Return of the Viral Crud

Its BAAAAACK.

I don't get it about this cold. When my workmate Debbie told us that everyone in her house got the crud twice, I said, "That won't happen to us!"

HA HA HA.

THE NEXT DAY...the VERY NEXT DAY..Jupiter started a little cough. Then it progressed. She got the stuffy nose. Then she got the FEVER. She came home from school because of the fever.

She's been right cranky the second time around. We were having a super good spell for a couple of weeks. Then the crud came back and yeah, well, that's over. Maybe that's a little simplistic. She's not so much defiant as unable to control herself. Translating into more hitting and spitting. People at church today (I was going to stay home, but Jupiter REALLY wanted to go. She loves to play with her friends there.) were quite amused when we came IN from Sunday school, wandered down the aisle to find a seat, sat there 30 seconds, wandered back UP the aisle to go take a break in the narthex while discussing the total unappropriateness of hitting me in CHURCH, then wandered back DOWN the aisle to go to our seat again.

At Hannaford she spit at me. We went home. She threw her cup of goldfish into the front seat while we were at a red light. It's RAINING GOLDFISH! She spit some more, so she went right into quiet time. During quiet time, she took apart a beanie baby and spread little teeny plastic balls all over her bed spread. I removed the little teeny plastic balls and sent her back to quiet time. After quiet time, we had a good afternoon. Before supper we went for a walk up the street. She told me it was a treasure hunt.

I ended up with a gold Christmas wrapping bow in my pocket. I got to carry an empty strawberry milk bottle, an empty gallon milk jug, a piece of paper labeled olive something or other, and a flattened aresol can of Resolve. Remind me next time not to leave the driveway without a plastic bag. I have nothing against cleaning up the street, I just don't want to carry it barehanded.

On the way home Jupiter was behind me, and I turned around to look at her. She had something plastic in her hand. "What is that?" I asked her. She showed me.

"PUT IT DOWN NOW!!!!!" She had located a plastic tampon applicator. (I'm sure it blew out of someone's recycling bin, let you all think my street is terribly unclean. It isn't. But the receding snowbanks reveal many treasures. One of which, at some point, will probably be my lost cell phone.)

"WHY?"

"JUST PUT IT DOWN!!"

"What is it?"

yeah, that's a conversation you want to have walking down the street. So I tried to explain what tampons are and why we need them. Then I hustled her home to have her bath. A nice bath with lots of shampoo and soap.