S-I-C-K

"He has tonsillitis, conjunctivitis, and two ear infections, and I have to tell you that he is extremely..."

He paused as he finished writing the prescription.

I stammered, "Please don't say the "c" wor--"

"Contagious."

Crap.

I took our son to see his pediatrician because he had gunk in his eyes. The toddler has barely coughed in the past few days, much less complained of pain in his ears or throat. I took him in to rule out pink eye so I could comfortably take him around his friends again, and I left with antibiotics, salves, and a giant red "C" to hang over his size 3T t-shirt.

"Contagious."

How did this happen? When I'm sick, I let people know. I want as much sympathy as possible. I post status updates on Facebook of my current symptoms and the pills I'm taking to offset them. I speak with a feeble or scratchy voice and wait for people to say, "Oooh, you don't sound good!" Our son, on the other hand, jumps on the couch when he is sick. He tries to scale un-climbed furniture when he's sick. Most of all, he wants to play with his friends when he's sick.

Not today, buddy.

We're under quarantine until at least tomorrow. That means no play dates or library story time, no chatting with the other mommies at the playground. I guess that last part really just affects me, but as the person who stands to receive the majority of his germs I thought I could throw that in there.

So what will we do today? I'm sure it will involve fluids and medicine and hand washing and toy cars. I could use some ideas, though--what do you do when you're under house arrest? I can't wait to read your comments! (Seriously, I'm not going anywhere!)

Little victories...

When it rains in Florida, it pours, and sometimes it pours for days. It is easy for me to feel a little down at times like this, so I wanted to celebrate some of the things I accomplished this week because of the rain. Here is my list of successes for the week:

• We finally started living without paper towels. It isn't really that hard!
• We finally got our shoes organized in their new clear, plastic boxes under the bed.
• I finally used the hot glue gun to turn an old bottle of dish detergent into a cool new reality play toy for my son. (I also figured out that indeed my little idea didn't work as well as I'd hoped. I will be tweaking the idea thanks to the recent failure, and maybe I will have a neat thing to share in a future post!)
• I finally finished preparing our family and household for hurricane season. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, literally.

What did you do this week? Celebrate your accomplishments with us!

It Must Be In The Genes

Growing up, I was that child who would say those dreaded words..."I'm bored." I am still that child (just in a much taller, ahem, bigger body). Here I go, I confess...I constantly am catching cabin fever. I constantly am anxiously seeking to just get out of the house and do. (Do what, often I don't care, but just do.)

Well I have learned how to deal with this cabin fever sickness I catch so often. Now as a mother I am learning how to deal with the genes my kids so kindly inherited from me. Both of my kids are chronically sick...with cabin fever.

Tonight my husband walked in the door and said, "who wants to go outside?" Before I could even turn around, both of my kids were standing at the door, pawing to get out.

It was like seeing our black lab standing at the door after a long day in her crate. I don't think my kids cared what we did, we just had to do!