There is no such thing as a 24-hour bug to parents

Man, we had such nice plans laid out for this weekend.  We were going to meet up with Gail Montgomery for lunch and get to pickup the awesome pictures she took of the family a few weeks back.  After that, we were set to drop off the kids with Grandma and Grandpa for a sleepover with their cousins, and I swear, Noah was looking forward to that ALL DAMN WEEK.  Like asking me every single morning.  With our free night, we were going to try to hit up Coho Grill for Restaurant Week, then head home for lots of sleep.  No real plans for Sunday, but again...SLEEP!

Wednesday night, I made Chicken Stuffing Casserole.  Noah started getting kind've mad about it, saying he wanted something else, but we don't do that.  So, then he said his tummy hurt.  We just assumed he was bellyaching, so he ate a couple bites, some green beans, and then went off to bed.  Maybe an hour later, I was upstairs and he came out of his room, again with belly hurting.  And then, the fireworks came.  I won't elaborate on "fireworks", use your own discretion to put together stomach bug and fireworks.  So, that happened, got him to the toilet for about half of it, worked on cleaning up the rest off the rug (Why on earth did I allow him to drink some red Koolaid at dinner?  Idiot!), got him a good drink of water and brushed his teeth, and sent him back to bed, since he said his belly now felt better.  For the next 3.5 hours, he did not sleep.  At.  All.  Came out of his room every 10 mins or so complaining.  A few times, he wretched up a little bit of clear stuff (Assumed it was water).  A couple times, he needed underwear changes (If we labeled the other thing fireworks, we'll call this one bombs).  Finally, I gave him some tylenol to see if that would stop the belly pains, and a little after midnight, he went to bed.

Next morning, he still had bombs, though these cam in the proper facility, and he was still saying his belly felt off, so we called him out of school.  He woke up about as early as you'd expect him to (I end up waking up with Darcy around 5 or 5:30amm so he's up within 10 mins of that), but ended up crashing on the couch around 8am through till about 10:30am.  Always the sign of a sick little man when he crashes in the morning.  Lunch and dinner that night were a bit better, complained less about the belly pains, and finally allowed us to give him some ginger ale (That plan to make him hate soda worked a little TOO well).  So Thursday night, I declared he was doing fine, okay that was the 24 hour bug.

Idiot, you know what's coming next right?

Yup, around 1am, I started the exact same sequence he did.  In the exact same order and time frames.  This happened once before.  He got a stomach bug, was fine the next day while BOTH Shannon and I were curled up in fetal positions in bed struggling not to firework.  So I mustered up some gall and ran him into school (Yeah, parents of kids in daycares are probably about to rip me a new one, but we NEEDED a day of letting him "run free" while I was incapacitated).  Luckily, my side effects were mostly giving way around the time I dropped him off anyway.  Started eating again around lunch, and felt well enough to have a Chicken Cheesesteak for dinner.  Even started to think we'd saved the weekend.

Then, his fireworks started.  Again?  WTF?  After eating, maybe 1/8 a chicken tender and drinking some red Hi-C (Hey idiot, you really deserved that one, a red drink AGAIN!), he just LOST it on the dining room table.  He seemed to be okay after that and went to bed.  Oh yeah, and then Shannon's cycle started too.  So, there went our weekend plans.

And then this morning, he was fine again.  He's still got the bombing problem (still in the correct facility though), but my guess is that will subside in time.  And we made the best of Shannon being down today and not having plans.  I went nuts on the closet in the playroom, finally cleared out all the stuff that used to be in our bedroom and finally turned it into The Playroom Closet (complete with fanfare).  Which allowed me to finally put together one of Noah's Christmas presents, a decorate your own cardboard playhouse.  And immediately, we have plans for tomorrow too, which would be him going nuts on said playhouse.

But to summarize, there is never such a thing as a 24-hour-bug to a parent.  Because inevitably, you catch it, and that just extends the awesomeness.  In our case, this is going on a 36 hour bug.  UGH!

Cancer Sucks: CBS, This Blog Post is for YOU!

Look, all cancers deserve awareness.  But given our personal connection to colon cancer, that's the one I am spending the most time making sure people are aware of, know the warning signs, heed the risk factors, and make sure they do whatever we can to continue preventing it.  But, given the primary detection method of colon cancer, and...let's face it, what we're dealing with, your pooper...colon cancer is one of the least talked about cancers.  Because who wants to discuss bowel movements with your doctor?

