Stay at Home Day

So I'm home today with Coco.

Yesterday morning, I thought she felt kind of warm when I got her out of the crib, but I attributed it to warm sleepy smushy baby, and after she had some mama-milk, she was happy and ready to play with Zuzu, so I didn't think much of it. I gave them some breakfast and then tried to pick up the house, and around 10:00 we headed to Target to grab a few necessities. I told the girls that if they were good listeners, we'd go to the park after the store.

I got Coco fastened into the shopping cart and Zuzu loaded up in the big basket, and then I took a look at Coco and she looked like this:

Uhhh... kind of glassy-eyed. Leaning back against the shopping cart. Not wanting to ditch the binky. (I don't have a strict binky policy at all, but generally we use it only at bed/nap time and in the car. I figure if she's up and running around, she doesn't need the bink. Sickness of any kind means unlimited access, though. Any comfort I can offer!) Poor little punkin.

Cooper was in the car and he was whining for us by the time we returned. I got our bags unloaded, and Zuzu was standing up in the cart, so I lifted her out and put her in her carseat. She HATES wearing jackets and coats this year (should be a fun winter), and she insists on taking off her jacket in her carseat, even when it's just a sweatshirt. So I left her to remove her jacket and went around the car to get Coco loaded up.

We were parked right next to the cart return, so I pushed the cart in there, but I was already holding Coco in my other arm and doing it one-handed. I didn't realize that the cart didn't get all the way in there and the part of the parking lot we were in is on an incline, so as I buckled Coco into her seat, our cart slowly eased its way out of the cart return backwards and then careened through the parking lot, bumping three different cars before coming to a stop against one of them.

Fortunately, the cars were all hit just on their back bumpers and there was no damage (and no other witnesses!). I felt like a total idiot, but I hadn't noticed the creeping cart because Coco was doing one of those back-arching fits as I tried to buckle her in.

(Side note: If you were at Target yesterday and the back bumper of your car got scuffed by a shopping cart, you have my heartfelt apologies.)

So with a screeching baby, whining dog, and embarrassed feeling of responsibility for potential shopping-cart-damage, I jumped in my car to make a quick getaway from the Target parking lot. As I pulled out onto the street, Zuzu piped up from the back seat, "I'm holdin' on tight, Mama!"

And THAT'S when I looked back and realized I hadn't buckled her into her carseat and she was cheerfully gripping the cupholders in lieu of actually being safely restrained.

#facepalm #momfail #allthehashtagsofparentalscrewups

Needless to say, I immediately pulled over, jumped out of the car, and got her buckled up.

Poor Coco did have a fever, but no other symptoms, so I doped her up on baby Tylenol, bundled her up into the stroller thinking she might fall asleep, and walked the girls up to the park. It was a gorgeous day and Zuzu wanted to swing, but then Coco started fussing like she wanted to swing. Except she was so droopy, she just sort of drooped and swayed in the swing.

Once Zu decided she was done with that, Coco half-heartedly walked around the playground, but got back in the stroller without fuss and was super happy to take a long nap that afternoon. She seemed to be feeling much better after nap, and her temperature went back down, but it went back up at bedtime. I felt really conflicted about canceling class to stay home because I just had to do this last Monday with her ear infection (which the doctor said had cleared up when we were back in last Wednesday for a rash that I was worried was a reaction to her antibiotic but turned out to be viral and unrelated).

But I did the little 10-10-10 thing again and figured that ten months from now, no one will remember or care that class was canceled today. And I really didn't have a choice since it's against daycare policy to send her if she's had a fever within the last 24 hours, and David obviously couldn't stay home after missing an entire week of work last week to stay with his grandma. My mom offered to come up, but the fact is that I have less going on today and tomorrow at work than I do later in the week, so it's easier for me to miss now and then call in the Grammy reinforcements later if necessary.

It was definitely the right call as Coco is still snoozing and it's an hour past her normal wake-up time (I've already checked on her twice, and she feels warm to me but not burning up).

Hopefully I'll get in lots of snuggles and a little bit of paper grading and she'll be feeling better soon. All of this change in our regular routine has thrown everyone for a loop--or maybe it's just me.