I Want a Sick Day

Somehow I managed to catch a cold in August. This quickly led to the unpleasant realization that I no longer have "sick days." Which I am a firm believer in. When I'm sick, I'm whiny and lazy and prefer to avoid people (partially because I know whininess and laziness are annoying) and lay in bed until I feel better. I did manage to spend a chunk of the day in bed. Unfortunately today we ran out of diapers. And the last thing I was going to do was pack Baby E up and take my sick self out of the house. So I asked Dh to get some. Seems simple, right? Like the kind of thing you do for your spouse when she is sick. If only to get away from the whining. Ha ha Too bad Dh doesn't have an empathetic bone in his body. I knew it when I married him, so I'm not complaining. I'm just saying. Ha ha Besides, where is he right now? Safeway, getting some diapers. He's a good husband, he just likes to complain an awful lot.

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There's the oddest thing about Dh's mother. The week before last we went to visit Dh's parents. I can count on one hand the number of times she held Baby E. We were there for four days. I know she's excited about Baby E's existence. When Dh mentioned that we were thinking about visiting, she emailed us saying "Yes please come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" And I am not exaggerating the number of exclamation points. When we arrived she showed me cute clothes she found for Baby E at yardsales. But she barely touched Baby E.

Almost every time she did hold the baby, Baby E cried. Baby E is a happy baby, as has already been established. She's amazingly chill (which is very convenient for me). So the crying was frustrating for M-i-l I'm sure. Especially since as soon as I appeared in Baby E's line of sight she usually started smiling at me. Now, M-i-l has six kids. She has spent plenty of time around babies. Yet she seems to have forgotten everything she knew. When Baby E cried, M-i-l held her and looked vaguely perplexed. Sometimes she tried shushing. That was as involved as she got. Dh wanted to boss her - "Get up, walk around, rock her! You know these things!" - but he restrained himself. It was just so odd; neither Dh nor I know what to do about it.

She just emailed asking if they can come this weekend, and part of me wants to say, "Erm, no thanks." Can I give in to that impulse? I'm sick and my bathrooms haven't been cleaned. (See how whiny?)

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Early this morning I had a first. I woke from a pleasant dream involving Dh...and I woke up really happy, if you know what I mean. I toyed with the idea of waking Dh to make my dream a reality, but decided against it. [Which turned out to be wise. When I told him about it this afternoon, he said I should only wake him up in the middle of the night for that kind of thing on the weekend. *pout* He's no fun. Ha ha]

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My parents offered to fly me and Baby E out to New York at the end of September. I'm really excited about it! Well, not the flying part. I hated flying when it was just me. Throw in Baby E, and well, that sounds suspiciously masochistic. And yet, sign me up. My dad hasn't even seen her! And neither have my siblings (though only three of them are still at home). I want Baby E to know them all, and smile at them. Especially my dad. He is acting tough, like he doesn't care a bit; my mom says he is faking, and I guess she would know.

And have I mentioned my parents are flying me, Dh, and Baby E out to Florida for Christmas? Yes, apparently a baby is really useful for scoring free plane tickets. Ha ha That is, of course, the primary reason Dh and I had a baby. For the plane tickets. I'm KIDDING.

The plane tickets are a latent function.