Luca is sick

After a week-long fever/coughing, Maya finally went back to school on Tuesday. When I dropped her at school, her friends, especially Ethan B and Vivian, were really happy to see her back, all screaming with joy, "Maya", "Maya". She was like a star. :)

But now Luca is sick. Actually he started to have a running nose on Sunday, the day after daddy left for Europe. On Tuesday, he was coughing a lot. For two nights, he slept poorly, turning and tossing in his crib, bouncing up and down, shaking the crib frames, crying. Both Maya and Luca slept in his room, too, because as soon as Maya knew I was in Luca's room, she would come over. Once I carried Luca out of the crib, trying to calm him down, but it turned out to be a bad idea. He did stop crying, but instead kicked and crawled around, pulled Maya's hair (Maya, of course, cried.) It was messy. Maya covered herself up with a blanket at some point. Amazingly, she fell asleep. It wasn't until daybreak that Luca drifted into sleep -- and that was when I got a little sleep.

Meanwhile Luca is also teething. Teething always bothers him more than what it did to Maya when she was at his age. His cheeks are red from his saliva. The cream hasn't helped much.

For the past several nights, I gave both kids a bath in the evening, hoping to clear up their noses. It's so intense and exhausting (both the kids love water, so there's always a lot of screaming, splashing, toy throwing, etc) that afterwards I had to sit on the floor in Luca's room to regain my breath.

Luca is much better today and falls asleep fairly fast.  Hopefully he'll have a good night of sleep. And hopefully I'll get a good night of sleep myself.

I think about parenthood and motherhood quite a bit these days, and I have new respect for single parents and parents with kids with special needs. There's certain truth in the saying that there are only two kinds of people in the world: those with kids and those without. Parenthood teaches to be humble -- there's so much you don't know and there're so many other parents who have to do so much more --and to be patient. It also teaches you to be kind and generous to your spouse/partner. A lot of times, it's nobody's fault; you're both trying your best and you're both just tired. So don't get angry because the house is messy or dirty dishes have piled up or toys are everywhere. The kids are safe, happy and healthy, that's the most important.

There were moments that I was frustrated and raised my voice ( I have to admit that I did raise my voice quite a lot this week). There were also moments that I had both of them on my lap, reading and singing to them. Nothing has taught me more than being a mom.