Author - Lorri

Now that I am feeling better and not dying from swine flu, let me share with you one of the joys of motherhood that befell me this week.

As I lay not quite dying, 101.2 fever, all hot and cold at the same time, propped up on pillows to alleviate the coughing, and sleeping almost peacefully, I heard a knock on my bedroom door.  I ignored it, of course.

A few minutes later, I hear my first born whispering, “Mama?”  I responded with, “mm” and tried to go back to sleep.  But Boo can be quite persistent and he tried again.

I turned ever so slightly toward him, peered at him with one half closed eye and said, “Are you bleeding?” in the best menacing tone I could manage.

“No, it’s worse than blood.  Bip pooped and needs you to wipe him.”

I closed my eye and wondered if I could muster enough strength to clobber Boo with a pillow or if I should just lie very still and hope he’d go away.  While I debated, he pulled on my arm saying, “Mama…come on…Bip needs you.”

So I dragged my poor, fever ravished body out of bed and down the hall, thanking God – literally- that Bip had chosen an upstairs bathroom and not one that would require me to navigate stairs.  Boo wisely followed behind me – out of my reach- and made sure I didn’t fall over.

So I helped Bip with his personal hygiene, washed my hands and returned to the sweet bliss of my Tempurpedic mattress and Hampton Inn comforter.  I think Boo might have had the nerve to say, “good job, Mama” but maybe it was just the fever talking.

Now if that’s not love, I don’t know what is.

I have a cough, headache and a fever…I wonder if I have the swine flu.  Whatever it is, I’ll be out of commission for a couple of days.  I am way too busy to be sick right now.  Between taking Pumpkin Girl to ballet class, acro class, Nutcracker rehearsal, plus folklorico class and RE, I do NOT have time for this.

Argh.

I wonder what the chances are of the rest of the family remaining healthy.

If you are going to secretly stay up reading a book past your bedtime…don’t read out loud.

Just sayin’.

So there I was, minding my own business, wrapping up some last  minute things before putting Bip down for his nap.  He and Boo were playing Wii Fit and it was Boo’s turn.  Bip was sitting in a little chair in front of the fireplace.  What I didn’t see was that he was actually tipping his chair back.

Oh yes, he did indeed fall back and hit his head right on the edge of the brick hearth.

You know, with all my children, I have never had to deal with a head wound.  I’ve heard that they can bleed a lot and you know what?  It’s true.  I ran to poor Bip, scooped him up and carried him to the kitchen, dripping blood as we went.

I put a clean wash cloth to his head and then instructed Boo to clean up Bip’s hands which were quite bloody and was scaring him.  Seriously, there was a lot of blood.  I had Pumpkin Girl call Philip so he could start on his way home in case we needed to visit the ER.  By the time he arrived, we had Bip, me, and the floor all cleaned up.  Bip had on a nice clean shirt (at a clean chest, which had also gotten covered in blood!) and was settling down.

It was hard to look at his wound since it is in his hair, but as far as we can tell, it doesn’t need any further care.  Philip helped me settle him down for his nap and then returned to work.

Later in the day, Pumpkin Girl and I got in the car to go to ballet class.  Can you believe it – the car wouldn’t start!  Last night it had been snowing on our parked car and when we got home, the passenger door was stiff and snow was caked on the window, so I had trouble closing it.  I guess it didn’t close completely and the overhead light stayed on and drained the battery.  Thank God we didn’t need to take Bip to the ER!

Bip seems to be fine now, other than the bump and his matted hair.  When we got home from ballet, I asked him how he was doing.  He said, “Bad hair day,” and pointed sadly to the back of his head.