What. A. Day.

Yesterday was an interesting day. It began at 3:30... a.m! DeLaynie came into our room, sobbing because she was soaked from head to toe. Apparently her diaper experienced a wardrobe malfunction. Edwin and I are both on prescription cough medicine, but it affects us differently. He takes it and feels normal. I take it and go into a colma. I'm unconscious, dead to the world. In other words, poor Edwin was left to deal with DeLaynie, who eventually woke up Ella.

I wasn't sure if DeLaynie could even go to school off of 6 hours of sleep that ended 5 1/2 hours before school even began, but she made it through her day just fine. Then she came home, and I let her stay up for about an hour before putting her to bed. Ella wasn't quite normal (see below), so I was trying to deal with her. When I went to the kitchen to make her a bottle, I heard DeLaynie in our room. Then I heard a piece of metal slide on the door.

She locked it. From the inside. With one of the bar locks that can't be unscrewed from the outside. And the hinges were on the inside. We had very few options. Edwin was on his way home from a lunch in the middle of nowhere (which is between Tallassee and Tuscaloosa), so I called my dad. He was in the woods, walking and probably praying, but he came over, and called Mom who'd taken a half-day off for a dentist appointment. She got there before Dad.

Poor DeLaynie was in a frenzy. None of us had even noticed where on the door the lock was, so we were shooting in the dark. Mom and Dad decided that the door would have to be removed... by force. I went outside and tried to seduce DeLaynie to the window where she wouldn't be near the door when it swung open. She wouldn't bite. The curtains were closed, so she couldn't even see me. Mom pried and kicked and made great head-way in dislodging the door before Dad got there. The noise was traumatizing DeLaynie. Ella was annoyed that both grandparents were there, but they wouldn't hold her. DeLaynie decided to lay down on the floor, which is about 18 inches below the bottom of the door because of a stair. This gave Dad the opportunity he needed to bust it in. The door finally opened, and DeLaynie ran out, screaming, "Yippee!" in response to Dad announcing her freedom. I tried to explain that these kinds of things happen when we disobey Mommy. (She was supposed to be laying down for a nap.)

Yesterday I mentioned how I caved in the midst of inner turmoil about giving Ella a steroid prescribed to her. I will freely admit that the reason is fear. I'm afraid of the bronchitis developing into something like pneumonia, and having only myself to thank for it. I don't typically like to make decisions from fear, but this is a logical fear, so it's kind of like making a logical decision, right?

I don't know. The inner turmoil continues over the decision. The poor baby turned into the Energizer Bunny. She kept crawling at a pace equivalent to a sprint, up the hall, then back down. I might be reading into it, but she seemed miserable through the whole night, as if she desperately wanted to stop, but couldn't. She was ravenously hungry all day, gulping down at least ten bottles of 6 ounces each. She didn't sleep well either. I think that it was partially due to being hungry and partially due to the sudden bursts of undeniable energy. There's only one term for the way she was acting: high. Maybe it's all of the educational videos I've seen in my life about how steroids kill people, but I'm having a hard time gulping this one down. I think I'll head over to WebMD and click around to see what they have to say about it.

Yesterday wasn't all trauma and struggling with little people. Edwin found out that he got a job! He started orientation today. He didn't know which job, exactly, as he applied for a few different ones with the same organization. I suppose that I'll find out when he gets home, not that we know when that'll be.

Ah, parenthood. It's quite an adventure.