on her bike soon. I will be really excited when they can both ride. There are some fun paved bike paths in the area and I’m dying to go for a ride with them.

~ My daughter and I ended up having to sell Girl Scout cookies for THREE HOURS on Monday (kick-off day) and she did amazing. Last year’s attempt at selling GS cookies was a cluster-f*ck of epic proportions, so it made me incredibly proud to watch her rock it this year. She really has come into her own in SO MANY ways. It’s astonishing to see.

~ {I, on the other hand, got shat on by a pigeon – pigeon shit was on my ear, face, glasses, hair, three articles of clothing and in my purse. I didn’t NOT handle it well. This was about half way through the three hour selling spree. It was a REALLY long three hours. I did not do as well as my daughter.}

~ I still give a lot of credit for her turn around to Magnesium. To mine own as well. Right before, and during, the break I fell out of the habit of giving it to both of us, and by the end we were both in foul moods. The whole second week of break we were moody, easily angered, just generally in shit moods. Then I remembered we hadn’t been taking Magnesium and I started us both on it again and the change has absolutely been noticeable. I need to remember to ALWAYS take my Magnesium, and continue giving it to my daughter.

~ My daughter can swallow a Magnesium capsule now! Which makes it SO MUCH easier to give it to her. Before I mixed a soluable powder into apple sauce, which she hated but would take begrudgingly. A couple of weeks ago we tried having her swallow a capsule and now she can take one without any problems. Our magic combination is the capsule in a spoonful of applesauce, plus drinking big gulps of water out of a straw to swallow. It works! And since the dose is higher we only have to take it 3x a week.

~ My son is really enjoying soccer and it’s fun to watch. At this age I don’t have to be out there participating in the games which makes the 45 minutes much more pleasant. He clearly wants to improve and is obviously trying SO HARD to master the skills they work on. It’s awesome to watch.

~ My parents and I went to a comedy show last weekend, which was part of SF Sketchfest (one of my favorite SF events of the year!) It was great to spend an afternoon/evening with them, and I’m realizing that QT alone with them needs to be one of my top priorities. They are both obviously getting older, and I am becoming acutely aware that they won’t always be so active and interested in doing fun things. It’s a new goal of mine to get together with them, WITHOUT my kids, about once every month or two.

Annnd, I have a ton of grading to do so I gotta shut this down. Today is the first day of February. Let’s do this!

4 Comments

  1. Sorry about the sick, glad you had help. It will be hard when in-laws make permanent move to Texas! Will they sell house? How does that impact the plan for AirBnBing your home this summer? (Hope it does not mean you need a new plan!!!)
    On different site read program for helping children of appropriate age to learn to swallow pills… start with tictac swallowing, then one M&M(plain) at a time then move to slightly bigger items…Cannot remember what the third stage was… etc so the act of swallow and then water becomes less threatening and easier to do. If I find the post I shall share progression. Jelly beans come in at some point. Look at sizing of the candy…. and clearly age and swallow safely abilities of child.
    Hope you all are healthier soon. Hope the lovely weather helps and that we get more rain soon…. after I have spent time enjoying the sunshine warmth which is expected to hold for another week!

  2. I feel for your kids missing the in-laws. Reading your blog over the months you never really seemed to appreciate them, referring to things like how they gave your kids lollies and created “expectations we now have to manage” etc. but you’re quite put out that they’re heading out permanently to be with their other kids (and therefore a chunk of your childcare goes).

    1. I think she always did appreciate them even if their involvement at times made things difficult. These things are never straightforward.

    2. I think it’s entirely possible to appreciate someone who also frustrates you a bit. My MIL and I have rather different values and for instance way of thinking about gender roles in child rearing. I think it’s only natural that that annoys me and sometimes I vent about it to my friends (and if I had a blog, I’d probably sometimes vent about it anonymously there). I still appreciate her and her help with kids very much and acknowledge that she does not need to think like me.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.