The sick list

When I got up this morning at 4:00 a.m., I resolved I would stay home all day. Pajamas. No make-up. The inauguration proceedings on TV. General laziness. Try to catch up on sleep. {And some laundry.} My only out-of-house endeavors would be school drop-off and pick-up, which I have done before in atrocious states of dress. I could do it again.

You see, Gavin woke up at least fifteen times last night. At least. Garry, bless his LOTRO-loving soul, was awake most of the night and handled many of the twice-or-thrice-hourly crying spells. But when Garry crawled in bed at 4:00 a.m. with chills, a sore throat, and a fever, my shift began. Gavin was up four times between four and six, when he got up for the day.

Gavin is teething. He has diarrhea, which has been around for about a month. He has an intermittent fever. And he refuses to nap. It's a good thing he's freakin' adorable because right now he's a handful.

Tyler woke up in tears at 6:00 a.m. He had a fever. He had an earache. By 7:30 he was on his first of many movies of the day, snuggled with blankets and pillows and occasionally munching on crackers. There went two of my school-related errands. We'd all be couch potatoes together.

The project that kept Garry at work late last night beckoned his return, the flu notwithstanding. So at 8:10, he and Zachary walked out the door.

Our morning at home was quiet, except for the part when Gavin woke up 45 minutes into his nap and refused to be comforted/go back to sleep. Garry came home around 11:45 and snuck into bed, where I layered him with blankets but couldn't help him get warm.

Then, at noon, the elementary school nurse called. Zachary needed to come home. The flu? No. Ear infection? No. Teething? No. He has a toe injury or infection or abscess or bug bite...we're not sure. It's been bugging him on and off since Sunday but became suddenly and markedly worse when somebody stepped on it during music class. I arrived at the school at 12:15 to find Zachary sobbing in the office, his pinky toe swollen and purple and obviously painful. We called the pediatrician from there and will leave in a few minutes to have it checked out. With a little luck, we'll at least have a cure or a treatment plan for one malady in this household by the end of the day.

I better go fix my hair.