Happy Valentine's Day!

Today was Valentine's Day. If one lived in the movies, a romantic song would be playing in the background. Chocolates would be bought, dinner reservations made, flowers would be delivered. But we don't live in a movie, do we?

Monday is the kids day to go to preschool in Renous. Today they were having a Valentine's party. Even though they don't go until 1:00pm, I still found myself rushed and running behind. Could it be that I was too busy watching "Live with Regis and Kellie" and "Ellen" this morning? Maybe. Anyway, as I was rushing out the door I had a feeling that I was forgetting something. Turns out that we had forgotten their teacher's valentines and their file folders which hold their "homework". Not that big of a deal.

The first 25-30 minutes, the kids went up to their classroom, while the parents prepared for the party. I helped make some treat bags while others decorated and laid out some crafts for the kids to make. We didn't go last week so I didn't know what crafts they were going to make. How complicated could they be? Then the kids came down and Nancy(teacher) said " Your big person is going to help you with your craft". We were making butterflies made out of layers of cut out hearts and some sort of flower name tags. Since I had to split up my time between Jules and Samuel, we were running behind everyone else. Or at least it seemed that way to me. Before I knew it, Nancy was saying it was "time to clean up your craft station". We never got to the flower name tags. Honestly, we barely had our butterflies done. For some strange reason, this bothered me. I felt like I was failing preschool. Jules and Samuel didn't even notice that they were the only ones who didn't make two crafts. But I did.

Everyday I get the usual "twin" comments like "I don't know how you do it". I've practically grown immune to them. But I've always had twins, so to me it's normal. Sometimes I even feel guilty that people think I have it so bad, when really it's pretty easy. But today, the more people said those things, the more I started to believe them. I found myself asking the very same question. "How Do I Do It?".

By the time the party was over, my head was starting to ache. It wasn't that the children were being overly bad or anything. It was just having ten excited kids and ten parents, plus two teachers in a small room together for over an hour. It was time to go home.

When we got home, I helped the kids out of the car, then gathered up our things. As I walked toward the house, I met Samuel in the driveway crying. His treat bag had busted open on the step, and of course all his candy had fell in under the deck. So I had to get on my hands and knees to fish everything out of the snow. Abby had been asleep on the couch, but the kids were so excited to show her their loot and to share some of it with her, that they woke her up. I was telling Jason about the party, gathering up our coats and boots to put away, when the bi-fold closet door came off it's track. Ugh! I hate it when that happens. Then Sherry drives in the yard. She was just running in for a second to show me the changes to her mini-home floor plan. We're standing in the kitchen, when Benjamin, our cat, bum scoots past us, leaving a skid mark trail behind him. Sherry leaves to let us clean up the poopy mess, when Abby starts crying for no apparent reason because she is so grumpy. I end up putting her in her room because she just won't stop screaming. Then I sent Jules and Samuel to their room to play, telling them that Mommy needs some quiet time. They're not gone ten seconds when they accidentally bump heads and they both come running and screaming. I finally get them to go back and play when Mom comes with some chocolates to give them for Valentine's Day. She convinces Abby to stop crying and come out of her room, when we discover that she has peed in her pants. She won't let me change her clothes. More crying. Earlier, I had started slow cooking a roast pork to have for supper. I had wanted to have a nice Valentines dinner with the family. Now I found myself cursing it, because it meant that I had to peel potatoes, make gravy etc... Eventually everything and everyone calmed down. Including me. Supper was very good.

Jason's eye had been bothering him for the past few days. He thought it was cause by a sinus infection. But today the area around his eye was really sore and so swollen that it made it look like he was squinting it. It actually made his good eye look huge - googly even. He called our family doctor but he is away for the whole week. So tonight he broke down and went to outpatients where they informed him of a five hour waiting time. Five hours! Crazy. So he opted to go to the after hours clinic. Turns out he doesn't have a sinus infection at all. In fact they're not really sure what he has. Jason said the doctor mentioned nerve damage? Anyway they made an 8:00am appointment with an optometrist for tomorrow. I'm kinda getting a little scared. I'm trying hard not to think up horrible scenarios of blindness, cancer, brain tumors, etc... What a day. I think I will just go to bed.

Anyway, to anyone out there who is lucky enough to be starring in their own romantic movie tonight, Happy Valentine's Day!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Abby is on her way to being potty trained! At last! For the past six months we have been procrastinating, using everything and anything as an excuse to wait. But on Monday, after discovering her covered in her own feces, I decided enough is enough! That night she peed in the potty once. Tuesday, we went through four to five pairs of panties with two successes. Then on Wednesday, she would go without me even asking her or wetting her pants at all. And this morning she even peed in the potty while I was still in bed. She still had her pull-up on! The end is near! No more diapers! Ever! My only concern is that she has yet to have a bowel movement........at all. Not since the body painting incident on Monday. I'm not sure if she is just nervous over the potty training or if she is really constipated. She was taking coactifed cough syrup over the weekend and early this week. I think one of the side-effects is constipation. Just in case, I have been walking the orange juice to her all day.

Samuel and Abby were both really sick this past week. Lots of sleepless nights, coughing, emergency room visits, etc... I never once gave them any over the counter cough syrup, as it never really seems to work. The doctor even told me he doesn't know why they just don't stop selling them. I did, however, give them Motrin when they had a fever......which now worries me.

Tuesday night I caught a story on the news. A 3 year old girl had a fever so the Mother called her doctor who told her to give the child Children's Advil. 8 hours later the fever was still high so she called her doctor and again he told her to administer the Advil a second time. Her fever broke, so they thought there worries were over. Unfortunately, they had just begun. A week and a half later they had to admit their daughter into the hospital. After a couple of days the doctor's finally diagnosed her as having Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. It is a rare condition that causes burning and sloughing of the skin, blindness, among other things. In less than two weeks, their little 3 year old girl was dead. At one point, the Father said he had to witness all the skin on top of his little girl's hand come right off. They showed pictures of her in the hospital which were unspeakable. The worst part is that her condition was caused by an over the counter medication - Advil.

The story really worried me, so today I googled and discovered many other cases which were not only caused by taking children's Advil, but Children's Motrin as well. Both of which are Ibuprofen. I haven't found out if this condition arose after their first time taking the medication or not. I'm just sick over it. They say it is a rare occurrence, but to read story after story, family after family, that have had children die or severely burned, is frightening to say the least. It's just one of those things that you are so scared could happen to you or to someone you love. I know I can never use Children's Motrin or Advil again. It just makes me want to never give them any over the counter medication ever again. I just hope the kids don't get a fever for quite some time. Right now I don't think my nerves could take it.