Poor Nut

We have got one sick kid on our hands. The past two days she has just been a whiny, crabby ball of irritation. It briefly crossed my mind this morning, huh, maybe she's not feeling well, but she'd still been eating, no fever, no nothing to indicate any sort of problem. Never mind that our daycare provider informed us that one of the other kids went home early on Thursday with an ear in fection and pink eye. No, I had forgotten all of that.

This morning, Mags woke up om the wrong side of bed. Truly, I was ready to donate her for a charitable tax write-off by 10 am. We - Husband, Mags and I - drove to the city to cruise one of the aquariums with Mr. and Mrs. Booty and their little girl Diamond Lil. It was a great outing. The girls entertained each other wonderfully, and we actually got in some grown up conversation of our own. We all proceeded to a fairly posh lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant, which played one of my favorite house music albums for the entire duration we were there (A Night at tht Playboy Mansion, in case anyone cares.) Predicably, Mags passed out in the car on the way home, as we overshot her nap, and obligingly allowed herself to be put straight to bed when we got home. I too laid down for a nap, and we both got up at 5pm. Again, Mags was Cranky McWhines-a-Lot when she awoke, and for the following hour and a half until we went to hang out with Joj and Eric. She then proceeded to be super whiny there too, complaining of being cold and just wanting to be held a lot.

After about an hour of this, she actually started to develop a fever, and all the pieces clicked. And boy, did I feel like a grade-A Shitty Parent. I never really lost my temper, or spanked Mags or anything, but I must've raised my voice and been at my limit at least a dozen times over rthe day. Turns out I was yelling at a sick kid. Great. So, the rest of the night we spent curled up on the couch at J&E's house, tossing around uncomfortably, refusing to drink or eat anything, and just generally being unhappy. J&E were very accomidating, serving us food on the couch and watching 'Babe' for the umpteenth time, even when Mags dozed. Any other plans of accomplishing things were set aside for the evening, and when Mags asked to go home to sleep, I happily conceeded.

I couldn't get her to take any kid's liquid Tylenol, nor juce laced with Emergen-C, and by the time I came back upstairs with a sippy cup full of warm milk and a vitamin (the only things I could get her to agree to consume since a sparsely picked-over lunch, she was out cold. I'm hoping she sleeps most of this off overnight. Sadly, it means we'll have to miss L's second birthday party tomorrow (at Gymboree, no less! Dammit!) I've also got my fingers crossed that she's well enough to go to daycare on Monday; otherwise I'll have to miss a day of class, which wouldn't normally be the end of the world, but we did not have class last Monday because of the holiday, and this'd really put me behind. But, you do what you have to do -- even more so when it comes to your kid.

So, for now, I'm gonna curl up with a book and let Mags get into deep sleep before trying to move her to her bedroom so that I can sleep. Husband will be home from his company party late tonight, but I'm gonna let him enjoy his evening without any panicky phone calls. There's nothing anyone can do but let her sleep anuhow. I'll just keep an eye out on that temperature.

Oh, and Universe? If I could pass through this nursing stage unscathed, I surely would appreciate it....