a hard habit to break

And here's how we are when Annika shows the slightest sign of getting sick:

• Temperature taken every hour. Or every 20 minutes, depending on how optimistic we're feeling.
• Long discussions of whether "low energy" is the same as "lethargic".
• And what do you mean by "low", anyway?
• Logging poop frequency.
• And its consistency.
• Long discussions of whether there's been any dietary change, med change, or inadvertent exposure to some nasty germ that will haunt our next few weeks.
• Even more discussion of the fact that said germs and viral bugs are impossible to avoid, should we wish our daughter to thrive in the social atmosphere she craves.

So last night I went in to recheck Anni's temperature while she slept, and she was covered in a cool sheen of sweat. But her temperature had lowered to 99 degrees. Still I stayed up late again. Forever unable to sleep when Annika is sick. Don't feel sorry for me, though, as I inevitably end up finding something fun to occupy my insomnia. Last night I ended up finally noodling around with my Mac's GarageBand program, and created an original soundtrack for a little movie I'm making as part of a photo caption contest over at C.L.A.S.S.. I finally went to bed at 1:30 a.m., and at 5:40 Annika woke up all cheerful sweetness, turned on the bedroom light and said, "It's morting time already!" (yes, she says "morting time" for "morning time") "Argh, Ack! Light off!" I mumbled, covering my eyes. Much to her credit, she knows it's best not to argue with the first words out of my mouth in the morning (NOT a morting person), and so she did, and then clambered happily up next to me in bed. That is, until she found the plastic bag of jewelry that I collected from spots hither and yon around the house yesterday, and had shamefully neglected to put away in a very high place. Thus, she happily occupied herself for the next 15 minutes with trying on the various plastic rings, bracelets, and necklaces, as well as modelling the results in the bathroom mirror while Joerg and I slumbered blissfully on for a blessed few more minutes. So, yes, the jewelry is scattered hither and yon again. You might take this to mean that the 15 minutes I spent hunting it all down and carefully collecting it yesterday were a waste of time. But, no, I always take 15 minutes more sleep as a treasure highly valued. Thinking that last night was simply a false alarm, we decided to go to the zoo in Peoria today. Annika cheered the idea. But a mere half an hour later, after I was all dressed and ready to go, she suddenly threw a fit at the idea of leaving her snuggly warm blanket on the couch where she was watching SpongeBob cavort (ambiguously) on the T.V. Yup, the fever was back. So we've settled in to have a day inside, with lots of fluids and rest. Annika has a new board game that she's itching to play, and I've got more laundry to do, anyway. Of course we called her docs in Chicago, but they're OK with waiting until tomorrow to decide if labwork or a doctor visit is called for. A little Late Winter normal childhood bug, with a semi-normal immune response on Annika's part would be a welcome event. But watching with fearful eyes is a hard habit to break.