I have just one more sleep as a solo parent.  B has been out-of-town since Monday morning and this week has been hard.

So very hard.

Every time B leaves town for work, Matthew gets sick.  That’s just how it is and I’m used to it.  This week is no surprise, especially given that we spent a weekend with my sister who had sick kids, and when we weren’t with her, we were with 8 other bloggers whose kids all seemed to get sick right before or after returning home.  I was just bracing myself for the snot, cough, and fever.

We got it.

Matthew has only had one fever prior to this week.  The one he has today is low-grade – never above 101.3.  No biggie, but it’s making him a tired boy.  He woke up this morning at 2:15 and I brought him into bed with me.  He slept off and on until 8:06 and that was nice… even if I didn’t sleep much.  There’s something very peaceful about looking to your right, or left, or just below your chin (because your child insists on sleeping on you at times) and seeing your child’s sleeping face.  I went to bed last night lonely and woke up completely fulfilled, even though I probably only slept an hour or two.

Matthew is a great “sick kid.”  If you didn’t see the snot coming out of his nose or hear the cough that’s bothering him, you just wouldn’t know he’s sick.  This is the sickest he’s been in a very long time, but he didn’t miss a beat.  He was just as happy, playful, and joyful as he always is until just after dinner when all he wanted to do was snuggle.  The unsolicited snuggles made my night.

Matthew is not a good eater when he’s sick – that’s the one thing that suffers badly when he’s not feeling well.  To anyone watching him, they’d think he’s a normal kid who is just picky – but for him – it’s a total 180.  Just yesterday, he ate everything I put in front of him for breakfast and lunch but by dinner time, he wanted nothing of substance and just wanted moist things.  Today has been much of the same (aside from his banana and string cheese) and he wouldn’t even eat an avocado.  So sad when my boy won’t even eat his favorite food in the whole wide world.  We went to Chipotle thinking that maybe he wanted guacamole but all he would eat was baby yogurt.  Good thing I brought yogurt with me!

We’ve been very busy this week with play dates, but nothing else besides that and his gymnastics class.  We’ve hung low with B gone and it’s been nice.  I’m ready to get back to our regular schedule, but I think the down time has been nice for Matthew, especially since he’s sick.  Vera came over again this morning to play (she and her brother are both sick so we all figured it’s no big deal to mix the kids together) and Matthew enjoyed that almost as much as yesterday (he was pretty tired this morning and just wanted to watch her play).

But me?  I’m exhausted.  Being the only person in the house to do everything 24/7 is hard.  I texted B tonight that laundry is washed, but I just can’t get myself to fold it.  I’m just so tired.  I just want to sit here.  Well… I really just want to go to bed.  But what do you bet I watch another episode of L&O SVU?  It’s not like I can sleep well anyway since I’m worried about my sick boy down the hall.

Any bets on whether or not I’ll be sleeping alone tonight?  It’s crazy to say it, but I sort of hope my little buddy comes into bed with me again 🙂