Is This Normal?
The chaos that is the KerbersArchive for April, 2010
Thursday night fever
Tonight Ben got that droopy, lethargic look that unfortunately we’ve come to know so well. Sure enough, when we took his temperature, we saw 101.5°. It’s just so bizarre how this happens. They come from nowhere, there are no other symptoms, and hey just absolutely hit him so hard that he’s barely able to sit up when they’re at their worst. The poor guy just looks miserable each time this happens.
It looks like a sick day for Dave tomorrow…I can’t stay home because we have an institute day during which we have the second half of our training on the new circulation system. It seems like lately every sick day happens on a day that I can’t miss. Poor Dave seems to be using the brunt of the sick time this spring.
Let’s hope he’s feeling better soon…we have a big weekend coming up!!
The Mother’s Tea
This afternoon was the Mother’s Tea at Tomorrow’s Promise, Ben’s preschool. 
They presented a darling program with some songs, a poem, and a very entertaining telling of what each student’s mom did best. Much to my surprise, according to Ben I am best at “making things like cookies and getting him milk.” What talent I have!! One mom was very best at turning the TV on, so I guess I was a little better than some! It was all super sweet. It finished with a sweet video about kids growing up too quickly. I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
After the program we had some cake and punch and sat with other Mommies and their TPLC students and chatted. Ben was so excited to have me there. He was full of hugs and smiles and I loved every minute of it.
Meeting Baby Danny
Tonight we went to Grandma and Grandpa Kerber’s house for dinner. We were thrilled that Bella was there with her Mommy and Daddy…mostly because she brought her new baby brother and we had never met Baby Danny before. He was born on March 31, and he is absolutely darling. The kids and I were mesmerized.
When I see our kids around babies it really makes me wonder if we’ve made the right decision to be done with babies. They would love to have a baby brother or sister, I know. *Sigh* If only we were five years younger…
Woo woo…all aboard!
This morning something came across me and I decided to try Emma in Pull-Ups. She had been going potty sporadically, and something told me it was time. So we tried it, and it really went pretty well. At first I was just taking her potty periodically. A couple of times she had a wet Pull-Up, but by this afternoon, she stayed dry from nap time until bed time! She even told me once that she had to go potty. I’m scared to put this in writing, but I really think we’re on our way.
All aboard the potty train…woo woo!!
Bad dreams
I was startled awake at about 3:00 this morning. Ben had come into the room and was saying, “Daddy?” It’s really unusual that I would wake up before Dave did, but I sat up quickly and said, “What’s wrong, Buddy?” “I can’t sleep,” he said. I told him to get into bed with us, and before I knew it was turned back over and fast asleep. In the morning when my alarm went off, I rolled over and was almost startled to see Ben laying there. Although I was coherent when he came in, I wasn’t awake long, so I completely forgot. I got up and started getting ready for work, and Ben never even moved. When Dave’s alarm went off, he looked at me with questioning eyes and pointed at Ben. He didn’t even know he had slept half the night with us!
When Ben finally did wake up, he was tickled that he was sleeping in our bed. I asked him why he had come into our room in the middle of the night. He said, “I don’t know…I just waked up and couldn’t get back to sleep.”
I said, “Do you know what woke you up?”
“I had a bad dream,” he said. “But I don’t know what it was about, it was just bad!” I felt so badly for him. I can remember waking up from bad dreams when I was a little girl and just always freaked me out.
I was always critical of people who let their kids sleep with them, and now I’ve done it…eaten my words. But I figure that one time in 4 1/2 years does not make me a hypocrite. There are always exceptions when you have bad dreams.
Babysitting night…NCHS style
Tonight the NCHS FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America) held a babysitting night in the preschool room at the high school. It’s really a great deal for us parents, as they only charge $10 per child for three hours including dinner. The kids had attended one of these before, and They were really anxious to go back. They couldn’t wait when we told them where we were headed.
When we got there they both started playing and neither one really even cared that I was leaving. It was like, “yeah, yeah…see ya, Mom.” Dave and I both had a million errands to run, so it was nice to get some things done without toddler “help”.
When I went to pick the kids up at 8:00, they did not want to go home at all. Emma told me, “But Mommy, I still want to play with the kids!” They had such a great time . When we were in the car Ben asked Emma, “Hey, Emma, do you think you’d like to go to preschool at Mommy’s school?” Emma said, “Oh yes, that would be so fun!” I’m glad that she’s looking forward to it as much as I am!
The sliver
At some point in the last couple of days, Ben got a sliver in his foot. We first noticed it last night, but he would not let us even come close to touching it. He totally freaked out at the prospect of me trying to get the thing out, so we just decided to let it stay in for another night. We had this problem before, and getting them out that time not go very well for us at all. I hoped, though, that having another year of maturity would help. I was wrong…dead wrong.
We started talking about the removal of the sliver first thing this morning. Even Danielle helped by reading some books about being brave during the day. When bathtime came, it was obvious that Ben was getting very apprehensive and nervous about the pending removal. 
We had told him that it had to come out, because it as already starting to get puffy and red, which meant the infection had started, and it was hurting him worse. Plus it was right on the ball of his foot, so he was hobbling around like he had a broken leg or something.
