Sick Day(s) Turned into One Vacation Day (Giorno!)

My son has been home sick most of the week. Sick days (and nights) are hard on everyone, but this GI virus left us with a final recovery day that was more of a sweet vacation day. Since our bambino spends most of his days at daycare now, it was particularly nice to be together and ignore work briefly (sorry, students.)

The virus started slowly and hit my son hard. There was little sleeping, eating, drinking or peaceful rest; there was endless cleanup, fever and pain. I felt under the weather, too, from illness or exhaustion or both.

We visited the doctor just as the virus was peaking and then we turned the corner a few days after the start. The fever slowed down, but since he can't return to daycare until he's been fever free for 24 hours, we stayed home together a bit more.

Self-directed play has been proven to be best for younger children (and probably, by extension, adults). While I encourage cleaning up toys after he's done with them, I let him lead the way for the last day when he had the energy to move around. He stuck stickers on the Valentine's day owl balloon, added stuffed animals to a diaper box, moved legos in and out of a paper bag, poked his head through a foam puzzle-box we built, danced to the car alarm on the street, watched three huge hawks flying in the distance and lined up toys on the high chair steps.

There was also lots of chatting in Italian. I can't wait to understand more of his sounds and have more insight into his thoughts. I'm speaking to our bambino in Italian as much as possible, but he mostly hears English throughout his day. Over the last few days, his toy-filled bath time has gone like this:

In Italian, I ask him to find the duck toy. He does. I repeat, "Anatra!" He points and says, "Duck!"
In Italian I ask him to find the boat toy. He does. I repeat, "Barca!" He points and says, "Boat!"
And that repeats until we run out of words he can say in English. And then we laugh.

He hasn't said a (recognizable) word in Italian yet. He does seem to understand a lot of it, though. I know it will take him a long, long time to become a descriptive, reliable narrator about his thoughts, feelings and experiences, but I'm very much looking forward to it. In either language, but hopefully both.

For now, I'll rely on the smiles, laughter and kisses distributed evenly to the stuffed owls and his parents to let us know he's happy.

And the writing lesson from all of this? Get down on your hands and knees, even if that requires a gardening knee pad at bath time, and explore. You don't know what new objects and actions you'll discover pair well together.

First ER Visit

We broke the first-visit-to-the-ER seal at dawn on Friday. The bambino’s fever was very high and the doctor on call recommended we take him to the ER for tests and hydration. My husband was away at a conference and my college friend, affectionately called “Aunt Joanna,” was visiting.

The bambino, Aunt Joanna, Elmo and I loaded into the car, one of us still in footsy pajamas, and headed to the hospital after defrosting the car windows. While I was on call for emergencies when I worked in student life, holding your sweaty, shaking and frightened child in your arms is not what I trained for. Being completely in love with the patient changes everything.  

The doctors and nurses, whose shifts were just ending/starting when we arrived, were incredibly patient and kind to our littlest one. One particularly thoughtful nurse succeeded in distracting him with a red popsicle as two other nurses struggled to start an IV in his arm.

In the end, he’s ok and mostly recovered, even back in daycare today after a long holiday weekend of attempting to rest. And, after catching my breath, I feel confident that I can care for my son, even during emergencies. That is, alongside medical professionals.

And if my husband is out of town, alongside Aunt Joanna. Her support and clear mind was a huge help, as were the encouraging smiles. I look forward to a future visit that includes the outdoors.

Achoo! Down for a second weekend

Doctor ordered rest for the bambino: 

Dr. Seuss' I do not like green eggs and ham 

The bambino is down for a second weekend in a row. Last weekend, his second tooth (or "dagger" as I sometimes call it) came in and, as of the other day, he's been terribly congested. Poor kid is grumpy and having trouble sleeping. As a result, of course, his parents feel a similar exhaustion (and, admitted grouchiness.)

With a running nose and occasional fever, we took him into the doctor for a sick appointment. The diagnosis is pretty much that yes, he is congested and yes, his parents are very nervous parents.

We've been doing everything: Saline spray, nose suction, fever meds, humidifier, sitting in the bathroom with a hot shower going, and trying to rest. It is impossible to explain "rest" to a baby, though. The bambino is now crawling and getting up (although not down) on his own. We did put up a baby gate, a sort of "anti-bambino" device, but it is both intriguing and frustrating to him.

I wish we could snuggle under the blankets, drink hot tea with honey and watch a silly movie. Those, however, are not activities for a bambino. We'll stick to reading our library books (lots o'Dr. Seuss), clapping and finger painting with mashed up carrots on the high chair tray.

In Sickness and in Health: Parenthood

Parenthood includes making hard decisions. The bambino and I, with help from the nonna, drove up to New Jersey recently for a short visit. And then the bambino, who already had a little cough, and I developed full blown colds. The yucky, noisy, hard-to-sleep kind.

I was very sorry to have to cancel a reading and an intimate gathering with friends and family. After all, we'd been planning the visit forever and were looking forward to, well, everything. We're finally starting to feel better, after a few visits to the doctor here and in N.J., and lots of (mostly attempted) rest.

I don't know how folks balance it all. Some days it seems quite simple and other days I wonder if I'll have time to eat dinner, let alone spend quality time with my son, attend to my classes and continue to write.

Today the weather is warm - high 60's in D.C. - and the windows are open. Starting to feel hopeful again.

I'll feel more hopeful when I'm caught up on work. See you next week!