The Queen's Rambles

*I’m trying to be a good mom and pay attention to the things Erik is interested in. This means I am playing Social Empire and Dragon Cities on FaceBook. Sorry friends. However, I have to say I am getting just a weeeeeeeee bit obsessed with my empire and may need to cut this entry short so I can go make sure no trolls are attacking my village. Also, I need a shit load of gold so I can build a cool castle.

Only problem? Now my computer is acting really funky and I’m worried the game put a virus on my computer.

*I just signed the kids up for swim lessons! They will be taking them at the same time, though Erik will be Level 1 and Elsa will be level 2. Hope that doesn’t freak him out, but she is willing to go under water and he refuses to get his face wet, so them’s the breaks. This is a new place in town that just does swim lessons. They leased out an old restaurant and put in a special teaching pool. The parents sit outside the pool area behind one way glass. This is going to be so much better than the lessons I did with Erik when Elsa was a newborn (I hope).

*Poor Elsa just can not catch a break. Last week she fell and scraped half her face off. Luckily she is only 3 and has amazing baby skin that healed super fast (with the help of some Neosporin). All that’s left is some shiny pink scar tissue below her eye.

Yesterday she woke up and I noticed her eye was looking a little pink, like maybe she had a mosquito bite. She was scratching it, but the eyeball itself was clear so I didn’t think much of it. I would have liked to put something on it, but what can you put that would be eye safe?

Last night she woke up screaming in middle of the night and when I turned on the light I recoiled in horror. Her whole eye was swollen shut. I tried to give her Zyrtec, the only allergy med I had in children’s strength (I know I had Children’s Benedryl at some point, but it was never used and I couldn’t find it) but she refused to take it.

It was looking really bad this morning, so I had Mike run to CVS before work and get some Children’s Benedryl, then I called the doctor to find out the correct dosage the moment they opened. When they heard my story they asked how fast I could get to the office. Ten minutes later they were examining her and making sure she wasn’t going to go blind. Apparently they take any swelling of the eye very seriously, which is a good thing.

They gave her a Clariton and told me to give her Benedryl tonight. If it goes above her eyebrow or if it starts streaking red I am supposed to take her to the ER immediately because there is a possibility of infection, especially if she is scratching it. Infections that close to the eye need to be controlled immediately.

I went and bought some more children’s chewable Clariton and about had a heart attack. $22 for 20 pills!?!?! I need to get over to Costco and see if they have a version. I paid $18.99 for my year’s supply of Kirkland Claritan.

I’m really glad I thought to ask for a note so she’d be cleared for all activities. As soon as I walked into the gym daycare they told me she had pinkeye and couldn’t be in there. I whipped out my note and stood my ground. Bah. There are some really great things about the daycare (excellent level of care, consistent employees), but some of their administrative non-sense pisses me off. Obviously a child with pinkeye should not be in a daycare setting, but do they even know what pinkeye is? Her eyeball itself would be pink, I think.

*Poor Erik had his share of trouble yesterday. We were at the library Discovery Room, a playroom you can reserve for an hour. He went to the bathroom by himself (I could see the door from the playroom window) and never came out. I was getting pretty worried, but figured he must be pooping. I was waffling between going and finding him or just waiting it out when the librarian opened the bathroom door. It looked like he had been puking or something, he was white as a ghost and had super red eyes.

I feel so, so bad. He was locked in the bathroom and had apparently been screaming bloody murder, trying to get out. The librarian says the door sometimes “catches” and can be hard to open. Now he refuses to go in any public bathroom alone, but he won’t go into the ladies room with me so he’s got a big problem.

*The kids had MyGym camp today which meant I had three hours of free time! I went to Trader Joe’s for the first time in 7 years and finally figured out why people love it. The snacks! Super cheap, interesting, organic snacks! The last time I was there Erik was a little baby. I didn’t need praline pecans or alphabet cookies. Now? Now I could do with cheap organic snacks!

The parking situation is terrible and it’s in the trashy part of the next town over, so it is not a place I would normally think to go to. My friend talks about it constantly and the kids loved some of the snacks they had at her place, so I decided to give it a go. I got three huge bags of groceries, including fresh hydrangeas for less than $90!

I also went to Jo-Ann’s fabrics just to enjoy the atmosphere. It’s not a real quilt shop, but it will do. I ended up buying fabric for Elsa’s story quilt!

You get a plain background and a contrasting fabric for the lines, then put together a bunch of novelty fabrics. The children are supposed to follow the novelty fabrics via the lines and put together a fun story. Erik has never used it in such a way, but I have high hopes that Elsa will get a kick out of making up stories. She already exhibits much more imagination than Erik ever has. He is much more grounded in reality.

Her quilt will be purple with hot pink lines. I hope the contrast is enough to make the lines really pop. I did a quick search on Flickr for my quilt and several others popped up. One was aqua with red lines. Gorgeous! I would do that color combo for myself! Btw, who hates the new Flickr? What the heck happened?

I also want to make her a quick purple princess quilt for her bed. Just gotta finish up the fabric purchases and find time to sew. The story quilt will have to take a back seat because it will take a whole heck of a lot longer to make. I’ll probably not get started on it until Elsa starts preschool in September.

*And now I should probably do something productive like make dinner or fold towels. Probably make dinner. I’ve been eating too many chocolate covered almonds today. I need to get back to Weight Watchers.

*Elsa ended up screaming bloody murder for an hour, so there is no dinner tonight. Mike is home now and I just popped some of my Trader Joe purchases in the oven. I meant to have them for lunch since I usually do dinner from scratch, but this works since it is almost 7 pm. Did you know Mulan is on Netflix? It’s my favorite Disney movie! Now the kids are down watching it and I am up here listening for the timer. Boooo! I guess I should play it on my laptop. I didn’t know they had Disney movies on Netflix, though it seems like Mulan is kind of the red-headed stepchild of the Disney princess series. She is rarely included in anything even though she is the most badass “princess” of all.