Last night Andrew took the girls shopping after dinner. Benjamin and I went to bed. At seven o'clock.
That boy has been sick since Rachel was sick, but with much milder symptoms. He's just been a bit fussy and sneezy, runs a nightly fever of up to 103°F (but only at night), rubs his ears a lot, oh, and he's got a runny nose that rivals Niagara Falls.
We stayed home sick the first few days because his mucous was thick and a nasty yellow-green colour. However, when his symptoms started to improve—when he was up and running wild around the house all day and his snot was crystal clear (those admittedly still a copious, never-ending flow)—we started to leave the house again.
Mostly we went to Rachel's school for end-of-year stuff. Benjamin's rather an introvert (I'm not really sure our children have any hope of being anything but—if anyone does, it's Miriam) and prefers the safety of my arms (or at least the back folds of my pant leg) to socializing (we even had to leave the classroom to go have a little cry in the hall during the party because the chaos of all the students plus the parents and siblings that showed up was too much him to handle). Still, you can imagine my horror when a little boy said to me yesterday, "Hey—why is one of Benjamin's eyes pink?"
"You have got to be kidding me!" I thought to myself but, sure enough, one of his eyes was a little pink and watery. Foreign object? Pink eye? Who knows?
We had about a half hour left until school was dismissed for the year, so we stuck it out and went home. Then the girls wanted to go swimming—but because it was Friday the 13th the best we got was an awkward dance with the thunder storm. They got in the water with Andrew, he tossed them around a couple of times. THUNDER. Everyone exited the pool. Then we sat around for a good 10–15 minutes before calling it clear and getting back in the pool again. Andrew and the girls were one of the first ones back in. But then THUNDER and everyone was back out again.
At this point we could see the clouds rolling in and decided to call it quits. Benjamin and I hadn't even gotten a toe wet, which was probably for the best. We had to get ready for ukulele practice, anyway.
I was able to convince Benjamin to go down for a nap before the girls and I left, which was nice for Andrew because all Benjamin has done for him lately is scream about wanting Momma.
We came back from ukulele, tidied up the house, had dinner, and then, like I said, Andrew put Benjamin and me to bed while he took the girls shopping. With Benjamin's nightly fevers has also come a nightly "party." He'll either wake up around midnight, all febrile and miserable, and stay awake until around 4 AM, fussing his little heart out, or he'll wake up around 4 AM the same way and carry on until the alarm clock starts going off. But he usually will go back to sleep and then will wake up completely fever-free, begging to play, and wreaking havoc around the house all day long.
It's been a little exhausting. Especially because Benjamin only wants Momma. (Or Miriam, but it's a little unfair to get her up for a midnight-to-four shift with Benjamin, don't you think?)
Benjamin and I had the best sleep we've had in a long time. Andrew gave us the whole bed to ourselves (he slept on the couch—three in the bed can get a bit uncomfortable when one of them is a human pingpong ball) and Benjamin slept somewhat soundly from 7 PM until 7 AM, with no middle-of-the-night fever.
I slept until around 10:30 and then couldn't get back to sleep until around 2:00, but then I slept until 7:00. So, really, that's like eight hours of sleep, which is a heck of a lot more than I've gotten any other night for the past couple of weeks.
Still, I was a little put out when I woke up looking like this:
Obviously it wasn't just a foreign object bothering Benjamin's eye after all:
Bring on the warm compresses and salt-water rinses. Oh, and the health. I think I'm about ready for everyone in our family to be healthy for a while. Because, honestly!
That boy has been sick since Rachel was sick, but with much milder symptoms. He's just been a bit fussy and sneezy, runs a nightly fever of up to 103°F (but only at night), rubs his ears a lot, oh, and he's got a runny nose that rivals Niagara Falls.
We stayed home sick the first few days because his mucous was thick and a nasty yellow-green colour. However, when his symptoms started to improve—when he was up and running wild around the house all day and his snot was crystal clear (those admittedly still a copious, never-ending flow)—we started to leave the house again.
Mostly we went to Rachel's school for end-of-year stuff. Benjamin's rather an introvert (I'm not really sure our children have any hope of being anything but—if anyone does, it's Miriam) and prefers the safety of my arms (or at least the back folds of my pant leg) to socializing (we even had to leave the classroom to go have a little cry in the hall during the party because the chaos of all the students plus the parents and siblings that showed up was too much him to handle). Still, you can imagine my horror when a little boy said to me yesterday, "Hey—why is one of Benjamin's eyes pink?"
"You have got to be kidding me!" I thought to myself but, sure enough, one of his eyes was a little pink and watery. Foreign object? Pink eye? Who knows?
We had about a half hour left until school was dismissed for the year, so we stuck it out and went home. Then the girls wanted to go swimming—but because it was Friday the 13th the best we got was an awkward dance with the thunder storm. They got in the water with Andrew, he tossed them around a couple of times. THUNDER. Everyone exited the pool. Then we sat around for a good 10–15 minutes before calling it clear and getting back in the pool again. Andrew and the girls were one of the first ones back in. But then THUNDER and everyone was back out again.
At this point we could see the clouds rolling in and decided to call it quits. Benjamin and I hadn't even gotten a toe wet, which was probably for the best. We had to get ready for ukulele practice, anyway.
I was able to convince Benjamin to go down for a nap before the girls and I left, which was nice for Andrew because all Benjamin has done for him lately is scream about wanting Momma.
We came back from ukulele, tidied up the house, had dinner, and then, like I said, Andrew put Benjamin and me to bed while he took the girls shopping. With Benjamin's nightly fevers has also come a nightly "party." He'll either wake up around midnight, all febrile and miserable, and stay awake until around 4 AM, fussing his little heart out, or he'll wake up around 4 AM the same way and carry on until the alarm clock starts going off. But he usually will go back to sleep and then will wake up completely fever-free, begging to play, and wreaking havoc around the house all day long.
It's been a little exhausting. Especially because Benjamin only wants Momma. (Or Miriam, but it's a little unfair to get her up for a midnight-to-four shift with Benjamin, don't you think?)
Benjamin and I had the best sleep we've had in a long time. Andrew gave us the whole bed to ourselves (he slept on the couch—three in the bed can get a bit uncomfortable when one of them is a human pingpong ball) and Benjamin slept somewhat soundly from 7 PM until 7 AM, with no middle-of-the-night fever.
I slept until around 10:30 and then couldn't get back to sleep until around 2:00, but then I slept until 7:00. So, really, that's like eight hours of sleep, which is a heck of a lot more than I've gotten any other night for the past couple of weeks.
Still, I was a little put out when I woke up looking like this:
Obviously it wasn't just a foreign object bothering Benjamin's eye after all:
Bring on the warm compresses and salt-water rinses. Oh, and the health. I think I'm about ready for everyone in our family to be healthy for a while. Because, honestly!
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