Thursday morning

Backstory:

Monday: high fevers for Monkey1 and myself. Monkey2 bouncing off the wall.

Tuesday: low fevers for Monkey1 and myself. Monkey2 still bouncing off the wall.

Wednesday: normal temperatures for both Monkey1 and myself. Monkey2 really bouncing off the wall.

Thursday:

5:30 AM Monkey1 pulled my arm until I opened an eye at her. "Wake up Mommy! I'm hungry!" The time was definitely too early. I told her to go to the potty and come climb in bed. She did, came back, crawled over me, and announced she had no pillow. I sent her back to her room for one. She came back with it, settled between my husband and I, and coughed and sneezed on my husband for the next half hour. Monkey2 pitter-patter came and checked on us a few times, but did not climb in the big bed.

6:00 AM Monkey1 resumed with, "Wake up Mommy! I'm hungry!" So I moved out. In the space of 15 minutes Monkey2 had two diaper changes, a bowl of cereal, started a coloring sheet, changed into her swimsuit, did a dance, and so when I took their temperatures, I was hardly surprised that Monkey2 registerated at 100 while Monkey1, who had only managed to eat a bowl of cereal in that time showed normal. (Later I remembered that for her age and my kind of thermometer, Monkey2 was well within the range of normal temperatures.) Monkey2 started using the Little LeapPad, and then Monkey1 howled when she wasn't getting a turn. I tried to drink my tea.

Watched a National Geographic kids dinosaur video. Started to watch an Angelina Ballerina DVD, but no sound. While the Monkeys watched Angelina as a silent movie, I tested the speakers. Had they really died after much crackling? I plugged the speakers into the other computer as a test, but they worked, so I plugged them back in to the desktop via the headphone jack on the front of the tower, and then there was sound. Let the Monkeys re-watch Angelina with sound.

Past time for me to get dressed. Monkey2 howled the entire time Monkey1 and I were upstairs, folding the clean laundry and finding daytime clothes. "I don want upstairs!" cried Monkey2. Monkey1 and I threw about five loads of dirty laundry down the stairs.

9:30 AM Snack time. Monkey1 said she wanted cheese, sneezed all over it, and then didn't want it. Monkey2 wanted more cereal and milk. I found a half-full mug of chi tea, stone cold. When Monkey2 finished, I washed her hands, and then she wore her mittens until she needed her fingers.

Monkey2 helped sort the dirty laundry, socks and underwear in one basket, everything else in the other basket. Monkey1 tried to stand on the top edges of the baskets. They both were ready to follow me down into the laundryroom part of the basement, but apparently they got distracted because I was half-way through filling the washer when Monkey2 was howling again. All I could get out of them was that Monkey2 "was tugging" on Monkey1's arm.

Monkey1 played with a dictionary book of stickers. Monkey2 guided me through coloring a rooster stencil.

A friend commented on FaceBook "Why is parenting hard?"

I wondered what brought on the query. As far as I knew, she and hers weren't stricken down by flu (swine or imagined). Just to see how hard it was, I typed up the morning report. The Monkeys were squished in on either side of me, vying for my attention, so I was typing and recalling what to type while spelling cousins' names for Monkey1 and peeling stickers for Monkey2.

11:30 AM Monkey2 decided she wanted lunch and howled when I refused to give her more Cheerios.

Sandwiches for everyone. Silence...

for 30 seconds.