snuffles and chuffles and drips

dear cookie face,

finally today you were feeling better. you had an awful cold this weekend, all snuffles and chuffles and drips and sploofs. lots of drool-soaked shirts to be changed, snot eruptions to be wiped, juicy sneezes to endure. on sunday, your face wouldn't stop leaking. even your eyes. poor little guy.

you are usually pretty easygoing, but this cold got the best of you. all weekend you clung to me like a little monkey. i could entertain you for short periods, but after a couple of minutes of a novel activity you would start to whine. we'd move on to whichever next thing mommy could think up and muster the energy to do.

we went on a lot of walks. long ones. you fussed some and slept some. you did the best in your baby bjorn, rocking against my body as we walked and walked. in the baby bjorn you mostly slept.

on sunday night you were too full of snot to be able to sleep in your crib. first you cried and then you screamed for me, so i put your car seat in the bedroom and strapped you in to sleep. you still woke up crying every hour, but by 2am i finally finished what i needed to do for work for monday and was able to go to bed. i brought you into the bed to sleep leaning up against me the way you used to when you were just a teeny sprout. you were able to nurse more often that way, which you needed, and you slept well until the morning with your cheek against my belly and my arms wrapped around you.

yesterday i stayed home from work with you. you were too sick for daycare, and daddy was on his way home from a job in l.a., so there was no other option. we don't have babysitters or sick care lined up for you yet. even if daddy had been home, though, i would have stayed with you. you needed your soft mama, and i was glad be that comfort for you.

last night daddy came home just in time for your walk. you couldn't stop looking at him when he first got home--you were so glad to see him. we walked all the way to fifth street and back while you napped in your baby bjorn. after dinner and your bath you were still feeling pretty rotten, so later you slept against me in the big bed, again.

today you woke up fussy, but once you had your pears and cereal for breakfast you were on the mend. i went to work. daddy took you to daycare. our rhythm returned.

when you were at your most miserable, i kept thinking: welcome to the world. this is part of it. sickness. suffering.

my little cookie face. this is life, and we are in it together.