Mediator

...we're home today.  Again.

I was home for chunks of the week last week - Julia had a fever and a double ear infection (which  probably was partly responsible for the fever, but we didn't know about the ear infection til we brought her to the Dr because she just never complains about her ears, no matter what.  She's tough like that at times.) and so Bill and I sort of divided the child care stuff depending on our schedules.  Plus I had all the night shifts.  Brought me back to the days when she was a newborn and did not believe in sleep when it was dark outside.

But anyway.  So we're home again today - the children and me - the original antibiotic the Dr put Julia on gave her rather drastic plumbing problems.  If you really want the details, go ahead and email me.  Otherwise, I don't want to be too graphic.  But in a nutshell - it was REALLY REALLY ICKY.  ESPECIALLY WHEN IT LEAKED OUT OF HER PULL UP AND DOWN HER LEG AND ONTO THE FLOOR.  Right near Bill's new shoes.  heh heh.

So - I can't bring her back to daycare until THAT issue clears up.  And I kept Alex home too, today, partly because he can keep Julia entertained (or annoyed) and that gives me time to do other things around here, and also because - finally - it has SNOWED!!!

I shoveled the driveway this morning, and the front walk, and cleaned off the car and the truck, and threw a lot of snowballs at various windows - much to Alex's delight.  A bit later, I'll get the kids dressed and let them go out and play in it.  Who knows if we'll get any more snow this season - we've hardly had any, while other parts of the country have been inundated.  But the point is - it's SNOW!  Good, wet, snowman/snowball snow.

But meanwhile, the kids are downstairs playing and watching "Shrek 2" and, of course, feuding over such priceless things as a roll of paper towels and a nearly-deflated balloon.  So just a moment ago I heard screeching (Julia) and loud, indignant whining (Alex) and figured I should see what was up.

It was the paper towels.  For whatever reason, Alex had a roll of paper towels, and he was running around the basement with them, smiling, and not letting Juila have her turn with them.  So she'd hit him, and that's what all the noise was about.

So first I reminded them that if they couldn't get along, they couldn't play in the snow later.  That got their attention, and some groans and cries of protest.

Then I told them they had to share, which is never a popular idea, and since they couldn't do that on their own, I'd set a timer, and when the time was up, whoever had the paper towel roll had to give it to the other.

At war over paper towels. 

I can't wait to tell them about this some day.