Purple Nurple (HOL 32)

House of Laughter 32

In the middle of an exam yesterday, my pager went off. I picked up the call, and it was the daycare center. Isaac had a fever, was lethargic and cranky and hadn’t eaten much all day. I finished up my work, and began a series of calls and negotiations with my boss, Nancy, the daycare, and our pediatrician, to decide the best way to take care of him.

The plan was, I would leave work, pick up Isaac, and would stay home until Nancy could get off work and take him to the doctor. I briefed Nancy on Isaac’s condition when she arrived home. “He has a temp of 100 point five, and he feels pretty warm. I just got him to lie down.”

Nancy was very concerned, and drew a cool bath for him, and wanted to know if we could get him to the doctor sooner. She woke him up and put him in the bath. If you were sick, and someone woke you up and put you in a cool bath, you’d throw a fit too. Isaac was not happy. At this point, I thought Nancy was just being “Overprotective Mother Crazy”, and decided to stay out of her way.

What really happened was that she misheard me. She thought I said that he had a fever of 105. I assured her that if his fever was 105, he and I would be sitting in the E.R. at Moses Cone.

The little guy is feeling much better this morning. Nancy put him in bed with me, and instead of napping like he normally does, he decided it was time to play. He found a new toy and tried desperately to pick it up, but unfortunately, my right nipple was still firmly attached to my chest.

One of his new tricks, is that when you go to pick him up, he raises both arms over his head. It’s neat to see an interaction on his part that doesn’t relate directly to eating. Isaac also enjoys playing with his new toy, a plastic bucket which we bought strawberries in last week. I wore it on my head for a while, so we could both have helmets. He loves to make noise, and spends a lot of his time hitting buckets and tin boxes to make loud sounds.

The Greensboro News and Record has a new column about family life. I submitted a short re-hash of Isaac’s helmet adventure. The editor liked it, but told me that they received many submissions….blah blah blah…they probably won’t print it.

I still like what I wrote, so I’ll post it in a day or two.

Strength and Honor

Big Matt