Reading: The Christmas Letters by Lee Smith.

Weather: Who knows? I haven't been outside since Christmas Eve (not that I'm proud of that fact). I think it is very cold and the sky appears to be a steely, overcast grey. Not a bad day to be stuck indoors.

Sick Boys

Tab and I checked on Daniel before we went to bed last night and found him burning up with fever. I brought up a dose of children's ibuprofen and a cup of water for him to sip, and Tab helped him sit up and take the medicine.

This morning, Daniel's temperature was back up to 103.7. After another dose of ibuprofen his fever dropped down to about 100 deg., but crept back up over the course of the day. He also has a hacking, miserable-sounding cough. He spent much of the day lying on the couch watching videos, though periodically he would rouse himself enough to play with the Legos and K'Nex he got for Christmas.

I called our pediatrician's office this morning and left a message on the voice mail. An hour later one of the doctors called me back. He ran through a checklist of questions, one of which was whether Daniel had a stiff neck. Yikes! It never occurred to me that he might have meningitis. I immediately asked Daniel, who reported that he had neither a stiff neck nor a headache. I berated myself for not even thinking of that potentially deadly disease, though.

Having satisfied himself that Daniel didn't require immediate attention, the doctor told me to bring him in tomorrow morning at 9:15. Poor Daniel will most likely have to miss the birthday party of one of his classmates which is scheduled for tomorrow. He was looking forward to it, too, since it is being held at Romp Around, an indoor playground that he loves.

I'm starting to wonder if Daniel has strep throat again. He had strep twice last spring, and both times he had a cough but no throat pain.

Matthew and Stephen have been stuck here in the house for the past few days so Tab took them with him this afternoon when he went out for some errands. He reported later that the twins were behaving like two fussy old ladies in the car: "Where are we going next? Why are we going there? When are we going home?"

Afterward Tab took them to a playground so the boys could run around. They were there less than an hour, though, because the boys were not really enjoying themselves. Tab said that Stephen was coughing and seemed lethargic. Guess what we discovered when Tab returned with the boys? Yup, Stephen has a fever, now, too.

So I called the doctor's voice mail again and asked if I could bring Stephen along with Daniel tomorrow morning.

And now Tab is starting to cough. This could be a long week.

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