Mommy Had a Great Fall, On This Very Wet Day That Was Not Dry At All.

"The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day...Too wet to go out and too cold to play ball. So we sat in the house. We did nothing at all." Cat in the Hat


Today is as soggy as the socks Isaac forgot to take off before he got in the shower. Soggy as a wet sheepdog and about as pleasant. Wet, wet, soggy, waterlogged day. It's pouring rain out there. To start with rainy days and I have a pretty volatile relationship. I loved them madly when I was younger, but ever since the hip injury they kick my but (in the form of achy, inflamed joints).

On top of the weather and its usual effect on me it's Monday. Anyone who reads my blog knows how I feel about those. Isaac has the day off from school and Riley's daycare provider is sick so it's me and the kids because Mike goes to the office Mondays. Ideally Mike would have been the only one up with the alarm at 7am, but we're all up.  Not for any fun happy early morning surprise. Nope, we're up because Isaac peed his bed. He wasn't planning on telling anyone either. He just striped out of his pjs and sat down on the floor naked to play Legos.  Boys are so gross. Too bad his mom is observant because he was busted swiftly. After I directed him to a shower Mike over saw the cleaning the mattress. I instructed him in washing his bedding. He's 8yrs old it has to be up to him to clean up his accidents. This not a regular occurrence around here, but yesterday he played on the computer for 8+ hours.

It was the day before his day off, I was tired and it was easier than thinking of a way to entertain him. In general I impose computer breaks every 2hrs to prevent accidents and other bad behaviors. Like I said I slaked off yesterday. It has happened in the past that marathon computer sessions resulted in accidents in one form or another. So, I told him (as I've told him many times) we don't get in trouble for accidents in this house, but we do get in trouble for not telling someone. His punishment was the loss of computer privileges for the day.

In the long run I told him there were going to be some changes. If every time you do something you get in trouble (eat sugar, stay up late, etc) we stop doing it. From now on computer privileges are earned and there's a nonnegotiable 2hr maximum per day split anyway you want. I took his keyboard and mouse which he will "check out" and return to me when appropriate. I made sure Mike would back me up on this and I really think it'll help behavior in general. Have you ever noticed that everything that helps children behave means more work for the parent?

We (the kids and I) had to trek out in the downpour to the bank first thing to make a deposit in the drive through ATM. When we got back I was concerned about Isaac getting his breakfast. I squeaked my wet shoed way into the kitchen to check on him and when I backed up to leave I fall backwards over the box of Christmas stuff (Mike said he would put away the night before) and slammed my back into Isaac's bedroom door.

It was only my second big fall since my back surgery. It was just as scary as the first and more painful. I went down like a ton of bricks. I knew that was it for me moving around between the fall and the rain. I put up the bat signal. My friend came to help, the my cleaning help agreed to come early and my mom promised to stop by after work.

Priority one was putting away the offending box. It was sitting in a chair the night before and either fell or got pulled down onto the floor. With all the help around the kids we're squared away and floors cleared in record time. I messaged Mike at work to let him know about the fall in case I had to rush off to the doctor's office.

I told him I'd call the Ortho, but no power on earth would force me to the ER, which would probably be as crowded as the mall at Christmas on this soggy worthless day. In the end I remembered the Ortho saying last time I fell "You can't hurt the hardware. I put those rods in 300lb men who do more damage walking around than you're gonna do with a hard fall. Your bones have started growing together. The only thing you're gonna do is have some very sore muscles. Want some more pain meds?"

I sure did piss off my back muscles, which expressed their displeasure loudly for the rest of the day. Advil, sitting against a pillow, and laying down didn't take the edge off. As soon as Mike was home I took a whole muscle relaxer. Stupid gravity!!