The Kracken (or, "The Creature from Hell that We'll Refer to as Last Week")

You know those weeks when every little stupid stress in your life compounds into the perfect maelstrom?  When the normal (and normally manageable) little roadblocks pile up to the point that you're suddenly slamming into a wall rather than climbing over the rough patch?  To the point where ever your metaphors for those weeks are overly worked because your brain's been on hyperdrive for way too long?

Yup, we just came off one of them weeks.

Like I (tried to) say, if you take the following items individually, you can handle what life throws at you.  But throw them all into the same 5 day stretch, and you've got a Type A gal like myself cowering in a corner each night with a loaded bowl of ice cream as her only source of solace.  Exhibit A?  HD came down with a fever last Monday night.  Keep in mind that she's never had anything more than a cold, so her dumbass parents take a good 15 minutes to figure out the baby thermometers we had on hand.  Oh, and STILL didn't use them correctly until my lovely mother-in-law (a former nurse) showed us how 2 days later.  No other major symptoms, just massive fever spike every 4-6 hours.  HD's out from daycare the rest of the week, leaving us scrambling for care (in-laws for the win, holla!!!) and poor Hubs trying keep me from her in case she was contagious, since fevers + pregnancy are a huge no-no.  Hubs was the true hero of the week, shouldering a major burden of doc appointments, easing night sweats, and carrying around our very fussy little girl.

Oh yeah, so couple all that with the fact that Oct-Nov is the absolute worst time of year for me at work. Y'all know about benefits open enrollment season at your employer?  The period of several weeks where you can make any changes to your health benefits through your company?  Well, I'm solely responsible for making that magic happen for about 600 employees each year.  In addition to trying to plan for my upcoming maternity leave.  Being the sole benefits rep on the whole HR team, I've been trying to train some co-workers in how to keep up compliant with all federal and state benefits and leave of absence laws for the 3 months I'll be gone (starting from a level 0 knowledge base).  It's a picnic, let me tell you, especially when you already feel like the worst parent ever for not being able to help take care of your kid.

And in the midst of all this, we thought it would be super fun to try to paint the new baby's room.  Ha.  Ha ha ha.

Several doctor visits and 4 days later, we have a categorized urinary tract infection on our hands.  The good news?  Well, she wasn't contagious and we didn't have to worry about baby 2 in ute getting sick too.  Bad news?  Hubs and I felt horrendous -- frigging parents of the century for dealing with something that should be preventable.  The doc mercifully wouldn't let us beat ourselves up about it.  HD was one of the wackadoo cases that exhibit no symptoms other than fever.  Anyway, we were finally able to get her some antibiotics last weekend, and she's been her old self ever since.

Lessons learned?

• Hubs is the best partner ever (I already knew this, but it was further proof), a true champ.
• UTIs are not just for folks having lots of sex in their 20s.
• It is scary when your kid gets sick and you don't know what's up, even if you know she's going to be fine.  In 2.5 years, we've never experienced more than a cold with HD.  
• Holy crap, 2 kids sick at the same time is going to make me want to hide under the covers.  
• We're not bad parents, even when it feels that way.  We didn't idle, waiting around for HD to magically get better without seeing the doc.  But we also didn't needlessly freak out and jump to OMGhospitalnow type conclusions.  We comforted her as best we could, and it worked.  And didn't utterly ruin her tiny lady bits in the process.

Day of the Padre (or, "Not the Happiest Fathers' Day")

1.  I went to the East Bay yesterday for a birthday bbq.  For those of y'all not in the know...it means I travelled 40 miles from my home to a land filled with "golden hills," i.e. heaps and heaps of dead grasses.  There's a lot to like about that area (it's about 10-15 degrees warmer than my house so I love to visit), but there is a reason I rarely head that way.  The reason being that those damned grassy hills give me a monstrous allergy attack.  Long story short, Claritin didn't work, Benedryl/Neti pot/humidifier combo is not really helping, and apparently I brought some the evil grassy spores home with me...

