Both children sick? Check.

Out of town guest for the weekend? Check.

Packages to mail out of town? Check.

Presents to wrap? Check.

Christmas cards to address? Check.

Presents left to buy? Check.

I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.

Thankfully I can shut my office door tomorrow and get some of my to do list knocked out. Call me a weirdo but I kind of enjoy the pre-Christmas rush, as long as I have an executable game plan.

Remind me that I said all this Friday when I am rushing around like crazy on my day off.

(Updated: I took Amelia to the pediatrician at 3:30 today and she has pneumonia. She is so sick. I just hope and pray this means we are all WELL for Christmas. I take her back in the morning and she starts on an antibiotic tonight. Things can only get better, right?)

My fairy blogmother apparently took pity on me since my last product review was for bleach. Granted it was the sexy Tom Jones of bleaches, but she decided I needed a little excitement in my life, or at least some toys to distract my girls during the holidays. A PR representative for LeapFrog toys e-mailed me before Thanksgiving and asked if I would be interested in reviewing a couple of hot holiday toys. I wrote her back as fast as you can say, “Mama needs a personal shopper and a pitcher of margaritas, stat.” (Although, who am I kidding…a pitcher of margaritas would leave me comatose and subsequently hungover like a freshman the morning after her first frat party.)

The LeapFrog brand toys are already favorites at our house so when the box from LeapFrog arrived it was like Christmas in November. Caitlin instantly took to the Lightning McQueen game for the Leapster Learning Game System (or Lightning the Queen, as she says.) And as I type this review she is playing with the Backyardigans game, which is enabling me to have a few minutes to blog! (Bonus!) I was a little concerned at first that it might be too complicated for her but after about 10 minutes she was glued to her Leapster and maneuvering the controls with ease. It was great to bring along in the car Thanksgiving day while we traveled to see our parents. The only problem is that I have had to limit her time playing with it. But for rainy days or road trips or those times you need a few minutes to yourself, it’s a hit.

LeapFrog also sent us the Little Leaps Grow-with-Me Learning System for Amelia to test drive. It’s targeted for children ages 9 to 36 months. The system works via your television and DVD player and the interactive learning discs come in either baby or toddler level. The controls actually flip over so that the toddler version has a joystick for your child to maneuver the games and the baby controls are colorful shaped buttons. Although it’s geared toward babies and toddlers, even Caitlin has enjoyed helping baby sister play with the First Steps disc, which helps introduce numbers, counting, shapes, and colors.

Now these toys are not inexpensive and the discs and cartridges are also a little pricey (Caitlin already has her eyes on the Dora game). If I had to choose between the two, I’d pick the Leapster, geared toward older children.

p.s. LeapFrog has a great lineup of educational and interactive online games on their website that are free and are quite entertaining.

I’ve been looking through old Christmas pictures and happened upon this little gem of Caitlin from two years ago. She is so full of joy and happiness that it nearly leaps from the photograph. Actually she was so full of joy and happiness that I had difficulty taking her photograph.

I’ve been making a point to relish the way my girls see the holidays. The magic of Santa will start to slowly fade over the years and heartfelt letters to the fat man in the red suit scribbled carefully with crayon will be replaced with online wish lists, requests for iTunes gift cards or a salon gift certificate for a pedicure or a blow out. Actually with girls those requests may be sooner than later.

I braved the grocery store with the girls the weekend after Thanksgiving when the holidays are unleased in all their retail glory and people sick of eating turkey leftovers head out in search of a frozen pizza or maybe ingredients for homemade lasagna. Signs of Christmas were on every aisle and a lavish toy display in the center of the store lured parents and kids alike to try out colorful plastic keyboards and tiny trains and baby dolls and the smorgasbord of enticing eye candy for the kiddies. Grocery shopping is just another chore to me but that day it was a treasure hunt. Seeing the girls’ faces light up as we wheeled through the aisles filled with holiday decorations and treats was priceless. Caitlin kept shouting, “Mommy look look over there, it’s a Christmas tree! Mommy look look over there, it’s Christmas lights!”

