Fevers, pink eye, and syrup, oh my!

So a little catching up from where the blog left off...with a sick Katie and a declining Ethan. Sure enough, Ethan got the funk too....in the form of NASTY, ICKKY, UBER contagious pink eye. Of all things to give a mom with SIX hands to be obsessive about washing and contaminating...PINK EYE?  Oh, to the moms out there who don't know what pink eye looks like ... here ya go---and don't stare at it too long, I am pretty sure you can catch this crud just by looking at it.

 So being the ever-so-clever boy, Ethan figured out a fine remedy for his disgusting pink eye. He emerged from the playroom wearing these, saying, "mom, I know, I will keep these on until my eye gets fixed!". What a smart kid...and in the meantime he can double as a spy with the night-vision glasses-bonus!

Hurtado scoreboard reads: Fevers-1, Pink eye-1... wonder whats on the horizon...

Staying on top of my toes is critical these days...I am thinking we will have certain mutiny if I am not always on top of things (and kids). But no matter how hard I try to be everywhere...they still win sometimes....

...."mommy, Owen really likes his juice today!"....I heard as I was changing the laundry from the washer to the dryer a few months ago. As I entered the living room, here is what I saw....

So, folks, that is not juice in his beloved hands...its syrup. A nice big -mostly full at one point- jug of the sweet sticky stuff. And what a grin! Chugging away on syrup. Call the mommy police.....this kid is going to be wired for days.


But I found that Owen doesn't run on just syrup. He has the energy of....well, an 18 month old. Even after having four of these creatures, I quickly forget how MUCH energy they have. Owen has now graduated from the "boring" milestones such as walking and moved into more "extreme" stunts such as balancing on the arm of a couch...which is super fun. For him.  Not so much for me, who's heart skips a beat every time I see this-

See, that's a tile floor on the other side of that couch arm....and for whatever reason this is THE spot to be for him these days. Time after time after time..."no-no" after "down, Owen", after "mommy said no", there he stands, perched and with a smug grin. (see it?)...another typical trait of an 18 month old is the sense of Independence they are feeling. So...you can imagine his response when I remove him from this spot and have to use my "angry mom" voice. (scary!)

...if I was really spiffy with my blogging abilities I would include an audio clip here. Be grateful I don't know how to do that...yet.

As for Katie, she is finally on the mend. Looks like she will be all ready for 5th grade Science Camp next week, along with daddy as a counselor for a group of the boys from her school. But that's another blog another time. Point is, she is feeling better, amen. So as I walk out of her room from checking in on her and head down the hallway I find Owen....who is...well, doing this. On the dining room table.

So first let me speak in my own defense and say that I SWEAR I had only left the room long enough to check on Katie...maybe five to ten minutes max. This kid is lightning quick...the drink is one left by his big sister, who let me remind you is sick...so I am sure there were juicy germs shared as he daintily sipped "his" prize. Looks like he has a giant hole in his lip because most of that ended up on the table, not in his tummy.

I need to point out something funny here...because yes, I can see humor in just about anything.  This is such a sign of how one's parenting style evolves over the years. I mean...upon seeing my firstborn sitting on top of the dining room table like this, teetering to certain injury, there is NO WAY I would have thought to get my camera. I would have thrown on my Supermom cape and whisked her off to her safety, probably spending a good ten minutes explaining to her in baby terms what kind of danger she was putting herself into.  But...fast forward to numero cuatro and we realize that:

1. if we don't take time to laugh at these moments we will surely go nuts
2. babies have really good balance, even on the arms of couches and dining room tables.
3. pink is an ugly color, especially in the eyes.