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Not the Weekend I Had Planned

Friday night. We took the kids over to my in-laws because Mallory had expressed her desire to have a sleepover. Since Chris and I are planning to go out of town without either child in June (not a moment too soon might I add) and Phoebe’s never been left before, we figured we might try to leave Phoebe overnight as well to see how she handles it. I felt a bit conflicted about this, however, since I had been at work all day and hadn’t been able to spend any time with her. So we went out to dinner, bummed around for a while, and went back to Chris’s parent’s house around 9. I figured if Phoebe was already asleep, we’d leave her there; if not, we’d just take her home.

Well, both children were still awake, and not only did we have to take Phoebe home with us, but Mallory decided that she didn’t want to have a sleepover after all. So we didn’t get rid of either kid that night. Bummer.

Saturday morning. My friend Julia had planned to bring her two girls over because she and her husband are building a house and had to talk to the flooring people and so forth. But Mallory woke up with an infected tick bite – the area around where the tick had been was bright red, swollen, and hot to the touch. Plus she had a weird rash on the back of her neck. So we go off to Pedicatric Urgent Care and not only got a prescription for antibiotics for the tick bite, but also learned that Mallory has chicken pox. Again. Of course Julia and Paul and the girls got to our house the very instant I called Chris to let him know. And of course they couldn’t stay because we didn’t want to give them chicken pox. And of course Mallory couldn’t play with any of her other friends either because of the stupid chicken pox. And she couldn’t go to school today. And I really regret that I had both her and Phoebe vaccinated for chicken pox because apparently it’s not a very effect vaccine! Argh.

Luckily the weather this weekend was just gorgeous and Mallory, apart from some itching, didn’t feel at all sick, so things weren’t all bad. But still.

And speaking of unexpected – Mallory’s new favorite movie is “Night at the Museum.” The character Ben Stiller plays is divorced, with a son, so we had to explain to Mallory many times why the mommy and daddy don’t live together, why the son doesn’t live with his daddy, and so forth. After one such explanation, Mallory got a very solemn look on her face and I steeled myself for the question – “Are you and daddy ever going to not be married any more?” But what she said instead was, “So, when are you and daddy going to split up?” As if it was something everyone did eventually. She went on to say that she thought it would be fun to live in two different houses. I tried to explain that divorce is really not a happy thing, but I don’t think she quite gets it.

As for Phoebe…for a while Phoebe was saying “Carry me!” whenever she wanted to be picked up. Now, for some reason, she says, “I carry you!” instead. I remember Mallory would say, “Pick you up” when she wanted to be held. I wonder why babies reverse their pronouns like that.

Hope your weekend was pox-free!

Comments

aimee said…
We want to see A Night At the Museum but it was not there when we went to rent it.

Sorry again about the pox.

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