Adlani: “What’s that?”
Me: “A mole.”
Adlani: “How do you get one?”
Me: “They just grow sometimes.”
Adlani: “Will I get one when I’m older?”
Me: “Probably.”
Adlani: “But I don’t want to die!”
Me: “You’re not going to die just because you have a mole.”
Adlani: “How old are you anyway?”
Me: “41.”
Adlani: “41 is almost dead.”
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Category Archives for Uncategorized
It’s That Time Again…
Just when I’m getting back on track with a sensible diet, another holiday arrives to push me off the path. Why do all holidays involve food that adds inches to your hips, rots your teeth, and calls your name from 3 rooms away? “Lori…I’m on top of the refrigerator in Adlani’s Easter basket…one little bite can’t possibly hurt you and I won’t tell Maura that you didn’t write it down in your food journal.”
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I’m hoping the Easter Bunny brings only Peeps this year, because if I use all of my Supermommy powers I can resist them. Those marshmallow eggs too. But definitely not the chocolate-covered peanut butter ones.
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Good luck to everyone who is trying not to eat Easter candy!
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Triple Crown
Today I had a dentist appointment. It was only for a cleaning, so I didn’t feel any particular anxiety about going. The realization that Motrin/Tylenol would dull the sensitivity in my teeth has changed my life, at least when it comes to dental visits. Why do they have to use such cold water??
The anxiety should have kicked in when the hygienist mentioned that part of a filling was gone. Or when she said that she thought I had a cavity and that one of my old white fillings probably needed to be replaced. But I was lulled into a false sense of security by the knowledge that the most painful thing I’d have to endure today was the sharp edge of the x-ray film.
After the cleaning, she stuck me in another room for a half hour which I really enjoyed because I got to read about 4 articles in the September issue of O magazine. Then Dr. Arora arrived (photo above – she’s nicer than she looks in the photo). I love Dr. Arora and I drive all the way to Worcester to see her, since she moved from the Natick office of Gentle Dental to one closer to home when she had her twins. She has seen me through at least 6 fillings, 2 crowns, and 2 root canals, so I know she’s a talented and compassionate dentist. I saw her at the mall once with her screaming toddler, so I know she’s also a regular mom like me.
Dr. Arora took one look in my mouth and asked what I’ve been doing. Was I stressed? Was I grinding or clenching? Apparently in addition to the missing piece of filling, I also have another broken filling and a fractured tooth. Plus the cavity and the filling that needs to be replaced. And one tooth may need a root canal and another may need a “gum procedure” and I’m pretty sure she wasn’t talking about Bubblicious. So I guess I’ll be seeing a lot more of Dr. Arora. Thank God we have double dental insurance – through my work and Ben’s.
Oh well, I can’t get a cavity in a crown so this puts me closer to my goal of replacing every tooth with a crown. I already have 4 and will have 3 more by the end of the year. I can’t prove it but I REALLY think that the problems with my teeth stem from my bad habit of chewing pens and pencils from childhood until I was about 25. I remember cracking the clear plastic Bic pens, and the taste of the metal ring that holds the eraser on a #2 pencil. Also the taste of earwax on an eraser – eeeeewwwww! Kids…don’t make the mistakes I made. Go get some Bubblicious. Sugar-free of course.
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Weekend Update
It was actually a fairly quiet weekend around here, at least by Greenabderrazak standards. First and foremost, Adlani has recovered from Norah’s attack on his eyeball and we now realize that we should have enjoyed the quiet time last weekend. He’s definitely making up for lost time. He opened his eyes last Saturday night in time to see the Pussycat Dolls on the Kids Choice Awards, or maybe it was the presence of the Fonsecas that motivated him. Either way, we were relieved that he stopped walking around with his eyes closed. He missed out on the gymnastics event for Blocks, but I took the girls and we won a free session. Grandma Ginny was here for the weekend so we dragged her around to all of the usual weekend events.
On Monday Ben took Adlani to Children’s for a follow-up visit and I met them there. We saw the same resident, Dr. Chang, as well as an ophthalmologist. The exam was pure torture. Ben left halfway through to go meet Aliya’s bus and it spiraled downhill from there. The doctor needed to look at Adlani’s eye and he wouldn’t cooperate so I finally had to put him into a Full Nelson and she flipped the chair back so I was flat on my back. Dr. Chang held Adlani’s hands, I had my legs wrapped around his legs, my arms around his arms, and my hand on his head so he wouldn’t head-butt me under the chin, and the doctor pried open his eye and looked at it. He is certainly strong-willed. He wouldn’t cooperate during the vision test, so now we have to go back in 2 months because the doctor thinks one eye is weaker than the other and he may need a patch. Personally, I think it’s just that he has a bad attitude and wouldn’t identify the damn shapes. Anyway, I’ve got until the end of May to get him used to doing the vision test. Bribery will be involved.
