Saturday, November 27, 2004

O.P.P.

It's been quite a Thanksgiving Day Weekend.

Owen started barfing and blowing out the toilet late Wednesday night.

The next day, he seeemed to feel better and we set off for Scottsdale, Arizona, to visit some family.

The car ride took so long that we missed dinner and arrived at my aunt's house by the time everyone else was falling asleep and ready for their pie.

Steph's son Caleb was delighted to see us and ran around excitedly trying to show Owen the house, but Owen was so tired and sick that he just screamed for Mommy.

We crammed in a few bites of reheated turkey and then went to Steph's place for the night. Owen went to bed almost immediately to wake up several more times barfing and crapping.

The next day we took him to Urgent Care, but the cost was $50 and the wait 3 hours. We decided to drive back to L.A. instead, given that Stewart had started barfing all over Steph's rug.

We left Scottsdale at around 3 p.m. and arrived back in L.A. about 10:30 after many hours of two kids barfing in sync.

My favorite was when Stewart spewed chunks all over the wall at a Chevron station in Eastern California. We just walked out as they dripped down onto the floor.

Today we took Owen to Urgent Care back home, but the doctor just told us to watch for dehydration, which we're doing, and not to worry as it's just a bad flu bug.

All I can say is that after three days of this, I am heartily sick of O.P.P. - Other People's Puke and Other People's Poop.

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Okay, so it's been a long time since my last real post.

Kyle has the full scoop on Owen's hospital stay.

He left out a few key things, though, like how Owen woke up after the bone marrow biopsy screaming bloody murder for no reason and kicking us.

According to the procedure nurse, the anesthesia can give kids a sort of "baby hangover."

All I can say is that it's been awhile since I was hung over THAT bad.

We actually had to sedate him because he would kick and thrash whenever his arms and legs weren't held tight to his body.

In Stewart news, we had a birthday party! On October 30th, we invited much of the neighborhood and many other friends to celebrate Stew's first birthday. We had pizza, cake and did the limbo. The kids got bored with the pinata after five seconds and I busted it open myself with a broom handle.

Stewart had a great time, as he is definitely a people person, and Tobler's helium balloons were the life of the party.

In me news, I have been baking like crazy for absolutely no reason except that Ralph's has all the holiday spices and pie ingredients in key locations and on sale, so I keep grabbing them and making desserts for myself.

I made two pumpkin pies and two key lime pies- both turned out well, so I might try some different kinds. I also want to attempt making the crust myself at some point, but that point is definitely not now.

I also made a gigantic batch of gingerbread cookies, half of which I burned and gave to Owen and Stew to "decorate" (eat frosting). The rest Kyle and I horribly dabbed with frosting to make pilgrims and Indians to take to my Aunt Jennifer's for Thanksgiving.

They look awful but taste good. I'm afraid I'll never live up to my Aunt Amy's gorgeous ginger men and camels which she makes every Christmas. Each camel has a colorful saddle and harness complete with metallic candy-ball reins and the ginger men and girls have our names inscribed on them in frosting and appropriate hair color for each person.

At Ralph's today I had an experience that proves that New York is gay. This guy in front of me was all teed off because someone in a different line had left her cart to go get something.

He kept talking about how in New York, everyone would have just pushed her cart out of line and gone around her. He just couldn't believe that no one in L.A. cared that her cart was unattended for two seconds.

Then, the lady in front of him had some kind of price problem with her complimentary spend-$99-or-more-and-get-a-free-one holiday turkey. So he starts telling the cashier how she should have just totaled the bill and let everyone else go and rung the turkey separately. "You're not very efficient," he said, totally serious, and totally thinking he was giving her valuable advice. The thing is that she only got the turkey because she spent the $99 on groceries so it had to go on that order. The clerk kept trying to explain it to him and he got all huffy and New Yorky and smarter-than-thou.
"I can't believe this! I can't even explain this to you!"

It really supported my hatred for a city I've never even been to. I like when people live up to my stereotypes. It gives me a sense of security in a world gone mad.

Like Mexicans whistling and yelling at me out of crappy trucks or gay men who lisp and say "fabulous", it's something I can count on.

Well, Vagina Night was a wash last night- Connie took the night off. So I'm going to see if I can't milk the rest of naptime with a Gilmore Girls and a Sex in the City or two.








Thursday, November 11, 2004