The Kidlet Chronicles

Work and swine

I logged 78 hours in the last two weeks.  I'm normally at 64.  Yeah, busy.  That doesn't even include the three nights of functions that occurred after work hours.

Needless to say, I did diddly squat today other than take the kidlet to her swimming lessons, went shopping (spent a small fortune at Mexx but it was a big 30% off everything sale), then played on the computer/napped for the rest of the day until I made dinner and did the dishes and started laundry after the kidlet went to bed.  Totally. Lazy. Day.  It was awesome.  But I'm still exhausted.  And I need to start working out again because ugh, the fatness feeling.

So last week, after a couple weeks of deliberating about the dang swine flu shot and asking everybody we knew, including the professionals, whether we should get the kidlet shot or not, Dean took her to the clinic on Wednesday and two hours later, it was done.  I wish it had been an easier decision to make - I was concerned about the vaccine itself and the adjuvant in it and the minimal clinical trials, about the true risk of the flu itself as there haven't been that many deaths in relation to the regular flu (and none of us get that shot), whether the whole thing was just a crazy media frenzy.  A lot of people are getting mildly sick and getting over it  But as the kidlet has pulmonary stenosis, mild as it is, she was considered high-risk.  And we had to weigh which would be worse - the flu or the shot.  On our cardiologist's and a couple doctor's opinions (one a friend of the family), we went for the shot to be on the safe side.  If that even is the safe side.

I'm trying to let this go as it's already done but can ya tell I still have issues over it?  Why did the roll-out have to be so crazy?  Why did I have to read all the nutjob opinions splayed all over the internet?

No side effects except a sore arm for the kidlet, which was expected thanks to the adjuvant.  Dean got the shot at the same time as well and he's okay.  I'll wait, if I get it at all, for the roll-out to the general public.

So I'm letting it go.... for 3 weeks when we have to get her the second shot (argh).  Then I get to go over this all over again.  Wheee!

Growing like a weed

Halloween was awesome and so much work.  Dean spent all day making the yard look fabulous (and I forgot to take a picture of it) and I spent all day baking, making dinner for the family, getting the kidlet ready for trick or treating, taking her, binging on candy, putting a sobby kidlet to bed, then falling asleep while watching a movie.  I think I fell asleep on the couch not long after the kidlet went to bed, so it was just after 9.  I'm so lame.

So much candy.  Tummy is not happy.  I still did a workout - a big 40 minute one on the treadmill with lots of running and everything - then came in and binged on more candy.  Then I wrote for 40 minutes and now I can't see straight and I'm not really editing so it will be what it will be.

But I did want to say that the kidlet looked awesome in her Vampire Kitty costume - see?  Face painting by yours truly.

I also noticed that her size 6 leggings are now an inch or so too short (sigh) so I measured her and she's now 45" - she gained an inch since June.  No wonder her legs have been achey.  That's 1/4" a month.  But she's still skeeny, so size 7 would be too huge in the waist.  Hmmmm...

Halloween is coming...

...just in case you didn't already know.  We've been busy preparing.  Friday I made sugar cookies cut out into shapes of tombstones, cats and skulls.  My first time making sugar cookies and despite having a heck of a time with the dough crumbling beneath my rolling pin (which I had to purchase since I've never owned one!!), I managed to get a dozen cookies out of half the dough and froze the other half and they taste so good I can't stop eating them.  The sugar binging has begun!

Then Saturday, I practiced face-painting the kidlet (see further down), carved our first pumpkin (no pics until they're all done - we have four this year!!) and decorated a corner of our living room with spiderwebs and spiders.  Last night, Dean helped her make the chocolate cookie house (it's not gingerbread!):

And the roof did NOT cave in.  Mommy has been banned from any future seasonal cookie houses.  Grandpa or Daddy can remain in charge of those.  Mommy will just help eat them.

Sunday, we popped by my parent's place to pick up the cape Mom had made for the kidlet - she's going to be a cat this year and her costume is really just a bodysuit with a skirt attached, so aside from me trying to layer her somehow underneath her costume, Mom made the heavy fleece cape to keep her warmer, so she's now decided she's going to be a vampire cat:

 

 

She MADE me make the fangs half red so it looks like she bit someone.  I'm still not sold on either version of the eyes but I get to experiment again on Thursday when the kidlet gets to wear her costume to school.

 And this was taken a month ago but here is the kidlet in her glow-in-the-dark jammies doing Wii yoga (it's still Halloween-ish!):

Six more sleeps until the candy!

And so it begins

There's this girl at the kidlet's daycare, the oldest of three sibilings at 7.  Last week, she asked the kidlet if she could play with her DS and when the kidlet said 'no', she took it anyways.  Grrrr...  The kidlet knows she's not supposed to share it with anyone, so she was upset that the girl had just taken it and told Dean as soon as he had picked her up from daycare.  We both told her that next time it happens, she has to ask for it back and if it is not given, then she absolutely has to tell the daycare lady about it.

