My mother-in-law just emailed me to remind me to get my rest now because I “sure won’t get any after the new baby arrives!” Thanks, mother-in-law! Because as everyone knows, it’s really easy to rest and relax and put your feet up when you have only four children! Also, I certainly wouldn’t have anticipated that I’d get less rest after the baby arrived, so it’s a good thing she warned me! She had two whole children, so I guess she’s the voice of experience guiding the newbie daughter-in-law on this mothering path!

I’m in a super crabby mood today because guess who’s home sick? Why, yes, it’s Paul! Yes! He has a headache and feels chilly! So he’s going to stay home from work! He’s like those children who see a sibling stay home from school and suddenly they’re sick and need to stay home too. And although I am technically up and around, I spent most of yesterday lying down whenever I could, and feeling sick when I couldn’t, so I’m not really prepared to play Nurse Swistle around here. And then Edward woke up with red cheeks and a cough, so it’s beginning to look as if I’m going to have to take things out on my mother-in-law. “YES,” I’ll write to her; “I WILL get lots of rest while caring for my ENORMOUS AND SICKLY family at 8 months pregnant and still on antibiotics! Thank you for telling me to or I might not have done it!”

(long gap of time)

Elizabeth woke up, and I went down to get her, and she’d thrown up in her crib. What do you think is next, boils or locusts?

I bathed her, and cleaned up her crib, and put all the barfy stuff in the washing machine with some baking soda, and got Robert off to school with the muffins he’s bringing for the Teacher Appreciation Week buffet, and now it is just past 9:00 in the morning and I am about ready to call it a day.

Okay! *brisk clapping* Let’s find something to talk about other than the sickness hovering over my household like some dark dooming cloud!

Oh, I have something good! It’s the first day of May! And the c-section has been scheduled for May 31st! So we are in the month the baby will be born, and that is happy news. I saw the OB yesterday and he wasn’t worried about the infection or about the amoxicillin or anything, and he’s a big worrier so it made me feel better to see him so casual about it. I also asked him a bunch of dumb questions (dumb in that I knew the answers but wanted him to tell me again) and he didn’t even flinch. He’s a nice OB.

And let’s do some follow-ups. First, the sandals. I hope it will not be disappointing that after all that fuss, I didn’t get either pair. I think the story here is that although I love the whole idea of Dr. Martens, the sandals are not in fact my style. Granola is delicious, and hiking is good for you, but who hikes in sandals? You’d get ticks between your toes.

Second, remember my dilemma about those earrings I got from Target and then found hadn’t been rung up? I didn’t want to get all goody-two-shoes about it, but on the other hand I thought that if I just kept them I might have an icky feeling every time I wore them. I came up with a solution that some of you wisely pointed out could turn Seinfeld-esque: I was going to sneak the earrings back into the store, then casually purchase them with the rest of my stuff. And many of you kindly offered to bail me out / send me a nail file / testify as to my innocence if the store security caught me with the earrings and thought I was shoplifting them. Anyway, the plan went fine, no pratfalls or unlikely explanations: I brought them into the store tucked under the diaper bag, and then I bought them on my way out. Whew.

Now go say congratulations to Shannon, who had her new baby girl on Sunday! Shannon was supposed to wait and have her baby on the same day I was having mine, but apparently she abandoned our agreement for the sake of the baby’s health or something. Whatev. Congratulations, Shannon and baby Elise!