Sick Bears Are Sad

Miss Bear has an ear infection.

There's nothing sadder than a baby with an ear infection. The ailment leads to inconsolable crying in the middle of the night for hours on end. It's guaranteed to make even the stoutest parent into a nervous wreck. 

Now, when Miss Bear is sad, she makes she that everyone around her knows it. The child actually says, "Boo Hoo", carefully enunciating each word for greatest effect.

Due to her great sorrow, Miss Bear wound up in bed with Mr. and Mrs. Snark, sandwiched in the middle of the mattress with a stolen pillow and a pile of blankies.

Soon after, Miss Bear fell back to sleep. However, to ensure that her parents did not accidentally obtain any quality REM time, Miss Bear made a point of whimpering every thirty seconds or so. 

Darth Snark has it easy. He slaps on his breathing mask and is out like a light. A bomb could go off and he wouldn't hear it. However, Mrs. Snark is a light-sleeper, and so she laid awake for over an hour, listening to Mr. Snark exhale, Miss Bear whimper, Mr. Snark exhale, whimper, exhale...and so on.

I think I went insane.  I'm not really sure, but I'm pretty sure.

At 6:30AM, the alarm went off. Mr. Snark continued to snooze contentedly away so Mrs. Snark dragged herself from bed in order to get the boys up and moving.

Having assured they were getting ready for school, she returned to bed only to find Miss Bear sleeping sideways across the mattress, taking up every inch of available space. I kid you not, the child had expanded in order to occupy the entire area.

Apparently, Miss Bear is really Miss Kitty. 

Mrs. Snark turned herself into a U and managed to find a few square inches on the mattress. Her eyes closed and fifteen minutes later, Mr. Snark woke her up to tell her that one of the boys needed to be taken to school.

The morning after is worse than the night of. It's like a party without any pleasure. Of course, sick kids are part of parenting, but when it's happening to YOU, it feels like being trapped in some eternal half-waking nightmare. 

Bleary-eyed parents always have the luxury of a coffee binge to help them follow the ingrained patterns of routine. Hours later when the buzz starts to wear off, the jitters set in--shaking hands, blank stare. Once the full caffeine hangover hits, it only gets worse until you can't complete a sentence or maintain enough concentration to win at Tic Tac Toe.

Miss Bear saw her doctor today and received antibiotics. She's in bed now, hopefully there to stay.

I had some sort of humorous anecdote about my son's trumpet playing prowess to tell you today, but the entire thought process got blown to smithereens. I haven't really reconstructed a useful sentiment since.

I'm heading to bed now. I hope someone can read this in the morning and laugh.

Hell, I hope that I can read this in the morning and laugh.