Tough Day

Life was looking up. The leaves finally came out on the trees. Our road dried out...a little bit. (The problem is not fixed, but it's better than last week.) Kara sold a couple of items from our growing furniture pile in the garage. The children were happy, healthy and playing outside for hours every day. Life was good.

Then the coin flipped. Good day/Bad day: Now all five children are coughing. Is it hay fever? (I have a very bad case of hay fever that started two days ago.) Is it the excessive dust on the driveway? (We've a lot more fine dirt on our driveway than usual because of the road problem.) Is it some vicious virus that's making the rounds? (There is one in town right now according to the pediatrician's office.) Is it all of the above, depending on the child? Whatever it is, our fun times were brought to a screeching halt today. 

This morning I got up just before 9AM because Evan was screaming and screaming. I picked him up and plodded down the hall to Kara's room to see why his mommy was ignoring him. She pleaded lack of sleep--Evan and Lincoln had taken turns keeping her up most of the night. Lincoln was sleeping in her bed and she had put Evan in his crib and told him to go back to sleep.

When I walked into her room I stepped in a pile of cat puke. I cleaned the carpet easily enough, but then we found a second problem area. I spent the next half hour trying to remove green cat bile from Kara's beautiful new comforter cover and from the king-sized comforter inside the cover. While I was doing that I was supervising Bentley who started his morning with a very severe bloody nose. 

Evan was back in his crib, hanging out quietly, but by now Lincoln was awake. Kara was keeping an eye on him while he took a shower. He had a high fever last night and he has the worst cough in the household. He may need to go to the doctor's.

I moved Bentley to my bed and told him to read for a while in case the bloody nose returned. He stayed there for a couple of hours. Viva spent the morning and early afternoon upstairs in her pajamas reading and occasionally coughing. 

Meanwhile downstairs Cousin John stopped by to visit his grandma. He played a game of chess with her. Since she doesn't know how to play, Jake took over for her. Jake played a good game, but when the game ended in a draw he got upset. When Jake is upset the entire household knows about it. He woke Evan up from his late morning nap.

Jake recovered within a short time (he's learning some control!) and said a nice good-bye to John when he left, although he declined to shake John's hand. Jake was sad to learn that John lives on the East Coast and won't be back for a rematch any time soon. (Would John play chess with Jake again? John was impressed that Jake knew how to play, but the game ending was a bit loud. *sigh*) Bentley was bummed he never got to play John at chess. Kara offered to play a game with him.

Upstairs in our way too warm bedroom (it's another hot day like yesterday), I spent an hour coaxing Lincoln to take an afternoon nap. Viva finally got dressed so she could go to dance class. It's the first class at a new studio, so it's not a good time to skip even if she's not totally healthy. I think she's coughing because of the dust on the driveway, but who knows?

And now in a fitting end to an already too long day, Lincoln just climbed into Evan's crib and woke him up. I spent a half hour getting Evan to take a late afternoon nap. 

How many minutes until Kara gets home with Viva from dance class?! I want to find a cool, dark, allergen-free corner to hide in. Evan is screaming at the top of his lungs...isn't the way my day started?...I need to go.