[sigh]

Have you ever had a day where your kid gets sick?

You give him some not-real Motrin/Tylenol (after you see his fever is 102.3 and it doesn't seem as though it is going down--plus you know the night time habits of high fevers with the sweet'um and you're really not anxious for a 5 hour middle of the night emergency room visit) and head to the doctor about an hour later, just in time for the medicine to actually kick in.

Your child acts as if being sick was an absolute joke. He's eating a roll--first thing of the day he felt good enough to actually eat.

The doctor comes in and gives you the whole "Oh, he's got a virus. Give him three more days . . . .blah blah blah." It all drowns out because in your head you hear, "Are you kidding me? Your kid is not ill. You're wasting my valuable time--I could be diagnosing ear infections and telling people to get their kids immunized--but please pay promptly up front for my services in telling you that you're an over-excited-about-any-sort-of-illness-parent. Get lost. Your kid is fine."

You feel your smile--what's left of it--become forced. Your kid of course is as compliant with the doctor as an obedient dog playing catch. You sigh. An hour later--your kid is as sick as a dog again and you're secretly hoping that doctor has a severe case of ------ hiccups or something.

Your night is pretty much non-existent and your eyes are practically glued open for an extended period of time disturbing their normal beauty-sleep pattern. A moment to rest seems impossible if your sick kidlet that will not do anything but sit on your lap weeping if his favorite show is not blaring from the telly (I love it when British people use that term, I want to too). It seems to be the only thing that soothes them back to sleep--even with the use of generic Tylenol and the knock-off Motrin.

Playdates, visiting teaching, watching a friend's child, library time-- it all feels impossible until the next day he is pleading to get out of the house. Which is great until you go to do your visiting teaching and then suddenly he's sick-ish again. Sigh.