Last Monday I worked from home with Caitlin as she and I were both under the weather. We headed to my office around lunchtime to pick up some paperwork. I walk by the lobby fountain every day without a second glance, usually rushing to the elevator and checking out my crazy hair in the reflection of the elevator doors, but that day we took our time. We paused at the fountain and Caitlin tossed a penny into the water, closed her eyes tightly, and made a wish. When we walked into my office, the Christmas tree displayed in our reception area was a sparkling wonder to her and a walk down to our breakroom to make hot chocolate with marshmallows was a special treat.

I’m grateful for the magical way my girls see the world, because it has changed the way I see the world, especially during the holidays.

I’m also thankful that I haven’t yet lost it when Caitlin requests we play Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer for the thousandth time in my car. The fact that she sings “you could even say it blows,” instead of “glows,” makes it tolerable although frankly if I never hear Rudolph again you won’t find me crying in my hot chocolate.

The hubby is 36 today! Yes, I snagged a younger man back in 1987 (I’m 37, cough cough.) He’s just as charming, fun, kind hearted, and handsome as he was that fateful night in our high school cafeteria when I asked him to slow dance and coyly told him he should take off the sweater he was wearing over a t-shirt because it looked itchy.

Last night was the best birthday eve I remember spending with him in a long time. We went to the Nashville Predators NHL game downtown and watched them beat the Edmonton Oilers. The tickets were given to him by a client, which is where the story gets good.

Yesterday morning he checked his voice mail and had a message from Predators Head Coach Barry Trotz’s wife, Kim. The hubby owns a local computer services company and the Trotzs are clients. Kim offered us the tix for last night’s game. It was until we were at dinner and she called him to make sure we knew they had just been left at the will call box that we realized that the tickets were her PERSONAL TICKETS. That’s right. The coach’s wife’s tickets.

I can’t tell you how thrilled we were. The past few weeks have been a perfect storm of small business owner craziness and I’m surprised we’re both not gray haired or completely bald from stress. Over Thanksgiving weekend we were all sick, the hubby moved his office to a new larger location within a very small time frame, and oh yeah it was also Thanksgiving.

Kim, if you ever run across this blog we can’t thank you enough for the incredible tickets to last night’s game. They were awesome.

And hubby, happy birthday to the hardest working daddy I know. I love you and I will always ask you to slow dance.

It’s best that parents keep a poker face when their children say something innocently inappropriate. It might be funny, but it isn’t behavior we want to reinforce, like saying “please” or “thank you” or letting mommy use the bathroom without busting down the door. There can be no muffled giggling, no nervous eye twitches…absolutely no indication that something is up.

It’s tough to keep a parents’ poker’s face, however, when your sweet 4-year-old daughter looks at you and says, with all seriousness, “Mommy, I want to play with my doctor shit.”

Me: “You mean your doctor’s kit sweetie?”

Caitlin: “Yes, my doctor’s shit.”

Fast forward a few weeks and Caitlin is playing at our Baptist minister of music neighbor’s house with their little girl. The little girl breaks out her toy doctor’s kit. “Let’s play doctor’s shit!” exclaims Caitlin. Fortunately no one really heard her but me. Whew.

I was hoping we’d left all this in the past but on Saturday when I told Caitlin we were going to the doctor to get a shot, she was genuinely excited about the prospect of a shot, as if it were some exotic locale, and just had to tell her daddy.

“Daddy, I’m going to go get my doctor’s shit today!”

“Caitlin, you mean shot?”

“No, Daddy, I mean shit!”

The flu shot took all of 5 minutes and we stopped by the grocery afterwards, celebrating the girls’ braveness with free sugar cookies for them and a six pack of beer for us. We’re walking down the crowded aisle, pushing Amelia in a car cart barge when suddenly Caitlin starts limping and proclaims:

“My doctor’s shit hurts!”

