1m2aSandbox

Two Sundays ago, Cora was hit with bad
diarrhea for about twenty-four hours, thankfully BEFORE we got in
the car to go to church. A few days later, we all got flu shots and
the girls were achy and cranky for a couple days. Saturday morning,
Cora woke up with a high fever and spent the weekend miserable and
hot, with a dry cough and a little vomiting thrown in for good
measure.


And yes, I rushed her to the doctor, and no, it wasn’t the
flu, but believe me I checked.


Now she’s got a little cough again, and is sneezing and
sniffly. I’ve had a miserable time with allergies this week,
and my throat’s raw and I’m coughing like Camille dying
of tuberculosis. Brian had the nerve to say he was coughing a
little bit this morning. So maybe it’s not allergies, or
maybe our whole freakin’ family has the same allergies.


Kids in Maddie’s classroom have been diagnosed with the swine
flu, and while the school is diligent in its hygiene, that’s
the sort of thing you just can’t stop. And I know that the
swine flu seems to be milder than everyone had thought, but I still
can’t imagine it’s much fun. So far, Maddie is healthy,
and I’m about to send her to live in a bubble for a couple
weeks.


I’d really hoped this winter would be different than last
winter, when Cora and I seemed to catch every single bug that went
around, but so far I’m not thrilled, and I’m not
looking forward to the enforced isolation that’s to come. I
already feel as if I haven’t slept through the night in a
couple of weeks, and my beautiful sleep-filled vacation is but a
distant memory.


It’s gonna be a long few months.

Halloween’s coming up soon (and yes,
I have very mixed feelings about the holiday, but that’s
another blog) and we’ve been having the big Costume
Conversation with both girls. Cora was relatively easy – she
decided somewhat early on that she wanted to be Thomas. Maddie made
a fast decision as well: she wanted to be Cinderella.


To be precise, she wanted to be the Cinderella pictured on page 7
of the One Step Ahead catalog.


For sixty bucks.

We spent Friday morning at a park with a
friend, and I loaded up for the morning, as is my wont. I brought a
picnic lunch, a blanket, snacks galore, bubbles, chalk, a soccer
ball – and a football.


About half an hour into the playdate, Maddie expressed interest in
doing “something else”. I listed my supplies, and after
a brief round with the soccer ball she was ready for the football.
Her friend, Sam, was also game, so I took a few minutes to explain
the basics of the sport to them.

Maddie had her first ever Picture Day at
school this week.


So did Cora.


What’s that, you ask? You didn’t think Cora goes to
school? Yeah, she doesn’t.

Ok, so I know I said I’d start with
breakfast, but I started to sketch this series of articles out and
quickly realized that you can’t tackle the actual meals until
you’ve done some of the planning stuff.


Oh, you don’t plan ahead with meals?

When Maddie first started solid foods, I
was so excited, flying into a flurry of steaming and pureeing and
freezing and spooning. I experimented as much as I could with
baby’s first foods, and enjoyed coming up with new and
unusual things for her to try. I was Mommy, the Super Nourisher,
willing to do whatever it took to feed my baby.


Fast-forward three years, and I’m not so excited any more.
The past three years have felt like one long, continuous dicing
session: dicing mango, chopping turkey, cutting up grapes into
eight (!) uniform pieces, slivering cheese – the list is
endless. I feel as if I spend half of my mommy life dealing with
the subject of food: planning meals, shopping, making meals,
organizing snacks, packing lunches, cleaning up from meals. And no
matter what I do, no matter how elaborate and delicious and
nutritious a meal turns out, I know that the clock moves inexorably
forward and the next meal is looming mere hours away.

So Maddie’s been in school for a few
weeks now, and I’m starting to see how this school thing
works. Truthfully, it seems pretty exhausting.


I’m not talking about all the work Maddie does – though
she is prone to meltdowns on school days, simply from overload. No,
I’m talking about all the work that the parents are supposed
to do.