Just Write (2)

A Marpac white noise machine set on high, a box fan set on level 2, and a humidifier. I'm doing my best to approximate the sound of a jet engine to lull my children to sleep, lest they be bothered by the incessant jack-hammering going on next door. I have tried not to complain about our neighbor's construction project since I know there's nothing I can do about it, and in the end it may improve our home value, but c'mon, it's been over a year now. Work ceased for months, allegedly due to money woes, and I did not complain about the eyesore or the sound of the giant tarp blowing in the wind, covering the gaping back of a house that looked more like one of those fake house fronts from a movie set. Now the job has recommenced, and when work is on, it's on, sometimes from seven a.m. to ten p.m., six days a week. 

Yesterday all three kids had fevers at the same time, a first for us. We headed to the pediatrician's office and discovered Waylon has a double ear infection. In theory, Joe was going to help me wrangle the kids to the doctor's, and then we'd drive him the rest of the way to work. Instead, June threw up all over him minutes after we were shown to a room. That sentence really doesn't do the scene any justice. June had to be stripped down to her underwear, not even her shoes were spared, and we were given hospital swaddling blankets to wrap her in to take home. Joe left in his undershirt after wiping vomit from his pants, shoes, sweater, shirt, and hair. When vomit seeps through to your underwear, it's time to head for the shower, not the office. Thank goodness Joe was able to help out yesterday.

Sometimes I think he and I do best in crisis mode. I mean, once any initial panic subsides, (and there often is some), we seem to come together, stop instructing, stop criticizing, and just deal as best we can. It's nothing admirable, really, we just find peace in difficult moments, I guess. Maybe it takes the pressure off when you know there's nothing you can really do to improve things, so you might as well just get along getting through it. Of course, kid barf in a pediatrician's office isn't exactly rock bottom, but I'd like to think we'd do as well in a more serious crisis.

Everyone's doing better today. Waylon was at his most snuggliest of all time yesterday, truly a little hot potato. His need to be held was so great that his feet did not touch the ground until 3:17 p.m. by my watch. A lot of parenting isn't necessarily instinctive, but to me this sick stuff comes pretty naturally.



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Naptime Inefficiency and Nagging Guilt

It is naptime.  Finally.  Waylon just recently dropped his morning nap (most days anyway), and I had forgotten how long the distance between breakfast and naptime is (or can be anyway).  June had a fever yesterday, so I kept her home from preschool today.  She has so rarely been sick that it feels good to take care of her in this way, to baby her a bit.  She is equal parts lethargic and thrilled to discover that sickness at our house sometimes means you get to watch a lot of TV.

Rule-abiding nerds that we are, though, Waylon is TV ineligible.  Without June as his playmate, his foil, I have lost the ability to keep him entertained for hours on end.  It is brutal, and I get testy.  Leaving the house only once a day to go pick Georgia up from kindergarten is not a good recipe for my mental health.  So I took June and Waylon to the grocery store to pick up a few essentials and feel like part of the world again.

Now it is naptime, and I'm sitting here in bed, using the computer, when I should be doing so much more.  From where I sit I can see closets in need of weeding, papers to be filed, and as always, thank-you notes to be mailed.  That hardly scratches the surface.  If I walked a lap, I'd discover dozens of messes to pick up, meals to cook, Halloween costumes to finish up, maybe a resume to write, and as always, outgrown children's clothes to sort and store and give away.  All day - everyday - I have the best intentions of tackling these things as soon as everyone is asleep, but then I just want to sit down.  To waste time on the Internet.  Or maybe read a book.  Sometimes when pining for a vacation it occurs to me that what I really need to catch up around here is for the children to be on vacation, not me.  


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