Sick as a Dog or Healthy as a Horse?

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In the course of the school year, as a parent, you encounter vacation days, holidays, snow days, and the sick day. Today, when Iz woke up she told me she had a “bad” cough; of course, after this complaint, I immediately got a performance of the proof-of-sickness coughing fit for about 20 seconds. Her cough had a bit of a rattle, but I felt her forehead, and it didn’t seem like she was running a temperature.

“Iz, I think you should go to school.”
“But, Mommy, I have a frog in my throat, too.”
Hmmm, the dreaded Amphibian Flu!

The thing that made me believe that she wasn’t feeling well was that she loves school; unlike Nathan, a good student, who complains about how much he doesn’t like school. In fact, Iz likes school so much that she actually plays school a lot in her room.

Upon opening the door once, I saw her on one end of the bed, and Liam on the other. She was reading one of her picture books; each time she read a page, she would, probably just like her teacher did, turn the book around to show the picture on the page to her half-perturbed and half-asleep captive feline student.

I sighed. I had planned a bike ride with Bill (the first in about 2 weeks), and I was hoping to spend some quality time preparing for the second interview tomorrow. Again, Iz gave me a good long dose of the proof-of-sickness cough. I said, “Okay. You can stay home then.”

So, I got my coffee and sat down on the couch with her.



After 30 minutes, I got up to do a few things around the house, and when I came back, she had moved to the floor; later on, I would reflect on this moment and bestow upon her the Academy Award for Best Performance of a Sick Sleeping Girl!



Shortly thereafter, she felt well enough to take Barbie for a ride on her steed.
Hmmm.



Within 15 minutes, she asked, “Mommy, can I play on http://www.lpso.com/.”
Hmmm.

I said, “Okay, let me catch up on my email first.”
“Mommy, I need a hamster!”
I said, “No, hamsters. We have enough pets!”
“No, Mommy. I need to get a hamster on lpso.com!”
“Oh. You can have all the virtual pets you want.”



After getting her fill of Little Pet Shop online, she decided it was time to organize all my gel pens by color.
Hmmm.



After she did that, it was time to try on all my shoes.
Hmmm.



I was then given a “quiz” by a very serious and no-nonsense Brenda Starr.
Hmmm.
What was my favorite sport?
What was my favorite drink?
What was my favorite color?
Who was my favorite cat?
What was my favorite dessert?



It was then time to craft a Great Work of Gel Pen Art for Halloween.
Hmmm.



After I sewed up a hole in my sweater, it was time for her to run all around the upstairs while dragging a piece of yarn with Liam following closely behind.
Hmmm.



After she had exhausted Liam, she got dressed and then asked me if she could be my “assistant” for the day.
Hmmm.

She then asked if we could put cobwebs on the shrubs, and we did.
Hmmm.



Yes, at this point, I knew this whole sick day was a ruse, especially when I was asked, “Mommy, can we go to the mall?”
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

I guess that even a first grader needs a break periodically from learning words with the digraphs ch, sh, th, or ck, working with addition and subtraction number models, and trying to understand a map of the world and its different temperatures. Most importantly, I think today was all about a little extra love and attention; and couldn’t we all use that kind of “sick day” every now and then? ♥