It’s late as I type this. Doolies and I just returned from Naginata practice. On a weekday even. I know! It’s amazing. I’m terribly out of shape and still at the tail end of my sickness. But Doolies convinced me I would feel better if I exercised. I do feel better but we’ll see if that lasts into tomorrow.

Doolies reminded me to write about class. It was a good relief valve to beat up on the Doolies in a legal way. As I’ve mentioned in the past, Naginata—which is a Japanese martial art similar to Kendo that uses a long weapon and includes armor for sparring—is a wonderful marriage counselor. If you have any problems with your spouse, you armor up and release your aggressions in a controlled and cathartic way. Doolies and I sparred at the end of the class. It was a good match. It got better when Doolies used a toe stomping technique that does not quite qualify as a legal hit. She slammed the butt end of the Naginata into my toe. It dazed me for a bit and I came back angry, releasing all my pent up aggression—not that I have any aggression toward the Doolies. She does everything perfectly and is the model wife. (Yes, she’s standing over me as I type this. Please help.)

Tiger is sleeping in the same position I left her down many hours ago. Her sickness gets better every day (so you can stop worrying, Mom!) and hopefully she’ll be back to her happy, non-coughing self this weekend. Dinosaur is sitting on the bouncer and entertaining himself in the bathroom filled with two showers worth of steam. He’s making goo-goo sounds.

My stomach is sore. I’m still coughing and sneezing like a crazy person during the day, and that takes its toll on my stomach muscles. I’m sure there’s an exercise routine in there somewhere that involves lots of coughing. That combined with Naginata—which one of our instructors keeps telling us requires lots of core conditioning—left my stomach muscles in a state of panic. Hopefully a good night sleep will repair them enough to function tomorrow.

Dinosaur let out a pair of sneezes that sounded quite cute. He’s growing a bit fussy. Doolies is downstairs having a post-Naginata snack before feeding Dinosaur. He quieted down again. He’s respectful of my writing time. Such a nice son.

Bei, our babysitter, seemed to deal with Dinosaur much better than I do when Doolies used to leave me home when she went to class. There were many nights where I stood by the garage door waiting for Doolies to return home, holding Dinosaur out in front of me and handing him to her before she was fully in the house. To be fair, I also remember doing the same thing with Tiger when she was Dinosaur’s size. Tiger would only calm down if I walked up and down the stairs. I remember staring out the stair window willing the next car to turn into Doolies’s car to rescue me. Dinosaur doesn’t require the stair treatment (yet!). Instead he likes me to walk around the kitchen island so he can stare at the flood lights from different angles. Like Tiger, I look forward to Dinosaur moving past the blob stage. And that’s not just because of sleep training. I relate better to older children. Even if they don’t necessarily relate better to me.

Tiger been cranky recently because of her sickness. She’s also been adamant that I don’t bathe her at night. Doolies thinks I planned it this way since I don’t enjoy bath time. That’s not true. I grew to like bath time during the months that Doolies was too large with Dinosaur to lean over the tub. There’s still a lot of no daddy, mommy phrases after dinner. She’s at least using more full sentences so she varies it up a bit. Sometimes it’s no daddy bath, mommy bath. Or, daddy stay here, mommy bath. Or screams and cries and large liquid boogers that cover her entire face because she’s cranky and tired and still sick and leaking juices. You get the idea.

This has been a week of early meetings and tomorrow is no different. It’s way past my bedtime and I’m trying to finish these words. Doolies is washing up and getting ready to rescue the sneezing Dinosaur. I’m looking longingly at the bed. I took Nyquil last night. I’m going cold turkey tonight. Doolies was trying to push this children’s cough “medicine” that she’s been feeding Tiger. They pulled real children’s cough medicine off the shelves, so that leaves this alternative concoction made of honey, zinc, vitamin C. I ate a teaspoon before class. The dose is two teaspoons for children 6+. I had planned to take that dosage but after the first spoonful I couldn’t imagine stomaching another one. Tiger really likes it but for me it was too thick and gooey and yellow.