The Penguin Did It

Oy vay!  It's been crazy around here for the past week or so.  It turns out that Brigid's run of SuperTerribleTwos was actually just the build up to her getting sick.  I should have known; she's often a willful child with a mind of her own, but her whole life, she has never just been impossible unless something was genuinely wrong.  She usually obeys me, even if she doesn't like it, and she's normally fairly easy to please.  Last week, she was just simply IMPOSSIBLE, and exhausting.  Like I said, I should've recognized the signs.

Photo courtesy of The Respiratory Store

You really haven't lived until you've tried to coax and soothe a SuperToddler through having something like this over her nose and mouth for about fifteen minutes at a time several times a day.  I know this thing looks terrifying, but we're actually quite lucky that there doesn't seem to be any infection--ears, sinuses, throat all fine.  Whatever this crud is, though, it goes straight to the lungs, like it did to me, and since they can't very well give a toddler an albuterol inhaler for a few days, we get the nebulizer, instead, to bust the stuff up and free her lungs again.  She is, slowly, getting better.

Meanwhile, just take a look at this adorable little guy, generously provided by our health insurance (they typically take much better care of kids than they do adults, don't you think?).

Photo courtesy of Medquip

As Sally says so often about Linus (remember Peanuts? Charlie Brown and Snoopy?), "Isn't he the cutest thing?!"  He even comes with his own little igloo carrying case!  Brigid immediately decided that igloo had to be part of her toy collection.  Anyway, inside his little tuxedo-clad body is the compressor and other innards that actually make the nebulizer function.  The SuperToddler may not be an enormous fan of the process, but she just thinks the penguin is the greatest thing to come into her life in ages.  I know I'm turning into my own grandparents before my very eyes even saying this, but don't they just think of the most amazing things these days?!  The same company sells pediatric nebulizers in the shape of fire trucks and panda bears and heaven knows what else.  Between worrying about the SuperToddler's health and the fact that I haven't had a break for three weeks because of complications in my in-laws' lives that prevented Brigid from going to Grandma's house, I am just simply exhausted and my brain has the consistency of jello, but somehow, that penguin's cheerful face really has made the whole thing just a tiny bit more bearable, I must admit.

"Isn't he the cutest thing?"

MEANWHILE, the more wearying my life gets, the more I tend to read anytime I get the chance, to escape the chaos for a while, which means that in the past month I have been on an absolute, non-stop reading binge, an orgy of reading, as it were.  I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO far behind on reviews now that I am seriously considering declaring general amnesty for myself and just trying to keep up from here on out.  Thoughts on the matter, anyone?  Leave them in the comments, if you have any.  Seriously, I'm about a dozen reviews behind now.  It's getting ridiculous.  Still, I want to try and post them.  We'll see what develops.  The siren song of crochet is calling my name now, and I'm within a few pages of FINALLY finding out the solution to a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery.  Keep watching this space!