Callin' all pollen: Please, Go Away!
Addi has seasonal allergies. I do too, and so does Bryan. I'll be surprised if Libby doesn't start sniffing and scratching soon also. When we lived in Texas and Oklahoma, I had to take medicine pretty much year round, but since we've lived here, I mainly have issues in the Spring. Bryan, on the other hand has had a harder time here. We blame the pollen.
Well, the pollen is out in full force and has been for about a week. Everything outside is coated in a thick yellow powder. You can see it being kicked up as you walk through the grass. My front porch looks like the girls got after it with yellow sidewalk chalk because I decided to rinse it off while I was watering yesterday. It just pooled around the doormat and now we have a marbled-effect on the concrete...and a new layer of yellow powder all over the porch.
But, it is Spring Break here and the weather is glorious. How can we be expected to sit indoors all week?! Yesterday evening we met Bryan at a neat park and played for about an hour.
And, then at 2:26 this morning, I was awakened by Addi asking me to sing her a song. What?! Are you crazy?! I was dead asleep and you want me to sing you a song?! You're 4, sing yourself a song?! was what I wanted to say to her. But, instead I told her it was the middle of the night and mommy was sleepy. I took her back to her bed and layed down with her for a few minutes. In my sleepy haze I noticed she was clawing her eyeballs out and tried to scan my brain for some medicine we had that I could give her. It was really just too much for me. She takes Zyrtec and I couldn't remember what, if anything, I could give her with Zyrtec. I did think of some over-the-counter eyedrops we have, but vividly (and, believe me, this was the only vivid thing about last night) remembered her reaction when she was given eyedrops to dialate her eyes...not something I wanted to encounter ever again, much less at 2:30 in the morning. She was almost asleep, so I got up to leave and she asked me to sing her a song again.
Now, this seems so ridiculous to me thinking back on it, but I felt that I needed to stand my ground on this song thing. You know that whole "pick your battles" saying? Well, apparently last night I thought this was a battle worth waging. And, you can ask Bryan (and my parents) about how stubborn I am when I really want to win a battle :)
Of course, I told her no and she started to make herself cry, a trait at which she has excelled. At this point I felt ignoring her would be my best option, so back to bed I dragged...and layed there listening to her cry...and wondered if I should shut Libby's door before I had two crying kids and a grumpy husband. Why, on earth, I didn't just walk back into Addi's room and sing her a song, I will never know! But, I didn't and after a couple minutes, mygrumpy sleepy husband woke and wanted to know what the crying was about. Now is when I really should have backed down and walked into that crying baby's room, but, you guessed it, I didn't. The longer this went on, the more important I felt it was to win.
Well, the pollen is out in full force and has been for about a week. Everything outside is coated in a thick yellow powder. You can see it being kicked up as you walk through the grass. My front porch looks like the girls got after it with yellow sidewalk chalk because I decided to rinse it off while I was watering yesterday. It just pooled around the doormat and now we have a marbled-effect on the concrete...and a new layer of yellow powder all over the porch.
But, it is Spring Break here and the weather is glorious. How can we be expected to sit indoors all week?! Yesterday evening we met Bryan at a neat park and played for about an hour.
And, then at 2:26 this morning, I was awakened by Addi asking me to sing her a song. What?! Are you crazy?! I was dead asleep and you want me to sing you a song?! You're 4, sing yourself a song?! was what I wanted to say to her. But, instead I told her it was the middle of the night and mommy was sleepy. I took her back to her bed and layed down with her for a few minutes. In my sleepy haze I noticed she was clawing her eyeballs out and tried to scan my brain for some medicine we had that I could give her. It was really just too much for me. She takes Zyrtec and I couldn't remember what, if anything, I could give her with Zyrtec. I did think of some over-the-counter eyedrops we have, but vividly (and, believe me, this was the only vivid thing about last night) remembered her reaction when she was given eyedrops to dialate her eyes...not something I wanted to encounter ever again, much less at 2:30 in the morning. She was almost asleep, so I got up to leave and she asked me to sing her a song again.
Now, this seems so ridiculous to me thinking back on it, but I felt that I needed to stand my ground on this song thing. You know that whole "pick your battles" saying? Well, apparently last night I thought this was a battle worth waging. And, you can ask Bryan (and my parents) about how stubborn I am when I really want to win a battle :)
Of course, I told her no and she started to make herself cry, a trait at which she has excelled. At this point I felt ignoring her would be my best option, so back to bed I dragged...and layed there listening to her cry...and wondered if I should shut Libby's door before I had two crying kids and a grumpy husband. Why, on earth, I didn't just walk back into Addi's room and sing her a song, I will never know! But, I didn't and after a couple minutes, my
Bryan huffed out of bed, stomped through the hall, mumbled something to Addison and shut her door. The crying stopped and we all went back to sleep.
That is why God created 2 parents...one balances out the other.
Nevertheless, Addison woke up this morning with bright red, swollen eyes. Not so much from the crying - it was a fairly weak, forced cry, after all. Her eyes are itchy and watery. In fact, this morning she asked me to give her eye medicine and was totally fine when I put drops in her eyes. (Thanks to Grandpa for that. She later told me that Grandpa put drops in her eyes the last time we were in Texas...baffles my mind how that all went down. It sure made my life easier today though)
Normally, red, itchy eyes would be a bit of a nuisance to her. Today, I panicked slightly because the girls had an appointment to have their picture made with real bunnies. Why does Easter have to fall during pollen-floating-around season?! The pictures went well and I'm sure there'll be some cute ones. The girls had a tea party with two bunnies, so they didn't actually look at the camera. The photograher did take a few of the girls smiling at the camera. Maybe the red won't show up or maybe I can get those in black and white.
I guess this is the price you pay for living in an area with lots of trees. Well, this and lots of leaves, sweet gum balls, needles and pine cones in your gutters and yard. I think a few weeks of scratching, coughing, blowing, sneezing, wheezing and redness are well worth the shade though!
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