So, Curie got sick this month with 8 straight days of fever, three of which were on antibiotics. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and needed to do blood work which was acutely traumatic since she doesn’t even like getting shots. We traded days taking care of her, and Albert took her to the doctor and the lab and had to hold her down while they took her blood. Luckily she is recovering and is almost 100% with just a residual cough. She missed a week and a day of school, days that she really couldn’t afford to miss to begin with. She did get a 3 out of 4 on her science test with only half of the unit in class.
We went to Chicago with Albert’s family. It was a nice time, but pretty short. The weather was rainy and generally yucky, but we made the best of it. Curie loves to hang out with the cousins and is just at an age where she can participate. Eleanor and Miranda don’t know, we think, but Curie idolizes them, and Jared makes it a point to take care of her. But because Dylan and Curie are closer in age, they did spend more time together. At the end, Curie wanted to spend more time with the cousins (Elia on the other had did not since she is so far apart in age). Well, Elia had a cough going to Chicago, which meant that Albert caught it, but his was accompanied by fever and a harder respiratory reaction. Curie’s was like Albert’s but a lot worse (Erin would get a little sick, get better, and then catch it worse after Curie).
Besides getting sick and Chicago, October was the Hoagland party and Halloween. We were visiting dignitaries at the Hoagland party (which was a castle) this year on the condition from the kids that we only stay for 20 minutes. Curie was in recovery, and the party is generally to scary for them now that it is at night and Bella and Quin are much older. So they got to be princesses for a day then switched to their real costumes for Halloween. Elia was the evil queen, and Curie was Hermione. Both girls were going to be Hermione, but Elia changed her mind a week before Halloween. We had costumes a month in advance with Bernard even buying Curie the scarf for her birthday. She wore it in their book parade then wore it for trick-or-treating complete with cloak. We went again with Isabella and Etta, and Curie loved going around. She also discovered that she loves Twix bars for the first time.
Both girls have dental work now and it is amazing to see them sort their candy into what the can eat and what they can’t anymore. They did so without our prompting. Both girls got quite a haul, and because we couldn’t find their pumpkins, they got even more carrying cloth bags. By the end of the night they were eating candy between houses to keep up their energy.
Curie lost a lot of weight being sick, and you can tell that she lost muscle mass as well. We had to coax her to eat, and without food she was more tired, and as a result more prone to being fussy. It was almost as if she had changed into a different person with her not as able to control her emotions. But it has been weeks now and she is becoming more and more herself and some of the residual emotionality may be her growing coincidentally as well.
Because of the additional work from school now, Albert has taken to working on math and science with Curie, while Erin continues with reading and writing. At first there was some pushback because of the time that can’t be screen or playing, but Albert told her that this was a way that they got to spend daddy-daughter time, and Curie liked that. The only thing was that Elia did not like it and told Albert that he was spending too much time with Curie. It doesn’t help that Curie will lord it over Elia if she thinks she is getting something better (we are working on it). In fact, Curie will become more and more responsible as Elia melts down. It is fascinating to watch and Curie is being good for not necessarily the right reasons (Albert did tell Curie not to be so smug because she melts down too).
So it was a heart-wrenching month with days of care and nights of prayer staying up worrying. We are grateful it was not anything more. There is little more important than your children’s well being, and even as we move along in parenting, it comes down to hoping they will be well, trying your best and hoping it will be right. There is this constant feeling that we need to do a better job, but we do also get the days of laughter, moments of joy, dance parties and song, and though it can be hard, the good times are 90% of the time, making it well worth it. And though we know they will need to become their own people, reject us to become more independent, it is as Albert said to the kids the other day. These are the best years, let’s appreciate them while we can.