The Halloween from Hell

Don't let the smiling faces in the cute pictures fool you- this was the weekend from hell. It should have been an awesome weekend, and it would have been if things had gone according to plan. But when do things ever go according to plan? Here's what was supposed to happen. Saturday morning, Matt had to go into work for a few hours. He was going to come home in the afternoon to take the kids to the big trick-or-treat bonanza that takes place downtown. Then his mom was going to come over and babysit the kids so we could have a lovely date night dinner and a movie. That would be followed by a relaxing Sunday, ending with me taking Mason trick-or-treating in Yaya and Grandaddy's neighborhood. Sounds lovely, right? Here's what actually happened....

Matt headed out the door at 6:30 a.m. He was working on a big moving project for a client, so we knew it would take a while, but no one could have predicted how long it actually took. We were scheduled to take the kids downtown at 4:00, but I started to get concerned when I still hadn't heard from Matt at 2:00. 2:30, no Matt, 3:00, no Matt. By then it was obvious that he wasn't making it home in time to take the kids. Luckily, my mom came over to help me get them ready and came with us to the awesome trick or treat fest that our town holds each year. That was actually really fun. The kids all had a good time, and even though Hays refused to wear his puppy ears, they all looked really cute in their costumes. But the fun ended there.

We got home around 5 and my mother in law was coming to babysit at 6. I called Matt to make sure he was at least going to make it home in time for date night. His response was, "I hope we're going to be done in an hour." Considering that he was thirty minutes away and that they're NEVER done in an hour, I knew with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that date night wasn't going to happen. I called Pat to let her know that she was off the babysitting hook. She kindly offered to bring dinner over for the kids and give me a hand, but I foolishly said, "No, that's okay. I'll just feed them here and eat take-out with Matt later." The kids, having been promised McDonald's with Nana, outright refused every dinner suggestion I had. When I called my mom to complain about the disaster my evening had become, she offered to meet us at the Mexican place nearby.

I hate taking my kids out to eat. It's always much more trouble than it's worth. But I was hoping to salvage some small piece of the evening and make the kids happy, so against my better judgement, I agreed. It wasn't as bad as I thought. It was much, much worse. I have never, ever seen my children behave as badly in public as they did that evening. Mason was impossible. He wouldn't listen, messed with everything on the table, just made a general pain in the ass of himself. Hays was out of his mind- screaming and refusing to eat, and when he wasn't doing that he was making a disastrous mess and getting into everything in sight. Will was actually fine. He just made an epic mess and got silly with Mason, but he was the best of the bunch.

It doesn't sound that bad, but honestly, you just had to be there. It was awful. It was so bad in the first five minutes, that when the waitress came to take our order, I didn't even order. I knew I'd be so busy trying to wrangle the evil demon that had taken over Hays, that there was no hope of actually eating a meal. By the end, all mom and I could do was laugh, but it was that laughter bordering on hysteria that you do when things can't possibly get worse. But they did.

I got the kids home, bathed and into bed. I poured myself a jug of wine, Matt finally got home and we settled for Chinese instead of a fun date. I was exhausted and collapsed into bed around 11:00. An hour later I was awoken by a crying Mason, barking like a seal and gasping for breath. Croup, for the second time in as many months. Twenty minutes later after sitting in a steamy bathroom and giving him a hit of Will's Albuterol (doctor approved!) we were back in bed. An hour later Hays wakes up crying. And hour after that, Will. Then Hays. Then Mason, crying barking, gasping. Oh yeah, it was quite a night.

Sunday morning started with a trip to the urgent care center for Mason. Steroids for the cough, Tylenol for the fever. The usual. We get home to find that Will is coughing an awful lot. I try to give him Robitussin- he throws it up. Wait a while and try again- he throws it up again. We give up. He feels fine, he's just coughing, so figure we'll just wait it out and keep an eye on him.Matt's mom had offered to watch the kids so we could go to lunch since our date night had been thwarted, and we took her up on it. That was lovely. We had a nice lunch (during which we were only interrupted by one work-related phone call), then a trip to Target to scout out Christmas presents for the kids. As we're leaving Target, Matt's mom calls. Will is coughing badly and can't stop.

When we get home, he's coughing his brains out. Matt's mom has successfully given him Robitussin and we gave him a breathing treatment, but the coughing continues. Then he throws up the Robitussin. Off to St. Mary's we go. When we get there, his oxygen levels are fine, he has no fever, and the coughing levels off some. He still has bad coughing fits, but it's not so constant. They do a chest x-ray and give him a breathing treatment, but determine that it's post-nasal drip from allergies, and not a relapse of pneumonia. We're on our way home with a prescription for very strong cough medicine in time for me to take Mason trick-or-treating!

Trick or treating was great. My mom, my sister, Paige, and I took Mason around the neighborhood. He collected his fill of candy, then headed back to my parent's house to hand out candy with Grandaddy. I got to hang out with my mom and sister for a while, and at least the weekend from hell ended on a high note.

Well, for me anyway. I came home and got Mason to bed and fell into bed not long after myself. Poor Matt was working from home until 4 am, got up 3 1/2 hours later to start the grind again, and God only knows when he'll get home tonight. So I'm on my own all day today with all three kids. Yay. And there's no school tomorrow because it's election day. Double yay. Surely things will get better? Right??????