I just got my nightly phone call from CW.
"Why are you callin' me?"
*giggles* "Because I miss you!"
"Uh-huh. You only miss me because I'm not there telling you take a shower, wipe your bum and don't pee on the toilet seat."
*Outright laughter* "Mom! I don't pee on the toilet seat here -"
"Well good, but do you think you could refrain from peeing on the seat here?"
The conversation went downhill from there. :) She'd been watching the Spiderwick Chronicles and Mulgarath freaked her out. Commonsense Media says that it's fine for 8 years old, but after reading the books (before handing them off to her) I was wondering about the final fight scenes...especially since they freaked her out a bit in the books.
Apparently SG is so worn out on a daily basis out there that he's sleeping solidly - even taking naps during the day. Today Grandpa took him out on the golf cart, since he'd climbed up on it and put on Grandpa's hat. I asked Matt if there was a key or something that could be separated from the cart. Apparently everything he needs to run the cart is all right there. And he watched how to do it all, so I suggested the possibility of golf-cart abetted escape.
Matt's take on it was, "Well, he can't reach the pedals, so he can't go anywhere..."
"Honey, have you met your son? He seems to be lulling you into a false sense of security."
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Entertaining the masses wherever we go...
So, the day we left, me for Detroit, Matt and Nate for CA, we all went to the airport together. My flight was scheduled for 12:16, and theirs was supposed to push back at 9:53am. We got there at about 7:45. We ended up having to wait for a bit to check my bag since it was more than 4 hours to departure of my flight, but the curb check guys took pity on us, and told us to go on in - they'd hold it off to the side for a bit then send it off into the system. Yay! I figured that we were SO early that even if they lost it like they did last year, they still had several hours to find it and send it on it's merry way, so I wasn't overly worried.
We went through security with very little problem - they'd directed us to the idiot - er, the family and handicapped security lane, so everyone was pretty relaxed - annoyingly so. Matt had checked the car seat with the other bags, so it was just the three of us, and 4 carry-ons...*frown*
We stripped down to get through security, and had to take Nate's monkey off of his back to send him through the metal detector. He stopped and put his hands up over his eyes (we refer to this as "putting on his goggles") and I had to give him a little push to start him through the metal detector. Once I got him started I was prepared to run after him, but he ran straight into the plexi-glass booth behind the TSA lady, you know, the one that they scan wheelchairs and stuff in? I started to get him out but she laughed and told me I could leave him there until I was done. YES!! He was totally corralled - three sides of plexi-glass, and the open end filled by a big (sweet) black lady! Happy dance! He stood there at the far end with his "goggles" on watching the TSA lady the whole time. We got our shoes back on, Matt put his belt back on, both laptops back into cases and the CPAP hand swabbed and repacked before getting Nate out.
About 20 or 30 steps past security, Matt's phone rang. We frowned at each other, and as he was pulling his phone out and mumbling, "That can't be good..." MY phone started ringing - confirming that it was United calling to tell us somebody's (likely Matt and Nate's) flight was delayed.
It got delayed 3 or 4 more times across the morning, and eventually *I* ended up having to leave *them* at their gate to get to the other end of the terminal to catch my flight in time. We killed time by having breakfast at Wendy's and watching the ground crews work, walked all over the place, shopped and broke stuff.
Yes, we broke stuff in the Airport. Some security person probably peed in his pants watching us on a surveillance camera. Do you know those lighted ad signs that are in the airports (and sometimes malls) that are basically a roll of ad posters that switch out every few seconds? Yeah. Nate opened one. He'd been really good up to that point, really he had. :) Neither one of us noticed that he was fiddling with something under the bottom of the glass until the glass popped open at the bottom and the ad posters started spilling out onto the floor. I became useless almost instantaneously because I was trying NOT to laugh out loud and blow whatever cover we still had. Matt frantically tried to push the paper back in (while trying to keep Nate from opening it again and getting into it) and close the glass but it wouldn't catch. At one point, the glass opened up to a 45 degree angle, and we thought we were going to have to just leave it. I managed to shove in the right place to get it to close finally, but the ads were screwed up - it was displaying the bottom half of one and the top half of the next one. 8) oops. We walked away quickly.
THEN we went into one of the convenience stores to get some battles of water. They were going to stay out of the store, but Nate followed me in, and since he was tied to Matt, obviously Matt came in too. I'd gotten the bottles and Matt and I were standing in one of the more open spot of the store, looking around to see what else we wanted. We decided we were done, and I realized that Nate had wrapped his tether around me so that I couldn't get out, and Matt wasn't paying attention. The lady behind the counter asked if I was done, and needed to check out, I grinned, indicated the problem and said, "I'll be there in a minute!" Conservatively, I'd say about half of the people in the store started giggling. Matt finally woke up and unwrapped us, then took Nate out. Adding to the fun I ended up with a defective bag that ripped, dumping the water bottles onto the floor as soon as picked it up. I just looked at the bottles and said, "Well THAT didn't work." The ladies behind the counter just lost it. Who knew I was funny?
