Blur

Delirium has set in. Tomorrow I will blog, with pictures, about this precious day when my precious daughter turned nine. (I have never been more aware that nine is the number that precedes ten, which means double digits.) But tonight I am exhausted.

The day started rough as I was recovering from a visit to my mother-in-law's yesterday...no, not that!! I just mean she has a cat, to whom I am allergic. And the allergies hung around longer than usual this time. When Jane bounced her way into my bed at 8:15, I said a groggy "happy birthday" before passing out for another twenty minutes. Then as Chris came to deliver Krispy Kreme for breakfast (did you know eating a doughnut could help a loose tooth come out?), I frantically wrapped Jane's morning presents - all things needed for a hamster. Yes, friends. I have now paid money to bring a rodent into my home. The things we do for love.

After realizing the cage had a crack in it, we drove to Walmart to exchange it and meet up with my dad. Let me just say once again that I do have a wonderful father...this is just a fact worth repeating. We got the new cage, then I spent ten minutes with Stephen in the toy aisles so that he could get a treat. There were 20 different Transformers, but not the one he wanted. There were tons of Nerf guns, but he only wanted the $30 one. He informed me that he's "not that into" super heroes or ninja turtles anymore. Eventually, we brought home a random Star Wars action figure and a couple of dollar items. He was content, which is saying a lot.

Then we finally went to PetSmart and picked up the cutest cousin of a mouse we could find. We got him home, but he had to wait in his cardboard box for ages while dad and I fought with this plastic and metal cage and its million attachments. In the end, we taped them all together for fear that the thing would escape. I finally tried to scoop him up and deliver him to his new home. He didn't care for that, but instead of scratching or biting, he peed and pooped all over my hands. FYI: hamster pee oddly resembles butter from a squeeze bottle. With a little trickery we got him in the cage. After a couple of hours he managed to push the highest covering open, and when I followed the kids' screams to the living room he was just sitting there on the top of his mansion not knowing what to do next. I think he was too scared to move and was a little relieved when I put him back in the same way he came out. Our fingers are crossed as we are hoping this is the only prison break we'll experience.

We spent so much time watching the thing play that the afternoon wasted away and it was suddenly time for our fourth party in the last three days. I had run out of time to make cupcakes, so we scurried to Kroger's for store bought stuff and spaghetti ingredients. We managed to straighten the house and decorate for the party just before my family started trickling in. The party was much fun, though a little loud (Jane plus five boys). We had to move the poor hamster to the laundry room, he was so petrified. Everyone left when they noticed that our eyes were glazed over.

Now you would think that would be just about it for the day, but you would be wrong. It was so late, but the kids just had to have a bath. Stephen's feet were black, and Jane demanded to take a shower. After bath time got rolling I heard major crying from Stephen in the bathroom. At first I thought he was just having a sleepy meltdown, but when he didn't back down I went to check it out. Chris was trying to rinse his hair as fast as possible while Stephen yelled "I want it out! Get it out!" Chris ended my bewilderment by pointing to a tiny black dot a mere inches above Stephen's man parts. He had a tick. Ticks have been something of an urban legend among my kids and their cousins, so he was totally freaked out to think that all the blood would be drained from his body at any moment. He wanted to believe me when I said it would be okay, but I don't think my word was quite good enough this time. We got him to our bed, turned on Andy Griffith on the tv, and grabbed the tweezers. The sheriff distracted him just enough to keep his eyes off the tweezers. Thank goodness I got the thing, head and all, in one try. Even now, I am itching all over just thinking about it.

Now who do you know that could/would blog this much about one day's events? Just me. But I'm worn out, and this day is a bit of a blur now. By tomorrow when I won't remember most of it, I might get a giggle looking back at my stories about losing teeth, packing tape, squeeze butter, birthday parties, and ticks. Wouldn't you?

G'night.