I originally started this post on Monday...

We had a surprise visit from my aunt last weekend. I left a message for her last week to give an update on the Mom situation. She called Saturday night wanting to know if she could stay with us on Sunday and go visit Mom. Of course, we were all “Hell, yeah” so she came. Turns out she’s been at her little trailer down in south Florida for the past couple of weeks and when she heard the news on Mom, she decided she should make a visit. Her house is on the market, and once it sells, she’ll split her time between the trailer down here and her other one up north.

Our visit with Mom was a good one – the best I’ve had so far. Peanut was feeling good so he interacted nicely with Mom. He sat on her lap, kissed her, and told her about his airplanes. Having Auntie there helped keep the focus off Mom and how bad she feels, so we talked about other things.

I hung out with Auntie Monday morning until she left, then took Peanut into daycare and myself into work. Poor Peanut wailed when I left.

On Saturday, we went to the Sun ‘n Fun and enjoyed the planes. They managed only to have 2 crashes this year, although we were convinced there was going to be one while we were there. Holy crap, there were a lot of planes in the air. (Sadly, we heard one of the Blue Angels crashed and died last week. We just saw them a couple of weeks ago and were awed.)

Peanut saw at least 3 Gooney Birds (DC-3s), his favorite. We went on a couple of planes used during the Berlin airlifts – one was set up as a museum and was really interesting.

Now we’re gearing up for the visit from Hubby’s mom and sis.

***

...and this one on Wednesday...


Peanut is in the throes of the terrible twos. Last night was especially rough. Hubby went into the bedroom for a nap while Peanut and I finished dinner. Any time I asked/told him to stop throwing his food, he screamed “NO!” and swatted at me. Then he would throw another piece of food. When it was time to go to the grocery store with me, he freaked out loud enough to wake Hubby. We decided it would be better for me to go alone. As I left, Peanut screamed because he changed his mind and want ALL of us to go. I got outta there as fast as I could. I'm pretty sure I laid some rubber on the road hauling butt outta there.

Just before bath time, Hubby was called out. Peanut cried for Daddy. He screamed and fought because he didn’t want a bath. Once in the tub, there were yells of “No soap! No wash! No hair!” Of course, once I opened the drain, he started screaming because he wanted to stay in. Getting him dried off and dressed was no better. He finally calmed down on the couch watching “Cars” for the billionth time. Bedtime was hardly better. He fussed until he finally fell asleep at nearly 10.

This morning got off to a rough start. He woke up while I was drying off from my shower and wanted to watch “Cars” again. I told him to get back in bed. He sassed a little, but got into bed. Hubby was snoring, which apparently annoyed him, so he repeated “Daddy, stop!” several times. Once I got him up and dressed he was much better. I asked if he was going to be a good boy, he said yes, and he was.

On the way to daycare, he decided to be a little comedian for Hubby. Things got really quiet, then Hubby heard snores. He looked back and saw Peanut smiling. “I sleeping, Daddy!” (I wonder where the inspiration for that came from?)

Hubby had the weekend off and we took full advantage of it by visiting the local zoo on Saturday. Peanut was so excited to see the monkeys, birds, giraffes, elephants, pigs, fish, manatees, otters, and other critters. He helped me feed lorikeets in the aviary and kept his fingers away from their sharp beaks this time. We rode the safari "bus" and had some good close-up views of the African animals. Peanut splashed in the fountain. We rode the merry-go-round 4 times, Peanut choosing a differend animal each time. It was a great day and we all had a wonderful time.

Sunday was completely different. Peanut woke up before 7 with a fever and was miserable. We hung around all day and kept him comfortable with Motrin. A Monday trip to the doctor confirmed what Hubby and I suspected: strep again. This time they didn't mess around and Peanut got an antibiotic shot. His poor little butt has a big, nasty bruise. By Monday night, he was starting to feel better. I stayed with him yesterday. He slept in until 10 am!! We had a great day. When asked how he felt, he replied "I all better." Amen to that!

