Like wine

Rough weekend.

Addie has a wierd mouth virus.  It pretty much looks like she licked a cheese grater and then chased it with a cup of battery acid.  Canker sores and wierd flaky spots all over her tongue and cheeks.  As well, her gums are swollen and bright red...bleeding if you touch them.  

No fever, thankfully, but she is ONE MISERABLE LITTLE COOT.

Treatment for this virus is supposedly TIME.  

So all you can do is try to alleviate symptoms...keep the kid hydrated, give them Tylenol, and feed them tasteless food.

(There's a joke about my cooking in there, somewhere)

Now, this is a kid who is on a perpetual hunger strike, particularly when ill.

She gets the sniffles, and refuses to eat for a week.

We've come to accept it as NORMAL.  

But this week, it's worse.

Because she WANTS to eat. 

She's hungry.

But it hurts her little mouth too much...and she gets FURIOUS.

No matter what we give her, she hurls it with enough force to dent our major appliances.

In three days, we've managed to exhaust our supply of tasteless treats - plain pasta...applesauce...plain, dry crepes...plain, dry bread...milk.  

All of it is too much for her sore little mouth to handle.

She just sits there, pitches it away, and sobs.

She has taken a bit of milk here and there...and a couple of times, choked down a few pieces of plain macaroni with unsalted melted butter.  But each time, she winced and cried.

This is supposed to pass within the next day or two.

Argh.

Tomorrow: Vanilla-free tapioca.

2.  Eva was doing homework tonight...she had to choose a country she wants to visit, and tell why.  She said, "OH FRANCE!!!!  Because they have lots of good things in France.  Like WINE!"  Oh, child of my heart.  How I do love thee.

3.  Addie ripped a mighty fart this evening...it sounded like a jumbo jet landed in the yard.  Then she chirped, "MERCI!"  

Yeah?  Well, you're welcome. 

4.  They tag-teamed last night...Adder waking up complaining about teeth, and Eva laughing like a hyena in her sleep. 

Then Adder woke up sobbing at 4a.m.  

I didn't know what to do with her (read: sleep-deprived), so I brought her in with Etienne and me.  

I am so very, very stupid.

She woke up COMPLETELY.

"MAMA!  PAPA!"  (then, clearly delighted to see us): "HEL-LO!!!"

After explaining that Eva's sleeping, Papa's sleeping, the cat is sleeping, the grandparents and assorted aunts, uncles and cousins (by name) are sleeping, the Prime Minister is sleeping, the President is sleeping, and every child on every continent (by name) is sleeping...she finally went back to sleep.

An hour later, Eva rolled into bed with us.  

Nothing like waking up before daylight ON A SUNDAY MORNING and then sharing your already full-enough two-person bed with a drooling, fretfully-sleeping baby and an almost-six year old who kicks and has a mania for scratching other people's backs and arms. 

Rough, rough weekend.

And hey!  Tomorrow's MONDAY.