FYI: Recall

There's been a massive Similac recall for all of you who use formula or know someone who uses formula.

The formula I just bought yesterday is in this category.

To see if your formula is recalled go here: http://similac.com/recall/lookup.aspx

Sick Husband

My husband stayed home sick from work yesterday. He caught the respiratory virus that is going around and of course thought he was dying. Does anyone else's husband do this?

I was nice and made him breakfast, drugged him up, and took the kids out to the Zoo that morning so he could rest in peace and quiet. I was kind of excited to have my husband home, even if he was an invalid.

Then I realized how much having my husband home disrupts my day. Not only did I have my children demanding my attention, but now had my sick husband demanding my attention. He wanted to cuddle and watch movies all day since he wasn't feeling good, which would have been fine if our very active children would have desired the same thing. I felt like I couldn't get anything done. My email went unchecked, the house was ignored, and the kids wanted Daddy to play with them. My routine was completely gone.

By mid-afternoon I wanted him to go back to work. Instead I took a nice, long, hot shower. I was going to get some benefit out of him being at home! Does anyone else have this problem? Husbands disrupting the weekday schedule?

Whatever you do, don't drink the icky soap.

Yesterday evening, in the post-dinner rush (which is nothing like the pre-dinner rush, the pre-bedtime rush, the lunchtime rush, or the mid-morning rush, of course), Toddler mysteriously disappeared. I found her a short time later trying to wipe off her tongue with our kitchen towel. I followed her into the bathroom where she tried to wash out her mouth. When I asked her what was the matter, she informed me "soap icky." I agreed that yes, soap was icky, that she probably shouldn't eat it again in the future and went on my merry way. I know, I know, I probably should've been at least slightly concerned, but I had a Ralphie-esque from The Christmas Story picture running through my head enabling me to dismiss all worries ("It... It 'twas... soap poisoning!").

It wasn't until a couple of minutes later that I began to suspect a bigger problem. I picked Toddler up and noticed a distinct un-soap like smell on her breath so I told her to lead me to the "icky soap." Turns out what she decided to guzzle wasn't soap...but hand sanitizer.


big oops.

Figuring now was a good time for alarm, versus my usual live and let live mothering philosophy, I called in the cavalry...Poison Control (bless their hearts, they've been there for me countless times). We went through the stats: up to .5 oz of hand sanitizer (she emptied what was left in the bottle) of 63% ethyl alcohol in a 20-21lbs 22mo old (yes, she's small) equals what could possibly be one very drunk toddler. In the worst case scenario (where she drank everything left in the bottle), she would've had an alcohol blood level of .12something. To give all you other non-drinkers out there a reference point, the legal blood alcohol limit is .08. Let's just say she most likely would not pass the Walk Down The Line test. Brent (nice, non-judgmental Poison Control worker) told me to watch for staggering, extreme drowsiness, vomiting, or even table dancing.

As luck would have it, Scarlett had managed to spit out most of the hand sanitizer she put in her mouth and the aforementioned symptoms never came to pass (thank heavens). While she might have been a little tipsy (there was a lot of "ooo, look at the sky" wide-eyed moments going on), she was not, in fact, completely sloshed.

We'll have to leave the shirtless table dancing for some other time.


How about y'all? What's the craziest thing your kid has consumed?

Ladies Night

Whitney and I decided it was time for a girl's night out. So, we packed our bags, kissed our husbands good-bye, and went to downtown Kansas City.

We changed our outfits numerous times, ate junk food, got in and out of the car without having to pack around diaper bags, strollers, car seats and kids, and acted like single girls our age do (except for the martinis and one-night stands).

We stayed at the Q Hotel,

walked around the Plaza,

and grabbed a bite to eat at Brio.

We looked at the many fountains in Kansas City and went to the local art museum and drooled over Rodin, Monet, and Oldenburg. What can I say? We had a love affair with art.

Aubrey in front of one of the Plaza's many fountains

One of our favorites painted by Mr. Vincent van Gogh himself
*dreamy sigh*

Badminton, anyone?

Whitney marching along with the metal pedestrians

We talked about EVERYTHING under the sun, stayed up past 2am, and just sat back and enjoyed ourselves.