If he gets strep again, we'll be referred to the ENT. I'm afraid the recommendation will be to take his tonsils out. Neither Hubby nor I are comfortable with that in such a young child. I was a strep carrier as a child. My pediatrician participated in strep research and said that even without tonsils, I still would have gotten the infections and that I would eventually outgrow my susceptibility. I did. Maybe current research has found that removing tonsils does prevent strep, but I'm hesitant to put Peanut through surgery and the risks of anesthesia without there being a proven benefit. On the other hand, I don't want him to have strep 4 or 5 times a year like I used to and to be on near-constant antibiotics.

I keep thinking about the Virginia Tech shooting tragedy. According to the media, several people realized something was wrong with Cho Seung-Hui and did what they could to intervene. Unfortunately, no one could prevent him from going on a killing rampage. I wonder, though, if anything short of locking him up in a mental hospital would have prevented it. It sounds like he was pretty far gone, maybe too far to ever be sane.

Peanut surprises me regularly with his keen observational skills. Last night, while driving home, we passed a grocery store. It’s the same chain we shop at, but not the one we usually go to, as another is closer to home. “Store!” He exclaimed. He likes going to the store because it means a ride in the race car shopping cart (when we can find one).

Closer to home, we passed a Checkers. He became excited and asked for “french fries, french fries.” Hubby has him indoctrinated already.

The other morning, he spotted my salad shaker in my lunch sack. “Big bubbles!” It took me a minute to realize what he saw. Sure enough, the colors are spot on.

Things are still going poorly with Mom. She transferred into the residential treatment facility on Tuesday. She's miserable, not sleeping well, and begging me to take her out. I had a decent converstation with her new social worker and he reassured me that she can only be released with the psychiatrist's permission. If she insists on getting out and they feel she's a danger to herself, they will Baker Act her. Essentially, even a voluntary admission into mandates completing the full 2-3 month program. They will keep her for up to 6 months, and if she's still not well, she will be placed in an appropriate hospital or group home. She now knows this and is afraid that's what will happen. I'm repeating the same stuff over and over to her: make getting well a goal, don't worry about money, housing, and whatever, just focus on getting well, we will have a living situation arranged when she is released, but won't work on it until she's well enough for release, and that the possibility of moving into an apartment isn't the end of the world. Apparently if she doesn't own her residence, it's automatically no good.

Hubby worked approximately 24 hours this weekend. So much for spending Easter together. They had a murder, a suicide, an overdose, and another death, I think. Horrible stuff. We're both about ready to crack - him from work stress and me from Mom and family stress. I hoped for some quality alone-time to decompress and never got it. Peanut and I visited Mom yesterday and it was awful. He fell asleep on the way there and woke up in a clingy/unhappy mood. The facility scared him and Mom just made it worse with her crying. He clung to me and asked for bye-bye and juice the whole 20 minutes we were there. Mom took it personally when he didn't want to sit on her lap or hug her. Then she started laying into me with a big guilt trip about not visiting on weeknights until I explained the logistics: Hubby is on call and can't be relied upon to pick Peanut up. Visiting hours don't start until 6:30, so if I can drive there straight from work, I'll have a 45 minute wait. If I pick up Peanut, then drive to her, I'm spending a good 90 minutes driving, have to somehow squeeze dinner in, then have a 45 minute drive home. It's not happening.

I hope that somehow this program works for her as well as it did last time and that once she gets out she accepts whatever her living arrangements are.

I've been trying not to lose sight of the good things.

Peanut had a blast yesterday. We didn't play Easter up too much, but daycare had a party and egg hunt. When we woke up, I told him the Easter Bunny had visited and we should look for presents. He loved the kitchen set Hubby and I got and "cooked" all day long. He also loved the basket with a stuffed bunny from Grammy and Grampy, as well as the Pingu DVD, which we've already watched 3 times. He insisted on me sitting next to the kitchen for a good bit of the day so he could give me coffee, hotdogs and hamburger patties. "I cook, Mommy!"

We took a break from cooking to water the flowers and play in the backyard last night. I noticed one of our mockingbirds with a worm, anxiously eyeballing their nesting tree. I asked Peanut to be quiet and still so we wouldn't scare away the mommy bird. Once she (or he) flew into the tree, we heard "peeppeeppeeppeeppeep." I'm pretty sure the eggs hatched Saturday or Sunday as we didn't hear any peeps Saturday morning.