Yet another excuse to stay indoors

Squeak, squeak.

That faint rasp you hear is my son.

Squeak, squeak.

He has a sore throat, and his usually chirpy voice has been reduced to a high-pitched croak.

Yep, our mobile germ incubator has brought home yet another virus this cold/flu season. I believe we're up to about 1,000, but I might've overlooked a few. So far, we've missed out on ebola and the plague, but I think that's mostly a matter of luck.

I'm already accustomed to acting as his simultaneous translator, turning mo-go mo-go into "locomotive," or fashee yites into "flashing lights" for those who don't happen to share a little boy's obsession with trains and trucks.

But now everything comes out as pip pip, which my brain immediately interprets as, "Quick, Mommy, I'm drowning in snot! Tissue needed on the double, woman."

Actually, requests for tissues usually come out more like a frantic, teary aaaiiieeeee!!! Shoo-shoooo!

I'm not really sure what pip pip means, to be honest.

He could be decrying the woeful lack of flu vaccines due to government incompetence, or describing his take on the need for nationalized health care, or debunking the old wives' tale that Vitamin C bolsters the immune system. He's a smart kid, for a pipsqueak. Ahem.

To my limited, sleep-deprived brain, I numbly file his mouse calls under the catch-all category of primal noises designed to trigger the ol' maternal instinct. Unfortunately for Minitaur, my maternal instinct prodded me to plop him in front of a fire truck video and disappear onto the blogosphere for a bit.

A pity too, since it's a lovely California day and I'm in the mood to take him to the playground. When I asked him about it, he nuzzled close to my face and coughed violently at my nose. I took that to mean no.

I hear some squeaking downstairs. Either a door hinge needs oiling or I'm about to get a critique of my mothering skills.

Comments

1. chicken soup

2. even with a flu shot, this woulda happened

TM

[plosh]

That's because there are SOOOO many bugs running around preschool. Uggh.

[Ontario Emperor]

I thought I heard somewhere that we now have an OVERSUPPLY of flu vaccine, since all of the shots finally came in, but the restrictions are still in place.

[Anne]

TM: True and true. Though it looks like I'm the one who needs the chicken soup.

OE: Irony of ironies. But TM's right -- this is probably just a bad cold.

Ah-choo.

[Mark Sicignano]

Same thing on the east coast. It's one thing after another here. My son missed 6 days of school in a row, with fevers, lack of energy, cough, congestion. Mom and Dad had it as well. A week before that, it was a stomach thing.

He was at CVS with Mom picking up the prescriptions and in one hearty sneeze, blew what appeard to be about 5 oz. of snot onto his coat and Mom's jacket as well. The pharmacist had to turn her head (not sure if it was avoid being grossed out, avoid being seen laughing, or a bit of both.)

"What doesn't kill you, makes your stronger." ;-)

[Anne]

We've been lucky -- very few public displays of snots. My heart goes out to your wife, though.