Job? What job?

I may or may not be exaggerating when I say that I have not worked a full week since Keith started at Allergan in June. This isn't really related to Keith, per se, but it's a way I'm keeping track of the time & how often Owen has gotten sick. I'm not sure who the vector is - to be honest, I don't think other kids at his daycare have gotten sick as often as he has. I think he's just a magnet - he attracts people, he attracts cuteness (come on, you know it's true), and he obviously attracts viruses too.

It's hard to not feel continually guilty - guilty for missing work, guilty that Owen gets sick so often. A friend of mine once said that if she didn't know me, she would have just assumed that breastfed kids never get sick. Well, guess what? I'm still nursing my almost 17-month-old and newsflash - he still gets sick.

It probably doesn't help that we let him play in dumpsters and he shares his binkies with neighborhood dogs (they're just so friendly). Or that we import water from Baja California for our handwashing at home. I mean, seriously - is there any rhyme or reason to why some kids catch everything and some kids catch nothing? I asked a Dad in daycare yesterday if his daughter had gotten sick a lot this summer and he was like "Sick? Hmm....no?" and I'm telling you, if he had asked me that same question I would have thrown myself into his arms and sobbed over how happy I was that it happened to someone else's kid. Alas, that was not the case.

But, for the time he's well. And he isn't biting. I'm sure I will look back on these crises when he's 15 and refusing to speak to me and sneaks home reeking of cigarettes and beer that I will think "ah, if only my troubles were that I had to take off so much work to snuggle my child all day..."