Not School Again!

Just read the title in a whiny voice and you'll get what I've been hearing from Ian. We really need to start getting to bed earlier. Like at 7. Erin has been sick again. More Reactive Airway stuff and a cold with it. So she is wheezing and coughing a lot and is attached to the nebulizer even more now that the PA-C is doubling her Pulmacort. And if she's wheezing, it's best to do the Albuterol before the Pulmacort, so that's at least 20 minutes of holding a squirming, energetic curly-haired noodle while trying to get her to breathe smoke. And Someone deposited a Goldfish cracker into the nebulizer's mouthpiece and I didn't notice it right away, resulting in a soggy extraction and a multitude of giggles and ewws from both offspring. That case remains unsolved, though both suspects are under surveillance.

So I've been getting up in the night to do neb treatments. And Erin's lava lamp bulb blew, so I've been lighting tealights. And her heater fried itself last night. Poor Erin is having a rough few days. It was another 3 hour trip to the doctor, too, yesterday. Our appt was for 8:15. They called our name at 9-something. We got home at 11-something. By now I can do it myself. I just wish the nurses would listen to me when I tell them to do her pulse/ox. (We watch her O2 levels when she's sick to make sure she's getting enough oxygen. Yesterday was 95, not too bad, but bad enough to where we had to do a breathing treatment in the office, which would have been irrelevant if they'd seen us at 8:15 and we'd have gone home and done it ourselves!) So we have a follow-up appt Thursday, where we will again go sit in that stupid empty office for hours. Anyway, I didn't mean to go into a diatribe about doctors.
Ian got reader #6 and can't quite seem to remember the bear's name, Tim. He keeps wanting to say Tang. Explanations are fruitless. This one is for the teacher.
We are down to the last week before our holiday visitors arrive. Yay! Ian already has extensive plans for the games they will play and the books they will read and how much time they will spend outside in the freezing temperatures looking for something to do (this is really killing time before you can bang on the door and ask for hot chocolate). We are especially looking forward to going hiking at Devil's Den. Except Elmo will be staying home and Erin will be in the carrier on a grown-up's back. Just to make all that clear. But in the meantime, it is a big toy.
And it's freezing outside! It was so cold this morning, in fact, that Ian opted to drive to school instead of riding his bike. Come on! It was only 28. We drove.
Erin and HC were still asleep so we left them home. And yet, when we walked in the school, I still saw kids wearing flip flops and short sleeved shirts around the school yard. I want to buy them all shoes and jackets. After a certain point (like,hm, below freezing?), the "I'm tough" coolness factor has dissolved and now it's "You poor thing!" I wonder if they would dress properly if they got more pity. We had hats and extra layers. We were the only ones wearing hats. But who cares? We were the only ones with warm ears.
As soon as everyone wakes up and gets moving, we're all going to do errands. Bank, post office, library pickup, get gas, GROCERY SHOPPING. This is exciting because it only happens twice a month. It is also exciting because we are completely out of tub butter, and I can't have toast this morning. Or popsicles. Shucks.
At least we have Ian's balloon hat to play with if we get bored. There was a guy at a table in the mall on Saturday (the last time I will EVER go to the city on a Saturday; I really mean it this time), making balloon creations for tips. We scrabbled for some change and Ian picked this out. He's a funny guy, isn't he. I thought for sure he would pick the sword and pirate hat. Not my litle guy. He wanted the silly hat. You gotta love him.