Spawn, like all kids his age, has a habit of making grabbyhands for things he's not supposed to have. And then, when I make to take whatever away from him, he prefers to throw the thing at me (running away optional), as if getting rid of it instantly will save him the scolding or outright punishment.
Today he managed to wriggle through the barrier at the foot of the stairs, went up, and started returning with a pair of scissors. Granted, rounded craft scissors (not that he hasn't grabbed sharp nail or needlework ones too), but I'd been nudging Monster to secure them away forever. Naturally, I went to take them away, he threw them at me, and the blades grazed the side of my neck.
No harm done, but just thinking what would have happened if I were one step further down from him and they had gone flying at eye level makes me sweat cold. I can tell you, Spawn didn't like his timeout after the event, not one bit!
There has been hilarity on the forum when I recounted the incident, and I suspect Spawn has been permanently branded the trainee ninja, but you know how such things are.
What stopped us from starting on playgroups from last year was the fact that, of a weekend, something would always happen to make it inadvisable for us to go out on Monday; usually one of us falling sick, whether with something transient, like a cold that would be gone by mid-week, or more long-term, like my operation, which meant no lifting weights for at least two months, or Spawn's bout of impetigo, which took a couple of weeks to clear.
This time it all started with Grumpy, who's got conjunctivitis and took the day off today to go to the doctor. Then my stomach played up again, and despite a double dose of ranitidine, as I can do at bedtime, I still had to encourage my supper to come up again, a little later, for the acid to empty out and relief to set in enough to get some sleep... I hope. It still means we're missing tomorrow as well. Crud.
Going out with Spawn in the rain is going to be an issue. He refuses to be under the buggy's raincover, but he can't cope with walking real distances either (plus he hates a hood over his head as well).
It started drizzling as we were getting close to the supermarket. Dawdling inside didn't do much; I can never know if the rain is going to peter out in a few minutes or go on for hours. So I thanked my stars that Spawn's waterproof was in the buggy basket, put it on him backwards, to cover as much of him as possible, and pushed on along the road home almost at a run.
Except he kept wriggling half out of the coat, and I had to keep stopping to adjust it, getting myself wetter and wetter in the process.
I really don't know what to do about it, and I have to find a solution, because I can't afford to take the bus to playgroup all winter and I can't keep Spawn at home again till April either.
I took Spawn to playgroup today, since we missed yesterday waiting for Gilly's arrival. Note to self: don't schedule other errands on playgroup days. There and back again, with an added detour to the doctor's, to collect prescriptions for my ranitidine pills and Spawn's hydrocortisone cream, to the chemist's and to the supermarket... well, let's say that five miles of trekking are beyond the fun stage.
I try to remember if the long range seafront walks that Curmudgeon and I used to indulge in during our dating years were as long as that, and I can't, really. I might even have to use a mapping service, though I doubt I'd find the exact landmarks I need... What I do know is that I'm not at the fitness levels of those years anymore. Age and lifestyle haven't been kind.
Still, even that trek was better than staying at home and focusing on the tail end of the splitting headaches (damn you, codeine withdrawal) that plagued me throughout the weekend.
It's currently wrapped warmly in its red leather cover that fits it so well, snoozing on top of my desk (yes, it has a 'put to sleep' option). It was delivered mid-morning, and I could hardly wait until Spawn went to bed to take it out and playplayplay with it!
I've loaded a few PDFs, to see how it's handling them. I'm not disappointed. Of course, PDFs are fixed in their formatting, so there's no adjusting text size, so things like double-column gamebooks have to read in landscape format and blown up (I recommend 200%) to be visible. But I haven't found broken bits, and even the images carry reasonably well. Of course, I will grab a few MOBI books (Amazon freebies, here I come!) to see the difference, but mostly I'm thinking 'No more struggling to catch up on my game resources!'
Note to self: Delete gamebooks after reading, because they take up about 30 times the space a normal e-book would, and a full Kindle library of about 100 titles sounds ridiculous.
The requisite technological glitch of the day involved me not knowing the password for our network, and thus being unable to sort out the wireless and do the whole registration and download thing. I had to wait until Grumpy returned from work and was convinced that no, it wasn't the network key I needed, that I had used it already and it hadn't worked, and that yes, we did have something else. Nice bit of drama, but human intelligence prevailed once more.
Oh, and it's Gilly from now on. 'The Kindle' is like saying 'the baby'. Babies receive names, respond to them, and integrate with the rest of the family. Like Gilly with me.
When I put in the order for my Kindle, I was told by Amazon that it would dispatch 'on or before the 17th of September'. So I waited; not patiently, though, especially since the cover arrived and double-especially in the last week, hoping for 'before' instead of 'on'.
And then I got an email notifying me of a shipment on the 23rd? WTF? Breathe, breathe, nothing else you can do about it... And then another email, specifying the 25th and making me even more impatient. Come on already, guys!
Today, the one day I didn't check my credit card account for the big payment going through, I got the notification that the thing has shipped. And since it's a courier delivery, it's trackable. It checked into the sorting facility just over an hour ago, which means it can very well be here tomorrow!
