Henry woke up even hotter this morning yelling to "get away" and "stop it". I think he was having trouble waking up from a bad dream and the fever carried it over into real life after he was awake. It took me almost a half an hour to calm him down enough to where I could carry him into our bedroom to distract him with some Dora. Poor little guy. I finally got him to take some Tylenol, so hopefully he'll feel a little bit better soon. I feel slightly better this morning than I did yesterday, but I still am not going to work, even though Kyle took the day off, too. I still feel pretty cruddy and I don't want to get everyone else sick. I also can't bear to leave my sick little man to be taken care of by someone else. I'll have to go back tomorrow, though. I guess they sent a note home from Henry's school yesterday asking to please keep sick kids home. They sent two kids home yesterday with symptoms like Henry's. They are asking to keep them out until they have at least 24 hours fever free (which is pretty standard) so even if Henry wakes up feeling perfect tomorrow he'll probably have to spend one more day at home. Uuuughhhhh. Is it Spring yet???

Henry and I are down for the count today.

Last night after dinner he announced that it was time for him to go to bed, brushed his teeth and hopped right under the covers. He was coughing and saying that he was cold, so I knew it could go either way. I was up all night with a cough and a nasty sore icky throat. This morning I woke up with rock hard ick from my sinuses all the way down the back of my throat so I decided I wasn't going to school. I went to wake up Henry and he declared that it was "Still sleeping time!". He was burning up. When I left to tell Kyle he was staying home with me, Henry asked me to please close the door on my way out and went back to sleep for another half hour. Poor kid. He got up to pee and was just sniffling and crying. I know how crappy it feels to have a fever, so I get how miserable he is. Right now he is parked in our bed with a bowl of oranges and Wubsy on. He won't let me give him any medicine, so I'm hoping the fever will burn off whatever buggies he is fighting and then break later today. The drywall guys are supposed to come today. I am just going to tell them they'll have to do it some other time. I would actually really like it is she would let Kyle finish the job and take it off the rent. Our house looks so nice now, I don't want them fuputzing it again.

It is supposed to be nice and sunny today, so if Henry takes a nap I might go take some pictures of the house. If I feel up to getting up and around. We had to put our landlord's old abandoned couch out by the curb for trash pick up so we are kind of waiting to see if they actually take it. She insists they will, but neither Kyle nor I think there is a chance. If they don't we are going to offer to either move it out to HER front curb to wait for pick up (which we think will never come) or we will haul it and take a hauling charge off the rent.

I am stuck on a pair of longies until I can get to the yarn store for pink yarn. I was going to drag my sick butt out there today to get it, but there is no way I am subjecting Henry to that. I'll just have to put that pair away and work on something else today. Bleh. Tired. Going back to watch Wubsy in bed with Henry. As he says, "Bye bye, alligator".

This is going to be the picture for Henry's first album cover:



He had a big day today. This morning we went to Garrett's house and the boys went to build a race car while the mamas went to Old Navy on a quest to find pants that fit.



After that, they raced the cars down the driveway:



We ate some lunch out in the sunshine and then went to ride bikes and play at the park. The boys had a blast.





Garrett's mom and dad have an important networking dinner to go to tonight, so Garrett came home with us to hang out for the evening. They had so much fun running around all day that they both konked out in the car. They played some baseball in the back yard for a while and now they are lounging around watching a movie before dinner. I can't tell you how cool it is that Henry has a little best friend. They have so much fun together, it is awesome.

Aren't you glad we spent all that money on a new camera???

Henry made some very crafty hats at school today.



Mr. Blinkin




A very, very serious Mr. Washington




1/2 of Mt. Rushmore

Today they took class pictures at school. My favorite class just happened to be going down when I was in the room so they asked me to come get my picture taken with them. After we were all situated, the photographer asked the kids in the front to hold the little sign with the school and year and teacher name and whatnot on it. Just as he was getting ready to take the picture, a third grade voice hollered out "He spelled 'elementary' wrong!". Sure enough, the sign said 'elementery'. Unfortunately, this discovery was made by a child in our, the 13th or so class to have their pictures taken. Oops.

