"What Can Go Wrong Will Go Wrong" ~ Murphy

Someone really needs to check into my ancestry because it sure feels like Murphy (or possibly Lucille Ball) must be back there somewhere...

I've had one flat tire in my whole life up 'til yesterday.

At three thirty yesterday afternoon, we put Lana in her winter coat and I buckled her into her car seat in the back seat of my car. She seemed shocked by this (the car, not the weather). I guess, considering that the child had never been in a car her whole life until 15 days ago, and spent our time in Hanoi riding in taxi cabs, it may have been something of a shock to learn that not only does mommy have a car, but that mommy DRIVES a car. She stared at me dumbfounded through the rear view mirror.

I was worried we were going to be late for the doctor, so, in my haste to get out of the house, I had grabbed my red purse. Unfortunately, my cell phone was in my black purse I had taken to Vietnam, which was sitting on my kitchen floor.

It felt odd to drive the car, but, I thought it was just that I hadn't driven in so long, and also that driving through the quiet western part of our county was so surreal after the insanity of Hanoi.

THEN, I heard a weird sound and a flub-flub-flub and a skid and I was sitting on the side of the road with NO cell phone, a flat tire and a confused four year old...

Much swearing ensued. (Let's hope Lana didn't pick up those English words...)

I got out of the car and after a minute a car came down the road. I flagged the driver down and it was a mom and two daughters. I explained that I had forgotten my cell phone and could I use hers - thank goodness she was happy to help. I called David at home, who had to wait for about 4 minutes to get Gabe off the school bus. Then he and Gabe drove down to where I was stuck, and he took Lana and Gabe and went to the doctor, while I called AAA and waited. My neighbor, April, happened to drive by, so, she stopped to make sure I was okay, and then my uncle stopped to make sure I was okay - but, by that time (45 mintues) the AAA guy had finally shown up and was changing my tire. Oy.

I drove home and Dave called to tell me that, according to the doctor, Lana has a "raging bladder infection" and "there's ALL KINDS of stuff in there." Lovely. This is when the guilt started on my part, since I had an antibiotic for Lana with us in Vietnam, and I SUSPECTED that she might have a UTI, but, I didn't want to give her the antibiotic if she didn't, and now she was sick and in pain and I felt like it was all my fault for not just giving her the stupid antibiotic. (But, there was a part of me that wondered if she kept asking to go the bathroom all the time because it was one of the few things that we were completely communicating on. If she said she had to pee, we went to the potty. Cause and effect, etc. Now I realize that she had to pee all the time because she was sick and feel tremendously lousy about that.)

Anyway, we got her her first dose of antibiotic before bed, but, last night was just hell. She cried on and off from 10:30 to 3:00, and had a screaming fit when I tried to get some Tylenol in her. After force feeding the Tylenol, she finally fell into a quiet sleep...she is still sleeping now. I probably should be too, but, I can't.

Hoping for a better day and night today,
Gretchen