She finally succumbed.

She came down with a fever and cough on Saturday. I figured it was viral. Sunday afternoon her asthma had kicked in, so I was dosing her with Xopenex, Tylenol and cough syrup. The process continued through Monday and she seemed a little more perky.

This morning she fell asleep after getting up at 9 am. Her wheezing was not improving after Xopenex, so I took her to the walk in clinic.

Three hours, three Xopenex treatments and a chest X ray later, she has viral pneumonia AND an ear infection and we barely escaped having her hospitalized.

Needless to say, my weekend plans are shot to hell. Cuteness is now on antibiotics, a liquid steroid for her lungs, continue the 4 hour Xopenex treatments and if she falls back into lethargy and/or belly breathing, get her tiny hiney to the ER, because she will need to be admitted for IV treatments.

I will be spending the next two days watching her like a hawk.

Please send healing prayers, spells and wishes to the Cuteness, she really needs them.

It's the Cuteness! Is she not Cute? Worship the Cuteness.

If you look closely, you can see the missing tooth.

I should do one for IDK too...

It's you, your car, and black hills bordering near black skies. Thank the Gods for the near-full moon. I don't think it would be half as fun driving during a dark moon.

I came home early from babysitting His Royal Highness because I had forgotten to take Monday off. Given the work situation (I now have to consider the back shop guys "customers". *snerk*), I didn't want to take any time off anyway, which had been explained, and then I remember Saturday afternoon that the Royal Parents won't be home until after midnight.

Yerk.

I would have been fine, except Cuteness threw up twice this morning, thus freaking me out. I called Zhade and begged for help, which, being the love that she is, she came down as soon as she could. I then gave Cuteness an allergy pill and she was able to eat and drink for the rest of the day. So! Must remember to give Cuteness allergy pills every day we're in Bermania, because she might not sneeze and have a runny nose, she'll just have sinus drainage until her tummy rebels.

Joy.

I'm going to drink some Gatorade, throw my clothes in the dryer and go to bed.

Sooner or later, I need to get that Fruits Basket plot bunny fed.

So today my Iphone decided to leap out of my coat pocket as I was putting it on a chair and land touchscreen-first on the concrete floor. Which ruined the touchscreen, but none of the interior functions of the phone.

Shaking my head at the random suicidal items that pop in and out of my life, I picked up the kiddos, fed them gingerbread and peanut butter crackers for dinner, and hit the AT&T store.

"Hello, I've broken my phone. Fix please?"

"Sure. Hey, you're being charged for two lines and you're due for an upgrade!"

"Why do I have two lines? I thought that had been fixed last year."

"Not sure, but I can fix it now. So, do you want a new phone? You have an upgrade, after all."

"I heart my Iphone. Can I have another one just like it?"

"Sure and it will only cost you $100."

"How much to fix?"

"$200."

"Right. New phone it is! And can I please get a better case, as this little plastic one loses bits in my pocket."

"Sure. Do you want super duper or just super?"

"I'll take super. Oh goody, there's a purple one."

$145 and about an hour later to port all of my pictures and videos (to which I found a fuckton of line drawings and book illustrations mixed in, WTH?) I have a shiny new phone I'm currently updating through Itunes, which takes for freaking ever when one has a gazillion songs, thank you Zahde. It took me about 20 minutes on the apps alone!

My kiddos were SO GOOD I took them to Dunkin Donuts and bought them donuts and hot chocolate. They were super awesome and behaved and Cuteness likes to find Green Frogs when playing I Spy, no matter what her location.

Queenie is having Triscuts and cottage cheese, because she doesn't want to eat anything too heavy at 9:30 at night. And drinking Cuteness' hot chocolate as she didn't touch it. Chocolate donut, that's my Cuteness. With sprinkles whenever possible.

And she's almost three years older then this picture, must do something about that.

Anyway, The Cuteness loves watching her parents play games. Computer games, console games, she loves them all. When a parent is on the computer and there's no console game going on the television, she will come over and demand that said parent play Peggle so she can sit on the lap and watch. She and Wolf while away many an hour doing this.

We recently bought Okami for the Wii. We had the Playstation version and enjoyed it, but agreed that the brush work would be MUCH easier with a Wii remote then a toggle stick.

Boy were we wrong! It's actually HARDER, especially in the offensive strokes. The game is just as stunningly beautiful, but attacking enemies by whipping the remote back and forth does lead to wrist cramping, as I discovered. It's also frustrating, because timing is now key, key, key, where the Playstation version was simple button mashing, something Queenie does very well.

This morning The Çuteness came to me and asked "You want to play wolf?", which translates into "Play Okami, Mom! I want to watch!" (You spend the game running around as a white wolf named Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess in the Shinto faith) I turned her down, as I have housework to do.

Wolf is currently kicking demon ass with Cuteness ensconced on his lap, commenting on the pretty wolf. Such a strange child.

Permission to do something once is permission to do it ALL the time.

I have lost my catnip AND my mint, thanks to a determined Cuteness and a Wolf who honestly didn't realize I had thrown out the scattered dirt and potting mix from Sunday night. I was told last night there was no hope of salvage, Cuteness had been vigilant in stripping every last piece of soil off the roots.

*SIGH*

Proof positive that if I want a nice herb garden, I have to get planters hung at about 4' off the ground.

Oh well. At least now all my pretty red pots are available!

IDK came home early Friday due to vomiting. Apparently it's going around the school, which made Wolf and I rather suspicious. No fever, no coughing, no other symptoms and by Saturday morning he felt just fine and drank half the ginger ale I had bought.

By this morning, the ginger ale AND the 7-up were gone.