We had the third wave of destruction in the bathroom this afternoon. As I was pulling into my parking space, my landlord ran out to warn me about the mess I would find inside. Not good.

Whew! Just back from the Wee Trade. I got a ton of basic play clothes for the summer, so he should be all set for a while. I am a little sad that I didn't get home in time to see the little man before he went to bed tonight. I haven't seen him since I hustled him out the door to go to school this morning. *sniff sniff*

It is a good thing that Kyle got his brand spankin' new camera today in the mail. Their fun day at the park without me was well documented.

I had a big rant all saved up about the dry wall people and the absolute mess they made of my house, but they are (supposedly) coming back to finish the job today so I thought I'd just wait and see what new fresh disaster they bring and tell you about it all at once. I say that pretending that I haven't already bitched about it about it to almost everyone who actually reads this blog. It doesn't look good. My landlord was supposed to be here while they were here, but she apparently had to run errands. As she was sprinting away from me to her car her last words were "Thanks for being here with them while I get these few things done. It can get tricky because they don't speak any English at all. Okay, see ya". Ummmm, thanks.

Henry brought this home from school yesterday:



It is a log cabin. Built out of pretzels. How cool is that? I think he might be an architect when he grows up. If you ask him who lives there, he will tell you "Mr. Blinkin". For those of you who don't speak Henry-ese, that is "Mr. Abe Lincoln". Say it with me people "genius". We are working on Roosevelt. Roosevelt is the guy on the dime, right? I would be such an awesome home schooler.

Wee Trade is tonight, so I am stretching and getting prepared to combat the 800 other moms of 4 year old boys competing for the rare item of boys' clothing that isn't either a pair of sweatpants or a Spongebob shirt. When I was dropping off my stuff the woman in front of me was unloading all sorts of 4/5 clothes. I saw a killer tee shirt with all sorts of pirate flags on it, so that is my first destination. We'll see if I can score it.

Henry got a bike today! I guess Garrett asked him to go bike riding this weekend, which was the perfect excuse for Kyle to run right out and get him one. They had fun putting it together but this:



was the extent of the bike riding done today. See his expression in that second picture? That is the face he makes right before he yells "NO more pictures!" and gets off the bike to run into the house. He looks like such a big kid on there, though, doesn't he? Now we have to invest in a helmet that will actually fit his big ole melon. The old one just perches atop his head like Oswald's little black top hat.



There is more to today, but it isn't terribly interesting and Henry is bugging me to let him play on the computer. Pth.

Well, since Kyle decided to go to bed at 8:45 tonight and the rich red yarn that I need is trapped in the bedroom with him, I have no choice but to give my fingers a break from knitting. Last night I finished my second Mahar order of the month and I am currently in the middle of a pair of monsters-the red being for the big scary red mouth. I started a pair of monkey shorts that is next on the list, but my heart isn't in it. I'll just take a break until I can get my yarn back tomorrow.

Tonight Henry found a quarter on the floor. He picked it up and said "Look, it's George Washington". WHA??? I am guessing that they must have talked about George Washington today because it was President's Day, but still, I was impressed. He also knows who wrote The Cat in the Hat and Where the Wild Things Are. If there is a greater joy that to hear my little beastie utter the words "Maurice Sendak", I don't know what it might be. Well, tonight he talked me into taking a bath with him and we spent a half hour flinging bubbles at each other (the glass doors mean we can splash as much as we want) and that was pretty cool too. I can't wait until it warms up so we can get back out and about running around in the woods together. I have a feeling this is going to be a wonderful Spring.

