Oh. No.

Hello, I am alive. Yes, it is true! It is also true that it's four in the morning and I'm posting on my blog! Why? Because I am absolutely nuts.

Niko crawled into bed with us tonight, and I can't go back to sleep. I also realized that when I step on the pergo in our bathroom, I'm feeling wetness from between the slats. So I've been looking up "water damage" and "replacing pergo flooring" and "why, oh why, does this sort of thing always happen to me?!" No, I didn't really look up that last one, although I did google "Run away, screaming," and then hardy har harred for a while because of it.

The nurse's office called the other day. Niko had bit that same aid (remember the black eye two weeks ago?) through his shirt and had broken the skin. They called me to come get him because he refused to let them rinse out his mouth. Naturally, I had the "I don't have a car, let me make a zillion phone calls!" panic (this is where my mother interjects A Loving Silence Heavy With Meaning, but no, we can't swing another vehicle at this time) and since Luke was in town, he came home. We tried to meet with the Principal, but she's out of town at the moment.

Here's the thing. Niko has never hurt himself by headbonking, and suddenly there's a "headbonking incident" that gave him that nasty shiner. And then he out of the blue bites this same aid less than a month later? He has been behaving so well! Not saying that this aid is acting inappropriately with Niko, but obviously something is going on. Perhaps he's acting in a way that Niko just doesn't like, or Niko just doesn't like him, (which I've never seen before) but the end result is that only one new thing has been introduced in the last few weeks, and it's (gasp!) this aid. I don't understand the Principal's policy of shaking up the status quo, which is why I want to talk to her. They switch aids, and my son's coming home looking like he's been scrapping in the schoolyard. When the nurse told me that the aid had to go to Quick Care because of the bite, I was sorry, of course. I laud anybody that chooses to work in a school. But the aid is an adult. Niko is a five year old boy who doesn't fully understand at the best of times. I think he's the one that needs me to speak for him.

I say this courageously, but inside I'm dying. Please don't let this be last year all over again. I don't know if I'm strong enough to go through it a second time. It's my worst nightmare.

On the writing front....well. Things were going well, and then not so well, and then I made a rookie mistake because I have too many things on my plate and I'm completely overwhelmed. Hence "Running away, screaming." More about that on www.abrokenlaptop.wordpress.com. It's just painful, really. But I'll learn from it, yadda yadda .

Oh, and I ran out of Coke today, but only for a few hours. My weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth prompted my husband to haul the family out to the grocery store. Now I have 10 liters of it, and I'm very, very happy. I like to open the cupboard and see my back-up bottles standing sentinel in their bright, shiny glory.

Goodnight, er, good morning, all!