Guess who has strep yet again? That’s right–my kid! This time, it’s so bad that the diagnosis was upgraded to Scarlet Fever. Sounds ominous, but it’s really just strep with a rash and high fever. Alex was up around 105 degrees on Tuesday morning, which scared me horribly. He really felt dreadful. Three days later, he feels better, but he’s still running a low-grade fever, and his rash has spread to his entire body. He could play an alien on Star Trek without needing make-up. Spots are running all around his face and wrapping around his neck. (And behind his ears, and all over his chest and back, and in the diaper area, and down his legs…)
We’ve been stuck inside all week. To make things worse, I signed up to work VBS at church this week, and that takes place in the evenings. I don’t really know what I was thinking, seeing as I don’t particularly like little kids. I’m with 4th and 5th graders, and my group is all boys. They’re making me fear the future when my son is older. Boys that age are… interesting. Loud, obnoxious, full of themselves, somewhat incapable of following instructions. So, sort of like my toddler in much larger form. Except my kid isn’t obnoxious. Yet.
All this means that I’m with a cranky toddler who doesn’t feel well all day, then I go and hang out with a bunch of wild kids in the evenings. Running errands? I fit that in whenever possible. As Steven was leaving for work the other day, he told me that the cat litter situation was getting dire. I gave him a blank look and said (with some admitted snark), “What do you think I can do about it?” I had an insanely sick and contagious toddler on my hands. It’s not like I could pack him up and run to the store with him. Instead, Steven came home for lunch, and I raced out the door to buy litter before he had to go back to work. That’s pretty much been my week. Alex is almost out of almond milk? Run to the store at 9:30 pm.
Yesterday, I took a nap. My Danged Tile did not get cleaned as per the Thursday schedule. I didn’t regret that decision yesterday, but I kind of do today, as it still needs to be done. That extra sleep was so needed, though. Alex has been crying out in his fevered sleep a lot, which means I wake up every time he does. I’m tired.
Because I wanted PBS turned off this morning for a while (I’ve been a lax parent this week and have let Alex watch WAY too much TV while sick), I decided to try making homemade play-doh. It was amazingly simple to make, and I’d bought some food coloring a while back just for this purpose. Alex was perplexed by it at first, but then he got the hang of it. More or less. He was into taking it away from me, smashing it with a rolling pin, and organizing it in containers. This kid loves to organize. Boy after my own heart!
I’m kind of looking forward to the weekend when I’ll have some help. That means I can escape… to the grocery store.
The Oklahoma Texan 