There are officially 3 weeks left until I am done tutoring. I will literally be counting down the days. I don't know why I hate it so much but I do. I think it is just because it is such an obvious waste of time when I know that I could be doing other things. And the fact that I have no idea what I am doing. Just because I can write fairly well doesn't mean I can teach third graders remedial writing. They don't know the difference between slang and proper language. Some of them don't know what a verb is. How am I supposed to get them up to grade level (with no materials or training) in 25 minutes a week for 5 weeks? The whole thing is ridiculous.

Alright. I am going to bed, too. Maybe tomorrow I won't need 7 cups of coffee to get out of bed...

Henry and Kyle went out on a hike through the first real snow of the season. They went out to Bent Creek and let me take a hot shower and catch up on some work. They had a great time. We were hoping that the snow would stick around so that we'd have a snow day or delay tomorrow, but most of the snow is already melting away and the roads are completely clear. Drats! At least we finally got some new Henry pictures...

It snowed!

We woke up to the ground and our cars actually covered in snow this morning. My first thought was "ooooh, pretty". My second thought was "damn, why couldn't it have waited until tonight so we wouldn't have school tomorrow". The wind is blowing like crazy. I actually saw the snow in the middle of the night because the screen door didn't get latched and the wind kept on blowing it into the house, so I had to get up and close it.

Yesterday I got almost all of my Wee Trade stuff tagged and boxed. I still need to put the clothes on hangers, but for the most part they are done. Henry and Kyle came home from their "adventure" while I was right in the middle of doing the toys. Oops. Luckily, there weren't too many things in there he was still interested in. I am so excited about going on Thursday. I don't know why the Wee Trade inspires such excitement in me. It is just kids' clothes, not usually a source of excitement. Something about the huge line to get in and how everyone rushes around with their laundry baskets and the vastness of the place just gets me all into it.

I know I am a horrible mama for not posting any pictures in so long, but we just haven't taken any. Henry has decided that he doesn't like to be photographed and we haven't done anything noteworthy in quite a while with all of the moving and cold and whatnot. One of these days it will be sunny and I will take lots of pictures of the new house. Maybe Henry will be "accidentally" photographed then. We'll see what I have on hand to bribe him with.

Mama said there'd be days like this...

Last night Henry woke up coughing again, so I went in to prop up his pillow and lay with him for a bit. I ended up falling asleep and woke up this morning in a puddle of Henry pee. At least he had the waterproof pad on the bed (which reminds me I have laundry to do).

Work has been unusually stressful lately. Yesterday I subbed in the afternoon for one of the teachers I usually assist. When I took the boys down for a bathroom break, they discovered that someone had decided to write swear words all over the bathroom walls. Using their own poo. Niiiiice. I found out today that it was one of the (more irritating and disruptive) kids that I do small group work with from another class. When they called his folks, they said it couldn't have been him and pulled him out of school. This weekend he is going to live with his grandmother in another town so he can attend a different school. I'm sure he'll have no trouble there whatsoever.

There is a kid in the class I subbed for yesterday that was grating on me all day. He didn't really do any one thing wrong, he just couldn't keep it together. He kept getting out of his chair, walking around, talking and whatnot and eventually his clip on the behavior chart was all the way at the bottom. He told me he was going to get in big trouble, but I didn't really think anything of it except to give him a little lecture about taking responsibility for your actions. Today he came into school with a split and scabby lip. His parents beat the crap out of him when he told them about the behavior chart. His legs were absolutely covered in huge ugly bruises and he had also apparently had his head banged against a wall. They had to call CPS and I'm not sure what is going to happen next. I know it isn't my fault. I KNOW that in my head, but damn. I also know that if I didn't keep moving his clip down it wouldn't have happened. I just want Henry to come home from school so I can give him a big hug (even though he'll never let me).

What the fuck is WRONG with people anyway? Bah!

I am going to drown my sorrows in a hot shower , The OC and a bigass bag of discounted Valentine's chocolate.

