What Number Does a Mom Call?

This was my question on Wednesday morning when I really didn't want to get out of bed - - when a Mom wants to call in sick, what number does she call? Unfortunately the answer is that no such number exists and you just have to make the best of it. Of course, if I was really, really sick, I'm sure Duncan would have stayed home but I wasn't in that bad of shape. I did, however, have a very bad sore throat, a headache, and I was tired from not sleeping well. As the morning progressed, I also got the chills which prompted me - - are you ready for this - - to wear long johns when I went outside. Yes, I know I live in Florida. I managed to drag Calleigh and myself to the playground and I'm sure people wandered why I had a turtleneck and big bulky sweater on (little did they know about the long johns). In my defense, the weather was a little cooler with temps in the mid-60's. Anyway, I did make it through the day although Calleigh had to find a lot of self entertainment. I was out of commission. Fortunately yesterday I felt a lot better although I'm not back to 100%. I joked to my co-workers that it was all the extra work I've been doing this week - - I put in about 25 hours as opposed to my normal 15. How funny to say that when in the old days, I could put in 50 without blinking an eye.

As for the weather, I know many are experiencing the cold weather just as we are. Today only reached a high of about 57 and I almost, almost got out her LL Bean jacket just for the heck of it. When we left for yard sales this morning, it was only in the upper 40's so I probably could have gotten it out. But I opted for a thick sweater instead. I knew it was cold last night when this morning I took a sip of water that I leave next to my bed during the night and it was still cold! Anyway, I'm not necessarily a big fan of the cold weather after Christmas but at least it does allow us to wear some of our warmer clothes that we don't get to bring out very often or that Calleigh got for Christmas.

On Tuesday, we ventured out to the playground with the sand. She enjoyed herself as usual. Here she is attempting to sample an acorn. I think she quickly realized it didn't have much taste to it. Tuesday evening, Ron and Elaine came over for a visit. While I was cleaning up from supper in the kitchen, I noticed Calleigh standing there with a strange (e.g., "I'm trying to take a poop look") on her face so I quickly asked her if she needed to use the potty. She said "yes" so Duncan whisked her into the bathroom, took off her diaper, and onto the potty she went. A few minutes later (after reading a magazine or two), she stood up, and there was a nice # 2. I don't know if it was already there and happened to fall in or what have you but we were excited - - especially since we really haven't been trying to get her to go in the potty yet. We made a big deal of the accomplishments and all four of us praised her profusely but she just kept saying "no, no, no" in a sort of whiny voice. So I'm not sure if she's down with the public display or what. I did take a picture of the goods but I'll spare you!

Yesterday morning we made a quick trip into the hospital so I could drop off all my work for the auditors. Then it was on to Walmart for groceries where I encountered an unforeseen problem. As soon as I got the cart out, Calleigh started saying "Sit in back seat. Back seat." I quickly realized that she wanted to sit in the back of the cart and not in the front seat where she normally does. It turns out that when Duncan had taken her to Walmart on Sunday afternoon, he had let her sit in the "back seat." And now Mommy had to deal with the problem. I don't necessarily mind that she sits there but it would be sort of difficult to load up my cart with a small child taking up a lot of the space. I finally convinced her to sit in the "front seat" by putting her two babies up there but for a few moments, I was afraid we were going to have to abort the mission. Phew.

Later in the day while Calleigh was napping and I was was working, I had the TV on in the background as I tend to do - - although most of the time, I'm not really watching it. I got up to go to the bathroom at about 3:45 and when I came back, I saw that they had broken to some special coverage and then I noticed a plane in the water. What a sick feeling! It's amazing how quickly they rescued all the people because when the started the special coverage, it was about 15 minutes after the accident happened and already, there were no people to be seen at all. In retrospect, they had already been rescued but I didn't know that at the time and I just kept staring at the plane thinking how awful it was that people were in there. And then you think about if there are any babies or kids and you feel worse. I'm so glad it has such a happy ending! Fortunately, I have never been one of those people who gets nervous about flying. In fact, prior to Calleigh, I really enjoyed flying - - I would take a bunch of trips cross country when I was doing the recruiting for Accounting. I don't think this incident will change my mind. In fact, I find it even more encouraging to know that it's possible to live if your plane does go down. Clearly, the pilot, "Sully" Sullenberger, is a hero. And when I saw his picture, somehow he just looks like someone who is caring and kind. Doesn't he?

I've been making chip beef on toast now and then with the supply of Corned Beef that I got from Aunt Lori. When I'm eating it, Calleigh usually asks for some and I'll give her a few little pieces of the beef. This evening for supper, I decided to give her her own helping of it. She downed that piece of toast like she didn't know where her next meal was coming from. I told Duncan I had some very bad news - - apparently his daughter takes after me when it comes to this delicacy! When she was done, she held out her plate and said "More chip beef." Unfortunately there was none left but we haven't seen the last of it. Duncan and I did end up having a lovely meal ourselves this evening. While Thursday night is Pizza night I've now decreed Friday night to be Pasta night or better yet, I may just call it Garlic night. Duncan and I are HUGE garlic lovers. For Christmas, he got me this neat garlic baker that you can oven roast whole bulbs of garlic in. You put olive oil and spices on it and bake it for about 45 minutes. When it's done, we spread the garlic on little pieces of baguette bread and then put whole cloves on tops of our rigatoni and pasta sauce. Oh, it is so good. Of course, you probably don't want to sit next to us at church. We reek pretty bad. But it's so worth it.

This is some old news but I don't think I've mentioned it here and I want to have it on record. Calleigh has been calling her pacifiers, "tiny baby binkies" since we were up in Boston. For some reason, it's very cute. I think she got the name because she had found an old binkie of hers from when she was a newborn. I told her that she couldn't have it because it was a tiny baby binkie. Since then, she's taken to calling binkies tiny baby binkies. Now we practically just call the binkies "tiny babies." I'll say to her, "Calleigh, are you ready to go upstairs and get tiny babies?" This is another way of saying it's time to go up for a nap. Of course, I know she really shouldn't be having a binkie at all now that she's 20 months old. At least we've always limited the binkies to nap time or bedtime - - she does NOT walk around with one in her mouth during the day. But, like most parents, when something works (in this case, good sleeping), you hate to mess with it. I'm certain at some point we'll pull the plug. I'm just not sure when.

This morning Aunt Lori and Uncle Charlie arrived down here to stay at a time share for the next week. We didn't see them today but we are all getting together for Sabbath lunch here tomorrow. It will be nice also to see Megan and David since we haven't seen them in ages.

Ha! This picture doesn't really go with anything other than telling you that I'm already training Calleign on the 10-key. And, you can see that she's drinking milk out of a sippy cup with a Red Sox logo on it. So yes, I'm trying to turn her into a little mini me!