Rolling in the Deep

This is Phoebe's chosen form of locomotion. She doesn't crawl, but my word, she certainly does get around. Bonus: if you listen you'll hear her doing her new trick of clicking her tongue.

This is where the title comes from. (Do listen to the song. Don't read the comments.)

Cheating

Blogger, you've thrown off my groove. I nearly had a panic attack when I saw you weren't working yesterday. I watched throughout the day, waiting to see if you would come back. See, I didn't want to miss a single day of posting. But every time I looked, I saw this.

I woke up this morning, and you still weren't working.

You're working now, which is great, but I still lost a day.

That's why I'm cheating. This post was written on Friday night but, darn it, I'm changing the date and time to say it was written on Thursday. It's one of those "I-would-have-if-I-could-have" situations, you know?

Kindness Begins With Me

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

We went on a walk to the grocery store last Friday. Peter walked (and didn't run off, which is an accomplishment) while Cooper and Phoebe rode in the stroller. At one point during our excursion I looked down and saw this:

It made me smile.

Let Them Eat Cake

I'm eating cake right now. My computer is on the kitchen counter, next to the Mother's Day cake that Bryan made for me. I'll type a few words, then lean over and have a little bite. Don't worry, it's a reduced sugar cake, so I shouldn't have (too much of a) sugar reaction.

I had a lovely Mother's Day. I got to sleep in. I had a lovely breakfast of French toast and fruit smoothies. Bryan got the boys dressed for church, and we sat down in the chapel during the prelude music. I don't think we've been to church that early in ages. Then Bryan took care of dinner while I was at Stake Choir practice. The boys even helped me fold laundry. Well, they helped for about five minutes, but that's better than nothing.

Peter and Cooper also made cards for me. Bryan told them to draw pictures of things that they like about me. Peter drew a picture of a corn dog, but instead of a hot dog on the inside, it was filled with sugar-free candy. Huh, not really something he likes about me, but it is a combination of two things I enjoy. Cooper drew a picture of someone that was really angry and was putting on socks. I'm a little concerned about the motivation for that particular drawing. Am I angry too often? Do I wear lots of socks? I don't know.

The best gift I got yesterday was given by Peter. The Primary President, both of her counselors, and the secretary all pulled either me or Bryan aside after church and told us that Peter was exceptionally well-behaved in Primary today. HURRAY! I was called out of Relief Society last week to calm Peter down. He wasn't angry (thank goodness) but he had been turning over chairs and trying to climb the window. Yeah, not exactly appropriate church behavior. I've been wracking my brain since the end of church trying to figure out why today was different than last week and how to duplicate this outcome in the future.

This has been a wonderful Mother's Day.

A Peek Inside My Brain

My brain has been on vacation. I haven't felt terribly clever lately and I think the blog is suffering because of it. Each night I've sat in front of the computer and tried to piece my thoughts together to form something coherent and interesting. Even now I'm struggling.

I blame the weather. Today was the first warm day we've had this year. Did you read that? THIS YEAR. We took advantage of it and went on a walk. Perhaps sunshine fuels my brain.

I've had lots of short thoughts bouncing around in my head, but nothing long enough for a whole post. That means it's time for a brain dump.

• I realized halfway through the day yesterday that I had already written a post about songs being stuck in my head and singing a few lines over and over again. Blargh. At least they were different songs.
• Cooper has a new game. He spins around in the dining room while saying, "Look Mommy, I'm being a princess." I've explained that he can be a prince because he's a boy. Nope, princes don't get to twirl.
• Cooper keeps asking, "When is Phoebe going to be a boy?" Clearly, we need to have a few more discussions about gender being an eternal part of our identities.
• Peter hasn't had a violent tantrum for almost a week. That's huge.
• He has however started cutting us off as we speak and saying "Whatever" and "I don't care." So, in other words, he's become a teenager.
• I don't like playing with Legos. They make me anxious. This week I discovered that I do enjoy building with Duplo blocks. Duplos are just big Legos. Why do I like one but not the other?
• Phoebe is very wiggly. She hates sitting still. She'd rather roll than sit. Standing is also an option. But not sitting.
• I have 99 posts waiting for me in my Google Reader. That's too many. I need to play catch-up.
• I've had Total Eclipse of the Heart stuck in my head since yesterday.
• I've also had Friday stuck in my head (Original version - don't watch! Literal version). I just heard it for the first time on Wednesday and now it won't leave me alone. Maybe that's why my brain won't work...

Stuck on Repeat

I almost always have a song playing in my head. Often that song finds its way out of my head through my mouth. Sometimes only a few phrases of a song get stuck on a loop in my brain, which means I sing the same two or three lines over and over again.

Yesterday Mary Poppins was stuck in my head, specifically the song that Jane and Micheal sing about the advertisement they've written to find a new nanny. Cooper caught hold of the last four words: Jane and Michael Banks. He sang them, said them, assigned them to toys he was playing with. This went on all day.

Clearly my habit of just singing a few words of a song is having an effect on Cooper.

It's influencing Peter too. Last week I overhead him singing, "Turn around, Bright Eyes. Every now and then I fall apart."*

What? Don't all five-year-old boys sing 80's power ballads?

*I was going to post the original video of this song, but dude, it is weird. Like, one of the oddest things I've ever seen. If you're in the mood for something bizarre, go here. If you'd like to hear a much better version of the song, follow this link.

Chicks Dig Scars, Right?

Head wounds tend to bleed a lot.

Not to worry, Peter's fine. He just got a little too excited while entertaining Phoebe last night after dinner and met the corner of our sideboard with the corner of his head. It was a small enough injury to not need stitches, but awesome enough to get to watch an episode of Word World on Netflix while we stopped the bleeding.

I hope Peter's future wife is one of those girls that likes scars.

Dance Break

Seeing Spots

Last night as we were getting Phoebe into her pajamas I noticed that she had a rash on her legs. She had been fussy for the last few hours, but I thought it was because we had battled a crazy wind storm on our walk home from church. (She is not a fan of wind.) As the night continued it became obvious that her legs were the cause of her pain. We had to hold her very carefully and she would scream whenever we tried to lay her in her bed. We finally gave her some acetaminophen and she calmed down so she could sleep.

This morning when she woke up she was in better spirits, but the rash was still there. And it had grown. It was now on the back of her neck, her ears, and was creeping onto her cheeks.

I checked the spots again after her nap. They had spread to the insides of her arms, and her hands and feet were red and swollen.

I called our Pediatrician and explained Phoebe's symptoms to the receptionist. We were told to come right in. After a quick exam it was concluded that Phoebe was suffering an allergic reaction.

Now, with all of my talk about Peter's allergies you'd think I would have been able to recognize an allergic reaction. Those spots? They were hives. I've seen hives before. The difference is that Peter's reactions have always been on his face. Phoebe's was almost everywhere else.

We have two suspects for her trigger. She had apricots for the first time on Saturday, so we need to consider that that might be the cause. The second possibility comes as a result of an ear infection she's had for the last few weeks. She was taking amoxicillin. If that's the culprit, then chances are good that she has an allergy to penicillin.

She's feeling better now that she's had Benedryll (under doctor's orders) and is asleep.

Is it awful that I hope she's allergic to the penicillin and not the apricots?