Worst Day?

I think to ensure survival of the human species, the brains of parents are designed to hold onto pleasant memories, and suppress memories of tough times with kids. That's why, when Ali and I ask our parents how we were as little kids, they have no memory of us waking up at night, or ever throwing a tantrum right in the middle of the grocery store, or anything bad like that. "You were wonderful!" And I'm sure we were, but I'm sure we had our moments too.

So, all this to say, I think yesterday was the hardest day of parenting yet, but I'm sure there were harder days that I just can't remember right now. And this one will fade too, but with blog technology, I'm going to write it down and record it so that when Jake and Sadie have kids of their own, I can tell them it's perfectly normal for their little ones to occasionally scream for an hour at 3am, or to forget every word of the English language except for "no" for an entire day.

Yesterday was the second day Ali and I stayed home with the kids. Jake and Sadie both have strep infections, and both also seem to have a cold on top of that. I have strep too, but I'm feeling much better now. Ali continues to stay healthy, and if she makes it through this without catching anything, she gets the Gold Medal of Immunity.

It was a day of crying and complaining and defiance and sneezing and coughing and crying and then more crying and whining. And they deserve some slack for being sick, don't get me wrong. But it got to be ridiculous. And they coordinated their efforts, so if Sadie went down for a nap, Jake cranked up his crankiness a few notches. If Jake was occupied with a video, Sadie decided she would attach herself to Ali, and still cry. It was just a sad, tiring, frustrating, long day.

The worst part is, they're still sick. We were holding out hope that they could go back to school today, especially because Jake's class has his big holiday party and gift exchange, but they are both still sicky sick. Maybe a little better than yesterday, but nowhere near 100 percent. When they're sick, time moves so slowly. I just hope that by next week, everyone is healthy, and we're all sipping egg nog, and opening presents, and yesterday will be one of those forgotten memories.