Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control…

You will experience a delay in coverage of the Tour de la Campagne on this network. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

In lieu of standard programming today, we will explain briefly (and in popular bulleted form) just why your regularly scheduled blog topic has been changed:

1. The children are not in care. When papa is not in school, he gets to play with the girls when they have no care. In the past, this has not been often: A day here, a day there, but rarely for extended periods. This year, I’ve had them for two separate weeks (one right after school let out and this past week), and I’ve discovered that it puts a serious crimp in my personal productivity. It also, at the end of the week, pretty much toasts me on being a stay-at-home-papa (Chili and TMH, I bow to you and your endurance for such a career). By the end of the day, I just don’t have it in me to write much.

2. We have a “minor infestation”. Wifeness and I went up to NH for her 20th high school reunion and I stayed up there with the girls for several extra days. We stayed at Nana’s. She loves to have her grandchildren around her and the change of venue did us all some good. I, particularly, was getting bored with entertaining my children locally. On the last day we were there, Nana was primping the girls and noticed that my younger was itching her head a lot. Being a retired school nurse, she took a moment to search NiNi’s scalp and, sure enough, noticed the telltale signs of head lice. Where the little buggers came from is not certain, but the most likely possibility is one of the places we stayed when we were on vacation (the story of which, ironically, is on hold because of the very thing it would likely make clear). Nana removed what she could see, but we did a more thorough and exhaustive search of everyone once we got home.

It turned out that the women of the house all had them--even my darling wife. I, as it happened, did not. I’ll tell you, though, that my head itches in sympathy every time I think about it.

The battle against the bugs was taken to them immediately: Hair was combed and washed to within an inch of its life, all clothes, bedding and other laundry was washed with the 4,000ºF water direct from the boiler (that’s a hyperbolic 2,200ºC for those of you that do it right). Pillows were toasted in the dryer at the highest setting. The cream rinse that has lived in the cabinet for ages, waiting for just such an occasion, was put into action. No effort was spared. No prisoners were taken.

We seem to be winning. A recent reconnaisance of the battleground revealed no new lice of any kind (adults or eggs), but we will continue to monitor things to prevent an uprising.

3. SiSi has not been feeling at all well. She was complaining that her belly hurt a little on Thursday, and she didn’t eat a lot at supper. Yesterday, she woke up in discomfort, but also began to vomit. Not a lot, and mostly just clear, but I don’t make many distinctions where puke is concerned. Those of you who know me or read this blog understand that vomiting children do not pass GO. They do not collect $200. They go directly to the Mama. I get blood, guts, broken parts and boyfriends. Mama gets the vomit, especially if she wants to avoid the sympathetically vomitous husband to boot.

The thing is, however, that the Mama had to go to work, so NiNi and spent the day looking for ways to make SiSi feel better and take her mind off the fact that she was feeling nauseous off and on all day. We played games, watched some video, read books. NiNi even did an amazing job of having quiet time so her sister could rest when sleep overtook her. I tried to give her some fluid (water mostly, but we tried other stuff to help get her some electrolytes), but it wouldn’t stay down. We tried dry toast, but she just wouldn’t touch it. She didn’t eat all day. She had a full-blown case of the intestinal blahs. Poor baby!

Mama helped her get settled at the end of the day, but she didn’t sleep well, and kept vomiting every time she’d drink something. Then, WN noticed a little fleck of blood in it. It was so small, she wasn’t at all sure it even was blood, so she didn’t say anything at the time. That was appreciated, since it was 2am and I’d only gone to bed an hour before. At 4:30, however, SiSi “provided another sample” and there was what looked to someone who is not colorblind WN like a clot of dried blood.

OK. Now we’ve moved into a new category of medical issue. We called our pediatrician to alert them to the issue, and they told us what we already knew: This kind of thing is what emergency rooms are for. Thanks, guys! WN took her and I stayed, just in case NiNi should wake up. They got back a couple of hours ago and WN and I have been on rotating nap schedules since. SiSi still feels like crap, but she's at least resting.

You may wonder why it is that I’m blogging at all, and the answer is that I am up, but everyone else is down. I could be cleaning the kitchen, I suppose, but I’ve been trying to sit down and do some writing for the last several days. I needed to take the 30 minutes to do this. The kitchen can wait.

Your regularly scheduled program will resume as soon as possible. We appreciate your continued viewership.