Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Down with the Sickness

Well, what's worse than a winter without winter? Answer: winter cold and flu without winter. Ohhhh I hates me a bad cold/flu, regardless of season, but when the whole family is plagued with it, I find it ten times more aggravating when it's so nice, so warm, so dry outside--yet inside where we're harbored, it's sticky and slimy with the mucus of wet coughs. Ugh.

What's even worse than that? Answer: when little kids get sick.

Before I made babies, I did not know how they worked. I was so distant that I had never held one until (at the age of 40) I held my own. I had no idea how very dependent they are, how very ignorant they can be. A kid can be startled by their own cough. They can toss their cookies all over themselves and not even realize they have (some) control of the outcome.

So it is in my house. The two year old cries because she does not know how to whine about being sick. The four year old (just turned five, technically) whines because he's uncomfortable. The six year old pretends he isn't sick, which compounds his ill health when he wears himself down. The nine year old curses the heavens and suppresses his cough until he nigh bursts. Ma in her kerchief and I in my cap--well, we just groan and feebly smile at each other.

Hmm, what's worse than all the above? Answer: going to work by day, nursing said cold/flu among the family by night. I don't know how super heroes do it.

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