25 May 2011

Untitled...but still the dot, dot, dot...

Noticed it's been a month and a day since my last post. This could be for one of two reasons: (1) either nothing is going on her or (2) there is SO MUCH going on that I don't have a) time, b) energy, c) brain power and d) enough hours in the day to check in and update.

I'll go with Option 2. Doing otherwise would make me sound like a total loser and a lazy slob. Must salvage what little reputation I still have.

So, we have been in Katy an unprecedented eight, count 'em, E-I-G-H-T weeks! Mike had one trip (a shorty - one week) during that time and one blessedly cancelled trip. I'm in my own personal Nirvana. I had decided to stay home the month of May anyway so Mirai could be present for all the remaining days of school. We almost achieved that - we missed the LAST most FUNNEST day of school (Splash Party! Treats!! Seeing friends before the summer!!!) - thanks, strep. Yup, the girl woke up the day before the last school day with a 103 temp UNDER HER ARM. Now, if I was a first time mommy instead of a 54 "back in the trenches-mighty experienced-not prone to hysterics unless a flying roach is involved" (grand)mom, I would have made haste to my local ER and demanded immediate attention. But I dosed her with Motrin and patted myself on the back for my calm, cool, collected, informed approach to fevers in a three year old. She didn't want to eat but she did drink - a lot. By afternoon, when two doses of Motrin hadn't even dented the fever, I decided a trip to the pediatrician was in order - just to be on the safe side. They had an appointment (yeah!) and we got in the car.

By the time we got there, she was pretty listless and wanted me to hold her. This has never happened at the doctor. Even they noticed it and got her in right away. Tests for flu and strep were done in short order with strep being the culprit. So a Tylenol/Motrin rotation, every 3 hours, started once we got home (after a massive, hair-curling-scream-induced penicillin shot was administered at the doc's) and we spent the next 6 days in "fever land". It took that long for her to finally get the fever below 100, feel like eating and have any enthusiasm for anything besides watching Blues Clues, sleeping and (thankfully) drinking lots of fluids. We even had to cancel our trip to Pflugerville we had on the books so we wouldn't chance infecting Kennedy and Lleyton. (It was Tim's call but I'm glad he made it because Saturday and Sunday BOTH were fever days after a low-fever Friday.) I was about to take her back to the doc a week later when, lo, and behold, the girl woke up without a fever, demanded her breakfast and, quick as you can say "Strep be GONE", she was back to her old self. Albeit 2 lbs lighter self - which, when you started out at only 32 lbs to begin with is a HUGE weight loss! She's put it all back on now as her appetite has returned.

But Episode Strep left us with several days of an unwanted side effect that I shall call "Little Princess Syndrome". Little Miss Thang got used to being waited on hand and foot and did NOT understand why SHE should put her shoes on/put her trash away/eat at the table/put her own clothes on/etc. It took about 4 days and lots of tears for her to realize that her perceived New World Order had only been a figment of her fever-induced delirium. Hard life lessons. Yup, that's what we're all about folks. Kill you with kindness then put you back on the road to reality.

She lived. And so did we. Fortunately, strep did not...

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