Sicko

The time comes in every new mother's life when the thought hits her like a brick wall:

HOW DID MY MOM SURVIVE???

Richie's mom reared three. Bethany's mom reared four. And they are still alive to tell about it. How?

Fever. Flaming red throat. Congestion. Digestive issues. You name it. (Yes, please do name it. When the strep test came back negative, the doctor couldn't name it. He says it must be some virus that has to work its way through. Greeeeat.)

We were blessed (yes, still trying to count our blessings) with a horrible sleeper even when he's healthy, but when Luke is sick--watch out.

So we are grinding through each day (five so far, more to go) with no more than an hour of uninterrupted sleep, and many nights having two-hour parties in the middle of the night with our miserable Bean. We are trying desperately to see the humor in it all--the only ticket to sanity as we do our best to grow this child.

But last night when Luke woke up screaming, we both found ourselves rather angry--not at each other, not at him--just angry. And then when Lukey was up for the day today, Bethany just sat on the couch staring straight ahead, as if stoned, trying to process the fact that she had a whole day ahead with The Grump.

So the moment Richie left for work, Bethany dragged herself off the couch (picture: still in pajamas; mascara smeared under the eyes; hair in a floppy, high bun that mostly survived the night, but with some escaped hairs at the bottom resembling a long rat-tail), grabbed Luke, tromped downstairs to the car (hoping no neighbors saw her disheveled self), sped to Grammy's house, handed Luke to Grammy with only one spoken sentence ("Here, may I please sleep in your bed?"), and flopped in her parents' bed for a cozy sleep.

Insight into how sleep deprived we have been: The hour-and-a-half nap at her parents felt like the best night of sleep she's had in several days. (Hearty shout out of thanks to Grammy...)

Now for a few pictures of the sicky.


This is a picture of Luke in what we call his "Warrior Mood." Each day, he gets into his warrior mood at least once, when he is very serious and on a mission, ornery and brash. Armstrong the Determined, indeed.


And this is a picture of Luke in his grumpy mood. Trying hard not to laugh when tickled.


Even when sick, Luke does get flashes of energy and fun. Here he is very proud of himself for standing so long, and gives himself a good round of applause.


Luke's toy basket is housed behind the chair. He knows exactly how to get to it. And how to remove each item. One by one. And how to strew each item around the floor.




Caught in the act. A picture of Luke biting his mother. We are reading a book on parenting boys, and there is a part that says that boys grow up into men over their mother's dead bodies. In other words, in their steps toward manhood they often trample Mom. (Or bite her, in our case.) But actually, Luke has gotten very self-disciplined in this matter (assisted by some swift parental discipline to give him a shock and let him know it is not okay)... He now will often get ready to chomp and then pull his head away because he knows it is naughty. Thatta boy! Slowly but surely, the Warrior will be tamed...


The warrior himself. Anyone scared?


And finally for a few quotes from the last few days:

Richie: "He slept for... what, an hour? Sounds like a reasonable amount of sleep to me."

Bethany: "Honey, Luke has been just so HARD lately. SO, so hard." Richie: "Well, you know what they call it. The terrible tens."

Bethany (at 1:50 AM): "We should just set all the clocks to 7:00 so we don't feel sorry for ourselves."

Bethany (also at 2AM): "I'm so glad he doesn't know how to open the door!" (The door that closes off the living room area from the bathroom area.) Literally 30 seconds later, Luke slid the door open and dashed for the bathroom.

Richie, as Luke pulled up the curtain and looked outside: "It's dark out there, Luke. Do you know WHY it's dark out there? Because it's the middle of the night!!!"

One advantage to living in a 500-square-foot apartment is that when Baby is awake, everyone is awake. So we can all have our 2AM parties as one big happy (?) family.