By the end of the first week of school, Dee Dee was sick.  It took until the second week for Audio to get sick.  Since then, our family has been going through tissues and cold medicines in a way that until now, I was not familiar with.  As one person starts to show signs of health, another family member hits bottom.  We’ve all had some days that were tolerable, and we’ve all had days that were not.  The interesting thing is that while we are all dealing with cold-like symptoms, each of us has been affected a little differently; dry cough, wet cough, runny nose, stuffy nose, headaches, earaches, etc. So, it’s difficult to know who is catching what from whom or where.   

This week began with me unable to get out of bed because of asthma.  Fortunately for me, my wife had the day off because, unfortunately for him, her boss tested positive for COVID.  Dee Dee has been sniffling for a couple months but hasn’t been coughing as much as the rest of us.  After missing three days of school last week, Audio had a birthday party to go to on Sunday, which we weren‘t sure if we should bring her to.  It turned out that the birthday girl’s whole family got sick and the party was canceled anyway.  By the end of Monday, I was able to breathe, and the girls had the first day of the second quarter of school behind them. 

Both girls went to school on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Their mom and I walked them to school on both days.  As kids played and waited for the bell, parents discussed the different symptoms their families were suffering.  It seemed that every other family has been living the same lifestyle as ours has been.  Considering that everyone was home or masked for a couple years, and not catching and acquiring immunity to common colds, it was predicted that we would experience something like this. 

Audio, who usually acts as our human alarm clock, didn’t want to wake up on Thursday.  She didn’t have a fever, but she didn’t have an ounce of energy, either.  So, she stayed home and I walked Dee Dee to school.  Since it was just the two of us, I walked with her all the way to the front of the building. But, one of her classmates was standing by the door, so Dee Dee went and talked to her. I waited for the bell to ring and then went and reported to Audio’s teacher that she would stay home because she was ill. By the early afternoon, Audio was feeling better and we wondered if it was a mistake to keep her home.  Then, in the early evening she fell asleep on the couch.  When she woke up, she had a temperature over 101 degrees.   

On Friday morning Audio felt better, so my wife and I got both girls ready and walked them to school.  Dee Dee had some trouble with her mittens and sleeves, but other than that, both kids seemed well enough to be left at school. And, they made it through the day. My wife and I walked back to the school together at the end of the day and picked them up and walked them home. They had received their report cards. Both kids are doing well at school, but we knew that.