It’s Christmas break. Dan’s off snowboarding with a group of friends, and I’m at home having the fun play day I’d planned with the girls. Except by “play,” I mean clean up nuclear bodily goo, and by “fun,” I mean so, SO NOT fun.
See, yesterday, Natalie came down with bronchitis. I’ve never personally experienced any disease serious enough to end with “itis,” but I’ve heard of mastitis and cellulitis and elephantitis, and oh holy crap, I just looked at elephantitis pictures and have uncontrollableurgetovomititis. Go thou and do not do likewise.
So Sophie saw Natalie coughing up big splats of fevered lung and possibly spleen and thought Wow, that looks like fun, let me try! And in the midst of hacking up her own assorted internal organs, she projectiled twenty-six gallons of vomit onto the far wall and everything in between. Including me. And then she started giggling, which I totally understand because oh, SO MUCH FUN!
It’s actually easier than usual taking care of Natalie right now, since sickness turns her into a quiet little puddle of melted girl. Sophie, however, wants to make very sure I know just how much writhey, screamy fun she is experiencing in her nasal passages. And because I am evil and want her to breathe, I keep sucking goo out of her nose with that standard blue plastic Bulb of Torture and Unbearable Suffering. The fun–it knows no bounds.
But you know, even though I’ve spent most of my day giving emergency baths and torturing babies, it was a genuinely good one. My daughters getting sick instantly clarifies that fierce, precious ache deep in my chest. It makes me slow down, glued to the couch with full arms and the utterly delicious realization of how much these two little girls mean to me. As much as I hate seeing them sick, I’m grateful for a day to snuggle and rediscover our belonging-togetherness.
And yes, despite our besetting illnesses and my husband’s repeated threat to make salmon nog and the disastrous mutations of chocolate we put in friends’ goody bags to show them how good American desserts can… er, not be, Christmas break has been lovely. How about yours?
I am sending a whole lotta prayers your way… May God grant you mercy! Glad to see through it all you have not lost your sense of humor. Love you!