In Sickness and in Health...

The whole house is sick. Call it the Revenge of Preschool. My daughter goes to preschool, comes home teeming with cooties, she probably left a few herself, gets sick and then begins to pass them around to her sister and then finally chopping her father and me down.

This round has been particularly nasty as she has missed 3 days of germ exchange, I mean school. Now her little sister has become a wiggly, but cute, mucus machine. Yeah I know, not so pretty a picture.

I've been battling their symptoms the old fashioned way since you can no longer give kids cold meds. We've been corn syruping it up over here and our 3 year-old is loving it. It really does stop the cough and then she gets the sugar rush that I'm too sick and run down to defend against.

Here's the thing: sometimes being a grown-up sucks. I mean really, it's not the bills or jobs or responsibility. It's when you get sick you hate it the most.

The same cold that leaves the kids with loads of snot, but doesn't affect their energy level or their demeanor can knock grown-ups out like Captain Trips *see your Stephen King reference guide...

The other thing - if both you and your significant other are sick there's no one there to take care of you. Now that REALLY sucks. We discovered this inconvenient fact shortly after we were married.

David and I had one of those horrible, can't move, constant shivering, "I've got to be decomposing as we speak," viruses. As we laid in bed under as many covers and clothing our weak bodies could heap on, I thought about how thirsty I was. Dave couldn't get me water, I couldn't get me water, who was going to take care of us?

My family lives in another city, Dave's mom would have bugged the poo out of us or maybe the virus and our friends were all single and really not too good at taking care of themselves, let alone us. All I remember thinking is: I want my Mommy.

Ah well, I shall do what grown-ups do: complain a little more, though I'm so congested I can't hear myself, force down soup - yuck, and wait for Thanksgiving where I can drive home so somebody can look after all of us.