It was an unnaturally long weekend, beginning Thursday night with Julianna wheezing and gasping for air—with a nebulizer and albuterol (thank Heavens we had it on hand) and Christian keeping her on the couch all night. He stayed home from work Friday, and his boss was heard to tell the staff, “Guys! Hell’s frozen over! Christian took a sick day!”
Friday passed in a haze as I flirted with the virus that has knocked out our whole family, and Christian worked from home. We went to the doctor to get a script for the albuterol, in case we ran out over the weekend. (That in itself is a highlight, because it’s the first time we’ve taken her to the doctor for an illness and she didn’t land in the hospital!) That night Julianna spiked a fever of 103, but thank God, by Saturday morning her temperature was normal and she was starting to cough productively, instead of sounding like a seal.
Sunday morning, Alex began PreK religious ed. He’s suspicious of anything new since swim lessons, but he seemed to enjoy it. Before that, however, he spent our choir warmup wandering around the music room banging on the various percussion instruments she has lining the walls. I usually make him stop when we’re rehearsing, but he was staying quiet, so I let it go. We were rehearsing one of my songs and I wanted to concentrate. And then, to the mutual amazement of the group, Alex trickled a finger down the windchimes, adding a magical dimension that I had never even imagined. When we finished, Christian and I turned to each other and said, “Maybe we should borrow those for church this morning.” Five minutes later Alex came over to the piano while we were working a cappella, and bashed a Superman action figure down on a single key, which happened to be the exact same C# that the sopranos were struggling to tune.
The contemporary group is used to child-related interruptions—considering we have between 2 and 5 kids (ages 0-4) at any given rehearsal—but even for us, this was a new experience. What are the chances?
Last night my children and my aching throat conspired to keep me awake almost the entire night, so this morning I am weary even before our outing to buy groceries and attend the dreaded Swim Lessons. But this morning, remembering my struggles to clothe myself yesterday after church, I passed another milestone: I broke out the maternity pants.
As long as I’m at it, I might as well end this disorganized post by sharing a darned funny video I stumbled across while searching the web for pictures of Darth Vader, who is Alex’s newest character obsession:
Kathleen M. Basi 