I refused the apologetically choked out offer of a new plastic bag, and took my purchase and the remains of the bag out to a set of seats right there. I put my carry-on down, and put the bottles on the chair - where they promptly rolled off onto the floor behind the seats. By this point I was giggling and muttering to myself - it was all just a bit too much...
We went through security with very little problem - they'd directed us to the idiot - er, the family and handicapped security lane, so everyone was pretty relaxed - annoyingly so. Matt had checked the car seat with the other bags, so it was just the three of us, and 4 carry-ons...*frown*
We stripped down to get through security, and had to take Nate's monkey off of his back to send him through the metal detector. He stopped and put his hands up over his eyes (we refer to this as "putting on his goggles") and I had to give him a little push to start him through the metal detector. Once I got him started I was prepared to run after him, but he ran straight into the plexi-glass booth behind the TSA lady, you know, the one that they scan wheelchairs and stuff in? I started to get him out but she laughed and told me I could leave him there until I was done. YES!! He was totally corralled - three sides of plexi-glass, and the open end filled by a big (sweet) black lady! Happy dance! He stood there at the far end with his "goggles" on watching the TSA lady the whole time. We got our shoes back on, Matt put his belt back on, both laptops back into cases and the CPAP hand swabbed and repacked before getting Nate out.
About 20 or 30 steps past security, Matt's phone rang. We frowned at each other, and as he was pulling his phone out and mumbling, "That can't be good..." MY phone started ringing - confirming that it was United calling to tell us somebody's (likely Matt and Nate's) flight was delayed.
It got delayed 3 or 4 more times across the morning, and eventually *I* ended up having to leave *them* at their gate to get to the other end of the terminal to catch my flight in time. We killed time by having breakfast at Wendy's and watching the ground crews work, walked all over the place, shopped and broke stuff.
Yes, we broke stuff in the Airport. Some security person probably peed in his pants watching us on a surveillance camera. Do you know those lighted ad signs that are in the airports (and sometimes malls) that are basically a roll of ad posters that switch out every few seconds? Yeah. Nate opened one. He'd been really good up to that point, really he had. :) Neither one of us noticed that he was fiddling with something under the bottom of the glass until the glass popped open at the bottom and the ad posters started spilling out onto the floor. I became useless almost instantaneously because I was trying NOT to laugh out loud and blow whatever cover we still had. Matt frantically tried to push the paper back in (while trying to keep Nate from opening it again and getting into it) and close the glass but it wouldn't catch. At one point, the glass opened up to a 45 degree angle, and we thought we were going to have to just leave it. I managed to shove in the right place to get it to close finally, but the ads were screwed up - it was displaying the bottom half of one and the top half of the next one. 8) oops. We walked away quickly.
THEN we went into one of the convenience stores to get some battles of water. They were going to stay out of the store, but Nate followed me in, and since he was tied to Matt, obviously Matt came in too. I'd gotten the bottles and Matt and I were standing in one of the more open spot of the store, looking around to see what else we wanted. We decided we were done, and I realized that Nate had wrapped his tether around me so that I couldn't get out, and Matt wasn't paying attention. The lady behind the counter asked if I was done, and needed to check out, I grinned, indicated the problem and said, "I'll be there in a minute!" Conservatively, I'd say about half of the people in the store started giggling. Matt finally woke up and unwrapped us, then took Nate out. Adding to the fun I ended up with a defective bag that ripped, dumping the water bottles onto the floor as soon as picked it up. I just looked at the bottles and said, "Well THAT didn't work." The ladies behind the counter just lost it. Who knew I was funny?
I refused the apologetically choked out offer of a new plastic bag, and took my purchase and the remains of the bag out to a set of seats right there. I put my carry-on down, and put the bottles on the chair - where they promptly rolled off onto the floor behind the seats. By this point I was giggling and muttering to myself - it was all just a bit too much...
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Taking the show on the road...
So, CW and SG are out in SoCal visiting my husband's side of the family. Usually I go on the annual pilgrimage, but this year Matt offered me the chance NOT to go. Did I jump on it? Hell yes!! Do I feel guilty about it, of course - I'm a mom. Did I even foresee that my eight year old would develop emotionally induced GI tract issues because she misses me? Nope.
