forecast: isolated, gloomy, yet GOOD

i received some great news today.

a friend who was meant to visit hong kong and stay with us for over one week IS NOT COMING.

i didn't word it as great when i heard the news, but you know what i mean.

i have been busy planning my in-laws schedule for when they arrive, and it is looking good. sebastian's birthday party, american thanksgiving, rainbow restaurant, american peking restaurant, the annexxe, etc.

i "test drove" most of the planned activities on pam and frugal blake, and my in-laws will be the final run. the extra visitor was surplus. a test test drive, if you will.

anyway, i am chuffed. previously, the room was being vacated the day before one of my sisters in law arrived, now i have time to sort through it, should i choose. (i don't, but it is very nice to have the option.)

i love having guests, but i also love having time. this is good.

********************

jasper needed an emergency trip to the doctor today. this morning i spent the day at sebastian's school (first at the playground with his class, next covering books in the staffroom. ahh, do you envy me my glamourous existence?) i rode home in the school bus. sebastian gave me permission. we sang the "wheels on the bus".

when i got home, jasper's wheezing was worse than ever. you know that sound when a small bit of something that won't break down is stuck in and rattling around the blender? that was jasper's chest today. huge warning bells.

i got him an appointment with the person i consider to be the best paediatrician in town, and off we went. in the waiting room i found my good friend and neighbour, and her husband, and two of their three children, who are suffering from the same thing.

everyone in the waiting room could hear jasper wheezing. and of course, he was furrowing his brow and looking very confused, as jaspers do. concerned, and a little bit scared. tonnes of public sympathy for jasper. he started whinging and refused his bottle, so i gave him a cup of warm water, and i'll be ding dong double damned if he didn't enjoy the gulping concept. he got a lot of the water down his dungarees, but he also got a lot down his hungry yap.

have i mentioned that jasper of the cavernous mouth now only takes 100mls of his bottle? he prefers to take the rest of his nourishment through rice cereal and broccoli/pumpkin/sweet potato/spinach, what have you name it.

the doctor wasted little time...mine or his. he is a very good doctor. i knew it would be important so i mentioned that jay was a preemie, and the doctor declared that just looking at him, it was impossible to tell that jasper had been so premature.

why was he premature?

this one always makes me pause. i didn't do anything wrong. i didn't do anything wrong.

i settled for telling the dr jasper was a triplet.

a pause.

"and the other siblings?" he asked so delicately.

i hastened to tell him they had also survived.

"wonderful! fantastic!" he exclaimed. he then suggested we all get flu shots. as a celebration, possibly.

jasper is now on a nebuliser three times a day and is also on antibiotics for the next week. he hates the nebuliser and we have learned that jasper can cry for 30 minutes straight, while we are giving him the drugs.

so this is monday. we don't have guests, jaspers lungs are going to get better, sebastian's speech therapist is coming tomorrow, the girls are eating more and feeling better...all this is good.

Comments

[sara]

Aww, poor Jasper. Good to hear that you've got more free time, though. You sometimes sound like you're trying to cram four days into a single day.

Hope everyone's feeling better soon. :)

[Maggaggie]

Hi Tess, I've been following the trio's story since they were born. They are all so gorgeous! I frequently visit TTC.com site, but I don't post anymore. Too many rude lurkers.

My Alexi had to do nebulizer treatments as well when she was about 6 months old for RSV. She hated the treatments. I had a little baby einstein mirror that has lights and music and that seemed to help occupy her a little bit.

Sorry that you have to go through this. Just one more thing, ya know?

By the way, I love your blog. You are a very talented writer. Wish I could write as well as you. I am a technical writer--boring! Hardly a comparison between the two.

Would love to chat sometime if you're up for it.
Maggaggie

[Mandy]

Poor Jasper, I hope he feels better soon. At least he's keeping his appetite up which is very good.

And glad to hear the guest situation works out. I can't tell you how many times I have expressed relief at having the opportunity to do a top to bottom cleaning before guests arrived. Not saying I actually DID a top to bottom cleaning..but...the opportunity was in fact nice.

[Scully]

Get well soon, Jasper!

[Tertia]

YAY!!!!!! Love all this good news. You are doing a marevellous job Tess, you should give yourself a big pat on the back you know. Or maybe a flu shot.

[mollyv]

ahh, the nebulizer - our best friend for our five year old and for one of our twins. Glad you only have to do 3 x a day. we usually get stuck with every 4 hours AROUND THE CLOCK. it is also excellent that he screams the whole time - makes him inhale more medicine into his lungs and he will get better faster! hope that makes you feel better. hang in there, mama!

[Boulder]

Tess, I completely get the gratefulness of not having a guest show. It is work to have even the best of friends show up! I just unloaded my home of my own parents, and while I do LOVE them, I was so relieved today to have my home to myself to do my own stuff. Not the stuff that I thought everyone else would delight in. Sorry about the emergency trip to the doctor, but it must be nice to know that your Master Jaz has his meds and how lovely that the girls are eating more! Can just imagine you and Seb singing "The Wheels on the Bus" - used to be a fav of my two younger brothers!

Here's to a Monday without an extra person to keep happy!