The Life of a Beard

At some point this winter, Jayson stopped shaving his beard. I am a fan of facial hair, and I liked it. At first, the girls didn't, especially Charlie, who told him flat out, "I hate it." They warmed up to it, though. Especially when he curled it.

He wasn't sure how long he was going to keep it, until this weekend when the weather started to warm up. He told me yesterday that he wasn't going to last much longer. Then today, he told me he couldn't last another day. He came outside and we took the "before" picture:

 The girls wanted to kiss his beard goodbye.

He started with just the mustache because he said he wanted to look Amish.

He let the girls help him with the rest.

And then it was gone!

Girls' Weekend (or, 46 Hours of Hell)

OK, I shouldn't be so dramatic. I actually enjoy weekends alone with my girls, but his past one, two of them were sick and it seemed that anything that could go wrong did. Jayson went to Green Bay for the Packers game. He met his friend (and rid) at about 1:45 on Saturday. Lydia had been a little sick that morning, but as soon as Jayson left, she got exponentially sicker every minute. She was a snot machine. Plus, she was wailing dramatically (the only way Lydia really does anything) about missing her Daddy. Snot. Everywhere.  Then Charlie started to get sick too. The kind of sick where she can't breath through her nose and just stares at you with her mouth open.

So, when we got home from dropping Jayson off, it was nap time for Charlie and quiet time for Lydia and Audrey. We laid in my bed and watched Elf. Only one of us napped, and it was not the 3 year-old or the 5 year-old. And it wasn't exactly restful. The snot ball was accumulating a collection of used tissues on Jayson's nightstand and the other one was not interested at all in sitting still.

After naps, we had our traditional trip to get Chinese food when Daddy is gone. Jayson hates Chinese food. First we ran to the craft store because I needed new knitting needles for a scarf I wanted to make. Lydia was hell on wheels (Well, I guess minus the wheels? Where did that expression even come from? Oh, thank you, Wikipedia.). I spend almost the entire trip telling her to quit touching everything and if she did not stop right now, there would be no Chinese food, which I knew was a lie, because there was no way I was going to give up my Chinese food, much less cook.

So, the Chinese food. Several months ago, a new building was being constructed down the street and we waited eagerly to find out what it was. I asked the cashier at the grocery store next to it what it was going to be, and she said it would be some Chinese restaurant. This excited me. I told the girls it was going to be a new Chinese restaurant for us to try. Every time we passed it, Audrey would excitedly say, "There's our new Chinese restaurant!" Then the Panda Express sign went up. Panda F-ing Express. They were already set on trying it, so that's where we headed Saturday night. Panda Express is expensive. They must use real Panda. I ordered our food, and we went home to eat it, and even the girls, who have eaten grass, food off the ground, and their own toes, said it was not good. Lydia told me, "Next time, let's go back to our old place. It's good to try new places, but only once."

After dinner, I asked Lydia if she wanted to try the neti pot. She had seen Jayson use it a lot, and at first was pretty against it, but then decided to give it a shot. I was pretty surprised at how well she did with it, and it cleared out her nose so she could get some sleep. Then the girls went to bed, and they went down pretty easily. I stayed up and graded some quizzes. Then I started my knitting project and watched a movie. At about 10:00, Charlie was up coughing, so I brought her downstairs to cuddle while I watched my movie and then got her back down. I went to bed shortly after midnight. At 2:30, Charlie was up again and back in my bed. She flopped around, and eventually fell asleep. At 4:30, Lydia was up in my room, coughing away. Charlie woke up, but went back down in her crib. Lydia slept in my bed with me.

In the morning I was supposed to teach Sunday school, but called the coordinator to tell her that I wouldn't be able to make it in with two sick kids. I made the girls cinnamon rolls and Lydia sacked out on the couch, miserably sick. I took a shower and had her sit in the bathroom with me to get the steam in her nose. I called Jayson to tell him I didn't think Lydia would be able to go to school the next day. His mom was supposed to watch the girls on Monday along with their baby cousin and we agreed we didn't want him to get sick too. So, Jayson's mom came over to watch the girls while I ran to school and got sub plans ready.

We took it easy the rest of the morning and early afternoon. Lydia was supposed to have a Christmas concert at church and I told her if she felt better, we could go. She did start to feel a bit better, so we got ready to go. I went upstairs to change and came back downstairs to find Lydia unraveling my knitting project. I freaked out a little bit, but was able to rescue it.

