BC has a cough. she’s had this cough now for about three years. it gets worse during allergy season (which, in the washington metro area, may as well be three seasons long) and when she’s sitting in lots of dust (such as in her room, which is a convention center for dust bunnies.) part of it has to do with some asthmatic fun, for which she takes singulair and, upon occasion, a puffer of Q-Var (a med i love to say since it sounds like something from Mork and Mindy: i come from the planet Q-Var. Nanoo nanoo.) but the allergies really aggravate things. and, judging from our time at the pediatrician’s last week, everyone and their dog is having allergy symptoms this week. even BS and jools are sneezing, and neither one of them has any allergy issues.

it’s the most wonderful time of the year.

so yesterday, BC came home from school bewildered. i pressed her for some info, and she told me that while she was not directly mentioned, her teacher was looking right at her when she noted that not everyone in the class had a real cough. and those without a real cough (and she named two boys who apparently have get-out-of-cough-trouble-free passes) are now in her book, down as people making trouble. “but mama,” BC protested to me, “i really do have a cough!”

so i wrote a note to the teacher, informing her that BC, in fact, has a real, honest-to-G-d, annoying-as-hell cough; and that i’m very sorry if it disrupts class. she is on medication, and i also send her in with cough drops so that she doesn’t make a ruckus in case a coughing fit ensues. i just wanted her to know that BC doesn’t cough for fun (even if another child was, which BC felt was the case. see, everyone was laughing because one child was making hilarious coughing sounds, apparently spoiling it for the real coughers (and no, i couldn’t make this stuff up if i tried.) and getting people like her in trouble.

so today, BC came home from school. how was school today, dear? well, apparently, she felt a cough coming on. she asked her teacher if she could get a cough drop. the teacher called the nurse’s office. then, the teacher sent her to the nurses’ office so that she could have her cough drop there. and there she sat. and sucked. and then she returned to class. (and no, i couldn’t make this stuff up if i tried, either.)

i’m so glad she missed important classroom time simply because she was wielding an apparently deadly cough drop. lord knows that asthma is contagious. and you really gotta watch out for that mentholyptus.