My Soap Opera Scenario. . .

If you haven't tried the tickle test link to the left- you really should, it's a great way to waste time, I mean delve deeply into who you are as you take test after test to discover what really makes you tick. Today one of the feature tests is what would your soap opera scenario be. They're usually pretty on target- I can't fault someone who has recently concluded that I should be living in Savannah, GA with Owen Wilson!

Maggie, in your soap opera scenario, you're The New Girl in Town

While the rest of the town is swapping lovers, backstabbing friends, and selling family out, The New Girl in Town is one of the few characters with any real heart or integrity. Somehow The New Girl makes it through all the episodes untarnished, with her sterling reputation and optimism intact. While you may not have just fallen off the turnip truck like The New Girl in Town, you probably share a certain sunny disposition with her, looking on the bright side of things, and giving people the benefit of the doubt. And because of your outlook, people are probably irresistibly attracted to you. If your half-stepbrother were accused of stealing a secret formula, you'd probably be first to run to his defense, trying to uncover clues that point to the true culprit. When they free him on all charges and arrest the right man, people probably won't even start nasty rumors about the coincidence that you started dating the Chief of Police around the same time that your bro was first arrested. So enjoy your popularity as The New Girl in Town. Just watch your back for those folks who don't have such kind intentions or you might find yourself careening off a cliff or getting framed for someone else's transgressions. That's the only way anyone could get a New Girl in Town like you down.

Photo journalism

I duely apologize for the long over due update, rest assured I have been chastised by many of my regular readers and I'll try my best to keep up from now own. As far as this post goes- I just need to do something to get back into the swing of it. So much time has gone by that I just don't know where to start, so I haven't. Birthdays, anniversaries, parties, vacations, illness, etc... I will say that Wilson is better (since that's the last news I left you with)- the first evidence of his miraculous recovery was when I walked into my bathroom to find all of my "how to raise a toddler" books floating in the bathtub!! I'll let a few pictures and captions fill in the gaps from there.

Wilson got well and then was sick again exactly a week later. This a picture of his room the morning before our night with the 104 temperature- he woke up at about 11 and did not go back to sleep until 2am or so- it was party time. If you look closely you can see that he finally fell asleep with a combine and a tractor in bed with him & I vaguely remember trying to sleep in that hoola hoop!! Luckily his fever went down late that night and we didn't have to go to the ER, but he certainly knows how to get his mama & daddy's attention!!

Tate doing a victory dance over the sprinkler- it only took 3 years, but he finally killed it!

Wilson, bringing Mama her birthday present (an iPod nano- how fun!)

(thank you to the Network Streaming girls for convincing Phil that I needed a birthday present!!)

Blowing out the candles on Mama's birthday cake

Wilson and the dogs playing in pool

This is Wilson on his second trip to the beach this summer,

where he discovered how much fun ICE CREAM CONES are!

Wilson also found out how much fun flashlights are!!

Apparently we're having trouble with our hoola-hoopers being struck down in the crosswalks,

please be mindful of the new signs throughout town

A Sick Day Wilson

To help you better understand the last SIX days of my life I could tell you that today. . .

• at 7:00 pm I still had my sunglasses on top of my head and hadn't left the house since 3:00
• on the way home from running errands today, Wilson and I shared a bag of M&M's and then he fell asleep. When I was taking him out of his car seat I noticed that he had missed his mouth once, because there was one under his chin. Our friend and my life coach, Tommy Boy, was right- "we are going to be okay here- there's a thin candy shell". That thin candy shell kept all the melted chocolate off his neck. How do I know the chocolate was melted? Because I ATE the M&M and THEN thought "that was probably a little gross."
• I picked up Wilson to change what promised to be the runniest, nastiest diaper ever produced only to feel a very wet sensation between my arm and his shorts. I prayed to no avail that the dogs had gotten interested in the smell and licked him. Nope, just your run-of-the-mill explodo-poop.
• I read a book entitled Trains aloud four times in a row with no pause. I'd close the book, Wilson would say "men, men" (Amen at the table, The End when reading a book), and then open it to the front page. Finally a cawr that hadn't been rolled in at least 5 minutes (there by breaking the law in Wilson World) distracted him
• I cleared my on throat so much trying to some how stop the never-ceasing rattling coming out Wilson's head that I think I've given myself Laryngitis. I could honestly feel his crud in my throat!!

