Archive - 2011

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Kids and Poison Control Safety
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Dealing With Difficult People
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Sometimes
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Pink Eye—Read the Label Folks
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Lisa’s Lexicon

Kids and Poison Control Safety

In my youth, I would crank a wicked tune by metal band “Poison” and lose control. These days, my Bret Michaels poster* has been replaced by a fridge magnet with the phone number for Poison Control. Until yesterday, my calls have been for relatively minor inquiries like, “What should you do if your child should eat a handful of Hershey’s Kisses…with the foil on?“   Last night my daughter awoke with a fever. I immediately gave her a dose of children’s liquid acetaminophen. I put the bottle back in the latched chest on the top shelf in our locked hall closet. This is where we keep all medications—well out of reach. I left a bottle of ibuprofen on the bathroom counter ready for the morning. We alternate between Tylenol and Advil so we can safely overlap doses. I figured if I left the bottle out, there would be no hazy sleep-deprived confusion about which type to give her next. Smart right? Not really.   In the morning as usual, Avery got up and went to the bathroom. I was two minutes behind her. When I caught up with her, she was standing on her step stool, holding the OPEN medicine bottle, smacking her[…]

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Dealing With Difficult People

Some people are just plain disagreeable. You know the type. They ooze negativity and criticism. Mall parking lots and grocery line-ups are littered with them. Obviously, we don’t know what others might have going on in their lives. Perhaps they are usually pleasant, but happen to be temporarily bitter for a legitimate reason. I’m not counting them. I’m talking about the crotchety ones who are nasty on a daily basis. It’s futile to try to avoid these toxic humans. They’ll find you. And when they do, they can turn your happy smile into a painful grimace in an instant…if you let them. My mom emailed me an article about dealing with difficult people.  I’ve included excerpts below, with comments. What did you just say? Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz,  Hamilton Spectator   They are your sneering coworkers, your prying neighbours, your insulting in-laws. They are the nasty people who make environments toxic. But you can beat them without joining them. How to deal with nasty people: See it for what it is. Rather than internalize the criticism or dwell on what you might have done to deserve the attack, recognize that the nasty person has personal issues. Dwelling is a hard habit to[…]

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Sometimes

Sometimes when you have too much to say, you end up saying nothing at all. I’ve tried to write many times this week. But instead of writing a word, I clicked “close” every time.   Sometimes when life is too hard, you shut yourself off. You assure everyone around you that everything is fine and you try to believe it.    I feel guilty because others have struggles much harder than my own. I have a child with special needs. So what? So do many, many other parents. Our story is not unique. Avery is healthy and happy and beautiful and I should feel lucky. Or so I have been told. But some days, instead of lucky, I feel frightened, frustrated, angry or sad.   I’ve always had the attitude that everything will be okay. This is our normal and life is good. It’s not perfect, but it’s good. It seems you can only go on for so long fooling yourself into thinking your life isn’t hard.  My life is hard. Avery is funny and loving, but she’s difficult. She doesn’t understand “danger.” She is always at risk and it’s taxing living in a constant state of fight or flight.[…]

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Pink Eye—Read the Label Folks

We need a Hazmet team to disinfect this house. My husband is the latest victim of this itchy and ugly affliction called Pink Eye. I don’t need to explain how traumatic this has been in his eyes (I mean that both literally and figuratively). According to him, conjunctivitis is even more debilitating than a Man Cold. I know… My darling son itched his eye yesterday, just once, and I was on him with the drops before he could blink. I am hell bent to nip this mini-pandemic in the bud. Usually he’s very easy going about the eye drop insertion routine. This time however, he writhed and moaned and told me it stung. I poo-pooed his protests and carried on. This is when he really kicked up a fuss. “This feels different mom. I’m not kidding.” Seems I’d used ear drops by mistake. Just in the one eye. So that makes me only 50% negligent. right? When I got my hands on the correct drops and attempted to douse the second eye, I had to regain his trust. Silly kids. If they only knew that we’re basically just winging this whole parenting thing, they’d never trust us so blindly. Oh[…]

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Lisa’s Lexicon

Sometimes a word just fits. So what that you made it up and bastardized the English language in the process? If it gets your point across, does it really matter? Here are few words spewed forth from my keyboard that aren’t in the dictionary, but fabsolutely should be!  Blunderment: an awkward or embarrassing moment brought about by one’s own stupidity /“That fall in front of my child’s school was a blunderment of unspeakable proportions.” Fabsolutely: an exceedingly enthusiastic, yet sincere “Yes!” response / “Would I like to spend a child free day at the spa? Fabsolutely!” Manderpants: mens’ underwear, most often found inside-out on the bedroom floor / “I swear,if I find those manderpants on the floor one more time, I’ll stuff them up your nose.” Sapimental: a sappy, sentimental feeling or display of emotion resulting from nostalgia;  often includes “happy tears” or the “laugh/sob” / “Pass me a tissue. I’m feeling a little sapimental today.” Halloweiner: a husband who takes great pleasure from scaring innocent children on Halloween.  “I can’t believe you threw a severed leg at those kids! You are such a Halloweiner!”  Commfitment: a vow to get fit, like, for REALS this time. “I have made a serious commfitment. Pick me up for Zumba ok?[…]

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