The pain got bad enough over the weekend that it was impossible either to make it to playgroup or to avoid the doctor. Mostly because I was running out of the good painkillers and I didn't even want to think about having to do without codeine reinforcement.
I saw the nurse first, hoping not to have to wait long. I didn't, but she suggested I wait and see the doctor anyway. With no other choice, I stayed.
While we waited, I was impressed with the way just one playgroup session had changed Spawn's playing manner. There were no other children in the waiting room, so he had the whole basket of toys and books to himself. He tried everything, although he gravitated more to a certain drag-along car he's always been fond of, and then piled up everything back in the basket. Not nearly as much running about as he used to. Towards the end, of course, he started going for the automatic doors again and I had to chase him and bring him back, but overall he did well.
The doctor gave me a prescription for Co-dydramol and sent me home. I'm pretty sure the drug itself is cheaper than the prescription dispensing fee, but hey, if you need a signature, you'd better have one. As long as it dulls the pain enough for me to get some rest, I can live with it.
To go to the doctor or not to go, that is the question. I didn't. My arm is still hurting, but I couldn't bring myself to face the queue for the emergency hours at the clinic on the last day of the week. Sometimes I think I'm the most impatient person out there, just covering it well.
In waiting for my Kindle to arrive, I don't play with the cover (it's expensive and I can't afford to bugger it up before I get to put it to use, neh?), but I download ebooks. Yay for my gamer friend who passes me more game books over Y!M than I think I can read in a lifetime, and for a couple of pertinent addresses he gave me. Don't expect me to post directions to illegal download places in the open, but yeah - filesharing is what it's all about. Sampling, and then buying only what I really want. Like the years of radio piracy.
Tuesday morning I woke up with a pinched nerve in my neck. Nothing new there. What was new, though, was the way the mild pain of overwork in my right arm started to get worse, fast. Yesterday the arm was barely functional, and the pain had grown constant. Not so much around the shoulder, where the pain from the neck would radiate, but along the arm itself, even the forearm. Neuralgia, so not glad to meet you.
After an almost sleepless night, and another during which sheer exhaustion overran the pain for a little while, I did a bit of research, and it doesn't look good. This kind of pain looks suspiciously like cervical radiculopathy. I can't get a doctor's appointment to find out before the weekend, so I'm pretty much stuck with ibuprofen caplets within and ibuprofen gel without (both of which it's a toss-up whether they'll work), and trying to keep the neck and arm warm and supported, because that seems to give a tiny bit of relief and I'm too chicken to try icing instead.
Can I say enough with the agony for no worthy reason yet?
It's finally done. After a year of planning, and countless overrulings of the plans, Spawn attended his first playgroup today.
The day didn't start very well, as we were unwittingly about three-quarters of an hour late. Not that it matters when you turn up, it's just wasted time. It was a rather stiff trek (yeah, yeah, I'm out of shape, get over it), but what matters is we got there.
Grumpy had warned me that the church that runs the particular playgroup is pretty much Fundie Central (the book-burning kind, no less - I kid you not). But this is the boonies here, and it's the closest place for Spawn to socialise, and I can't afford to be too picky. Grumpy did say that watching me give them a piece of my mind when they try to peddle their branch of churchianity to me would be worth it. Hrmph. Not happening. There was not as much as a mention of the G word this time, and I trust myself to have my not-preachable aura on at full force.
Evangelism aside, Spawn enjoyed himself, ran around the place, rode scooters and trikes, ignored the treats and juice (too close to his breakfast, I suppose), and although I had to get in the way a few times to stop him from grabbing whatever toy any other child was interested in, he didn't try to slap anyone that pissed him off. Phew. He's not exactly sociable right now, but he'll learn, and if he doesn't make friends, at least it won't be a culture shock when he goes to nursery next year.
I knew he had tired himself out playing when he let me put him into his buggy for the walk back without as much as a protest, and proceeded to sleep for almost four hours after his lunch. Mission accomplished, and we're definitely going back, at the right time. Next step, finding a suitable group in town as well, for a different flavour.
I was looking forward to school return, in order to be able to set my own schedule and actually do some writing during the day, while the big 'uns are away. So far it's been a rather weird school return, though, since Grumpy started on Wednesday while Monster isn't going back before Monday. So only half of my own schedule. I still haven't done any writing, by the way.
With Monster in sixth form, a lot of the school trappings, like uniforms, are done away. And while Grumpy feels a tad melancholy about how fast they grow, I find myself missing my own lost youth. Why didn't I get to fool around with boys and party like it was 1999 when I was in the final run of secondary school?
The question is rhetorical, so don't get your knickers in a wad. The answer is: too much homework. But that doesn't make the regret any less. Way it is: we want it all. When we're young we want the grades and the social life, and when we're older we want the career and the family. Something always has to give, and something is always regretted, no matter what we choose.
(I still want to go clubbing all night, though...)
