February Flop

So February ended up being quite a month.

And yes, I know it's only March 1 now, but I'm still confident that above statement will end up being my understatement of the year.

February and I are no longer friends.

It's not like I was on great terms with January either. Just to recap that last week of that month: I slipped and fell on ice on Monday, we had the first snow days Tuesday and Wednesday, and Hannah was diagnosed with pneumonia and out of school Thursday and Friday. That resulted in me canceling a long-awaited spa day on Sunday, February 1, too, so I guess February wasn't off to the greatest start. And that rolled right into two more snow days.

I vaguely remember spending a few days at work and cramming in the first round of LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER auditions before we were walloped with two more snow days. Two more days at work, which included a doctor's appointment for me followed by a late night video conference, and then another work from home day so I could take the kids to their annual pediatric well visits, which had already been postponed a couple times due to snow.

That was a Friday, the 13th to be exact. The kids were due to spend most of the next week visiting their relatives in Arkansas for February vacation. But in the space of a few days since those well visits, Max developed strep throat, and the kid's trip was canceled (which also meant that a two night hotel staycation for Marc and I was canceled too). I stayed home part of the week, and Marc stayed home the rest. Max didn't really get better though, and he started on another medication.

The kids went back to school that Monday morning, with Max being monitored by the school nurse. His breathing wasn't quite right though, and so that afternoon took the biggest turn of all, as we ended up at the emergency room and eventually, admitted to the hospital for two days and two nights. He had also developed pneumonia and the breathing issues related to that.

My hospital identity

Once we were in the hospital, I have to admit that I was fairly zen about all of it. We were where we needed to be and in good hands. The staff was fabulous and tried to make Max and the rest of us as comfortable as possible. Everything else in our lives could wait, be sent on to co-workers, be rescheduled or simply missed. As a working parent so often held to the parameters of my calendar and so many competing demands, it was actually pleasant to have just one priority: making sure Max got better. We were very lucky that he did, even making it back to school for a shortened day on Friday, as if he'd never been in the hospital at all.

This month was just crazy. Almost nothing went according to plan. I even got a fortune cookie, during lunch after Max's strep diagnosis, that said "Those who fail to plan, plan to fail." I laughed thinking those fortune writers didn't know who they were dealing with; I *always* have a plan. I just don't get to always see them through.

March is going to be so much better, right?