Cerin Amroth

I had a long discussion with Ella this morning trying to convince her that “tomorrow” is not the same as “today.” Talking about the concept of time with a 4 year-old is complicated stuff. Every morning, she asks me what day it is. Whether today is a work day, school day, Murky Coffee Day (happens on Fridays), at-home day (aka Saturday), or church day — her only categories for the days of the week. When I say it’s a work/school day (as it usually is), she lets out a loud moan. Not that she doesn’t like to go to school, mind you, but simply because that means she won’t be able to watch TV in the morning. We don’t do TV on school day mornings because Dominic often gets TV when he goes to the playroom at the YMCA with Nate.

Today’s discussion centered around the fact that I told her this morning that Nana and Papa are arriving tomorrow. We have been talking since August about the date of Nana and Papa’s visit, so she was EXTREMELY disappointed to learn that tomorrow wasn’t occurring today when she gets home from school! Since I wasn’t convincing her that tomorrow occurs tomorrow, not today, I tried to explain that Friday is different from Thursday, but that didn’t get much traction, either!

Did we really just skip past the whole summer without doing a picture update?  I’ve just put a bunch of them up — start browsing them here.

UPDATE: Added a few more.

Last night was Nate’s turn to jarringly lose the contents of his stomach. That’s all the detail I’ll go into — for fear that we’ll lose all but the hard core readers. Today, I took off work to give Nate time to build back his strength. I’m the only one in this house who hasn’t …. I’m going to avoid finishing that or I’ll certainly spell my own doom.

Here are the events of my Mama-tries-to-fill-in-for-Daddy day:

• Fortunately, I got to sleep in until 7 — 5 years ago, those words never would have appeared together. Big D and Ella woke up together, and we headed downstairs. We read some books and played for a bit, which made us have to rush to get food in Ella, clothes on Ella, and Ella’s teeth brushed before Anita arrived to drive her to preschool.
• Big D and I stayed outside for the morning to do some yard work. It was so nice to be outside without pesky mosquitos bothering us. I also took him for a spin around the block in the wagon. He was positively delighted not to have to fight for foot room with Ella.
• We went shopping at Costco after Dominic watched Sesame Street. Big D surprised me by happily devouring a cracker covered in crab dip. He also charmed the woman who was pouring samples of grapefruit juice. As we were walking away, he said “bye” and waved. I assumed she didn’t see or hear him, so I responded on her behalf, but then I heard her say “bye” back, and he smiled.
• He fell asleep on the way home, and I was able to change his diaper and still keep him asleep. He took a short nap.
• Ella got home while he was sleeping. She loved the spaceship pajamas I got for her. (I should have known that the doggy pjs with the pink color wouldn’t cut it, but I thought that the green shirt might sway her.) She tried them on immediately and tried to convince me to let her wear them for a nap that she decided, after 30 seconds under the covers, not to take. At bed time, she told me that she hoped her friend Symon came over some time for a playdate when she was wearing her PJs, so he could see them and want a pair. Then she said they would go to Costco to get some, and they would all be gone. When I expressed shock at her unfriendly thought, she said, “Of course, they’ll find a pair.”
• I quickly tried to get Dominic some lunch before a conference call I had to be on at 2. He must have sensed my urgency because he proceeded to cry inconsolably as soon as I got on the phone. I had to call in Nate for reinforcement while I went to sit on the front stoop. Dominic later tried to make it up to me by giving me a hug and saying very sweetly, “Muh-muh.”
• We went to the library after that. Ella and I were both disappointed to learn that E.B. White didn’t write another book about Stuart Little. She and I have been talking for days about getting the next one. The way the first one ended, I only assumed there would be another. Ella picked out a comic book to read, instead. I suggested it, and she was very eager about it as soon as she started paging through it. I’m afraid her geek fate has been pre-determined. I tried to convince her to get this book about a girl named Henrietta, but she would have none of it. I ended up checking it out for myself because I was so intrigued.
• The day ended with Ella, Dominic, and I playing a game of Zooloretto — by Ella’s rules, of course. Big D was happy just to be allowed to have his own pieces. He did demand several more, but he was very careful with them and very self-absorbed. I never understood what the rules were, but Ella seemed to be happy, nonetheless. When we counted up points at the end, she was pleased to learn that 2010 (which she pronounced as twenty-ten) was bigger than my measly 39 points.

It was certainly a pleasant day for me, but a lot of work — especially since I was busy trying to disinfect the house, as well. When I asked Nate before bed if he was up to returning to his primary mode of employment, I was delighted to hear him say “yes.”

Ella got the ball rolling with an epic bit of stomach-voiding on Sunday night.  Dominic, who had already had a cold, picked it up last night at supper.  There’s a stomach bug making the rounds, to be sure, and here’s how we’re handling in, in increasing order of incompetence:

Dominic has had a runny nose for a few days now, which means I have to keep a handerkerchief on my person at all times and am often washing dried snot off his cheeks.  His overall demeanor and behavior, however, is not affected in the slightest.  Even last night, when he threw up three times before bed and one time in bed, gradually emptying his stomach, none of it really bothered him overmuch.  Heck, he stayed asleep through the last one.  Today he still has the runny nose but no sign of stomach troubles.

Ella was understandably upset when her tummy rebelled on her in bed a couple nights ago.  Suanna was out of town, so I was racing around in the middle of the night on my own, trying to console her, wash her off, get her sheets off her bed, etc.  I was worried that she was going to be freaked out for the rest of the night.  But an hour later, the second time she threw up that night, the scene was quite different.  We were sitting together in the basement, and she had a red bowl by her side, and as upsetting as it was you could tell she was proud that she got all the spit-up into the bowl.

She threw up every hour for a good bit of the rest of the night.  But toward the end it was almost hilariously de rigeur for her.  We’d both be sleeping in my bed and I’d hear her say, in a voice full of exasperation but not trepidation, “Daaaad.  I think I have to throw up again.”  I’d sit up and hold the bowl and she’d spit up whatever tiny bit of water was still in her system at that point.  Then I’d wipe her mouth off and rinse the bowl out and we’d both fall asleep again right away.  She stayed home from school today as well as yesterday, mostly because she was feeling pretty lethargic, not because of any further stomach troubles.

And then me — I picked up Dominic’s cold, fought it valiantly for a day, but wasn’t able to keep it from coming to full bloom.  It’s mainly just a runny nose, not a big deal.  But now, a day or two after the kids have had their bodies wracked by dry heaves, they are both bouncing around the living room happily and I’m the one feeling wiped.  Go figure.