We’ve been housebound for a full week now.  That’s a seven-day week, not one of those lightweight five-day ones.

Last weekend, Halle had the sniffles.  No biggie, I thought.  Then by Monday she’d developed chest congestion and Zanna was running a fever of 103.  And had chest congestion.

Three days later Zanna complained of a sore throat and a sore tummy.  Uh-oh, I thought and hurriedly plugged in the symptoms online.

I did not like what I got back as a result:  Strep Throat.

Apparently if it’s left untreated, your kid will be contagious for up to 3 weeks, plus run the risk of having arthritis in the future, possibly getting scarlet fever, or even rheumatic fever, and that could cause damage to the heart.

And didn’t little Beth March in ‘Little Women’ get scarlet fever, subsequent heart damage and died WAY too young?

So off we went to the pediatrician!  After getting their throats prodded with an oral swab, the verdict was in:  Zanna had strep.  Halle didn’t as yet, but since both the girls had nasty ear infections and the antibiotic was the same, Halle would be safe even if she did contract the strep from Zanna and it hadn’t shown up yet.

I also had myself and my husband tested at the local CVS Minute Clinic.  If we had it and didn’t get the antibiotics, then just as the girls were recovering, we’d still be contatgious and they might contract it again.  And spread it to all their little classmates and their families, too.

Luckily us grown-ups were all clear.  Just run of the mill colds.

The hard part was trying to get the girls hydrated.  They either played around with their juice or flat out refused to drink. 

Finally after threats of giving them the ‘really yucky medicine’ (I keep a small bottle of balsamic vinegar on hand, because it looks and smells nasty to little noses, so we tell them it’s ‘yucky medicine’.  So far just the threat has been enough to get them to drink med-spiked juice.)

And if they drag their heels on the drinking, trying to drink just one molecule at a time, I pull out the big guns:  the Mama Show.

The girls passionately detest my choice in television viewing.

I like Masterpiece Theatre.   Alot.

So I just have to pop in a vid of ‘Pride & Prejudice’, or something by Shakespeare, and the girls miraculously become somewhat more compliant.

Geez, you’d think I was trying to force-feed them chopped liver by the way they carry on!

I blame my husband for this.  Surely they must have inherited some culture-hating gene from him.  He also detests Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and Nicholas Cage.  I could just barely hear him making retching noises under his breath the last time I got to pick for movie night and chose ‘City of Angels’.   And it was only the second time I’ve forced asked him to watch that one with me.

The day Nicholas Cage takes up cage fighting, the marriage counselors of the world will be out of business.  Everyone’ll be happy! (As long as it’s ‘short-hair’ Nicholas Cage.  If he’s sportin’ that long, greasy-looking, floppy-haired do that he has in every movie he’s ever flopped in, then as far as I’m concerned, his oponent can turn him into a human pretzel!)

 Anyhoo, my husband has promised to babysit the girls this weekend so I can sneak out and see ‘The King’s Speech’.  It’s a new movie out in theatres, starring Colin Firth.

Y’know…Colin Firth, as in ‘Mr. Darcy’ in Pride & Prejudice?  The man’s practically a posterboy for Masterpiece Theatre and the A&E network.

We’ve been housebound for a full week now.  That’s a seven-day week, not one of those lightweight five-day ones.

Last weekend, Halle had the sniffles.  No biggie, I thought.  Then by Monday she’d developed chest congestion and Zanna was running a fever of 103.  And had chest congestion.

Three days later Zanna complained of a sore throat and a sore tummy.  Uh-oh, I thought and hurriedly plugged in the symptoms online.

I did not like what I got back as a result:  Strep Throat.

Apparently if it’s left untreated, your kid will be contagious for up to 3 weeks, plus run the risk of having arthritis in the future, possibly getting scarlet fever, or even rheumatic fever, and that could cause damage to the heart.

And didn’t little Beth March in ‘Little Women’ get scarlet fever, subsequent heart damage and died WAY too young?

So off we went to the pediatrician!  After getting their throats prodded with an oral swab, the verdict was in:  Zanna had strep.  Halle didn’t as yet, but since both the girls had nasty ear infections and the antibiotic was the same, Halle would be safe even if she did contract the strep from Zanna and it hadn’t shown up yet.

I also had myself and my husband tested at the local CVS Minute Clinic.  If we had it and didn’t get the antibiotics, then just as the girls were recovering, we’d still be contatgious and they might contract it again.  And spread it to all their little classmates and their families, too.

Luckily us grown-ups were all clear.  Just run of the mill colds.

The hard part was trying to get the girls hydrated.  They either played around with their juice or flat out refused to drink. 

