1:00 IS the Best Time...

Whew! That's all I can say. Whew! I am going to complain about something that I have NO BUSINESS complaining about and I am going to whine even though I should be counting my blessings. I am too old and too tired (and it is too late) to count ANYTHING right now (except drinks if my body didn't hate me these days and would ALLOW me to do so). So. Where was I? Right--counting blessings. So I am very lucky to have such a wonderful family and am even luckier that we are all---teetering on healthy. Blah blah blah, I love them, blah blah blah, it could be so much worse, blah blah blah thank God! NOW...I am going to be ungrateful and perhaps snippy--I think. 'Cause to be honest, I NEVER know where this is going to go. EVER. Shocking, right?! Here you were thinking I typed out these well thought-out posts--okay, I can't even type this without choking. SOOOOO...I had a plan. I did. My children don't have school Thursday or Friday so I thought it would be fun to get them just before the bus on Wednesday and take them to stay with friends in Princeton (maybe not-so-much fun for the friends, but WE would be happy!) for the night. On Thursday, we would all go to a children's museum for the day. (If you don't have a friends and family reciprocal yearly pass and you have children 10 and under (maybe even older) it is WELL worth it! I even did it when we lived in Montana and the closest one was two hours away from us! It REALLY DOES pay for itself--we visit children's museums everywhere we go and stop along the way when we are on trips.) LOOONG sidebar! Anyway, there was this plan and it was going to be great. Like plans often are. Then, LIFE happens. On Sunday, my poor Addie was complaining that her ear hurt when she touched it. What did we say? Right--don't touch it! Well, she mentioned it to friends and said it again on Monday morning when I was showering her. It looked bright red, but she was in a hot shower and wasn't really COMPLAINING necessarily. It went more like this: "Leilani left scooowul eawrly dee othewer day." "Really? Was she sick?" "No. She went to dee dentist at 1:00." "Well, I hope she is okay." "Umm...no. She didn't bwrush hewer teef so she had to get a cabity at da dentist. At 1:00." "Okaaaaayyy..." "Cood I weave at 1:00 to go to da dentist one day? But I could go to da doctewer to fix my eawer? At 1:00?" "Seriously, Addison--why are you so obsessed with 1:00? What if we go at 2:00?" "No. Because Leilani left scooowul to get hewer cabity fwrom da dentist at 1:00." This was at seven in the morning. She didn't mention it again until we were in the car on our way to her school at 9:20. I would write the conversation, but it was EXACTLY the same as what I already typed. AND it turns out she had the EXACT same conversation with my husband the night before and with my friend over the weekend. She even walked into the school and said to the sweet ladies in the front, "I hafta weave at 1:00 to go to da doctewer." The child NEEDED to leave school at 1:00. Normally I wouldn't just pull her out because she WANTED me to...OBVIOUSLY...but her ear WAS bright red and she did complain about the pain...what if I didn't bring her and she ended up with an ear infection? I stoped by the doctor and what do you know? "The only available time we have is 1:30..." I'm sure the lady behind the desk thought I was a freak when I said, "That couldn't be MORE perfect!" When I got to school, she ran to me with her sweet smile, but she felt warm and her teacher said she was a bit melancholy throughout the day (she is usually, what? Bouncing off walls? Probably...). Her eyes were big and glassy and she seemed to get hotter by the second. As we waited to be seen by the doctor, I noticed her ear. It was portruding off the side of her head, but THAT wasn't the bothersome part. There was what looked to be a flat blister on her ear where it meets the skull. I hadn't noticed THAT when we were debating times in the shower. The back of her neck was swollen as well. I couldn't BELIEVE I had missed it! It seemed to grow by the SECOND and I couldn't stand having to wait for the doctor. At this rate, her head would need it's own ZIP CODE if he didn't get in there soon! More unnerving than how disgusting her...gaping wound? looked was the fact that our doctor brought in several others (nurses, doctors, custodial staff...) to take a look as well. It seems that my family is famous for coming up with new things for our doctors to investigate. Aren't WE the lucky ones?! We left with an Augmentin script and a follow-up appointment in the morning. It seems that having a gaping woulnd so close to one's skull (and brain) is alarming and needs to be treated seriously. When we returned in the morning (and the swelling was taking over most of her head (yes, I use hyperbole...I'm THE MOTHER. It's allowed), our doctor told me to take her to the children's hospital in Philly (CHOP) as soon as possible. Not. Scary. At. All. Part two is going to have to come tomorrow because I'm falling asleep writing this. From home. Where my healthy children are sleeping upstairs in their beds. Until I decide to go to sleep and they commence the hindering of my sleep. It's good to be home...'Night!