"I imagine that every day with two children is just as hard as today," Craig said last night after we were finally in bed. He was mostly kidding, I think.
We had undertaken a do-it-yourself project (removing and replacing about 30 feet of aged and rotting plywood siding from the back of our house) that was supposed to be completed by the end of the weekend. It wasn't, partly because Craig had come down with a stomach bug on Friday night. Despite being very ill, he kept working, and by the time it got dark on Sunday night there was just one piece of siding left to install -- although the electrical outlet covers, caulking, priming, and painting also remained. While it had been a dry weekend, it was due to rain on Monday afternoon, so it was imperative that the siding be protected. We hoped to seal and prime it before the rain began.
At 9:00 a.m. on Monday morning Craig rushed off to the hardware store to buy the outlet covers and the caulk. I, meanwhile, had to rush off to a 10:00 doctor's appointment in Berkeley.
About the time I was reading Us magazine and wondering where the doctor was, Craig was nailing up the last piece of siding, installing the outlet covers, and caulking the seams. When we met at 11:15 in Berkeley to swap cars and child, the rainclouds were gathering. Then Craig rushed off, late to meet some foreign visitors to his lab, while I rushed back home to prime the siding before the rain started.
About the time I got home and was noting the darkening clouds, the unpainted siding, the relentless passage of time, and Isaac's increasing need for lunch, Craig, still rushing because of his foreign visitors, was scraping up the side of the car in a parking lot. Meanwhile, I abandoned the painting idea and rushed to the hardware store to buy plastic sheeting. As the rain began and I stapled the plastic to the side of the house, Walt took the opportunity to lick some of the wet caulk from the seams. I banished Walt inside while I finished putting up the plastic.
About the time I was back inside the house and reading the alarming poison warnings on the tube of caulk, Craig got word that a difficult (and uncompleted) presentation he was supposed to give on Wednesday had in fact been rescheduled for Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, I called the vet, who was very worried because the caulk contained ethylene glycol, the ingredient in antifreeze that is so deadly to animals. As I waited for the vet to finish a $100 phone consultation with the ASPCA's poison control hotline, I hurriedly fed Isaac a banana and some cheese and crackers, uncertain whether we'd have to rush to the animal hospital at any moment.
About the time the vet was telling me that there was no immediate danger to Walt, but that he should be examined that day, Craig was deciding to come home to complete his presentation. Meanwhile, Isaac was lying on the floor nearly hysterically begging for a nap, so I told the vet that I would bring Walt in a little later that afternoon. Isaac only wanted to hear one book before his nap, and he fell asleep almost immediately. When Craig came home, I took Walt to the vet.
About the time the vet was telling me that Walt seemed perfectly healthy, Isaac woke up from his nap. About the time the office was charging me $150, Isaac vomited all over Craig. Since Isaac is getting over a cold, our theory was that he wasn't really ill, but that he had swallowed too much mucus while he was lying down for his nap. After I got home he seemed cheerful and wanted to nurse; later, he even wanted to drink a cup of cow's milk, which supported the not-really-ill theory. But then he threw up again, about two hours after the first time. After that it was clear that he felt genuinely sick. He didn't want to eat a cracker, he didn't want to nurse, he wanted to go to bed early, and he kept saying, "Need Mama; need hug from Mama" even as I held him in my arms.
The worst thing that happened all day was Isaac's being sick. He is so seldom ill that Craig and I haven't had much practice with it, and we were overwhelmed by our own emotional reactions, which ranged from pity to fear. We were much more upset than we should have been, probably, but that's a topic for another post. (Really, we're lucky he has been so healthy! This was only Isaac's second instance of vomiting, and the first instance, back in February 2007, was quite mild and was definitely because of post-nasal drip.)
As far as our day being like an average day for a family with two children, I told Craig that most days wouldn't contain a race to protect the house against the weather, a doctor's appointment, visiting scientists from the U.K., a fender-bender, a call to poison control, a vet's appointment, a looming deadline with poor data, and a child vomiting. Isn't it reasonable to expect only two or three of those elements on any given day?
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Postscript I: As of the time of this post, Isaac hasn't thrown up again, and he seems to be on the mend. He was still feeling ill this morning, which manifested itself in clinginess and whining, so I restricted his food intake and snuggled with him while we read Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things that Go for about 45 minutes straight. Just before lunchtime I let him have some applesauce and crackers, and he perked right up.
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Postscript II: It turns out that the ethylene glycol only comprises 1% of the caulk, so thankfully it isn't that dangerous -- it's still really sweet, though, which is why Walt wanted to eat it. The real concern is a caustic agent that, when combined with the stickiness of the caulk, can cause ulcers in the esophagus and gastrointestinal tract. So Walt has to eat soft food for five days as well as take a medicine to coat his insides, which I squirt down his throat with a little syringe.
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