Mostly-Mommy

Friday my mom got called to a birth so I went with my little bro (he’s almost 20) to get some wisdom teeth yanked out. Had to bring the kids which was interesting, especially while we waited with him in recovery. At one point Karsen pulled his phone out of his pocket and was trying to text while in a state of delicate consciousness. I shut him down so he mimed that he needed to write a desperate message. Here it is:

Did you get that? Yeah, me neither but it was really hard to stifle my giggling while he was very seriously writing it.

Saturday morning began with this:

Thank goodness it wasn’t permanent marker! We got him cleaned up and headed over to Lowe’s with some friends to build a firetruck.

Had some fun, came back home for a nice brunch and let the kiddos play for a while. While someone was supposed to be watching Zoey (certainly not ME) I discovered her looking like this:

SOMEBODY PICK UP THAT DAMN MARKER ALREADY!

Later Nick and I took a looooong trip to Target while the little one napped and we got her a backpack. I figured it was time so she’d have something to put her jammies in when she sleeps at her Grandma Sarah’s house (HINT, HINT).

She likes it. A lot.

Then Saturday night my mom and I made dinner for the whole lot of us. It was miso soup, Thai basil chicken with rice, edamame, and the main attraction was homemade CRAB RANGOON! Nice dinner huh? I didn’t get any pictures because dinner was promptly scarfed up by a pack of starving hyenas. We need to learn to shut our doors.

Nick spent the night with the Grandparents and we watched Zodiac. That was a weird movie because it was simultaneously interesting and BO-ring because it was about an hour too long.

Monday was Mike and I’s sixth anniversary so we celebrated by pawning off the spawn and going out to dinner, then over to the Uptown to see Beck! MGMT opened — they did a few great songs, a few fine songs, and a few frickin’ annoying songs that felt like a cheese grater going at the base of my skull. Fun though. And Beck was AWESOME! They were really interactive with the crowd and for one song they brought out “KC’s best tambourine player” to do a song with them. That guy was hilarious! Plus there was this old dude sitting across the aisle that would play air guitar and spontaineously throw a vigorous double THUMBS UP THUMBS UP THUMBS UP!!! Dude cracked us up. Great show, great company, and home by 11:00pm. Super. No pics though, not allowed, meh.

And that was the (long) weekend. How was yours?

Well, it’s my last night as a twenty-something.

I’m actually excited to be turning the big 3-0 tomorrow but that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying my last weekend in my twenties with a little debauchery and bar hopping. Heh!

Last night my ultra hip partner in crime and I went down to Westport for a show at the Beaumont. We saw Vedera which is a pretty popular local band and now I know why. That girl is little but she can SERIOUSLY belt it out, great songs too. The warm-up bands however… Queen’s Club was pretty rockin’ so I bought their $3 CD. The Roman Numerals on the other hand can only be described as Sucktastic McCrappalicious, sorry dudes. I tried to get into it but they lost even my obligatory applause after the first couple of songs. My hands were busy covering my ears. On the way out we walked down to the corner where there was a man reading palms and Tarot Cards. I wanted to have my palm read for my 30th birthday but that would’ve required letting that guy touch me, so we kept on walking.

Today Nick and I spent a good chunk of the afternoon at Target, then later we all headed over to my mom’s house for a party that I had no idea was happening. NO IDEA. TOTAL SURPRISE. In no way did my husband crack under the pressure and spill all the juicy details ahead of time. He would never! It was a TOTAL SURPRISE. It was also pretty fun and delicious. Thanks!

I was going to put some pictures in here but when I plugged in the camera it said Mike took 135 pictures at the party! Must’ve been some party! So alas no time for all that tonight. You’ll just have to settle for some highlights tomorrow. Right now I’m going to bed to rest up for my 30’s. I’m going to need all the energy I can get because I plan on my next decade being pretty great.