The concert went pretty well. I was very nervous about going solo with the girls. We brought a bag of toys and I had my toddler lock app (genius!) on my phone ready to go. I told Lydia, "If Charlie gets loud, I will take her to the back of the church. You either stay here with Audrey or come with me, but either way, make sure Audrey is with you." After about twenty minutes, Charlie started crying and I leaned over to tell Lydia I was taking her back, and started to speed down the aisle. I heard Lydia say, "Audrey, let's go!" and they ran down the aisle after to me to the chuckles of the people within earshot.

After Charlie quieted down and it was Lydia's turn to sing, we went back to our seats. To my relief, the people behind us weren't annoyed by us. It was an older couple and the woman kept playing with Charlie, giving her toys, and laughing as she danced in the aisle. After the concert was over, the woman took my hand in both of her's and said, "You deserve an award!" I explained to her that Jayson was out of town and she told me how great the girls did and how fun they were. Such relief.

I took the girls out for corndogs and then we shared a banana split with four spoons. I tried to feed Charlie, but she grabbed the extra spoon and dug in herself. I let her happily dribble custard all over herself because really, there was no other option. If you know Charlie, you know things are done HER way. Bedtime was again easy, and I again settled in with my knitting and a movie.

Luckily, everybody slept through the night. In fact, Charlie slept 14 hours straight. Lydia wanted to go to school when she woke up, so I let her and told her that if she got to school and didn't feel well, she should have the school call me and I would get her. At 9:30, Charlie woke up 100% better and going about 100 mph. As soon as her feet hit the ground, she was laughing and playing. I felt a little bad about taking a sick day when the girls were on the road to recovery, but I still wouldn't have wanted Mason to get sick, and I was still recovering from a rough Saturday night.

When Jayson got home, the girls were excited to see him, but I think I was the happiest. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing.

Father's Day

Today is Father's Day, which is a bittersweet holiday for me. My father is not in my life, and I feel there is a huge hole in my life and the girls' lives where he should be. Father's Day makes that hole a crater. I have fond memories of my grandpas when I was growing up and how fun and silly they could be and I really hate that my girls are missing that.

However, they have an amazing dad, and I love that today is a day to celebrate him. Jayson is a stay-at-home dad. Not really by choice, but by circumstances, and he has fully embraced it. He shows the girls unconditional love and in heated moments when my temper is lost (like, out the door, headed for a beach vacation in Mexico), he can step in and calmly diffuse the situation. And, to be fair, I do the same for him. We are an excellent team. After years of me being the one more in charge and more knowledgeable about what's going on, mostly due to summers off and maternity leaves giving me plenty of time at home, I now find myself asking him the best way to get Charlie down for a nap, what to do when Audrey throws a fit, and what Lydia needs for school. He does diapers (many more than I do during the school week), he reads books, he cooks, he cleans, he drives Lydia to school when she has snack day, he even does hair!

I knew he was amazing when I married him, but seeing how he is when he is taking care of his girls, and clearly seeing the love he has for them, makes me realize just how lucky the four of us girls are.

Earrings Part Two

It's been two weeks now since Audrey had her ears pierced and she still cries whenever we put the antiseptic on them and try to turn them, but there is no sign of any kind of infection. They look great. We're trying to decide if she's just being a drama queen or if they really hurt, and I'm leaning towards her being an Oscar nominee in twenty-some years. Two things that have helped are allowing her to do the antiseptic herself (it's very amusing watch a two-year-old trying to get a q-tip to her ear - kind of like watching a field sobriety test) and letting her hold Lydia's hand while we twist them.

Jayson insisted my next blog post be about our incident yesterday morning. My mom was here (after watching the girls Saturday night so Jayson and I could have a date), and Audrey came tearing through the kitchen and ran into Charlie's highchair (this type of thing is a common occurrence with Audrey). At some point in the toddler to chair collision, Audrey's earring fell out. As you may recall, after a frantic incident shortly after Audrey got her ears pierced, Jayson got the earring back in unassisted and claimed his title as Father of the Year. So, Jayson said, "You do it. I did it last time." No problem! I sat down with a screaming Audrey on my lap and attempted to put the earring back in. No luck. I was shaking and all upset that she was so upset and I just couldn't do it. So, I held her on my lap while my mom tried and finally got the earring through. She couldn't get the back on due to her long glorious fingernails, so I had to do that part, and was successful. A smug Jayson sat in the kitchen.

So, I commend Jayson. He came through in a situation where I found myself too shaken to do the same. Usually, our roles are reversed. Each time I gave birth, the nurses seemed a little more concerned with him than with me. However, when it comes to earrings, he is king. I often hear women complaining about their husbands and how inept they are with their children. I tell anybody who will listen how lucky I am that he is such a great dad and does such an awesome job staying home with the girls. So, kudos to Jayson.