Archive for the ‘Tootsie’ Category

Bedtime Backrubs

June 19, 2007

To get to the good stuff, you need a little boring background information.

We generally do not share our bed with kids. On the rare occasion they are sick there may possibly be an opportunity to sleep next to mommy, but the exception is null and void if any type of vomit or bodily fluid is involved. That being said, there are been too many times that someone crawls in my bed just to barf, feel better and go right back to their own bed leaving mommy and daddy with a stinky mess and a quest to find new sheets at 3am.

Tootsie is an exception to the exception. (Isn’t she always?) She is 3 1/2 and I can probably count on my two tired hands the times she has slept through the night. The very first time was AFTER she had turned 2 and had her tonsils out. Yes, TWO YEARS old. I think that was even painkiller induced. She “just *said with a whine* can’t sleep very good.” Never. She cries every night at 11pm. She’s usually the first one up, and can’t ever seem to get up on the right side of the bed, so we wake to a crying Tootsie 5 out of 7 times a week.

We need our sleep. So generally, if Tootsie wakes and comes in our room, we scooch out of the way so she can lay by us and we can all get back to sleep. This is plain silly. We pretend to sleep while she sings, hums, tells us stories and kicks us to be sure she’s not the only one awake. She likes to pretend she has a cough, hack all over her hand and rub it on us. Recently she’s started giving us back rubs and tickles. Don’t get me wrong, a back rub is great until it involves toes, knees, her nose or her baby dolls head and the tickling includes the knowledge that her fingernails should have been cut last week.

We have a king-sized bed. It’s fantabulous. We never even have to touch each other….that is until Tootsie comes in our bed. This involves Mommy and Daddy sharing a pillow and a twin-sized part of the bed so Tootsie isn’t complaining that “you’re squishing me” or “you’re stealing my covers” all in The Uber Whine Voice.

The good news is that she usually falls asleep. Curled into my back. In the same twin-sized space as two adults. I think I’ll forfeit my back rubs and start sending her back to her bed.

Posted in Tootsie | 4 Comments »

Laundry Lessons

March 24, 2007

With Rooster playing hooky from school this week I’ve exhausted all entertaining resources. I cannot play one more game of Strawberry Shortcake Dominos, create another sculped bust of Daddy out of pink, orange and green mixed play dough (although I do have a killer recipe for play dough), water paint an exact replica of the Black Beauty DVD cover (18 times), string plastic pony beads into anklets or pick up itty bitty scraps of paper off the floor from ‘cut and paste’ time….until Monday when we’ll do it all again.

Anyways, I was trying to find something to do and with all the fun we’d been having we really needed to get some chores done. In attempts to gather a little help, I taught Rooster (5) and Tootsie (3) how to do the laundry. We learned about sorting. We learned how to empty the dryer and reload the wet clothes, put in a dryer sheet, turn the knobby to the star and push to start.

We learned how to start the water, scoop and pour the soap INTO the washer without a generously sprinkling detergent all over the floor. We learned how to empty one of the sorting bins into the wash and gently close the lid so the boi-oi-oi-oi-oing of the crashing washer lid didn’t wake the babies. (yes, we did have one nap on Thursday for about 20 minutes-ugh) Then we’d use teamwork, (thank you Wonderpets!) and drag the basket inside the house.

With the babies waking so soon, I never got to folding the basket, but the girls would listen for the dryer to finish and run out and do another load, and another, and another, dumping the clean clothes in the middle of my living room so they could re-use baskets and at this very moment, here is what I still have left to fold:

The Laundry Pit

Yes, it IS the chaos that it looks like.
I think they did 8 loads, plus a two loads of towels, a load of all their sheets and blankets (Impetigo rules) and even a load with their doodle dolls. There is no more laundry left in the house and they are devistated! I keep hearing them talking about what they can do to get dirty to make enough clothes to put in the washer.

Why have I not utilized this FREE help before? Now if I could only get them to fold and hang…..

Posted in Crafty Kids Projects, Recipes, Rooster, Tootsie, chores | 3 Comments »

Barfing With A Side of Impetigo Please!

March 22, 2007

Really, what more could I ask for this week?

Monday’s plan was to have the Tootsie’s JoySchool over for a fun filled day of the letter M, crafting maracas and making music. But oh the joys of a three year old. She didn’t want to tidy up her room, so she cried. She didn’t like the color of her cereal bowl, so she cried. She didn’t like the way I scooted her chair in to the kitchen table so she fell on the floor, kicked, screamed and threw a spoon that bonked Bubba in the head.

