Not Sick

It's that time of year again. It seems like everyone's coughing, sneezing, fevering and sniffling. Even the most wild of children are sitting still. 

Avery woke up complaining of not feeling well a few days ago but her dramatic list of aches and pains made me think she was probably faking it. The hunched over walk, the grimace, the forced raspy voice, fear about a math test that day and no fever were all indicators to me that this wasn't the real deal. When she leaped off the chair to grab something out of Ruby's hand across the room, that's when I decided to send her to school. 

"Should I just go to the nurse when I get there?" she asked.

"Don't go to the nurse unless you are absolutely sick." I said. "Or else she will not believe you when you are actually sick."

She ran out the front door, did a few twirly's in the yard and rode her bike around until the bus came. Not sick. 

I went about my usual morning routine, about two hours behind as usual, trying to get as much done in between feedings as possible. Since baby sleeps 6-8 hours through most nights, he spends much of the morning catching up on eating. I haven't decided what I'd rather have; a full night's sleep but no time to do anything during the day or broken sleep and plenty of time during the day.  I'll get back to you on that.

I put Ruby down for her morning nap and started digging into the breakfast dishes. Then the telephone rang.

"Hi, this is the nurse at Parkside Elementary calling to let you know that I have Avery here. She has a stomachache, headache, sore throat...." she went on and on. "Can you come pick her up?"

I sighed.

"Do you think she is actually sick?" I asked.

"Well, she wouldn't eat lunch so I think she is." she said. 

I looked at the clock. Was it already 11am?

"I'll be there in a half hour." I said, then laughed out loud when I hung up the phone. Who was I kidding? There's no way I'm getting out this door in a half hour.  

Henry was ready for feeding #27 of the day and I had to choose between feeding him or taking a shower. I opted to feed him a bottle so that the school nurse wouldn't fall off her chair at the sight of me when I came in to get Avery.  I called for Piper to come help me feed him a bottle. 

I found Piper and Milo in what was a sand pile, but recent rains have since turned it into a mud pile. And they were in the mud, not just playing next to it. 

"Guess what sand and water turns into?" Piper asked me, her eyes barely visible on her face.

An hour later, we were ready to go and Henry had his 27th feeding. I woke Ruby up from her nap and got everyone into the Suburban. I fished through my purse for my keys and guess what? I couldn't find them! Imagine that! I went back inside and combed through the house and couldn't find any keys. 

At this point, I felt like calling the school nurse back and telling her that it was basically already the end of the day and she should just keep Avery, but I didn't. I went back out to the vehicle and found my keys sitting on the front passenger seat. Go figure. 

I pulled up to the school and opened the back. No double stroller. And two children that cannot walk. Time to get creative. Henry's car seat clicked into the single stroller and Ruby sat on the edge of his car seat holding onto the handle, facing him. She was still zombie-like from waking up from her nap so thankfully she wasn't in a squirmy mood. 

I got to the school doors and waited for about fifteen minutes for Milo to hurry up and catch up to us. You can jump up and down, yell, scream, bang pots and pans and set off fireworks and he still won't walk any faster. He has more of a saunter, stopping every few steps to check things out or pick something off his shirt. He has all the time in the world. 

We picked up Avery, who still didn't look very ill, and walked out of the school.

"Mom." she said, as we walked down the sidewalk.  "I know it's weird, but you know how I'm sick? Well, I'm not feeling super sick so I'm going to roller blade when we get home."

"Oh, no you are not." I said, stopping dead in my tracks. "If you are so ill that I have to come get you from school, you are spending the rest of your day on the couch or in bed."

Then I inhaled and exhaled rhythmically for five minutes. 

She had a very boring evening sitting on the couch and by bedtime she was doing cartwheels in the basement. 

And she went to school the next day.