Putting the “ick” in Sick

Babe-O hasn't been feeling so hot. For the last couple of days, her nose has been running like a fountain, she's been sneezing constantly and she's developed a tiny, quiet theatrical little cough. She is up a lot at night, having trouble breathing through her stuffy nose and she is very temperamental during the day.

I was on baby duty yesterday. We were playing with some plastic balls that she has, which was all well and good until she accidently dropped one and started bawling about it. Poor kid…short fuse.

Anyway, today ended up being a daddy/baby day (as opposed to a baby-daddy day, which happens four times a week on most daytime talk shows).

I know that she still feels like crap, but Babe-O was a little trooper.

We got up at seven, ate some breakfast together, and played around for an hour or so while Mom caught up on sleep (she was up most of the night with the sick kid).

When it was time to get some stuff done, I plopped Babe-O into her Jeep carrier and she rode around with me while I worked in the kitchen and did some work in my office. I talked to her while I worked and she seemed to have a blast.

Sleeping has been challenging, so we planned the day around getting her into the car for her two naps, morning and afternoon. Being propped up in her car seat seems to help with the stuffiness and the car is always a good bet on getting her to sleep.

For our morning outing, I hung out in the car with the sleeping sickie while Mom-O hit the grocery store.

After that, it was back to work, bustling around in the office and hanging out with Babe-O. Trying to cut Mom some slack, I headed back out in the afternoon, taking Babe-O with me.

We ran a few errands, including a trip to the bookstore to get me some thoroughly mindless reading (see shelf at right). After keeping my sick buddy up for maybe an hour, we got back on the highway and headed in the general direction of home. She fell asleep and I found a shady spot to stop and read.

About 100 pages later, we pulled back in the driveway and spend some time playing and then hit the tub for Babe-O's bath.

Surprisingly enough, about half an hour later I came inside from playing with the dogs in the backyard and found a sleeping baby on her way upstairs to be put into bed. With any luck, we'll have a good night and she'll be feeling better in the morning.

Looking back, this was a really cool weekend. Babe-O and I have been getting along better every day and I'm starting to get used to the big smile she shoots me when I come in the room. She's still super attached to her Mom, but I'm glad to see she seems to have decided that Dad ain't so bad either.

Love that kid! (that sick, snotty, fussy, occasionally-gross little kid) Love her!