Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Miraculous Recovery

Jill started running fever yesterday at school. A very low grade fever. By 7 last night, it hit 101. At 4:30 am, she woke up coughing so hard she could not sleep. She was not due for more cough medicine until 8 am. By the time the alarm went off for to get us up for the school day, it was obvious she was not going to school.

At the beginning of the school year, Jill stayed home with a sore throat. By 10 am, she was bouncing around the house playing. Even after I told her she would go to school if she wasn't lying down. She didn't believe me. At 10:15, Kenny had her loaded in the car on her way to school. Since then, she stays on the couch or in her bed without complaint when she stays home from school. All day. That is the rule. She gets TV, books, coloring, even Barbies. But no running around.

Today was no different. She stayed on the couch all day, only getting up to grab a coloring book or something to read. At 2:45, she started telling me how much better she felt. "Of course," I said. I just gave her Motrin an hour before. It must be kicking in. At 3, I find her in the game room. "What are you doing?" I ask. She points to the dollhouse. I remind her that she must stay in bed or on the couch. She again tells me how much better she feels. It was staying home from school that did it. All that rest! At 3:10, she runs to my desk.

"School is out! SCHOOL IS OUT! Can Adalynn come over?"

I give her the hairy eyeball (Frat Boy Mike's favorite term for scowling). She snarls. I snarl back. "Jill. You are sick. You may not play with friends today. Go get back on the couch."

She looks at me in disbelief. "But I stayed on the couch all school day. School is over. I can play now."

Uh. No. Wrong. All day does not mean all school day. But my leverage is gone. School is out.

She is pissed. She stomps her foot. "Well, what are you going to do about? You can't take me to school for getting up, because school is now over. See. 3:10." With that, she crosses her arms and huffles at me.

Damn her teacher. Damn her for teaching Jill to tell time.

4 comments:

K and T said...

LMAO... Tell her she has to stay on the couch or you're going to start singing the full opera of la boheme. Worked when I was working as a couselor at summer camp.. LOL..

-L

ZDub said...

Remember how thrilled we were when they learned to talk?

Allie said...

Don't you hate it when they are too smart for their own good? Sounds like my Nicholas is a lot like Jill, tricky.

mamacita said...

Same thing happens over here. But the way I look at it, if they are laying around on the couch all day, they will still have WAY too much energy at bedtime. Better to run them ragged so they'll be tired at bedtime and, most importantly, GO TO SCHOOL tomorrow.

But then again, I've been known to withhold Motrin on a slightly feverish child so she will chill out on the couch instead of bug me all day. Go ahead, call CPS. They know me by name over there.