Tag - You're it!

I have been "tagged" by my good friend Jessi to complete this little questionaire. So, here goes... 6 Non-Important Things About Me 1. I am a little OCD about how my silverware is put away - each piece has its own place so my silverware drawer never looks in disarray. 2. I'm finding myself to be a bit of a chocoholic...if I don't have a piece after Grant goes to bed, my day feels incomplete. 3. I'm the middle child and I STILL know what to do to set my siblings off, even though we haven't lived together in nearly 10 years. 4. I LOVE doing Sudoku. 5. My favorite night-time snack is homemade popcorn with a little bit of salt and butter drizzled over the top. 6. One of my favorite things is to snuggle up in a blanket that has just come out of the dryer.

Sickness

Well, our house has been full of sickness for the last couple of weeks. Chris has been working in the ER and has brought a couple of bugs home, I'm afraid. He had the flu last week, which I, in turn, picked up. It was a nasty bug that has hung around with us for nearly two weeks now. And unfortunately, I can't take any medication for it since I'm pregnant, so I've been rather miserable. We have all started feeling better over the last several days, so we went over to a friend's house on Friday night thinking that we were finally over this sickness, or whatever it was. Grant was having a ball running around after 3 other little kids. He looked like he was having the time of his life, despite the fact that he just couldn't quite keep up. They were running laps around him! As we were getting ready to go, he turned around and threw up twice - all over their nice white carpet. We got it all cleaned up, and luckily they were cleaning their carpet the next day anyway. I was a bit concerned, but figured he had just had a full tummy and had been moving around an awful lot more than normal, so I assumed it was just a one time deal. We brought him home, stuck him in the tub, and put him to bed. He cried for a little while, and when we went up to bed later and checked on him, he had thrown up again - all over the bed. So we got that all cleaned up (rather Chris did - I held Grant and had to catch whatever was coming out of his mouth for the next two hours. Sorry - I know that's not a pleasant thought. We finally got him to go back to sleep around 1:00 AM and he slept through the night. Yesterday wasn't too much better. The poor kid just couldn't keep anything down. I found myself finding humor in the situation towards the end of the day. I was thinking how very differently Chris and I reacted to the situation. My instinct when I see my little man throwing up is to drop everything and use whatever is accessible to catch it - even if it is just my bare hands. Chris, on the other hand, has a very different reaction: We were sitting on the floor last night watching an animated movie to try to keep Grant entertained. All he wanted to do yesterday was lay around on someone's lap. So we put in a movie and snuggled with our little boy. I glanced over at one point and Grant was sitting on Chris' lap gagging again, so I said, "Chris, Chris - get something quick!" Instead of grabbing for the towel that I had placed beside him, Chris instinctively picked Grant up off of his lap and threw him forward. So while Grant was getting sick all over the carpet, Chris could only think to get him off his lap. It amused me. Later on, Chris was holding him again and he threw up again. I asked Chris if he were okay and with a disgusted look on his face, he looked at me and said, "It's running down my leg. It's even on my foot." I got the giggles, which I don't think he appreciated. In fact, after Grant had gone to bed and we were talking about it, I was laughing so hard that I even snorted! This is one of those situations that needs to be written in a "You know you're a parent when..." book. You know you're a parent when...you've been thrown up on at least 5 times in one day! Hopefully the little man will be feeling better today. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

A couple of Firsts...

In preparation for this new little one to enter our lives, we decided that we wanted to get Grant used to his "Big Boy Bed," so that he didn't feel like once the baby got here, he was just kicked out of his crib. So we went out and picked out a side for the day-bed/one time guest bed and made a big deal about setting it up, getting it ready and then taking his first nap in the big boy bed. Our original intention was to start slowly...just with naps and let him sleep normally at night time for a little bit. But the first experience didn't go so well, so we decided to quit the crib cold turkey. Grant was not too pleased to be sleeping in another bed for the first time. He wanted his crib and nothing to do with this humongous new bed. Usually he goes down for his nap really easily, but not this time. It was an hour and 1/2 fight. He kept getting out of the bed and banging on the walls and doors, which we had shut in an effort to at least keep him in his room. I had to keep going up and putting him in his bed. So the rule became: You must stay IN your bed. If you get out, you will be spanked. So, he had several spankings that first day...and second. And third. The fourth day that he was in his bed, he kept getting out again, which we had been doing better with. So the fourth time I had gone up to put him back in his bed (each time receiving a spanking a bit harder than before), I opened the door. He was sitting in the middle of the floor holding "Mr. Bear," his security blanket. He took one look at me and burst into tears. I came in, picked him up and explained to him again that he needed to stay in his bed. He put both hands on my face and with crocodile tears running down his cheeks, he said his first entirely understandable sentence: "Mommy, Mommy, I want my Daddy!" Oh, way to tear a mom's heart out! What a first sentence, huh? I still spanked him, much against my instincts. I would have held him and rocked him to sleep while tickling his face after that. But consistency is key! He hasn't really gotten out of his bed since that day. Whew!