Disclaimer: This post is, in no way, intended to make light of the serious illnesses that can beset children. It is unfair and awful and cruel to see children suffer, and we grieve with all the parents raising children who are seriously and gravely ill. May every child be healed of their chronic illnesses.
It’s been a madhouse lately.
There’s a birthday coming up, and there’s Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the preparations that go along with birthdays and holidays, and then there’s the massive amount of school papers falling at random on our countertop, drowning us, and the list of homemade Christmas gifts we’re WAY behind on that keeps getting lost in all the shuffle.
Add to that twins and potty training and how they must be reminded every 20 minutes to keep their underwear dry and clean.
And then on top of all that, add twins transitioning to big boy beds and how they must be put back in their beds twenty times every night.
Like I said, it’s a madhouse.
But then one of our twins got sick with a mysterious fever that only brought with it a headache and an uncontrollable urge to sleep it off.
One 2-year-old down and I thought I could conquer the world.
My boy slept all day, and the next day the virus hit his 4-year-old brother, and the twins felt incredibly easy without the extra dynamic of an older brother. And then it hit the other twin, and another 2-year-old slept all morning on the couch and gave his mama a break.
I don’t always approach sickness with this thank-you embrace, because sometimes there’s vomit (times five), and sometimes there’s so.much.snot I could fill a factory order for glue, and sometimes there are sore throats and achy chests and rashes that can worry a mama sick.
But this was just a low-grade fever, and we put cold compresses on their foreheads and thieves essential oil on the bottoms of their feet and then tucked them away in their beds, where they slept for half a day and got up only to drink some water and then slept the rest of the day, too.
It took one of them down at a time, and my household felt remotely manageable. It felt weird and eerie, too, but I wasn’t about to begrudge myself the enjoyment of a much-needed, unexpected break.
The whole dynamic of a house can change when one boy is out of commission, curled up with a headache and a fever.
By the time the virus finished with the fourth boy (it never hit the oldest), I felt like a superhero, because I had:
1. Cleaned out all the closets, eliminating the clutter I so desperately hate.
2. Rearranged our entire library—furniture and books (about 500 of them).
3. Rearranged my oldest son’s room and closet.
4. Packed away unnecessary clothes.
5. Colored with a 5-year-old, who had to stay home from school one day.
6. Rocked the 4-year-old to sleep (never happens).
7. Held the 2-year-olds for half an hour at a time (never happens either).
8. Tidied the entire house without clothes and shoes and toys undoing all my hard work BECAUSE KIDS WERE SLEEPING!
9. Spoke in complete sentences when talking to my husband.
10. Slept. I went to bed without having to tell kids to be quiet and settle down fifteen thousand times. And it was AMAZING.
I wouldn’t wish my children sick all the time, of course I wouldn’t, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy this recent break.
Today, the twins are flipping over the couch and the 4-year-old is walking on his hands through the living room and the 5-year-old is shrieking and spinning until he falls and the 8-year-old is turning up his Harry Potter audiobook loud enough so he can actually hear it over all the noise.
I sure am glad they’re back, madness and all.
Rachel is a writer, poet, editor and musician who is raising five (going on six) boys to love books and poetry and music and art and the wild outdoors—all the best bits of life. She shares her fiction and nonfiction writings over at her blog, and, when she’s not buried in a writing journal or a new song or a kid crisis at home, she enjoys reading Cormac McCarthy, Toni Morrison, William Faulkner and the poetry of Rilke. Follow her on Twitter @racheltoalson.
