...there's nothing quite like watching what you had for dinner come out of one of your children five hours later...really makes you rethink your nutritional goals. This week I was reminded, as sometimes you need to be, of what it must have been like to live during THE PLAGUE...Okay, not the plague, more like the Asian Flu of 1958. At any rate, sometimes you have to be looking/listening/sensing intently on your children, possibly trying to utilize your cat-like-reflexes with a puke bucket, to really notice things about them. Sure any other time, during normal daily life, you look at them, you see them...but laying with them, watching and listening to them breathe, you notice a lot more. Sadly our episode of malaria lasted longer than I wanted, but about the time where I was mentally/physically sick of seeing chunky bodily fluids...it ended.
Now it should be said, I am fortunate. I have kids that know how to aim and get them selves where they needed to be to get sick. Every time I heard the toilet flush, I said a little thank-you-prayer that they were to THIS point in their lives. Not old enough to shave but old enough to take care of business and know the drill of being sick. It is the other two I have, for some reason would like to reenact a scene from the "Exorcist" every time they throw up. A simple head in the bucket is just too much, not understanding why once covered in ick, I need to shower them off. Lastly, why candy should ever be consumed less than 24 hours after losing their lunch. Thankfully, our next outbreak of cholera, we'll be more practiced for this.
It was midway through the typhus outbreak that I took my yearly notice...these kids are growing...to fast. Oscar is as tall as I am, and the rest are quickly catching up as well...there goes my street cred. And as always, I noticed it with Atticus. As I lay there in his bed, praying not to get puked on again, hoping he can get some rest, I see him in his night light lit room. Speaking to him gently, telling him to just try to rest and that I would stay for a bit. Listening to him softly drift off, and noticing his profile I realize he looks/sounds the same as he did almost 4 years ago when he was a baby. I laid there thinking to myself what every wiser, more mature veteran mother has told me, "...enjoy this time..." Usually, I think, um why the hell would I want to? But in that moment, in that barely lit room, I laid there and looked at this kid. I wondered, what the heck? What is this kid going to be like? What is this kid going to be into? Who is this kid going to act like (the million dollar question)? And will this kid ever know how much he is loved?
That's the thing about Atticus...I'm technically the parent, but he has three others as well, one mother and two father hens. They comment when he's done something well, they let him know when he's not acting appropriately. They usually use him as their flying monkey when I'm out of the room because he's the lightest. It was only tonight however, they and I didn't know how to react when he said at a commercial on TV "...well, that's bull shit..." Stunned silence. I wasn't pleased to have heard what he said, but I, much like the kids, found it so very odd to hear it coming from his mouth. We all sort of looked at each other like, okay he didn't say that. Ten seconds later he said, "...I said that was bull shit..." OKAY, heard that one! As I was trying to tell him that those were not words he should be using, the other three hens were chiming right it, giving him whats for...I was baffled and trying not to laugh actually.
This week has been long. This week has been tiring. This week has been a phenomenal advertisement for laundry detergent. At times this week could have gotten me early acceptance into the Betty Ford Clinic, but at least the worst is behind us. While at times this week my parenting skills have been questioned/debated/despised by my offspring, tonight I appreciated our tag-team-hen-parenting-approach. It's not ideal. At times by me it's not always preferred. But, it's got us where we are four years later, and he's still alive to tell the tale! So here's to the next round of yellow fever fate decides to throw at us...while it might possibly take us out...by then we'll all know how to aim!
No comments:
Post a Comment