Snot and Jeans

One of the boys is sick. We think that the girls passed it down – they have both had upper respiratory infections and have been feeling crummy for about a week. Now Cole is sick. He has a runny nose, watery eyes, a red face and is … wait for it … cuddly. Unbelievable. He is NOT the cuddly kind. He is the laughing, playing, silly boy most of the time, but apparently not when sick. Now he is whiny and cuddly and just plain sad. We expect that behavior out of Roark. He cries all the time. But it is heart-wrenching to hear Cole so upset. Breaks my heart. I brought him into our bed around 3am because he couldn’t breathe through his nose and was all upset, and well, I was tired. As soon as I put him down he scooted over to my husband, put his face on his arm and went to sleep. It was about the sweetest thing I have ever seen. I hated putting him back to bed after that, but knew he would sleep longer in his bed than in ours. He is already on his 2nd nap today and it is only 9:30 – whatever he has, it is kicking his poor little baby butt. Roark on the other hand is fine. I wonder if he will develop this snot-producing ick or if he will be lucky enough to escape it?

When did blue jeans get to be so expensive? Have you seen that commercial where the girl asks her dad for $80.00 to buy jeans? I used to laugh and think “my kid will buy jeans THAT expensive when hell freezes over.” Let me just say that Satan and all of his damned souls are in the market for a new winter coat. I had promised each of the girls a new pair of jeans, which I try to do a few times a year so that they have a few new things every now and then, and so that they have things that fit through the year. We went to the mall and bought the younger daughter some jeans from Hollister. I was a bit shocked to see that they were $60.00. I was thinking that they were over-priced and that I was insane to buy them, but they were exactly what she wanted and by forking over the money, I would be out of the mall more quickly… I should have been happy they were so inexpensive.

My older daughter is HARD to shop for. She hates the mall. She hates shopping. And she is crazy. Oh wait – that isn’t important in this story. She won’t shop anywhere popular, and she won’t buy the clothes her friends wear. She will not go near Hollister or Abercrombie. She hates Pac Sun. She will not touch Roxy with a ten-foot pole. American Eagle is the Devil. And the Gap makes her squish up her face and demand to go home. Add to the mix that she is a bit height-challenged, and you have a very difficult shopper.

So we went into Lucky (some store that sells jeans) and the people there helped her find some that fit, and that she liked. How much? Over $100.00. For jeans. INSANE. I had two choices – 1) buy them and go home or 2) keep shopping with the child who HATES shopping. Guess what I did? HATE BUYING JEANS FOR TEENAGERS!!!