This has been a week, shew…..

After spending last Sunday at a work related symposium, Bryan greeted me at the door with “Sarah has a fever”.  Great.  Just great.  Then I had the privilege that every mother just loves, being up all night with a vomiting kid.  On the bright side, Sarah has learned the art of vomiting into the toilet and not everywhere else (including down my shirt).  The next day was “eclipse day”, which I spent at home with Sarah and Rachel.  Rachel begged me to let her “chill out” on the last day before school started back, so I obliged.  Miriam, on the other hand, went to daycare to limit her exposure to Sarah’s stomach illness.  Poor little Sarah was too puny to do eclipse watching with Rachel.  After attempting to view the eclipse with a make-shift viewer, I decided to take Sarah to the doctor.  She tested positive for strep-throat, which the doctor thought also accounted for the nausea.  I knew about the association of vomiting with strep-throat, but I didn’t know diarrhea could accompany strep throat.  Whatever the case, she turned the corner the following day.

Tuesday was Rachel’s first day of middle school.  Yes, middle school!  Also, Miriam was scheduled for an appointment with a “food allergy expert” at the medical center.   It’s a good thing Miriam doesn’t have lots of allergies, because she would have died waiting for an appointment with those folks.  Anyway, there was a lot going on!  I took Rachel to school, because she said it was tradition for me to take her to school on the first day.  This made my heart melt.  No time for sentiment though, because I had to shuffle Miriam to the coveted appointment.  Bryan didn’t have clinic, so he was able to stay with a recovering Sarah.

I couldn’t believe how smoothly the day was going.  Rachel’s drop-off went well, and I made it to the doctor’s office with 40 minutes to spare.  That never happens.  After killing time on Facebook, Miriam and I went to the triage area for the allergy clinic and saw a display in honor of the “the boy in the bubble” (depicted by John Travolta in an unforgettable 1970’s movie).  I thought about taking pictures of the wall dedicated to him, but Miriam puked all over herself and me.  Lovely.  We continued on with the appointment, but as soon as the doctor walked in the room, filth started spewing from Miriam’s bottom like a busted sewer line.  The display reminded me of something you might see in a horror film right before an alien pops out of the victim’s body.  The diarrhea was so voluminous that the nurse threw towels in my direction to clean up the mess.  We were swiftly sent to urgent care clinic on a different floor.  The amount of liquid projecting from her was so profound that Miriam was given a hospital gown.  Enroute to the urgent care, we passed a guy dressed up as Ronald McDonald, who gave her a toy but she threw it in the floor. She’s decisive like that….  Several hours later, we were sent home with Zofran and a negative strep test result.

profuse vomiting and diarrhea couldn’t kick her spunk.

Since Bryan was already home with Sarah (as mentioned above, she spent an extra day home to recover from strep/stomach bug), he was able to watch Miriam while I picked up Rachel from school.  Because Rachel does gymnastics, an Olympic-sanctioned sport, she can do “off-campus PE”. This means that PE is scheduled as the last class of the day, and kids can leave campus during that time and receive PE credit for their training at the gym. This luxury starts in middle school for kids who spend as much time practicing gymnastics or other Olympic-sanctioned sports as some people do part-time jobs.  When I arrived at the school, I was informed that kids couldn’t be picked up early on the first day.  After explaining that I hadn’t received that information, the front desk lady didn’t seem to care.   I asked the counselor and she “didn’t know anything about that” and we all have to “just roll with it.  it’s the first day!”

What – the – hell.  I had spent the previous 2 days being puked AND pooped on and had very little sleep.  I also had to reschedule the above mentioned allergy appointment, because the baby was too sick for evaluation by the allergist.  The rescheduling also meant another vacation day was going down the drain.  Oh yes, and those few precious hours that I was going to squeeze in at work – toast, not even possible!  But, I was just supposed to “roll with it”.  Somehow, I managed not to  go postal.  The school staff seemed stressed out, so I figured it was best not to argue.  I went back to the minivan and killed more time on Facebook until the regular dismissal time.  

On a positive note, Sarah and Miriam’s issues prevented me from becoming to weepy about Rachel starting middle school.  Now, I am stuck at the house (and as of 9:30 CT, we have electricity) and I have time to look back.  Below is a gallery of sweet little Rachel, kindergarten – 6th.  Oh dear, I already feel teary – nope, I am saving those tears for her first day in college…

first day of Kindergarten

First day of 1st grade. She wanted to take flowers to her sweet teacher.

First day of second grade.

First day of 3rd grade

first day of 4th grade.

first day of 5th grade. Sarah is photo bombing!

first day – 6th grade!