Home Sick

Annie and Jemma are both a little under the weather. It started yesterday; when I picked Annie up from school, I could tell that she was looking feverish and "peaked" (this is a grandma word for me - say it with two distinct syllables, "peek-id"). Sure enough, by yesterday afternoon, her temp was 101 and she spent an hour and a half lying on the couch watching Cinderella. (This Never Happens. Ever.) I felt sorry for her and was all too happy to cuddle her, bring her any beverage she wanted, and stroke her hair.

Then, she and Jemma took turns waking up last night, crying, coughing, being too stuffy to breathe. I got a little less quality sleep than I would have liked, and I also spent another day with semi-sick girls, taking temperatures, administering Tylenol, and missing afternoon playdates. Suddenly, I'm not so sympathetic, especially since Annie decided she was "all better" and didn't need to take a nap this afternoon. Instead, she spent a full hour and fifteen minutes in her room, singing every single song she knows, often more than once. Itsy Bitsy Spider, Jingle Bells, Rudolph, Old McDonald, If You're Happy and You Know It, Gray Squirrel, Baa Baa Black Sheep, ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle . . . if she knows it, she sang it. Loudly. Later, she proceeded to break down several times for various reasons (she couldn't find the magnetic letter E, she couldn't get a necklace off, she wanted her purple dress-up shoe) when the real reason was that she was tired and sick and trapped in the house again.

Luckily, I escaped right after they went to bed tonight and snuck a little time at the library and the gym, two of my favorite cold-weather places. And when I got home, Jason had cooked me a fantastic dinner involving goat cheese, proscuitto, and grilled chicken. A glass of wine, a little Food Network, and I'm off to bed to start one of my new library books. All is not lost! (And hopefully, Annie will rally tomorrow and I won't have to keep her home from school.)