They Just Know

Throughout my years of parenting, I have learned that if there is something you really need to do sans children, one of them will invariably fall ill, break a bone, explode, or in some other way destroy your plans.

My Spring semester hasn't started yet, but we have homework. I planned to get that done and start working in our study group so we can get back in the swing of things. We meet at a local restaurant and sit in a lonely corner, discuss anatomy, and eat soup. It's what we do. 

Now, the restaurant is child-friendly, sure. And we all love children. LOVE THEM. They do not, however, love Mommy cracking open a big boring book with boring pictures and writing boring things in a boring notebook with a boring black pen. They will be deeply involved in Play Doh time, pause, hear that textbook creeeeeak open and suddenly you have two leg leeches that need a drink, a snack, a butt wiped, that toy they aren't supposed to have, or they broke that thing you love.

And naturally, as soon as plans were laid to have a short get-together is the exact moment in which Firstborn (six years old) spikes a 100*F fever at school, thwarting plans for any sort of get-together.

I will cut her some slack. She is a very active kid. And by "active" I mean the only time she rests and stops talking is when she is sleeping. And that might even be questionable as we stopped using a baby monitor in there years ago. But even this super-mega-ultra-supremo-active kid was laid up on the couch and was content watching all three Toy Story videos. She snoozed, she didn't eat her lunch (also a major oddity), her fever went up and down according to the duration since her last dose of ibuprofen or acetaminophen.

She woke up this morning with no fever (it went up during the day, but to a eentsy 99) and acted like a tornado. She's going back to school tomorrow.

So now, I am flecking tired, it's 9:15 PM and I am about to start some homework that needed to be done days ago, really.

Side note: The other day I went to Walmart for a few school supplies. I laid all my goodies on the belt and the cashier laughed as she scanned four 1" binders, four sets of dividers, steno notebooks, and a bottle of Visine for Tired Eyes. She said I either have kids, am in school, or both. Yep. This was after she'd scanned the Nutella and breaded chicken patties.