Insta-Update: Mardi Gras (and More)

26 Days.

That’s how long it’s been since my last post. I hope you missed us (because I’d hate to be forgotten so quickly), but not too much (because I’d also hate for you to be upset about the lengthy hiatus).

But moving along…if you’ve been wondering what we’ve been up to the past few weeks, I could simply say “Mardi Gras and sick days” but that would be B-O-R-I-N-G and not worth the effort to type, so instead I shall show and tell, and without further ado.

Nathan Runs™ had a mishap at school that required copious amounts of Neosporin and bandages and caused him to walk around for roughly a week holding his hand up like a professional waiter with an invisible tray of food. It was a pretty nasty boo-boo involving skin literally rolled back, but the school nurse gave me a call and raved about how great he was and his near-complete lack of tears. Odds of him learning his lesson about running when he shouldn’t? I’d say a million to one.

Three days later, the boo-boo was briefly forgotten when we showed up at the Spring Hill College campus for sorority Bid Day and he spotted some sporty co-eds with a soccer ball and goal. I don’t have the faintest clue who they were but they kept him occupied for a good half hour until the festivities started.

A few days later, Nathan woke up with a low grade fever so I kept him home from school. He pretty much has a runny nose from November until March so initially I wasn’t worried. He sat in my lap for two days until I started to feel the yuck, too.

The next morning, his fever spiked so we trucked over to the pediatrician’s office: FLU. He was a trooper, as always. We quarantined ourselves with our Tamiflu from Mr. Andi and Sarah Kate and crossed our fingers no one else would get sick. No one else did, but Nathan’s eardrum ruptured over the weekend so there’s that, and now – two weeks later! – Sarah Kate has strep throat.

Fortunately for Gabi, human flu isn’t contagious for German shorthaired pointers. Unfortunately for Mr. Andi, I had planned to take Sarah Kate shopping that weekend for shoes to go with the semi-formal I had purchased for her the weekend before for the Mardi Gras Ball at her school, and since I couldn’t go, Mr. Andi had to do it. Shoe shopping for Sarah Kate is bad enough when you’re a pro.

They did manage to find some shoes – wedges that scared me a little, but they assured me she could walk in them without trouble (and she loved them, of course).

The next weekend was the Mardi Gras Ball. She was chosen for the Mardi Gras Queen’s Court and totally looked the part in a purple dress.

What she didn’t do (and yes, she reads the blog and knows I am writing this!) was give me any decent smiles for the camera save this one, and then only because she was laughing when the cat photobombed the shot. Of course.

Unfortunately, those wedges that had been so awesome one week earlier ended up being not so great on ball night because in the interim she developed tendinitis in her ankle. GRRRR….. She ended up having to use her cane for support, even during the callouts for the court, and wasn’t able to dance much all night, she told me.

And of course the inability to dance thing really honked because THIS dance was the first one where she had a male companion (I don’t use the word “date” because they’re in seventh grade and also the companion was her buddy Ben, not a boyfriend). And of course I have to take this opportunity to post flashbacks of Sarah Kate and Ben:

Nathan had his own Mardi Gras celebration at school – the annual kindergarten parade. When Sarah Kate was his age, kindergarten and first grade was in a separate school, located right downtown in Mayberry, and the whole school would parade through town. It was minimally-organized chaos, but also great fun because people would come out and line the streets to see the kids. A few years ago, that school closed and the K-1 kids were moved to a new school. Each year the parade has gotten a little smaller (now only the kindergarteners participate and it’s limited to the school grounds). When it looked like the weather was going to be yucky, the parade was moved indoors.

Despite my near-total avoidance of nearly everything school related when Sarah Kate was younger, I vowed this year that I would be a good sport and do All the Mom Things at school (though in my defense, the parade is one thing I did do with Sarah Kate). We wore matching beads, I scrounged up Sarah Kate’s old hat, and Mr. Andi picked up a crown for Nathan at Toomey’s.

Nathan’s class – the Mystic Order of Moonpie Munchers – was the last to parade, and guess who was next-to-last in line? Yes. Us. Our placement gave us plenty of time to take selfies in the hallway before we started.

Once we did start, however, it was Game On for the Moon Pie Muncher Caboose. He threw with reckless abandon, which was rather unfortunate for a number of children and teachers who were not looking in his direction (most of them) when he threw. I would have made some attempt to encourage a less hazardous throwing technique, but the noise was deafening. Between the kids yelling for throws and the clappers and noisemakers that had already been thrown my eardrums were vibrating. It was chaos, but loads of fun.

And finally… Oreo has a new flavor, Cinnamon Bun. As a devotee of both cinnamon rolls and Golden Oreos, I have been waiting to get my hands on these babies since they came out a few weeks ago. Winn-Dixie hooked me up on Super Bowl Sunday (and they were on sale!), and they were everything I dreamed they would be.  Your mileage may vary.

Happy Tuesday!