Sick days

I had to sneak a run in early this morning before Shaune headed to work at ten to seven. It was beautiful and fresh outside; I had the mild spring morning mostly to myself except for a few commuters. I’m not much of a runner but I love it. And as I ran my course, up small hills, down  to their valleys, I thought how nice it would be when  I didn’t get called out of work regularly because the kids were vomiting or burning with fever. I looked forward to a time when the feelings of conflicting guilt these work-from-home sick days induced – the kids watching too much TV and me not getting enough work done,  a day when this would be a thing of the past.

I ran my slow steady pace, went where each song took me.

I rolled my eyes, smiling when Shaggy’s  Angel came on remembering a different time in our story. Shaune and me in the midst of one of our dramas, broken up but still friends, a day when he came over to my tiny one bedroom apartment, threw the new CD into my player and told me this song reminded him of me:

Girl, you're my angel, you're my darling angel 
Closer than my peeps you are to me, baby 
Shorty, you're my angel, you're my darling angel 
Girl, you're my friend when I'm in need, lady...

Girl, in spite of my behavior, well, you are my savior
(You must be sent from up above)
And you appear to me so tender, well, girl I surrender
(Said thanks for giving me your love)  

I’m not sure I was hip enough to know that shorty was a term of endearment – I likely went with it because well, I’m 5’2”. 

Panting up another hill, the Black Eyed Peas bring me back to the present and I am resenting  all those urban myths of parenting, the things you hear and desperately cling to, even when the evidence to the contrary is laughing in your face. Blatant lies like breastfeeding helps you lose weight or if your first child isn`t a good sleeper, your second child will have a healthy dose of narcolepsy.  And this one, the one that has me trying to pinpoint the fibber who planted this seed in the first place: that once your toddler strengthens his immune system in that first year of daycare by chronically being sick, he`ll never be sick again.

Down around a winding slope Cold Play fills me with hope and I promise myself to make this early morning run a regular thing when the kids don't need me so much. I reach our front door, and I can hear both boys awake. I'm greeted as if I've been gone for a year and I see that Naveen’s Hand-Foot-and- Mouth rash seems a  little less hazardous looking. 

 I honestly don't know why I ask Deaglan to smile for a picture because every single time this is what I get. You can see the rash around Naveen's mouth  - this picture was taken on Sunday. Today the rash makes it look as if he feasted on strawberries and chocolate last week. And we left his face unwashed. And if anyone from the daycare is reading this - we plan on returning Minnie Mouse to you just as soon as we can pry it out of Naveen's iron grip.