December 26: The day we look behind us and sigh with relief
OK, I know it's actually December 27, but whatever.
There is so much I did NOT include about how Christmas almost did not happen. Like how Friday afternoon, as Aislinn woke up from her nap, I noticed an extra pink flush to her cheeks, which turned out to be a low-grade fever now accompanying the green snot that had been gushing out of her nose for two days. It figured. Leo'd had strep earlier in the week. It was Friday afternoon. The chances of her having some sort of infection were high. The chances of me getting her in to see her regular doctor were nil, especially when the outgoing message when I called the office explained that THEY WERE ALREADY CLOSED FOR THE HOLIDAY. I love my kids' doc, but really! So I called MY doctor to see if she could be squeezed in. She had nothing, no one in her practice did. The receptionist suggested the local immediate care center as an option to a pricey emergency room visit. Aha! We'd never had need of the place before, so it hadn't crossed my mind, but I packed up the kids and we were sitting in the waiting room inside of 15 minutes. Much to my surprise, it was not packed with other sick people unable to get in to see their regular doctors at the last minute before a holiday weekend. In fact, we were in and out within 45 minutes, with stickers for Audrey and antibiotic samples for Aislinn (the one good thing about basically being self-pay: our docs have tended toward sympathy and have gone out of their way to give us free meds when possible. Once I got free Zithromax for Audrey! That stuff is pricey.). The worst part of the experience was realizing at check out that I had left my wallet at home. Oops. I was very self-conscious and afraid the receptionist would think I was trying to get out of paying, something I assume happens at a place like that not infrequently.
I also did not mention, in the days before Christmas, that the praying mantis that we found on the side of the house the last warm day of fall, which we had been keeping in Audrey's bug catcher and feeding crickets bought from Petco, suddenly appeared on the verge of death, and did indeed die sometime Christmas Eve. Audrey knew Abby/Maria (she kept changing the name) was not well and was distressed about this, and once I realized the poor thing was gone, I did everything I could to distract her and keep her away from the mesh cage, not wanting to ruin her Christmas. I moved the chirping crickets (saved from death only for a few days, until they too died of starvation) to a different room and generally kept her away from the cage. Then after Christmas was over, I couldn't figure out how to break it to her. Leo did. While we were out catching some after-Christmas sales, he suggested that if the praying mantis died (IF, oh boy), they could bury her in a special box and have a funeral. I don't completely understand why this approach was successful, but it was. That evening she told me about Daddy's plan, and I said, "Well, I guess that's what will happen, because she's dead. " She looked a little sad, but Leo's talk had prepared her. I found a box tonight and lined it with cotton. We'll have a little ceremony tomorrow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sometime around the new year, I get a bit manic. I am filled with plans, delusions of ambition, not necessarily even resolutions, mind you, but plans about how I'm going to organize the house, schedule my time better, take on some new project. Tonight's trip to Borders shows I am already in the throes of this. I bought two books: Home Comforts, by Cheryl Mendelson, and Teach Your Own, by John Holt. The first shows that my annual early lust for spring cleaning, my delusions of organization, is already upon me (probably because I know this house will likely go on the market in a few short months). The second tells me that my dream of homeschooling is not yet dead. I am not sure which is more perplexing: the first, since every year I prove yet again that I can no more stay organized than I can ride a unicycle; or the second, since I have been quite enjoying my quiet half-days with Audrey at school, and am also looking forward to full days next year, not to mention hours of uninterrupted time in a few years after Aislinn starts school.
What can I be thinking???
There is so much I did NOT include about how Christmas almost did not happen. Like how Friday afternoon, as Aislinn woke up from her nap, I noticed an extra pink flush to her cheeks, which turned out to be a low-grade fever now accompanying the green snot that had been gushing out of her nose for two days. It figured. Leo'd had strep earlier in the week. It was Friday afternoon. The chances of her having some sort of infection were high. The chances of me getting her in to see her regular doctor were nil, especially when the outgoing message when I called the office explained that THEY WERE ALREADY CLOSED FOR THE HOLIDAY. I love my kids' doc, but really! So I called MY doctor to see if she could be squeezed in. She had nothing, no one in her practice did. The receptionist suggested the local immediate care center as an option to a pricey emergency room visit. Aha! We'd never had need of the place before, so it hadn't crossed my mind, but I packed up the kids and we were sitting in the waiting room inside of 15 minutes. Much to my surprise, it was not packed with other sick people unable to get in to see their regular doctors at the last minute before a holiday weekend. In fact, we were in and out within 45 minutes, with stickers for Audrey and antibiotic samples for Aislinn (the one good thing about basically being self-pay: our docs have tended toward sympathy and have gone out of their way to give us free meds when possible. Once I got free Zithromax for Audrey! That stuff is pricey.). The worst part of the experience was realizing at check out that I had left my wallet at home. Oops. I was very self-conscious and afraid the receptionist would think I was trying to get out of paying, something I assume happens at a place like that not infrequently.
I also did not mention, in the days before Christmas, that the praying mantis that we found on the side of the house the last warm day of fall, which we had been keeping in Audrey's bug catcher and feeding crickets bought from Petco, suddenly appeared on the verge of death, and did indeed die sometime Christmas Eve. Audrey knew Abby/Maria (she kept changing the name) was not well and was distressed about this, and once I realized the poor thing was gone, I did everything I could to distract her and keep her away from the mesh cage, not wanting to ruin her Christmas. I moved the chirping crickets (saved from death only for a few days, until they too died of starvation) to a different room and generally kept her away from the cage. Then after Christmas was over, I couldn't figure out how to break it to her. Leo did. While we were out catching some after-Christmas sales, he suggested that if the praying mantis died (IF, oh boy), they could bury her in a special box and have a funeral. I don't completely understand why this approach was successful, but it was. That evening she told me about Daddy's plan, and I said, "Well, I guess that's what will happen, because she's dead. " She looked a little sad, but Leo's talk had prepared her. I found a box tonight and lined it with cotton. We'll have a little ceremony tomorrow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sometime around the new year, I get a bit manic. I am filled with plans, delusions of ambition, not necessarily even resolutions, mind you, but plans about how I'm going to organize the house, schedule my time better, take on some new project. Tonight's trip to Borders shows I am already in the throes of this. I bought two books: Home Comforts, by Cheryl Mendelson, and Teach Your Own, by John Holt. The first shows that my annual early lust for spring cleaning, my delusions of organization, is already upon me (probably because I know this house will likely go on the market in a few short months). The second tells me that my dream of homeschooling is not yet dead. I am not sure which is more perplexing: the first, since every year I prove yet again that I can no more stay organized than I can ride a unicycle; or the second, since I have been quite enjoying my quiet half-days with Audrey at school, and am also looking forward to full days next year, not to mention hours of uninterrupted time in a few years after Aislinn starts school.
What can I be thinking???
posted by Andrea | 10:17 PM
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