high + low

I thought I could do a little high/low of the week but then I consulted my brain and realized that it is only Tuesday.

How?

HOW? 

So .... high and low for the last 24 hours, I suppose.

Here we go.

Low time.

Last night I tried for a third time in two days to get my thyroid meds from the pharmacy (first time - they closed five minutes early and there was much figurative fist shaking on my part, second time - it wasn't in stock and I almost took the fist shaking to the literal level) and I had no choice but to take the kids because a little birdie by the name of common sense tells me that I can't leave them home alone. Julia has a bad cold and badder cough that prohibits her from walking in public - as those coughs tend to do - so she had to ride with Theo in the cart which left Sebastian on foot. Sebastian is a runner but I thought maybe he would sense the urgency of the mission and stay tucked in next to his keeper.

No.

If ever there were a time to leash a child ... this would've been it. But I was fresh out of child leashes so we made do with the awkward push-the-massive-cart-with-car-attached with one hand and tight hold of Sebastian's paw with the other. And then we spotted those stupid little kid carts that are good for one thing: maiming adult ankles. Simon let Sebastian use one once (thanks, Sime) and Sebastian hasn't forgotten and so once he realized that I wasn't going to leave the store with bloody ankles ... tantrum like he's never tantrummed before. On the floor. He threw himself on the floor for allllllll to watch and gawk as my massive-cart-with-car-attached blocked the store's entrance. It was one of the most clichéd parenting moments with strangers giving those awful looks of half pity and half annoyance and I'm just happy I was too mortified to cry as I scooped all 35 pounds of tantrum up and ran away as fast as a massive-cart-with-car-attached would let me fly.  Which was speeding bullet fast, as you can imagine. And then we were 6th in line at molasses pharmacy but ... free cookies for "kids 10 and under" (and their mothers ... I presume) at the bakery so ... the low was low but saved by some refined sugar.

High time.

Again with Julia's cough. She's been staying up with me while I clean the house after the boys go down because once I put her down it's a real gamble whether or not she'll hack up a lung (despite the 90 degree angled situation I've constructed for her to sit-sleep in in her bed with 987 pillows) so don't question my logic here. I just think putting her down when she's basically asleep makes the most sense ... mathematically. Or scientifically.

It's weird. We can manage to lose every single match to every single sock in the house but those pretty little Halloween socks that she scored for free at the hospital last year? Always together and readily available. Always.

Tonight, as I finished up in the kitchen, she asked if, "you and your tummy need some help with the cleaning?" and, "did daddy say you could use his sponge?" because I guess Simon is usually the sponge wielder. I never claimed that cleaning was my charism.

And then when her eyelids were headed for droopsville and we were walking to her room to put her down she reminded me, "and just please don't forget my bitch."

Of course not. I could never forget your Vicks vapor rub. Never ever.

(I've found that a touch of bitch on the bare bottoms of her socked feet CAN help her to cough less throughout the night ... but hopefully you don't have a coughing child on your hands to help you test my theory.)

And there will be less rambling tomorrow, I reckon.
See you then.