Today, as soon as we started the walk home from daycare (after the tears has subsided from when I had accidentally picked her up in a hello hug and proceeded to whack her head on the low ceiling bulkhead), she told me that this girl was not being nice again.  I asked if she had taken her DS and she said no.  What the girl had done was whisper (loud enough for the kidlet to hear) to the kidlet's best friend 'J' that maybe J shouldn't be friends with the kidlet anymore.

Why I oughtta... the little turd.

Now of course, J and the kidlet are freakin' inseparable so J wasn't even interested in the concept, thank goodness.  And the kidlet knew it wasn't nice but she didn't cry over it or anything, which is also good.  But what's with this kid?  I'm thinking maybe she's jealous.  But man, she's only there for an hour or two since she's in school all day, and she's only in on Wednesdays, so she sure does manage to wreak some havoc in her short time there.

But ugh, I don't like bullies.  I grew up being bullied myself by kids a little older than me and it sucked.  Truly.  Just didn't think I'd have to be dealing with it again so early.

No, for real

I am here!  I am in shock that it's been nine days already.  It's freaking me out how fast time is flying.  The four days I work are a blur of work, dinner, exercise for half an hour, writing for an hour, watching tv for maybe an hour and absolutely crashing in bed around 10:30 at the latest.  Then I get up in the morning and do it all over again.  At least Thursdays I get to work from home in my jammies.  But it's still work, still an eight-hour slog of doing dozens of different things.  And I'm going to have to work a bit tomorrow morning as I gave some people a deadline of noon and I have to make sure it's met.  Argh.  Can't anyone do things earlier that the absolute latest?

I've begun to read the first Harry Potter book to the kidlet.  This is her second book without pictures - the first was that Whangdoodle book I read to her last year, of which I skimmed through a lot of it.  I think she's getting it, you know, using her imagination to 'see' what is happening.  She likes to try and read along with me, asking every so often where I'm at on the page.  She chuckles at the funny parts and cuddles up to me during the creepy parts (which I try to keep as light as possible).  I was wondering how she'd react to the whole dead parents thing so I tend to gloss over those parts, but so far, she seems to be enjoying it.  I do sometimes have to explain what's going on, or explain some of those English terms (the 'post', 'knickerbockers', etc).  I'm enjoying reading it again though, so it's fun for both of us.

In a similar vein, the kidlet has begun 'reading in her mind'.  Ah, sweet silence.

She also wrote another book.  She took her book 'Beware of Dug' (from the movie 'Up') and said she was going to copy it only call it 'Beware of Harley'.  She spent over an hour writing out pages and drawing pictures.  But she didn't copy it word for word in all parts - she summarized quite a bit.  And instead of a dog pack, it's a cat pack, and Kevin the bird is actually a dog.  I'll take some pics of it tomorrow - the pictures are so cute.  It must be at least 10 (construction paper folded in half) pages long.

I've been writing too.  I started last week and I'm trying to write a minimum of 500 words every night (or almost every night).  I usually spend about an hour and double that word count.  So far, it's just coming naturally.  I have no idea where it's going this time (same theme as the Neverending Novel but whole new storyline and characters that are much less... complex) but I'm at almost 10,000 words so far - a tenth of the way there!  I'm totally going with it, all the while smothering my inner critic. It's freeing to just have faith in yourself that the story will be there whether you stress about it or not.  I'm not going backwards to edit - I just keep plodding forward, and it's amazing the little twists and ideas that present themselves.  How I've missed this.  It's amazing what I can accomplish when I stay away from Bejewelled and ToonTown.  Still spend a lotta time on Lexulous though - but only during times when it's not practical to write.  Ahem.  So there.

The Writer's Conference is coming up and again, I'm not going.  But next year, this book will be finished (yes! it will!) and I will go with something in hand.

Oh, but this isn't all about me, is it?  Back to the kidlet.

She loves to play a little morality game I made up.  I give her a scenario and three options and ask what the best choice would be.  The scenarios range from strangers trying to get her to look at their puppies/kitties/candy, to getting lost in a shopping mall, to what to do if kids are making fun of another kid, to what to do if there's a fire.  She gets the answers right for the most part (she got stuck on a couple tricky ones I threw in there) but I figured it's a good time to start emphasizing these things.  She begs to play it all the time but I'm struggling to come up with new and unique scenes!  Figures - kids love repetition.

I'll end this here.  It's 10pm, time to zone out in front of the tv before heading to bed.  Last night I made it about ten minutes and fell asleep on the couch!