I’m having a bit of a rough time right now.  Having Jack be sick so much in such a short time span means staying cooped up in the house a lot.  I didn’t even like working at home when I had a fulltime job, so being cooped up all day with a toddler for several days in a row is not my favorite thing.

It’s great that as a stay-at-home mom it’s no problem for me to stay at home when Jack’s sick.  If I were working full-time, it would be stressful for Chris and me to have to juggle our work schedules to figure out who could stay home.  And I can’t imagine the stress for single parents. On the other hand, it means it’s always me.

Yesterday Chris had a work function in the evening so it was an even longer day than usual, and Jack chose that day to nap only 30 minutes.  So, what does a 19-month old do for 12 hours (11.5..) when stuck inside at home?

• Read books.  We must have read about a million of them.  Interestingly, it’s getting harder to read the whole book to Jack because now he gets distracted by details on the pages, and wants to flip back and forth to his favorite parts.
• Look out the window and watch cars and trucks go by.
• Do forward rolls.
• Build block towers and knock them down.
• Color.
• Pull the cat’s tail.
• Stand on the coffee table triumphantly, knowing it’s not allowed.
• Push toy cars around.
• Make a big mess with blueberry yogurt.
• Wail.

There’s a small sampling, anyway.  Last night I was relating my day to Chris and he asked me for my top three BEST moments of the day.  This is why I married him:  he always looks on the bright side.  Here they are:

1. At the end of the book Oops!, David snuggles his mama.  Whenever we got to that page, Jack insisted on giving me lots of hugs.
2. On the first page of Go, Dog.  Go!, there’s a picture of the sun coming through the window.  Jack points to it and says “moon!” and I say “no, it’s the sun, not the moon,” and he says “moon!” again and we repeat until we’re both laughing.
3. He saw a picture of my dad and said “Pa,” [the grandkids call him Papa] which was the first time I’d heard him say that.

Jack’s sick again.  Third time in a month, whee.  He has a fever but no other symptoms so far.  Wonder what it is.

We went to a birthday party yesterday.  We had no idea Jack was getting sick.  He didn’t have a fever, he was playing and eating totally normally.  Ugh, I feel really bad about it.  If we’d had any idea, obviously we wouldn’t have gone.

We had an appointment to get Jack his H1N1 vaccine today but had to cancel.

Poor little guy.  He slept ok last night, but woke up miserable and soaking wet.  He ate his breakfast and played in the morning, though, and went down easily for his nap.  I hope it’s a long one!

The end of NaBloPoMo.  I managed to write every day except November 1st, because I had forgotten I signed up.  (Also, if you look at the date/timestamps from some of the earlier entries, it looks like I skipped some days because I didn’t realize my time zone was set to GMT.)

I just don’t have enough to say to write every day.  But it was an interesting experiment.

Jack has continued to be in a Daddy phase recently.  Some mornings when I walk into his room, he sees its me and says in a disappointed voice, “Dada”.  Yesterday he fell down and I was right there, ready to give him hugs and kisses, but he ran to find Chris instead.  Everything blue is now cause to mention Dada.  It’s all Dada, all the time!

I liked this quote from Evany’s blog:

When I first got knocked up and started to consider what it might actually be like to have a baby, I figured I’d miss the impromptu nights out…the dinners with friends, the movies in actual movie theaters, the strip clubs. But in practice, I’m finding that more than anything I miss the plans-free, pants-free days at home doing disgusting amounts of nothing at all.

Chris and I still occasionally get to have date nights or hang out baby-free with friends.  I still go to my book club.  We still see a movie once in a while.  But it’s those weekend days filled with nothing that have gone away.  You can’t tell your 19-month old to just occupy themselves for hours while you veg out.

I’m not complaining; I knew that was something I’d be giving up in trade for having Jack, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  But sometimes I do miss it.

My parents and my aunt spent the night last night.  Jack kindly slept in until 8 today!  He went to bed pretty late last night.