There is a no crying downstairs rule at our house unless you are hurt, bleeding or dying. I scooped her up, took her to her bed and told her calmly that when she was ready to wake up happy, she was welcome to come back downstairs. This is a daily occurance at our house. Tootsie is a bit emotional.

I talked with Roosters carpool and told her I’d drive the girls to school and as I’m putting down the phone, I hear Tootsie coming down the stairs. I tell her we need to get in the car right now to take Rooster to school. I ask her if she’s decided to have a happy day and she covers her mouth and starts throwing up. I run her over to the kitchen sink. It’s 9:15 and she hasn’t gone potty, until now, all over my skirt and shoes. I have never seen so much pee in my entire life. The poor girl has lost all control.

I yell to Rooster to get the phone and call our carpooling neighbor to come pick her up before she’s late for school. She gets the phone, she dials, she runs right over to the rim of the pee to hand it to me. “Aaaaack!!! Stoppppp! WATCH OUT FOR THE PEE!,” I yell. “JUST TELL HER TOOTSIE IS PUKING!”

Rooster runs up and gets me a bath towel to lay over the lake of pee and I start peeling layers of wet clothing off Tootsie, set her down on the bath towel and started peeling off my own soaked clothes. My feet are literally splashing in pee so I lift each leg up into the kitchen sink to wash them off so I can walk through the rest of the house and my FRONT DOOR OPENS! I’ve got a leg propped on the counter soaping up my foot in the kitchen sink with just my undies on my bottom half. I jump, re-contaminate my feet in the process, and peek around the wall. It’s the neighbor coming to get Rooster for school and I can’t tell you how thankful I am that my kitchen sink is not visible from the front door!!

The rest of the day was a bit weepy, the babies wouldn’t nap, but at least there wasn’t any more throw up. We had to cancel Joy School until next week and I guess I failed to mention it to Tootsie who sat with her blankie on the couch most the day. At 4:15 she asked my why it was taking so long for her school friends to come over. That totally made my heart hurt!

Just wait, the excitement gets better. Saturday Rooster, who will probably never ever learn how to ride her bike, had a wee little crash that resulted in a few wee little owies on her nose and chin. Teeny tiny scratches, not much harm, I don’t think she even realized they were scratched up.

Sunday, the scratches are a little red.

Monday, barfing fiasco day, the scratches are red and scabby and I send her to school. Monday night she tells me her nose hurts and she has a scratch on the inside of her thigh that hurts. I check it out and it’s a huge scabby sore that looks tender so we put a little cream on it with a bandaid and send her to bed.

Tuesday, the scratches are officially sores and look terrible. Her nose is all scabbed over and her chin scab looks double the size. Her leg doesn’t look great either, but I put cream on them and send her off to school where all the kids make fun of her. She comes home nearly in tears and I tell her to tell those kids to stop making fun of her.

Wednesday, her face looks awful. I have to clean up her snotty nose and the scabbies are bleeding. She’s crying. She says her leg hurts so we get her a bandaid so her clothes don’t rub on it. She doesn’t have a fever. She feels fine, she just looks terrible and so I send her to school reminding her to be brave not feel bad if the kids say mean things.

I drop her off feeling like crap because I know some mean kid is going to say something to hurt my baby’s feelings. I call my husband to tell him how awful I feel for her and he tells me I should take her to the doctor if I feel so bad about it. The second I get home I call the doctors office and they don’t have an appointment until the next morning. The do suggest I talk to the advice nurse to ask if there’s anything I might put on the scabbies until then.

I explain the situation to the advice nurse and she tells me to get in my car and get her out of school! She’s probably got Impetigo and it’s highly contagious and she’ll get me an emergency appointment in an hour to see the doctor. Oh great.

I call the school, load up all the kids and run back over to the school. She’s been there 25 minutes and she’s absolutely perplexed as to why she needs to leave. I run into the classroom and the teacher tells me she thinks she probably has Impetigo. HELLO! Why didn’t you call me? Or send her to the school nurse? I thought they were just bike accident scabbies!

Over at the doctors office everyone is wearing gloves. We’ve obviously got a problem here. The doctor walks in and says exclaims YELLS, WHOA, SHE’S GOT IMPETIGO.

