Back to School

Thing 2 seemed pretty much better by last Friday, but I hired a sitter and let her skip church on Sunday just to be sure.  She had an extra day to recover with the Martin Luther King holiday on Monday.  She was so excited to go back to school, and couldn't wait to get up and get dressed on Tuesday.  We were combing hair and finding shoes when Thing 1 told me she was too tired to go to school.  Since she woke up at 6:15 to play on the computer, I suspected her exhaustion was not sickness related...  I told her she needed to go to school.

I even drove them to school because I didn't want to wear out Thing 2's newly recovered stamina.  After I saw them to their classes I went down to the office to double check that they have my cell phone number in case she got tired and needed me to come get her, I had a bunch of errands to do.  The secretary assured me that usually the kids only make it for half days for the first couple of days back from mono, if not the whole first week.

I came back home and figured I'd start off by taking the dog the for as long a walk as he could stand, at least 45 minutes, maybe an hour, and wear him down to a sleeping nub.  I got three blocks from my house and got a call on my cell phone.  It was the school.

Thing 1 was too tired and needed to come home.

I asked what was wrong, what felt bad?  She was tired.

I asked "How are your feet?"    "They're tired."

I asked "How are your elbows?"  She said "...  They're .... tired."

Hmmmph.  There go all my errands.

I turned around and took the dog home.  When I got to the school we talked about how this would be a resting day, not a computer playing or TV watching day.

I took her home and put her in bed and figured I'd peddle on the exercise bicycle, that way at least I'd get some exercise, even if the dog didn't.

Half an hour later Thing 1 came out of her bedroom stretching and saying she felt so much better, now that she slept a couple of hours.  A couple of hours?   Try half an hour!

I gave her my digital travel alarm clock and told her she couldn't get out of bed for another hour and a half, and told her what time that would be.

45 minutes later I peeked in on her and saw her laying in bed with her eyes wide open.  When she heard me they slammed shut.

I understand her being jealous that her little sister got to spend two weeks not in school, sleeping but yes, playing games on the computer.

Being healthy has its drawbacks.  I let Thing 1 get up and have her day too, since she couldn't muster up one symptom at all.  I let her play on the computer, though I did make her do her homework later when Thing 2 came home and did hers.

Thing 2, on the other hand, had a marvelous day!  She was queen of the may, as everyone was happy to see her and made a big fuss.  She confided later that three boys in her class have crushes on her.  She was very glad to be back.