April 21st, 2003

I am suffering from allergies as I always do at this time of year, and in between bouts of claritin, I become aware of the onset of symptoms not because I realize I am rubbing my eyes constantly, but because Sophia says to me, “Eyes hurt?” She says this because when this all first began about four weeks ago and she asked me to do something with her I told her I couldn’t right then because my eyes hurt and I was furiously rubbing them trying to ease the constant burn. The really interesting thing about this, though, is that she also suffers, I can tell by her tearing eyes and constantly running nose and several times in the past few days she’s turned to me and announced “Eyes hurt.” I can’t give her anything for the discomfort, but I feel as though giving her the words to express her discomfort helps, even though I didn’t do it on purpose.

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