We had a pretty relaxed morning and everyone left after lunch.  We took a walk in the afternoon, had a dinner of leftovers, and after Jack went to bed watched Bride and Prejudice.  The best part is that tomorrow is Sunday.

My favorite foods of Thanksgiving!

We celebrated Thanksgiving today.  My parents, my aunt, my sister’s family and a couple of friends all came over to our house to eat and hang out.  Jack had a ball with his cousins and enjoyed both the pumpkin and apple pie.  I am told the turkey was delicious.  I bought too many dinner rolls.  (I always think we need dinner rolls, but everyone eats the cranberry bread instead…)

“Single Ladies” was watched on YouTube.  Games were played.  Chex Mix was consumed.  A good time was had by all.

We’re actually celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow.  We are having it at our house, but my brother-in-law is once again doing the majority of the cooking.  Everybody else brings something.  For my part, I made cranberry bread, my favorite Thanksgiving dish.

This morning I went for a long walk with Jack while Chris planted tulips in the backyard.  I took Jack to the little park near the cross-country course; there was a fun run going on and lots of people saying hello and Happy Thanksgiving.

In the afternoon I baked the bread and we got the house ready for all our guests tomorrow.  I kind of like celebrating on Friday and having the day off beforehand.

After Jack’s swim lesson last week, while getting changed out of our suits, I overheard another mother yelling at her two kids.  She wanted to get them in the shower and she said she was going to spank them.  I was shocked; not shocked she would spank them, but shocked that she would say so in public!  Here in the San Francisco Bay Area!  I am amazed CPS did not show up to arrest her 10 seconds later.

I recently read an article commenting on a BabyCenter survey that 49 percent of parents surveyed admitted to hitting their own children.  A pretty high number in this day and age, right?

I’m not totally anti-spanking.  I don’t have any plans to spank my own kid(s), and of course, think hitting children is abhorrent, but…. if a parent gives their kid an occasional swat on the backside I don’t think it would freak me out.  Or maybe it would; I don’t normally see people spank their kids in public.

That threat of spanking didn’t seem to help the woman in the locker room.  She was threatening to spank them one second, them promising them gummy bears the next.  I’m not sure either one ever happened.

I was quite surprised today to get a call back from Planned Parenthood.  She took the details of when the person had called and from what number, apologized, and said she would absolutely take care of the problem.  She also thanked me for calling it to their attention. So there you go, sometimes complaints do get heard.

Finally left the house today!  We went for a long walk, and then out for some errands.

Jack has recently learned how to make himself dizzy by spinning.  Unfortunately he has not learned that when you are dizzy, it is easy to fall over and hit your head on things like coffee tables.  He’s also learned to shake his head “no”, though he doesn’t say the word yet.  It’s so strange to ask “Do you want some water?” and have him shake his head at me.  It’s like we’re having an actual conversation!  I remember when my niece Maggie started talking, and how amazing it was when she could actually tell me what she wanted.

Today I received a call from Planned Parenthood, asking for donations.  I’m a fan of PP, and I donate to them every year.  But I have also asked them multiple times to never contact me.  I explained this to the woman on the phone, and she said, “But I thought you were a supporter.”  I said “I am; that is why I donate every year,” and re-explained that I did not want to be contacted.  In the middle of my sentence, she said “Oh, ok” and hung up on me.

I was so mad, I called up Planned Parenthood to make a complaint.  They just shunted me to voicemail and I doubt my message will do any good, but still.  Note to charities:  when people who DONATE EVERY YEAR to your organization ask you to never contact them, it means NEVER.  Ok?  No “oh but it’s a special time” or “we thought you wanted to hear from us”.  NO.  Just, no.

I understand charities are hard-pressed for donations, but irritating your donors is NOT the way to get more cash.  In this day and age, with those new-fangled computer things, there’s no excuse for calling/mailing people who have requested to be removed.

In Jack news, he didn’t have a very restful night, but seemed pretty good today, aside from being very stuffed up.  No fever, woo hoo!  I hope he’ll sleep better tonight.

I haven’t left the house since Friday morning.  Unless you count taking the compost out back.  Which, I don’t.