A miserable night's sleep

We’re all sick. Well actually, Nic is a lot better, but Benjamin and I are still being big babies.
Yesterday Nic called me, pretty upset, because he had a wicked cough and was breathing weird. She took him into the doctor — after his nap she checked and he had a temperature of 102.5. Surprisingly the diagnosis was “ear infection.” Everything else is just the common cold… and the appearance of tooth #3 — this one coming in on the bottom. By Christmas he’ll be eating steak.
We’re all pretty miserable right now. No one’s been sleeping well, Benjamin sounds like Darth Vader when he breathes, my back is acting up again (and yes, I’m doing my stretches, dad) and I’m a wimp when I’m sick.
On top of that, our neighbours got a new dog. Maybe you’re thinking “oh, how nice for them!” But if you are, you just don’t understand.
They didn’t get a guard dog, or a companion dog, or an otherwise useful dog. They got a decorative dog — one of those little fart dogs. The one’s that resemble a fur-covered turd. The kind people like Paris Hilton carry around in their handbags. The kind who’s owners talk to like a baby, but that has all the intelligence of a rock. Before this week I hated this kind of dog. Now I loathe them.
Yesterday morning I woke up to the sound of it yipping — I suppose it thought it was barking. This went on for the better part of 2 hours, during which it woke up Benjamin as well. I guess this particular breed doesn’t need to breathe, because it didn’t pause for even a second during that whole time. Apparently the soulless little demon had been left alone, and was determined that by barking, it would be able to get some attention.
All in all, its been a pretty wretched week. But I suppose we had one of these coming because last week was a surprisingly great one…