They always bring me down.
Colby so rarely gets sick that I tend to give him one preemptive day “off” per school year. Usually this comes when he is exhausted or overwhelmed. This year, though, the boy is sick.
He was out-of-sorts toward the end of last week and I made the executive decision to skip our annual extended family Christmas party. By Sunday night he was sporting cheeks redder than Rudolph’s nose. We parked him on the couch for the night with the ubiquitous puke bucket, a water bottle, and a towel. Monday morning brought a temperature of 101.
He’s sick enough to accept the 2 ibuprofen he would normally scoff at (because according to him, REAL men deal with their headaches, they don’t take medicine!) and allow me to put Vaporub on his chest.
We’re into day #2 and the fever is still going strong. His doctor (who is, may I add, the best pediatrician of all time) gave us a timeline of 8-10 days before he’s 100%. I secretly wished he had just had strep so I could give him some antibiotics and we could get back to business.
While at the doctor’s office, my little boy weighed in at a whopping 130 lbs and stood 5’6. While I so badly want him to feel better, there is something about being allowed to mother him, even when he takes up the entire length of the couch, that is so, well, nice.
Stay healthy out there. If you or your family members do fall prey to what we’ve dubbed ‘the plague’ (lower case plague not uppercase Plague), I suggest you whip up a big pot of Jenny Rosenstrach’s Chicken Soup with Orzo. You can find the recipe in her book Dinner: A Love Story.
All members of your family, sick and healthy, will thank you. AND you will get a chicken soup facial while you cook. AND you have an excuse to have a glass of white wine while you are cooking since the recipe actually calls for it. But please, take my advice here. Do not, under any circumstances, omit the parmesan rind. This advice can go for nearly any brothy soup. If you don’t have a rind, just cut off the driest chunk of parm you have and chuck it in when you add the broth.
Have a great day all. Between the dog that peed on my bed last night and a sick kid — I feel the need to disinfect my entire house while my red-faced boy sleeps on the couch.
from midnight oil 