A Rough Week

I don't have an update on any of my little friends, because I barely saw them this week.

Monday was a teacher inservice day, so no students at school. Tuesday Robby, my 4 yr old, became suddenly and severely ill with a "common childhood illness" that I had never heard of - and after 10+ years of teaching small children, I thought I knew them all. We spent 5 hours having tests down at the closest hospital Tuesday afternoon, only to be told "well, we've eliminated X and Y, so it must be Z!" HATE that, when the doctors don't really know what's wrong with my kid but won't admit it! Wednesday Robby seemed a bit better, so we headed back to school - big mistake, because Thursday morning he was twice as sick as before and I wound up missing Thursday and Friday to nurse him. The good news is, I'm sure he's finally on the mend and we will all be able to go back to school tomorrow!

Will, my 6 yr old, was initially quite ticked off that HE had to go to school while Robby got to stay home with Mom. Then I dangled the offer of riding the bus - something Will has wanted to do since preK, but never been allowed because there isn't anyone home when the bus hits our neighborhood! - in front of him and that suddenly made it much better. Isn't it funny what kids see as an awesome experience? I H-A-T-E-D riding the school bus every day, got picked on incessantly, and was often left without a seat because I was the last one on each morning and intensely unpopular. Will? Finds the whole bus thing fun beyond words, especially that he has a "bus buddy" and an assigned seat.

So today I get to go over and see just what a disaster is left after 2 days of emergency subs! I did, of course, run over Thursday night to scan the note that day's sub had left and put out things for the Friday sub, so I have some inkling of what I'm going to see. The problem is, the kids had Sub A when I had to leave in the middle of the day on Tuesday - the school nurse insisted Robby had to be examined by a doctor immediately! - Sub B on Thursday and Sub C on Friday, which is never a good thing!

I can only imagine how Van Gogh and Thing 1 melted down in the face of 3 different subs. As for my little girl who responds to any change or stress by making herself puke - frankly, I emailed her mother and told her I was going to be gone those 2 days, in the unspoken hope she would just keep Pukey home! The sub had enough to deal with between Toddler Girl, Van Gogh, and Thing 1, he/she didn't need to listen to gag-gag-hurl two or three times a day!

So that's been my week. I'm sure the kids will be glad to see me on Monday... at least until I tell them I'm going to be gone again in just a few days to take Will to a doctor's appointment!