Applesauce & Coughs

Monday Emma came home from school and was feeling a little under the weather (she's getting a cold) but she was in a pretty good mood and did her chores/homework without complaint. This was a good thing because I was up to my elbows in applesauce. Can I just say here that apples are deceiving! You take a big bucket of apples and mush them up (minus the peel and core) and you get hardly anything in return! For all of that work I was only able to process 8 quarts and 1 pint of cinnamony-apple goodness.

Yesterday Emma woke up and moaned with every breath she took. She whimpered and whined and dramatically coughed every once in awhile. When I left the room she turned into her normal self. Hmmm. Interesting. When she asked me if she HAD to go to school I told her that because she didn't have a fever and wasn't losing her breakfast it meant that, yes, she had to go. Bummer, huh?

She came home from school a completely different kid. She litteraly had dark circles under her eyes. She told me it hurt for her to breathe, her throat hurt and her belly hurt. I was upset! I'd sent her to school faking being sick and she came home with an actual illness! (What do they do to kids at those schools?) Anyway, she convinced me that she deserved a visit to the doctor's office so we went. I had to take Flotsom and Jetsom with me because Jeff's out of town and no one was available to watch them for an hour or two.

I thought I was prepared. I brought a bag with coloring books, crayons, paper, pencils, etc so that the two little ones wouldn't get bored. They decided that the doctor's twisty stool was pretty nifty. Then Abbey needed to wash her hands and Ian wanted to look at the model of the inner ear they had sitting on the counter. They tried to wash their hands (several times), they opened drawers and cupboards and when Abbey found the bandaids she magically had a terrible injury that required one.
Long story short, Emma has a viral infection and swollen lymph nodes in her neck (ie. sore throat). We celebrated not having to get an antibiotic by getting dinner at Carl's Jr. Emma's staying home from school today to get some extra rest while she watches cartoons and sucks on popcicles.

I'm celebrating by making more applesauce and possibly drying a million and two apples.