Catherine's fever persisted overnight, so Tracy took her to the doctor this morning. (I had to teach Mark's Sunday School class at church.)
Catherine has three simultaneous ailments: upper respiratory bronchitis, sinusitis, and strep throat. The amazing thing is that we didn't suspect anything until yesterday. Her only symptom had been a drippy nose. No daycare tomorrow (for sure) and Tuesday (probably).
Despite all this, she is happy and content. She played in the back yard with "parmesan cheese" (a.k.a. mud) again. Then, she pretended it was sunblock and proceeded to smear it everywhere. Before dinner: straight to the tub. See some funny pictures below. (R rated photos by request only.)
So, now we have a stack of medications for her: Augmentin, a cough medicine, a nasal spray, and, of course, Ibuprofen. She hates them all, so it is a real chore dosing her.
The doctors at Stelkor have seen lots of kids with similar symptoms in the last couple weeks. The recent fires have aggravated respiratory systems city-wide, causing susceptibility to infections. So, I guess the fires are partly to blame.
Although the rest of us are healthy, we all feel a bit feverish. It was another hot day today: high of 33 °C according to our outside thermometer. Tomorrow is supposed to be 21 °C with showers. That will bring some much-needed relief.
My mom asked for more details about Mark's chess tournaments. Mark had a great time. He'll be participating in the second half of the Boland tournament next Saturday. The venue is somewhere here in Stellenbosch, but we don't know yet. Only after the second half of the Boland tournament will a Boland team be selected for a regional tournament. He has his sights set on making the team. But, we have no idea how many players are selected in each age group. We keep telling him to do his best and see what happens after that.
--Matt
