Sick day

How do I get a sick day? Now that Quinn is mostly better, I guess it's my turn to catch a cold. I felt pretty bad yesterday, but when I woke up this morning, I felt like I had been punched in the face. Literally, my left cheekbone feels bruised. How weird is that? Quinn still has a runny nose, but at least he knows what to do. He comes up to me and says, "No?" That means, depending on the context and inflection, either "no" or "nose." This morning, he's been grabbing tissues and wiping (or blotting) his own nose. Very cute. Between the two of us, I have to do tissue cleanup rounds every half an hour or we'll be buried in them!
I hope I feel better soon because we're supposed to go the Southern Wine Expo in Charleston this Sunday. I wish we were going to be there for the whole weekend. There are so many people I need to see and catch up with. But it will be a pretty quick turnaround this time. Turns out my aunt and uncle are going to be there at the same time. What a coincidence. And since we haven't seen them I think since my dad's funeral, we're going to stay a little longer on Monday to visit with them, maybe have breakfast together. I can't wait to see them. My aunt was very very sick a couple of months ago, and it broke my heart not to be able to be with her. So all you Charlestonians who are saying, "What about me?," I will catch you next visit. Or you can come visit me. I have all the time in the world to visit here at home. And it's only a three-hour drive! We're going on a road trip in early February since Jalal has to take some of his vacation time, but after we catch up from that, I'll try very hard to make a weekend trip to Chucktown and visit with everyone.
It's still pretty cold here. I know I need to get Quinn out of the house to play, but I just don't have the energy. I didn't even manage to take a shower yesterday. Maybe I can get up and moving today. I need to get a couple of things from Target or someplace, like a couple extra pacifiers and a new bib for Quinn. Jalal did the grocery shopping yesterday so that's one less thing to worry about. Our fridge is so stocked, things fall out everytime I open it! And we've resorted to cutting the cooking instructions off of boxes, posting them on the fridge, leaving just the food, like waffles and stuff, in the plastic bags.
So at the risk of getting too much advice, I'm going to throw this request out there. I'm looking for discipline tools for Quinn. The usual recommendations--taking away toys or privileges, ignoring him, etc.--just aren't working. I'm not talking about temper tantrums. Those I ignore, and they're rare. I'm talking about things he does repeatedly, knowing they are wrong, like turning off and on the TV, banging cabinet doors, throwing food at mealtimes. If anyone has practical advice (he's still too young for timeouts), please let me know. Thanks. And now, since I've literally just broken my nose piece off my eyeglasses, I better go. Guess I'm going out today whether I like it or not! Love, Us.

Snow Day

Yes, it actually snowed in Greenville today. I only saw the remnants, a few flakes gathered on my car. It was supposed to be snow showers all day, but I didn't see any fall or accumulate. So Quinn and I drove to Spartanburg to play. We went to Cleveland Park, and it was completely covered in snow. Quinn played for a little bit, but he didn't seem crazy about the cold. It was so pretty to look at though. Then we warmed up, dried off, and had lunch at Jalal's restaurant. Quinn got his usual treatment, with all the girls fawning over him. He was pretty tired, though, so he acted up a little. I was ready to pack up the food and go, but Jalal said not to worry about it. The place was empty and nobody seemed to mind, but I just hate when he starts screaming in the middle of a meal.
Part of the problem might have been that I forgot his pacifier. Now the story is this. Quinn has only been using his paci for naps, bedtime, and in times of extreme stress (read: hysteria) for months now. I'm trying to get him off it entirely, but I don't want to push him too much. On Thursday, he was coughing pretty bad, deep in his chest, but he didn't seem to have any other symptoms. I had to rock with him a little that night when he woke up crying. The next morning, he had a fever of 99.9 and seemed to be having some ragged breathing. I called the doctor's office and they said to bring him in. The nurse practitioner was about to finish up examining him when he started coughing. She said, "Well I was going to say he just had a cold, but that's croup." Great. Anyway, he got a prescription steroid and started on some Benadryl. He was pretty miserable for about the rest of the weekend, though it did get better and worse and back again for a while. It was so sad. We were scared to put him down in his crib because they say it's dangerous if you can't hear his breathing change. Anyway, he slept in our room that night, and I tried to get him to nap downstairs with me. Mostly he cried and dozed off and on, almost always on my lap. I had huge wet spots all over me from the drooling. I felt so bad that he felt so bad. He still has a runny nose and he still coughs when he gets himself worked up, but he is MUCH better now. I'm so glad.
Well, I'm going to check out now and work for a little before bed. More soon. Love, Us.

Brrr!!

It's late and I'm going to bed. I know I've been remiss on my blog, but I'll catch up soon. Suffice it to say that it is currently 13 degrees with the windchill here right now. I call that cold! Also, Quinn has a bit of a yucky cough. Pray he doesn't get really sick and that he gets over it soon. More soon. Love, Us.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2009! We've had quite a year, so we have high hopes for this year being a big improvement. New Year's Eve was pretty anticlimactic. Jalal had to work. I went to bed around 10:30, Jalal called at 11:20 and said he was coming home. I fell back asleep until he got home, and he walked in at about 15 seconds til midnight! We counted down, kissed, then I went back to sleep. Oh well, not the worst new year's we've shared.
Christmas was quite an experience. Trish and Wade got here Christmas Eve, and Mom even flew in for the weekend, but she couldn't come until the day after Christmas. We had a wonderful Christmas Day. Quinn's face when he saw his rocking chair was priceless. He loves it, and Jalal and I can't believe we kept it a secret for so long. I think he was a bit overwhelmed by all the toys, but he's slowly taking each one in its turn. Stockings were so stuffed that they couldn't be hung up! And I personally got some fantastic gifts, including sterling silver hoop earrings, a cool knit hat, gloves, and scarf set, and a Wii Fit Balance Board! That was a huge surprise and Jalal and I are having so much fun with it. I made a 24-hour omelet for breakfast, which was great because I put it together the day before and only had to pop it in the oven that morning. Jalal made our traditional Christmas dinner, lamb. That night, we went to Hollywild for the holiday lights festival. It was crazy. They have a deer forest, which basically turned into a redneck demolition derby with people chasing down deer with bags of bread. We never did get a deer to come up to us. We did, however, get to feed a couple of zebras and a zonkey (I'm not making that up: it's a hybrid of a zebra and a donkey). Quinn had a close encounter with a camel when he smelled the Melba toast Quinn was eating.
Trish and Wade left on Saturday, and Mom, Jalal, and I took Quinn to a playground for a while. We all had a good time and got some great pictures. On Sunday, we went over to Atlanta to the Georgia Acquarium. Quinn loves the fish. He even says "fish." I'm so glad we got annual passes. It is such a short ride (would be shorter if we didn't always go on football game days!), and we've already paid for them.
The next day, we went to breakfast, but Mom wasn't feeling too well. I took her to the airport just after noon, and she had to get out of the check-in line to be sick. We finally made it up to security and said goodbye. Well, long story short, she was supposed to leave at 2:00 p.m. and her flight didn't end up leaving until after 1:00 a.m.! What an ordeal. I couldn't even do anything to help her because she couldn't leave the airport, and we wouldn't have been able to go through security. I know she was glad to finally be home though. Well, I have a lot of stuff to do today, including dishes, laundry, grocery shopping, working out (very important), and working on an edit. I won't say it's a resolution, but I will try to write more often this year. Hope you all have a wonderful new year and a blessed 2009. Love, Us.