Oh, I feel like shit! I'm so sick. Mike woke up this morning and said that he was staying home. I half thought that he was doing it just to show me up from my comment last night, but I quickly realized that I really am sick, so he might be too. My throat is raw and I've been coughing more and more frequently throughout the day. I got us all an appt with the doc this afternoon, so Mike, Spencer and I are all on antibiotics for URIs. He tested Mike for strep and it came back negative.

Right now, my head feels like it weighs about 700 pounds and my poor neck just can't support it. Spencer was not bad, but not feeling well. He shut his fingers in the van door when we got home from the doctor's. He's fine, but I'm sure it hurt like a bitch. He went to bed early voluntarily. He must be sick. He wasn't his normal self. I let him watch WAY too much tv. This morning, after Rachel went down for her (blissfully long) first nap, I took him into our bedroom, put Cars in the dvd player and laid down while he watched the whole thing. He got tired of sitting after about 45 minutes so he played on the bed, but stayed on the bed so I didn't have to move. Like I said, WAY too much tv. That's only the second time he's ever seen it all the way through. He was like me though, he'd chill for awhile and feel better, then get up and resume normal activities, only to realize that he felt bad again. My adult mind understands that I only felt better because I was relaxing, I wonder if he made that connection. I asked him if his throat hurt and he said 'yay', so I'm assuming that's a yes. He had a fever this morning, but is fine now. He didn't talk much today, but if his throat feels the way mine does that would explain his not talking much the past few days.

He's starting to interact with Rachel more. I kinda have to prod him into doing it, but he's doing it. I told him to give her a toy and he did, and then he gave her another toy. That happened yesterday and twice today. In the bathtub tonight, I told him to give her something and he just kept handing her more and more. He was pulling on a toy on her jumper today and they were both laughing together. That made me smile wider than I have in a long time. He's okay. Really he is.

I've got a new strategy where Mike is concerned. It's two fold. First, I'm just going to flat out tell him what to do. I don't like this approach, but he keeps asking me (seeming constantly) what needs to be done, or what he can do to 'help' (which pisses me off to no end because the implication is that everything is my job and he's just helping out grrrr). So I'm just going to tell him. Go sit and talk to Rachel. Play cars with Spencer. Read a different book to each kid. Etcetera. Secondly, I've asked him many times not to start a question with "Do you want me to ______?" It comes across like a token offer. He'll do it if I say yes, but he really doesn't want to and he wants me to say no so he can be absolved from responsibility and by extension blame/guilt for things not being done. He asks this about the stupidest things. "Do you want me to put this freezer pack in the freezer?" Seriously? You're asking that question? So from now on, I'm going to say yes. Whatever it is, I'm going to say yes. The only time I'll say no is if he phrases it in such a way that the not-do-anything answer is yes. For instance, "Do you want me to go to work today?" would be yes, but "Do you want to put the kids to bed early?" would be no. I've asked him many times to stop with these ridiculous questions and he fires them at me one after another all damn day long anyway, so instead of getting annoyed, I'm going to get something out of it. Ha Ha!

My mom isn't coming tomorrow. She's sick too. Bummer, I was really counting on her so I could get things together for our trip on Friday. It seemed like a good idea on Monday, but as that eight hour drive, by myself with two kids, gets closer it seems less ideal to get away. Oh well, I'm committed now. It will be fun. And the drive will be over before we know it.