Tis the Season

For sickness.

Declan's had a few ear infections, and once, when he was really small, he was sick for a couple of days. But nothing, nothing has been like this. We've been to the doctor twice; first, when he had a cough, and then when he had a 103 temperature. That was Wednesday. It's Friday afternoon and that kid is still so sick.

He's got those puffy eyes people get when they have horrible colds. And his cheeks are bright red. He's got diarrhea, he's been throwing up, he's got a chest cough, and some serious snot running out of his nose all the time.

Of course, I find myself always leaning toward that what-if place. What if he never gets better? What if he has a seizure from too high of a temperature and gets brain damage? Does this ever go away? I guess it's karma for me always rolling my eyes at my mom when she'd come rushing into the room whenever I so much as dropped something. She practically had convulsions if I got a paper cut. I thought she was so annoyingly over reactive. Little did I know, it's genetic. Poor Declan. I'll probably put him in a plastic bubble just to make sure.

That said, I took Declan to the park last week on one of the days it was nice. While there, we met a woman there with her 15 month old and while we were talking, Declan did a triple sow cow off the gym onto the ground. Luckily, it was covered with rubber bits and he actually kind of sprang right back up. But, man, if that had been sand...

Back to my ill son, it's 68 today, so I'm going to take him outside. I figure I should take advantage of his lethargy and put him in the stroller. Normally, he'd complain right away because he hates to be confined, but I have a feeling he'll chill out today.

So that leaves the inevitable question: is it careless to expose the masses to Declan's cold or necessary to get out of the house and into fresh air?