Oh, I forgot the kind of cool news about the new house. We use oil for heat, so we are able to heat this house with biofuel! Yay biofuel! It is only about 15 cents more than regular oil, so we filled 'er up this morning. Hopefully it will last until Spring, but we don't really know since it is our first go 'round.

I had to deal with the most uncomfortale situation ever at work today. I had to take a group of 3rd grade girls to the bathroom, where they promptly informed me that a boy in their class had been spreading rumors about all of the girls to all the boys in the 3rd grade. They were too embarassed to tell their teacher, a man. I wanted to make sure they knew I took them seriously since they were obviously uncomfortable with what this boy was saying. So I had the pleasure of taking the teacher-an older, very religioius man out into the hallway and telling him that one of his students was telling all of the 3rd grade boys that one of his female classmates had a butt piercing. And that he said he had kissed the butt of another female classmate the day before. I love my job.

Speaking of butts, Henry slept like ass last night. I would hear him cry and talk and then I'd go into his room and he'd be sound asleep. It happened about 3 times in an hour, so finally I just climbed in and went to sleep with him in his bed. He stopped having bad dreams, but I didn't sleep very well. I had also taken a Tylenol PM because I have a sore throat and didn't want it to keep me up all night, so I have been sluggish all day. I am so glad it's Friday.

Tomorrow we have a big playdate with Garrett and his folks and Sunday we are planning on our big IKEA trip.

Okay. Off to get a big cup of coffee, get some knitting done and watch The OC.

As you can tell, moving, crazy business, work and Henry have managed to push updating the blog completely off of the priority list. So let's catch up, shall we?

Moving. Moving has been a nightmare, but we are finally feeling that home-y feeling. Henry is feeling especiall home-y right now as he rides his plasma car around and around on the hardwood floors. I like this house the best in the afternoon when I get home from work and the NATURAL LIGHT is streaming in through the windows. Three cheers for natural light! Hiphip HOORAY! hiphip HOORAY! Hiphip HOORAY! We are planning the big ole IKEA trip this weekend and hopefully then we'll have enough furniture to have company over. I have been watching far too much DIY channel for my own good. If I try to make my own desk out of acorns, rhinestones and hot glue.... stop me. I did make a major score of a 75% off rug at World Market the other day. Also, yesterday I got rugs for our bedroom and the drapes for the french doors came today. Now we just need to get the hardware to hand them, since it appears that the former occupant simply stapled her window treatments to the door.

The knitting biz is nutso. Robert opened up for his 3 pairs of pants for the month and was lambasted with orders. He couldn't close fast enough to keep it to 3 and ended up taking 6 orders in an hour by mistake. Oops. It was his first experience with the "hyenas" and I think he was a little taken aback. Understandably. He apologized profusely and offered to extend the turnaround time, but I am still a bit stressed. This means 14 orders need to be completed in this shortened month. My fingers are cramping up just thinking about it. I did find this awesome website, though: Fishcakes
She makes the coolest monster gear. I just placed a big fat order and am going to try to get a wholesale account with her. I'd love to be able to put little monster stickers and buttons in my packages, how fun!

I had to put my bitch face on at work today. I finally reached my breaking part with a certain 3rd grader who I have to deal with every single day at lunch. It has gotten to the point where he is egging on his whole table to be little beasts. Today he exploded a mustard packet all over the place-wall, ceiling, tables, chairs, other kids, you name it. I wrote him a referral (which is printed on easily recognizable bright blue paper) and dragged him all through the halls looking for the principal. She informed me that he will be eating lunch with her for the rest f the year, or until she thinks he's had enough. I think the other assistants are going to throw me a party.

Okay, Ia m being beckoned to wipe a bottom so I have to leave you here.

Before I go I'd like to take just a minute to note the passing of a truly wonderful woman, Jane Smith, my dear friend Sara's mama. She was one strong and lovely woman and I was blessed to have met her. I know she is smiling down on her new little grandson with peace and joy.