2.  ...because today, Hubs totally woke up with similar allergy symptoms.  I still managed to pull together a homemade waffles breakfast in bed for his Father's Day (AND brownies -- just tooting my own horn), despite my drippy nose and puffy eyes (sexy, no?).  We also somehow managed to have a celebratory lunch at The Counter, do our grocery shopping, and blow bubbles with the kid outside.  But by 2pm we were both miserable.   Plus, Hubs magically contracted a fever, so I got kid duty the rest of the evening after quarantining him into the guest bedroom.

3.  HD felt great all day -- tons of energy.  So much in fact, that she decided she just flat out didn't need to go to sleep during her bedtime.  She stayed up in her room for close to an hour after her normal sleep time, NOT nodding off.  I used my best mama tricks to try to help her nod off, to no avail.  Because she just learned the word "nose," and had to keep pointing it out to me while I sang.  Although when your daughter touches your nose with the tip of her finger, says "nah" and laughs sleepily at her own awesomeness...?  You melt.

4.  I am currently blogging while running my online traffic school (barf) in another window online.  You know, so I can actually pass the minimum amount of time that I'm supposed to be learning about right-of-ways and divided road ways and whatnot.  Oh, and makers of Comedians Teach You Online?  You may want to live up to your hype and actually include some flipping JOKES to help make this a bit less painful.

Sea Chanties, Part the Second (or, "I've officially gone crazy")

Despite my sometimes prickly view of "children's music," I couldn't resist buying this album for HD: Emphatical Piratical.  I've officially gone of the deep end, by way of the plank.  Haven't made Hubs listen to it yet, but HD's already got a funfilled earful!

At Jasleen's request, this photo seemed apropos.

Insufferable Parrots (or, "Why Is There a Rooster in My Quiet Little 'Burb?")

I'm very used to waking up early.  Due to my train commute and trying to get a bebe and myself ready for the day, my weekdays start at 6am.  Since said bebe has no concept of sleeping in, weekends start at 6:30am if I'm lucky.  [Side note -- this morning, Hubs awoke with HD and let me sleep until 7:30am!! Utter bliss!]  Mind you, this doesn't typically bother me.  I mean, how could one ever mind waking up to this:

Yup, I put a naked pic of my kid on the interwebs.    I'll take it down before she's a teenager.

When HD has had a nice, long sleep, she is an absolute joy when she wakes.  All sunshine and smiles.  Super excited to see Daddy or Mama when either of us go in to get her.  It's like she can't wait to start a new day with her favorite people.  It's really pretty infectious.  And since she now (mostly) sleeps through the night, I'm usually just as stoked to wake and go into her room to greet her each morning.  Until recently, that is.

My little family lives in a small, quaint suburb.  All the restaurants here close by 9pm.  There are four senior living facilities here, and only one public high school.  The itsy bitsy Catholic university next to our neighborhood doesn't exactly have a thriving party atmosphere.  You don't hear any basic traffic noise between the hours 10pm and 6:30am.  "Quiet" barely begins to describe it -- try "sleepy," "placid,"  even "desolate."  

So imagine our surprise when, a couple of weeks ago, we heard the sounds of a faint "cockle-doodle-doo" at FOUR IN THE MORNING.  And it's continually happened (at varying degrees of volume) every morning since, usually from about 5-6:30am.  I don't want to be all City Mouse about this, but seriously?  I may jokingly refer to our little town as "the Boonies," but I did not sign up for Greenacres, y'all.  We inquired with neighbors, and it doesn't appear that anyone local is harboring illicit poultry.  The prevailing theory is that there's a wild rooster roaming about the college area.  We have deer, we even have mountain lion spottings, so I guess why not add wild fowl to the list?  Wonders never cease.

Until then, I think HD and I may have to obtain a couple of cutlasses and be on the lookout for this rooster.  I don't think roosters can really fly, so walking the plank may work as suitable punishment for our recent lack of sleep.

Beware the Lady Harrrrpington Smythe-Beard!