A bad day for Luke

Yesterday was not a good day, all in all. To start with the neighbours had decided to have a noisy outdoor drunken karioke party that lasted until 4am! I was so cross about it. Some people are just so selfish. Poor Steve is working every waking second at the moment on running this book fair, and his shop, and his mail order business. The sleep he gets is not very good at the moment, but it's made worse by inconsiderate people who think the whole world should come to a standstill just for them. Well as you can tell, I was not amused. The sound of 20 drunken lager louts screaming along to 'Let me entertain you' at 3 am does not put me in good form.

So I didn't get up until 11.30 which was a bad start to the day. Half the day was gone and I had so much to do. We've been out so much lately that the house needs some serious attention in the form of cleaning and tidying. But the garden needed even more attention so I went out to it. I got quite a bit done. I took apart the two tents that had been out all week. That was some fun - really it should have been attempted by two people, not one. But I got there in the end. Then Sam tidied up all the rubbish and toys that were scattered all over the grass. I watered some of the potted vegetables and the garden started to look less like a tip and more like a loved home. I managed to put together the two mini greenhouses which I picked up on freecycle. They were much easier to put together than I'd imagined, especially with Luke's help and assistance. So now our little seedlings have somewhere warm to grow.

But there was no food left in the fridge, so I decided to go to Tesco's for some shopping. I've never been there on a Sunday before as we are usually busy with the fellowship. Sam stayed at home. Luke was in great form and him and Jude were having a laugh all the way round the supermarket. He kept putting things in my trolley that I didn't want, and so I'd have to sneak them back onto the shelves when he wasn't looking.

Whilst loading all my shopping onto the checkout I sent Jude and Luke to sit in the cafe and wait for me. We always do that. Then I heard an almighty scream, from Luke, nothing like I'd ever heard from him before and I left my purse, bag and groceries at the check out and ran to the cafe. The screaming was so horrific that the manager and members of staff all came running too. Poor little Luke had found an injured wasp and tried to pick it up to show me. Of course it had stung him, on the end of his index finger. He was hysterical. Within minutes his finger had swollen to 3 times it original size and he had a red rash (looked like nettle stings - red rash with white raised spots) flaring all the way up his arm to his shoulder. The door man, who was apparently trained to deal with first aid, came to our assistance. They wouldn't let us leave in case he was taking an allergic reaction. He was so hot that they were concerned about him, but that was probably just because he was in such a stage, crying and screaming. One member of staff brought him a packet of Starburst sweets to try and calm him. He wouldn't even look at them (anyone who knows Luke knows what a sweet tooth he has - but he couldn't eat sweets for 3 hours!) They brought over some waspeze spray and sprayed his finger. All 5 of us were sitting on the floor in the middle of Tescos, between the checkouts and the cafe (me, Luke, Jude, the lady and the first aid man). So they took us into the kitchen area of the closed cafe. We washed Lukes hand under some cold water, then we put vinegar on it. He said he wanted a plaster and so the lady got him some. We were there for 40 minutes in which time he was crying uncontrollably the entire time.

Finally they let us leave but we had to sit in the car for a further 20 minutes as Luke was so upset that he wouldn't let me leave him in the back to drive the car. Finally he agreed that I could drive quickly home. At home I went upstairs and lay in my bed with Luke. Sam and Jude were so worried about him (especially Jude who was almost in tears at the supermarket). They both unloaded all my shopping for me. Sam made Luke a bottle of warm milk, and then he loaded my frozen (almost defrosted) foods into the freezer. I lay in the bed with him for an hour and stroked his head and told him stories about members of the family who had been stung, and explained to him what had happened. Eventually he would calm down if distracted by a story, but then the pain would be back and he'd cry again. He told me that he wanted to be a bird so that I could open the window and say "shoo-shoo" and he'd fly away up to the clouds. A fly buzzed past the bed and he was paralyzed with fear, in case it was another wasp or bee.

He cried almost constantly for 3 1/2 hours. All my plans for the housework were out of the window. Sam and Jude made him cards and gave him sweets to cheer him up but he had no appetite to eat them. We all watched the 'Little Shop Of Horrors' DVD, which he is addicted to at the moment. He watches it 2 or 3 times day sometimes, and knows every word to all the songs.

At 7pm I ran him a bath and he actually wanted to get into it. As soon as his hand went into the warm water he began to feel better. After 20 minutes in the bath he said the pain had gone and he perked up to his normal happy self. When Steve and Hannah got home from the fair at 7.30 his finger looked just like normal and he was laughing and showing off, as usual. You wouldn't have known there was anything wrong with him. He did cry a bit this morning when he felt it was sore again. So it wasn't until 7.30 that I started cooking the dinner. At 8.40 I was just starting on cleaning the kitchen up, putting washing on, watering more vegetables, etc. Hannah offered to babysit so that me and Steve could go out but I was too shattered so I suggested that they go and see something in the cinema. They went to see Pirates of the Caribbean. At 11pm I still wasn't done. Luke was in bed but Sam and Jude were still awake. Sam, such a sweetheart, decided to tidy the living room for me, so that I could relax and go to bed. I was really touched that he did it with no asking from me.

So that was yesterday. Hopefully today will be better. I'm working a 14 hour day at the book fair tomorrow so that Steve can relax for a while (relax with 3 kids. Is that possible?)


The veggie garden looks a lot better now that we have finished it off with some gravel and edging.