Behind the 8 ball

So much catching up to do, snowed in under housework (and a literal dusting of the white stuff on the ground outside), wrestling with root canals and practicing good pottying.



First off, the boys had a good Halloween. Elliot was a bit rude - demanding candy instead of saying "Trick or treat!" and screaming "NO!" or "I DON'T KNOW" when asked what his costume was or if he was having fun - pretty much if anyone spoke to him at all. A bit shy and overwhelmed, I guess. Felix had a blast running up and down the dark sidewalk, playing in all the fallen leaves. He also got a big kick out of climbing the stairs to all the different houses - something we are pretty strict about not letting him do when we're out walking.

Spiderboy and Lofty

Bob the Builder's Lofty the crane

Enjoying some loot at the end of the night

Verrrrry tired boy

This past week has been full of ups and downs. We jumped right into a potty training intervention for Elliot on Tuesday. Straight to big boy undies, too. He wasn't balking at the idea, but he wasn't showing much interest, either. By the end of day 1, we'd caught 5 pees and lost 1 on the couch. Day 2 he went to daycare, but there were 2 accidents before we got out of the house that morning and 2 more while at daycare. Day 3 was pretty good - but he was in a pull-up due to errands and a new babysitter. But he kept the pull-ups mostly dry! Day 4 was another daycare day and there were 4 accidents. And an elusive poop! Poor boy had been holding it the entire time we were training and was pretty sore. Today is day 5, and so far so good. He's still in a diaper at night and a pull-up at nap time. But that will all come with time. He doesn't quite say that he needs to go to the potty yet, but he doesn't fight (much) when we ask him to go sit on it every hour or so.

And for me... well, I finally had that dental surgery this week. The day totally snuck up on me. I really, really didn't want to go. I figured I would be fine, but the big panic-freak out I had on the way to the appointment and the shakes/tears I had while waiting for the freezing to kick in surprised me. Luckily, it ended up being a straightforward appointment. They drilled through the crown and then through the metal covering and were able to clean out the roots. Despite the freezing, I was able to feel them punch through the root into the abscess, but that was more disconcerting than painful.

The dentist is confident he got the infection all cleaned out and made it to the end of the root (short story: the emergency root canal I had 3 years ago was incomplete - my roots are longer than normal and one curves a bit - so it wasn't cleaned well and has been festering all along. Joy.) It's cleaned out and packed and temporarily filled.

Have I mentioned I hate this fricken tooth???

So I had 2 days of extra strength Motrin and now I'm alternating that with regular strength. I also started an antibiotic. We leave everything as it is and I go back for them to open it up, clean it out, and permanently cap it in another month. And hopefully that ends the saga of the stupid tooth.

So today we're all at home, peeing on the potty and preparing grocery lists. Tomorrow we take the boys for their H1N1 vaccination. Should be interesting.