What a Week!

Earthquake, Hurricane and plague have descended upon us. My gracious what a week.

We had a 5.9 earthquake on Tuesday. For Maryland that is a very rare thing. Happily Kiernan was sitting in "Grandma's" lap at Scearce's and never noticed a thing. This could be because he thought she was bouncing him or it could be because he was watching a youtube video and was completely engrossed. Either way, Hurrah!

I was home for lunch from work and putting dishes into the dishwasher when it hit. At the same time I was also talking to David on the phone so I got the entertaining experience of telling him there was an earthquake and then a few seconds later hearing him go "WHOAH! earthquake".

Yesterday we went to church again. Things are really working out there but I was reminded of why I felt it was so important to bring Kiernan to a place of worship with many other people. For myself, I have stopped going to church. We have family worship and Kiernan has bible stories every day and he says his prayers and I think he is getting a pretty good religious (he is a little young for spiritual I think) foundation at home. At church though he must also face the more mundane realities of of life with people. He has gotten much better at paying attention to the teacher and he is really getting into the routines especially the singing. It is very sweet to see him trying to sing along to songs that he now recognizes but clearly dose not know.

The hard part for him is dealing with other little kids. Having no siblings yet and no cousins in the area and no preschool or daycare he really hasn't had much opportunity to deal with people his own size before. Other little children seem to bother him. He likes watching them but shy's away when they get close and if ever there is physical contact he comes running. I am sorry to say that he ran into a little girl without much speed or force but that he cried inconsolably for a few minutes there after. I am not sure what that is about but a classroom full of toddlers is a good place to work on it.

We knew the hurricane was coming but because it (Irene) was moving up the coast so slowly we had plenty of time to get extra water and batteries and all the things you would expect.

Some of the afternoon was spent hanging out with Nana but she left quickly as she was not feeling well. About 2 hours later Kiernan was not feeling well too. :(

Apparently they both spent the evenings (and part of the night in his case) throwing up.

It is so hard to have him be sick. He cries and is confused and scared and wants to be held and there really is nothing we can do except hold him and wash him off and give him some Motrin and ginger-ale.

I do have some Saf-T-Pops , basically Zinc and vitamin C lollipops, and those help his throat.

He slept not only through the hurricane that hit at about 2 AM and kept knocking the power on and off but through another round of throwing up. Poor little guy.

I had this horrible vision of one of the big trees outback crashing into Kiernan's room and crushing him so I didn't get back to sleep for a few hours. If he hadn't been sick I would have moved him away from the back side of the house but as it was I just sort of sat there listening for cracking tree noises, ready to sprint into his room. I am sure I flooded poor Meg with stress hormones galore.

I am a bit sick too but it's such a different thing for me. I know what is happening and even though i can't take anything for it because of the pregnancy the finite nature of sickness is comforting. Nothing is nearly as comforting as David though. He has let me sleep in and take a nap and has been caring for both of us today with food and stories and naps for all.

Thank you David.

This morning he seems fine and mom says she is better and we went for a drive to see the storm damage and all things seem ok.

We could do with a quiet week next week though.