I tossed and turned in bed for an hour and a half last night before getting up to work at my computer. Before I rose from bed I heard Isabelle coughing on the monitor. And once I was downstairs in my office, which is directly below her bedroom, I heard more coughing. This isn’t going to bode well for tomorrow.
And I was right. The first thing I noticed when I saw Isabelle this morning was Isabelle’s runny nose. I armed myself with a giant canister of Boogie Wipes and made myself a cup of strong coffee so I could power through the day.
Speech and music therapy went pretty well even though I was wiping my little girl’s nose every few minutes. Once everyone left the house, I packed her up and took her to the post office and the grocery store, which were two errands I really needed to do. Her nose hardly ran while we were out so I asked her, “Would you like to go outside?” when we got home.
“No,” she replied. “In-sihde!”
Well, that was clear. My little one loves to go outside. Her request to stay indoors spoke volumes about how she must’ve been feeling. I poured her a glass of orange juice and declared that all rules were off.
“Would you like to watch ‘Seasame Street’?” I asked.
“Yes!” she squealed with delight.
“First we have to take off our coats, remove our sneakers, and wash our hands.”
I heard the slightest of whines. “El-ma!” she said pointing towards the TV.
“Elmo wants you to have clean hands if you’re going to watch ‘Sesame Street’.” Stupid things I vowed I’d never say before having a child.
She took off her coat and marched herself to the bathroom for a scrubbing. Well that was easy.
Not only did she watch “Sesame Street,” but she watched two episodes of “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.” This is usually the amount of TV she watches in a week’s time! However, I’ve learned not to be nuts about media consumption when she’s sick.
At 2:15 p.m. I got her down for a nap. I had lots of work I needed to do so I hoped she’d sleep for 2.5 – 3 hours.
No. Such. Luck.
Isabelle was up by 3:30 p.m.! At first she wanted to snuggle in my bed and read books. That was all well and good, but then she requested something else.
“Sah-baht. Mac-a-beats. Pups!”
“You want to go downstairs to watch the Maccabeats’ ‘Cups’ Video?” (How the kid figured out it’s a Shabbat song, I don’t know! Maybe I told her “D’ror Yikra” was a Shabbat song I sang to her, in a different tune, as a baby, but I’m not sure. If that wasn’t it, then what an inference she made!)
“Yes!” she declared. “My iPad!”
“Okay, we can watch it on my iPad.” I paused remembering it actually was purchased for her to use for speech purposes. “Okay, maybe it is your iPad.”
She smiled.
We went downstairs with Schlepp, her teddy bear, and retrieved the iPad from my office. I set her up on the couch so we could watch the video together.
A half hour later we’re still here! She’s watched every one of the Maccabeats’ videos(+ one Stand Four video), which means we’re not just ready for Shabbat, but we’re ready for Chanukah, Purim, Passover, and Sukkot!
I know some people wouldn’t have stayed in with their kid if they had a cold. However, I’ve come to believe that if one can stay in and rest when their body shows some kind of illness, then they should. Hopefully all this rest (and all of these videos) will help Isabelle feel better soon!
Raising Literate Humans 