Little Miss Snores A Lot

Poor girl.  She woke up this morning with a nasty, barking cough.  Then it returned at nap time.  And now that she's in bed for the night, it's back.  It took her over an hour to fall asleep because she just couldn't breathe.  I've been pumping her little nostrils with saline and hoping for the best.  (It's not like I can ask her to gargle saltwater to clear out all that yuck in her throat.)  I went to check on her and this is what I find.

And to make it even better: A video:

(OKAY it's 12:30am, scratch the video, it's taking too long and I WANT TO SLEEP.  Maybe the internet will be faster tomorrow and you can see this poor baby snoring.)

***It's taking forever to load pics and videos, so I've gone off to do other things.  Meanwhile, Elayna has woken up multiple times because she can't breathe or because her throat hurts.  She's got a barking cough that makes my throat hurt to just hear her.  I hope it's just allergies.  We've had some pretty crazy weather lately.  Anyway, after the numerous times I consoled her back to sleep, this last wake-up I went in and pulled her out of bed so she could lay on me while I sat upright, hoping that would help her breathe a little easier.  Once I thought she was asleep, I got up and went into the living room to watch some tv, with her still laying on me.  That lasted about 10 minutes before she was asking to go back to bed.  What kid passes up tv for bed?  Apparently mine.  Poor girl got down, marched herself straight back to the bedroom, waited patiently for me to put her back in the crib, and laid back down and tried to fall asleep.  It's already been a long night.  I hope she gets some sleep.  I hope I get some sleep.

On a different note, Mati's herself again!  More so than I can handle!  We go to the vet tomorrow for a follow up and I'm praying he gives her permission to resume her normal schedule.  Then maybe I can run the heck out of her and get some peace and quiet.  This is something I'm worrying about when we get back to WA... where on earth can she run?  There are a few back roads that I know of behind Madigan.  But it's not like I can predict if anyone will be driving down them.  Not to mention Fort Lewis has a leash law.  I take her down side country roads now, the type where there's only one house at the very end of the road and traffic is slim to none.  There's just no where I can legally do that on post.  Or even legally do that in the state.  The only solution I can think of is the dog park at Steilacoom, but then I run the risk of her being stupid around children (she's good with small ones- babies and toddlers-- not with children, especially if they have no restraint and are super psycho crazy).  We're working on it.  I have a vest I can put on her with big bold "DO NOT PET" velcro patches.  Any ideas?

ALSO, we've booked our flights back out to WA.  We fly out of Nashville early on the 19th this month and will be at Fort Lewis by noon that day.  I'm hoping we can catch an early housing appointment so we might be able to have the storage container delivered that same day.  If it works out perfectly, we won't have to stay at the lodge and start unpacking the container that day and the next.  Randy's flying out to help.  Again, this is very wishful thinking and everything has to fall into perfect place at the right time to pull that plan off.  So, we'll probably be staying at the lodge a night.

That means, Grandma, we're coming to visit.  I know yall just returned from your Caribbean cruise.  Hope you lucky ducks had fun.  I plan to call you tomorrow (well, I guess today) to schedule a good time for us to come out and stay a few nights.

Well keep Elayna in your prayers and hope she gets over this nastiness.  For both of our sakes.
WE NEED SLEEP!

April Showers...

Wait.  It's May.  Why is it still showering?  Let's just make it clear: There's thunder and lightning, a lot of it.  This isn't what I call showering, it more like the apocalypse.  Look at weather.com.  That picture really is worth a thousand words.


Did you notice the timestamp?  I can't sleep.  It feels and sounds like the thunder is right out my (er, Elayna's) window.  And when I close my eyes, I see a million flashes a minute.  I grew up with thunderstorms, but I guess living in the Northwest has spoiled me.  NO, I repeat, NO thunder and lightning out there.  I think in the two years we lived there I heard thunder maybe once or twice... and I can't even be certain about that because I lived on an Army post.

But the last two nights have made all my childhood nightmares come back.  (Especially with this new Freddy movie coming out.)  I admit storms scare me.  All that cracking thunder and bright flashes make me realize just how puny I am.  It's scary.  Very.  So like the grown, mature adult woman I am, I've snuck into my 1 1/2 year old daughter's room and am bunking in the guest bed.

And the "Weenie Award" goes to... ME.  Applause.

She's not even the least bit phased.  I mean, come on.  Even the dog has her ears perked up and is begging me to let her up on the bed.  (She's quite content sleeping on the floor next to me, except for tonight.)  I'm curled up in the fetal position, trying to calm myself.   I can feel my heart racing.  But my toddler is perfectly fine.  Awake and singing to herself b/c my sneaky sneakiness has woken her up.  I'm trying to smile and pat her back and make like it's all okay and to go back to sleep.  But on the inside, I'm freakin out man.

Hope your night was better than mine.