Friday, September 13, 2013

Super Trooper

Against all odds, all the kids are sick again. Not only does this make for the second round of colds of the summer (which is very nearly over), and the third experience for Mia in just five short months of life, we haven't even been anywhere exciting where we might have picked it up. All I can think is that Abby managed to get it passed along to her as a result of her overaggressive tendencies toward socialization in the crying room at church. Clearly, she was sharing more than crayons and books with some of the other kids.

Sigh.

It started on Wednesday, when Abby started sniffling just enough to get me suspicious. Yesterday, Abby started coughing, and Michael started sniffling. Today, Mia started doing both, while the others continued on with heightened occurrences of each.

I must admit to feeling pretty defeated. I know it's just a cold, but when it was just one (non-newborn) child with a cold, it was more of an annoyance than anything- dealing with all of the snot and worrying about the coughing that could be heard over the monitor all night long, times one. Of course, that one child was also Abby, who managed to avoid illness altogether for her first year of life, and has since shrugged off most things that came her way.

For Michael, it's never been so easy. He tends to run low-grade fevers when ill- like he did today- which make him very cranky. As for Mia, she's still quite young, so congestion is a very big deal, especially when it comes to sleeping and eating. She's having a hard time with both.

Add to that the compounding quantities of snot, which they get all over me, the furniture, the walls, and each other (and I don't want to know what else). And more- two other sources from which I find myself ducking my head as they freely sputter, sneeze, and hack. It's enough to make me want to jump in a boiling-hot shower after spending five minutes with them.

I suppose that's all the more reason to be thankful for Abby's resilience, however. Michael and Mia were a handful all day long, but Abby was a ray of sunshine- albeit, a boogery one. On top of all that, half the time she can successfully wipe and blow her own nose, and will- at the very least- approach me for a tissue or help with doing so instead of flailing and screaming her head off like the other two. She's also learning to cover her mouth, though she can't be counted on to do it most of the time just yet. 

Interestingly, for the first time, Abby's got that scratchy/squeaky voice thing going which- I'm surprised to report- is equally as endearing as it is pathetic. I would feel bad for her, except that it doesn't seem to be bothering her at all, and it sounds incredibly cute. I've tried to catch it on video a couple of times, though it never quite seems to come across.

For more reasons than just my own sanity, I'm hoping that today comprised the very worst of it. We've got a birthday party to attend, which I pray my family won't be too much of a liability at, since it will be held outdoors. I'm sure that Abby will be raring to go, but if the others aren't feeling so great (and/or still appear to be radiating germs from all of their pores), it will certainly complicate our plans.

Maybe I'll just send Abby off with Tom. I mean, after this whole conversation, how could we let her down?





What a trooper she is. Still, there are some things I wish she wouldn't share with her siblings...