Sick day

Tuesday, because Alex had a 101.5 fever the day before, and because the fourth grade at his school is plagued this week, meriting a typed letter from the school nurse to remind us of the 24-hour rule (fever-free, WITHOUT fever-reducing medicine, they said emphatically).... we stayed home. Seriously, 21 kids out of his class of 54 felled by strep or flu or virus or sinuses!

In retrospect, he probably had a fever Sunday and Monday, too, but I assumed he was just tired from his Cub Scout trip. Whoops. He wasn't really complaining, as I'm told boys sometimes don't do. The fever was gone by the time he woke up Tuesday, of course. He stayed in his jammies and I did a very reckless thing and didn't go to the office to get my laptop. Just took a day. I checked my email one time only and didn't even respond.

It was lovely.

I made 2 lasagnas for the freezer, before noon. Yes, I have been praising the pre-fab ones recently, but I do love to give food to new mamas and sick people, and I'm involved in a current opportunity for that. (One lasagna is for us, however.) It was relaxing to just cook like I had all the time in the world - no dinnertime bearing down on me! I did all the laundry I could find. Used up my last dryer sheet, even! He played on the computer, worked on a social studies project due next week, watched some (really terrible) TV. Cartoon Network needs to go home. Cartoon Network, you are very drunk.

After lunch we agreed to read/rest for 1 hour. He read Boys' Life magazine without complaint. At first he was reading it aloud to me every little bit but then we settled in, and he was working a crossword or puzzle of some sort, and I finished my book, and tried to fall asleep on the couch. Such a nice silence, together. The lights were off, just soft daylight through the blinds. This kid is so easygoing. I think he needed that quiet time, too. He's a lot like me in a lot of ways.

We played cards. I taught him Gin Rummy (what I know of it), and he taught me a game called "Trash," which is fun, too. Then we played an interminable game of War (they always are) in the afternoon sunshine at our kitchen table. Then we went to pick up Kate at school.

I want to box up and wrap the memory of our nice sick day together. :)