On Friday, Peanut had a snotty nose. It doesn’t happen often, but it happened last year about this time, so, allergies. Fine, I’ll wipe a snot nose and give her Claritin, and life will go on, right? Wrong. Peanut got a snotty nose, but I ended up with a head cold that made me feel like I’d been hit by a mack truck – runny nose, sinus headache, sneezing, the works. By Sunday I was laid out on the couch with my kleenex, gladly fulfilling my sweet toddler’s request for “Potter,” making endless cups of hot tea, and guzzling Emergen-C. We even missed church, which is not something that we do, basically, ever. And I stooped to feeding her goldfish crackers and apples for most of the day. (We did have chicken and broccoli for dinner, though.)
I guess I should have learned some kind of life lesson about how sometimes you can’t be a perfect mom, how sometimes vast amounts of screen time and goldfish crackers are how to keep your sanity, how getting sick is God’s way of telling me to slow down and enjoy my kid.
Mostly, I’m just thankful that I’m the one who got sick, because Peanut’s snot nose alone is so incredibly heartbreaking. Her nose gets red and her eyes water, so she looks pitiful, even though she’s still bouncing off the walls. Maybe I’m most thankful that on this day, it took too much energy to be even a little cross, being even a tiny bit unkind was impossible, and even when I was at my worst, maybe I was a better mom than usual. Also, those goldfish crackers never tasted better!
linker girls 