Practice and the joys of sharing.

What a busy couple weeks we've had. Okay, maybe not that busy, but as I seem to be sharing the family cold/sinus infection crud, it seems much busier because I'm so much more wiped out. I seem to catch whatever the children in the family get, so I'm actually looking forward to Acer's being exposed to these things so that I'm exposed to these things in small doses instead of sudden sledgehammer doses.
Poor Bill, I've been boiling him at night because the higher temperatures keep my coughing down. Normally our heat stays about 60 degrees at night, but with the crud, I've had to keep it about 70 to stop the hacking. I'm not sure which is worse for him, not sleeping well because I'm not sleeping well or not sleeping well becuase he's being baked; then there are the times I can't catch my breath & whack him one with a flailing arm! Thankfully this should be over soon and we can go back to sleeping in our lovely cooler temperatures.
I volunteered to babysit our youngest nephew Crash (or CJ). Crash is the baby my brother was babysitting the night before I had to take him to the hospital. So he did in one Tomlinson, then I babysat 2 Saturdays ago. I haven't changed a boy diaper since I was 12, watching a 2 year old at a camp in the UP. This little 4 month old would be good practice for Acer, we wouldn't be able to communicate and I'd have to change diapers. I'm usually pretty good at discerning diaper change cry vs hungry vs tired cry, but not with Crash. He cried, arching back, red face, the whole deal for almost 3 hours straight. Thank heavens for the baby in the mirror, for brief respites from the chaos. I wasn't really trying to torture the poor little guy, it just turned out that way. So he did in two Tomlinsons.
Last Saturday I went back for round 2, armed with new information like - his bottles should be HOT (body temperature) because his mom breastfeeds he's used to warmer stuff, not just above room temp. and that he likes to stand & jump and other little things like that. He was also awake and in my arms when Mom left so there was no sudden who the heck are you shock. We had had a much better time, older brother Logan (5) was there also but I managed to not only feed him and change him twice, but also to get him down for a nap long enough to do the dishes and feed Logan.
I tried to fold laundry but was defeated in the sock matching because Joe has too many almost the same socks. Crash was back awake by this time and he didn't think I should be looking that intently at anything but him.
One funny thing was, when I changed him into a new non drool soaked outfit, I chose one, carefuuly looked it over & then just as carefully put it on him backwards ! Oh well. At least Acer will be in mini adult clothing so that I shouldn't run into these problems theoretically.
I was also able to get a load of stuff to a very nice lady who is going over to pick up her daughter on the 23rd. Because she's flying on an adoption ticket, she has an extra luggage allowance (I HAVE to look into this!) so I packed up donations to the CHI rehab center and took her a full suitcase. Through a connection at Bill's work, this cause has been taken up by a group of Red Hat ladies so we had a variety of donations. Some we just won't be able to get over to China because of size issues, but we'll donate them to an at risk pregnancy center locally.
If you have new or like new baby items you'd like to donate to either cause, just let me know & I'll get them where they're needed.
One thing we really need prayers on is finances. We've taken a couple unexpected hits lately and need to be able to get back on track quickly.