2Y76D: When they get sick...

I'm picking up the toys again.

I'm gathering the cars, the trucks, the puzzle pieces and toys, and putting them away again.  I will do this everyday until I can insist he does it himself, and then, I might still have to do it.

I'm cleaning up from yet another dinner he refused to eat, this is starting to concern me.  He can't live on Pediasure and pancakes, can he?

And once I've just about completed these tasks, I sit with my husband...for all of three minutes.

I sit with my husband; when out from the bedroom we hear, a pained cry from Daniel.  A quick exchange of glances as if "you? me?" but the cry is a pained cry and of course I rush in.

I rush in,  in time to rock the poor lad, rock him as he cries in my arms.  And he coughs and he coughs, and them pukes all abound. 

I whisk him up quickly ( thinking I really don't want to clean puke off the rug) and bring him to the kitchen (just out of his door) we sit on the floor, still rocking, the poor thing.  More puke...this is fun.

You know, as I'm writing this I have "Twas the Night Before Christmas" stuck in my head and I'm trying very hard to not to rhyme each of these lines.

Guess who then wakes wakes up?  Now, in chorus they cry together, albeit quite an inharmonious duet.

Anyway, details aside, we clean him up and start the wash.  He is now sleeping in our bed, and I have towels all over, just in case...


The point here, the real meat and potatoes, is this: when times get rough, tough or scary, a  parent will click into rescue mode - I say this like I think I'm a good parent, I don't really think that, but I'm good under pressure.

Kids get sick, they always will.  They get hurt, bumped, scratched, and bruised, and that will happen everyday in one form or another.  You can't plan for it, you can't prepare, and there is no guideline as to how to react to reach whatever goal you may have:
 - contain the puke
 - stop the bleeding
 - calm the kid
 - try to keep any sleeping children asleep
 - take a trip to the ER
 - take a temp
.....whatever it may be, it just has to get done.  So do it.

There will be time to react and process after everything is over and calm.

And still, after all is done, the sun will rise tomorrow...

...and there will be toys to pick up.