In Sickness and in Health...

...words that, when you get married, should be understood to apply not only to your spouse, but to your child as well. For the last month, someone in our family has been sick. First, Gary got it. After three weeks of a cough showing no improvement, my constant nagging him to go and see a doctor took effect. He came home with antibiotics, cough supressant, and a face mask. The face mask was intended to prevent little Bean from getting it, but alas the damage had been done. A sick daddy, followed by a play morning with a zillion other kids at our local mall, and swim class in a pool that hadn't been heated that day culminated in the ever nasty (and quite scary) croup. This quickly evolved into a cold that has insisted to hang on until just last week, and probably would have for longer if it hadn't been for some trusty antibiotics (which she LOVED - she is still asking for medicine. The cynic in me says there's a conspiracy among our billionaire pharmaceutical companies to get our kids hooked as early as possible, but I won't launch into that here). Anyway. I think we're through the worst of it. Having a sick child may well be one of the most difficult challenges (so far) of parenthood. As Gary and I stayed up night after night to comfort our sweet girl, we were reminded of the early days of her life and how we thought the sleepless nights would never end. How did we do it? Somehow we were just given the grace to push on, as we were this last month. Our little Bean is back on form now, running around to and fro, and life has resumed its curiosity once again. Today she told the neighbor kitty that it was a "snow day" (a reference to her current favorite book) and that kitty needed a "rest time". It was raining recently and I asked her what else came from the sky besides rain. Her reply was beef and chicken. It's so nice to have her back to her normal self.