Pink-Eye Stink-Eye

The kids and I are home this morning from church, thanks to four little pink-eyes belonging to Aidan and Harper. If you haven't held down a determined five-year old and wrestled eye drops into his little goopy eyes while he screams and cries and squeezes his eyes shut just as tight as he can, then clearly you are having a better morning than I am. I know how to get classified information out of captured terrorists now--just threaten them with antibiotic eye drops.

We have had a fairly uneventful week around these parts, the weather has been perfect these past few days, and I have shoved the kids outside to play every day. We have to soak up the "perfect weather" days while they last, because by May it will feel like a sauna in our backyard that will last for about 5 months. Dane and Aidan had football and soccer games yesterday, respectively. Aidan scored a couple of goals in soccer, and Dane pulled 6 flags, threw a touchdown pass, and inadvertently tackled a kid about twice his size. You're not really supposed to do that in flag football, which is why Brandon got some ugly looks from fellow parents as he cheered wildly on the sideline.

Brandon has been super-dad lately, hanging out with the kids while I work several noon-midnight shifts at the ER. (Sidenote: Everyone here has the flu. Everyone. If you have the flu, please stay home until it is GONE, because no one else wants it. If you have already been diagnosed with the flu in your doctor's office, please don't come to the ER later that same day wanting us to do something about your flu. We can't. Thank you. Sidenote #2: Noon-midnight shift? Not my cup of tea. The ER is busy when I get there, and busy when I leave, and since this morning person rarely sleeps past 7am, I am exhausted and cranky the next day. I'm a pleasure and joy to be around, I must say.) In the last couple of weeks, Brandon has taken all four kids, by himself, to a high school talent show/fashion show, Dane's open house, soccer and football games, and out to eat Mexican food. How much are you craving queso if you are taking four small children by yourself to eat Mexican food?

This is completely off topic (topic? Was there a topic?), but Emerson woke me up this morning, climbing into the bed long after Brandon had left to go to church early. She is communicating better and better, and we can usually understand exactly what she is wanting to say to us. A lot of her sentences still consist of a mixture of English and gibberish, for example, "Mommy gibberish gibberish cereal", or "Mommy Emerson gibberish play soccer". Anyway, we have this piece of artwork above our bed that we bought in China. It's a painting, with a branch and cherry blossoms, and something written in Chinese in the corner.

Emerson pointed to the painting this morning and said "Jing-yan", which was her Chinese name. She looked at me, and pointed to herself and said "Jing-yan, Emerson." We talked about how we got the painting in China when we brought her home, and then she started pointing to the painting and saying "China, Emerson, China!" and smiling. It was sweet. We have a photo album with pictures from Gotcha day, and other pictures of our time in China, and she loves to look at the album. She clearly remembers the lady who was her primary caregiver there, and smiles and chatters when she sees the picture of the two of them together. I like that when the subject of China comes up, that she doesn't curl up in the fetal position and sob. I'm hopeful that whatever memories she has of China are happy ones, and not horribly traumatic to her. I hope that when she's older, we can take the whole family back to China for a visit.

I apologize for the total lack of cohesive thought in this post. Apparently I have forgotten how to do this blog thing.