A Little Foolish

If one fails to learn from something over and over, we call them unteachable. If one does the same thing and they get the same result, and they continue down this path, it is lunacy. We call them stupid, we call them crazy. I'm beginning to think I fit that description when it comes to waving Peter out the door for this trip or that trip. Knowing what I know, I'm definitely cracked.

So I was feeling bad for Peter around the end of December because he was way over-babied. In his defense it does take the patience of a saint to wake up to babies, go to sleep with babies and do everything baby and toddler between. Particularly for a man who loves kids, but struggles with anything prior to about 18 months. With Samuel and Ethan he changed diapers, gave baths, fed them solids and held them often. But if a wail ensued, I found the baby back in my arms. With the girls, he didn't really have a choice and for the first 4 months of their lives he took the first shift and was left alone to deal with all their needs from 8 pm to about 1 am every day. I was seeing the stress around his eyes and in his response to situations. Feeling generous, I offered that for his 36th birthday, I'd send him on a trip. The rationale behind this generosity was that the girls would be around 6 months old, they'd be eating some solids, they should mostly be sleeping through the night. We'd be a-okay!

But I forgot that I'm cursed. It is inevitable that when Peter goes anywhere, the children get sick. Take these examples.

1. In November of 2007, when Samuel was 8 months old, Peter had a business trip and Samuel ended up with 9 days of vomiting and diarrhea due to rotovirus. Ssomething they vaccinate against now.
2. In April of 2009 when Ethan was 11 months old, Peter's closest childhood friend's father passed away, so Peter traveled back to Connecticut for the funeral. I said, "Go, go. Ethan is just teething...that is why he is running a fever. We'll be fine!" Ha! Two days later, during a South Dakota spring blizzard I was sitting in a hospital. 2 year old Samuel was jumping on the bed and Ethan was completely dehydrated, lethargic and on an IV with wicked antibiotics for bacteremia (a blood poisoning) and once hydrated again developed viral pneumonia.
3. Later when Peter joined the fire department and had to travel to training in Cody WY for fire school, we had a second round of rotovirus in our lives. I was sicker than sick, Samuel's body expulsions lasted about 4 days, and Ethan sat around grinning at all of us, because he had been vaccinated for this evil bug.

And the list goes on and on. Whether it is a quick two day trip or a week long adventure, we end up with anything from minor head colds to hospitalizations. I don't tempt fate before he leaves and make the children lick shopping carts at the local Wal-mart or dip them in the swimming pool and say "drink up!" So why does this happen to me?

To complicate matters, lately the rule has been not only do the children get sick, but What can go wrong will go wrong if Peter is out of town. Take his last business trip in January to New Orleans. Not only did all the children develop a nasty illness, but the van stopped working because a non-ignition switch seat heater drained the battery, the temperatures dropped to 19 below, and the pellet stove malfunctioned filling the house with smoke. The second, or maybe third night (who remembers in my delirium), Nina was up all night sobbing. My mother happened to be here to help on that trip and she stayed up for the 3 am to 6 am shift. The next night, Jocelyn did the same. Thank goodness, by then Peter was home and let me go to bed. Somewhere in the middle of Peter's sojourn I was either outside moving car seats from vehicle to vehicle, charging a battery, or dismantling much of the pellet stove and carrying out buckets of smoldering pellets. It was delightful. But the man came home and this prairie woman had it all together and in working order with rosy-cheeked children.

Why the ranting and raving now? Peter is on that 36th birthday trip for 6 days to Connecticut. We're at the beginning of day 3 and guess what? All four children and mom are coughing and hacking, sneezing with dripping noses, sleep deprived and running fevers. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. Remembering why Peter shouldn't go anywhere. Noting that I am indeed a lunatic.