It's Gobbles Time!: A little bit of everything

This week started off on a good note. I'd been dying to see my girls, to have a night out dancing and making asses of ourselves. For awhile now I've been driving around in my car blasting Gaga and screaming Rhianna (after dropping Gobbles off of course, nice tame Mumford & Sons is what he prefers). Luckily, the latest lady to get her finger bling is a true delco gal, and came home sans man for a night out.

Since I was driving I couldn't exactly throw 'em back, but I definitely got just what I needed - a few hours where all I had to worry about was making sure I didn't catch a disease from the couple dancing next to me. Sounds harsh, but next to some of the boulder diapers Gobbles puts out, it was nothing. And the night wouldn't be complete without my (happily married) knocked up bff rubbing her 25 week belly and jumping up and down in response to the DJ's request for single ladies.   She knows how we work it!

I rolled in after 2 am to a sleepy hubs who complained to me, "the little man has been fighting sleep all night, you owe me!". Thankfully, my awesome father-in-law, who was crashing at our house for a local trumpet convention, was more than eager to wake up with Gobbles when he decided it was time to start the day at 6am the next morning. Grandparents are awesome like that. The funniest part of the morning was when hubs and I finally woke up for real and went downstairs to see a wide smile on our son, a weary but loving Pop on the couch, and every item from the toybox strewn across the living room. The response, well, he felt like playing with everything at some point, and as a grandfather it's not my place to deny him anything.

Monday, the 31st, was a big day for little Gobbles. What I thought would be his last day in the infant room actually turned out to be his first full day in the toddler room. After I got him all settled with his new teacher, I want back to gather up his things from the baby room. No more crib for napping, no more bottles. Since I thought we had 24 more hours, of course I got a little teary as I was saying goodbye and thank you to the infant teachers. So there went the first of 18 "grade" transitions he's gonna make. My little boy's all growns up!

Apparently the toddler room doesn't suit my baby well, since I got a call late that afternoon: Come pick Gobbles up, he has a fever. And don't forget our policy - 24 hours fever free before returning, so he can't come in tomorrow too. Great. Between snow and fevers, this kid hasn't had a full week of daycare since before christmas. Glad we're getting our money's worth!

Hubs graciously decided to take a sick day since I had been stuck working from home so much with the snow closures, so he took him to the doc and gave him some tlc. The doctor told us to let him fight it, since he just finished his ear infection medicine. Let the fever spike, give it tylonal if it gets really bad, but other than that let him build up his immunity. Just what a mother wants to hear - let your child suffer as much as you can stand, it'll be good for him. Unfortunately, Gobbles's fever spiked again late Tuesday and his eye just about crusted shut from mucus. Yum.

The next day we awoke to find no power.  Normally this doesn't bother us. Just 3 (or 4?) years ago we were having a party at our house when the power went out. We just lit up the millions of yankee candles we have laying around, told our 20 or so guests that the pulled pork may get cold if not eaten immediately, and made sure to drink as much beer as possible lest it go bad. Unfortunately, losing power is not the best thing to happen when you (a) have a sick child who likes warm food and a warm house and (b) have to work from home taking care of said sick child.

But (score two for grandparents this post), my mom had the day off because of a power outage so she volunteered to take Gobbles while hubs and I went to work. Unfortunately, the fever spiked again so we decided I'd work from home with the little guy the next day. I made sure to stay late and get the critical stuff done, knowing that working on a laptop when all a child wants to do is cuddle is virtually impossible. Luckily, by Thursday it seemed the boy was finally getting better, and all he wanted to do was sleep. I managed to get a decent amount of work done with only one "crying during a conference call" episode (him, not me).

By mid-afternoon I was ready to put away the computer and have some mommy / Gobbles time. And despite playing the "I'm so pathetically sick, just love me" card so well, the little guys still managed to make me crack up. When getting him up from his nap, I put him on the changing table, talking to him as I always do. He started smiling and frantically clapping. Awww, are you happy to see mommy??   He shook his head vigorously No no no, with a mischievous grin. My nose then led me to ask Do you have a surprise in your diaper for mommy?? Hysterical laughter & more clapping. Sure enough, inside the diaper was... well you guessed it. Only my husband's son would be the kind of kid who's first "joke" would be about poop. His father, who still cracks himself up about that which comes out of one's douppy*, was so proud of him when I relayed the story. That's my boy!

**Douppy: Mountain town speak for butt. Rhymes with whoopie. Lord knows how it's spelled.