Sick Kid

Jonah is sick. He's had a cold for the past three or four days. No fever, just a very runny nose and a cough. I'm pretty sure that his illness is more distressing to Michele and me than it is to him.

In fact, he's usually in a good mood when he's sick -- and he's not even old enough to get to stay home from school. Unlike his mom and I, who worry about how long we're going to be sick, how it's going to impact us at work, whether it is going to prevent us from running marathons, and the like, he is just unfazed emotionally. I'm not saying that there are no added stresses. Jonah is clearly upset by coughing fits and mom continually wiping gobs of mucous from his nose. But those things are transient. When they're over, they're over. It's not clear to me whether he lacks the foresight to know that the booger wipings are going to keep coming or whether he's just better at not resenting short-term pain than I am. In any case, I admire his resilience.

Despite his illness, he is talking and thinking ferociously. He finally seems to understand that animal types ("dg", a perfect "cat") are different from animal noises ("fff", "mee-ah"). In addition to Goodnight Moon and Happy Baby Things that Go, he has plunked down in our laps with an atlas and with Thich Nhat Hanh's Teachings on Love. He now says "pk" (park), "pack" (pack -- we're in the process of moving), "tuk" (truck), "Peet" (as in Peet's Coffee, where he and mom go), and coolest of all, "me" (the real self-reference) -- all in context.

So, as bummed as I am to see my child sick, I am overjoyed with him and how he changes every day.