1m2aSandbox

Cora has an insatiable love for all things artistic and crafty. She’s got a stack of things to do in her room at bedtime, including but not limited to: a rainbow loom set; an actual cross-stich (yes, she can do it all by herself); several beginning sewing kits; several sticker mosaic sets; a stack of notebooks, maze and puzzle books, and coloring books; and a full desk set, including scissors, tape, erasers, crayons, and more.

What she does not have is a desk.

Cora has a plastic lap desk that she uses for crafting in her bed. She’s also got a very nice dressing table with a big mirror, the counter of which will quickly become buried under cut up construction paper and stacks of homemade fans, which then precludes her using the storage of her dressing table.

So I’ve been looking for a desk for Cora for nearly a year now, but I had a few requirements:
1. It has to be used. I’m big on recycling/reusing whenever possible.
2. It has to be real wood, so I can re-finish it to match the rest of her room.
3. It has to fit into a very narrow, small space that’s the only available spot for a desk.
4. It has to be cheap. ‘Cause that’s how I roll.

It’s been a wild ride this week: Maddie’s had a severe case of hives come and go – and come again on Wednsday, only to leave again Wednesday night. She’s had horrible stomach cramps all week, throwing up Tuesday night and being hungry and wanting to eat, but feeling the pains intensify every time she put water in her stomach. As a result, she’d eaten nothing since Monday morning and could barely walk.

I’ve spent the week thinking the hives were a side effect of the flu shot, and going back and forth on the stomach thing: was it a virus? Was it part of the flu shot? If this was all a reaction to the flu shot, would next year’s flu shot be high risk? Should I have insisted on getting the exact flu shot I wanted, and not the one they had when they’d run out of the one I wanted?

By Thursday morning I’d worked myself into a fine case of Mommy Worry, with a nice helping of Mommy Guilt on the side. People are dying here in Texas of the flu – relatives of friends of mine – so the flu and the shot are no small topics of conversation around here.

Maddie came into our bedroom late Sunday night complaining of being itchy all over. Myself being sleepy all over, I told her to climb in bed with me and go back to sleep.

Monday morning she woke up looking like she had little bug bites across her trunk. Unsure as to whether or not it was bites or an allergic reaction, but not seeing anything severely wrong, I sent Maddie off to school with crossed fingers.

By the time Maddie came home after school, the poor girl had giant hives – I mean, a single hive four inches across – in her armpits, across her chest and back, down her legs, and starting onto her neck. Pretty certain by this time that it was a reaction of some kind rather than bites, but wanting to be sure, I took Maddie straight to my dermatologist to get an expert’s opinion.