Parade and a Meltdown

The day started out wonderful. We got up this morning, had our coffee in peace while the children slept on. Then proceeded to go to the parade.

As I mentioned earlier, Lena and Anne have both been coughing this weekend. However, Lena has it way worse. She's stuck in that horrible in between phase right now where she's not big, but she's not little. Last time she got sick it was an argument getting her to take the liquid cough medicine. She wanted a pill because she's "not a baby anymore MOM!" 

So this time when I went to Walgreen's I grabbed her the liquid gels instead. Turns out that ended up being a knock down drag out fight today that I ended up losing in the end. She was terrified to swallow it. She kept insisting she was going to choke if she had to take it. Of course, this pissed me off. Those things certainly are not cheap and we're working on a limited income at the moment.

I certainly didn't put my best mommy foot forward because I ended up yelling at my scared sick little girl. What I should have done it just gone back up to Walgreen's right away and bought the liquid. What I should have done was comfort her when she wasn't feeling good. Instead, I tried to force her to take it. This only brought her to tears, made me look like a monster, and didn't end up helping her cough at all.

Thank goodness for James being my voice of reason. After a good half hour battle he pulled me out into the garage and told me what a grade A moron I was being. He reminded me that the point was to help make her feel better, not worse.

Total mom failure today on my part really. In all truth, I originally had the children's liquid in my hand because I already knew this could potentially happen. Silly me, I listened to my 10 year old and got what she wanted and not what I knew she needed. He ended up going into town, getting the liquid, and then I proceeded to lay on the couch with her for the last 3 hours watching movies and cuddling to make up for my previous lack of empathy. I guess I know better next time.

Indoor Pool and Competition

I've got about 20 minutes left of peace before it'll be time to wake the monsters and get them ready for the parade. Does it make me a terrible parent that both Lena and Anne have been coughing almost non-stop for the past two days and I'm still going to take them anyway? Eh, even if it does, I'm going to justify it and say that they need some fresh air...

Last night at tuck in time, competition reared its ugly head. Even though James and I have been living together for a year, Anne still has some jealousy issues about Lena getting to be with her dad everyday when she doesn't. They're getting better about it for sure, but it still pops up every now and again. When we first started cohabiting any time Lena would get near him, Anne would rush over and climb up into his lap to block any access she might have. Since he's not Lena's dad she really doesn't take much note of these things.

We always make it a point to tell the girls that we love them equally and no one child is more special than the other. We don't treat them any differently either. They're both equally snuggled and equally yelled at. Especially because they're usually in cahoots together when trouble arises. Last night they put on their bathing suits and hopped in the tub together. They ended up flooding the bathroom and breaking the sink "to save Willie" and both got a decent piece of my mind.

After cleaning up their self made pool, we had them get into jammies and climb in bed. Lena takes eons to get situated, which I'm pretty certain is just a stall tactic. She has to fluff all of her pillows, arrange her stuffed animals, and the blankets have to be just perfect before she'll actually lay down. As she's doing this nightly dramatic routine, Anne is complaining about getting the first kisses. We alternate between the two girls typically to make sure that neither one of them if favored over the other. Anne had first kisses the night before so it was Lena's turn.

Anne was having NONE of that. There was a lot of whining and pouting because she felt she should always get first kisses on the weekend because Lena's gets to live with us and she doesn't. Again I had to explain that we love them equally, but I highly doubt that in Anne's 7 year old mind that's enough. She's just one of those kids where she has to be the center of attention all the time or her world is just not right. I'm sure that stems a lot from the fact that she has four step siblings at her mother's house and our other one, Paige. She's the last in that bunch of 6 kids and Paige says it's a constant competition there for attention too.

Thankfully, Lena is heading into those pre-teen years and is more understanding to her "little sister." She told us to go ahead and give Anne first kisses. At first I thought that was mighty big of her. We proceeded to give kisses and then Lena chimes in with...

"My kisses are better anyways, they have germs!"

Ummmm... There goes the glimpse of maturity. In 2 seconds she proved that's she's still just a kid. Such as life I suppose.

No Way to Win This One

What better way to spend a 3 day weekend than with two sick kids right? Here in Lowell, Labor Day weekend is the biggest celebration in town. Are we out enjoying all the festivities? Nope, of course not. I'm sitting around in a pair of workout pants (that haven't really seen any working out) and a t-shirt dusted in pancake mix instead.

Both Lena and Anne have been hacking their brains out for the last two days. I tried good old faithful Robitussin which basically just cut the wet hacking cough down to every 10 minutes instead of every 5. Oh goodie! I finally gave up hoping it would help about an hour ago and ran up to Walgreen's to get some Nyquil.

Last time Lena wasn't feeling good she complained that I had bought the liquid cough medicine because, let's face it, it tastes like crap. It's basically like sucking on an alcohol prep wipe with a hint of cherry to make it extra disgusting. With that in mind, I purchased the gel tabs, thinking that this would make her happy. Instead, it turned into a 20 minute long ordeal about how I was purposely trying to choke her. Seriously?

In the end, I cracked the capsule and put it in a cup of juice. She couldn't taste it, but she was still complaining that I put too much juice in the cup and I was going to make her throw up.

It would seem that there is no way to please a sick, cranky kid. Go figure!