repeat offenders
At the Children’s Museum.
Most kids want to be a fireman or astronaut. Not ours.
We are not spontaneous people; especially since having kids. So, at the beginning of last weekend, we were shocked to find ourselves driving to Portland for a couple of days. Our friend, Sizzle gave us the idea by missing her train to visit her Oregon friends. Andrea and I ‘joked’ about giving her a ride with the kids in the back seat. Then after a brief pause, we found ourselves looking for last-minute hotel deals. Sizzle ended up rescheduling her train, so didn’t tag along, which, in retrospect was a very good decision on her part. We knew it was a tight fit with the two car seats in the back, but we had not anticipated Lucy screaming for the entire 10-hour drive. Ok it was only 3-hours…but felt like 10.
We spent the weekend wandering the Pearl District and Downtown Portland. On Sunday, before heading home, we decided to take Charlie to the children’s museum, which, we’re certain is where he picked up croup.
Charlie, waitin’ to get out
It wasn’t until Tuesday that he really started showing symptoms — the hoarseness and barking cough. We put him to bed that evening and started to wind down. About an hour later, we heard him gasping for breath through the monitor. We ran into his room to find him sitting up, scared. His airway was so restricted that he was really having to work to get full breaths of air. After consulting the nurse’s hotline, we headed to Children’s ER. He received some steroid treatment that made him feel good enough to run circles around the room until we were finally discharged, around 3:30AM.
It was just shy of 4AM when we pulled into our neighborhood to find the single lane between parked cars blocked by a large SUV. Two of the passengers were out of the car and had opened a parked truck’s tailgate and canopy. A third guy kindly moved their SUV out of our way and rather casually went about stealing everything out of the back of the pickup. I immediately called 911, hoping to once and for all catch these guys. We couldn’t get their license plate number because of the fog—both literal and figurative. We watched the police circle our neighborhood several times, but I’m guessing the criminals got away, once again.
On my way home from work on Wednesday, the victim was outside examining his truck. I stopped to tell him what happened and quickly learned that he installs surveillance cameras for a living. He already had a plan to catch the crooks next time they decided to violate his property. Will they come back again? Yes. Yes they will.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Strange- so did they target that guy or did have they just been randomly stealing from cars?
While I was torn about taking you up on your offer for a ride, hearing that dear Lucy screamed for the whole trips makes me think I made the right choice.
January 28th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Dang, you guys have been busy!!
Sorry your adventurous nature led to Charlie getting sick. It always happens, doesn’t it?
Hopefully, those punks will learn their lesson, someway, somehow.
January 28th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Paige got The Croup last year. I had no frickin’ idea what was going on with her, until I called my mom (who used to be a nurse). “Yep! Sounds like croup!” Uhhh, I actually didn’t think croup existed. I thought it was some mystery illness our parents got in the 1950’s. I’m glad Charlie is feeling better. From what I’ve figured out, some kids are more prone to barking like a seal that others.
We have a problem in our neighborhood with car theft/stealing crap out of people’s cars. The problem is that people leave their nice cars out on the street, which entices robbers. Even so, it amazes me the lengths these cowards go to NOT to work (or supplement their income). I cannot imagine making a living plotting and stealing from others, trying not to get caught. What a waste of energy.
January 29th, 2009 at 12:15 am
Hi you guys! I’m so glad my kids are grown up when I hear a story like this. All of our kids had croup at one time or another, Eric was the only one that required a hospital visit and overnight stay. I did discover that if I took the offending crouper into the bathroom, shut the door, turned the shower on hot and sat there for 30 minutes or so breathing the steam that it would calm the breathing problem quite well. Just thought I’d pass that on for future reference – I’m sure this won’t be your only experience with croup (unfortunately).
Joan
January 29th, 2009 at 7:26 am
Everytime I hear one of my kids cough, I freak if it sounds seal-like. I’m constantly diagnosing my kids with croup in actuality, Celia has only had it once.
January 29th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Your post helped me deterimine, or rather reaffirm that I should never have a gun. I have extremely violent emotions when it comes to theives, or anyone violating someone else in any way really. I’ve been stolen from on serveral occasions and have become a little bitter about it. So here’s to those thieves getting shot… uh…. i mean arrested.