Sigh…

I just read about this in our local paper so this will be of particular interest to any Nashvillians who read my blog…

Nashville veterinarian technician Shannon Wade, who works at the Bellevue Animal Hospital, was struck by a car Thursday evening, November 30, while trying to help a dog that had been hit by a car. She has multiple broken bones in both legs and a broken collar bone. Doctors estimate that it will be three months before Shannon is able to bear weight on either leg and she may need several additional surgeries, as well as extensive physical therapy. A fund to aid Shannon is being set up at the Nashville AmSouth Bank to help offset her medical expenses. Shannon has no medical insurance and she has a long road to recovery. I don’t know Shannon personally, but the Bellevue Animal Hospital treated our dog Jack when the hubby found him six years ago on Thanksgiving Eve, injured and abandoned in a ditch after being hit by a car. Donations are also being accepted at the Bellevue Animal Hospital and Harpeth Valley Animal Hospital.

Updated: Here’s the link to the community paper featuring the story about Shannon.

In other giving type news, a lot of people were following the news about James Kim, the 35-year-old San Francisco man and editor at CNET, and were hopeful for his survival after his wife and two young daughters were found alive near their stranded car. Kim’s body was found earlier this week. He died of hypothermia while trying to save his family after they got lost during a snowstorm while driving in Southern Oregon.

The James and Kati page has a link for Paypal donations that will be used for a possible James Kim Memorial Fund or college funds for his daughters, Penelope and Sabine. Also, checks made out to the “James Kim Memorial Fund” can be sent to CNET:
The Kim Family
c/o CNET Networks
235 2nd Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

Updated to add:

The always hilarious Jenny at Mama Drama, a great reader blog at the Houston Chronicle, posted some charitable links on Friday that you should check out, especially the link to the Hunger Site because it’s as easy as clicking on the little yellow button to help end hunger. It’s hard to fathom in this day and age of excess, particularly in America, that people die of hunger. So get clicking people!

One last item of charitable goodness, Julie at Mothergoosemouse posted about a very easy way you can help the charitable organization, Doctors Without Borders by shopping at TheFind.com. Just click on their site and search for any red item and they will donate $1 to Doctors Without Borders.

Caitlin has a field trip today with her preschool class to see a local Christmas play. We were talking about it last night and she mentioned she was riding with The Boyfriend. Since The Boyfriend is 4 years old, I found this highly unlikely.

This morning her teacher told me The Boyfriend’s mother was a parent volunteer on the field trip and helping to transport some of the kids. When the mom asked The Boyfriend who he wanted to ride with them to the play he replied without hesitation, “Caitlin.”

Rumor has it that The Boyfriend can be a bit of a “bad boy.”

God help us.

By my calculations, everyone in our family, except for the dogs, has been sick twice since the week before Thanksgiving. Apparently eating dog kibble is the secret to staving off colds, coughs, and the general crud. I’m debating between chicken, rice, and vegetables or just a hearty beef blend for dinner tonight.

I don’t want this to turn into the phlegm family chronicles, but I thought I’d list some things we must have during the winter cold and flu season:

Tissue, preferably the kind that has lotion in it (nothing worse than a raw nose)
Humidifier (we currently are loving the heated kind)
Vick’s Vaporub, the kind your mama slathered on you (I’ve used this so much on Amelia that she’ll lift her shirt up when she sees the familiar blue jar.)
Vick’s Vaposteam
Antibacterial hand gel
Antibacterial wipes
Lysol
Tylenol and Ibuprofen
Any of the meltable strip varieties of children’s medicine (WHY OH WHY didn’t they have these when I was a kid??)
Gatorade
Chicken noodle soup
Digital thermometer
Saline nose drops (not that either of my children will let me squirt these up their nose without freaking out)
Vitamin C
Perhaps a couple of these masks

Do you have any rituals you follow when you feel under the weather? My mother-in-law swears by zinc lozenges and my mother always pushes chicken noodle soup. And what’s in your winter cold and flu season survival kit, besides a bottle of Bailey’s? Those of us with sneezy noses, as Caitlin would say, want to know.