Kids Do the Darndest Things!
I don’t know what it is about Opening Night of a play that brings out the weird in my family. My church’s annual musical revue, a fundraiser for the organ fund, opened tonight. So last night was dress rehearsal. I had planned to take the kids, since this weekend is a visitation one, but then I learned that we were going to run the show twice. That meant that rehearsal would end around 10 p.m., and I have a strict rule about their bedtime on school nights. (I mean, even if we DO homeschool, they still have to be up and at their studies the next day.)
So they stayed home, and my folks sent them to bed at the usual hour of 8:30 p.m. So I get home at 10:45 and head up to bed. The boys are still awake. I read ’em the riot act. And then this morning they were zonked (of course! little guffins!).
And the youngest one wakes up with a cherry-red face and a rash all over his left side, and a cough that sounds like a barking seal. So I took the afternoon off from work and took him to the pediatrician. Now, understand, I thoroughly catechize my kids when they come down with something. “Have you eaten anything unusual? Have you been playing in the bushes? Have you gotten bit by a bug?” and so on.
So you can imagine my reaction when, after the doctor has expressed bewilderment as to what is causing this rash — bacterial swab clear, viral check clear, throat normal, glands normal, ears and nose normal — my son says, “Could it be my allergies? I rolled down a hill of freshly mowed grass with Daddy last weekend….”
GAH! Yeah! And if you had TOLD me that this morning, I would have pumped you full of Benadryl and been done with it. And it wouldn’t have cost me $45!