Whew.

I felt terrible this week, and I had to take care of my kid, who felt just as terrible (probably worse), all by myself.  Also, we were trying to get our house on the market.  It was a hard week, filled with doctor visiting and nose-wiping and a desperate, futile battle to keep the house clean.  I felt very sorry for myself.

But now it's over, and I'm back at work.  (Well, over for me--Poor Mr. A. now has a cold and is home alone with still semi-sick Soren. S4, we're calling him now.)  I sound like your cigar smoking granny, but I feel okay.  And there is stuff coming up to look forward to.

Soon I'll stop working every weekend, which means more daycare time for Soren, but also more time for us to spend as a family and with friends.  (Friends!  Call me! I swear sometimes I answer the phone.)  Because of the scheduling vagaries of the library, there will also be two days a month when I'm off, but daycare is already paid for.  So I can drop Soren off for at least part of the day and then, oh my, the possibilities boggle the mind.  Go out to lunch someplace without high chairs!  Linger in stores!  Nap.

I feel guilty for how excited I am about those two days, but my guilt is tempered by the knowledge that I will mostly spend them cleaning the house.

blerg

Since I work every weekend right now, I took vacation days a few weekends over the past few months so that we could hang out together as a family, get things done, maybe go away to the mountains.  This past weekend was the last one, and now I am a perfect three for three: sick for all of my winter mini-breaks.  So no mountains, and not much has gotten done.

Generally Soren has been sick too, which makes for extra good times.  We spent most of Sunday at an urgent care because he was running a really high fever.  Now I think we both have sinus infections.  Whee!

You want to know how bad a parent I am?  I wished I could go to work sick today, rather than stay home sick with a sick baby.  It would be more restful.  I know, I'm the worst.

In happier news, The Amazing Race is making all my dreams come true this season.  They brought back all my favorite teams!  The Globetrotters!  The Cowboys!  Mel & Mike!  I could plotz.

Baby toy

It took Soren forever to learn how to crawl, so I sort of thought he'd be on the slow track to gross motor skillfullness.  But in just the past week, he's gone from being able to hold onto something when we stand him up, to pulling himself up to standing, to cruising around the living room holding on to furniture.

The other day I was mentally congratulating myself that we have actually done a pretty good job with the babyproofing.  No sooner did I have the thought than I turned around and saw what Soren was playing with--one of those giant lighters used for the fireplace.  So basically, a flame-thrower.  The perfect baby toy.

Sucker

Lately, when we're hanging out on the floor banging stuff against other stuff (as we so often like to do), Soren will crawl over to me and put his head down in my lap.  Then he looks up at me, smiles, and hugs my leg.  Like hey, this playtime is going great, but I need a quick snuggle break.

Talk about heart-melting.  At least he's still too young to ask for money.

Exciting weather news:  During my lunch break half an hour ago, I went for a walk in the sun.  Now the library is being pelted with hail.  Or possibly just incredibly pissed off rain.

Eleven letter

Being a grown up is strictly for the birds.  This morning I was grateful to see an ESL patron who always asks me how to pronounce words because I knew that at least her questions would be softballs.  Today's words, in case you are interested:  "eleven" and "letter."  I pronounced both of them beautifully.

In a disturbing development, lately I have found myself throwing a lot of thumbs up.  Have I become the kind of person who throws a lot of thumbs up?  Jesus.