Split in Two and Torn Apart

And I thought yesterday was rough...and the day before that decidedly a Monday.

I had been looking forward to today for quite some time. Not too long ago I went to the Anthracite Coal Mines with Nicole for her field trip (a dreary, cold, did I say dreary, wet, camp and freezing cold day) and today I was going to accompany our older daughter, Tianna, on her field trip to a museum. We were both looking forward to it.

Well, last night Nicole started complaining about a headache and voluntarily went to bed ahead of schedule. Not a good sign. Then I took her temperature and it was almost 101. Then she crawled into bed with us and she has the full body version of restless leg syndrome. Her entire feverish body was twitching and taking up more than her allotted one third of the bed. At one point I put my head at the foot end trying to eke out a couple more inches. Finally I left, but to no avail; as soon as she realized I had left, she followed me and now we were packed into a twin bed. Ugh.

Her temperature was back up when we got up and I broke the news to Tianna that I wouldn't be able to go on the field trip. The last field trip of her elementary school career. She finishes fifth grade in two days and that's it. If there is a field trip next year, as a sixth grade middle school student she won't want me along.

I was ready to cry and the tears were welling up in her eyes too; but she was determined not to let them overflow and slip out.

My husband was of little help; his suggestion was to leave Nicole, nine, home alone all day while I kept my promise and went on the field trip. I couldn't really believe it, it must have been a lapse of judgement. After all, he is a doctor (in a pediatric specialty, I might add) and people trust his advice. I didn't think it was a good idea to leave a sick child home all day unsupervised while her mother was at a science museum an hour and a half away, so I stayed home, but everyone was sad.

I was sad to miss the field trip, I was sad Nicole was sick, I was sad as parents we didn't see eye to eye.

But at the end of the day, I was forgiven, Nicole had recovered, the Boston Red Sox were on TV and tomorrow is another day.