Momma said there'd be days like this.

Nothing fun ever seems to happen when Jonathan is home from Angola. All the really good stuff like the AC breaking, pipes freezing, trips to urgent care clinics always seem to happen when he’s gone. When he’s home, not only do things run more smoothly with an extra set of hands, but we seem to incur less ‘incidental’ events. 

I think the thing I dreaded most was the first time I would get sick when he was away. After not having so much as a sniffle since pregnancy, I have contracted two heavy hitting colds back to back. I’m not gonna lie, it has been tough! All I’ve wanted is to lay up in bed and watch TV while fairies brought me soup and hot water with lemon. But alas, I am the fairy godmother in this scenario so of course there are no sick days for momma. (This is seriously the worst thing about stay-at-home-mommimg. I really need to renegotiate my contract with Master Forest for more/any vacation and sick days.) 

To Forest's delight, we’ve been watching A LOT of Disney movies lately. Forest has been pretty well behaved, understanding when I say ‘mommy isn’t feeling her best, could you please go play in your playroom for a bit?’. On the other hand he knows I’m in a weakened state so has also taken advantage of that. I *may* have given him goldfish and a popsicle for lunch one day.  *I *may* have even given him his paci back as an act of desperation at naptime. (Luckily he chucked it out of his bed…unluckily he still didn’t nap). 

Once I’m feeling better (I feel like I’m on the mend, so fingers crossed!) I have a feeling it will be back to behavior boot camp since I’ve definitely been a little indulgent these past 2 weeks just to help things go smoothly with him. Also once I’m back to 100% I plan on putting together a little container of ‘sick day’ activities so the next time this happens I’ll be more prepared with some quiet, independent activities for him instead of just putting on movie after movie. 

Though he definitely didn’t complain about unlimited screen time, now he expects that everyday he gets to watch a movie. This morning he said ‘after preschool I will watch Cars and then tomorrow I will watch Pinocchio’. Honestly the first two days of this cold I didn’t have energy to do ANYTHING with him. Yesterday I at least had some energy to get out his paint supplies and do a few craft type things but he still watched two movies. 

I’ve been having a big fat pity party for myself the past few days for sure and really wondered how I was going to make It through without any family nearby.  But God provides and thanks to preschool hours I was able to rest a little and get to the store for some meds and soup fixings. I really need to be more prepared for things like this!! Any advice for parenting while under the weather? What should I have on hand for myself or for Forest the next time this happens?