Are Adults Sick Children?

Poor George was so sick earlier this week.  He was just so listless and lifeless, it made me so sad.  He lay on the couch, begging for food and drink, and whenever he'd take the tiniest sip of anything he would throw it right up.  His little cheeks got all sunken and pale, his dark eyes just stared at me as I moved around the kitchen (I actually felt so guilty eating in front of him that I went to hide in the kitchen to eat so he couldn't see me), and his little body just couldn't move.  He would lurch around the room a bit, trying to get somewhere different, and I'd find him flopped everywhere.  He slept under the piano for most of one morning, his face pressed against the cool laminate.  He was pretty much like another mat--a George mat.

When someone is so tiny to begin with, they just can't afford to not eat anything for three days.  It is amazing how tough a frail little body is, but still!  I started having nightmares that he was going to wither up.  The boys also felt stress about it.  They were so sad at his distress.  I realized how much I missed his pattering little feet and his unceasing chatter--he's always talking either to one of us, or playing pretend with his toys--and his laugh and his smile.  He didn't smile for three days.  On Day Three I was begging him to smile, and he was really trying, but it was just a grisly grimace.  On Day Four as he started to keep some food down, I got all excited and kept inviting him to play a puzzle or let me read books to him, or make a train track, or play up in his room, but he just kept saying "no."  It made me feel like he was a busy adult or something, and it made me realize that adults are just plain boring and we need to be better about saying "yes" when our kids want to do something with us.  And be better about laughing more over every little thing.  And better at listening when our kids chatter to us.  So that's what I learned from all this--I don't want to be a sick-child-adult, I want to be a happy-child-adult.  It is good to take sick days and have these realizations, even though I would never want it for little George again.  I'm so very glad he's feeling better.  We can't get along without our cheerful little George!