Placebo effect

... or the real thing?

I have no way of knowing, of course. But last night before bed I took Vioxx. Actually, I took it around 11:30 or so and stayed up working until 2AM (shhh - I was really working.)

When I got up this morning at 8:30-ish, I was in markedly less agony than I have been recently. Is the flare dying down, finally? Has the weather stabilized? Or does the Vioxx just work better? I don't know, but it was a better day.

I mean, I stll have considerable amount of pain. My feet and ankles are really annoying me, but my hands are a lot better.

It's a stupid thing, but hands were better enough today that I could actually do my eyebrows. They were getting seriously bushy (at least to my critical eye), but I couldn't get my hands to work the tweezers properly. This morning I could, and did, and it's amazing how such a little thing like that can just make you feel so much better.

So, breakfast, slapped suntan lotion on all the kids, went to Kiwanis Park for a play date. Got McD's for lunch and forgot that they routinely put onions on their cheeseburgers, and poor DS1 ended up puking his up. He vomits a lot, so he's used to it, and it doesn't upset him anymore. Poor kid. Still, after puking, he just wanted to go back to playing with the other kids. They had a good day.

We got home and I let them loll in front of the TV while I (gasp) did some more work, but then about 4:30 or so I said, OK, that's it, time to get moving again. DS1 and I had a catch: "How many catches?" he asked me. That's something that DH did -- DS1 has to actually catch the ball so many times before he can quit. So I said how many do you want, he said, ten, I said, we'll see. We ended up doing 20. By then my arm was sore from throwing, I'm completely out of shape.

After the catch I got the basketball out and we did some more ballhandling work, and he is getting better. He can actually move pretty quickly while dribbling, and he'd do really well if he just put enough energy into the ball to keep it moving. Of course all that ball-handling was murderous on my poor hands, but it was fun playing with DS1 and I know he enjoyed it a lot, too.

Little DS2 was in the house munching on Cheerios during all this, while DD was "making soup" from various plant stuff around the yard. The weather was perfect for being outside, and I'm glad I got off my butt and went out there, too.

After supper, DD had a breakthrough with her piano "practice". She's only 5. I've told her I can teach her, but if she wants to learn she has to train her fingers, and I gave her a very simple exercise to do with both hands, separately and together: start at C, one key, one finger, up 5 notes and then down 4 back to C. Right hand starts with the thumb, left hand with the pinky. It's boring as hell but very hard if you've never done it before, but moving each finger independently is a fundamental skill she needs before moving on. Tonight, for the first time, she showed me that she can really do it! She was so excited. I worked with her for about 10 minutes, too, which is the longest she has shown interest in it. You have to understand, I only work with her on this when she asks me, and I never push it. Always before she has tried for 30 seconds and gotten frustrated and stormed off. I'm glad that she was able to stick to it for a little while today.

After all that, DS2 was very cranky this evening. The only thing that cheered him up was reading all of his pop-up books and singing "The Twelve Bugs of Christmas". He can't stay grumpy through all that. Hee!

DH has moved all the stuff we're getting rid of downstairs. DS2's room looks so empty without the crib (I helped get that out & down, what a PITA.) Our room looks awesome without all the extra junk in it, too. I'm getting very excited about how nice it will look when everything is done, and how different things will be when the kids are settled in their new arrangements and the playroom is set up. Still have quite a bit of work to do, of course, but it will just be so nice... I'm going to really try and get DD's furniture done so that after the carpets are cleaned, she can go right in there... of course I need to make another trip to Home Depot (3/4 inch ply and a miter box) and Joanne's (3 inch foam) before it can really be done, done... wheee!

But, see -- today I just did so many things, whereas yesterday I was dragging around so much. Today, I feel as if I can get all these things accomplished. I like that. I hope I can hang onto this feeling.