The Kidlet Chronicles

Liar liar pants on fire

When I picked the kidlet up from preschool today, she had a cookie in her hand because it was someone's birthday.  I said she could eat it after lunch (as did her teacher as the kidlet was racing out the door).  We came into the house, I put it on the ledge in the living room, helped the kidlet take off her coat and boots (yep, snowed a bunch yesterday), told her we'd leave the cookie there until after lunch, then went to make her a grilled cheese sandwich. 

Several minutes later, the kidlet came nonchalantly into the kitchen to say, "I did something sneaky!".  I asked what she did.  "I'm not going to tell you," she said, and skipped off to her room.  I followed her, pressing her to tell me what she did, immediately noticing that the cookie was no longer on the ledge.

"Did you eat the cookie?" I asked.

"No."

"Where is it then?  It's not on the ledge where we left it."

The kidlet ran to the laundry basket in the hallway and pointed to it.  "I put it under there.  It's under there.  But you can't look under there, okay?  You can't look at it."  She said it with the utmost sincerity - maybe a little TOO sincere.  I lifted up the basket.  Nothing underneath.

"Where is the cookie, Keira?  Did you eat it?"

She ran over to her snow boots.  "I put it in here, in my boot.  But you can't look for it in my boot, okay?"  She looked on the edge of panic.  I was trying really hard not to smile at how hard she was trying to conceal the deed, trying hard (and failing for a second or two) not to smile at her oh-so-innocent expression, but ultimately, I was not so happy about the whole lying thing.

Exasperated, I said "You must stop lying and tell me the truth.  You ate the cookie, didn't you?"  She ran into the corner and started crying.  Guilty as charged.  I asked her why she ate it when she knew she was supposed to wait until after lunch.

"Because I wanted to see what it tasted like," she sobbed.  She ran into me and wrapped her little arms around my legs and cried and cried.  I sat down with her on the couch and explained that she shouldn't have eaten the cookie but she shouldn't have lied about it and Mama still loves her - you know the drill.  She swore she would never do it again, that tomorrow when she got a cookie (it's always 'tomorrow' or 'yesterday'), she wouldn't be sneaky and she wouldn't eat it.  Guess we'll see about that!

Making faces

Mad face:

Laughing because I said 'don't smile now, don't you dare smile!' - she thinks that's hilarious. so hilarious that she made me repeat it over and over again on our twenty minute trip home from gymnastics on Friday.  It's not THAT funny.

Also - try to ignore the crappy cut bangs I gave her - had to trim them for her passport photo and didn't have time to even them out.  Guess I should get on that...

Disneyland, here we come!

Er, not quite yet.  In 28 days!!

I woke the kidlet up bright and early yesterday (and Mom, for that matter) so I could drop her off at Mom's and get to the passport office out in Surrey before it opened at 8.  Neither the kidlet nor I have passports but I had managed to take her out Wednesday afternoon to get our photos done (she looks so sad in hers, what with the whole 'no smiling' rule) and Thursday night, I had managed to get all the forms filled in and printed complete with birth certificates and all that other stuff.  Mom was Guarantor, so she filled all that stuff in when I dropped the kidlet off.  I crossed my fingers that I hadn't forgotten anything.  I was dreading hours of waiting but was hopeful because I had filled everything in online (mine using epass; the kidlet's using their online PDF form).

I got to the passport office about 10 minutes before opening and was pleased to see about 10 people in line.  When my folks got their passports last year (I think it was last year), they were lined up outside for three hours or something.  I lined up and about five minutes later, we were taken into the building, squished into the elevator, and up to the 9th floor, where we got in queue for the pre-screening.  Five minutes later, I got through the pre-screening (phew) and went to find somewhere to sit.  I WAS surprised to see that all the seats in the waiting area were full except for two - I'm thinking the office must have been open earlier to have gotten all those people through the pre-screening process already.  I sat down at 8:02 with an 'E' number - 811 - which I had read is good - those numbers go faster due to filling the forms in online.  Apparently.

