One Night, Two Kids, Two Visits to the ER

The title says it all and I'm so tired I don't even know if I can tell the story but it's a pretty good one so here goes:

Midday Sunday in the midst of dealing with Joe's sudden illness, Billy noticed "something" in Kiki's nose. I couldn't tell what it was, but Billy eventually figured out it was a piece of foam from a book we had given the kids for Easter. She had been chewing on the book as usual and apparently bit off a chunk and decided to store it in her nostril. We tried everything we could think of to get it out, but it was pretty far up there and Kiki soon had enough of us holding her down and would cry so much we were afraid the foam would get sucked higher. It didn't seem to be bothering her and her breathing was fine, so we decided to wait and see. By Monday morning it was still exactly where it was the day before so Billy made an appointment to take her to the doctor. Her doctor said he did not want to try to get it out and referred Kiki to the ER. A few hours later they were finally able to see the ER doctor who only took 10 seconds to extract the foam from Kiki's nose. Now here's the good part: If you've been around Kiki any length of time, you know that her favorite word is "up". Up, up, up, she always wants to be picked up. In fact, as Billy was laying her down on the hospital bed she kept saying "up". Here is the piece of foam that was stuck in her nose:

Yes, it says "up". Actually it is the middle of the word "puppies", but still. Her favorite word.

By the time Billy and Kiki got home it was almost 10:00. I had been home with Joe and Daniel, and Joe's fever was rising despite the Tylenol I had given him. He was still not keeping anything down and seemed to be growing more weak and lethargic. We decided it would be best to take him to the ER rather than waiting until the morning. Since Billy had already done ER duty once that night, I knew I had to be the one to take Joe. Long story short, he was diagnosed with an ear infection and another four hours later we were home. The doctor seemed amused that we were the same family that had been in earlier.

Not wanting to be left out, Daniel took it upon himself to vomit in his crib last night and fill his diaper with diarrhea. Right now he and Kiki are fighting and screaming at the top of their lungs. Joe is spending his morning on the potty chair and I am just trying to keep up with the dirty laundry and keep it together until reinforcements arrive. Or at least until nap time and I can take a breath.