Smith Family Weblog

Last week was A Challenge. It would have been a comedy of errors, if not the for the tragedy that made its way in midweek. While we nursed sad hearts, life around us went on–though perhaps not as we’d have preferred.

The hermit crab died on Sunday, Ava spent the first part of the week with strep, then Owen came down with a virus that took up residence in his trachea. We had more than one middle-of-the-night discussion about ER visits due to breathing issues, and an acute lack of sleep to make it a little more difficult to deal with everything at hand.

I’m not entirely sure what happened with the crab—a few weeks ago, she seemed to want to change shells, but wouldn’t commit to the extra we had tucked into her substrate. I bought three additional shells in varying sizes, but by early the next week, she’d stopped burrowing. When I told Olivia that she didn’t make it, she was devastated, upping the Smith family pet body count to six (a guppy from Girl Scouts, four county fair goldfish, and now the crab). She looked at me accusatorially and said, “How is the CAT, Mom? Is SHE okay?” Ava handled it a bit better, noting that she’d been doing research on chinchillas.

Ava’s illness–the third one related to her tonsils in as many months–netted her an appointment with an ENT. Next week, they’ll evaluate her for a tonsillectomy. She’s thrilled; she’s heard you’re only allowed ice cream and popsicles for days. She didn’t miss any school, though only because classes weren’t held on Monday. By Friday, she was glad to attend the KU volleyball game with me and and her friend Sophia. Come that Friday morning, Owen was perhaps the sickest he’s ever been, and his swollen trachea made it hard for him to breathe. One strong dose of steroids and a lot of ibuprofen helped substantially, and by Saturday morning, he was feeling much better. While I had to miss a substantial part of a very busy work week, I will admit that the downtime spent holding a sweet baby made it a bit less stressful.

Ava and Olivia marched in the KU Band Day parade on Saturday morning with their Girl Scout troops, but the rest of the weekend was blessedly quiet aside from some yard work and errands. Given the work missed last week, I sent my event coordinator in my place to our Texas events, which start today. I was disappointed not to travel, but it seemed to make more sense to stay at home. We will head to Nebraska on Wednesday for Thursday services.  Despite the circumstances, I’m very much looking forward to seeing our families.