Remember when sick days were fun?

I used to love sick days when I was a kid. As a triplet, it would oftentimes be the only 1:1 time I had with my mom. Plus, when we were in high school my mom would give us the occasional mental heath day. As mostly straight A students with multiple extra curricular activities it was needed and appreciated. Aside from mono in college I also never really felt like I was hit by a truck when I got sick.

Now that I'm an adult with a child sick days aren't nearly as much fun. No more mental health days because I have to hoard my sick days in case Cameron gets sick or if she gets me sick. After a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends I took Cameron to the Discovery Place KIDS in Huntersville. Two hours after we arrived back home I started feeling sick. I was miserable all day Sunday and knew that it would only get worse. First I was annoyed because I got the damn flu shot so why was I sick? I knew it wasn't a cold. Around 5 PM I let my work team know that I would be out all day.

I went to bed at 8 PM and got up at 10 AM after very restless sleep (DH ended up sleeping in the guest room) and headed to the Minute Clinic. I love that place. There was no wait and after I listed my symptoms the doctor took a peak at my throat. "Yep, looks like strep throat," he told me. A 5 minute test confirmed the diagnosis and I was on my way to pick up antibiotics and go back to bed.

My biggest concern these days is that Cameron not get sick. Especially because DH is traveling right now and both of us sick at home with no back up is not my idea of a good time. Fortunately she seems to have avoided it so far although I'm wondering where I picked it up then.

The things that suck about being sick as an adult include having to worry about catching up on work. I'm fortunate that my team can cover for me but I still had to do about 2 hours worth of work. Which I did in a complete fog. So I hope there are no major mistakes! I have also found that the older I get the more sick I get. A cold that lasts Cameron a day or two knocks me out for a week.

The only silver lining? Well our dog, Charlie, would tell you that it's the fact he gets to sleep all day in bed with me. Lucky dog.

I hope this post made sense as my fog continues to grow. What do you dislike the most about being sick? Does your job have enough flexibility to allow for multiple sick days? I plan on being out tomorrow too with a meeting here or there.

Is this her veterinarian stage?

Cameron's language development is phenomenal. I can't count the number of words she knows (granted, only DH and I recognize a lot of them) but she is picking up one or two a day. Just today she learned the word "match" when I put her hair in a ponytail like mine. She also wanted to match me by wearing her sweatshirt and sneakers. Too cute!

A few pictures from warmer days in October. Here Cameron feeds carrots to the goats.

As you can see, she loved it. She fed both goats and then moved on to the rabbits. I am pretty sure we weren't supposed to be feeding the animals but at least it was just carrots.

Cameron has also been obsessed with wagons lately. I'm on the fence about getting one because I just don't think we'd use it that much. She pulled her pumpkin a good 100 feet before I took back over.

Cameron loves animals. No fear, regardless of whether it has feathers, fur or scales. We have been reinforcing that love with an increase in her vocabulary. When we were in Hilton Head, I picked up a box of picture cards. I took this video of DH "quizzing" Cameron on the cards. It is in two parts because like most kids, as soon as I said something and she realized we were filming her she decided not to do it any more. Cameron either knows the correct word, sound or gesture associated with the 16 animals in the deck. Check out her hand gestures for the word crab. Adorable!

I don't want to brag but I'm pretty impressed with Cameron's language development. Now on to sentences! When can I expect that to start?

Capitalizing on my super power

I have a super power. It's nothing special but occasionally I am able to leverage it in my favor, like I did on Tuesday night. DH and I were watching a backlog of Parenthood (a great show by the way and in danger of being canceled so add it to your TV list). Two characters met each other for the first time, one established and one new character. The new character was fairly hostile to the established one (trying not to give away plot points here!). I immediately piped up from my spot on the couch to tell DH, "Those two are totally getting together." He said, "No way. Why would you assume that? It's not going to happen."

True, I was half a glass of wine into the show but I held my ground. "OK, let's make a bet. Whoever is right has to plan a date night. Schedule the date, get the babysitter, pick the restaurant. Everything." DH, "I'm in." I should note that typically I plan our date nights (which are infrequent) so it was no skin off my back either way.

We finished the first episode which was rudely interrupted halfway through by 30 minutes of tornado warnings (thanks ABC!). Halfway through the second episode the established character kissed the new character. I chuckled evilly and said, "I won!" Insert your own bwah ha ha ha ha here. DH argued that the new character didn't reciprocate so we still had to wait and see. Fortunately, 15 minutes later the new character confessed his feelings. Vindicated!

So what exactly is my super power? Predicting plots. I developed this super power for several reasons:

• I watched soap operas when I was younger (yes, Helen, I still check in on All My Children occasionally).
• I was a Creative Writing major in college. I had to write and read fiction every single day.
• I'm a voracious reader.
• I watch a lot of TV.
• Most TV writers are predictable and recycle plots constantly. Why do you think I respect shows like Veronica Mars so much?
• There are actually on about a dozen real plots. OK, I may be making that up but I swear I heard somewhere that there are only a set number of possible plots (star crossed lovers, revenge, etc.) I tried to Google it and failed.

It's rare that I get to put my plot predicting skills into action. Mostly because I don't want to ruin it for other people (although DH is tolerant when I pause the TV and tell him my prediction...see above). But also because let's be honest, it's kind of a lame super power. With that said, I did manage to turn it to my advantage the other night so I count it a win.

So what is your super power?

Show me the mommy!

I was complaining to my husband the other night that despite all my weight loss, I didn't feel like I looked a lot skinnier (he of course assured me that I did and of course that I always looked beautiful regardless - aw!). So I decided to play along with "Show me the mommy" today and dug up a picture from last year's trip to Hilton Head and the one from this year. Holy smokes! I'm glad I did it because I can totally see the difference.

To date (since April) I've lost more than 40 pounds. I'm thisclose to reaching my goal and lifetime member status at Weight Watchers. I still have a ways to go to stay motivated with exercise but I'm glad to have lost the weight I have and know that's it's made me a heck of a lot healthier.

Hilton Head, October 2009

Hilton Head, October 2010