There were only a few counters open and fifteen minutes later, the E's weren't moving at all, still flashing the same number - 804.  The woman with 804 took almost 40 minutes before she finally left.  I don't know WHAT was going on - the counterperson left a couple times, the woman left at one point only to bring back three other people.  I kept trying to use my mind powers to get her moving but they didn't work.  Too much interference, I think.  Meanwhile, the other letters/numbers were moving fairly steadily.

After 804 left at about 8:40, there seemed to be more counterpeople and suddenly, the E's were smoking through, way faster than any of the others, sometimes two at a time.  It was only about 15 minutes more and I was called, and less than ten minutes after that, I was done.  Our passports will be ready for pick-up in two weeks - woo hoo!

So that's done.  I called Goofy's Kitchen and arranged for priority seatings for the kidlet's birthday dinner, plus ordered a $20 princess birthday basket (overpriced, I know, but it's her birthday!!).  I called the car rental company and reserved a car seat (for some reason, the travel agent said they couldn't guarantee a seat but when I called, they said they could).  We hemmed and hawed about bringing our own but I hate taking piles of crap on a plane.  Hopefully the rental car seat will be okay - if it's not, there's a nearby Target that Dean can run into and grab a cheap one.  I found a good umbrella stroller on craigslist that I'm hopefully going to pick up tomorrow.  I've called the hotel and upgraded our room to a deluxe room (guaranteed not to be on the freeway side).  So.  I think all that is done.  Oh, and I ordered the Unofficial Disney park guide from Amazon - should get it by Friday.

So much planning!  But I'm still so excited and completely preoccupied by DISNEY, in case you haven't noticed...

Holiday-ay, celebray-yate

Finally, on Sunday, I started to feel human again.  Today, congestion is pretty much gone.  Wow, you sure appreciate feeling GOOD and HEALTHY after you've felt entirely CRAPPY for a few weeks.

So Dean and I were yapping on the weekend about how once his potential project starts up on the Island in May, he's not going to get a chance to go anywhere for, oh, probably about 3.5 years and that maybe we should think about taking a holiday.  A HOLIDAY!!!  GASP!!  In 1998, we went to Vietnam & Thailand for three months; in 2006, I went to Seattle with Mom and the kidlet for... five days? and that has been it.  10 years without a real holiday.  I was afraid to get too excited.  He talked about beaches.  I started looking at airfare and noticed that kids fly free to SoCal right now and guess what's there?  Why yes, DISNEYLAND!!  So once I discovered that, I could NOT get the mouse off my mind and managed to convince him that beaches are BORING with a preschooler and that the MOUSE RULES. 

Thing is, we didn't want to go in March for Spring Break hell.  April is when Dean finds out if the project gets the green light or not and if it does, will involve lots of logistical planning/moving, etc.  So that pretty much left February.  And neither the kidlet nor I have passports, so it would have to be nearer the end of February, after the President's Week of the 17th (what kind of holiday is that anyway?  A day that turns into a week?).

End of February is perfect, aside from the fact that I'll have to cancel the kidlet's gymnastics party (I hadn't sent out invites yet) and eat the $50 administrative fee, but it's DISNEYLAND!  How cool for her to spend her fourth birthday there?  Tres cool, that's how cool.

So I've got the itinerary and tomorrow, will call to confirm and pay.  We'll be spending five days in Disney, then will drive down to San Diego for 3 days to see Sea World and the Zoo, then fly home from there.  I've been addicted to Disney message boards for days, getting tips and hints and finding the best places to stay (we were initially going to splurge and stay at the Disneyland Hotel but the pennypincher in me couldn't justify the $1000 difference between it and a perfectly delightful hotel just across the street), learning about FastPasses (they didn't have those last time I was there in 1983), character breakfasts/dinners, and special things for birthday kids.  I am so excited I haven't been able to fall asleep all that easily the last few nights.  All I can think about is rides! and shows! and castles! and magic!  Yes, I'm a big kid.  No, I will never grow up.

So there's a few things left to figure out - I've decided to do one character meal on her birthday just because it's her birthday, and I need to figure out what to do about a stroller (because even my small one is a beast to push around) and whether the car seat Mom uses for her will fit on the plane, etc. ('cause we need it for the rental car anyway and ours is too big/heavy to lug around), but it's all coming together.  A month from now, baby, we'll be there!  Probably listening to fireworks right about now!

