Amy did not get fitted for a scoliosis brace on Monday. Instead she threw up on the drive there, got mopped up, threw up on the drive home, showered, and slept for most of the day. She was miserable when she was awake, hating being sick. Monday night she slept next to me, but she was a bit congested so was not the quietest bedmate. I felt like I didn’t sleep at all, although I’m sure I must have slept some. Tuesday morning Amy said her mouth and throat hurt. I was working all day so Carl took her to Urgent Care and stayed home with her. At Urgent Care everyone expected her to have strep throat, but her test was negative. She slept and rested all day and by the evening definitely seemed to have rounded a bend towards wellness. I looked forward to a good night of sleep.
At 2 am Sarah had a seizure. Once she was able to move she got into bed next to me, but neither of us reached deep sleep. I’m not confident I slept more at all. At 5 when Sarah was awake I said she could sleep more and could rest as long as she needed. I told her I could drive her to school later if she wanted or she could stay home. She insisted on going to school on the bus. It was field day after all. She had been looking forward to this day for ages and was especially eager for the tie-dye station.
So on Wednesday both girls went to school. Sarah took a short nap that afternoon and seemed tired, but… instead of getting a solid night of sleep, she woke every hour or so to eagerly see if her tie-dye shirt was dry. It had been sent home still coiled and in a ziplock bag. After enough time had passed we rinsed it and hung it to dry. Sarah did not want to put it in the dryer, despite her desire to wear it immediately. At midnight she reached a point of desperation, as did I. Somehow Carl had the internal emotional space and creativity to be incredible. If it had been up to me I might have yelled and forced the issue by throwing the shirt in the dryer, but that wouldn’t have helped the big picture of my relationship with Sarah and probably would have taken up as much time as Carl’s patient route took. At least I was wise enough to leave and let him handle things. He asked Sarah what she wanted to do and with each idea she had for drying the shirt, he acted upon it so they could try it. They tried a towel. They tried blowing on it. Sarah tried wearing it. They considered putting it on the balcony. Eventually they rigged up a string in Sarah’s open window, with the shirt on a hanger hanging on the string. Sarah’s door was open and the balcony door was open. There was a pretty constant cool breeze which meant that at 4am when Sarah woke to check on it she was able to wear it. Carl and I felt quite tired on Thursday.
Thursday Sarah had a dress-down day so she could wear her tie-dye shirt. She came home from school, made herself some chocolate milk, and immediately headed upstairs for a three hour nap. I napped for maybe an hour of that. Friday Sarah came home from school and again took a looooong nap, only waking for a short dinner in bed, and then going back to sleep.
Now, beyond the details of sleep or lack thereof…
I try my best to not clean the kids’ rooms, but sometimes it is very hard to let Sarah’s room stay covered in clean and dirty clothes. But this week I did it! And she actually cleaned it on her own. And she didn’t just put everything in the hamper or on top of her dresser or draped over her closet bar! She actually put clean clothes in drawers, hung shirts on hangers, and put dirty clothes in the hamper!! And that was all of her own accord. Then she made a get well card for Amy!
We had a tiny and adorable fledgling on our porch Wednesday afternoon.
Amy had an all-day field trip on Friday, getting back to her school at 8:20pm. I’m so glad she was well by then so she could enjoy the day.
Last night at Sarah’s suggestion we cooked hot dogs over a fire and made s’mores. The fire was more ashy than usual, with many floating bits of debris. Sarah spontaneously broke out singing, “Oh I love ash, anything dirty or dingy or dusty.” That is a spin off of Oscar the Grouch’s “I love trash.” We cracked up.
If you are looking for something to watch, I recommend the documentary “Working” on Netflix. Carl is in episode 3! Aurora is one of the featured companies so he knows a lot of the people, and our friends are in episode 4.
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