It has been a while since I’ve written about anything newsworthy here but alas I am incoherent lately, so allow me to update you in a handy numbered list format:

1. For the Fourth of July we spent the day picking apples, shooting off fireworks and BBQ-ing over at my mom’s house. Well, BBQ-ing to the best of our meager abilities since we lost Chef Bob to Camp for the summer. I think we did a pretty stellar job too if I do say so myself.

2. Friday night my mom, Nick and I headed downtown for the fireworks by the river. It was the first time Nick had seen a “real” fireworks display. It was WAY past his bedtime and he DUG it. Especially the shuttle down to the river in the school bus. I think he liked that even more than the fireworks.

3. We did one of those kid clinics at the Home Depot where Nick built a birdhouse. We had lots of fun. Thanks Home Depot!

4. Saturday evening Mike and I slipped away for a romantic dinner at Buca di Beppo on the Plaza before sending Nicholas away to stay at Casa de Grandma for the night. I don’t think he minded too much.

5. Pottytraining is going VERY well. Diapers are completely out of the mix and he even wears his undies at night now. Yeah!

6. Zoey has been way pissy. Seems like some sort of teething/devil possession/growth spurt/separation anxiety kind of pissiness. Is she too young to be in the Terrible Twos?

7. Roscoe has been a real nozzle lately. He does not enjoy the 4th of July.

8. Roscoe jumped over Nick’s head and smashed his face into the baby gate, putting his teeth through his lip and getting blood EVERYWHERE right before we had to leave for an appointment. See #7. On the plus side, I’ve found that treating bloodied items with Spray n’Wash then soaking in a Borax solution is highly effective for stain removal. Just thought you’d like to know.

9. We had a big ol’ storm Wednesday night with hail the size of golf balls. We watched it out the front window and saw our car take some pretty good hits. It was nice to not be upset about the hail because what, was it going to give us our 37th dent? Aluminum hood: Makes Your Car Safer, What Else Do You Want From It You Whiner?

10. My mom and I took Nick and Zoey to visit a baby that was only three days old. Zoey took one look at him and put her arms out to take him. She had that look in her eye and she wanted that baby to be her very own. She got more than a little agitated when that turned out not to be the case.

That’s enough for now right? Oh, one more thing I guess. Karrmedia is updated!

Ugh.

Nick, thank goodness, is finally feeling better today. Poor kid has been on more drugs than Keith Richards lately. So many in fact that yesterday he started having stomach pain and diarrhea which of course led to the addition of another drug to his reportoire. Just Probiotics though, nothing too serious.

Then this morning Zo woke up at 5am and has been kind of drippy and feverish and pitiful. Mike has been nursing some kind of sinusy cold all week. I have been running a fever between 99 and 100 degrees since Monday and am feeling pretty crummy today.

What the hell?

Oh, hello there. Where have I been? Do I have a story for you…

About two weeks ago Nick developed a runny nose which wasn’t really a problem except for the danger of his parents wanting to murder him because of the incessant, whiny “washclott, I need my washclott,washclott, washclott, WASHCLOTT!” And of course the constant hooting like a little howler monkey, but I digress.

By Sunday his sleep was getting pretty terrible, by Tuesday he was feverish and lethargic, and on Wednesday he was in Urgent Care. Another infection in both ears. There is nothing more pitiful than my usually so energetic little boy crying “I hurt” and falling asleep watching TV. He’s still running fevers but was feeling much better as of yesterday, as evidenced by the high levels of mischief he was up to.

Do you know what is about the worst thing for a kid to come running into the room and say? “I got something all over the place!” Yes, yes he did. It was, um, a water-based moisturizer of a personal nature. Ahem. Zoey was covered in it and found the texture to be very interesting. Mike got home from work just then. I bet he wished he’d stayed later!

On a side note do you know what is really cool? When the nurse asked if Nick was potty trained I could say, “Yes he is! Newly!” Even with all the sickness he has only had one accident and has stayed dry every night. This I like very much.