Archive for October 2008

From the very beginning of parenthood I was told always keep your local poison control number in a place where you can see it. I have been doing that for 6 1/2 years and tonight it paid off. I am still not sure if I gave Liam the wrong medicine or not, but I gave him what I thought was his medicine and after he swallowed it he said it tasted funny. This is a medicine that he has been taking every day for at least two years, so he knows what it tastes like. So, naturally, I freak out and start looking at Sean’s meds and realize that one of his looks very much like Liam’s only it’s a little bit smaller. #@&^*!!! We keep all of the kid meds on a separate shelf, but mistakes happen. So I call the pharmacy, but they want me to push 2 for this and then 4 for that and I don’t have time for all that so I hang up and call poison control where I actually get a human within 30 seconds or less. I tell her the situation, the names of the meds, how old Liam is and how much he weighs. She plugs all the info into the computer and assures me that he will be fine. He could have taken 60 times what he did tonight without any adverse side effects. Now I am going to sit down and have a post-traumatic heart attack.

If your mind is in the gutter, stay there, that is where I am headed. One of the great things about the boys’ school is that it has a pool which means they have swim lessons. It also means there is a locker room where they have to change into their swim trunks. Liam is learning some new things in first grade including new words for his various body parts. I am assuming this is coming from the locker room. So last night the boys are getting ready to take a bath and Liam informs Colm that he can see his nuts and balls. Colm looks around very confused as there are no nuts or balls in the bathroom while I am shooting Liam the “you better shut your trap now” look while not calling attention to myself or what Liam just said. You just never know what they are going to bring home from school.

Liam told me this morning that he loves me and wishes he could marry me. When I asked him where we would go for our honeymoon he said we could go to Great Wolf Lodge. So cute.

Last weekend we went to a party hosted by one of Sean’s co-workers. It was at his house out in the country and it was absolutely beautiful. Colm loved the horses and rode them twice…one was named Chicken and the other was Oreo. He was in love with the chickens and showed me the chicken coop several times. He was amazed that there were actual eggs in the roosts waiting to be gathered. He got to feed the fish in the pond and tried to get the water to come out of the pump, but it was too hard. Where was Liam? Once he discovered the barn’s loft that was the last we saw of him until it was time to go and he did not want to go. The loft was awesome..it had a basketball court up there and they had scooters up there for the kids to ride around. Colm was super-ticked that he was not allowed to go up in the loft, but there was absolutely no way I was going to let him climb up that ladder. Sorry, fella!

From October 2008
From October 2008
From October 2008
From October 2008

Does he look a little nervous? I know I was, but I was proud of him that he gathered up the courage to climb up that tall ladder.

From October 2008

All the Better to See you With by Margaret Wild is a very sweet book about a quiet little girl who is constantly outdone by her loud brothers and sisters. One day at the beach her parents stop for a moment and realize that she needs glasses…all the better to see you with. I’m not sure why Colm likes this book so much, but I have probably read it almost every day for the past ten days.


Monday-Roasted Whole Chicken, Green Beans, Roasted Potatoes
Tuesday-Migas with Bacon
Wednesday-Swiss Chard Lasagna, Italian Bread
Thursday-Baked Chicken, Leftover Roasted Potatoes, Green Beans
Friday-Salmon, Chopped Basil Salad, Breadsticks
Saturday-Penne with Pumpkin Cream Sauce, Asparagus

Yesterday at school the boys and all of the rest of the students and staff celebrated one of their custodians becoming a U.S. citizen. All of the students and teachers gathered on the stairs (picture one of those stairwells, three stories tall, that you can stand at the bottom and see all the way up filled with students three years old all the way to 8th grade) and said the Pledge of Allegiance together while one of the Montessori students held up the flag. Then they presented her with an American flag and an apple pie (very American). I get weepy just thinking about it. It is so touching and I love that they not only acknowledged that she had earned her citizenship, but they shared it with the whole school and celebrated it, too. It was awesome to listen to the boys tell me about it

This is a memoir written by an adoptee. It tells the tale of her biological mother contacting her as an adult, how that leads to her meeting her biological father and the mind games they both play with her. There is some closure for her when she searches through archives and finds out about her family history back several generations, both biological and adopted. In the end you get the feeling that she feels loved and connected to her adopted family, but also like there is something just not quite right. There are just some loose ends for her that will never get wrapped up the way she wants them to or the way they should.


Saturday-Balsamic Chicken and Baby Spinach
Sunday-Italian Sausage Soup
Monday-Chili and Cornbread
Tuesday-BBQ Pulled Pork, Potato Salad, Fresh Fruit
Wednesday-Pasta with Homemade Meatballs
Thursday-I will be out to eat with some other moms…the boys are on their own.
Friday-Salmon Patties, Baked Beans, Fresh Fruit or Salad

This is my book club book and I would have never chosen it on my own. The first chapter or so I really liked, the next few chapters after that were enough to make me want to abandon ship. I am so glad I didn’t. Even though I didn’t understand those chapters at the time, I stuck with the book and they totally made sense as the book went along. It goes back and forth in time which made it a little confusing at times, but again, as the book goes along it all comes together. Good read.