. . . or I could just show you this:

. . . 'nuff said.

The Patient

My sweet in-laws dropped by a little earlier to bring Wilson some popsicles and check in on him (they didn't forget mom- 2 tubs of Dibs or the dogs- a box of Frosty Paws dog ice cream!) My mother-in-law commented on how empty my freezer still is (see And the Frigidaire Has Never Been Cleaner). I've decided keeping it empty is the only way to keep it clean and prevent another incident!! Wilson got to show them his new swing set and his Aunt Lauren read him a book. If there were sound to go with the picture you would hear Wilson saying "Lalin, Lalin". He is standing by the back door looking for her after they left, sporting his new Cars pajama bottoms that Granna made this weekend and his Mickey slippers that are hand-me-downs from Uncle John. He's been a fairly good patient today. Mostly he's just slept and played cawrs and watched cars on TV. We did make it to Walmart for more cough syrup and diapers- Woo Hoo! what a day, I'm wiped out!! Ha, ha, ha! I remember when "a night on the town" meant so much more. Oh well, I better go finish those Dibs before Dad gets home!!

A Little Funny

Didn't know if everyone had seen this- thought most of you could relate!

Memory Lane

Wilson is still not himself yet, so I haven't had anything really memorable to photograph. We spent yesterday at Granna & Granddaddy's and grouched all around their house and tonight we hung out at Pat Pat & Paw's. Wilson did get to see his Aunt Lauren which is a rare treat and impressed us all by saying her name when we asked him who she was! He also got to see his Nanny & Pappa- boy does he love Pappa!
I've recently created a "favorites" folder from all the pictures we've taken since Wilson entered our lives. It's fun go back and look at how much he's grown, learned, and accomplished. It's also nice to look at all the pictures of a smiling face when all I've seen lately is a swollen, red, sweaty, pitiful face complete with a mouth that is crying or hoarsely screaming!! The picture I'm including in this post is from last Christmas. He found this wreath of bells on my mom's Christmas tree and fell in love with it. My dad insisted that we take it with us when we left. He is dressed in is Ralph Lauren PJ's that Pat Pat brought back from her trip to NYC and his Bunnies By the Bay Flipper Slippers that Granna gave him for Christmas. He also still had his red hair.
He can be happy, he can be happy, he can be happy . . . .

P.S.

The shameless product plug for today is for all the mom's of toddlers & squirmy babies. In dealing with taking a temperature every few hours over the last day and a half or so I've used a garden variety of tools for the task. I've never been a fan of our ear thermometer- it's never very accurate and is now one of Wilson's playthings. So, I purchased a thermometer that is supposed to gather the patient's temperature from their forehead and found it to be equally fickle in readouts- it is now in the WalMart Never-Never Land of returned products. I also used the same digital thermometer that I've since he was born, but it takes a year and half to get a reading- or is it just that long because it doesn't beep when it's done and I don't clue in that it's done because I'm Maggie the Crocodile Hunter trying to wrestle Wilson down so he doesn't wind up with this skinny little probe up the hoo-ha. It is now in the garbage. The winner of taste test, if you will, is the Vick's Baby Rectal Digital Thermometer. It is pictured above. This little device takes the temp in 10 seconds, is back lit when its finished (so you don't have to turn the light on to read it), beeps until you turn it off, and, as you can see from the picture, is designed so that it can't accidentally wind up lodged any further than necessary. It also gave the exact readout that our pediatrian's did, FYI. This should be on every mom-to-be's registry.

And The Diagnosis Is . . .

