Long Weekend...

I teetered back and forth about writing about this especially in such a semi-public way. But I concluded that as much as I'd like for this blog to be light-hearted and filled with Bear's silly little antics, it's also a place where I've been writing about the lessons I've learned as a parent.

As my mom said, we grew an extra layer of skin this past weekend. I'll spare you all the details mostly because I'm sparing myself some tears upon remembering each moment as it happened.

Bear came down with a fever this past weekend...it escalated to the point where she had a febrile seizure. Although I've read about it in books and even as a teacher who is supposed to be trained in dealing with instances of any kind of seizure, I just wasn't prepared. I never felt so at a loss in my life.

I appreciated the people who tended to her (nurses, doctors, paramedics), but I didn't appreciate their constant repetition of the same few phrases...This kind of thing happens all the time...We can't really do much because it's not that big of an emergency...Don't worry, she'll be fine. As much as someone tells you not to worry, it doesn't help...sometimes you just have to worry. Sometimes you just need to feel scared.

So after our brief stint in the hospital, Matt and I were carefully monitoring our sick little girl. I don't think either of us wanted to leave her side at any moment. Even she wouldn't let us leave her sight unless she knew where we were going. We spent the day at home half sleeping, half awake...constantly keeping one eye on Bear.

Monday morning she woke up with a smile, no fever, or any other sign of sickness. She grabbed her doll, her blanket, her cup of water and came to sit in the livingroom just like it was any other day, just as if nothing had ever happened.

Kids are so resilient. I wish I could say the same for myself.

(Bear is fine. We went to the pediatrician on Monday [a wonderful doctor who didn't say anything of the sort like the people at the hospital] and everything checked out fine. Her temperature was normal and there's no sign of an infection. She must have just caught a random virus and unfortunately has the genetic predisposition towards febrile seizures. She is once again her happy-go-lucky self...and possibly a bit more chatty).