Raincoats & Rockcakes

We kept Jack off day care today at the advice of his doctor. This morning, while I got some work done he watched Noggin the only way you can when you have a sore bum - spread out on his belly, on his bean bag, with a raincoat on ...

After his nap this afteroon, he came through to the kitchen where I was painting something. He had rosy-red cheeks and a sleepy face and mad hair like Ken Dodd and he asked expectantly "are you making cake?" So Craig grabbed the ingredients and they made rock cakes together.

You might ask why I didn't grab the ingredients? Well, because I can burn a salad. We have a deal in our house: Craig cooks, I clean, and everyone's happy (and not food-poisoned).

Staph Infection - Part 1

Last week I blogged about Jack getting a horrendous rash on his bum after I bought him some cartoon character underpants and didn't wash them before he wore them for the first time. The underpants contained some kind of irritant (formaldehyde maybe) that really hurt him. I washed the offending undies and tried them once more but they irritated him again so I've chucked them out and bought cotton tighty-whities. The original & best obviously.

This last couple of days I've noticed a red lump on his bum and it was so sore he couldn't sit down, so today I took him to the docs. My poor boy had to lay on his belly with his head on my arm while the doctor lanced and drained the red area and took samples from it. He screamed bloody murder and cried his heart out. It was horrible to watch. The doctor said he has a staph infection and he's sent the samples away for testing to see which staph it is. I'm obviously scared to death that it's MRSA and hoping it's any one of the other types of staph. He's now on antibiotics and cream and bath treatments and the doctor's keeping in touch.

If any mum reads this blog, take note & please don't buy undies with paint or dyes or anything that might irritate tender skin. Stick to plain cotton and wash it before you use it.

WHO in their right mind thought it was a good idea to put harmful chemicals on kids underwear???? I know the undies didn't cause the staph - but they caused a skin abrasion that got infected with staph. I don't know where the staph came from but we're now paranoid about washing hands and towels.

Sorry to bore you with this, but it's worrying me to death ...

This Moment in American History

It was about 10.45pm and I was checking on Jack when I heard Craig, already in bed with the TV on, do an intake of breath. I tip-toed out of Jack's room at lightning speed and hissed "what what???" and he replied "Virginia picked Obama!" and we both got excited and watched, as in the next few minutes Obama was named President Elect. At one point I realised I was holding Craig's hand so tight my fingers were overlapped, painfully.

We stayed up to watch McCain's speech - wow, the old McCain came back! Where has he been for the last 12 months? I shed a small tear for him and felt really good about what he said. He was gracious and eloquent. It then spanned to Palin and I thought (and sorry, but I'm going to be honest) - "please go and crawl back under your rock".

Then we stayed up to watch Obama's speech and I cried through the whole thing. It was so moving and inspirational and everyone was so desperate to hear something about hope. Seeing all those people in Chicago and New York & DC celebrating and waving American flags was great. Craig turned to me and said - "we should take down the Buckeye flag tomorrow and put our America flag back up". Phew! What an emotional & historical event it was.

Today I feel happy & refreshed and excited about the future. A lot of other people must too because I had to go to 3 shops before I could find a USA Today newspaper. I also saw something rather funny this morning - "The Onion" newspaper ran the headline "Black Man given Nation's Worst Job"

Like a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

I'm like a cat on a hot tin roof I'm so excited. For the last 12 months I've been wrapped up in this election. That's 12 months of discussing policies with friends & colleagues, watching debates, keeping up with the radio & TV and newspapers. It also included an Obama rally this summer and I'm so glad now that I took the time to go and see him.

Without sounding too warm & fuzzy, it definitely seems like there's excitement in the air today, like we're on the verge of something new and the rest of the world will hopefully fall in love with America all over again.

Tonight, Craig and I will be sat cuddled up on the sofa, watching the results come in. I might even drink a small glass of champers. Let me re-phrase that as I don't want to jinx anything. I HOPE I'll be drinking a small glass of champers.

The Purple Dinosaur from Hell

Jack loves Barney and asks several times a day to put Barney DVDs on. I try and get him to watch Leapfrog or Sesame Street or Noggin but he chants "Barney!" until he wears me down.

