Sick Little One

When Judah woke up this morning crying, I wondered what kind of a day it would be.

Kaylee is never too far away from the boys. She's been a faithful companion this week!

Since it was just he and I for the first half hour, which we spent reading books together, he cheered up and we moved on with our morning routine once Asher was awake.

My morning view as I'm getting them breakfast

Asher made a spectacular comeback this morning after his hard day of teething yesterday. There's a white nub on top that looks like might have been the culprit of pain, so we may see a new tooth soon!

But poor Judah. By mid morning it was clear that the sickness he had before Tyler and Lara moved to Czech last week was back.

Cough, fever, uncomfortableness and a runny nose that looks like it's a faucet. Oh how bad I felt for him as we sat snuggling on the couch.

That led to a flurry of texts to his mommy and daddy about what to do, which resulted in them coming home from the conference to take Judah to a doctor in Frydlant just before noon.

They got in without a wait (praise number one!), had a fantastic experience with this doctor (praise number two) and got medicine they felt good about (praise number three!).

Judah was a bit more cheerful by the time they got home.

While they were out for an hour, Mr Cheerful and I had a great time making faces in the mirror and sitting at the piano with me playing and him singing (kid you not!).

And that cheeriness just continued right on throughout the rest of the afternoon.

But this sweet boy didn't have such a good rest of his day.

I opted to let him take a bath by himself this evening, in hopes that it would be a relief tonight to just be in warm water, playing alone, with me and Asher just quietly hanging out with him in the bathroom.

Forty five minutes of bliss ensued...a subdued bliss, but nevertheless, it was the best 45 minutes of his day.

Asher gets the best brother award for patience tonight (and the fact that he ended up missing his own bath because it was too late by the time I got Judah in bed and fed Asher a bottle). Besides a few sympathy cries with his brother, he was amazing this evening at just going with the flow of a sick older brother.

Because Judah is literally coughing every minute, I don't know if he'll stay asleep or not. So here I sit in the hallway, listening for him until his mommy and daddy get home.

Epilogue of the evening: He did wake up coughing and crying, but only needed a hug and the pacifier to help him go back to sleep. I'm glad I heard him and could respond quickly before it deteriorated.

Now his mommy and daddy are "on duty" for the night, and I'll resume care in the morning.

When Tyler and Lara got home from the conference tonight, I related all that had happened and told them in the end, "There never was a time today when I thought I couldn't handle it or wished I was somewhere else, nor did I ever feel upset or frustrated" (that's truly the grace of God!).

The thought I had, and told them, was actually this: "Though I really, REALLY hate it when little ones are sick, I also know from years of experience that something bigger is going on...and one of those things is the ability to develop endurance. Hard things happen, but if you can see them as part of a bigger picture for your child, or yourself, it helps keep these kinds of hard days in perspective."

I'll be the first to admit...it really isn't fun to have a sick child. But at this point in time, it helps to have lived through a lot of these kinds of days with my own kids, and to know that good can definitely come from it. I already feel a new level of bonding with Judah because of how sick he felt today. That's a good thing!

Tomorrow is Day 4 of "Nonnie Camp". We'll see what it has in store for us.