Pink Eye

So one of the harder parts of Dr. J's new job is that he works three out of every four weekends.  That means I'm at church alone three out of four weekends.  At some point it probably won't be such a big deal but while my kids are still a little restless it is hard to sit on a bench with them when there is only one of me to separate them. Yesterday I sat between Captain E and Peach, Cheetah was on my lap and Gigi sat beside Peach.  For the most part Gigi just read although during the actual passing of the sacrament I made her put her book away.  Peach kept begging me to cuddle her and tickle her arm and face.  Captain E was mostly quiet but would occasionally do stuff like lick Cheetah's arm to make her angry.  Cheetah was like trying to hold a bag of cats.  That girl was all over the place.

Which explains why when I went to primary during second hour and she asked to sit on my lap I was particularly frustrated.  One of my little girls came in a little late and started to cry.  She only likes to sit by the girls in the class (I teach five year olds) and the only seat available was down by all the boys.  Had I not be arguing with Cheetah at the time I could have rearranged them but I was in a pretty heated whisper conversation with Cheetah.  I'm sure Madison's mom thinks I'm nuts or mean or both but I just wasn't looking forward to another hour of holding Cheetah while she struggled to get away.

Finally she sat on my church bag beside me and was relatively happy for the first five minutes at least.  It was then that I looked down the row and realized that two of the boys in the row had a very pink eye.  My friend Ashley was sitting in front of me (she was subbing the sunbeams).  He son happens to be in my class.  I leaned forward and tapped her on the shoulder.  "Ashley, Ashley," She turned and looked at me.  "Look at R and T," I mouthed, "Pink eye."  I wish you could have seen her eyes.  "Oh my gosh," she said, "This is all my fault.  I took Meela to R's house on Thursday and she was just getting over pink eye."

Oh man it was funny but also a terror fest.  I hate pink eye so much.  We haven't had to deal with it in years and boy has that been a relief.  There is nothing worse than trying to put eye drops in a screaming, writhing, kicking child's eyes.  I had those kids wash their hands a million times.  I'd brought play dough as part of my lesson, the homemade kind.  I separated out a piece for every kid and then said, "That now belongs to you. Take it home."  Mainly just because my other choices was to just throw it out.  When I got home I made all my kids change their clothes and wash their hands before they touched anything :)  Sure it probably was overkill but then I'm pretty sure R got pink eye from an adult who was "getting over it".  Yikes!