Sometimes, my mother does the funniest things when she isn’t meaning to.  That’s what makes it so damn funny.  And I know this blog is supposed to be about Lily, but since when have I ever really stuck to that?  This story sort of is about Lily, anyway.

Yesterday when I put Lily in the tub, she was screeching protests, which is not normal for her since she usually loves her bath. Turns out she had a really bad case of diaper rash last night and when we went to clean her up, it hurt her.  I was at mom and dad’s last night as usual for Wednesday nights, so around 8 PM, Mike calls me to see how things are going.  At this point mom was sitting across the room from me, and I see her gesturing at me to get my attention.  She then puts both of her hands on her crotch and makes sort of a Michael-Jacksony gesture up her thighs.  My mouth just fell open - what would you do if you were on the phone with your significant other and your mother decided to start imitating Mick Jagger?  Then I realized - finally - what she was trying to tell me.  The crotch-grab gesticulation was really Yvonne sign language for “Don’t forget to tell Mike that Lily has diaper rash”.  OH!!!  I get it now.  Of course, once she realized what I was thinking, she started laughing too.  Mom is full of non-sequiturs and this was the latest of them.  We all got a good laugh out of it.

Lily was up every half hour or so last night for some unknown reason.  I vacillated between feeling sorry for her and wanting to cry because I was so tired.  She finally slept between 4 and 6:30 AM, which felt blissful after constant crying.  She wasn’t teething and other than being warm, I’m not sure what was bothering her.  I slathered her with diaper ointment so I doubt it was that, either. Sometimes I think she just wants to party all night and decides she isn’t going to sleep. 

I am in day care registration hell at the moment.  Do you all realize that good day care centers have such long waiting lists, you have to put your kids on there when they are in utero???  Yes, I just put Baby #2 on the waiting list for the place I’m trying to get Lily into.  And keep in mind, Baby #2 won’t be going there until she is 2.  In the meantime, the chances of me getting Lily into my first pick are the same as a snowball in hell, so she’ll go to my second choice place until a spot opens up.  At least I have a second choice where I am only second on the waiting list.  It’s really quite insane.  Here’s another thing that shocked me to death:  the place I’m trying to enroll Lily has this thing where sick children can stay.  That is shorthand for “My kid is sick, but I don’t want to stay home from work.”  You take your sick child in to a separate building next to the day care center/school and nurses watch them, administer medication, and who knows what else.  Is it just me, or have we gone too far?  I must get on my soapbox, because I can’t imagine me, being 5 or so, and having my mother drop me off with stomach flu to some daycare center to be cared for by a nurse.  That is just a bizarre concept.  They charge $75 a day for that service, so apparently people are using it frequently.  Needless to say, Lily will not be going there when she is sick.

I guess it could be worse - it brings to mind a not-so-fond memory of my previous life at the accounting firm, and this one particular person I worked with who was so psychotic about being at work every day that she dragged her 6 year old in with the stomach flu.  The poor kid had diarrhea and a fever.  Along with her kid, she dragged in a television and a bunch of videotapes, plopped him on the floor of her office, and made him stay there, sick, all day while she worked.  I don’t even think this was during tax season, not that it would be a good excuse.  Even more frightening is that we all had work-from-home computer access.  I admit, it’s very difficult to balance work and child rearing, and half the time I feel like I’m doing a bad job at everything, but I have to draw the line somewhere.