It was such a whirlwind the past handful of days. With the long weekend (yay Labour Day), I was expecting nothing much to happen, but all of a sudden it was crammed full of activity. We ended up visiting friends for a spontaneous BBQ while the girls splashed in the pool, we went to a local park for Family Day which means eight billion people and a lot of activities, we went to another friend’s house for more swimming and pizza, we were meant to attend a wedding but something urgent came up that prevented it, and I had to get Hayley ready for another day of school. Whew. I’m tired just writing that.

Last night I got to re-experience the joys of a newborn because Breanna was unable to sleep and the longest stretch of slumber that I got was, no kidding, one hour and fifteen minutes long. She came down with a cold and was so congested that she tossed and turned and moaned all night long. Every time I would start to doze off, she would climb on top of me and wail, then fall asleep with her elbow jammed in my throat. That was fun. Toddlers with colds are a true joy, especially when they hate the bulb syringe.

I managed to get up on time this morning and woke Hayley up only to discover she had a sore throat. I asked her if it was really bad and if she wanted to stay home. She was distressed about her throat but equally distressed about staying home from school, so she got up. She wasn’t sniffling or sneezing, and after a glass of juice with breakfast she said her throat was better, so I got her dressed and took her down to the bus.

Today wasn’t so bad, I wasn’t mooning around the apartment missing Hayley every three seconds. That may be due to the fact that Breanna spent most of the day crying hysterically about her nose which she wiped regularly on my shoulder (note to self – toss Hogwarts shirt into washing machine tomorrow morning).

At 2:45 I headed downstairs to wait for Hayley’s bus. When it stopped in front of me, I eagerly awaited Hayley’s smiling face to come bounding off the bus. Instead, a sad little creature slumped off the bus and when she saw me, she burst into tears, telling me, “I, I, I, I, I have a, a, a, (sniff) COOOOOLD!”

It was heartbreaking. I mean, it’s just a cold, it’s not like she came home with a note from the teacher saying, “sorry, but your daughter caught Ebola in the cafeteria and Malaria in the school yard” or anything, but still. Seeing your little not-yet-five-year-old kid come off the bus crying? That’s just sad, no matter what the reason.

Both girls spent the rest of the day lying around the couch or the floor, moaning, sniffing, and occasionally crying. It was a total blast. I knew that Hayley wasn’t faking it at all when she admitted that she actually fell asleep during Quiet Time at school. This is a kid who gave up naps before she turned two, so that takes a special kind of exhausted.

Luckily, we’re still on the progressive entry schedule so she has tomorrow off again while the other half of the class attends their second day of Kindergarten. She goes back on Thursday and then it’s the whole class all together for the first time, so hopefully she’ll be better then. I’m going to keep her quiet tomorrow and see. She usually only takes a day or so to rebound from a cold and then it’s just an occasional outburst of rage over having to blow her nose. If she’s as miserable as she was this afternoon come Thursday morning, I’ll have to keep her home (and parents of all the other kids will thank me), but I know she’s hoping that she’ll feel okay by then because she doesn’t want to miss out on the first big day with all 20 kids together. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I got the kids down to bed, Hayley with some Tylenol Cold, Breanna with some straight up Tylenol, and a humidifier for Breanna since she can’t take a decongestant. Both have woken up in between then and now and have been re-settled. In between that I managed to clean the kitchen, pick up the living room, and catch up on most (but not all) of my work. I’m going to bed though, I’m exhausted and I know the girls aren’t the only ones with a cold. Bah.

******

There are photos from Family Day right here.

Also, I got some free shoes to try out, and I reviewed them over here. You should go read it because it includes some details on how you can win one of 50 pairs of shoes per day.