Tuesday, October 12, 2004

a trail of fairy dust

... still shimmers faintly around DD's pillow. She lost her second tooth today. They are so tiny! Then again, so is she, and her new permanent tooth (she only has part of it, actually) looks freakishly huge. I look at her mouth and jaw, and the size of that tooth, and the math just does not work. She has some serious, and most likely painful, growing to do.

Three days down, three to go. I realize that's not precise, and what I'm counting is "days with the kids wherein I have to do everything, including get them into bed." So even though DH won't be home until Saturday mid-day, and he'll likely be exhausted and I wouldn't dream of making him do anything, Friday is the last day I have to do the single parent gig. I am not bad at it (since I know it is short-lived), but I really do not like it.

DS1 was completely recovered today, and we ran all over the place and did a bunch of errands and had lunch at Elephant Bar (yum). Then we came home and I did a bunch of things that have been on the to-do list for so long it's not funny: moved the wall-mounted CD rack over near the kids' computers, put away the comforters in the newly purchased "space bags" (way cool how the vaccuum cleaner sucks all the air out, and they just squish down to practically nothing), and started packing up the previously mentioned art work, which involved taking apart the large oil piece -- we decided it would be wise to just ship the canvas, and they can re-stretch it locally for a lot less money than it would cost to ship it. Unfortunately I underestimated how much bubble wrap I'd need to do all the prints, so I couldn't finish the job today, but we'll go tomorrow and get more and I'll get those puppies out of here!

The kids were generally awesome while all this activity was going on, they watched a little tv, played computer games, and eventually drifted outside where I set up the paddling pool after I found that they had filled up the (empty, but not exactly clean) sandbox as a surrogate... silly! Yes, it's plenty warm enough here for bathing suits and paddling pools. They had a blast.

The weather was hot today but by around 5 it was perfect, and the kids wanted to eat outside -- I could see why, I completely agreed, but I hate eating on our old rickety gross grungy plastic. Tomorrow we may shop for new outdoor furniture if I can move after all of today's work. I was on my feet for a long time, and doing a lot of pulling and bending getting staples and nails out of the canvas, so we'll see how it goes. I could break down and take a Tylenol, but I'm too close to my surgery to take my much-preferred ibuprofen.

Yesterday was a pretty good day, too, although it was another stay-home day; DS1 was tons better but had next to no appetite, and so had no energy and got grumpy very easily. One of my dearest friends who lives in VA called and we had a good talk about all the stuff going on with me. DH is visiting them on Friday night. I so wish I could go too! I haven't seen her in over a year, and we both suck about calling -- the time change kills us, and she has just started back to work.

That conversation was the polar opposite of the one I had today with the local friend who I recently described as "maternally insane." I've found it's just easiest if I don't talk about myself much. I still haven't told her about my surgery and I'm debating when I will do it. I know I have to, but I'm dreading it. Well, I didn't today, and I'm not sure whether that's good or bad. I've been through the whole psychological torture aspect of telling people already, and it hasn't changed. I have this running thread in my brain: I may have cancer, yeah, yeah, I'll just deal with it... next topic... I know as soon as someone hears the "news" that I'll have to give the entire spiel, reassuring them that I'm not going to die and that recovery is pretty much assured -- eh. I don't have that much energy right now. Plus, the topic bores me.

I'm focused on getting the guest room cleaned out for Mom's stay, and trying to finish up a few other projects that have been lingering. Poor DD, I'm sure she's convinced I will never finish her cushions. I need to just get them out of the closet so I remember to work on them!

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