....and just when you thought you had dodged a bullet

This past week has been full of sickness in our family. Not the bad, puking kind, just the cough and congestion kind.

But still, it is hard to have a toddler that won't let you put her down, and follows you around crying "Mommy!" because you had to put her down to do something, like carry a full basket down to the laundry room, or to chop some food for dinner, or to stir boiling hot pots on the stove. It's hard to hear your eldest daughter coughing a lung out at 4:30 am, and then put her in a steaming bathroom and force her to take medicine(something she is loathe to do) when you would rather be sleeping. And it is hard to sit through a production of High School Musical 2 at the local high school while your son sits in your lap getting warmer and warmer, complaining that he wants to go home. Then feel guilty that you didn't leave sooner when you see his flushed cheeks and bright eyes as you walk outside, and notice how miserable he looks.

But all that you can handle if you are well yourself, if you are spared from catching it. But I guess it is inevitable that you would get it too, after you got coughed in the face one too many times, or wiped a nose and forgot to wash your hands, or kissed many a flushed (and germy) cheek in comfort as you cradled a miserable 1...4...7... year old in your arms. So, that is why you might find yourself waking up at 2:30 a.m. to calm a baby that cried out in her sleep and feel that scratchy feeling in your own throat. You might even go downstairs to gargle with some salt water and end up sitting down to blog about it.