Tales from the house of germs

This week was one of those weeks...

...Eli had some sort of nasty bug, which luckily came and went quickly.

And just when I was feeling relieved 

that he was better so quickly,

Adam came down with the nasty bug.

Whilst taking care of Adam, I got it too, 

but thankfully to a lesser degree...and while I was nursing myself and Adam back to health,

while trying to keep Eli from getting something new, 

Ethan came down with strep throat.

I was ready to throw in the towel.

I really was.

And then Ethan came along and made me laugh.  

And laugh.  (And blush and giggle.)

First, while I was curled up in bed, 

he came in very serious 

and stood by my bedside. 

He began, "I know you told me babies grow from a seed.  

But HOW does the seed get there in the first place?"  

uh.

"Well," I said, "It just grows in there.  Into a baby."

Ethan: "I know all about that!  But how does it even get to a place to start to grow!?  How does a mommy and a daddy plant it!?"

oh boy...

"Um.  Uh.  Well.  You see...um."  

Now, I'm perfectly content sharing the real story, 

but am guessing that all of the parents

of Ethan's little first grade friends

would NOT be so content for me to share the real story.

To be honest, I might be better off sharing the real story

because I doubt Ethan would even believe it.

So, I continued with my vague version of the explanation

which was that a mommy and a daddy plant the seed

a special way when they get married. 

I know.  It was a bad version of the story.

Really bad.

But I was sick.

And couldn't come up with anything more clever.

Ethan looked at me like I was a moron.

"You know, Mommy, some people don't even have babies

when they get married," contempt filling his voice.

I'm pretty sure he also mumbled something about me not knowing what I was talking about while he stomped out of the room.

*****

Just when I think that he is all grown up,

I wander into the playroom

and catch site of something under the couch

that doesn't belong.

When I investigate,

I find the object in question

is a syringe half-full

of Ethan's antibiotic for his strep.

When I find him, I ask why on earth

his medicine was under the couch. 

His answer was simple: 

"I didn't like the way it tasted."

Me: "So you hid it under the couch?!"

Ethan: "That's right."

*****

Just now, as I was getting ready to post this,

Ethan came running into the kitchen

demanding to know what an "ascot" is.

I told him and then he looked at me like I was crazy.

And then I realized he said "mascot".

That makes way more sense.

Tales of Tuesday Afternoon

...it was a quiet afternoon today.

After spending the morning at my synagogue 

helping out with preparations for the upcoming holidays,

I picked Ethan up from school.

And picked the dry cleaning up from the dry cleaner.

Ethan got a lollipop (and one for his brother).

We went home and did homework. 

In fact, Ethan did his entire week's worth of homework.

Just because he wanted to.

And then asked for more.

(He is definitely his mother's son)

I made bran muffins.

And then the boys rode their bikes in the driveway.

And scampered off to the swing set.

Eli asked me if I would make him "fly faster"

and Ethan loved that his feet went over my head

if I stood in front of him.  

Before we headed inside, 

we picked the last of the vegetable garden.

For dinner, we had a picnic.  And breakfast.

The bran muffins inspired me (and were really, really good)

You must try the mix from Trader Joe's, it's excellent.

When I tucked Ethan in, we took turns scratching backs.

He told me about "the mean boy" in his class.

He also told me all about the boy who threw up today.

I can't wait until tomorrow so Ethan can regale me with more tales from first grade.

And Eli can ask me to make him fly faster.

Tales of Holiday Weekend

We haven't been able to do all that much celebrating this weekend.

Eli woke up with the pukes yesterday morning, so we were among

the first families to be at urgent care on Sunday morning.

I thought it was strep - I'm usually always right - but this time I was wrong.

(He seems better today).

I spent all day willing myself to just get through the day until bedtime.

I made it, and then promptly went downstairs to do laundry, after giving Eli

one more snuggle.

As I unloaded the contents of the washer into the dryer I thought about how

sore my back was, how tired my muscles were and how all I wanted to do was

throw myself on the couch in front of the tv for a little 

while before going to bed.

Adam found me in the laundry room and told me to come outside.  I groaned.

I did not want to go outside.

Plus he was invading my space.  That is MY laundry room.

I was annoyed and aggravated as I pulled on a long sleeve shirt.

I did not want to go outside, I wanted to go to bed.

I made my way down the stairs to the backyard and almost cried

and felt a sudden sense of shame for being such a grumpy wife.

Adam had built a fire in our fire pit, put two chairs in front of it and

had brought down two wine glasses and a bottle of wine.

Music was playing, and he didn't seem to notice that I had

been horrifically grumpy just moments before.

I started to apologize and Adam stopped me and said,

"It's okay.  I get you.  You don't have to say you're sorry."