Wednesday, September 3, 2008

A Morning Without Coffee

This morning was a morning without coffee. Metaphorically and actually. The morning started at about 2:00am when, for the second night in a row Coco decided to wake up crying. She's been 'off kilter' for a few days. We're never sure if she's sick or just going through a spell since, luckily, she's a super happy "sick" baby. She doesn't show a lot of symptoms ever. So recently we've been trying to decide if the cranky spells and runny nose are due to the emergence of her upper eye-teeth, or something more sinister. Luckily at 2:00am all she wanted was her paci so getting back to sleep wasn't too tough. However we repeated the episode again at 5:00.

Once we were up and running for the day, I decided it was best to just take her in to the doc. We have her first plane ride coming up next Thursday and on the off chance she had an ear infection a checkup was better now than later. Of course when I say off chance, I suppose it isn't off at all. Since she's been born Cora has had 5 ear infections (if you count each ear). Again, since she doesn't get outwardly sick, we can't ever tell until its severe. By then the doctor at the clinic looks at us like he's debating calling DHS. He usually asks something like "didn't she seem upset when you laid her down?" To which we would say "Ah no... she went to sleep." I'm not sure he believed us.

Back to the story... our walk in clinic doesn't open until 8:00am and Daddy leaves at 7:00 so for about 45 minutes I was trying to entertain Coco in a suit and heels. Once we finally got out the door and to the clinic, I realized that carrying a 25lbs doll along with a large handbag all the while in aforementioned heels is not as fun as it should be. Once we got in to the waiting room Coco wanted to roam. And of course she made a bee-line for the sniffliest, runny-nosed-ness, most hacky coughing little one in the room. I didn't need her getting something else on top of whatever she may or may not have already but didn't want to hurt the other mom's feelings so I mumbled something about "Come on Cora, I don't think this little guy wants your germs" and carted her off.

Once we finally got in to see the doc my suspicions were confirmed... ear infection. *Le sigh* So it was off to Walgreen's to fill her prescription. Now I had a sick(ish) baby who had missed snack time and was nearing nap time. Not a good combo for life on the go. But having no choice (after I carted said baby and handbag all the way back through the building and out to the car) I headed to Walgreen's and drug Coco in with me.

Out of desperation, while they were filling the scrip, I went to the baby aisle and bought some Gerber cookies and cheesy poofs. Cora had never had the cheesy poofs but I figured I'd give it a go. We sat in the waiting area and I opened the canister for her. You would think that child had never eaten a day in her life. She was literally grabbing poofs with both hands and shoving them in her mouth. After a short period of that, I tried to put the lid back on the poofs. Bad idea. I suddenly had a screaming pile of snot covered angriness in my lap. I tried to be the strong mom and tell her "Cora, you've had enough of those. Now that is enough." After about 2 minutes of that along with the ear piercing shrieking I simply opened the canister back up. Oddly enough it was met with joyful silence as Coco once again blissfully stuffed her mouth.

Once they called our name, I realized that I had to somehow get 25lbs baby, handbag and now 2 containers of treats up to the counter, extract my wallet, pay for my items, and get all of this back out to the car. Riiiight. Somehow I didn't end up dropping any of them (baby included) and got out to the car (with screaming child in tow since I had, for real this time, taken away the cheesy poofs).

My plan was to give Coco her medicine in the car, and then head on to day-care. After getting her into her car seat (no small feat in her state) I was too wiped. I decided we would run home, get her medicine, give her a cookie, leave the treats at home, mommy could change the itchy sweater she had been silently swearing at all morning, and then we could go to day-care. Once I turned into my driveway and looked back to tell Cora we were home I realized why things had been so peaceful on the ride.. Cora was out like a light. Knowing my child as i do, I realized that if I had woken her at that point, she would not go back down for a morning nap and she would be an evil little imp at day-care. I pulled into the garage and said, as if she could hear me, "Mommy is going to just run inside very quickly. I'll be right back... right back!" Feeling some level of bad parenting for leaving my child unattended I bolted inside, threw the treats on the floor of the foyer, took the steps two at a time shedding the horrid sweater along the way, threw the sweater on the floor of the bedroom, grabbed another (non-itchy) one out of the closet and bolted back down the stairs and out the door to the waiting car praying I would not hear wailing. Phew - all was well - she was still asleep.

I drove to day-care with a sleeping baby all the way. Once I pried her out of the car seat she woke as I knew she would but at least she had gotten in a good 25 minutes. I took her inside along with the medicine while also clutching two cookies to help her tummy. I explained to Linda (her day care provider) and begged her indulgence to let me give Coco her cookies and meds, store the meds in her fridge and then get the heck to work.

Once baby was medcined and cookied, hugged and kissed, I headed out. I got to the parking ramp as quickly as I could and realized that I would have to circle upward for an eternity to find a spot. Then I remembered overhearing that one of the reserved spots (given to associates who help a local charity) was unspoken-for this month. Mind you it is the one and same charity whose annual kick-off meeting I was chair of - and that I was currently missing due to taking Cora to the doctor. Nice. I had no shame as I pulled right into the main floor, reserved spot. I grabbed my briefcase and purse, and picked cookie off of cashmere as I headed past security and on to the elevators.

Once I was safely in my office, booting up my computer, flipping through files and walking around while listening to waiting voicemails I realized that it was almost 10:00 am and I had not had breakfast. Then more importantly I realized I had not had coffee! How had I survived? No wonder things had been so chaotic! I actually found myself wondering if the Starbucks Baristas were concerned when I hadn't been in. Sad isn't it? You know its bad when the baristas see you standing in line and just start your drink for you - before you ever open your mouth or get anywhere near the counter. As I sat down at my desk and began to go through the 35 waiting emails I wondered if it was kosher to have coffee with lunch. And I wondered if it was kosher to have lunch at 10:00am....

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