Taking the edge off in a bad way

There is an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip story about Calvin getting sick. When his pediatrician says to Calvin that he’s been a good patient this time, Calvin is so out of it that he barely acknowledges him. The doctor then says to Calvin’s mom, “There’s nothing like a bug to take the edge off a kid.” His mom replies along the lines of she’d rather send him to school and let his teacher deal with him.

When I got on the school bus yesterday to unbuckle Tad, he was half-asleep. Which is very unusual.

He then stuck his hands in his pockets and walked away from the bus without waving or trying to push the swing bar in front of the bus back into place. Also unusual.

He had a good day hand stamp. Unfortunately, that is unusual for him right now.

I then ruffled his hair and felt that he was warm. Uh-oh.

When Tad got home, he shucked off his coat, kicked off his shoes, crawled onto the couch, and tucked himself in with a blanket and his bunny. I sat down next to him and he cuddled up by my side. “Are you okay, buddy?” I asked him.

“Mama, I chilly,” he said.

Ohhh, this is not good.

He has a fever and chills, and he’s staying home from school today. Hopefully this will be very short-lived, because the last thing I really need is to bring home a newborn to a sick older brother. And hopefully Ane will leave Tad ALONE so SHE doesn’t catch whatever this is as well.

He probably picked it up at church – there were three other boys all out sick last night at Cubbies. And all of them are in the same Sunday school class as Tad.

Tad was pretty docile all evening, according to the Webmaster, who stayed home with him last night (he had to work from home anyway, so he had planned on not going to Awanas). Of course, letting him watch The Empire Strikes Back probably also had something to do with it, too. But Tad’s appetite is poor, and he was spontaneously putting himself on the couch with his blanket, pillow and bunny.

Yeah, this took the edge off the boy, but it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. At all.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 2:28 am and is filed under Children, From the Church Front.
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