This afternoon, after her nap, the Cuteness threw up. She threw up two more times after she came downstairs. Wolf and I have been taking turns cuddling her and keeping her warm with a blanket, as the downstairs is still FREEZING because it's FREEZING outside. Again, no fever or any other symptoms.

Currently, she's sitting on Wolf's lap under a blanket and watching golf and soliloquizing and clapping along. This is within an hour of her tummy convulsing.

As we're now out of good tummy soda, I'll fix her a cup of diluted apple juice here in a few.

Called the ex-MIL, who was a nurse, and she thinks it's a stomach virus. I thought that idea had been debunked years ago due to further research into Ecoli and other such nasty bugs. But after a search of Wiki and WebMD, no, it's still around and has been narrowed down to specific agents. How interesting.

Neither kiddo had loose stools, so they must have cleared their systems with just the vomiting. Coolness.

First! Megfaun, Wolf's obi is not, repeat, NOT long enough. We think we've figured out a way to fake it, but I wanted to let you know. We need about another full yard, if you've got it. If not, well, we'll fake it.

Second! I have purchased tabi socks and sandals for Kenshin Costume. Another $50+, gods, when will it end? Oh well, at least I can trust J-List for quality schtuff.

Third! I have a daughter and she is Sensitive. There is a graveyard she and Wolf pass every time they drive to Mama A's. It's one of many in the area, but the only one, so far, that The Cuteness shrieks at when they pass it. She won't shriek at any other time during the drive. I opened myself on the way home, out of curiosity, and was promptly very creeped out. I haven't noticed it before. Maybe it's the season. Or maybe something's changed. I don't know. Still is very creepy, especially after what happened yesterday.

Fourth! Yesterday afternoon I went to PP, expecting to get my depo shot. Turned out I was about three weeks early and depo is time sensitive, so I made another appointment and headed back to my car. As I've been reading Labby fanfic for, oh, a week or so, I was trying to keep His Royal Sparkliness out of my head.

Until I saw something vaguely human shaped sitting in the driver's seat of my car. It wasn't visible in the photographic sense, but I knew something was there. Being concerned, I checked under my car and all the seats, making sure there wasn't a physical presence. So, grumbling to myself and raising shields, I got into the car.

And felt something hovering behind my head all the way home. Very unhappy with this, I ordered the thing out of the car. It left, but to be sure, I called Wolf and asked for a broom. I then swept the car three times, widdershins, declaring my property to be MINE, damn it all, and nothing I didn't want was going to get in. Then I went inside and cleansed myself and the broom.

Fifth! I intend to do some much needed house repairs this weekend, after I go snuggle up in bed alone, as Wolf is very interested in Stargate: Universe and I could care less.

So I've taken up wearing nail polish on a fairly regular basis. I have the lovely rose color and I recently bought a cheap bottle of sparkly lilac. It's very spring-y.

Tonight I was repainting my nails the sparkly lilac when The Cuteness climbed onto my chair and babbled in my ear, clearly interested. I asked her if she wanted to have her nails done and she said "yeah" in that whispery way of hers. So, I sat her down on my lap and quickly daubed the polish on her tiny fingers. She especially liked the blowing-to-dry part. Then I sent her to show Wolf while I finished mine.

Actual conversation:

Me: "Did you see her pretty nails?"

Wolf: "You will be cleaning her up before bed."

Me: "Yes, I was planning on getting her in the shower tonight."

Wolf: *insinuating* "She's going to her grandmother's tomorrow."

Me: "What's wrong with nail polish?"

He didn't answer that. I guess I'll be hearing something about this tomorrow at some point.

*sniff* A classic girly moment. I'm so pleased.

So last week I started bleeding. No big, but I was sad that the month of "Hooray! No blood!" was over.

Sunday night I felt a little off, so I spent the evening curled up under blankets and only getting up under duress of kiddos.

This morning Cuteness had a Well Baby check. I get dizzy sitting in the exam room and think it's the bright sunlight. Dr. M. walks in.

"You look pale. Have you eaten this morning?"

"Yeah. Toast and hot chocolate w/coffee."

"Well, have some juice and a fruit bar and here, Eric, keep an eye on her while I'm fetching the fruit bar in case she faints."

"Um, I've never fainted."

Cuteness, btw, is 32" and 25 lbs and developing nicely, but now Mama A has to suck it up and deal with the messes made by a Cuteness learning how to eat with a spoon. Nyah.

After the juice and bar (of which I ate half before my tummy went "Squick" and Cuteness finished for me and was very grateful) Dr. M offers me a note to go home and rest, as I'm not feeling better and still looking pale.

"Um, no. I know we discussed migraines, but I have been bleeding and maybe it's related to the depo, so I'm gonna call PP."

"Ok, but if you change your mind, let me know."

So I go out to the waiting room and call PP. They can't answer my questions right away, I decide to suck it up and go to work.

Half an hour later PP calls back. "Yeah, honey, depo shots can cause irregular bleeding, but since you're not due for another shot until 2/18, we really can't do much. Take 3 Motrin every six hours."

"You know that breast discharge discussed last time? Yeah, it's still going on."

"Ok, we'll have to refer you to a specialist next month."

What does all this mean? Near as I can figure, Queenie went Borg and adapted to the depo. I'm having a period. Not as painful and heavy as before I went on birth control (gods, I suffered too damn long, all because of my mother's Catholic ethics), but enough to affect me. I was able to do my job, but I spent as much time as possible sitting at my desk sipping hot water and facing the electric heater. Um, yay?

On a more positive note, I got another three bags of clothing from Boss' Wife. I'm now comfily ensconced in sweat pants and a cardigan over my undies. Also got a 20-something mini-skirt, another pair of sweatpants, and about a dozen sweaters. Yay!

I'm going to curl up on the couch with a glass of wine.