Random Tuesday: TMI Edition

Tuesday again? Holy hell, where did the week go?

• We spent the weekend sick. Again. Just a cold, but That Baby and I spent the weekend just wiped out, me with it settling in my chest, feeling like my lungs were in a vice, and That Baby coughing all night. I used to give BDH the gears about being sicker than any ten people I know. But this year, it seems to be me that is sick all the time. I guess that’s what happens now that Stinkerbelle and I are getting out into the world, going to classes and such. You can try as you might, but you can’t avoid it. Basically, all kids are just small walking petri dishes, and the world is their incubator. And it seems there are two schools of parenting around this: parents who keep their sick kids at home to recuperate and not spread it around to other kids, and parents who are happy to get their sick, cranky kids out of the house and out of their hair for a few hours of respite.

• Our family is now in possession of two potties. One potty for the powder room downstairs, and one for the upstairs bathroom. They arrived a few weeks ago, but after the initial fanfare, what with That Baby being sick and tired and not exactly open to change under those conditions, we have just sort of left them there. We’d make mention of it — “Oh, LOOK! There’s your POTTY!” — but otherwise we kind of left it alone. Then we progressed a little bit, and Stinkerbelle would sit down, fully clothed, on the potty like it was a chair. But this week, we have started just trying to sit Stinkerbelle on the potty sans pants and diaper for a few minutes a day, and if by some crazy random happenstance some pee or some poop actually occurs, we will celebrate it like it’s a lottery win. But we are not expecting much. She’s still feeling a little poorly, but generally speaking, I don’t think she’s quite ready for much potty action yet. We’re in no rush. Nobody goes off to university in diapers. (I hope.)

• Another hitch in our potty training giddyup is that Stinkerbelle is going through a phase about clothes. Specifically, she’s all about “OMGWTFBBQ NO DON’T TAKE ANY OF MY CLOTHES OFF NO NO NO OR I WILL DIE.” It’s a little nuts-making. Some days, you can’t even take her coat or her hoodie off without Barrels O’ Teh Drama. It could be fifty billion degrees in whatever room we’ve just walked into, but DON’T TAKE THAT SWEATER OFF OMFG NOOOOOOO! Which is a nice change from the phase this summer, Babies Gone Wild, where she was lifting her dress or her sHirt up randomly at whoever was present. But the socks? They are still EVIL SENT STRAIGHT FROM THE DEVIL. So they MUST come off. The rules for this phase, they are COMPLICATED. I’m going to need a program.

• Stinkerbelle had a 2 1/2 year checkup at her doctor. We continue to weigh her regularly to make sure her eating issues are not causing any problems with her growth, and being as she’s still on the 50th percentile, they’re totally not. But she does have ear infections. One thing I didn’t know was that, according to the doctor, he can always tell it’s the end of September because that’s when he starts seeing the year’s ear infections. Apparently they come on schedule, every 3rd or 4th week of September. But as usual, we would not have known without the doctor’s appointment, because That Baby certainly didn’t complain. Kid would not complain if her hair were on fire. So now, along with Tylenol for her cold — grape, non-staining — Stinkerbelle gets a dose of Strawberry Horror a.k.a. some sort of antibiotic. (Amoxicillin, maybe?) It’s a wonder after all this fruity medicine, the kid’s not farting Skittles.