Let me back up. My eight year old (CW) is frequently irritated with me, mostly I think because I make her do things, and I call Daddy on the carpet for spacing out and letting her slide on her chores. I frequently find that he's let her out to go play when there is OBVIOUS stuff for her to deal with in the living room, and I call BOTH of them on it. (I occasionally let her slide on her chores too, usually because I'm too tired to deal with the situation of trying to explain (for the 4000th time) why she has to do this, whatever it may be.) When she has ANY choice between Matt and I, she chooses Matt, even for something so simple as going with him to the other end of the grocery store. So, to be honest I never saw any of this coming - I was more worried about the two year old (SG) who seems to be completely off balance emotionally if he doesn't get his daily mommy laptime.
Why was I worried? Because somehow while we were booking the flights for them to CA, the week that Matt and SG were going to spend out there turned into two whole weeks. Stupid me didn't say anything about it because I felt guilty about not going out in the first place, and I didn't want anyone else's vacations crimped because *I* am unable to unwind when my children are about. Stupid. Stupid, Stupid, STUPID.
CW went out there by herself a week prior to Matt and SG. We'd shortened it to one week, because she'd had some homesickness, attitude and boredom issues during the two weeks she was there last year. As far as we can tell, she had a great time that first week. She didn't initiate any calls herself, but Grandma would grab her and have her talk to daddy on the phone if she was talking to Matt anyway. I don't think she ever asked for me, and I wasn't surprised (or upset for that matter - I just want her to enjoy being out there).
Matt and SG got out there LATE on Wednesday night after a hellishly long day of traveling, and Thursday was a do-nothing day. Everything seemed to be going fine until Saturday night (EDIT: I totally forgot about the calls AFTER midnight on Friday night). I started getting phone calls around 11:30, after E and I had gone to bed - which meant that I was in the basement, not getting good signal. Two calls from his cell phone, 1 from his sister's sell phone and one from his parent's house line later I figured out that I needed to drag my bum out of bed and go upstairs. Up to this point, Matt had been basically chatty, which vaguely annoyed my tired self, and made me NOT want to answer the string of increasingly irritating phone calls. Finally it turns out that Maddie was upset and wanted to talk to me, which was prefaced by Matt telling Maddie that Mommy was hanging up the phone before. This of course prompted, "I was NOT hanging up the phone you idiot! I had no signal!!" I was convinced by this time that he was drunk, or at the very least had heat stroke, because his brain seemed not to be connected to anything else. 8) So Maddie was upset, missing me and wanted me to come out there. We talked for a bit, and she was a little better, everyone went to bed. I did text him to say that if Maddie needed to talk to me to use MADDIE's phone, so I'd know SHE needed me.
Sunday I talked to Matt and he claims not to have been drunk, but simply forgetful. He thought that Detroit was in the Central time zone, and that it was ONLY 10:30pm when they called. Not that the timing made a difference since Maddie was the needy one, but still. Grr.
Sunday night, 11:08pm Maddie calls.
Monday night, 11:31pm Maddie calls.
Tuesday I was flying back from Detroit (and E's house) and I called them while I was waiting at baggage claim to see how everyone was doing at this point, since the morning had been...eventful. Matt had figured out Sunday that Maddie was, um, retaining, and we talked about what to do about it. I suggested bananas, since they've always moved right on through with her, and to hold the applejuice (our version of an ICBM) in reserve. So Monday morning she apparently still been sick to her stomach, completely not hungry and nothing had moved. So, my husband decided to give her apple juice.
Have I mentioned that they were going to the aquarium that day? No? Hmm.
I got a call Tuesday (late morning or early afternoon - I'm not sure which). Matt was waiting outside of a Target bathroom for Maddie, since they'd decided to stop and let her try. He thought that maybe an Icee would make her feel better and I agreed, thinking that if nothing else it might make her happier, and alleviate some of the symptoms. THIS is when I found out that he'd given her applejuice that morning and that there had been "some" diarrhea before they left for the aquarium. Truly, I married a genius.
Not long after that we talked (I don't know who called whom on this one) and she'd thrown up in the car. I just busted up laughing. They were stopping at another Target to get her some new clothes, at which point I suggested that he get her some new panties too, for insurance if nothing else.
I called from the Baggage Claim at the airport, and she was feeling crappy again, moaning and crying to me that her stomach hurt. I asked her to show daddy EXACTLY where it hurt and to have him tell me where she pointed, because at this point I was starting to suspect that maybe it was cramps. Nope. BUT talking to me for those 5 or 6 seconds made her feel better. I told Matt that I was pretty sure it was stress and being unhappy that I wasn't there. I asked what she'd been eating and it's nothing out of the ordinary. I asked if it had started before or after getting Mommy-sick, and it seems to have manifested the morning after the first time she got upset. Bingo. I suggested that whatever was planned for Wednesday needed to be canceled or extremely low key and close to home. I haven't heard from them yet today. :)
Let me back up. My eight year old (CW) is frequently irritated with me, mostly I think because I make her do things, and I call Daddy on the carpet for spacing out and letting her slide on her chores. I frequently find that he's let her out to go play when there is OBVIOUS stuff for her to deal with in the living room, and I call BOTH of them on it. (I occasionally let her slide on her chores too, usually because I'm too tired to deal with the situation of trying to explain (for the 4000th time) why she has to do this, whatever it may be.) When she has ANY choice between Matt and I, she chooses Matt, even for something so simple as going with him to the other end of the grocery store. So, to be honest I never saw any of this coming - I was more worried about the two year old (SG) who seems to be completely off balance emotionally if he doesn't get his daily mommy laptime.
