Grim and grumpy

Rough couple of days on this end. Jack's sick with what started out as another allergy-sufferer case, but now has shown his preference for running mild fever with it, and flaunting a nasty little cough that serves also to ensure he's up at least every hour and a half at night.

This cup, here, flows over. ... Though apparently not enough for me to abandon attempts to document my lack of time/energy/mental capacity/patience, and instead get few precious minutes of sleep. I'm a grumpy hypocrite.

My unspoken, but heart-felt (in a literal sense) prayer is simply that tomorrow's easier, and that Jack feels better.

"Small was feeling grim and grumpy. 'Good grief,"'said Large. 'What is the matter?' 'I'm grim and grumpy,' said little Small, "and I don't think that you love me at all.' 'Oh, Small,' said Large, 'grumpy or not, I'll always love you - no matter what.'"

With him on the changing table, Jack and I discussed the relative merits of his ability to 1) either focus on letter 'D' or 2) comprehensively address his father as DaDa. He handsomely won the argument by peeing on me - really, who can argue with that?

In other news, I continue to be underwhelmed by Maya's allergy medications... while her eyes are at least visible now, her poor skin is still rashy, patchy and dry. My favorite pediatrician advice so far has to do with eye drops, and it goes something like this: "Give her eye drops." ... Really? It's like giving eye drops to an ant - the degree of difficulty is rather similar.

Shrinking Sunday afternoons

Rearranged Jack's nursery today in preparation for family's arrival and imminent need for sleeping space (current thought is that great-Gramma will sleep in Jack's room), and liked it much better. Some feng shui happened, there.

Amidst a decently challenging day with kids (Allan gone attempting to recharge with chess tournament, us home), managed to wash all of his various mats, floor blankets, quilts, and other large articles of cloth he uses to separate himself from the floor. I was particularly grateful for warm and hugely breezy (ahem... understatement) afternoon that had those dry in about seven minutes.

I should probably take a picture of Jack's room tomorrow for it'll be a while before it's this clean again. Heck, just this morning I removed an entire length of a railroad track from there (engine and three railcars included, plus, I believe, random greenery and a station tower). Gifts of the Magi, those are.

Good night, noises everywhere...

"Good night, Maya."

"Mama. Go to bed, OK? And go to potty."

"Umm... OK."

Pfffbst

Laying down with Jack on his Magic Floor Gym - I put my head down on the mat right next to him in a caring gesture. And he cared right back. By blowing the biggest raspberry of the day straight into my face.

My sweet boy. He knew I was secretly contemplating a shower.

Throne of Eats

Jack-O's first day in the high chair! He's a natural. We'll omit the fact that it's likely due to the fact that the tray table adjusts really close to his belly and essentially allows Jack to just "hang" out.

Just like that, baby boy is sharing the big table. His breakfast was further brightened by the fact that he was occupied watching Maya eat. Oh, the two of them. We still do the "Mama, I want to sit in the [nursery] chair with JACK!" routine almost daily. I'll never tire of praising her for her great sistership... sisterhood? :) She really is quite fond of him, which warms my heart like a bright lava lamp bubble.

Green eggs and ham

Tonight, Maya and I decided to keep it simple and have an omelet for dinner. I'm an enthusiastic believer in letting kids cook with me, so Maya was assigned the all-too-important Mixer role. First, she took on stirring together shredded zucchini and leftover rice. Her version of doing that consisted mostly of eating cold rice, but who's judging?

But the eggs... this child loves to crack her some eggs. She's THE ultimate Sam-I-Am. Tonight, I handed over four eggs, a bowl and a spoon and decided (against my control-freak nature) not to intervene.

The first egg was gently tapped with a spoon - then she gently tried to pry it open with her hands - and it suddenly (the way only eggs can) went KAPLOOEY into the bowl. She dropped the shells there, too, from the foodie shock of it all, which I fished out piece by piece.

BUT! Eggs #2, 3 and 4 were cracked; opened; and she held on to the shells! Such progress within five minutes. To further congratulate herself, she added her own doze of shredded Parmesan to the eggs and gave the whole thing a good mixin'.

Now I just wish I was a tad smarter/quicker and would have taken pictures. Did I mention she *ate* the eggs, zucchini and all? My child with allergy to anything 'green'? Yeah.