Finally after threats of giving them the ‘really yucky medicine’ (I keep a small bottle of balsamic vinegar on hand, because it looks and smells nasty to little noses, so we tell them it’s ‘yucky medicine’.  So far just the threat has been enough to get them to drink med-spiked juice.)

And if they drag their heels on the drinking, trying to drink just one molecule at a time, I pull out the big guns:  the Mama Show.

The girls passionately detest my choice in television viewing.

I like Masterpiece Theatre.   Alot.

So I just have to pop in a vid of ‘Pride & Prejudice’, or something by Shakespeare, and the girls miraculously become somewhat more compliant.

Geez, you’d think I was trying to force-feed them chopped liver by the way they carry on!

I blame my husband for this.  Surely they must have inherited some culture-hating gene from him.  He also detests Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and Nicholas Cage.  I could just barely hear him making retching noises under his breath the last time I got to pick for movie night and chose ‘City of Angels’.   And it was only the second time I’ve forced asked him to watch that one with me.

The day Nicholas Cage takes up cage fighting, the marriage counselors of the world will be out of business.  Everyone’ll be happy! (As long as it’s ‘short-hair’ Nicholas Cage.  If he’s sportin’ that long, greasy-looking, floppy-haired do that he has in every movie he’s ever flopped in, then as far as I’m concerned, his oponent can turn him into a human pretzel!)

 Anyhoo, my husband has promised to babysit the girls this weekend so I can sneak out and see ‘The King’s Speech’.  It’s a new movie out in theatres, starring Colin Firth.

Y’know…Colin Firth, as in ‘Mr. Darcy’ in Pride & Prejudice?  The man’s practically a posterboy for Masterpiece Theatre and the A&E network.

We’ve been housebound for a full week now.  That’s a seven-day week, not one of those lightweight five-day ones.

Last weekend, Halle had the sniffles.  No biggie, I thought.  Then by Monday she’d developed chest congestion and Zanna was running a fever of 103.  And had chest congestion.

Three days later Zanna complained of a sore throat and a sore tummy.  Uh-oh, I thought and hurriedly plugged in the symptoms online.

I did not like what I got back as a result:  Strep Throat.

Apparently if it’s left untreated, your kid will be contagious for up to 3 weeks, plus run the risk of having arthritis in the future, possibly getting scarlet fever, or even rheumatic fever, and that could cause damage to the heart.

And didn’t little Beth March in ‘Little Women’ get scarlet fever, subsequent heart damage and died WAY too young?

So off we went to the pediatrician!  After getting their throats prodded with an oral swab, the verdict was in:  Zanna had strep.  Halle didn’t as yet, but since both the girls had nasty ear infections and the antibiotic was the same, Halle would be safe even if she did contract the strep from Zanna and it hadn’t shown up yet.

I also had myself and my husband tested at the local CVS Minute Clinic.  If we had it and didn’t get the antibiotics, then just as the girls were recovering, we’d still be contatgious and they might contract it again.  And spread it to all their little classmates and their families, too.

Luckily us grown-ups were all clear.  Just run of the mill colds.

The hard part was trying to get the girls hydrated.  They either played around with their juice or flat out refused to drink. 

Finally after threats of giving them the ‘really yucky medicine’ (I keep a small bottle of balsamic vinegar on hand, because it looks and smells nasty to little noses, so we tell them it’s ‘yucky medicine’.  So far just the threat has been enough to get them to drink med-spiked juice.)

And if they drag their heels on the drinking, trying to drink just one molecule at a time, I pull out the big guns:  the Mama Show.

The girls passionately detest my choice in television viewing.

I like Masterpiece Theatre.   Alot.

So I just have to pop in a vid of ‘Pride & Prejudice’, or something by Shakespeare, and the girls miraculously become somewhat more compliant.

Geez, you’d think I was trying to force-feed them chopped liver by the way they carry on!

I blame my husband for this.  Surely they must have inherited some culture-hating gene from him.  He also detests Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and Nicholas Cage.  I could just barely hear him making retching noises under his breath the last time I got to pick for movie night and chose ‘City of Angels’.   And it was only the second time I’ve forced asked him to watch that one with me.

The day Nicholas Cage takes up cage fighting, the marriage counselors of the world will be out of business.  Everyone’ll be happy! (As long as it’s ‘short-hair’ Nicholas Cage.  If he’s sportin’ that long, greasy-looking, floppy-haired do that he has in every movie he’s ever flopped in, then as far as I’m concerned, his oponent can turn him into a human pretzel!)

 Anyhoo, my husband has promised to babysit the girls this weekend so I can sneak out and see ‘The King’s Speech’.  It’s a new movie out in theatres, starring Colin Firth.

Y’know…Colin Firth, as in ‘Mr. Darcy’ in Pride & Prejudice?  The man’s practically a posterboy for Masterpiece Theatre and the A&E network.