my back is out. as in totally out. last night i was getting around on my hands and knees. this is problematic for anyone, but i have to say it is remarkably difficult with small children. hands and knees=horse for kids. there were a lot of "oh noooooooooooo! pleeeaaaase don't climb on me!"

i went to the dr today. pretty much what i figured--medicine that i really cannot take and instructions to lie flat. ok. sure thing. that is possible.

ha.

i figured out that i can move around as long as i do it in a 'footloose' side shuffle. so i look a little like i am doing the twist (from the knee down) as i serve dinner, but it works.

however, it did not work fast enough to stop the dog from snatching carter's pumpTerNiCLE! bagel, the last pumpTerNiCLE! bagel in the house. oh, he was distraught. so distraught he frightened rosie into dropping in her water bowl, making it even worse. "give baaaaack pumpTerNiCLE baGEL! mommy! give back! ooooooooohhhhhhhh mommy! water! dry off please! dry oooooofffffffffffffffffffffffff!" i had to replace it with a plain bagel, which when accompanied with a hug seemed to fix the situation. "fank oooooo mommy."

meanwhile, i still shake my head over how much both kids like pumpTerNiCLE! bread.

we managed to get through the day, albeit with a lot more DVDs, ("DVDVs") than i usually like, and it did help that i spent most of the day in a healthcare provider's office, and since carter is giving up his naps (sort of), we all got in bed early. which is the only place that i don't feel pain. unfortunately, when i have been in bed for a long time, it is 50,000x worse when i do stand up. hopefully that won't be til tomorrow AM.

and this is coming after ava's major GI thing--just as she got better, this happened. and then yesterday (warning: the following is a poop story), ava plunked down on her little potty, and when she announced she was all done, i went to her to ensure all was fresh and clean and to get rid of the evidence. when she stood up i nearly fell over. her poop was white. almost completely white. not good. at that moment, we had no power, so i could not look up what it meant, but i was remembering something about bilirubin etc., and so i called my dad who reassured me that it was probably just the fact that she had cleaned herself out, had not had much intake, therefore no bile, etc. later, because i cannot rest without figuring out the very very worst case scenario, this seemed to be a relatively common thing post-viral infection, but i still was feeling like her dr. should be made aware of it. she was not concerned either, but she did say if things get worse, or she has another white poop, call back.

today? white poop. beige, really. so, i called, it was the dr's day off, they would call me in the morning unless she really felt it was important for ava to be seen today.

so, it looks like we may be in for another round of doctors tomorrow.

my off the wall suspicion? hepatitis a. that may be crazy, but in december i had almost the exact same constellation of symptoms as she had (barring the white poop). it is possible for it to have taken this long for her to become symptomatic, and she complained of stomach pains for a loooooooong time before actually getting sick. and clearly there is some sort of hepatobilliary involvement with her. anyway, perhaps it is an insane conclusion, but it makes a teeny bit of sense to me.

whatever is going on with her, she is very very very clingy and emotional these days.

on the up side, she is reading more and more--she spontaneously 'gets' words. not more than a few each day, but it is making more and more sense to her. when we read books she knows where i am--she may not be able to read it herself, but she can follow along. she can see certain words and somehow she just knows them--it is like she does it without thinking, which is great. yesterady it was 'green' -- before she had a chance to think too hard, she blurted it out. it is very interesting how this is coming together almost without conscious awareness as to exactly how it all works. she is definitely making a conscious effort--this is something she is pretty determined to do--but she would never be able to explain how she is doing it. i just wonder if carter will follow the same pattern, or if he will learn differently.

in the midst of all this, carter has been fine, completely focused on counting. he makes towers of things--anything-and counts the pieces. 'mommy! tower!look look! WOW. one two fee four fiVE six seven eight nine.....seven eight nine...." "ten, honey" "TEN! fank oooo mommy. ten. one two fee four five six seVEN eight nine TEN!"