Sickling & catch up

Macky boy has been sick since Monday. I watched both Gracie & Alex on Monday and Alex for the rest of this week except for yesterday because I had to work during the day. Anyway, on Monday, all three kids showed signs of a cold; Gracie more so than the boys. She was coughing all day long, tired, and she had to keep catching her nose! The boys were quick to follow with Mac taking the brunt of the germs and Alex making really interesting noises from the depths of his nasal cavaties. Gracie was on a quick road to recovery the following day (I think because all the germs jumped from her to MacMan) and Alex spent the rest of the week experimenting with his new noises. The Dunk kids seem to be fine and dandy now while Mac has slipped into the deep black hole of grumpy, whiney, tired, lost-voice-like well of rough n' tough colds. Nights aren't as bad as they could be but he does have his issues. Mostly, I prop him up on a pillow and by the middle of the night he's flattened out and drowning in post-nasal drip which makes him cough over and over again. Sometimes, it gets so bad that his tummy uncontrollably begins to contract in a vomiting-like fashion, he's trying to swallow his muck while his tummy is forcing it back up and eventually I have to tell him to spit it out, which he does. Poor lil MacMan. He transitioned about a month or so ago from two naps a day down to one, but the past couple of days or so, he's been napping twice, sometimes three times a day due to this cold. I hope he will soon recover and be his happy-go-lucky lil cuteness self again!

I had some issues with not feeling well also, though I think mine were more related to exhaustion from work, quick turnovers from night shift to day shift, and watching the Dunk kids more often than usual. Also, the holiday's, new routine (or at least trying to settle into a new routine) and of course, new surroundings! On Thursday I was feeling the most exhaustion yet and I had had Alex with me. Everyday this week I've gone to work in the evenings from 6pm - 11pm, then brought MacMan home from Dunkville, Put him to bed, and tried myself to get to bed at a decent time (even though I'm usually wired when I get home) in order to be able to wake up to receive Alex in the morning around 8am-ish. So anyway, on Thursday, Alex was with me and he was such a great kid that day! I went into the bedroom to change MacMan's diaper and noticed the lil' one was tired so I nursed him and I too fell asleep. MacMan and I napped for a good hour or so. Alex was patient, didn't wake us up, and just watched his movie in the living room. Then again near lunch time, I had several cat naps trying to put Mac down for his midday nap, and Alex just remained patient and watched his movies! I was also suffering from the chills and muscle aches all over my body. I was able to take some Tylenol and got MacMan down for his midday nap and came out to the front room to tell Alex how impressed I was with him! I was so impressed, I had to call Ali and leave a message for her! It was a much needed relief to be able to nap and not be bothered! Alex was grinning from ear to ear when I told him how proud and thankful I was of him! Today is Saturday (like you couldn't tell from the posting date lol) and it's my only day off until next Friday. We start our weekend days this weekend...that is, those of us that chose to work on Sunday's start tomorrow, and everone else who chose Saturday's work a week from today. It's going to be hard on MacMan only because he's not seen much of me since last sunday because I've had the Dunk kids here everyday, and yesterday, I worked full time at work to make up some hours miseed due to the holiday's and not working weekends. His experience wouldn't be as bad or as hard on him than if he were healthy and not suffering from a rough n' tough cold. He is more needy of me when he is sick and although each caregiver he's been with this last week loves him dearly, as most mommy's who read this know, no one is better than mommy when there is an extra need for sicklings who want comfort and security. On a more upbeat note, he can now say, "wee wee" for Wiggles, "bub boh" for bubble, "caar" for car, "kkeeey" for key (i have no idea why he likes that word so much!), "kuh kkeeey" for cookie, "k, ohk" for OK, "yyea-h" for yeah (not sure how to write that one, he says yeah but doesnt extend his h's at the end of the word...he cuts it short like if someone's laugh consisted of saying yeah as they laughed...does that make any sense? Didn't one of the three stooges laugh like that?), when you tell him to say hi, he waves his hand with palm facing him, when you tell him to say bye-bye he opens and closes his hand, usually with his palm facing him as well! He knows how to shake his head "no" and sometimes answers you with an "okh" or "yea-h" when you tell him something or ask him something! He speaks in his own tongue otherwise, usually saying something like, "brissa-brissa-brissa" or "abruuggcha gobcha gobcha" or "zabba zaba da di tee a booga!" LOL It's really cute to get him to start talking in his own language and then try and maintain conversation with him! Sometimes, we've all heard him say something complicated and he never seems to say it again! A couple of days after Christmas, I coulda sworn I heard him say, "Teletubbies" when he was reaching into his ball-pit train to get his new stuffed Teletubbie toys, and on New Year's Eve, Addie and her husband, Soren, coulda sowrn they heard MacMan run up to the gate at Ali's that separates the kitchen from the dining room and say "I need to get out!" He definately doesn't look much like a baby anymore, and I think he's trying to chase, and catch up to his cousin Scotty (aka boy cousin on here) with his hair growth! His bangs are now down to his eyebrows nearly able to reach over his eyes and his little tufts of hair at the back of his head puff out and hang down below his collar. His little sideburns are more like ear covers and have grown down past his ears! He's become much more aware of his body and when he's able to run around in nothing but a diaper, he loves to try and remove it. Lucky for me (I know my luck is going to run out soon), he hasn't figured out the diaper tabs yet! but he has been rather successful at pushing his diaper down past the point of no return! I am doing well despite my weird sickness this past week. Work is definately reptative but I have kept one eye on the prize and the other on the very reason why I took the job in the first place, and because of that, I've managed to keep a positive attitude and enjoy what I am doing. It's not nearly as bad as being on the receiving end of phone calls, even though we will be taking some inbound calls, they are because people realize they need to pay their bills and are usually not mad at you when calling themselves! Other than work, I still haven't really met anyone for any socialization time, but really, at this point, I don't want any. I still haven't quite organized myself or with our routine due to the holidays, a new job, etc., and so adding another aspect will only confuse things! I consider work to be my social outlet for now, and it seems to be doing just fine as is. School starts up in a week or so I believe. I am taking another 5 classes but none of which are required courses in order to graduate. All are electives and focus points for various specific topics and I think it will be a great semester. I am taking Sex Crimes, Drugs & Behavior, Issues in Criminal Justice-with a sub-topic but I have no clue what the sub-topic is because it wasn't listed in the schedule of classes, Youth Violence, and Criminal Justice Administration Systems. That last class will be taught by a police officer for the El Paso Police Dept.. I have wanted to take a course with him for quite awhile now because I hear he is a great instructor. Speaking of police officers, I posted an ad in craigslist in the Washington DC area looking for a long lost friend of mine and a police officer for the PGCPD (Prince George's County PD) responded saying there was an officer that worked there by my friends name and he would pass along my info to him to see if it was the same man. Unfortunately, it was not, but now this officer, he's actually a homicide detective, and I have been communicating via email! I've lost touch with most of the police officer's I knew in Maryland when I lived there so it's nice to have another contact there as well as someone I can share life situations and bounce ideas or questions off one another! At some point, I'm going to make an attempt to contact the MCPD (Montgomery County PD) officer's I became good friends with to rekindle valued friendships! On a side note not really related to police officers, but more related to my job and advancement there, I 've already gotten a lot of encouragement from my superiors about how to advance within the company, and what steps I'll need to take to get where I want to be (which is Fraud Control/Prevention) and that they firmly believe that I have the skills to make it there relatively quickly...and I've only been working on the phones for two weeks! As I said before, I've got one eye on the prixe, and the other on the reason I got the job in the first place...the prize is Fraud and the reason is MacMan...