Home Sick

We finally got up to 80+ degrees yesterday, although it was extremely windy. All of my plants were perky and blooming and it really felt like a normal summer day. It was perfect mowing weather, so I hit the yard last night after the sun broke a bit. The windows were open all day allowing the fresh breeze to permeate the house and brighten it up a bit, too.

Unfortunately, the flowering plants, the mowing, and the fresh breeze throughout the house (kicking up all my dust) also meant severe allergies for Shannon come 5:00 am this morning. When his allergies kick up he retains fluid behind his ears, especially his right ear, making him extremely miserable. I can keep this reaction at bay by giving him a dose of Claritin before things kick in, but this time I was too late. We had a rough night with a lot of tears, ear holding and thrashing about, and by 7:00 am his ear was still hurting him and he had no desire to eat his breakfast or go to school. I knew it was bad because he couldn't hear me when I was only 8 feet away and all he wanted to do was go back to bed.

We went through our entire school day routine and I took Riley and Corey out to the bus. By the time I got back in, this is what I found on my couch:

Oh, yeah, the band-aid. Shannon scraped his nose on the neighbor's swing the other day, leaving a V-shaped scab. Last night in his sleep, he ripped the scab off and after his morning bath demanded I apply a band-aid to cover it up. Blue crayon band-aid to the rescue.

After talking to Ken, who dealt with Shannon's hysteria for the better half of the night, I understood the urgent need for the band-aid. Shannon had told his dad that it was his scab's fault that his ears were hurting because the scab was shaped like an arrow and pointing toward the ear that hurt. Silly me, I thought it was just the allergies.