We survived sick-eye

I was surprised that my eyes didn't blow up like Theo and Ruby's eyes did. Well, actually, Ruby's eyes didn't ever swell, but they got very red and more than anyone else, she was waking up with one eye glued shut. I had two mornings when my eye was very sticky right when I woke up, and throughout the day I would notice that my eye was itchy. It never got too bad though. So all that silly dysthymia was for nothing. And everybody's eyes are beautiful again.

In other news, potty-training is still going nowhere for Theo. Granted, I did sort of put everything on hold until I knew the match results. I figured even if we did manage to potty train him, he'd regress if we ended up having to move. Earlier this week, Theo sat on the potty for a very long time while Dad kept him company. Dad needed to step out of the bathroom for a minute, and he told Theo to stay on the potty. So naturally as soon as Dad left, Theo promptly got off the potty and left a pile on the bathroom floor. Shortly afterwards I heard him calling down the stairs, "Mama, I got a poopoo leg." This morning we spent half an hour in the bathroom. Theo was very cheerful the whole time. He'd sit on the potty for five minutes, stand up for a minute to take a break, and then get back on. We sang Rainbow Connection a few times. I would say, "Are you trying to get your poo out?" and he would say, "Yes, Mama," and he would bear down, and his face would turn red, and I'd say, "Good grief Theo, it'll come when it comes." So he'd relax and sing Rainbow Connection again. Dad took over at some point because Ruby wanted to nurse. Theo eventually got tired (you couldn't blame him) and a few minutes after putting on a fresh diaper...

Some old nice pictures

I've been a little bit behind with posting pictures because we've been transitioning from our old broken computer to a new one that we purchased shortly after finding out that we would not be moving. Anyway, here are some of my favorites:

Everybody else gets sick-eye

It was just as I feared. Ruby got conjunctivitis, and now I (Mom) have it. I've never had it in my life, and now here I am. I wonder if this means I have to take a few days off from Emed.

I need to get a new attitude about these little illnesses. Everytime my kids get sick, I start to feel worried and dysthymic. I don't feel like cooking, I undereat or overeat, all I want to do is surf the internet. It's not that we've ever had a truly threatening illness run through our house; it's more like it's one thing after another and we're constantly running at below optimum performance, because we're constantly wiping someone's nose, or we have to hold the kids down to get their eyedrops (which were worthless, but you don't know they're going to be worthless til you've tried), or every night you have to clean the carpet because the kid throws up his food two seconds after behaving perfectly fine. This morning I didn't want to get out of bed, because I felt the stickiness in my eye, and I know exactly what happened to each of my children-they looked perfectly fine in the morning except for a little weepiness, but by the time the evening rolled around, eyelids were swollen (you can look at the picture below.) It wouldn't be so bad if I could hide in the house for the next four days, but I have to attend a suit-and-tie dinner with Dad tonight.

I just have to get over it, but it would help if I could find my inner cheerleader.

Theo has sick-eye

I (Mama) never had conjunctivitis as a child so I thought that maybe my children could escape it too. No way. Theo woke up the other day with gunk in his eye, and slowly as the day went by, it got redder and redder, until finally he looked like he was in a boxing match (hence the inspiration for the picture.) He went to Nighttime Pediatrics, which is actually a terrible place to go, and people should only go if the case is straightforward and is not emotionally taxing. Ted and Theo spent two hours there waiting for them to fill a prescription. I think that may actually be worse than the pharmacy at the VA. When they got back, Theo said, "Mama, I have sick-eye."

Those eyedrops are the worst. He needs 3 drops per eye four times a day. Every single drop = at least 10 seconds of screaming with physical restraints.

And it hit me too that by having children, I am getting another 15-20 years of this. What I mean is, everytime someone gets sick, I get this terrible feeling that everyone in the whole house is in for it. It's such a big difference from before, when I would get a cold and maybe Ted would catch it or maybe he wouldn't, and certainly no one was going to come home with conjunctivitis. But kids have fluids everywhere and try as you might, you just can't chase after them with sanitizer all day. At Christmas time, I got the flu, and I hoped that by washing my hands no one else would get it. But one by one, everyone got it. Then there was that AWFUL GI bug that Theo brought home from daycare. We got a call that he was throwing up, so we took him home, and that night, one by one, we ALL threw up. That was some virus. Now I'm afraid that any minute, I'm going to notice that Ruby has pus coming out of her eye.