Both yesterday and today, we kept B home from preschool.  Not at all because he’s objecting to going (technically, he isn’t objecting to going — he’s very clear on the fact that what he’s objecting to is my leaving).  He’s sick.  Nothing serious — sniffle, cough, slight fever — no more than to be expected, considering he’s being introduced to a whole new world of “kid cooties” that he’s missed out on being exposed to thus far in his life.

Staying home with both kids is hard work, no question.  Staying home with both kids when one is sick and the other is not is significantly harder.  I don’t know what was more of a challenge over the past few days:  keeping Liam quiet so B could rest, or keeping B calm while Liam was crawling laps around the living room, playing with B’s toys and causing general mayhem.

Psychologically, this has served a very good purpose — I’m actually looking forward to B going back to school.  Partly because I won’t be trying to juggle two incompatible objectives at home, and partly because it’ll mean he’s feeling better.  There’s also a small part of me that keeps thinking, “I can’t wait until he’s feeling better so I can get back to my normal schedule”, which is followed immediately by the realization that I don’t really have a “normal” schedule right now.

Hopefully, tonight will be restful for all of us (B does not sleep well when he’s congested) and the morning will dawn illness-free.  Then we can get back to our new crazy schedule and work on adjusting to school . . . until B comes home with the next cootie infestation, or Liam or I come down with this one.