And, finally, there was sleep

Right now, both kids are asleep. No one is crying. No one is burning up, or screaming in pain, or clutching and kicking hot little feet at my face because I am mama and I'm supposed to make it BETTER, DANGIT! I am sitting - SITTING! BY MYSELF! - and eating a bowl of strawberries - EATING!! BY MYSELF!! - and having a glass of wine to toast the end of a very long 10 day stretch in mama-dom.

Last Friday, Anika complained of a tummy ache and leg pain, and it wasn't until a few hours later when she started burning up that I started to worry and brace myself for the vomit that, mercifully, didn't emerge. What did emerge is a very sick little girl who refused to even go swimming while on the sugar high that medicine apparently gives my kids. This kid would swim outside in a non-heated pool in the dead of winter if we'd let her, so I knew something was amiss. An IV, an ultrasound, blood and urine tests, several doses of medicine and two-and-a-half Disney movies later, her heartbeat was finally back to a normal level and her fever was down and they decided we had some unidentified infection that should pass in a week or so.

But Reni's not sick, I thought to myself. Then I called Armando to let him know we were on our way back from the ER and all was fine. Reni's got a fever, he said.

F#$ck.

The rest of the week is a blur, really. I don't know if it's possible to overdose on coffee but I'm pretty sure I put that theory to the test. We went to the pediatrician's office three separate occasions, at all of which one or both kids were throwing a fit and at one visit Anika actually pooped in her pants (imagine, for a moment, the look of horror on other parents' faces and that of the receptionist when you wail, unthinking and way too loudly, 'but I don't have any other pants for you!') Again, she never has accidents so something was certainly amiss. Anika had weird bumps on her tongue and still complained of her leg hurting, and Reni ended up having strep that we were way too late in diagnosing, so his misery was prolonged and I'm still feeling a tad guilty for not insisting on the strep test for both kids, even if the doctor assured me that if one kid was negative, the other one certainly wouldn't have strep.

Reni also has impetigo - basically looks like herpes on your chin....kids are so gross sometimes, no? - and Anika does not, so from now on I will insist the doctor treats them as separate patients and not as if they are one and the same kid.

So here we are, finally almost healthy again and hoping we don't have an intense week like that for a good long while. Tonight, as we were snuggled in her bed, Anika turned to me, touched her nose to mine, and said, "We are a family. Reni looks like daddy and I look like you. I love you and I love our family." Later, while I was snuggling Reni, he was singing himself to sleep like he often does. Tonight, he was singing an original, impromptu homage to his Omega-3 vitamins, which are shaped like fish from the movie "Finding Nemo." "Nemo gummies, yummy, yummy," he sang, then he giggled and put his face against mine and fell asleep.