bad night.

s woke me up two times, and cried for a long time. she expects me to hold her and rock her for a long time, but i refused last night. z woke up at one point. she woke me up 2 hours before my 6:15 alarm and basically didn't let me get any more sleep.
and the deck people cut through a wire, and now the downstairs intercom speakers aren't working. there is a chance that it can't be fixed if the intercom guy can't reach enough wire inside the house. how in the world can the deck people make that ok???? the intercom was one of the reasons we got this house, and it cost a lot of money to upgrade the speakers, not to mention time and inconvenience on my end. this is not ok. it had better be fixable.

ugh

last night was bad. z didn't have the croupy cough yesterday, just an incessant dry hacking cough. i tried giving him the $13 for a tiny amount of herbal cough syrup, and it did nothing for him, so i tried a little packet of dextromethorphan/guiafenesin (kids medicine in granule form). he went to sleep fairly quickly, because i didn't hear coughing anymore. however, when i was finally trying to get to bed, what do i hear? coughing, coughing, and more coughing. he wasn't crying for me, so i just tried sleeping through it. this continued throughout the night - hearing coughing, which made me very nervous because it sounded like it was getting croupy again, and trying to just sleep through it. i'm so tired.

z says (about the deck work), "i hate that noise! it distracts me while i eat my breakfast!"
he also says he feels yucky and hot and tired. and s says her ear hurts. they have an appointment with the doctor late this morning. z's school conference is first this morning.
i just had to send him to his room because he whacked me on my behind while i was talking to the decking guy.
he ripped part of my favorite painting that s painted (which is hanging up in the kitchen), saying it's wrapping paper now, so he only got one book at bedtime (which s got to pick). i was going to actually keep that painting, dammit.

yay.

z is sick. he woke me up at 2am with his violent coughing. i gave him steroids, as there was a croupy edge to it. the coughing continued, and then stopped after 30 min - he must've fallen asleep.
and then it started again, around 5:45am. i tried to sleep through it, but fifteen minutes later he started calling mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, so i went in. the steroids didn't really do much. i gave him a 2T spoonful of honey, and of course it got everywhere. i sent him to the bathroom to clean the spoon and his hands & face, and told him to go back to his room. i went to take a quick shower. when i came out of the shower, i heard him singing loudly something about a bus. s was still sleeping, so i ran in asking why the heck he was singing so loudly if s was still sleeping. what was he thinking?????????? i was SO angry, so sent him back to his room until i was dressed. now both kids are awake and watching tv. the banging is going to resume again soon, as the deck is being replaced. this day is no fun. banging and coughing banging and coughing banging and coughing banging and coughing.
i found out last night after teaching that z hit his friend hard with his back pack after school, which had a somewhat full water bottle in it. they were playing tag, and z just whacked him hard with the pack, so much that the poor kid started crying. again, WHAT THE HECK WAS Z THINKING?????
that's my son. and that was BEFORE the steroids i gave him in the middle of the night. what a day this will be. yay.

9's

this morning, z asked me how you draw a nine. i told him "how perfect! that is the number you are to work on next in your workbook!" i opened it to the proper page and showed him. (he should already know how to draw them - he's drawn them before.) i asked him why he wanted to draw nines. he was practicing writing down his zip code, he said "because when mommy and daddy and s are on fire, i can tell the firemen where i live."
oh.
of course.
???
i asked him what number you call in case of big emergencies, and he was able to say 911. i told him that 911 will know where we live automatically, by the place he is calling from.
he also said "grandma told me i need to tell the firemen where i live."
we reviewed his street address, number and all. just the zip code isn't enough.
it was cute how he practiced writing his zip code on about 10 little tiny pieces of paper. for some reason he needed to practice this morning, over and over again.
my children are weird.

today

today was an odd day. i took z to a doctor's appointment, because he has a painful ingrown toenail that has been bothering him for awhile. the doctor ended up not doing anything but waiting. he thinks it will grow out. after the appointment, i dropped z off at school for the first time after the winter break. s & i came home, and we spent the morning playing and reading books. time got away from me, and i had to rush her through lunch to get her down for a nap. we're always on a schedule when we have to pick z up by 3pm. it means she if she goes down late for a nap, she can't get a full nap in because i have to wake her up early. she has been resisting her naps (even though she clearly still needs them), crying for a long time. today she cried for 10 minutes, and i went in, and she immediately changed her tone & perked up. i rocked her for awhile, and she started crying when i put her back in the crib. i let her cry for over 18 min before going back in. i offered her more milk, handing it to her in the crib, but said she still had to stay in her crib. she quieted down immediately, lied down, and then went to sleep (FINALLY!!!!). 

after picking z up from school, we went to stride rite to buy some new shoes. he has athlete's foot, according to the doctor, and the dr recommended we buy new, larger shoes. i got one pair for each child. s picked hers out (nice pink sparkly ones). we came home, and life was normal until j left to go to the climbing gym. z immediately started crying, saying he wanted daddy to read to him. his crying lasted over a half an hour. i have no idea WHAT got into my kids today!!! it was awful!!! eventually z finally calmed down, and we made it through the rest of the bedtime routine. when i was tucking z in, i asked him if i did an okay job reading, since i wasn't daddy. he said, "mommy, you did a WONDERFUL job reading." finally, a little sunshine on this day. sweet kid. he's a keeper.

new year's eve

z took this picture!

on new year's eve, we cooked a delicious dinner. j & i split a pre-cooked dungeness crab, and s had a little, but z did not because he hates seafood. we did make him try a tiny amount dripping in butter, but he still didn't like it. along with that, we had rib eye steak (which luckily was majorly on sale at new seasons, so i bought a bunch of it and froze it in small packs for use in the future when we need a bit of luxury). the kids had a bit of bacon pasta along with their tiny amount of steak. we had homemade lemon meringue pie for dessert. we drank an amazing st. innocent shea vineyard pinot from 2009. it is a future goal of ours to become wine club members at st. innocent. long way off, but good to have goals, right? 

z is striking quite a pose - it took several tries to get a real pic out of him, and to have s smiling and looking at the camera.

happy new year!!!

we ended up having a mini party at our house at the very very very last minute. originally, we told people we were going to have a real party, but then i was simply exhausted after hosting christmas and completely out of steam, so j told our friends we weren't going to have anything after all. however, yesterday i felt full of energy, and really wanted to see people, so we asked our friends to stop by. luckily, nobody had huge plans - just dinner out - so they stopped by after dinner. z and s got to stay up extra late watching movies & tv. i sat and watched "elf" with them - they were so cute! s was definitely ready for bed by the time the movie was over, just a little past 10pm. 

fun times. 

today, we bought an oven! a double oven, to be precise. it will arrive through the mail at some point. yay! no more using the portable turkey roaster for baking! hurray for roasted vegetables again!