So the boy is sick. He came home with a runny nose last night. By bed time it was pretty much gushing, instead of running. He had no other symptoms of illness, so I doped him up with some Benadryl and put him to bed. He woke up happy this morning, although with a bit of a runny nose still. I wasn’t quite sure whether to send him to school or not. He was a little mopey, but I hated to keep him home for a runny nose. I checked for a fever, but he didn’t have one so I gave him some Claritin that would last through the day and sent him off to school.
Monday at Zach’s school is promotion day. All of the kids will be moving up to the next class level. To celebrate, the toddler classrooms had a Parent’s lunch today so the parents could come in and meet the new teachers, visit the classrooms, etc.
When I arrived for lunch, Zach was sitting at his table (playing with his plate) quietly. He was excited when he saw me, but immediately told me he wanted to go. I didn’t think much of it since that’s always the first thing out of his mouth when I get there in the evenings to pick him up.
I sat down with him to eat lunch, but he wasn’t eating. He drank a couple of cups of red kool-aid but didn’t want any food at all. I asked him if his tummy hurt but he said no, then a few seconds later he nodded his head yes. He was a little clingy, but still acting ok, so I sat down to eat some lunch.
I kept trying to convince him to eat, but he still refused. Just as I was taking a bite of my chicken wing, all of the boy’s red kool-aid came right back up. It was like a red kool-aid fountain that sprayed all over my plate, my clothes, Zach’s clothes, and eventually landed in the floor. (Seriously, think Exorcist, but red instead of green) It took me a few seconds before I actually realized what had happened and could react. I figured it all out just in time for the second round.
I finally managed to get up out of my seat and get Zach to the bathroom where I cleaned him up and changed his clothes. By the time we got back, the teachers had cleaned up the rest of the mess. I tried to apologize, thinking that I somehow should have predicted this and gotten him out of there earlier. Then I found out that three other kids had already gone home today with the same thing. Apparently this is what I have to look forward to now that he’s in a bigger day care setting.
The fact that he’s sick isn’t really that big of a deal. Kids get sick. I realize this. What I am hating right now is that I ignored my instinct to keep him home this morning and sent him to school even though I knew he wasn’t feeling well. I should have paid attention to my gut instinct, instead of worrying about getting to work. I guess next time I’ll know better.
Comments closed