Life Inside the Petri Dish

It's flu season and everyone I know is trying hard to not get sick. But if you are around children for any length of time all the free vaccines, hand sanitizer and massive doses of vitamin C aren't going to save you. Because kids can be pretty dirty and gross. Recently, my baby threw up pistachio shells she ate after someone left a pile of them discarded on the ground at the park. And you know what she tried to do immediately after? Eat the half-chewed, muddy shells that were stuck on her sweater. With stunts like that, I'm lucky she hasn't contracted pinworms, which is something so foul I can't even tell you about it for fear you might be reading this over lunch. Instead, the baby just has a perpetual cold, which means her sweet face is often covered in snot. I used to judge those people who let their kids run around with runny noses. How hard is it to use a tissue? I'd wonder. Now I know: it's Sisyphean. She can't shake her cold and it would be easy to blame my toddler's preschool. Every day when I pick the toddler up there they've posted a new list of illnesses that are making the rounds: chickenpox, strep and the positively medieval one known as hand, foot and mouth disease. With all the viruses and bacteria afoot, it should come as no surprise that the toddler got sent home recently with pink eye. My poor girl looked terrible; her eyes were puffy and almost swollen shut (I swear she looked good when she left our house). I felt so ashamed, like the worst kind of parent-the kind who sends her sick kid to school to infect everyone else. We went to the doctor and got a miracle cure (eye drops). The following day was her first official sick day. And even though I've turned into such a cranky germaphobe, she reminded me that being sick can also be fun. We put on pajamas, made tea and watched Charlie Brown on TV. While I worked, she did some crafts and covered herself in glitter glue. She took a long nap with her dad, who also worked from home that day. Then we all put on silly costumes and had a dance party. She wore a cow suit 3 sizes too small, and after the grueling process of getting the drops in her eyes, she got to eat cookies (three, in fact!). Her eyes looked great the next morning: clear, awake and anime-wide open. She went to school, happy and well, and now I'm feeling a different kind of sickness coming on: heartsickness because I miss her. Whether you or your little one is "sick sick," homesick or "heartsick," there's nothing quite like music to soothe the "owies" that life brings. Visit our store to find your miracle cure. :)