A Long One

Jack has been really clingy lately with a lot of crying and whining. This isn’t normal for him and he threw up on Sunday so Brian took him to the doctor on Tuesday. No fever, no ear infection… he did go to bed really early on Tuesday. I hate to say that I hope he is sick but I need an explanation for this kind of behavior. Because he doesn’t have an obvious physical sign of being sick, I wonder if the extra attention and cuddling and coddling is making him act this way. Or is he really not feeling well? In which case I should be providing comfort. Sigh…

My place of work has negotiated with the Y to provide a preschool for 2 – 5 year olds based on the Reggio Emilia teaching methodology. This teaching methodology is similar to a Montessori or something along those lines. Does Reggio Emilia and Montessori really make a difference for a child? Do they do better in public schools? Worse in public schools? Right now Jack is at a daycare/preschool where he has been since he was 4 months old. He is best friends with the owner’s son and several of the kids in his class he has known since he was a baby. They have a traditional approach to preschool. Is this good enough? Because I would be devastated to take him away from his best buddy. But am I doing what is best for my child? I never went to preschool and I learned to socialize in kindergarten and to read in first grade. Somehow I managed to take college level calculus, English and biology in high school, even without a Montessori education or regular preschool education. But things have changed I think. I hear people talking about how their kids had to learn to read before going to kindergarten. I actually believe that being a child should not be all about learning. It should also be about having fun because you know how play time goes away as you get older until you retire. And I know they learn when they are playing. I’d love to hear what other people think about this.

Brian’s mom, Paulette, came into town last Thursday. She came here to help her boyfriend, Ron, with his booth at the big sports show. Ron has the fishing guide business and condos on the Kenai River in Alaska. They try to book people at these sport shows. Paulette stayed with us Thursday night. That was nice because it was the night that our volleyball teams were playing against each other. I am competitive so of course I wanted to beat Brian’s team. We won the first game and then lost the second two. But he didn’t gloat too much so it wasn’t too bad. The next morning I stayed home from work for a couple hours so that Paulette could spend a little extra time with the grandkids. After dropping the kids off, I went to work where I had a 5 hour meeting where Brian was an attendee. Over time, Brian and I have been working closer and closer together. I don’t really have a problem working with him because we are on the same page with a lot of things but what I don’t like about it is that I see him as a co-worker when we are working together and that just feels blah to me. I mean, being a father has squeezed the time that he is my “husband” and now co-worker is dominating as well. I’m not sure if that makes sense. He is also moving into my building which is a rather small building. I’m not worried about this as I am oftentimes on the phone all day and don’t make it out my cubicle, plus I work from home twice a week.

Ty had goopy eyes for a few days and every time he has had this in the past (without a red eye) the doctor has said he didn’t have pink eye and therefore, shouldn’t go on the antibiotics. She says that snot comes out of the nose and sometimes the eyes and that is why we have crusties in the morning sometimes. He definitely has a cold but they are not strict about colds at day care because they are so prevalent. Since Ty’s eye wasn’t red, I didn’t take him to the doctor but one of the women at Ty’s day care would make comments every single morning to Brian about how Ty’s eye was goopy. We call this a “microinequity” here where I work. She is sending a message with these comments like: Why haven’t you taken your son to the doctor? Why are you bringing your child here when he has pink eye? I dropped him off and she said her daughter (also in the infant room) had a similar thing. She said her doctor said it wasn’t pink eye but then showed me these eye drops. Erythromycin. An antibiotic. I said, She doesn’t have pink eye and you’re giving her antibiotics? It’s not going to do anything. This is the same woman who suggested that we use the nebulizer on Ty when he had a head cold. I think that is for their lungs, not a head cold. So after 3 – 4 days of this, I want to get her off our backs, so I make an appointment for Ty on Friday afternoon. When I was picking him up to take him to the doctor, the woman said, “Oh, his eyes weren’t goopy at all today.” GREAT. So I take him to the doctor and sure enough, no pink eye. Just a cold and of course, antibiotics won’t do a darn thing. At the least I got some ear wax removal done for my $15 co-pay.

On Friday night, we ate at Pei Wei and then got some ice cream. On Saturday it rained after about 150 days of no rain. It was quite nice. I really wish I could have slept all day. Brian took Jack to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. Saturday night, Brian went out to see one of his favorite bands “The Peacemakers”. I’m at the point where I don’t like being in a big crowd getting my eardrums destroyed so I chose not to go. On Sunday Brian’s sister joined up with us (she had also been part of the sports show) and we went to the Ostrich Festival. It was mucky out there and the rides were expensive and Jack wasn’t feeling well and it was cold (Ty’s hands were like blocks of ice), so I can’t say we had a good time. Maybe next year.

Tuesday I voted in the Chandler election for mayor and city council members. I met one of the women running for city council outside the polling place which I thought was a nice touch. If she cared enough to get up early and stand outside the polling place and introduce herself, then she gets extra credit in my book. I think I might enjoy getting into city politics one day, just because I like problem solving and it would probably be similar to my current job (only about city stuff versus the supply chain), but I hate the thought of pleading and begging people to vote for me. It just doesn’t suit me.

The book we are reading for book club is called “The Birth of Venus”. This book was a little hard to get into and I have to say that there are many new vocabulary words for me in there but the story is interesting and I’m now in the obsessive-compulsive portion of the book… meaning I try to read it at the dinner table, while playing with the kids, I pump about 5 minutes longer than normal to keep reading and I stay up late, even though I am really tired!

I am going to close by saying how grateful I am for Costco. People make fun of us because of everything we get at Costco but I went yesterday during lunch and got beautiful fresh mangos, strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes, clementines, and apples. The mangos and apples were pre-cut and so a little more expensive than normal but overall such great produce for a fraction of the cost that you would pay elsewhere. I was also able to buy organic brown eggs (no antibiotics/cages) and organic milk. And the book selection is so awesome… and you pay a fraction of the price that you would pay at a regular book store. I just love that store.