It's a Sick World By David Leonhardt It's no joy to be sick. It's even less joy when your child is sick. But most unjoy is when you AND your child are sick together.
That happened to my poor wife a few weeks ago. She and Little Lady, going on three years old, both had a cold -- with all sneezing and wheezing, hacking and coughing, wailing and whining required for a certificate of authenticity.
Little Lady normally bubble-pops with zest and vigor. Actually "bursting at seems, bouncing off walls and ka-booming through roof" would be a more accurate description. So it was quite eerie to see her mope around like drooping leaves of a Siberian Peonies that's been fed too much stale beer...not that I have a clue how drooping leaves of a Siberian Peonies that's been fed too much stale beer would look.
Every now and then, moping would be punctuated with a sneeze. Little Lady has a most flamboyant sneezing style, adorning walls in unique patterns. No corner of room is safe when she sneezes. In fact, her projection has taught her baby sister in her playpen across room fine art of dodging.
While I was cleaning up Little Lady's flamboyance, my wife was trying to sooth a sore throat that was threatening to rip her very insides apart. Normally she doesn’t drink tea. Normally we don't even use kettle, except to heat water for warming up baby's bottle.
But this day was different. My wife was sick and she wanted a cup of tea. So she turned on already full kettle, waited for it to sing, poured water over a tea bag and sat down to enjoy a soothing cup of tea.
I walked into room. Frequent readers will recognize this critical error of mine from past columns. You'd think I would learn.
"This tea is soooo good, honey," she said.
"Uh, where did water come from?"
"It was in kettle. You know, not only is it soothing, but I feel like it's cleaning out my entire insides," she smiled.