So, what I imagine was a very strange commercial to most football fans, was actually music to my ears.  Last night, towards the end of the Giants-Packers game, Ozzie and Sharon Osbourne came on to announce the CBS Cares Colonoscopy Sweepstakes.  Yes, you heard that right.  http://promotions.mardenkane.com/cbs/cbscares12/.  The grand prize is a trip to New York, nice cushy hotel, and at the end, you get knocked out and get a free colonscopy!  MUSIC. TO. MY. EARS.  Sharon is a colon cancer survivor and the combination of the Osbournes and colonscopies was enough to perk my attention, make me chuckle, and startup this blog post.

My only complaint about this is that while SOME people will see this and be reminded "Well, I do need to get one, might as well see if I can get a trip to NY too", many will probably dismiss it or skip it if they don't win.  But, good to see CBS at least putting it out there.  I'm betting it at least started a FEW conversations.  And that's worth it.  My only tip for CBS...next time, offer up a better prize, and make the entry qualification that you need to get a colonoscopy done.  That way, you get a TON of people to get colonoscopies and take care of their health instead of just one.

But, I digress...CBS, for that alone, I am watching ALL your TV programming tonight.

Dad-deee!: The moments when you realize time don't stop

The drawback of having two beatiful kids apparently is that neither of them will be great sleepers for you.  Darcy is shattering Noah's records given the fact that I have to wake up with her at least 2 or more times every night.  2 times is her "I'm feeling okay" standard.  Lately since she's been congested, it's closer to like 3 or 4.

With Noah, he usually slept well at night, but naps were a mess.  When we finally weaned him of night feedings, I discovered the trick to getting him to bed: Rocking.  Yeah, I was a PhD of rocking my son to sleep in the recliner and moving him to bed/crib.  And the same thing MOSTLY worked for naps.  So, that became a big bonding thing for us, I got so used to the best way to rock him to sleep having him lay across me in the chair.  Obviously, that thing ended long ago, as he got big enough to put himself to sleep and eventually, with napping, it became more or less a "I'll go down on my own" or "I won't nap" thing.

Tonight, he was fooling around before he went to sleep and he rolled off the bed and right onto his humidifier.  Obviously, toddler tearworks ensued and I picked him up to comfort him.  I ended up laying him across my lap to calm him down.  And that's when it happened....

I realized how much my little guy has grown.  I nearly lost it.  He sticks out about 6 or 7 inches on each side of the chair.  It seems like just a year ago, I was rocking him to sleep for naps in that chair when he'd become too tired to go down on his own.  And here we are, he doesn't even fit here anymore.

Not ashamed to admit it, I nearly broke down realizing this.  Just seeing how much he's grown physically, not even considering his mental growth...He's almost not even my little guy anymore.  He's practically elementary school big for pete's sake!  I need to not fret so much over how often I wake up with Darcy.  Because in no time at all, she won't fit in the chair either.  And that's going to be a heartbreaker.

And now, to shake me out of this lovey moment...I just went up for the 3rd time to put Noah back in his bed.  Toddler cute moment over...

Let's Tee Up 200 and 12...

I'm going to try to take a break from the negative for a post here.  New Year's Resolutions are the butt of everyone's jokes on New Years.  And I don't think I've ever made a serious resolution I followed through with.  So we won't call these resolutions.  This is my "To Do List for 2012".  I may need people to suggest some things for personal/professional life, because the only thing I can clearly map out a progress for, is my fitness/physique.

So, without further ado

To Do in 2012 (The Fitness/Wellness Edition)

1. Complete weight loss to 160 pounds - This is #1, and is also the easiest to accomplish.  The holidays went so-so for me...I thought I did well even with snacking, but I gained a couple pounds on the scale shortly after, so obviously I need to recommit a bit in 2012.  I am about 35 pounds or so away from finishing this.  My original goal was by April 2012...I'll give myself the full year now.

2. Run 325 miles - In order to accomplish this, I'll need to run about 6.25 miles every week.

3. Complete a Tough Mudder - Hopefully, the D.C. Tough Mudder will soon have the dates posted.  Worst case scenario, I'll do Tri-State or VA and just drive a bit further.  With every passing day, I get more and more committed to this.  It's less about how well you run, how strong you are, etc.  It's about mental toughness and perserverence.  And I have to prove to myself that I can outlast that.

4. Beat my 2011 Undy 5K time - No brainer.  I'm doing it again, I want to show up in a better placement.

5. Begin training for a half-marathon - I want to progress with my running.  Initially, it was all about getting into 5K shape and I didn't think beyond that.  But I like running if I have the tunes with me.  And that might be the biggest obstacle here.  My iPod is really getting over the hill.  Not sure it can last me through a whole half marathon...