Great. Just great. It’s a highly infectious bacteria that gets into your cuts and spreads scabbies all over your body. Eventually, the scabs turn yellow, red and ooze puss and the only way to get rid of it is with strong antibiotics. She could have picked it up at school, at the park, on the playground, at the library. It basically looks like you have flesh eating disease.

I have to sanitize her sheets, pillow and pajamas every night for a week. She cannot share bath water with anyone, or any towels. She dries off and it should go right into the washing machine. No hand towels or wash cloths either, just a paper towel and she must stay out of school for the rest of the week.

Nice. I’ve just sent her to school all week to contaminate all the kids there. She’s also taken a bath with every kid in this house and shared a towel or two during the course of the week. She’s wiped her hands on the bathroom hand towel and slept in Tootsie’s bed.

If impetigo spreads around this house like pink eye usually does I’m going to die. In the meantime we’re giving our kids permission to bathe in the hand sanitizer and putting the prescription antibiotic cream on every cut on their bodies.

This morning, Thursday, they’ve all woken up with a cough. Seriously. Do they still sell Calgon?

Posted in Being Mommy, Impetigo, Kids, Sickness, Tootsie | 3 Comments »

No Thanks, Just My Panties

February 22, 2007

Morning at our house is always the same.  We have rituals that must be followed or else there is a sudden and immediate breakdown and the wailing, screaming and gnashing of teeth that ensues will last until bedtime.

I get out of bed and open the door to find  two girls, dressed (usually/mostly) and playing in their toyroom and the babies are still sleeping or chattering to each other through the crib bars.  I jump in the shower, dress and do a quick makeup application because if I don’t get showered/dressed/made pretty by 7:30am I will never get showered/dressed/made pretty until the next morning at 7am.  That’s just the way it goes.

This is when the crying starts.  I go out to the playroom to see what the girls are wearing and the thought of taking them into public isn’t so appealing.  Tootsie will not wear anything that wraps around her legs.  I honestly don’t know the last time she wore pants – maybe November and that’s only because we were at the ranch and it was snowing and we MADE her wear pants. (the crying still rings in my ears) Anyways, she must wear a dress or skirt every day, she must pick it out herself and she must do her own hairdo.  She is barely 3.  She doesn’t understand that stripes, flowers and sparkles of varying pink, red and green shades do not match.  She doesn’t understand that her beautiful organza dress should not be worn to the park, even if she has cowgirl boots on.  She thinks that her headband is supposed to hold her back hair away from her front hair (she doesn’t have bangs) and that the front hair is supposed to hang over her eyes.   Is it just me?  Am I unaware that her style is hip and posh and totally in? 

This morning Rooster picked out a perfect combination-she’s 5 1/2 and finally starting to understand what works and what mom will NOT allow to be worn to the Kindergarten – specifically ballet shoes, princess dress-up dresses, purple cowgirl hats and Daddy’s shirt she wore to bed, even if it IS a BYU shirt. 

Tootsie picked a shirt, from the dirty clothes basket, a pink head band and a crisp clean pair of striped panties….from Rooster’s drawer.  Panty sharing, let’s not even go there, at least she wasn’t naked, however, she really thought that Rooster’s panties were equivalent to a pair of shorts.  No amount of pleading, offering or begging would make this girl put on a skirt.  I even offered up 3 brand new dresses, 7 different jean skirts and a skirt from Rooster’s basket.  No thanks mom, I just want to wear my panties.  I finally told her, if you’re not dressed by the time the babies are dressed, I’m coming back to dress you.

I just don’t want to hear the crying.  Once it starts, it’s hard to stop.  Once it starts, the other 3 get weepy.  I dressed the babies and went back to find her in a different pair of Rooster’s spanky clean panties.  Have mercy.

I told her she may not come down to breakfast without something over those panties and left her in her room with 2 different dress selections, 3 more skirts and a pair of lacey cute capris (a long shot, but I was hopeful).  I fed the babies, I fed the Rooster, and after 45 minutes I went back up to check on Tootsie who was reading books NAKIE in her bed.

This child.  That’s all I can say.  She can be so stinking cute but she really knows how to push my buttons, pull my strings and make me tip-toe around so she can be happy.

 Today she wore striped panties, a striped shirt and a headband with stripes and she was happy all day long.

Posted in Tootsie | 7 Comments »

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