The Plague

A week and a half ago, I optimistically thought we were on the mend from the cold.  Hah.  The beginning of this week was rife with appointments being made, ear and eye infections being diagnosed and prescriptions being filled out.

Spread over the household, I've been administering medication nine times a day--and that's not counting vitamins or non-prescription painkillers.  Oof.  I lasted one day on the strength of my memory, and then I made a chart of what I was giving to who when, including when each medication was being discontinued... plus a space to make note of when I'd last given either child some pain medicine. 

Thanks to that, we've made it through the week with only one missed dosage and one overdose (the latter was myself... just taking the same pill twice instead of opening the other bottle--fortunately, no harm done).  Were I at school, I'd consider that a shocking track record, but at home, with just braindead me having to keep track of it all, it comes under the category of close enough.  I now have a renewed sympathy for all seriously understaffed hospitals.

We're still following this regime until the middle of next week, but we all seem to be well on the mend now, if utterly exhausted.  Most nights, at least one child has woken up wailing and naps have been hit and miss too.  My son's been off school, we haven't been able to do much playing with other children, and trying to keep up with the errands and chores has been an ongoing battle.

It's funny though, that this stress I could handle.  I think a lot of it was because I didn't have to work out what the problem with the children was.  One my daughter's eyes began streaming mucus, it was obvious, and my son could tell me himself once his ear started hurting.  I knew this wasn't going to be a quick fix, but I took on the challenge with relish and felt quite smug over how I kept things going.

Wish I was this composed about every parenting challenge!

Anyway, the children are no longer contagious and  my son's gone off to a super bowl party with my husband, while my daughter and I stayed at home, because I didn't want her staying up late and because I am very very bad at tolerating sports.  This is one American tradition that I'll let my husband handle.

It was kind of fun to be just the two of us for the evening.  I made chicken noodles with peanut sauce because the male half of the family don't care for it, so it was a real treat for us two.  My daughter was thrilled, bouncing in her chair and making happy noises as she ate.  It wasn't the easiest thing for her to manage, but she kept at it and only one string of noodles ended up on the floor--we follow the baby-led weaning method, so she feeds herself.  I was quite impressed, since concentration is not her strong point.

She'll be one year old next week...  That's sneaked up on us rather.  We only remembered today that we hadn't ordered her presents or bought her cards--fortunately, both are done now.  We've known what we're doing for the birthday for awhile, but the whole plague thing made us forget to start implementing said plans.

Also, she'll be one year old.  Huh. !