Something’s Bothering Me
Daddy days are more fun and more exhausting than ever. Cristin has been getting home late for reasons that I could explain here but I prefer that people stay awake for the remainder of the post. I have about an hour window in the morning to shower and get the girls up and dressed and fed and make Phoebe’s lunch and take her to school. The evening is the more hectic time as I try to pack in dinner for the ladies, a trip to the playground and making dinner for Cristin and myself before the sun goes down. The girls have been eating on the porch recently which has been very pleasant. I have decided that I like this time of year the best. It is warm enough for t-shirts but not too hot or muggy and the mosquitoes have yet to show up. Cristin took Phoebe shopping and engaging her in the process has expanded her interest in foods. Ellie continues to eat mostly everything we give her with the exception of raisins which she will chew for a minute or two and subsequently disgorge. Their current favorite is some kind of rice based pasta that Cristin found at the local organic store. The pasta itself is dreadful, basically it tastes like chewy brown rice. However it comes in many shapes and the girls will consume it to the point where they quarrel over the last piece. Last night we returned home from the playground after a car ride filled with Phoebe’s concern of something she had discovered during the trip. Upon arrival I demanded to know what had caused my headache and she handed me a strange white blob. I asked her where she had found it and she replied, “In my nose”. Great. Later that evening, the girls were doing their usual couch gymnastics and Ellie fell and stood up holding her mouth. I was worried she had bashed her knee into her face, something she has a tendency to do, and then she held out her hand and in it was a small white item. My heart leapt as I imagined it to be a tooth (which would have been associated with blood) and I took it from her and discovered that it was not a tooth but rather a significant chunk of the pasta we had for dinner, half of a soccer ball to be precise. It was completely undigested. It must have somehow been lodged in her mouth for 90 minutes. After baths I put Ellie to bed and then read to Phoebe and headed down to bike in the basement with the video monitors. Last night entailed five trips upstairs to get Phoebe to go to sleep. First trip was to use the potty which was a reasonable request and something I had overlooked. Trip two was prompted by a “something is bothering me” distress call through the monitor which prompted a change of underpants to ones with a less scratchy tag. Trip three and four were related to the fact that her pajamas are too small for her. On trip three I tried to address excess shin exposure by pulling them down at the waist. On trip four I tried to address excess bum exposure resulting from my modification on trip three. Finally, on trip five which was prompted by a false potty call I shut her down and found an hour of peace in the basement.
