Sick Kids

I have a sick kid. So much for my little pipe dream of M sleeping off whatever was bothering him.

He's been running a fever all day which always puts you on alert. It seems to be manageable so I'm not stressing too much. The silver lining to this is that it was a very chilled out kind of day. Well, as long as I kept Sesame Street going for him. The second it stopped he freaked out as only a sick child can do. "Mommeee!!! More! More!" as he wildly pointed to the TV. After the 3rd episode he was yelling as soon as Elmo started to sing his song to signal the end of the Elmo portion of the episode. Great. Now my kid knows that when Elmo starts to sing his word of the day to the Jingle Bells tune (really annoying, by the way) that this is the signal that his Sesame Street episode is ending. Today this triggered epic proportion meltdowns except he didn't really have the energy to pull them off so they came out as a big long whine.

There's the better part of my day. A kid who alternated between laying on his little couch, with a big pillow behind him because he didn't really want to lay down, or he was curled up on the couch beside me for some cuddles. All the while watching Sesame Street. He even managed to muster the energy to dance a little when Feist came on and sang the Sesame Street version of 1, 2, 3, 4. I am sad to say I sang along, it was pretty good.

During this chilled out sick kid day we have had a big storm brewing. I snuck outside twice to bring in some wood while it was lightly raining. This was done smugly with the knowledge that I was being proactive and building a nice fire in anticipation of a nasty afternoon/evening. What better than a fire to take the edge off the damp chill air. I should know better than to be smug about anything because there is always payback.

At about 2 pm the wind kicked up and the rain really started coming down. I understand what sideways rain means now. M had fallen asleep on his little couch and the racket outside wasn't about to wake him up. I'm sitting on the couch, reading my book, enjoying the inside quiet, when I see out of the corner of my eye, our patio table sliding along the deck. Naturally at this moment, M woke up. Now I have a patio table sliding along the deck, a toddler who's just woken up and isn't exactly Mr. Personality when he's still half asleep, and what sounds like a 400 lb man banging on the sides of my house thanks to the 90 km winds (seriously, they're calling it the pineapple express but I'm not feeling so tropical about it. It is not inspiring any happy, happy, joy, joy around here). I give M some juice mixed with Pedialite and a few crackers and pull out my waterproof jacket to brave to weather. I figure I'll go outside, move the table to a more secure spot and come straight back in. Nice and easy.

Until I get out there and realize the wind is blowing so hard I can barely move and not only has the wind blown the patio table it's also managed to blow the bar fridge about 3 feet, the door is open and there are full bottles blowing under the barbeque. Oh, and M has noticed I'm out there so now he's standing at the patio door screaming because I'm not inside with him. And let's not forget the driving sideways rain that's managed to get at me through the sleeves of my jacket. Decisions. Do I take care of the patio table or deal with the bar fridge that obviously has to come inside. I chose the bar fridge. I unplugged it, grabbed the bottles rolling around, picked up the fridge and shuffled it back in to the house trying to avoid hitting M or the dog. All right, now the fridge is in, I'm soaked, M's upset and I have to go back out there so that I can fix the table. Back out I go, grab the patio umbrella from the table, slide it off to the side of the house, grab the table (which seats 6, not so small) and flip it upside down, run back into the house and out of the gale force winds/rain.

Boy oh boy wasn't that fun. Oh, look, the hatch on the RV is open and letting in the rain. I put the really wet waterproof jacket back on, grab the keys for the RV, pop M in his crib (yup, now he's really mad) and run out the front door, around the side of the house. Open the rv, hop inside, close the hatch, lock the door, make a run for the front of the house. Grab the front door, open it, fight the wind to get it closed, toss the super wet jacket on the stairs, get M out of his crib and spend the next hour cuddling the poor guy and promising that I wasn't being a bad mama and ignoring his poor little sick self.

Dinner did not get cooked. Pizza was ordered. It took over an hour but seeing as half the town has no power I figure they're pretty busy. M went to bed around 7 just like he should with a little advil in his system. We watched a movie, finished it and popped in Star Trek even though we've seen it.

9:30pm  M wakes up and he is not going back to sleep. I go get him (I interrupted typing this just to cater to his little fellow needs) I give him a bottle and I think he's going to fall asleep with me until he spots daddy eating popcorn. Daddy has just given him the big pay attention this is Star Trek, it's a great movie speech. As I type this M is curled up with his daddy in the recliner, right by the fire, eating popcorn and hollering Mommeee to his daddy every time he wants another popcorn. I'm praying it all stays in his stomach because my hubby is looking pretty Scotch happy and I'm not sure if he could deal with puke on his chair. It'd be funny though. Huh, now I'm kind of wishing it would happen just so I could watch and laugh at the outcome. No, no I wouldn't really wish that (ok maybe a little)

Well, I guess I'll let you know tomorrow if everyone survived the evening. Wish me a night of solid sleep. I'm betting I'll need it with my sick boy tonight.