Here's the thing. I absolutely detest Barney and all his friends. Especially the little yellow one that has a gravelly voice that sounds like he smokes 40 Marlboro a day. And the green one with a big flat head brings out something close to rage in me. I mean, I could quite easily drive over the lot of them if I ever saw them on a sidewalk.

I happened to get onto this subject with another mum at work and she confessed she felt the same. Turns out there's a whole society out there that can't stand them either. There's even websites dedicated to hating them.

What is it about Barney that brings out my dark side I wonder?

48 Hours to Go ...

Not being a US citizen, I cannot vote on Tuesday. Still, I cannot let such a momentous occasion go by without saying something about the election on my blog.

As usual, Ohio plays a major role in the election and on Tuesday night we'll watch the results pour in but will probably be in bed before the announcement comes, sometime after midnight. Here's the conundrum - shall I turn the bedroom TV on to see the results, say at 1am, and run the risk of hearing something terrible and never sleeping again, or should I wait until Wednesday morning to find out?

I don't normally use my blog for polical ramblings, but like I said, momentous occasion and all that. SO, if I could vote, who would I vote for? Well I'd vote for Obama because I'm a liberal Democrat. I always have been and I'm proud of it. Most importantly though, I think he has what it takes to get us out of this mess. And what a moment in history it could be, to have a young, dynamic African-American President in office.

The next 48 hours are going to be excruciatingly long ...

The Beginning of NaBloPoMo

November is NaBloPoMo for me. I did it last year and am going to attempt it this year. There's no theme - just me twittering on every day for the next month.

Last year I posted 37 times. I'll be lucky if I do 30 this year as I don't seem to have the energy these days to get everything done. As I'm sitting here, my annual plants are outside, black and squishy from the frost, my Hostas are yellow, & there's leaves on my lawn.

I'll just have a cup of tea and then I'll shape myself.

Happy Halloween

This was Jack's first real Halloween where he understood what was going on and was very excited to be Batman. As I said before, he wanted to be a penguin but the costumes were sown together at the ankles and would have been impossible for a 2-year old to walk in, and I left it too late to make one. Anyway, he loved being Batman and could even sing the song, but his version sounded more like "Ratman".

At day care they had a parade. How cute are these toddlers ...





Then tonight we went out. This was his first time trick-or-treating in the neighbourhood and it was really nice to actually meet some people that we live with! The house decorations were great as you can see ...


Jack did really well tonight, saying "hello" to everyone and "thank you" after he got his treat. We were very proud of him. He's now conked out in bed exhausted, Craig's upstairs waiting on me so we can watch "The Strangers" and I'm blogging & pigging out on candy. I'm sure Jack won't miss some.

Our Darling Danny

Instead of the usual grainy ultrasound pictures that need an explanation and a visual demonstration to be deciphered, I'm posting the 3D pictures that were taken today by my doctor. What fabulous medical service you get these days!

For those of you that still need the explanation: He's facing the camera, his right arm is tucked around the back of his neck. His left arm is up, across his forehead.

He has my nose. Hello Danny, my little love.

Our Little American Scouser

My son is going to have the most weird accent.

This last couple of months, he's starting to say words in a very proper queen's English, but then he says things American, like "wader", instead of "water". I can live with him flip-flopping between English & American as long as he calls me mummy and not mommy.

But then this week he's started saying "work" like a scouser: "wirk". Oh dear.

Underwear Man is on my Hitlist

Jacks potty training is going great again. He seems to have regained his enthusiasm for using the toilet and is only wearing diapers for bed.

To help him along I bought him some really cute Diego underpants that he picked out at the shop and he loves. I put a pair on him this weekend and when I came to take them off for bed he had the most horrendous rash on his bum. Not just mild redness, but whopping big lumps and pimples that looked sore as hell.

I found out today that new underwear, even for babies and kids, is soaked in formaldehyde to keep the fabric preserved during shipping & storage. Its true, I Googled it. I'd like to meet the bright spark that decided that this was a good idea and give him a Glasgow kiss.

I guess I should have washed his underwear before letting him wear it, but when did that habit become the "norm"?