The Streak Is Broken

For as many years as the boys have been at our local school, I have successfully managed to avoid taking them out to their school bus stop in my pajamas.  Sadly, as of today, I can no longer make that claim.

Mornings at our house are pretty crazy in general.  I've cut it close more than a few times, sprinting upstairs to get dressed as the kids are finishing their breakfasts and putting on their backpacks and shoes.  Our bus stop is at the end of our driveway, 100 yards or so from the house, and we live on a main road.  People drive by at 50-60MPH, so there's no way my elementary schoolers will be out there alone.

Thing Two has had a cough for a week or so.  Nothing out of the ordinary for him--every &%#$ respiratory bug he gets goes directly to his chest.  As long as he is acting and eating normally and has no symptoms other than the cough, I send him to school...otherwise he'd be home half the winter.  Last night, I noticed that the cough seemed worse, so I made an appointment for him with the pediatrician for this morning.

At 4:35AM, I was awakened by the sound of Thing Two vomiting (blessedly, in the bathroom and not all over his bed.)  He was coughing so hard that it had triggered a gag reflex.  Nothing the kid tried to eat or drink for breakfast when he got up again later stayed in, so I had a LOT of cleaning to do.  Of course, while also trying to make sure the other two were up, dressed, fed and ready to go and keeping the dog out of the way!  I was very happy that Thing One actually made it to the bus stop on time, and the world will just have to deal with the view it got of my blue fleece snowflake PJ bottoms.  I was deeply grateful that the stylish seventh-grade girl next door was not at our communal bus stop today, however...a small blessing.

After dropping The Girl off at her school, we went to see the pediatrician, who confirmed that the poor kid has bronchitis.  He was as cooperative as he could have been for her, and even managed to puke neatly into gallon Ziploc bags in both the car and the pharmacy while we were waiting for his antibiotics.  (In a fit of unusual foresight, I had grabbed a handful of bags, a box of wipes, and a full change of clothing for him on the way out the door, which proved to have been a good call even though he managed to avoid needing the spare clothes.)  The second we got home, I gave him the first dose of meds, parked him in a kitchen chair with his DS, and told him to sit still because I wanted him not to cough so the meds would stay inside him where they belonged!

That one dose of Zithromax worked wonders: two hours later the coughing had lessened significantly, and an hour after that he was hounding me for food, all of which stayed in for a pleasant change.  Lunch, snack, dinner, no problem.  He's supposed to be able to go back to school tomorrow after the next antibiotic dose--we'll play that by ear.  

But all in all, not a day I have any interest in repeating.  And the fashion faux pas was the least of it!