Valentine's Day Massacre

I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day, friends!  Mine was very eventful; filled with paper hearts, sprinkle-coated cookies and a late-night trip to the emergency room.

I had intended some blog silence on Thursday as it was a holiday, but it was the near all-nighter I pulled on Thursday night that was the reason for my sudden and unexplained internet absence. 

Graham's latest adventure in illness was a fast one.  When he woke up on Thursday morning, he was 100% healthy.  At lunch time, he let out one cough that was my only indication of what was to come.  By bedtime, his cough had turned to croup, and his head had turned feverish, so I tucked him in bed with Tylenol and a vaporizer and hoped for the best.

There was never any hope, though.  It was a holiday, and in my home, holidays always spell disaster. 
Around ten o'clock, while Joel and I were watching television, I heard a funny sound on the boys' monitor.  My gut told me that I wasn't hearing snoring, or Cael talking in his sleep, so we sneaked into the dark room and listened to the sound of Graham's wheezing.

I'd never heard that sound from either of my kids before, so we had to make a few phone calls to assess the severity of our situation, and everyone agreed that we needed to be seen immediately.  So, shortly before eleven, a very snuggly and pathetic Graham and I headed into the hospital. 

But as all kids seem to do, it was that moment that Graham decided to "turn it on".  With the exception of a low fever and some minor wheezing, my boy appeared to be the picture of health, singing along with Disney Junior shows that ran all through the night and, like cockroaches, I suspect would be one of the only things remaining after a nuclear holocaust.  We took a chest xray, were introduced to the nebulizer, and after thwarting any hope of a full night's sleep, received our discharge papers at two-fifteen in the morning.

"That was fun, Mommy."

No it wasn't.

Our return home brought with it the return of Graham's weepy, whiny and tired demeanor, and his steroid prescription has served as an extra insurance policy that today, another holiday, couldn't go too smoothly.  So please accept my apologies for going MIA last week, and feel free to pass on any positive thoughts for the holidays to come.

We're gonna need them.