How many times have YOU changed your shirt today?

I'm at three and could probably use one more.

The intended title of this post was "Musings of the Human Kleenex," but the events leading up to my third clean shirt of the day changed that quickly. Let me explain.

Early Monday morning Clara started showing signs of an impending cold: coughing, sneezing, runny nose. She also had a very low-grade fever. No big deal, right?

Fast forward to Wednesday evening just before bed. Her cold symptoms were getting worse and she seemed suddenly warmer than she had been, so I took her temperature. 105 degrees. I took it again to make sure. 105 degrees. Okay. After some Tylenol and a call to our pediatrician's after-hours line, we decided to wait and see how her fever responded and to make an appointment to have her seen today. Her fever went down to about 102 degrees with the medication, but the cough was worse. She didn't sleep more than about 30 minutes at any one stretch all night. Needless to say she was half-dazed all day today.

So where do all the shirt changes come in to play? Let's see...change number one occured this morning when I got out of bed, so that one was all me. Change number two was thanks to Clara; why use the Kleenex Mom has in her hand when her shirt is so much handier? Change number three was also thanks to Clara. And this was the most special of all.

We arrived at the pediatrician's office and were waiting in line to check in. All of a sudden Clara starts having a serious coughing fit; her eyes were watering, her face was red, and I just knew we were about to see some of her lunch again. I caught a bit in my hand and my shirt caught the rest. One of the nurses heard the coughing and came out with an emesis basin, showed us to the bathroom to clean up, and checked us in without a stop in the waiting room. Nothing better than sitting for an hour and a half in the doctor's office with a nasty wet shirt.

The upside? It looks like she just has a virus, so no antibiotics. She seems to be the kind of kid who just spikes high fevers in response to certain viruses. So we're dosing the Tylenol and Motrin and hoping that she'll sleep better tonight. And that I'll sleep better too. I'm pretty tired.

And because I can never leave a post without completely unrelated photographic evidence of my child's cuteness, here are a couple of pictures from Easter:

Trying out her first Peeps with Daddy.


Checking out her Easter basket.


Giving the Easter Bunny a hug.