Super Why

A Mom at the kidlet's gymnastics introduced me to the above show and the kidlet loves it and of course, loves playing the various Super Why-related games on the PBS Kids website (that I had somehow missed when putting all of her preschool game websites on the bookmark toolbar).

On one of the games, it asks to type in your name.  She's been typing (and writing) her own name for months now but this time, she dragged me over to the computer to see her new 'superhero' name:

 
Pretty darn close, I'd say.  I was shocked.

Please as punch with herself.
 

Sicker than sick and sick of it

After several days of excruciating headaches/sinus pain, I dragged myself back to the doctor on... Thursday, right after picking up the kidlet from school (which was a feat in itself with walking in the bright daylight and biting cold).  No amount of advil or tylenol cold or anything would take the pain away.  I had a 101 degree fever.  I had my hair pulled back, unwashed and un-producted for two days, plus I had no energy to put on make up so yeah, I pretty much looked like a bag lady from the East Side.

After begging, pleading, crying and negotiating with the kidlet to put her shoes and coat back on, I managed to drive for five minutes to the clinic, squinting the entire time from the Pain! the Pain!.  I lucked out on the clinic visit again and got a room within a few minutes.  I laid down because sitting up hurt too much.  The doctor came in, checked my throat and ears, tapped my forehead (OW!), then wrote me a prescription for antibiotics (which I haven't taken since I was a kid), Tylenol #3s, and nasal spray. He never did diagnose me but I'm assuming a sinus infection?

I slowly, so slowly, walked down the hall to the pharmacy, sat down with the consultant (because they don't just let you drop off your prescription there - they go over everything with you in the beginning instead of when you pick up the stuff at the end).  I was literally holding my head in my hands trying to answer her questions through the endless throbbing.  She said I looked like I was in a lot of pain.  Ya think?  Then said the meds would be ready in 25 minutes.  Ugh.

So I slowly, so slowly because OW MY HEAD, walked back down the hall and took the kidlet to McDonalds because she was hungry.  Sitting there, knives spinning around inside my skull, trying not to cry, trying to act like everything was okay, I had visions of collapsing onto the nice cold floor until someone took me away on a stretcher.  But I wouldn't want to scare the kidlet so I sucked it up as best I could, we ate, then hobbled back down to the pharmacy to pick up my meds.

I took a T3 as soon as I got in the truck and it did NOTHING.  I got home and crashed on the couch (because they didn't take the pain away but made me sleepy as hell) for the rest of the day, scared to move, only getting up when the kidlet demanded help with this or that (why doesn't she understand?  Why?) and stayed there until Dean came home.  He came home for ten minutes and had to leave to go pick up a friend at the airport.  While I lay dying.  Yeah.  I made the kidlet a quick pasta dinner, managed to get her into bed and asleep, then took another T3 and FINALLY, after a half hour or so, this one did something.  I had relief for the first time in days.

So yeah.  That was all Thursday.  Hence why there was no post.  There was not much activity here whatsoever.  Friday, yesterday, the kidlet had gymnastics.  I woke up with a killer headache and it wasn't looking good.  I finally caved at 8:30 and took another T3 (because I hate taking pills but whatever, I was desperate) and called my Mom to whine and talked to Heather to whine some more and about an hour later, the pain finally subsided and I was okay to drive to take the kidlet to her class.  Mom was sweet enough to pick me up some groceries and meet us there (because I was in no condition to go for groceries and we were totally out of the basics - bread, juice, snacks, etc.), then she took us out for a quick lunch afterwards.

The head pounding came back about 8:30pm, so I took another T3 (I'm allowed 2 a day but hey, that first one lasted 12 hours so I'm not complaining).  Again, took about an hour to kick in.

