Aaarrr!

As we learned from yesterday's instructional pirate video, "aaarrr" can mean anything from "I want a muffin" to "My team is winning." My "aaarrr" today translates as "I have two sick kids and my day is shot."

Backtrack: Last spring I tried to sign David up for preschool for the fall. Even though the girls had gone to preK there, we'd technically taken a year off and now we were banished to the "out-of-house" registration day. I arrived two hours before the registration was supposed to begin and there was already a line snaking its way toward the parking lot. I spent the next several hours trying to entertain my three-year-old son, and in the end we were No. 8 on the waiting list. (Apparently I've told a few too many people how much I love this preK program.)

The school year began and David was not enrolled anywhere. I'd pretty much resigned myself to having him accompany me on all my daily tasks and errands, and he seemed fairly game. So I was pleasantly surprised when I got a call last week saying that there was a spot for David at preK. I guess someone dropped out and the first seven people on the waiting list had already stuck their kids somewhere else. Lucky us, I say.

I'm getting to the point, really.

Yesterday was David's first day of school. Kevin dropped him off to lessen the separation problem from Mommy. I had an extremely productive day and arrived promptly at 2:30 to pick him up. David was passed out on the floor, covered in a blanket and hugging his beloved Bear Bear. I was very surprised that he'd taken a nap considering he's only taken a handful of naps in the last year. Maybe Mrs. Shirley wore him out with fun activities all day, I thought.

David didn't talk at all during the drive to pick up the girls from elementary carpool. When we got home, I asked him what his favorite part about school was. "Nothing," he said. He proceeded to tell me everything he did not like about his day. I send Mr. GrumpyPants off to play Webkinz and prayed that he'd make some friends at school on Friday.

Unfortunately, it's looking like David won't be at school on Friday. At dinner I realized that he had a fever, which accounts for the nap and general grumpiness. He woke up several times last night, and this morning he was delirious. I think he woke up in the middle of a dream, because he was crying about "I didn't mean to throw it" while pointing at his stuffed animals on the floor and then said "I didn't want the whole alphabet!" I'm still not sure what that was about, but he's all tucked in on the couch watching Diego right now.

To top it off, Kendra was also up in the middle of the night complaining about a sore throat. It looks fine to me, but to appease her hypochondria I took her temperature anyway. My bad. She's got a fever. So now she's on the other couch playing Webkinz on the laptop.

Aaarrr! Obviously I'm not really upset that my kids are sick -- that's just the way life goes. I'm just praying that whatever they have doesn't get spread around to the rest of us. And on that note, I have some disinfecting to do.