To Health!

Seven days after the first child stayed home from school and I think we are on our way back to health in our house. S went to the doctor Friday evening at 7:00 pm, approximately 45 minutes after his first complaint of ear pain (yes I was on the phone upon hearing that complaint like flies on poop). He came home with antibiotics for an ear infection and Albuterol and Prednisolone for Croup. I took J in today (Monday) because he's been running a fever every single night since last Wednesday. Diagnosis: ear infection. Treatment: antibiotics. C is on the mend; coughing like crazy, but otherwise well.

Phew.

The last two days have been the most challenging of this bout of illness. There's nothing like three boys, ages five and under, recovering from days upon days of sickness-induced lethargy who have rediscovered their vigor in an unkempt sickhouse in the dead of winter. There's also nothing like being their mom who got used to their lethargy and sort of forgot about their usual zest... These boys are not easing back into their antics and general bouncing-off-the-walls shenanigans - their play is full force. And, of course, their crashes are hard and dramatic: whining, crying, fighting... They're sick of being sick, well enough for occasional rowdiness but not quite well enough to return to school - or are they?

For the past week I have gladly ignored all regular household jobs that weren't absolutely urgent (i.e. the mortgage payment) so that I could curl up under mounds of blankets with my "babies" while they are still young enough to desperately need me. Now that we are in this transition phase (a/k/a well enough to get into trouble) we are cuddling less and I'm noticing more everything that was neglected for the past week. The playroom floor is covered in blankets, pillows, pajamas and oh-so-many crumbs (because who makes their sick kids sit at the table to eat?). The laundry I had just caught up on that I "forgot" to do over the holidays (ten loads) is piling up again and the powder room smells like a urinal because apparently sick, little boys have even worse aim than healthy ones. The bedding needs changing, the pantry needs stocking, the cat needs brushing my belly fat needs crunching...

Tomorrow I say farewell to this illness as I gently nudge my boys back out into the world. I'll be washing things, tidying things, getting ducks in a row and putting one foot in front of the other once again. I'll miss hunkering down in pajamas under mounds of blankets but it's good to be out of the woods.