Busy in the Lab

Sorry for being such a blog-slacker lately.

Two weeks ago Eddie got croup again (I heard him wake up at about 1am barking like a seal). I put him into bed with me, hoping to God he'd fall back asleep quickly. He did, but I was worried. He hasn't slept in our bed since we were in France last year and I wasn't sure either of us would get much sleep. It worked fine, except at 6:30am the dogs started walking around on the bed to alert me that it was their breakfast time. Normally I roll over and tell them to lie down and they do. But that stern command apparently wakes adorable toddlers up so we ALL got up.

Eddie only barked a few more times that day, but of course I had to keep him home from daycare for 24 hours. So that put us at Thursday afternoon. And what's the point of taking him to daycare for only a couple of hours? What could I get done in the lab? Not much. And then of course it was a holiday on Friday so I ended up away from the lab for 3 solid days. The first day I was annoyed, but then I fell into my stay-at-home-mom groove.

I already posted about the following weekend (Indian food feast), everyone was happy and healthy.

Fast forward to a little lab work on Monday. Everything was going great, I had my Excel sheet calendar with my HUGE experiment all worked out. The plan was to wet up my composts on Tuesday afternoon. But then I noticed that the diaper rash on Eddie's rump has migrated to his thighs (nothing gross, just red dots that don't seem painful to him at all). And then I see them on his feet. And his hands. UG. They literally popped up on his hands between daycare pick up and bath time.

I realize he must have hand, foot, and mouth disease. Not a big deal, not painful for most, and apparently only contagious BEFORE the rash appears. I put Eddie to bed and figured I'd call Cassie in the morning to ask her opinion (not contagious, but gross looking...could be still come to daycare?). After talking to the advice nurse and Cassie...and then Cassie talking to her OWN advice nurse...it was decided that while the sores on his hands were blister-like (with a potential to pop and spread ickiness around), he had to stay home.

My friend's daughter had had it a week before, but the babies hadn't had any contact in like a month. But we soon learned that it was spreading around a lot of Davis preschools and daycares. As common as it is in these places (like lice and colds), Cassie had never dealt with it. My understanding is that only 2 other kiddos got it.

So...how does a mama entertain a toddler inside the house or outside in the cold air without allowing him to play at the park next to his house? Especially when said mama is on the verge of freaking out because she's got so much work to do in the lab? Well...you build a giant fort in the livingroom, you let him watch too many movies on Netflix (new favorite: "mousie," aka Stuart Little), rake leaves in the front yard, give him a shovel and let him scoop nearly all the sand out of his sandbox and distribute it around the yard even though you REALLY REALLY wish he'd just leave it in the freaking box. And then you recruit your wonderful brother (your child's namesake) to come baby sit. It is a God-send that Edward lives in California again and works for himself, from home. And then you deal with text messages like this once you get back to work:

"You'd better be getting a ton of work done. This is exhausting!" I texted back, what's so exhausting? And got this back:

"Fix the choo choos! I hiding! Read dis book! Fix the choo choos! I want a nack!"

The sores on his rump, thighs, and feet cleared up within one day...but of course, the ones on his hands lasted for DAYS. I think they finally disappeared on Saturday.

So we had another healthy weekend. Saturday night we had Justin babysit Eddie (they went to foyo and then did some thrift store shopping, apparently) while we did a double date with Edward and Jennifer. We went to a Russian restaurant in Carmichael and ate soooooooooooo much good food. It was a nice change of pace from our normal Indian, Thai, Japanese, Mexican routine. Afterward we saw the Trans-Siberian Orchestra perform at the Power Balance Pavillion. I don't have the album from which they played most of their songs and I found the first half of the show a little slow, boring, and confusing (they had a narrator but it was hard to hear him so I was confused about the plot of his story). The second half was much more exciting and we ended up having a good time.

When we got home to Justin, he was pretty distraught--not by Eddie or studying for his stats exam, which is what he was supposed to be doing after Eddie went to bed. He'd been following the news reports and Facebook updates about the Chancellor's press conference and the silent protest as she exited her office building on campus that night. Justin is involved in the protests against tuition hikes here on campus and was present at the pepper spraying incident (luckily, not sprayed). I think he was sad and frustrated that he didn't get to be a part of the thing that night and still angry at the Friday events. Poor guy.

I spent Sunday cooking some freezer-safe, make-ahead components of our upcoming gluten/turkey free Thanksgiving meal to accommodate family allergies. So far I made: mashed yams, cranberry relish, gluten free bread and focaccia, red pepper hummus, and butternut squash bisque. Hopefully I can do my last shopping trip tonight at Safeway and finish cooking Thursday morning.

I just spent hours wetting up my composts (each tube has to be done individually and there are 216 of them)...so right now I'm taking a sit-down break. And I finally remembered to eat some lunch, too.

Back to the lab I go!

(I'll update with some pictures later on.)