Tuesday I stayed home with Milo while Nora went to school. Her teachers said she had a great day. Nora's challenge at school has been to gain confidence in interactions with others. Maybe not having Milo there for a while was good for helping her come out of her shell a bit.

Staying home with just Milo, even a sick Milo, is such a piece of cake. I mean, I can't actually get work done, but it is relaxing. No fighting. When you remove the fighting element, taking care of one kid is just a piece of cake. There was no yelling and no tears all day long. What a nice change of pace.

Yesterday both kids were home with me. I took Milo to the doctor, Nora tagged along of course, and he has an ear infection. Now that these kids are in preschool it seems like they're getting every bug on the face of the earth. Friends warned me that would happen. Hopefully this means they'll be a little more resistant in kindergarten. Then I dragged the kids to the pharmacy to pick up Milo's antibiotics. We do "store hands" in the store, in which the kids clasp their hands together so that they don't pick up hand lotion, diaper cream, candy, birthday cards, or whatever else they happen upon. Milo is much better at adhering to "store hands" than Nora, who seems to take any rule or guideline as a personal affront restricting her god-given rights to freedom and autonomy. The pharmacist said, "they talk so well!" Everybody always says that, I think because both kids are so small that people tend to assume they're much younger than they actually are.

This older gentleman came into the store and immediately started talking to the kids about candy. Why are you doing this to me, dude? It's almost like he was trying to cause trouble. He said, "Are you getting candy?" The kids looked at him, then looked at the candy displays. I said, "No, no candy." He said, "I bet you have candy at home. Or cookies. I bet your mom will give you cookies after lunch." The kids looked at me, wide eyed. "Thanks," I spit out, annoyed.

Milo looks like a wreck, poor kid. Jake is off work today to stay home with him. Hopefully those antibiotics will kick in and Milo's eye troubles and fever will be gone by tomorrow. If not, I'll probably have to stay home again and then go into work Saturday and Sunday. We keep playing a parent version of rock-paper-scissors. Who can stay home this time?

The kids are now into asking, "Want me to tell you something?" I'll say yes, and then they'll have to think something up. The most common thing they're saying right now is, "We don't have any tools at our house!" Which isn't true, but whatever. Other things they've told me is that their teacher has 4 cats, and we have windows in our house.