Woke up this morning with only my eyeball area hurting, so I toughed it out for a couple hours until the pain, again, became unbearable.  Good grief, when is this going to subside?  I'm not plugged up, just congested deep in behind my eyeballs.  I cough every once in a while (ooh, does that hurt the old head).  I'm taking the antibiotics religiously and the nasal spray (which isn't as bad as I remember - hated that stuff as a kid) and I don't appear to be getting much better yet.  Patience I know, but man, this whole cold thing is going on three weeks.  What gives?  Okay, so it went from viral to bacterial, so I guess that'll take some time.  I just don't like the pain but I don't like the T3 numbness either.  And I NEVER want to feel this kind of head pain again.  They say it's like a migraine.  How I have new sympathy for migraine sufferers.  Holy crap that hurts.

So uh, yeah.  More whining.  Hoping to feel better tomorrow.  At least the T3s allow me to get up and do things, only to an extent because they also make me tired.  Whee!  I probably could have kicked it all sooner had I just slept it off for a few days, but who gets to do that when you have a young child at home?  Ha!

Wah wah wah

So, just when I thought the cold was subsiding, it came back and knocked me off my feet.

Sunday, I was feeling not too bad - still congested, but not feeling badly enough for cold meds - so we decided to take the kidlet out to Jungle Jac's because the poor thing hadn't been out for any fun since, well, Christmas.  Considering it was a Sunday around noon, it was busy but not packed.  Sure, the kidlet ended up getting knocked over by some over-zealous older boys, which created many bouts of frustration and tears and shouting that they were 'BAD!', but she still enjoyed it and we'll definitely go back.  There were some big slides (big and FAST) that she made me go down with her, and it was quite amusing to bend, twist and maneuver by body up the platforms and around various obstacles.  Believe it or not, I was actually a little sore the next day.  Man, am I outta shape.  We spent a couple hours there and that was plenty.

Monday, I suffered through a very long and very busy day at work (hey, did I tell you I worked 35 hours last week? instead of my usual 20?  I am SO claiming those hours this time around.  The cheque will be nice, but not worth nearly losing my sanity).  Then yesterday I woke up and could not move without my brain sloshing around inside my head.  I winced with every simple movement, but managed to get the kidlet off to school before crashing on the couch and staying there until I had to pick her up 3 hours later.  I took cold meds and Advil and nothing took the all-over-headache-owie-brain away.  It was brutal walking to get her from school - I had to wear my sunglasses because the sunlight! it burns!  I would say it was almost migraine-like, for those of you familiar with those nasty things.

I picked her up, threw her together something for lunch, and stayed on the couch until Dean called asking me to pick him up from Skytrain so he could make it to his evening appointment on time, then got her ready for bed and went back to the couch.  I think I watched four movies yesterday while floating in and out of consciousness.

Today was not much better but I was able to put in my three hours of work before retiring to the couch.  Only today, the kidlet was much less self-sufficient and was demanding things every fifteen minutes/half hour or so.  Could she not see that Mommy was DYING?  Ugh.  Then she had a full-out tantrum at dinner because I told her she couldn't have any milk until she finished her dinner.  Full-out tantrum with screaming, crying so hard she puked up some yam, hitting, saying I was bad and she didn't like me and threatening to do all kinds of dastardly things, the whole bit.  Oh, my pounding head.  After a half hour or so, we kissed and made up, and I fed her dinner and she ate it all.  Argh.

Then a weird thing happened tonight. I got a call from someone RSVPing for the kidlet's birthday party.  I was totally taken off guard because 1) I had never heard of the woman, and yet my brain was scrambling as to how I could have invited her and 2) I hadn't sent out ANY invitations yet.  After a confusing discussion, I remembered that the administrator at the gymnastics place was printing up TWO birthday invitations the day I got ours, and one (or more? eeep) of the kidlet's must have ended up in the other person's pile.  The Mom probably didn't even notice as she handed them to her daughter to give out at elementary school.  So I guess I'll be calling the center tomorrow and getting them to call the Mom and let her know, otherwise, I could have some party-crashers maybe, if people don't pay attention to the details.  It was a lot for my already struggling brain to compute but I'm glad we figured it out and had a good laugh over it!

So I'm hoping this cold goes FAR FAR AWAY and that I don't see another one for at least a YEAR.  I can't take it anymore.  I actually broke down today crying because the kidlet would NOT leave me alone to suffer in peace.  She came up and kissed my forehead better and I had to pretend that it was all better but it was SO NOT BETTER.  Ow.  I'm even scared to cough because the brain vibrations are excruciating. 

