The Power of Food

My mom always said “Don’t tell a man any bad news before dinner.” This I have found to be good advice. My husband always comes home hungry, and I always have his dinner ready before he arrives. It makes for a better evening.

As for the kids, I have just witnessed a 180-degree turn around in their attitude and behavior after feeding them dinner. My two sons arrived home on the bus and went over to play cars on the cars rug. Immediately, my tired un-napped three year old starting crying, and there was yelling and arguing. I sent one child upstairs, then still some more crying from the three year old. Nothing seemed to be working. I brought Thomas upstairs to try to put him to sleep, maybe a late nap is better than none? I brought Joe back down and the two older kids started playing some board games.

After a few minutes, I started getting some questions about dinner. I got the meatloaf into the oven a little late, because the baby was tired, and had to be nursed. So by five they were all getting loud and starving. The three year old was back downstairs, refusing to go to sleep again. There was arguing, and short tempers, and repeated, “Mom, he…(insert problem here)….” I was starting to get worried. What has happened to my family? I wondered where have I gone wrong? I thought I had taught them well, taught them to share, and be nice or at least civil to one another.

Eventually, my oldest couldn’t wait. “Where is the meatloaf?” he asked, rather shortly. “It’s coming, it’s cooking,” I told him. I brought out the side dishes, and made a box of mac and cheese to tide them over. Joe sat down and started eating. He told his brothers dinner was ready. He was still a little grumpy, but his empty tummy was filling up. I made some suggestions about being nice, about talking kindly to each other, about not yelling and caring about your brother. When he finished eating, he said, “Now I am going to read some books.” Ok with me.

I started feeding the baby her jar food. I looked over into the living room. Joe was sitting nicely, reading a book to my three year old. So sweetly, showing him the letters. How kind I thought. These are my wonderful children. He is teaching his brother, and they are happy together. It amazes me how I can have such opposite emotions toward my children in such a short period of time. How I can go from hopeless, to delighted, all in the span of a few minutes.

Now they are making music together. Playing on the keyboard, making songs. There is cheerful talking, excited conversation. I love my children, I can be proud of them, now that they are fed.

I sat at the dinner table and made myself a list.

1. Put Thomas down for a nap by two pm.
2. Have a good snack ready before the school bus arrives.
3. Have dinner ready by 5 pm.

I don’t know if I will follow it. Things don’t always go according to plan. Some days then come home hungry, and will eat a snack. Other days they will wait for dinner. In any case, food makes everything better. And naps help too.

Augmentin and Bananas

The woman behind the counter at Burger King must have thought my three boys needed to get in touch with their feminine side, because she gave the three of them Mini Cabbage Patch dolls for their kids meal toys. I thought about exchanging them for boy toys, but I really didn’t want to wait in the lunchtime line just for that. I asked the boys if they wanted to give the dolls to Anna, Joe said yes. In the car, I gave out the dolls and the younger boys said they liked them. They will play with them for a day, then they will loose interest, like every other kids meal toy. Then Anna will have three dolls just for her.

I don’t know how, but Anna managed to get a second ear infection while taking antibiotics for an ear infection in her first ear. Her right ear has had several ear infections already, but how she got another one while on medicine, I don’t know. Yesterday, on the 11th day after the start of antibiotics, she went to the Dr. for an ear check. They looked in both ears and said she was fine. She looked fine to me too, and was happy, with no ear drainage, which had cleared up on the 2nd day of medicine.

However, yesterday afternoon, Anna would not take a nap. She nursed to sleep, but as soon as I put her in her crib she awoke. Then last night, the same thing happened. I brought her downstairs with Mike and I to watch a movie. She played for a while, and usually when she is with us, I can get her to sleep, but it didn’t work. I brought her up to her room, nursed her to sleep and went back down to finish the movie. Of course, when it ended and we came to bed, she cried again. I was too tired to sit with her in her room, so brought her to my bed to nurse. She tried, but cried a loud cry, and would not settle down. This went on, till Mike got frustrated and went to sleep on the couch. I got frustrated too, and went back to her room and tried to nurse her some more. Eventually, I just put her down in her crib where she cried for a while and then fell asleep.

This morning the ear drainage was back and she felt warm. I knew right away the infection was back, so called the Dr. I rounded up the boys and off we went to the Dr’s office, after a stern warning for them to be on their best behavior. They agreed, and we actually got a good parking spot today. I was really glad we did not have to park in West Bumbleland, as is usually the case lately at the Dr.’s office. Today is Saturday, so they were not as crowded. I am really glad the office is open on Saturday’s because I didn’t want to go though two more nights of crying.