So bathtime ended, and I convinced Ben to go into our room to watch some cartoons while Dave was getting Emma to bed. We thought that maybe if he was relaxed and calm before we began, it would go better. Plus, often times cartoons can almost hypnotize Ben, so maybe he wouldn’t notice that we were getting it out. Wrong again, Mom. As soon as Dave walked into the room, Ben started crying and saying, “No, no, I don’t want to get it out!”. He was rolling around trying to get away from us. Dave finally just grabbed him and said, “Buddy, it has to come out.” He was holding him down and I had his foot trying desperately to hold him steady enough to get at the darn thing. I knew that it was festered enough that all I needed to do was poke the end with a needle and it would pop right out. But he kept wiggling that foot so much that I literally could not hold it still enough. The little bugger is strong! All this time he was screaming, “NO…NO…please, Mommy, DON’T!!” At one point he was even yelling, “HELP” at had to be almost the top of his lungs. Thank goodness it was a chilly night and our windows were closed, because if they had been open I swear the police would have been knocking at our door.
Just as I thought, as soon as I got the end poked, half of the sliver was out. With one little push against it the other half came out just as easily. Ben got a huge smile on his tear-soaked, blotchy face, and I gave him a big hug. It was over. We let him watch one more show so he could decompress a bit before going to bed. He was totally wired. We, on the other hand, we exhausted.
Dave went in to see if Emma was ok, because we were sure she could hear him screaming. She said to Dave, “I heared Ben say Help!” Dave assured her that he was ok and that the sliver was out. Apparently this was a traumatic night for the entire family.
Mom’s Day
I got to go to Mom’s Day at U of I yesterday, and I’m not even paying for a kid to go there! How’s that for a deal? 🙂 Ryan graciously invited me to come for Mom’s weekend with Nance, and I of course jumped at the chance. We had a really great day. When we got to his dorm, Ry was anxious to introduce us to a bunch of his friends. It was very cute. Then we decided to walk down to Campustown to get some lunch. It was so fun to walk campus, even though so many things have changed. Ryan was so much more comfortable than he was the last time I was with him on campus, which was the football game in October. He was showing us where a lot of his friends would be living next year, and just generally chatting about all kinds of stuff that he’s done. It made me happy to see him enjoying his time there so much.
We had a quick lunch and walked to the Quad. It cracked me up that there was a line of students with their Moms waiting in a line to get their picture taken in front of the Alma Mater! So funny. We opted out of that one, and decided to find a better spot. We hit the Quad and stopped to take some pics in front of Foellinger Auditorium. Then we continued on through the South Quad and back to TVD. We hung out and watched a little of the Cubs game before heading to the Assembly Hall to see Guys and Dolls. One of Ryan’s friends had a role in the show, so we were all pretty excited to see it. It was a great show, but man, it was long! I think we all enjoyed it, though.
After the show we headed out to TGIFriday’s for dinner with three of Ry’s friends and two of their moms. It was such a fun dinner and I think Nance was really happy to get to know the guys she’s heard so much about better. After dinner we dropped him back at the dorm and headed to Normal.
As I said, I had a great day, but I think Nance was just ecstatic to get to spend the day with Ry and to get to know his friends. I really feel honored to have been invited, and I’m truly grateful that I got to be a psuedo-mom for the day.
Movie night meltdown
I had this brilliant idea today at work while I was cataloging some new DVDs we got in. We recently purchased a copy of “The Land Before Time” for a science teacher. I’m not sure why she shows part of it each year, but she had been renting it each time she uses it, so we picked up a copy for our collection. “Perfect!” I thought. “Ben is totally into dinosaurs, so this could be our Friday night movie selection tonight.” I am so smart. I almost broke my arm patting myself on the back for that thought…it was that good.
So, when I picked the kids up after school, I told Ben about the movie. He seemed pretty excited by it. I gave him the DVD box to look at, and the first thing he said to me was, “Is that T-Rex scary? Because he looks kinda mean.” The alarm bell sounded in my head, but I convinced him that it would be fine…that the movie wasn’t that scary.
Cut to 20 minutes into movie night. The popcorn was popped and being eaten, the lights were dimmed, and the movie was rolling. Enter the T-Rex into the scene and things got a little hairy. Ben started to get very nervous. Then he started to get agitated. Then it quickly turned into full-blown hysteria. “Turn it off, Mommy…turn it off…I don’t want to watch this anymore!” he screamed. The tears started and he was almost shaking because he was so scared. I convinced him to calm down enough that I could fast forward through the rest of the movie just to prove to him that it had a happy ending and that the T-Rex didn’t get and/or eat anyone. Geez. After the credits started to roll, he was still shaking when he pleaded, “Please can we just go upstairs!”
Thankfully we watched the Easter Beagle and that snapped him out of it. Nothing like some Good Ol’ Charlie Brown to calm a boys nerves. I guess we’ll be letting the kids choose the movies from now on.
I’m so professional
I absolutely love my job as a school librarian, and I truly feel like it’s getting better and better all the time. And part of that is due to two new colleagues at my school and at West. The three of us get along great, and we really have very similar philosophies about our profession. It’s awesome. Tonight we had dinner together, and I really can’t even describe how much I love these informal meetings. We talk about books, share ideas and practices, talk through challenges we’re facing, and basically solve all the problems of the world and our school district.
While the title of this post may be a bit of a stretch, I really do love talking about my job with others who love it as much as me. I think it’s so important to keep growing as a professional, and I finally feel like I can do that again.
Is This Normal? 