Sick Days

For the past 3 weeks I feel like I have been living under a cloud of sickness.  At first I thought it was allergies, and perhaps it was, but somehow it morphed into a NASTY cold.  At the YMCA we've been calling it a "Y cold" because so many people have had it.  Then last Saturday night I started feeling sick and ended up with an awful stomach flu.  Yuck!  I had to miss the first day in our church's new sanctuary (an event I'd been anticipating for years) and a dessert night with my new MOPS table.  Boo!

So, needless to say, on Thursday I was definitely ready to go to MOPS--a yummy brunch, time away from my kids, and laughing and talking with other moms?  Yes, please!  When I heard the kids' door open at 4:30 I cringed but figured it was okay.  Then Jack said, "Mommy, my neck and waist hurt like they did when I was sick last Thanksgiving."  After laying on the bathroom floor for an hour without anything happening (except a lot of moaning and groaning), he went to the couch and fell asleep.  I still had hope.  At 8, when he woke up, he continued complaining about his neck (?) and vacillated between moaning about feeling sick and picking on Grant.  It's really hard to feel a whole lot of sympathy when your "sick" child is behaving in such a normal (sad but true) fashion.  I probably asked him about, oh, 500 times, "Are you sure you're really sick?  Are you sure you don't feel good?  If you're sick we can't go to MOPS.  Are you really sure?"  And inside I'm thinking, oh please, please, please say, "You're right, Mommy.  I'm not sick.  I am just being dramatic because I want to stay home and watch TV."  No such luck on my part, because right after that he confirmed that he was, indeed, not feeling good.  I then felt a teeny bit guilty about almost shoving him into his car seat just so I could go to church.  (Hmmm...something seems very wrong about that statement.)

Anyway, after his one sick episode, he was fine.  In fact, he and Grant played so well together that I was able to get a lot of cleaning done.  Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that we stayed home.  Nah, I would  have rather had a yummy brunch and girl time.  However, I suppose if I had to stay home with a "sick" kid, it was nice that it was on a day that I didn't have to miss work and find a sub and that the boys were able to have fun together.

Now that I think about it, I'm not really sure that this post has much of a point.  Who wants to hear about my and my child's stomach flu?  I guess if I had to sum it up, I would say that, as a parent, it is really hard to have sick kids--sometimes because you feel bad for them, and sometimes because you feel bad for you.  So, I'm sorry, Mom, for all the things you had to miss when I was little because I was sick!