And now.... back to the couch...

I am SO glad this week is OVER

35 hours.  That's how many I worked this week.  I usually try to keep it to 20, other than in crazy September where I usually end up banking my time and taking it as vacation.  This time?  I'm taking the dough.  Sure, the cheque will be nice but the poor kidlet suffered from lack of attention while I sat glued to my chair all the livelong days.  It doesn't happen very often but there was a proposal due by 5pm today, my full-time colleague is off gallivanting in Spain, so it was all up to me to put everything together and make it purdy.  Ugh.  Hoping that doesn't happen again any time soon.  My posture is starting to take the shape of my office chair.  When the kidlet was playing on her computer for a few minutes this afternoon and I was working at my computer, she told me twice that "Mrs. Jones is MY boss and she makes me work all day so I can't play right now, sorry."

But, it's over and out - they got the proposal in with six minutes to spare.  Yep, that's how close it comes most times.  I've been dying to get writing again but I've been so exhausted after long days that I just can't think at all by the time evening rolls around.

I still managed to take a couple hours in the middle of the day to take the kidlet to gymnastics and while there, book her birthday party date & time.  I'm excited about her birthday this year - she hasn't had a kid party since her first and I'm sure she doesn't remember how miserable and sick she was through that one.  Since our house is only big enough for the three of us, I had to host it elsewhere.  Now (well, not NOW, in a couple weeks, as the party isn't until March 1 - the Saturday AFTER her birthday) I can invite all the friends who have invited us to their kid's parties over the years.  Since the kidlet doesn't really have friends of her own yet other than my friend's kids, I want to invite a couple/few kids from her preschool as well, but there's this big thing about how you can't hand out invitations in class unless you're inviting the whole class, which I'm not even considering since the kidlet doesn't like several of her classmates (they apparently tease her).   Er, I guess I am sorta considering it because from a google search, most people do invite all the kids but 20 kids?  Eek.  I'm only allowed 14 and my friends and their kids take up more than half of that.  I may just invite all the girls in her class (10) and hope that no more than half can make it.  I'm thinking, though, that I'll just email the teacher and ask her who the kidlet hangs out with most and go from there, mailing the invites out to a few specific kids.  I showed the kidlet her class photo and asked her who her friends were and she proceeded to tell me that she didn't like this one because she hissed at her, didn't like that one because she called the kidlet 'a baby', didn't like another because he hit her all the time and a few she couldn't remember the names of.  I asked her if they were mean all the time and she said no, but I guess she holds grudges.  She did point to three girls and one boy she really liked.  So why on earth WOULD you invite the whole class?  Do four-year-olds get offended by being left out?  I can see it if a select few are 'left out' but not if only a few are invited to begin with.  I'll make sure to send some snacky things to school on her birthday this year so the whole class can celebrate with her then.

Geez.  Whole class?  No way.  Although I remember for Kindergarten, I'm pretty sure we invited my whole class...

Still sick and hacking and feeling generally pretty gross.  Hoping to feel better tomorrow - sister-in-law got us tickets to Michael Buble tomorrow night, so we're going with their family and a few others for dinner first, then the show (14 of us all together).  Babysitter is lined up and it will be nice to get out, provided this disgusting cold abates for a few hours. Yuckers.

Work, work, and oh yeah, work

Mom called me this evening because I hadn't taken a Scrabble turn on Facebook all day and that's how she keeps tabs on me to make sure everything is okay in Lauraland.  I regretted to inform her that I've been working my stinkin' BUTT off these past two days (8 hours logged yesterday; a little over 5 today) working on a proposal that's due Friday (so much for three hours a day). 

The poor kidlet, unused to me being entirely unavailable, has taken it mostly in stride except for the occasional gut-wrenching 'Mama, can you please play with me NOW?' upon which I tell her that I have an evil Boss who makes me work work work.  Tonight she said SHE had a mean boss too, and he was making HER work work work, so at least she can relate.