The week flew by as they all do, and at midnight on Thursday night I realized that Friday night was pajama night at Blocks and I really needed to put up the new wish list board before then. I did that after school on Friday and I was SO RELIEVED to have it up. I won’t have to do another one this year. Yay! Pajama night was fun, except when the performer pointed to Adlani and said, “Will the parent of this child please come up and get him?” Oy. He’s really going through a bad phase right now – not listening, roughhousing…I guess it’s all part of being a little boy but I’ll be very happy if he ever comes out the other side of this phase.
Saturday morning was the usual…Zumba for me and indoor soccer/swimming for Ben and the kids. I had a wicked headache and spent a few hours on the couch. After I recovered I took Aliya to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D which was actually pretty good. Ben took the little monsters to visit his mom who just got back from Holland. This morning we finally replaced the bathroom window, and Aliya had a dance workshop this afternoon. Auntie Monica and Uncle Brady brought dinner and we had a nice visit with them. The kids were all a little crazy so Brady & Monica got their quarterly dose of birth control which I think is the main reason they came over.
Bedtime couldn’t come soon enough!
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When Toddlers Attack
When I started working for MPS Sales in 1994, I worked with Harris, Reyn, and their Dad, Harris Sr. aka Gumpy. Gumpy had tons of one-liners, one of which was, “It’s better than a sharp stick in the eye.” Well, tonight’s events proved that pretty much anything is better than a sharp stick in the eye.
At around 6 p.m. today, Norah jabbed Adlani right in the eye with a pencil. I don’t know what possessed her to do it. It was an unprovoked attack. For the first half hour Adlani wouldn’t open either eye and he cried for most of that time. At 6:30 I called our pediatrician, and coincidentally it was his late night at the office so we ran over so he could take a look. Three of us held Adlani down so his eye could be pried open. The doctor saw “something” on his cornea, so he sent us to Children’s Hospital in Boston since Metrowest didn’t have an ophthalmologist on call.
We arrived at Children’s around 7:30 p.m. and were immediately checked in, weighed, blood pressure and temperature checked, and put into a triage room. That’s when time stood still. After an hour, a nice nurse came in and asked a few questions which had already been asked by the check-in lady. Another hour went by and the doctor came in and asked the same questions. Luckily, she decided not to look at his eye, and to leave that to the ophthalmologist. After ANOTHER hour, the resident ophthalmologist showed up, having been called in from home. After asking the same questions, she moved us to the eye clinic, so I had to carry Adlani’s 45 pounds of bulk to the 4th floor.
I swear, the character of Dr. Christina Yang on Grey’s Anatomy was based on our ophthalmologist – Dr. Grace Chang. She seemed to know what she was doing but her bedside manner could use a little work. She seemed kind of annoyed that she was called in from home for a mere pencil in the eye. She warmed up after a little while but she was a little brusque at first.
At the eye clinic, Adlani transformed into the Incredible Hulk. I had the impossible job of holding him still so Dr. Chang could put in the anesthetic eye drops. He struggled, he kicked, he spit. Snot flew. The three of us ended up covered with bright yellow eye drops. It’s tough to check Adlani’s eyes during his annual physical because he’s more interested in the one-sided glasses than identifying the house (according to Adlani, an “arrow pointing up”), apple (“heart”), circle, or square. Last night he was really upset about the adhesive patch Dr. Chang put over one eye to test the other, so he whined and pulled at that instead of identifying the symbols. Considering that it was around 11 p.m., I guess I can’t blame him.
When Dr. Chang finally found the magic bullet – “Finding Nemo” on the monitor, she got a pretty good look at his eye and said that he had a corneal abrasion. She sent us back down to the E.R. where we waited ANOTHER WHOLE HOUR for a prescription for Bacitracin. We finally got home around 1 AM, and he didn’t even get a cool pirate patch.
UPDATE (Friday at 4:30 PM): Adlani has not willingly opened either of his eyes for almost 24 hours. He stayed in bed until after noon, and when we coaxed him downstairs to watch TV, he sat on the couch with his eyes closed for the entire afternoon. We’ve tried to bribe him with toys, chocolate, and a trip to the park. No dice. Hopefully his self-imposed blindness will end by tomorrow morning.
UPDATE: Aliya announced at dinner tonight, “Adlani is nicer when he’s blind.”
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