Contagion

Bear is in nursery school. Five days ago, while talking nose-to-nose to Bunny, he coughed basically *in* her mouth. All I could do at that point was sigh, certain in the knowledge that in short order Bunny would be a raging ball of viral infection. Sure enough, the next day her poor little nose was stuffy and she was inconsolable. This lead to two days of pitifully broken sleep for both of us. At one point (I can't remember due to extreme sleep deprivation during this time), Bunny screwed up her little face and proceeded let out a huge sneeze that went in my eyes and up my nose. Ahhh, how incidental hygiene becomes once you have children. One day later, around noon, I felt the tell-tale throat tickle that proceeds 95% of my colds. It's weird when you can pinpoint the moment a cold starts. At that point there was nothing much to do but wait it out. The problem is that when I'm sick I'm a really big baby. Worse than a real baby. I'm on the end of day two and my only observation is that at least colds follow a predictable course and I'm fortunate to hold the misguided belief when I'm sick that tomorrow (always tomorrow) I'll feel better. The crappiest part was that Bear woke up today with a cough and runny nose. Apparently whatever he coughed into Bunny's face five days ago was just a dry run for the real thing in his little body. So Bunny is almost better, I'm in the thick the cold and Bear is at the beginning. So far Kent is still healthy and I hope he stays that way. If he doesn't, the upshot is that I'm now immune and can fully enjoy being irritated about taking care of him. Let the record show that while I am a total baby while I'm sick, I expect others to display appropriate amounts of suck-it-up and continue life as normal. Please don't let this post color your reflection of me. I am utterly grateful that I can complain about the common cold and not dengue fever or malaria. Now go wash your hands.