Sick and Scary

So a lot has happened since my last post. Miles got sick and now Savvy is sick. We've had playdates with Ben, Kai and Layla and took a quick trip down to Nana and Grandpa Salt's house this past weekend. We also had a near disaster on the Bay Bridge.

First things first. Miles got sent home from school with a low grade fever and quickly bounced back. Yesterday Savvy came down with a fever (very rare for her-- she gets a fever maybe once a year or less) and is spending the day at home on the couch watching PBS Kids and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I've been pushing fluids and she's finally in better spirits, so I'm hopeful she'll pull out of this soon.

We spent last Friday night at Cindy and Doreen's and let the kids run wild in their backyard. Miles loved their swing and Kai figured out how to turn on the hose and spray the kids down, so Savvy and Ben ended up running around in their undies together.

This weekend we had planned to spend five days in South City with Nana and Salt but Miles had plans of his own. The first day there he didn't eat much and woke up about two or three times that night. The next night he was up for about two or three hours solid, which meant D and I were wide awake at 3:00 in the morning. Needless to say we weren't keen to spend our entire vacation getting no sleep, so we decided to pack everything back up and head home so our inflexible little guy could get back on his routine. It is frustrating to feel trapped by a baby's schedule, especially when our first child was ridiculously flexible- sleeping in bowling alleys and restaurants. We're coming to terms with the reality of having two children, and having one child who will likely need to adhere to a much stricter schedule than we were prepared to enforce. We cancelled our plans for Hawaii this fall and instead decided to go back to Disney since our kids should be more easily entertained there and we'll be staying at the Disneyland Hotel to make it easier to deal with naps if need be. We tried to go to Baker Beach on Sunday, but apparently the entire state of California had the same idea and we couldn't find parking anywhere near. Savvy had fun getting sprayed by silly string in the field near Nana and Salt's house, so all was not lost.

Anyway, we had to forego the Picasso exhibit we'd been looking forward to and drove home around 9:00 Monday morning. I decided we should stop at Treasure Island since the traffic on the bridge was so light so we pulled off and got some great pics of the city. Just as we were merging back onto the bridge from the island I hit something in the road (we still don't know what it was, but it felt like a large metal bar or something) and our passenger rear tire immediately deflated, leaving me on the Bay Bridge with a flat that felt undriveable and trying to keep calm while driving a few miles an hour in the slow lane. It felt like we'd blown several tires and since I've never dealt with that situation before I didn't know what to do. There's obviously nowhere to pull over on the bridge, but D was telling me if I kept driving we'd break the car and ruin the rim. I kept inching forward while she called AAA, who transferred us to Caltrans, where we waited on hold and helplessly watched cars speeding toward us at fifty miles an hour and narrowly avoiding slamming into us. I was freaking out until I saw two huge tow trucks pull up behind us. The driver right behind us got out and told us we couldn't stop, we'd need to drive all the way off the bridge. Now the car started feeling like I'd done some serious damage and I wasn't sure we'd even be able to drive it off. I managed to go a few miles an hour and get safely off to the bus lanes on the Oakland side. The Caltrans driver was awesome. He changed our tire for us and vented with us about being a state worker and put up with my continued hysterical thanking him and hugging him and telling him he'd saved our lives. We drove home on our spare and yesterday got two new tires, this time opting to pay for the lifetime replacement policy. Let's hope we never need it.

Our fourth of July celebration was really low key after our morning drama. We bought a few fireworks and had my dad act as our fire marshall while we set them off for Savvy. She was much more interested in them this year, and I imagine that trend will continue as time goes on.

Now we're all back home, safe and sound, and trying to get back into the groove of working after a prolonged break. Hopefully Savvy will be better tomorrow and I'll be back at the office working on another round of reporting. Hope everyone is healthy and safe in your neck of the woods. :)