Sleeps With Fishes (HOL 74)

House of Laughter 74

It was inevitable. When I woke up last Saturday morning, I knew I was going to get sick some time this week. We had just replaced Isaac’s crib with a full size bed Friday night after a trial period of using the crib with one of the sides removed resulted in Isaac falling out of bed in the middle of the night for several nights in a row.

We set the full size bed and box spring on the floor with the cool “Eric Carle” sheets my mother had given him for his birthday. On Saturday morning, Nancy went to check on him and found that he had thrown up in the middle of the night and slept/ rolled around in it. After stripping the bed and bathing the boy, Nancy gave Isaac a small amount of apple juice which was immediately returned to sender.

Several days later, Nancy came home in the middle of the day with similar symptoms. I knew I couldn’t be far behind. My turn lasted from Thursday through Friday. It is amazing what thirteen hours of sleep and a steady diet of ibuprofen and Pepto will do for you.

Nancy and I have been thinking about our vacation for 2008. We both love Key West, and are thinking about leaving Isaac with Nancy’s folks and spending a couple of days there together. (As a local once told me, “Key West is not a place to bring kids on a vacation. There are no playgrounds here, no theme parks here.” He then launched into an almost perfect one man rendition of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” on the violin, butt naked. Again, not a place for the wee ones.) As we pondered the details of our trip, we realized that we haven’t spent a night together without Isaac since he was born.

Without family nearby, it has just never come up. We’ve had babysitters and friends watch him, but we still have to prepare beforehand and then be home by a certain time. You can’t just go, stay out late, and then sleep in the next morning. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. Nancy and I still make time for each other, we are just more aware of that one small advantage that most of our friends with kids have.

Our friends, the McMullen’s had their son this week. I visited mother and son in the hospital on my lunch break. On the way back to work, I couldn’t get the songs “I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry”, and “Circle of Life” out of my head.

Since I was feeling better Saturday morning, I took Isaac out on some errands. Shortly after leaving the house, we stopped at a traffic light. As soon as it turned green, I heard a little voice behind me say “Come on people!”. (He must have learned this from Nancy.)

We stopped at a garage sale where I found a two gallon aquarium with pump and fish food for three dollars. Isaac and I set it up in his room, and went to Wal-Mart to buy a couple of goldfish. The lady in the pet department sealed them in the bag, and as we were walking out, Isaac kept asking “Are we going to eat them?”. Anyone with a small child is probably laughing right now. Don’t worry, it took Nancy a minute to figure out why he was asking that too.

Strength and Honor

Big Matt