I give up (Christmas in OUR home)

Forget it. John and I shouldn't even attempt to celebrate the holidays, 'cause it just hasn't worked out for our poor kids lately!

Let's start by telling you about way last Tuesday. The school called (and hour and a half before school let out) and asked me to pick up Mary because she had a stomach ache. No other symptoms, no fever, "but she just LOOKS miserable". Well, I couldn't get out right away, so the kid had to sit in the nurse's office until the end of school. I knew what was wrong the second I walked in the door: NOTHING! She bamboozled the nurse! Actually, to give the kid credit, she probably DID have a tummy ache. Come to find out that she had snuck some poptarts into her bedroom and had a feast of 3 and a half of them! (Yikes! I can barely eat ONE of those suckers, they're so super sweet!) But the kid didn't look ANY kind of sick. I know I know my kid better than the nurse, but come ON. Anyway, I was most displeased, but I bit my tongue. But if the nurse calls me again, and that kid isn't vomiting or feverish, I'm going to tell the nurse to stick that kid RIGHT BACK IN CLASS!

Fast forward to Thursday. Mary wakes me up at 5:00AM and complains her eyes are "blurry." Well, it's 5AM, kid, mine are blurry, too! No, I'm NOT a sympathetic parent at 5AM! I sent her back to bed. A more reasonable hour later, she gets up, and I see that her eyes are indeed RED. Hmmmm...is that because she has pink eye or because she's been rubbing her "blurry" eyes for the last hour? Told John to keep an eye on her and went to work.

Mary's eyes seemed to improve a little, and they weren't hurting or itching or anything, so John took her to violin lessons and school and went to work. I was "on call" all day figuring I'd get the call to get my pink-eyed kid any minute. No phone call. When I picked her up from day care I saw that her eyes were indeed quite pink again. So, she went through a whole day at school AND at her after-school provider's house and NO ONE saw the pink eyes? (Maybe she should have complained of an upset stomach!) So, revision: the nurse can call if the kid is vomiting, feverish, OR has pink eyes.

So for the second year in a row, Mary missed out on celebrating her birthday at school due to illness. Last year she had a stomach bug (that proceeded to go through the whole family Christmas week--bleh!). We took her to the doctor as we thought we had to do to get her diagnosed and on meds. The doc told us that next time Mary (or Keith, even) gets what is obviously pink eye, to just call her, and she would give us a prescription for the eye drops over the phone. I guess Mary and Keith are old enough to tell us/the doc if their ears/throat hurt. If not, the doc has no problems just sending along a prescription without seeing her. Gee, and I thought NO DOCTOR on Earth would do that! So, if we'd called her when we first suspected the pink eye, we could have gotten a script and sent her back to school on Friday, where she could have enjoyed her rice krispie treats with her classmates AND the Polar Express movie they were supposed to watch that day! *sigh*

John and I both had Friday off, so after the doctor's and pharmacy visit, we took our freakish-looking kid to see Charlotte's Web. Cute.

Saturday: I had to come in to work for a little bit to get in payroll (I so hate my job during the holidays). I brought Mary since she had soccer in this part of town at 12:00. She starts complaining of an ear ache. Keith had complained that morning, too. Great. Now I seem to have an epidemic on my hands. I remind Mary that if her ear honestly hurts that badly(and I KNOW ear infections hurt horribly), then she will have to miss soccer, and we won't get to take her to get her ears pierced for her birthday as promised. So does it REALLY hurt? Within five minutes, her tune has changed, and she's all ready to go to soccer.

Saturday night we took Mary to the mall for her birthday. Newly pierced ears and an outfit for her Build-a-Bear. She's a most happy 7-year old--and no more complaints at all of an ear ache.

Sunday I realize that neither Izzy nor Keith are acting quite right. Yup. Both have a fever. Keith's is pretty mild, but Izzy's is at 102-103. On Christmas Eve? Lovely! But at least it's not pink eye or the stomach bug (Oh good grief, I'll take pink eyes and fevers over that stomach bug ANY DAY).

Christmas morning. Keith wakes up with a pink left eye! Most of the day Christmas, both Keith and Izzy are not quite with it. Izzy had a feel-good spell of several hours, so I got brave and stopped giving her meds (Keith's fever was so mild--99--I wasn't giving him any). She did pretty well until naptime when the fever came back with a vengeance--102 again. Now, I'm not going to call some on-call doctor on Christmas day about fevers and pink eye (especially when Lord only knows where the closest OPEN pharmacy is, anyway!), so we let it go until today.

Today I had to work, and since both our day care providers were closed, John got to spend the day home with the kids. He took them in to the doctor even though their fevers really hadn't come back yet. Keith has pink eye (duh) and an ear infection in one ear. Izzy has an ear infection in BOTH ears. *sigh* Good thing he took them in.

So, that was our Christmas. Fevers and Pink Eyes. I say again: at least it wasn't the stomach bug!

Besides all the medical drama, it was quite a nice Christmas. I want to thank you all for the gifts and for the contributions for the swingset. John found one a Home Depot that he kind of liked and is on sale, but we're going to keep looking over the next few days/weeks. It's not going up until the spring, anyway, so we've got plenty of time to pick one we really like (and maybe isn't too much of a bear to put together?).

Favorite gifts so far:
Izzy--baby doll and stroller
Keith--Spongebob Leapster game
Mary--Littlest Petshop pets
Me and John--Guitar Hero--IT ROCKS!!!!