It was exactly what we needed and I highly recommend it to others. What do you need? Here's a couple ideas: A best friend... or two... or three. A nice hotel, go ahead and spoil yourselves, especially when splitting the costs. Junk food (you know, the kind you gorged yourselves on as teenagers) and a couple very fun public place you can go and really enjoy without the kids. The only rule: no guilt. Don't feel like you're leaving your family behind, chances are the kids are having some great bonding time with their dads, and you will be coming home a much happier Mom.

One last thing: a BIG thank you to our husbands for encouraging our little weekend and letting us shrug off the Mom-ness for 24 hours. Where would we be without your love and support?

My Consolation Prize

I've decided that when a Little Old Lady tells you that your children are beautiful, it's really her way of consoling you for the fact that they are also terribly ill-behaved.

When Mama ain't happy...

Yesterday, in the immortal words of Alexander, I was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I even kinda, sorta wanted to move to Australia. all. by. myself.


I ranted, I raved, I eerily resembled a shrieking banshee, I'm sure. At least in the eyes of my children, anyway. My four year old even had the balls to inform me that I was "being a mean, mean mommy." The brave child and I then decided we were going to start over. I was going to try to be nice and he was going to attempt to be slightly more cooperative. I told him that I was going to do the dishes and he could pick up his room like I had previously been begging him to do and then we could see if we couldn't have a fun afternoon.

He retorted that I was, "still being a mean, mean mommy." I told him even nice mommies make their kids clean their rooms.

Ya know what, though? After about 20 more minutes of bellyaching, he actually picked up his room. A bit after that my 3 year old told me I was wonderful. Then the 21 month old went down for a nap and the older two actually helped me pick up a bit and then watched a movie quietly. If I hadn't seen the change for myself I would've thought that a Stepford Wives-like switch had happened. Instead, in reality, my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day somehow managed to turn into quite a pleasant one.

Now, I know this was more of an anomaly versus everyday life. I know that nine times out of ten I can be the nicest or not so nicest mom ever and my kids will continue on in their previously established moods. However, just this once, I was reminded that the saying, "When Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy," goes both ways. That sometimes, when I'm not happy, my children aren't happy...and when I am happy, my children might actually decide to be happy too.

So, while this insight most likely won't cause any huge tidal waves of change in my little corner of the world, I'm hopin' that maybe, just possibly, it might cause a bit of a ripple effect. Maybe the next time I'm having an Alexander-worthy bad day, I can just decide to stop.

stop the yelling.
stop the crying.
stop the threats.

and see if I can't just start the day over.

Stressed

I've been a bit stressed lately. Why... is a topic for another day. Today's topic is the result of stress. Sometimes when stressed I get depressed. I shut-down. I don't want to do anything, see anyone, or talk to anyone. This happens rarely and is usually coupled with something else (ahem, pregnancy hormones pumping through my body). Normally I get agitated and focus my energies into cleaning.

And I clean and clean. In two days alone I cleaned my kitchen, living room, laundry (this included folding and putting away the clothes, which I hate), swept and mopped my entire house (which is no small feat considering my entire house, except for the bedrooms, is a combination of laminate and tile flooring), and dusted. All of this on top of my day-to-day taking care of the kids, making dinner, and the hours I've spent outside of the home attending to other things. What makes it even better is I haven't given in to the second part of my stress-ness - eating junk food. I like my comfort food and have been craving a nice juicy burger all week. Instead I've made dinner at home and kept within our new healthy-living eating habits. Tonight's menu: Veggie burgers, hopefully it will curb my burger craving. Hopefully.

My husband has said I need to get out by myself, maybe go to Barnes & Noble or something. However, due to obligations in the evenings between the two of us this hasn't happened yet. Maybe it's time to take this energy to the spare bedroom and finish unpacking and finally set up my office?

All of this has made me curious - what do other people do when they are stressed? Are you a cleaner like me? Or do you curl up with a pint of ice cream and a good chick-flick? And how do you manage your stress? Do you have a hobby that helps take your mind off things? Or do you go drool over all of the books at Barnes & Noble?