Napping Partner

On Wednesday I started catching a cold.  It started the way colds usually do:  a scratchy throat, followed by a drippy nose.  By Thursday the drippy nose had turned into a sinus fiesta (which is the part I always hate the most because I feel like my face is going to explode and I can’t even think straight).  Thursday afternoon I started to loose my voice, and by nightfall, I realized that I was definitely going to have to cancel my Friday morning music class.  It was a sad thing, because it was the first day of class, and I knew there were some little people anxiously awaiting a trip to the assisted living residency that morning.  However, I couldn’t talk.  I really could not sing.

Friday morning I sent the middles off to school, and crawled back in my bed to rest, since I now had no where I actually had to be.  Mr. TOF came bounding in.  “Today is Hello -hello day!”  He always calls music class “Hello-hello” because those are the first words of the first song we sing each week to greet everyone.  (YaYa used to call it “Wicket Class” because she couldn’t say “music.”)  I reluctantly explained that we couldn’t go.  I was sick.  There was no music that day.

Oh the sorrow.  All out weeping in true sadness for over a half hour.  He was just downright devastated.  Eventually he sobbed himself to sleep in my bed, and took a long morning nap with me, which was positively lovely.

When he finally woke up he asked, “You better yet, Mama?”  I was getting better, but still not totally feeling great.  I encouraged him to go play for a bit, but he decided he’d rather hand out right next to me so I would get better faster.  So, for the rest of the morning, he was the best snuggle partner ever, quietly just hanging out in bed. He was a little frustrated for a short time that I couldn’t read him picture books like usual since I couldn’t talk, but eventually he got a few books to look through on his own while I silently read my book.  He played with his pretend remote control, and I just turned the pages of my book, reading away.  I made him a little lunch.  We crawled back in bed for another hour or so, and pretty soon I WAS feeling better!  Hooray!

He was excited that I was up and running again.  If I was up, he was ready to go off and play by himself.  I loved that he wanted to be right next to me when I wasn’t feeling so great.  Along with the cat, he made a great napping partner.  I kind of felt like Amos McGee in one of our favorite children’s  books, A Sick Day for Amos McGee.  When he catches a cold, the friends of Amos take a bus from the zoo to surround him with comforting activities until he’s feeling better.  Clearly, Mr. TOF’s propensity to take care of someone feeling under the weather comes from his father’s genetics, not mine.