Sick, Energetic

Lucy and I are sitting here at the kitchen table, watching Beatles videos on my computer. I've got two windows open--one containing YouTube, the other this blog entry I'm typing. We CAN both have what we want, at the same time.

Three of four of my family are sick. Mama is the healthy one. BB is particularly ill. It's just a cold--she's not throwing up any more than usual, but she's got lots of snot and coughs. Yesterday was her sickest day yet--she had red, baggy eyes and an inferiority complex all day long. Very needy. Quick to wail. I don't blame her.

It occurs to me that if Lucy were this sick when she was BB's age, I would have been freaking out. It's the difference between being a parent once and twice over. For me. My experience and personality are not everyone's.

My friend Terri told me an adage about having the second kid: The first one's made of glass, the second of plastic. As for whether it holds true for me? Well ....

Here's one example:
Once when Lucy was a little baby, still very new, and Megan and I were in that shitty little white cookie cutter apartment, I was playing a video game or watching tv or something. Megan hands me Lucy to hang on to while she goes to the bathroom. I laid Lucy on her back on the automan and half-watched her. I look away for too long and she rolls over, right off the automan, falls flat on her back on the floor.

Instantly I converted into "sorry father" mode and picked her up, considering what would happen if I lost her; big, heavy thoughts. I shed a few tears. Lucy definitely was crying big time. A lesson learned for dada.

Once, a month or so ago, I sat BB on the couch to watch Diego and to watch Lucy watching Diego. I go to the kitchen to do whatever. It occurs to me to check on the girls after a minute or two. I go out there and there's BB, on the floor! She didn't cry or anything.

"Oh. There you are. Umm, you like it down there?"

First one--glass.
Second one--plastic.

So while BB's sick now, I can rest assured that she will be fine and I need to do nothing.

No, that's not true. I jest. Today will be a slight challenge. It's a Sunday, which is the first day of Megan's work week. Tomorrow begins my seventh week of classes. So I'll be watching the kids until she gets home, after which I'll go to school and catch up on homework for tomorrow.

Until then, I'll have to be pretty much holding BB the whole time. It's not easy to carry a baby as big as her and do all the other household and Lucycare chores.  But I'll manage. Dada has super powers, you know.

In other news, I've got to wipe clean my red Dell Inspiron 1521 laptop I've had since 2007, when I was starting school at Western. It's been faithful, trusty, tried and true, but it's starting to show serious signs of age. I ran a malware scan, which found 10 infected items. After that, it's been freezing up and going slower than mo-lasses.

Gotta locate the startup disc, wipe, start anew. Ugh. Hopefully that does the trick.

It took me five years, but I've finally named it!

Redbluud