dishing up a little TLC

Ace seems to be the latest victim of the nasty bug that wrecked my husband and me the past two weeks. Luckily he seems to have a lighter case of it but was feeling icky enough to stay home from school and sleep.

I have to admit that there is a freedom in knowing he's old enough to stay home by himself when he's under the weather. I mean if he was hunched over the toilet heaving up his innards, I wouldn't blithely tell him to feel better and waltz out the door, but a sore throat, aches without fever and fatigue? Sleep late kid and call me when you finally emerge from your teen cave.

This round robin of germs is a pain in the butt because there should not be a chorus of hacking in my house. It's wrong. And when the kids are sick, it's worse. MA BABIES! I hate when they're sick. Thankfully my kids aren't whiners, for the most part, when ill. When Ace gets sick he gets all stoic and leave-me-alone-and-don't-talk-to-me grumpy. He gets it from his father. The grumpy part that is. He grabs his favorite blanket, takes posession of the love seat and will camp there as long as he feels sick. Or until I boot his ass to bed and spray some Lysol in his wake.

Ace thought he was going to spend his sick day at home waking hours with an Xbox controller clutched in his fingers. Imagine his surprise when he got my text message telling him that if he was too sick to go to school, he's too sick to play Xbox all day. It can't be healthy to spend the day shooting people via Metal of Honor if you're sick, can it? He was to rest, study, chill with some T.V. and continue to eat whatever he felt inclined to stuff into his face.

While I appreciate his independence it still warms my heart when he curls up next to me on the couch and wants some make-me-feel-better-cuddling. I imagine there aren't too many more days he'll indulge in that so I'll cherish them while he's still willing, make him a cup of warm tea, wrap my arm around those suddenly broad shoulders and hang out with him after work. Because it doesn't matter that he's taller than me now, he's still my first born, my baby and when he's sick I want to make him feel better.


I'm participating, as a "“LG TextEd Ambassador”, in a discussion on the topic RBTL: Moms discuss teens and texting on BlogHer. It's week 3 and the topic is Setting Ground Rules for Your Teen's Mobile Phone Use. I know I use texting with my kids to remind them of other ground rules but the list of cell phone use rules in our house is short and sweet.

Each comment left benefits DoSomething.org with a $0.50 donation, up to $5000, so dish up some advice and goodwill all at once with a comment over on the BlogHer LG Text ED page!