The girls had a planned day off school today, and the big fun was going to be baking strawberry cupcakes. Sounds innocent enough, right? Well, when I went upstairs to see why Serena wasn't coming down for breakfast, I found the poor dear sick in bed. She laid there, fingering her tattered baby blanket, with all three stuffed dogs tucked in beside her. Flashback to age 2, face flushed with fever, eyes puffy with sleep, mouth downturned and full, blankie and Rosie close by for comfort. I sighed. She's 11 now, but still my baby, especially when she's sick. In a weird mom sort of way, I enjoy nursing my sick kids back to health. I loved taking care of them when they were younger. I always did special things for them when they were sick. They began to look forward to getting the "yuk bucket", all decorated with stickers! Yeah, not so cute inside.... I enjoyed rubbing lotion on their legs and feet and bringing them fresh jammies. Even at 2 and 3 years old, it worked charms on their recovery! Moms are the best nursemaids...my mom was too!
So, I spent the day taking care of Reenie, making her a special bed on the couch and watching all her favorite shows. I served her slushy Vernors, medicine, cold cloths for her forehead (which she said felt "beautiful"), and played quiet music as she slept. When I would take her temperature, I would first test with the lips on the forehead (the mom method), and she would close her eyes, asking me to touch her forehead with my cold hands too. That too felt "beautiful".
Let me tell you what is beautiful. Loving someone so much that no matter how tired you are, how much work it is, or how inconvenient it may be, you would rather do nothing else than take care of them. And when that child looks up at you with glossy eyes and says, "thank you, mumma", it's the sweetest thing!
Of course, my well child says, "Stay away...I don't wanna get sick too!" We're working on her!
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