A little catch-up, because it's been a while

   Nixon and I have been having a rough couple of days. Really, it's not my fault or his fault, I blame it on the fact that I'm sick and he is having a hard time grasping that concept. I'm not sick-in-bed sick. No, I'm sick-have-no-voice sick, which to my chatty child who loves playing "Secret Agent Mom/Secret Agent Nixon" with me, is worse than just me lying in bed watching TV with him. Why? Because I can't talk to him.
 
  I've been battling a sore throat and dry cough for almost a week now. Over the weekend I lost my voice, for a day. Normally, that's the end of the my cold: lose my voice for a day and it all goes away. I wake up the next morning feeling right as rain. For some reason, this time, that's not happening, because a couple days later I've still got the cough, sore throat and I lost my voice AGAIN, today is the second day in a row I've been voiceless.
   That's not entirely true. I have a raspy whisper of a voice, but it does nothing but annoys Nixon because when I do talk it's weak and I end up coughing from the effort afterwards. And why wouldn't I lose my voice on the only 2 days Mac has to work this week?!? Because my body hates me and might be filing for divorce with this illness, who knows?

  Yesterday, Nixon decided to start mocking my voice. For some reason this seemed like a good idea to him. Despite Time-Outs and even spankings, he still persisted in mocking me.
 
   I ended up going to the doctor because on day 3, I still had no voice and the weekend was coming. I got lucky and was seen Friday at 10am. I'm thankful for the nurse and doctor who patiently listened to my raspy whisper voice while I explained why I was there.
   The end result? I was battling laryngitis from forceful coughs caused by my allergies but I was on the verge of strep throat so I was loaded up with antibiotics to kill everything, told to keep taking Claritin for my allergies.
   My voice returned weak and raw on Saturday and by Sunday it was back in full effect. Just in time for my birthday on Monday!

   Mac and Nixon woke me up Monday morning by bringing me coffee, donuts and gifts in bed! Nixon (and Mac) said "Happy birthday, Mommy" and Nixon was most excited about the donuts. Mac was most excited about the gift he had commissioned for me several months ago, that had finally arrived on my birthday: 

It's a watercolor painting of Nixon as Iron Man! It's incredible and I was beyond words when I saw it! 

   Nixon decided to tell me, the day after my birthday, "Good morning Mommy! You're old!" and he's been saying that every day since then. At least he was kind enough not to say it on my birthday.     

   Finally, the biggest most amazing accomplishment with Nixon happened this morning: He and I can now play real games of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock! Even better, Nixon managed to beat me twice! He beat me fair too, threw the winner fair-and-square. But he does try to cheat!
   He also likes to "cut" me with his lightsaber and tell me "Mommy, I just cut off you arms and legs! hahahaha" That's what we get for letting him watch Star Wars Episodes 1-3. 

then I put myself in Time Out

**Disclaimer: I'm watching Peanut for the month. I've been here almost 2 weeks and have a little over 3 to go. I'm doing the mom of 2 thing again....not always rocking it either**

Ugg.... this is not how my Sunday was supposed to be.

I went to bed last night with the plan to wake up and take everyone out to breakfast. Pancakes, bacon, eggs...the whole 9 yards. Mac and I have been going out to breakfast on his days off for most of our entire relationship. Sometimes with friends sometimes just us. When Nixon came along, I started looking forward to family time out of the house.
The past almost 2 weeks have been less than stellar. It's hard being away from my home for so long. Nevermind not seeing Mac. Mac is here for the weekend, since it's his weekend off, but he hasn't seen us since last week before he arrived Friday morning. So the opportunity to do something we've done for years now was something I was looking forward too. And then reality happened....

The kids woke up. One of them was refusing to listen to me and the other one was throwing shit....again! I woke up with my throat feeling like I chugged a nice cup of shredded glass: raw, sore and hurt when I talked. Did that stop me from laying down the law when the kids yells went from gleeful fun to screaming bossiness?? Nope.
So I started laying down the law! Like a boss...
Clean your rooms!
No crying or whining.
Look at me when I'm talking to to you!

One of the kids was really annoyed to have to clean their room. "I don't know what to do!" So I said "pick up your toys. put your clothes here. put the blankets back on your bed" and walked away leaving this little one to get it done. Only they didn't. Instead they sat on the floor LOOKING at the mess. I asked which was the one thing they didn't want to do the most, which one was the "hardest". Of course, cleaning up the toys was the answer...they were all over the room. So I compromised...well, it was a compro-ishment (punishment + compromise), just pick up the toys and never mind the clothes and blankets. Genius right?!?!? No, someone was not impressed.

By this point, I knew I was reaching my breaking point. I was very annoyed and quickly losing my cool. I had asked both kids to put their shoes on, fully intending on go out to breakfast and resetting the mood for the day. Except I got attitude when I said "put on your shoes". So I said stay in your room and finish cleaning it. We're not going anywhere! Awesome, right??

Then, I left Mac home with the kids and I went to get donuts. Did we need donuts? No, of course not. Were the kids behaving well enough for donuts...yeah, that was also a negative. But I needed an excuse to get out of the house for a bit and donuts seemed to be good enough. It took me almost an hour to go get them and come home. By the time I cane home, the room was finally cleaned and everyone, including myself, was in a better mood.

Mommy took a time out! (and I came home with large iced pumpkin latte too!)