Tis The Season To Be Cranky...Fa La La La La, La La La La

Crankiness abounds...chalk it up to pre-Christmas anxiety? I'm not sure, but it's been a weird 24 hours...

It started last night at the kids' Christmas concert. I had arrived early with the kids to get them to their classrooms, and went to the gym to await Mark and Ty's arrival at 6:30. Waited, waited, waited. Kindergarden kids came and went. A poem. Grade One's (Keegan's class) came on, and still no Mark and Ty. I was LIVID! Finally they show up, right after Keegan spoke his line. I whisper angrily, "What the hell?!?" Mark tells me he is too mad to speak right now. Uh-oh...

Turns out that Ty had broken into the office while Mark was in the shower...(sidebar here...the office is locked...he moved an 80 lb bench, opened the doors where the furnace is, and slipped between the furnace and the desk to get into the office...). Mark had been working on a duplication project for a client for the past few days, involving two stacks of DVDs of 150 each, one in English, one in French. Ty mixed them all up. AND, jammed 6 DVDs into the drive of my computer. So...rage on Mark's part? 100% understandable...My rage...evaporated. He won that round.

Earlier in the week, I had made roughly 60 Santa cake pops (see photo) for the kids to take in for their class Christmas parties this Friday, and for Ty's party today. Ty wakes up this morning with a fever of 102.1, so he obviously didn't go to school, and now I have 20 spare Santas. Mark was planning on taking Ty to his concert, so he was home. I had a hair appointment. So, he stayed home with Ty, and I went off to get my hair done, with 10 Santas to share with the customers. When my appointment was done, I had missed my bus by 5 minutes, and had to wait 25 minutes for the next one. While waiting for the bus, there was this insane woman chanting rhymes at people with malicious intent, like some psychotic female Dr. Seuss...Mirror Mirror on the wall, shouldn't you be at home watching your kids...maybe I'll pay them a call...Creepy-ass shit like that. Kripes. Glad she wasn't on my bus! Came home rather late. Mark was cranky. He went to work.

Throughout the day and evening, gave away the other 10 Santas...Went to get the boys from school. Ty still feverish. By 5:00, Phoenix and Keegan were at a playdate, Mark still wasn't home from work, and Ty's fever had jumped to over 103. Mark had got stuck in a work meeting (where apparently crankiness was an UNDERstatement) and didn't get home until 6:00. Went to pick up kids. During the making of dinner, Phoenix and Keegan were at each other's throats, and I lost my temper. So now, I was cranky, the kids were cranky, and Mark was cranky. Right after dinner, Mark left for the clinic with Ty, and I sent the boys to their room for quiet, harmonious play out of my earshot. Kids went to bed. Mark came home with Ty, and typically, the doctor said it was viral, plenty of fluids, blah, blah, blah humbug.

Sent Mark off to bed, and went for my nightly walk to Tim Horton's for my steeped tea. When I got there, the staff was all pissed off because the city workers outside had been flushing the water mains since 5:30, so there was no tea, no hot chocolate, no lattes. I tried to keep the peace, and ordered a rare coffee, (which I am enjoying immensely).

Whew. Weird cranky-ass day. Oh, did I mention that (according to the Toronto media...and the Weather Network) we are in for what they are calling, Snowmaggedon? So, now I face the prospect of the last day of school for the year being a snow day, and me being stuck with 40 more Santa pops. Now, that is a thought that makes ME cranky...I hope it holds off until they are already in school, and the damned things have been handed out to the class...)

I hope tomorrow is a day of jolly tidings instead...

It's Not December Unless We Are All Sick

I was looking through some of my previous years' December posts, and in each one, my house in under siege with illness. And, like all other years, we are again ailing over here. The Norwalk virus has invaded our home. Mark Monday, Keegan Tuesday, Ty Thursday, and Phoenix today. So far, knock on wood, I have avoided getting it, but I am not without my own tales of physical woe...I have strep throat, and an ear and sinus infection...and after spending 4 hours coughing my guts out this evening, I'm thinking bronchial pneumonia is about to rear its ugly head again this year...

That being said, I have fallen behind on my Christmas to-do list. This week was supposed to be my baking week...but seeing as I spent the week cleaning dairy-based vomit out of carpets, this plan has fallen by the wayside. This evening, in desperation, I bundled all of the kids in the car (with a barf-bag for Phoenix) and went supply shopping, so I now have all of my ingredients to start the baking as soon as I am in a germ-free state.

However, I am almost finished with my Christmas shopping, so that is one chalked up for the plus side. This is our year for the entertaining, so I am hosting Mark's family for Christmas Eve, my Dad and 2 brothers for Christmas dinner, and my other brother and his family on Boxing Day. Trying out a few new recipes; should be good times, as long as we all have our health back on track.

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In other news, Phoenix and Keegan both had good report cards and are happy in school. Ty is trucking along at preschool as well. Yesterday, I went to bat for Ty, and finally got him on the (year-long!) waitlist for a psychoeducational assessment, the purpose of which is to determine the extent of his developmental delays, obtain any possible diagnosis, and get the necessary services in place. My optimistic goal was to have him enter JK in the fall next year, but I can see now that it is just not going to happen. Sadly, once he enters the school system, he would lose a lot of the services he is currently getting through the region, most important being his speech and language therapy. Ty is 3 1/2 years old and is still pretty non-verbal. He has what they call self-motivated speech, meaning that he will only say something when he wants something. He will not engage in conversation, but will request things that he wants. We are constantly working to improve his spontaneous speech, but it has been a long, hard road so far.

Ty has also moved into his demon phase. I know, you are thinking, well what phase was he in before? Have you not likened him in the past to Stewie Griffin? Well, as bad as things were before, I now see that that was pie compared to what he is like now. He's just what my mother would have called "a going concern". You know, things like climbing bookshelves, hoisting himself ON TOP OF the refridgerator, general chaos and destruction...his cuteness is his saving grace. It's a true survival tool of his species...just let me live though this year. Hopefully, being 4 years old will be calmer. Ha. Ha ha ha.

I have a bit of a new obsession these days. Well, two really. The first is knitting. I have become a machine for knitting all sorts of little knitted stuffed toys. They are fun to do, and keep me occupied while I am watching tv at night. Which leads to my second obsession: DVD box sets...

In the past few months I have burned my retinas watching Entourage, Prison Break, Smallville, the Tudors, Lost, and most recently, The O.C. The problem with having multiple episodes at my disposal is that I do the "oh sure, just more more episode" thing, and end up going to bed at 3:00 am. No wonder I'm sick....I used up all of my energy stores on teenage tv angst...

That being said, I am going to go watch an episode (okay, maybe two) of The O.C. before coughing my guts out for another night. Hoping that the drugs kick in soon, and I can get back to a normal (ish) life...

Sunday update: Damn....caught the Norwalk virus after all...day 2 of impending death...