House of the Rising Phlegm

Pre-sickness Hagen

Oh, mercy.

Laney brought home a congestion/cough thing from school last week and shared it with me. This is why Peg Peg, your veteran nurse grandmother, can narrow her eyes at a playground full of sweet, darling toddlers and say, "They're just a bunch of carriers."

Yesterday, Hagen developed a fever, compounded by a tooth that's about to erupt. The child has cried more in the past 12 hours than he has since being born. The only thing that seems to make him feel better is to carry him around outside. We learned when we had Laney that the secret to having a Burbach young'un, is: When they holler, take them outside. It never fails to shut 'em up. At 10pm last night, I was walking laps around our circular driveway. All this goes against my personal philosophy that sicknesses should be addressed with serious couch time, a little dramatic moaning, a glass of Sprite and inordinate amounts of mindless television.


My country music-singing friend, Brad Cotter, has been known to say, "Ain't nothing that can't be fixed with an iced tea, a barbecue pork sandwich and a cigarette." But since I'm out of pork and can't afford a cigarette habit, I'm going to stick with walking Hagen in circles. 


Back in happier times (read: last weekend), we went into town and explored a new playground. I had also brought along a new, cheap, point-and-shoot camera I'd bought so I wouldn't have to haul the big DSLR everywhere. In case, like me, you find yourself shopping at Costco, and are tempted to buy the Fujifilm Waterproof camera: don't. Sometimes I can't wait 'til I'm a senior citizen, so I'll have extra time in my schedule to write angry letters about disappointing goods and services. [Mental list: UPS (who doesn't deliver to my house Oct-May), the employees at the paint counter at Lowe's, the crazy man with a hair-and-beard net who works the Walmart deli counter on Saturdays, and now Fujifilm.]


Anyway, the park:

Laney loved the playground, because there was a girl there who kept running away and coming back with handfuls of Laffy Taffy. Laney didn't want to leave, which I can understand, because how often in life to you get your own candy concierge?

Here's hoping everyone is back to our version of normal soon, so I can lie down on the couch with my Sprite.

Love,
Mom