Sick.

Being sick is no good when you have no one to take care of but yourself. But being sick when you have a child is even worse. And I am really not even in a position to complain since this particular sickness came on a daycare day -- one where I didn't even have to teach.

I was up all night, tossing and turning and feeling very, very sick and by morning, when I heard The Who rousing, I enlisted my wife's help in getting him up. Help. That's funny. It wasn't so much asking for help as it was completely foisting the morning routine onto her as I slept. To my credit, I did drag my sorry butt out of bed to put up the gate so The Who could wander from room to room without our worry that he would tumble down the stairs.

 

I was not this sick today.

I must have fallen back to sleep and when I woke up, the house was silent. I reached for my cell phone and called our house phone. No answer. Called my wife's cell phone. Nothing. I got out of bed, all bedhead and woozy and looked out the window in the guest room to see if my car (the only one with a carseat) was still there. It was. I exhaled. I was kind of panicked about m* taking The Who to day care this morning because today was the first day with his new teacher and I thought that too much messing with the routine wouldn't be good. So I called downstairs and, when I heard that they were still there, I dragged on some pants and ran my fingers through my dirty, sick hair and told m* that I would take The Who to school.

Which I did. But not without an effort of epic proportions. I don't really get sick like this. Stomach viruses aren't my thing and so when one pops up, it really knocks me on my ass. So, I dragged us both out to the car, squinted even behind my sunglasses as my migraine grew from lack of caffeine, and got him to his classroom. I introduced myself to Miss Stephanie, the new teacher. The Who looked woeful, but I just didn't have it in me to spend much time in there. I kissed his head. I made sure he was in the loving arms of a teacher he was familiar with, and I came directly home and to the couch, where I stayed for the entire rest of the day. Grading be damned. I slept some. I took a few sips of Vitamin Water and I fretted about the time when I would have to go pick The Who up at the end of the day.

Luckily, the Tylenol kicked in, the fever lowered, and I missed my little Who just enough to really want to go get him. I can't even imagine how this day would have gone if I had to care for him all day. Blessings. Counting 'em.