Why was I worried? Because somehow while we were booking the flights for them to CA, the week that Matt and SG were going to spend out there turned into two whole weeks. Stupid me didn't say anything about it because I felt guilty about not going out in the first place, and I didn't want anyone else's vacations crimped because *I* am unable to unwind when my children are about. Stupid. Stupid, Stupid, STUPID.
CW went out there by herself a week prior to Matt and SG. We'd shortened it to one week, because she'd had some homesickness, attitude and boredom issues during the two weeks she was there last year. As far as we can tell, she had a great time that first week. She didn't initiate any calls herself, but Grandma would grab her and have her talk to daddy on the phone if she was talking to Matt anyway. I don't think she ever asked for me, and I wasn't surprised (or upset for that matter - I just want her to enjoy being out there).
Matt and SG got out there LATE on Wednesday night after a hellishly long day of traveling, and Thursday was a do-nothing day. Everything seemed to be going fine until Saturday night (EDIT: I totally forgot about the calls AFTER midnight on Friday night). I started getting phone calls around 11:30, after E and I had gone to bed - which meant that I was in the basement, not getting good signal. Two calls from his cell phone, 1 from his sister's sell phone and one from his parent's house line later I figured out that I needed to drag my bum out of bed and go upstairs. Up to this point, Matt had been basically chatty, which vaguely annoyed my tired self, and made me NOT want to answer the string of increasingly irritating phone calls. Finally it turns out that Maddie was upset and wanted to talk to me, which was prefaced by Matt telling Maddie that Mommy was hanging up the phone before. This of course prompted, "I was NOT hanging up the phone you idiot! I had no signal!!" I was convinced by this time that he was drunk, or at the very least had heat stroke, because his brain seemed not to be connected to anything else. 8) So Maddie was upset, missing me and wanted me to come out there. We talked for a bit, and she was a little better, everyone went to bed. I did text him to say that if Maddie needed to talk to me to use MADDIE's phone, so I'd know SHE needed me.
Sunday I talked to Matt and he claims not to have been drunk, but simply forgetful. He thought that Detroit was in the Central time zone, and that it was ONLY 10:30pm when they called. Not that the timing made a difference since Maddie was the needy one, but still. Grr.
Sunday night, 11:08pm Maddie calls.
Monday night, 11:31pm Maddie calls.
Tuesday I was flying back from Detroit (and E's house) and I called them while I was waiting at baggage claim to see how everyone was doing at this point, since the morning had been...eventful. Matt had figured out Sunday that Maddie was, um, retaining, and we talked about what to do about it. I suggested bananas, since they've always moved right on through with her, and to hold the applejuice (our version of an ICBM) in reserve. So Monday morning she apparently still been sick to her stomach, completely not hungry and nothing had moved. So, my husband decided to give her apple juice.
Have I mentioned that they were going to the aquarium that day? No? Hmm.
I got a call Tuesday (late morning or early afternoon - I'm not sure which). Matt was waiting outside of a Target bathroom for Maddie, since they'd decided to stop and let her try. He thought that maybe an Icee would make her feel better and I agreed, thinking that if nothing else it might make her happier, and alleviate some of the symptoms. THIS is when I found out that he'd given her applejuice that morning and that there had been "some" diarrhea before they left for the aquarium. Truly, I married a genius.
Not long after that we talked (I don't know who called whom on this one) and she'd thrown up in the car. I just busted up laughing. They were stopping at another Target to get her some new clothes, at which point I suggested that he get her some new panties too, for insurance if nothing else.
I called from the Baggage Claim at the airport, and she was feeling crappy again, moaning and crying to me that her stomach hurt. I asked her to show daddy EXACTLY where it hurt and to have him tell me where she pointed, because at this point I was starting to suspect that maybe it was cramps. Nope. BUT talking to me for those 5 or 6 seconds made her feel better. I told Matt that I was pretty sure it was stress and being unhappy that I wasn't there. I asked what she'd been eating and it's nothing out of the ordinary. I asked if it had started before or after getting Mommy-sick, and it seems to have manifested the morning after the first time she got upset. Bingo. I suggested that whatever was planned for Wednesday needed to be canceled or extremely low key and close to home. I haven't heard from them yet today. :)
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