It's Madness, Baby

If you watch enough ESPN around this time of year - most would agree I watch a little too much - you can't miss high-energy, shiny-pated Dick Vitale yelling out of the television at you: "It's Madness, Baby!!!" He's talking about college basketball, but that phrase was going through my mind today as I went through a day which - although not typical - was not entirely uncommon. It went something like this....

1:30 a.m. Jack wakes up crying. After 10-15 minutes it's clear he's not going to fall back asleep. I go in, soothe him a bit, give him his pacifier that's fallen out of the crib, and go back to bed.

2:00 a.m. Jack still crying. I go in again - Emily is feverish and wants to stay away - pick him up, and try rocking him to sleep. He falls asleep on my shoulder, but when I put him down again, he wakes up, wailing.

2:30 a.m. We give him Motrin. I rock him some more and he sleeps.

5:50 a.m. Jack is awake and unhappy. We wake up. Emily is feeling better and goes to get him. I spend about 10 minutes waking up and get up to join her.

6:30 a.m. I give Jack breakfast, Emily showers. After his rough night, Jack is happy as a lark. I'm guzzling coffee while he eats his bananas, blueberries, coffee cake, and pancake. I have a yogurt and a few bits of his coffee cake. And more coffee. Beautiful red sunrise this morning.

7:15 a.m. I dress Jack in blue jeans a navy blue T-shirt, my own favorite outfit. He's very cute and happy.

7:30 a.m. The pediatrician opens at 8, at which point Emily is going to call to try to get Jack in. We don't want to overreact, but the last time he was up for two hours or so in the middle of the night, he had an ear infection. We didn't react quickly enough and it spread to the other ear. Plus he's had a cough and cold for a few days now. Since we're both going into work today - I've been temping a decent amount for my old company - I take Charlie on a long walk to the park. I walk, he wants to run, so we kind of do a herky-jerky run-walk....i.e., we run until I'm gasping, then walk. At the park, we go onto the tennis courts and he fetches a tennis ball. I think he could do this for hours, and the good thing is I don't really have to move much.

8:00 a.m. We're back, and I give Charlie his breakfast and find out Emily can get Jack an appt. late in the day, 3:50. So she takes him to daycare and goes into work, and I shower, make sure the heat is off and the remote out of Charlie's reach, and go into work myself. (He destroyed one of our other remotes when it was left at his level. A little separation anxiety going on.

8:30-3:00 p.m. I'm at work on a proposal at the engineering firm I used to work for. I left on good terms and leaving was the best thing that ever happened to me professionally, but I'm slow with other, more enjoyable freelance stuff right now so I'm glad to make the money. I had been working as a tech editor when I was there full-time, so I draw no small amount of pleasure from finding some bad typos in a couple of printed and circulated promotional brochures I'm given to look at. "Tucson" is misspelled. Heh.

3:00 p.m. I head out to get Jack, first stopping by the bank to get out cash so we can pay the cleaning lady we just hired to clean our house tomorrow. If you consider the money as money we used to spend going out to dinner, it seems pretty reasonable.

3:15 p.m. At day care, Jack is about to have his snack and seems somewhat surprised to see me, but happy. He crawls immediately over and we're off. The teacher gives me a form about needing information on Jack's 15-month innoculations and so forth, which strikes me as odd since he's more than a month away from even having that appointment.

3:45 p.m. At the pediatrician. There's a crowd of kids and parents in the "sick patients" area, and the "well patients" area is empty, so I take Jack over there. Sue me. He has fun playing with this table thingy with metal columns and loops and stuff on it, that looks like some kind of futuristic city, until we're called in by the physician's assistant. She checks his temperature (he's fine) and says the doctor will be in shortly.

4:10 p.m. In there 20 minutes, no doctor. Jack is getting restless, as am I, considering the room is about 10 feet by 6 feet and there's pretty much nothing in it. I look outside, flag down the assistant, and she says sorry, the doctor will be with us soon, would Jack like some animal crackers? I say, well, okay, sure. He doesn't know what to make of them at first when she brings a little Dixie cup full, but soon he's wolfing them down like nothing. A new vice I guess.

4:20 p.m. Doctor comes in. Jack has a cold and a red throat, but no ear infection and it appears he's fine. Fluids, rest, and siphon his nose. "I would have brought him in too," she says. I'd like to believe she means it.

4:45 p.m. We get home, and go straight to the back yard because Charlie has been cooped up all day and has plenty of nervous energy. We throw a ball around, which Jack, Charlie, and I both enjoy. Jack crawls for Charlie's various bones, naturally, and my fun becomes more anxious. Charlie wants to run and play, Jack wants to pick up bones and tennis balls that Charlie chews on, and we won't even talk about the tiny rocks and dog poop from the previous day or so that has accumulated - fortunately Charlie very politely sticks to one area, near the fence, which Jack of course heads right for. No, he doesn't get there. And the poop won't be there the next time Jack's out there. I swear.

5:15 p.m. A couple of tries at going inside have been met with cries by Jack, but finally we get inside and I start giving him dinner. Tonight we're going to eat separately, so Jack gets to have whatever he'll eat. That means blueberries, cherry tomatoes, goldfish, leftover goulash, applesauce, crackers, and vegetables (unless I forget, as I did tonight). And milk and water, because liquids are important. Charlie hovers. Even after I feed him his food, which he largely ignores in favor of whatever Jack drops.

This is the hardest part of the day, because we want him to eat, and have a hard time knowing what he'll eat, and he tries to express it, and there's a lot of yelling and incidents of my nearly killing myself tripping over Charlie's hunkered down form. Madness.

5:45 p.m. Emily gets home; Thank God. I start the dough for our pizza.

6:00 p.m. I put out the recycling for tomorrow. Check the day's email. Empty the laundry basket. Make sure 24 will tape for whenever I get to watch it. Play the phone messages, two of which are from the Dumb Friends League about a message I left earlier - Charlie is afraid of the noise the clicker makes. which is supposed to be used for his training. Lessons begin Saturday and he's scared to death of the sound, cowering miserably. He is only a year and a half but must have some bad previous experiences.

6:15 p.m. Emily gives Jack his bath, I clean up the wreck of the kitchen where Jack was eating. He makes kind of a mess. Which is why we don't always give him applesauce. Which he likes to pour over his mouth, catching some of it.

6:45 p.m. I start putting Jack to bed, reading him stories and the like. Charlie comes into the room, Jack crawls off my lap and grabs his tail, Charlie whimpers, gets up, and moves away.

About 2 feet to his left.

Jack crawls two feet and tries to grab again. I beg Emily to come get Charlie.

7:15 p.m. I put Jack down. He whimpers for about a second and falls asleep. A good put down.

7:20 p.m. Charlie noses Jack's door open and goes in. Jack stirs but is still half asleep. I try to convey to Charlie that it would be best if he didn't do that. I don't think he gets the message. Maybe one day.

7:30 p.m. We watch "The Office" from last Thursday while eating pizza. Good stuff. Good show.

8:30 p.m. I come back here to write this blog. And now it's done. And I'm going to haul my tired, weary bones off to bed. G'night.