When we got into the office and checked in, the kids went to the fish tank, and we got called in quick. The Doctor looked at Anna, and found that both ears were now infected. She was surprised that the nurse practitioner had found Anna ok yesterday. I told her she did look fine yesterday. So, the Dr. prescribed Augmentin, an antibiotic that works well on those who are antibiotic resistant. I remembered Anna using this once before, when the first amoxicillin treatment didn’t work. I mentally kicked myself that I had not asked for this in the first place 11 days ago when I brought her in with the first infection. But after all, they are the Dr’s, it’s their job to notice these things on her chart isn’t it? Now maybe I will remember this next time, I hope, but when we are at the Dr. I usually have at least one more child with me, and can’t always remember these things. And the Dr. has many patients to see, and probably doesn’t spend adequate time analyzing Anna’s history on her chart. So, I have to be her advocate.

The boys were very good at the Dr.s office. On the ride over, Joe produced a Dollar bill and a coin, and asked if we could get a Whopper Junior. I said maybe and took a mental note that I would bring them burgers after the apointment if they were good. So, after dropping off Anna’s prescription, we went over to BK and got three kids meals and I got a Whopper Jr., fries, and drink from the dollar menu. Joe was still hungry after he finished, so I let him go up to the counter and order another burger, and pay with his dollar and change, as I watched from our booth. The kids were good at the restaurant too, so the Saturday morning I was dreading turned out to be good. When we got home, Anna ate a jar of bananas laced with Augmentin, and she is happy. Hopefully by tonight, with two doses of medicine in her, she will sleep. Now, I have to go about folding and putting away laundry and dishes and all that jazz. Mike will be home for dinner after his day of Scout Leader training, and we can have a normal Saturday night. Hopefully, this will be Anna’s last ear infection of the season, and Spring will come soon. Now, about that laundry....

Far off Dream........

I wonder when I will have time to sit down and read a book, or paint my nails, or do something without being interrupted. It is 7:46 and I just got three kids into bed. My oldest is still up, and he is reading, so I don't have to worry about him for the next 10 minutes. Soon I will bring him upstairs, get him ready, and he will go to sleep. Then I might come back down, try to watch TV, or read, but I will only last a few minutes before I fall asleep on the couch.

I would like to go on vacation, without kids. I wonder how many years it will be before that will happen? At this point, I would be happy just to go somewhere where I can relax, and spend an entire day our two without cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry, paying bills, taking a kid to the bathroom, and refereeing over toys. Instead I would like to spend my day swimming in a heated swimming pool, eating in a fancy restaurant, going to the spa, playing tennis, reading a book by the water, or laying on a beach. Oh yeah, and my husband can come too.

Undecorating

I undecorated the Christmas tree today. It was sad, not always fun to take cheer out of the house, but necessary. Christmas can't last forever. So, for now, our cheer is stored in plastic bins, to be put away till next season. They will sit on a shelf in the basement, dormant, for 11 months, until they come to life again next December.

My three year old son helped me take ornaments off the tree. Putting up the tree and taking it down, are the only two times we really stop to look at each ornament. He was excited to identify each one as he took them down; the house, and the bears, “the man” (a nutcracker), and the ornaments his brother’s made. The rest of the time the tree is in the background, or lighting the room. We see the collection of ornaments and decorations, but don't stop to examine each one. Each year when putting the decorations up, we stop to notice our favorite ornaments. Our tree is a collection of decorations from each of our childhoods, new ornaments we bought as a couple, and now ornaments that our kids have made. It evolves every year, with a few new ornaments each season. There are name ornaments for each child, and since this was Anna's first Christmas, we added her first ornament, a little snowman globe, to the branches.

We were so excited to start decorating this year, to hang stockings over the fireplace, and set up the crèche. We went around the house, looking for places to put the wreath, and other door ornaments, and I put out Christmas towels in the bathroom. We waited till the week before Christmas to put up the tree, because of the baby, who we knew would be interested in it’s beauty. So we were ready by the time it went up to welcome it into our living room.

I remember back to my childhood, walking past the living room at night, to the still quiet of the Christmas tree. The cold room, the pine smell, and plugging the lights into the floor to see the colors light up. I would stay there a few moments, soaking it in, and noticing the new presents put there by my siblings when no one was looking.

My baby was good this year, and great around the tree. She would look at it, but she didn’t touch. For the better part of 2 weeks she left the tree alone. It wasn’t until the last couple days that she started to pull ornaments down.

So, this last weekend of our Christmas vacation, we started to take down the tree. Tonight the plastic bins came back up from the basement, and I filled them up with ornaments. The tinsel and the lights are still up; my husband will pack them away tomorrow. And now that everyone has gone to sleep, I just might go back into the living room, turn the lights on, and enjoy the still quiet of the Christmas tree one last time.