Home Again

At this point in the school year every week is a four-day week if you have kids. If it's not MLK Day, then one of the kids is sick. If it's not a workshop day, then one of the kids is sick.

This time it's Jack's turn. He woke up at 12:30 early this morning with a hacking cough. After a dose of cough medicine and some tossing and turning he finally fell back to sleep at 4:00. Around 2:30 (after he coughed so hard he got sick) I realized that he was going to be staying home, which meant I would be staying home.

The decision to stay home was a good one. He's not himself (i.e.-running, playing, teasing Aidan). Jack's spending the day on the couch coughing, moaning, and asking for things piteously.

Aidan is home, too. It has been our policy that if one kid gets sick they both stay home from daycare. That will change for Jack next year when he's in kindergarten. No more staying home when Aidan is sick watching Jimmy Neutron and playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

For me, I'm counting down the hours until Jodi gets home. When she does, I do my best to look disshelved and harried. I move around the house like an elderly man talking incoherently. My hope is she'll say,"Looks like you've had a hard day for the good of the children. Why don't you go out for a bite to eat and a beer. Come home again when you feel like it."

Wheezy Kid and the Gopher Cousin?

Charley Water's Pioneer Press column had an interesting mention of a relative. My dad's cousin expressed interested in the Gopher football coaching position and is in contact with the U of M. He's probably a long-shot right now, but I think it's only a matter of time before he gets his chance.

Just when you think the kids are finally healthy and done with illness for awhile, Aidan gets sick. After two whole days at daycare he's wheezy, short of breath, and irritable. Only Jack seems to handle illness among the O'Brien Boys. Jodi stayed home today and it's my turn tomorrow. Hopefully he'll feel better. It's hard for him to understand that he should rest when he's ill. He feels like he has to go-go-go and keep up with Jack which tires him out and makes him feel worse.