We're both still battling this cold but at least the coughing spells have been knocked down to about half a dozen a day (for her), fifty or so (for me).  Lots of fun when you're involved in a two hour conference call and hacking your guts out.  I did swing by the walk-in clinic today just to make sure we weren't suffering from some kind of plague and I must say, it was the quickest clinic visit EVER - fifteen minutes in and out, if that.  Last time I was there, I think it took 1.5 hours.  He told me what I already knew but at least Dean can now sleep at night knowing that the kidlet is not suffering from some life-threatening disease.

Have I told you already about Baddie McBadderton?  No?  See, I have this habit of calling slowpoke drivers 'Putty McPutterton' when I'm stuck behind them going 40 in a 60 zone.  The kidlet somehow picked up on this and now blames her every wrongdoing on 'Baddie McBadderton' (yes, she came up with the name all by herself).  It wasn't the kidlet who spilled her juice, it was Baddie McBadderton.  It was Baddie who broke her toy, Baddie who left the big mess in her room, Baddie who left lunch uneaten. 

She doesn't, however, blame Baddie when she beats on me.  The girl STILL HITS, and it's a straight-armed, whacking hit, one she winds up for.  Sometimes she even hisses and uses nails.  Then she calls ME 'BAD', tells me I'm being bad and I'm in big trouble.  It's usually because I've told her not to do something, like today in the clinic waiting room when she was pushing all the chairs around.  I gave her a couple warnings, then held her on my lap.  She squirmed, yelled for me to PUT HER DOWN! and when I finally gave up because she wasn't even listening to me AT ALL, she stepped back and HIT me, said she WASN'T going to SIT WITH ME, that she didn't LIKE ME and that I was BAD.  Granted, it doesn't hurt, but I could hear a couple behind me gasp.  So I told her not to hit, told her to cut it out, told her she's not being nice (because it's not like I could give her a time out right then and there, so my options were limited), then we got called into a room and she played the little angel for the doctor and for the rest of the day.

Argh.  Three year olds.  Please tell me four is easier?  Or at least involves less hitting?

I said I wasn't gonna lose my head, but then POP! goes my heart

I've now seen Music and Lyrics... let's see... four times now?  Five?  I don't know.  I love it.  I know it's corny and cheezy and oh so 80s, but it's a feel-good movie and the songs are so catchy, especially the title song as well as the one Hugh and Drew (hey, that rhymes) write.  The POP video is priceless.  And Hugh actually looks pretty darn good (lots of makeup, I'm sure).  Whoda thought he could sing?

Um, other than that, I spent the entire weekend on the couch, fading in and out of consciousness as the flu/cold finally gripped me with a vengeance.  I still went to work today, determined to spread the germs around because misery loves company.  No really, I had meetings that I couldn't reschedule and I managed to survive without cold meds until about 3, whereupon I just wanted to lay my head on my desk and moan.  The body aches this time around have been WICKED.  I think they've been more painful and annoying than anything else including the cough, congestion and fatigue.  They were so bad they actually woke me up at 4am with my muscles screaming at me to hurry up and take something.  Then I had to suffer for twenty minutes until the Advil kicked in. 

The kidlet has been sick too.  She had a 102 degree fever a couple nights in a row but was fine during the days.  She still has a horrible cough every so often but seems to be on the mend.  I still took her to school today and she was in a great mood for Mom for once.

Speaking of school, it turns out the new teacher that started in September is now gone and a third woman who I'm assuming was a helper or trainee or something is now taking over the second teacher position.  When I wrote the director before Christmas asking who all the teachers were, she gave me two names - the two teachers I was aware of.  So when the kidlet would mention other Ms. So-and-so's, I just assumed they were helpers or something.  So I only bought the two teachers gift cards for Christmas ($20 worth each).  Now one of them isn't even there and this other woman is now a teacher, and had I known that, I would have gotten her something, and how could the teacher just up and leave after a few months?  With my gift cards that were supposed to be a thank you for the whole year?  It's really irking me, but it may just be the cold talking.  I'm thinking this whole last paragraph doesn't make a whole lotta sense but whatever.  I'm too tired to edit it. 

So on that note, I should just go.  Yes.  Go.  Lie down.  Sleeeep.  Cough cough.  Moan.  Sleeep.  Snort, sniffle, blow.  Sleeeeep.