Well after a day of running 102-103 degree fever, I decided that Wilson must be suffering from more that teething and decided that we would go to the doctor. What finally pushed me to make the call was when he first laid in my arms for about 15 minutes for no reason and then saw a cawr and decided to get down. While my lap was free I made a break for the bathroom only to come back to find Wilson kneeling on the floor in front of the sofa with his head laying on a cushion with lion underneath it. No car noises or motions coming from the den- just a little pile of boy with cawrs strewn all around him. It was really kind of sad. I gave him some more Motrin and we went to the doctor. An hour later his fever was still 103 and a blood test confirmed that he has a fever virus. Nothing we can do but wait it out. He did pull himself together enough to play cawrs for a minute while we waited on the doctor to come to our room. Unfortunately, Parker(our pediatrician) scooped him up a little too fast and put him on the examining table. Wilson is terrified of heights and it scared him to death. He completed the chest listening in my lap and then I had to hold him down on the table for his ear and throat inspection. We then went to the lab to have blood taken and the nurse made the mistake of putting a band-aid on his thumb. Wilson hates having anything extra on his person- no dirt, sand, stickers, or pen markings. He was furious when he woke up last week and a scratch from Tate was still on his leg- it refused to be wiped off!! Anyway, we returned home and after a well rounded supper of ketchup and raisins (don't ask- I don't know why) and a dose of Tylenol he was back to his old self just in time for Dad to walk in the door and enjoy the same smiling face that he left this morning when he went to work. Wilson's asleep now and went down with only 99.7- looks like double timing with Tylenol and Motrin seems to be doing the trick.

Long Time, No Post

I've decided to give up clothes for the summer. No, no, it's not what you think- I'm not going nudest. I'm just resigning "good clothes" in exchange for an old swimsuit. Over the last few days I've come to realize that small boys are incapable of realizing that it is 1002 degrees outside. We'll go outside to swing (on our new (pre-owned) swingset- yea!) and within a couple of minutes I am soaking wet, Wilson has multiple beads of sweat rolling down his chubby, red cheeks, and the dogs have all but passed out from chasing the swing- and Wilson is just getting started! Unfortunately, I am beginning to run out of clothes- there's only so much laundry one can do. Additionally, I'm down to only one bra because Tate (the dog) has chewed threw the only other "good one that fits" out of frustration that I left him in the bathroom during a storm while I ran errands. So this brings me to the old swimsuit- a $10 Walmart frock that I bought for water aerobics about 3 years ago. It is so tight now that it actually does wonders for the stomach (of course it 'also squishes the chest completely flat- so without what little was there to begin with as a reference point- it makes no difference how flat your tummy is!) Sorry about the rabbit trail- but now I won't have to explain if you drop by and I open the door wearing only the world's worst swimsuit.

Now, what has Wilson been up to lately? Well, he has been quite the socialite over the past week. His friend Lily and her mom and big sister, Maggie, dropped by last Thursday. I think their mom was a little frazzled over it being the first day of summer- Maggie has just finished the first grade. So, we introduced Lily to the joy of the sprinkler and Maggie played with all my craft stuff and then joined the babies in sprinklers!! Pictures follow. That night Wilson spent the night with his Granna & Granddaddy while Mom & Dad went to see the Da Vinci Code and then a couple of nights later he spent the night for the first time with his Pat Pat & Paw while we went to hang out with some friends (Lily's mama & daddy) and watch the season finale of Desperate Housewives (thank goodness for TiVo). He had a great time hanging out with all his grandparents- and we had a great time playing with our friends for a little while. Then this week we returned to Itsy Bitsy Yoga- which had hated and cried all the way through, until I pulled out his cawrs- he played with them and tried to ignore the fact that yoga was going on around him. Yesterday we had swimming lessons which were tons of fun especially because Dad came to watch! Today we had a play date with Lily at her house. The babies played great together, until Lily made the mistake of TOUCHING Wilson as she was handing him back one of his cawrs. He responded to this by screaming bloody murder! We pulled ourselves together though, played a little longer, and then headed home. When we got home I realized that he had a fever!! Still not sure what's going on because he has been super happy all day and nothing seems to be wrong. Hopefully we didn't get Lily sick and hopefully it will be gone tomorrow!

Wilson watching as Lily "tests the water"

Wilson taking a sip- a trick he learned from Tate

Baby Friends

Wilson looking on from his mower as Maggie & Lily play in the sprinkler