Breaking ALL the rules

Sometimes life calls for drastic measures, like breaking one of your house rules, maybe even more than just one. The past few days required lots of rule-breaking, just so we could get through the days.

On Wednesday, I got a call from Lucas' school. He had a fever and was feeling lethargic. I picked him up and brought him home. He had a high fever, napped (which he hasn't done in ages), barely ate anything, and was content to sit on the couch with me and read books after his nap. This is very atypical behavior for our normally active fireball.

Broken rule #1 - Lots of juice. We normally don't keep juice in the house. In fact, I think Lucas only thinks he can get juice at birthday parties and other times when we are out of the house. But because of his high fever and lack of appetite, we filled the fridge with all types of juices to keep him happy and hydrated.

Broken rule #2 - Because he wasn't super hungry, we went out for "lunch" to Sketch on Thursday for ice cream. Meal of champions!

Broken rule #3 - Lucas started to finally sleep well on his own with the arrival of the Ice Bat, but since I get so anxious when he has a high fever, I slept with him so I could monitor his temperature throughout the night. (I know, I know, but I'm super paranoid about fevers.)

On Friday morning, he was feeling quite a bit better - the meds had kicked in and his fever was down. So we ventured out to Tilden Park's Little Farm for some gentle and quiet outdoor time feeding the animals. However, once we drove down the hill to the farm, I started not feeling so good. But since Lucas was feeling better, I stuck it out and we had a nice time.

By the time we got home, I felt like I couldn't really do anything except lie down. I tried to read to Lucas for a while, but after a few books, I couldn't even do that anymore. Lucas was a trooper and played with cars and trains in our room for a couple hours while I lounged around.

Broken rule #4 - Because Kevin wasn't due home for a while and I felt really bad about just lying around all afternoon, I found some video snippets of Cars and Curious George on YouTube and Lucas was pretty content to watch some of that stuff while I napped on and off.

On Saturday morning, my fever was hovering around 103. I pretty much slept until around noon. Kevin said that Lucas was lurking around me throughout the morning, so a few times he had to usher him out of the room. I felt pretty crappy in general all day.

Sunday I felt a bit better, and Lucas was feeling a lot better, but Kevin was feeling sick. Though my fever was down, my throat was trashed. Between Kevin and I, we tried to keep Lucas entertained.

Broken rule #5 - More videos! I went to the video store and picked up a few DVDs for Lucas. And now, as I type, he's gleefully watching the Curious George movie.

Lucas is home today with me and Kevin, to make sure he's all better before sending him back to school. But he will probably go back tomorrow. We'll have to wean him off of all the indulgences of the past few days. I wonder how long it will take for him to get used to life as it used to be again - no videos, no mom sleeping in his room, no juice, no ice cream for lunch - no fun!