Month 19: Poor Baby, Part II

Help! We’re stuck on the mucous merry-go-round and we can’t get off! Gross, I know. But what do you want from me? Miles has his second cold/virus in a month and I spend all day long wiping one end of him or the other. This time’s not quite as bad. Just bad enough to keep us all up at night. Sigh.

Oh, people warned me. “Kids are little germ magnets,” they said. “They’re always sick. And that means YOU’RE always sick, too.” I know at least one family who pulled their kid out of daycare and got an au pair because he was constantly getting sick from the other kids. And when they start school, forget it. They get weird illnesses you’ve never even heard of, like exotic rashes and foot-and-mouth disease and avian flu and stuff.

Miles either got this new, second-generation cold at a playdate or at the gym with C. Or maybe from the shopping cart handle at the supermarket. Who the hell knows? The point is, it’s a huge hassle. He lies down in his crib at night or for naps and 20 min. later, wakes up hacking and sobbing and oozing.

And there’s not much you can do for an 18 ½-mo.-old with a cough. Think about it: cough drops, hot toddies, massive doses of Nyquil—all the things we’d use to treat ourselves if we were sick are not an option. So Miles and I spent half the day lying on the couch, dozing and watching “The Polar Express.” Not a bad way to spend an afternoon ... if there weren’t ONLY 14 SHOPPING DAYS LEFT 'TIL CHRISTMAS!!!

In fact, shopping is only a teeny tiny fraction of what I have to do this month. Work obligations (what’s that?) aside, my to-do list includes:
1. Buy & decorate Christmas tree
2. Take Christmas card photo
3. Order Christmas cards
4. Address, stamp & mail Christmas cards
5. Make casserole for neighbors w/ new baby
6. Make photo calendar for grandparents
7. Buy more stamps
8. Return library books/pay overdue fines

This weekend, #1 got scratched. We’re spending the holiday at the grandparents’, anyway. So I put up the tiny fake tree I had in my college dorm. Pathetic, people. Thank god Miles will have no memory of it.

It’s looking like #7 and #8 aren’t going to happen either. Item #2 took ALL WEEKEND LONG and we STILL ended up choosing the least-terrible photo of the 423 we took. (Like this "I'm a reindeer" pose?) Likewise, #6 took forever, since it involved combing through approximately 5 bazillion digital photos and Miles turned off the computer in the middle, causing me to lose a couple hours’ work.

Then we’ve got the actual Christmas shopping. My list includes mostly people who a) don’t want or need anything but I still have to get them something, b) I see once or twice a year and have no clue about their interests, sizes, or taste, and c) people (ahem, C.) who want either a shirt or a flat-screen TV and virtually nothing in the in-between price range.

Ah, the holidays! The most magical time of the year. If, you know, your definition of magical includes going through family-size boxes of Kleenex and racking up massive credit card debt. And, really, whose doesn’t?

TIP O’ THE WEEK: We just got this Vicks Vaporizer for Miles’ room and it really seems to help him breathe. He slept great last night … until 5 a.m., that is. :(