Not Your Everyday Common Cold

This week was "Fire Safety" week in preschool--perfect time for us to score some brownie points with the teacher. The local fire department brings their truck over and gives the kids a pep talk about not playing with matches, etc., etc...but on top of that, Luke had access to kid-sized turnout gear through his department, so on Thursday all the kids got to try them on while Patrick's teacher put on Luke's full gear--tank, mask and all. I understand pictures were taken, but I've yet to see them. Anyway, here's Patrick--a little crazed with glee--modeling the kids' gear for me at home.

Also this week, we finally got around to doing our pumpkins...and just in time, I would say, because apparently Halloween has passed and I somehow missed it. Yesterday I was at Walmart and they were removing all the Halloween stuff and putting up Christmas stuff. Now this is nothing new to me--I realize that the Garden Center becomes Holiday Central on the Tuesday after Labor Day and not one minute later. But they were wiping out any sign of Halloween...even the candy aisle. It was Christmas stuff everywhere. Not to mention that they're completely skipping over Thanksgiving. I guess if you can't capitalize on a holiday then there's no use acknowledging it. There's no money to be made off of Turkey Day, after all. It's a very puritan holiday. Moving along, though...we finally did our pumpkins, but this year we painted instead of carved. Much less messy. Jenny gave me some awesome crafty ideas, which I was grateful for since I am unable to come up with that kind of stuff myself. Here's the little man again with the finished products.

Can I just mention that we had to go to three stores to find pumkins? No one was selling them any more. Sheesh. Anyway, for the big one, we cut out triangles of painters tape and then painted the whole thing black. When it dried, we peeled off the tape and voila! Instant art! For the little ones, we used leftover paint from my bedroom (which is actually powder blue, but on the pumpkin it turns out white...weird I know...but Jenny is all-knowing), and then more black paint to make ghost faces. Patrick's is the ghost of Groucho Marx.

So the week ended with Ben coming down with a speedy case of croup. Yesterday morning he woke up with nary a sniffle and by 6 pm he was getting very close to that barking cough and wheezing in a very scary way. I had called the doctor earlier that afternoon, but they just said to give him Albuterol and that I might have to go to the ER this weekend. Luckily, I have my ways around that. I took him over to the boss' hubby P.J., who showed enough concern to call his buddy at Urgent Care and tell him we were coming over. One of my kids had croup last year (I think it was Patrick, but I really can't remember), and I had forgotten that it is just a wee bit more frightening than just a cough due to cold. So even though the after-hours doctor visit was a breeze, the night was still tough. I was reminded of all the warnings my pediatrician had told me last year: listen for the breathing, if it's strained get him in the shower fast or stick his face in the freezer--just the face!--if that doesn't work, get to the hospital, watch his ribs and neck muscles for signs of distress, his breathing passage is extremely small right now, you might want to sleep next to him on the floor...

...which spells out a tough night for me. Ben actually had a very good night. When I picked up his steroids, I got a steam vaporizer too, which transformed his room into a tropical rainforest overnight. So he woke up all dewy and pretty refreshed. I was not quite so refreshed. Since Luke and I are mean parents and have made our kids sleep in their cribs since day one, I did not foresee that sharing a room with Ben would go so well. I settled for putting the monitor right by his crib, and the receiver right by my head and turning it all the way up...which was very effective, much as if I had broadcast his breathing over the loudspeaker system at Phillips Arena or something. So I heard every sound possible. But it wasn't the sounds that woke me up, it was the worry, and I spent a lot of time creeping into his room to make sure his breathing was okay. Which it was, thanks to the balmy temperatures and relative humidity of 400%, a la Vicks. Anyway, I knew it would only be one rough night and that the steroids would really take effect today, so we're on the upswing.

Tomorrow, we're going to the annual harvest craft fair, but I'm not taking pictures, since I'm sure it will be just like last year and you can see those pictures here. I guess I'll catch everyone on the blog after Halloween. Later!