Jack says:

Mom? Can I have a meltdown? (He means tortilla chips with cheese melted on top. The other kind…well they never seem to ask before having those).

Oh, wait. I just accidentally asked for a meltdown and when I got it I realized that what I really wanted was a ham sandwich like Tom. So can I have a ham sandwich? Thanks, Mom!

Ooh! What are you eating? Boy! That looks really good. I wish I could’ve had something like that when I was a little boy.

Ugh! Never mind. I don’t like potatoes. Or peas. Is that Indian food? Did people from India make it?

Is it raining yet? I thought you said it was going to rain today! When is it going to start raining? Is Africa very far?

This was just a snippet of our lunch conversation — when his mouth was at least occasionally occupied with food. Imagine the rest of my day. Now add in the devastating fact that this is only Wednesday. Pardon me while I go hide in the bathroom for a while.

One week of nothing but me and the boys.

The feverish boys.

The feverish boys who cannot go outside and play without vomiting.

The feverish boys who have already pulled all the cushions off the couch and ripped the covers off of most of the beds in the interest of making tents because they cannot go outside without vomiting.

Four more days of this.

I am not afraid…

…not much.

“Mommy! I don’t have any clothes on!” Tommy exclaimed, grabbing my face and turning into his — the better to help me understand the gravity of the situation.

“That’s o.k. baby. We’re not going anywhere today. You can just wear your Star Wars jammies all day.”

“Are we going to a pajammy party?” he asked excitedly. Although still slightly feverish, Tommy is back to is old, bubbly self — apparently forgetting all about the high fever that caused him to pass out momentarily in the bathtub last night. And the fact that he fretted and fussed and begged me not to stop rubbing his back until at least 4 o’clock this morning.

Mommy, on the other hand, is a wreck. I wish I were one of those people who could function just as well on 3 hours of sleep as they do on 8. It would certainly come in handy on a day like today. Tom may have scared me the most, but there’s more than one set of cheeks in the house with an unhealthy bloom of color and more than one pair of fever-bright eyes looking to me to make it all better.

Thank God their dad is so awesome. And I mean that most sincerely. Despite the fact that he nursed a restless Will all night, on top of still running fever himself, he let me get a couple extra hours sleep this morning and handled all the morning chores before I could drag myself away from my pillow.

I wish I had him to lean on in the days ahead with four boys at home (some sick) and a week of rain and restlessness to look forward to. (Insert a heavy, self-pitying sigh here. Now…that’s much better.)

Enough of that. Thankfully, everyone’s illness seems mild now and hopefully we can put this phase of passing germs back and forth behind us soon. My sister promises that after everyone turns 5, the shared illnesses drop considerably. So at least I have that to look forward to.

Until then, we’ll watch the rain fall and cross our fingers we’ll see “Mr. Shunshine” again soon.