On your mark, get set....

So much for blogging once a week. I was almost able to keep up in August, but everything begins in September and it's been a little hairy around here.
Now when I say "everything" begins, I mean Everything. Let's do a little review of the month, shall we? The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Good:
(1) Preschool. Yay preschool! We all love preschool. Anna goes in the afternoon, ostensibly during Isaac's nap, so it gives me a solid two hours to clean. I gave up cleaning in August, so it felt good to give the house a good once over during those early weeks. As for the school girl, she seems to be enjoying herself. It's hard to get much information out of her, but I can at least find out what "job" she had, what the snack was, and some loose outlines about what pretend game she played outside. I can hardly wait for parent-teacher interviews, to find out the inside scoop.

(2) Bible studies: Since the kiddos have come along, it's been difficult to work biblical study into my day. So I've appreciated a return to group study, providing that extra motivation to delve daily into the Word. There's a women's study I've been attending which has become invaluable to me. Unlike other aspects of our church involvement, all I need to do for this group is show up. I'm not involved in child care or logistics or even snacks. While I enjoy helping out with junior church and organizing the logistics for our couple's study, everyone needs a time where all you do is "get fed."

(3) Gymnastics: Both Anna and Isaac are enrolled in classes. This has been a great activity for both of them, and many thanks to my friend Michelle for getting the ball rolling on that. Anna's class is small, meaning less time waiting in line. She's also with a friend, improving her experience ten-fold. Isaac and I take a parent-tot class, and it's super fun! There's an obstacle course, trampoline, and a foam pit. He likes these just fine, but I think his favorite activity is running around in circles on the soft floor. Ahhh... two year olds.

Bad:
(4) Business travel: Not my travel of course, but Jon's travel. I suppose it's no surprise that his trips were curtailed in the summer months, but it made his three September trips a bit of a shock. None of them were terribly long: just two or three days. I feel like a baby complaining about them, but we were pretty out of practice. And creating new weekly routines hard enough without haphazard Daddy absences. I remind myself that the alternative is living in D.C., and then I feel better.

Ugly:
(5) The End of Naps: They're not totally gone, but Isaac skips naps about twice a week now. He is not a happy awake toddler, but instead a cranky pants sensitive awake toddler. So these days get a little rough around the edges. On the bright side, he will actually go to sleep a little earlier on these days. Sometimes.

(6) Illness: And with the beginning of Everything we have the onslaught of virus season. Isaac was our canary, coming down with a cold the first week of September and it has not gone away. He was on antibiotics for an ear infection, which I would have normally tried to avoid. However, given #4 I was not about to risk a sleepless night. Fat lot of good it did. The day after his last dose the nose started running and he complained of ear pain. I'm trying to wait it out this time, but it's a been a week...
In other news, Anna is on her second cold. Those flu shots can't come soon enough.

So that pretty much sums up the month. Things I'm looking forward to, during this last week of September:
A girl's night out to Ikea (how suburban is that?)
Jon not traveling
Maybe saying goodbye to the mid 80s temps? I'm so done with hot weather. So. Very. Done.
Healthy kids?

Double Ugh

One of the things we look forward to the most are visits from my parents. My parents look forward to their visits with equal (if not greater) enthusiasm. This time they were able to come down together which, because of work schedules and cost of flights, is generally not the case. They drove down over a couple of days and arrived on Tuesday. We had various plans, such as the zoo, visits with friends and family, and I was going to get a refresher course on canning peaches from my mom. Mostly we were just going to hang out and enjoy each others' company.
'Twas not to be.

Within a day of arriving, my mom came down with some horrible sickness (likely dehydration due to our higher temperatures and altitudes). She was bed-bound for a day, but began recovering once we realized what was wrong and she started drinking Gatorade. By Saturday things began looking up, and we spent the late afternoon at Jon's parents house.
Then, disaster. Dad mistakenly stepped through a space on the side of the trampoline and fell through. It would have been fine, except that his foot or leg hit a cement block on the way down (the trampoline is dug into the ground, with a retaining wall around the hole). Long story short, an ambulance was called and he ended up in the ER with a dislocated knee, the tendons completely detached from the... quadricep, I think. The silver lining is that there's no pain in the knee. (Dad had me straighten his leg after the incident. I did so with great reservation, which is what detached the tendons. However, I'm told it also restored circulation, prevented nerve damage, and got rid of the pain. Or maybe they just said that to make me feel better.)
Unable to do surgery for at least a week on account of swelling, the ER sent my dad home. So, after determining that he could get in and out of the car fairly well, my folks headed back home this morning. Hopefully it won't take too long before Dad gets surgery up there, but with the Canadian health system, one never knows. He'll be put on a waiting list, and it remains to be seen if it will be days before he gets surgery, or months. He's quite incapacitated - unable to move his leg, with the only comfortable positions being flat on his back or standing with crutches. It's just not a tenable situation.

As an aside, it had been months since Grandma & Grandpa last saw the kids, and everyone was so looking forward to this trip. Now, we won't see them until Christmas (assuming Dad can travel by then). I just can't believe how one misstep can have such tragic consequences. It seems all out of proportion.

Ugh

What a crap couple of weeks. Not to say there haven't been some good moments, but I have to say this has not been the best of times. And to top off this two-week anniversary of crap, I am sitting here at 6:30 a.m. when I could still be asleep, since no children are awake (Isaac had a 5:30 a.m. shout out, which I could not recover from).
But let's first focus on the positive, shall we? To begin with, while Jon was cavorting in Miami for work, I had a lovely afternoon visit with some dear friends who were visiting the area. We had not seen each other since graduate school, and it was so very nice to catch up and meet their adorable baby girl. Meanwhile, Anna had a wonderful time at the Renaissance Fair with her grandma and did her share of cavorting with the resident princesses and faerie.
Other positive events included a visit to the zoo, getting formal pictures of the kids, and finding out there are more babysitters in our neighborhood than I had thought (always a good thing). Surprisingly, I will also put Jon's four day absence in the positive pile, since we managed to keep busy and had no major breakdowns (children or mommy).

The negative comes down to the soul-sucking nature of illness. To begin with, Anna caught a nasty bug while Jon was away, resulting in a spectacular display of fluid projection. Luckily, the carpet was unscathed. Alas, the toilet was also unscathed. The poor thing was so sick, but managed to be up and about the next day, despite some minor dehydration and some mental scars (i.e., she now "feels like I'm going to throw up" about once a day.)
My own illness has been less dramatic but more tiresome. Now let me be clear: I rarely get seriously ill. [Case in point: when Anna was about 7 months old she got a horrid stomach virus while we were on vacation, which required various trips to various ERs in various countries. This virus managed to spread to Jon, my parents, and my brother with shocking speed, reducing each of them to quivering, vomiting masses for about 24-48 hours. My own symptoms included mild sleepiness and a nap.] So finally going to the doctor last weekend was a big deal, made bigger by various tests and a CAT scan which will cost us hundreds of dollars. The kicker is that there's was nothing obviously wrong. Frankly, I don't think I should have to pay (as much) for expensive tests if they don't turn anything up.
Anyway, my only choice is to wait it out. So I'm waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting...

Back to the positive. My parents are coming on Tuesday! I'm so excited! Anna and Isaac will be thrilled with all the attention, and it will just be nice to have them here. An added bonus: Jon and I will be able to take off for a full 24 hours! We haven't had 24 child-free hours since before Isaac was born. We're not going far, but will be staying in a nice hotel and perhaps even get a hike in, or a massage, or just breakfast in bed. It boggles my mind.