Mommin' It Up!

March 14, 2013

Separation Anxiety

We’re experiencing separation anxiety in our house again. This time it’s me with the problem.

For about two and a half years, Sam has been going to daycare right around the corner from my office. While he doesn’t always enjoy the 40 minute commute there and back, he’s done so well there and had so many fun opportunities. And so have I. Because not only do I get to hang out with just him for an hour and a half each day (even if it is in the car), but having him so close makes it easy for me to attend the special moments as well. I’m able to go ice skating with him and his class, like in the picture above, and I can run over to deliver cupcakes to the St. Patrick’s Day party (which I am doing tomorrow – I proudly wrote “CUPCAKES” next to our name on the list, right under green grapes, edamame, cucumbers, and snap peas. I win.). Things like this don’t require taking the day off, the way they do for me to do the same for Kate.

But, May will be his last month at school here with me. He’ll be home with Andy over the summer and then he’ll start kindergarten near our house.

It makes me so, so sad.

I will miss our conversations in the car every day. I’ll miss being the one to pick him up and seeing his face light up when he sees me. I’ll miss the parties and the field trips that are so convenient to attend. I’ll miss knowing that I’m right around the corner if he needs me.

I’ll miss him.

But I won’t miss paying the daycare bill.

How’s that for a silver lining?

March 13, 2013March 12, 2013

I officially give up

So a few days ago I wrote how my family keeps getting sick and we can’t catch a break and it’s totally HORRIBLE.

And then last week both big kids went to school on Thursday and Friday! And we had a good weekend! And they both even returned to school on Monday! Five glorious days of wellness.

And then yesterday, Tuesday, the big kids headed off to school again.

Jonah has been “sleeping in” since the time change, so he wasn’t awake when Bobby and the big kids left. After I heard him wake up, I opened the door to get my sweet baby boy…and was greeted by the unmistakable odor of vomit mixed with diarrhea. And so much more, but I’ll do you a big fave and not describe it all for you. A lot of laundry and a bath (and he HATES his bath) ensued. Good times. And by good I mean bad.

And then of course 30 minutes after coming home from school, Sophie, who just finished her FISHING antibiotic yesterday, blew chunks with the force of 10 men. Puke-o-rama. Sophie has now been sick 3 times in 4 weeks.

I am not amused. Well, I wasn’t. Until Emily and I shared this series of text messages.

Then I was slightly amused. But soon I went back to being completely unamused and just plain pissed off that I’ve spent most of 2013 with a sore back or sick children or both.

I swear we are clean, hygenic people. I don’t know why we can’t fight off these illnesses. Tonight I went out and bought the kids probiotics – any other advice?

I’m thinking running away to somewhere tropical is my best bet right now.

March 12, 2013March 12, 2013

Cleansing my palate. And also my liver.

I’ve been reading tons and tons of stuff about adrenal fatigue, and one thing that keeps coming up, in everything I’ve read from the very first time I ever heard of this condition until today, is diet. Certain foods wreak havoc on the adrenals, and as much as I hate to admit it, I’m not going to feel 100% better until I address my consumption of sugar and processed foods.

While I’ve been making some modifications here and there in the last few months, I still found myself gorging on sugar-filled snacks at the end of the work day. And I hadn’t done jack about my coffee and/or diet coke habits. Last Friday I went to the nutritionist for a follow up, and the tests showed that my endocrine system is getting better (it’s no longer off-the-charts bad, it’s only in the sorta bad category), my liver has moved from the working swimmingly category into the sorta bad category.

These are all technical terms.

In any case, she said I am overworking my liver by ingesting crap foods, and I need to knock that shit off ~~and concentrate on golf~~ and eat some healthy stuff. LUCKILY, she had just the system for me – the Standard Process Purification Program, and it could be mine for the low, low price of… I’m not even going to tell you how much.

So, for the next 19.5 days (1.5 days down, woohoo) I’m going to subsist on vegetables, fruits, lean proteins (after the first 10 days, anyway), water and green tea. (Did you see diet coke and twizzlers on that list? Me either. It’s so sad.) I also have to take 21 pills a day for the first 10 days – pills that consist of dehydrated beets (which I like to pretend were grown by Dwight Schrute) and stuff. No chemicals, just food. But! I can eat Chipotle, and as long as I have Chipotle, everything is right in my world.

She swears my cravings will go away after day 4 and that I’ll feel great once my body is rid of the bad stuff. I shall believe it when I see it.

How about you, friends? Any sugar-giver-uppers out there who want to tell me how fantastic they look and feel? I’ll be anxiously awaiting your reply while I sit here and sip on liquefied turnips.