Waffles

     I'm trying to not use this space as a repository for all my complaints and whining.  I want to stay positive, but people who know me know this is a challenge.  I am, at heart, a complainer and its something I'm trying to work on.  I could write a long list of things that are annoying me this week, but instead, I'll try to make lemonade.

     I spent this week with a cold and so did Leila.  When she gets a cold, she inevitably gets an ear infection, and they always come at night.  Usually, they come on a Friday or Saturday night, requiring a trip to the after-hours pediatric clinic (which sounds like they're open all night, but they aren't; you call at 9:00 a.m. and maybe get in by three in the afternoon.)  You sit in a waiting room with kids who are really sick and at their most contagious, while my kid is at the end of her cold and just needs someone to look in her ear with a bright light and confirm what I already know, so we can wait a few more hours for the pharmacy to give us the white stuff that makes ear infections go away, if we can find pharmacy that's open Sunday.  This time, though, my darling spared me the clinic and got her ear infection on Wednesday night, which made things easier.  We got the white stuff, and were cleared to go to school on Friday, thank God.  Friday morning, we're getting ready for school, I feel like crap, Leila looks warmed over, and when I give her the white stuff, the poor thing pukes all over the kitchen table.  So I'm cleaning up the puke, and her ear starts hurting and she starts yelling "OW! OW! OW!" while the dog is licking her legs because he's become heady with the smell of regurgitated waffles.  I was so ready to walk away.  I wanted to grab my kid, get in the car, drive to the airport, fly to mexico, and stay there.  Frankly, that trip would have been excruciating with a kid with an ear infection, but in my mind it was the only solution.  

     We hunkered down. We were a team.  She got her medicine down without throwing it back up and we high-fived.  She made it to school two minutes late, and I didn't care.  I went grocery shopping, and as a treat, I bought the puppy some red sparkly devil horns for Halloween.  Now, how is this lemonade?  I'm not entirely sure, but this is best I can do today.  Tomorrow will be better, and the day after will be even better, right?  RIGHT?!