i am finally coming out of the flu fog, with this to report:

This morning in the car, Rory was humming a little repetitive hum, a sort of non-song, over and over, and Wy chose to be outraged. You can’t do that! It’s annoying! She’s being annoying! Rory, everyone in your class will say, that’s so annoying! Mommy, Rory is being annoying! After a few miles of this, I asked Wyatt why he thought Rory was humming. (Rory, very satisfied-ly, still humming away.)

Because it’s ANNOYING!

Well, yes, I said, exactly. And then I gave him that line about how, if he just stopped telling her it was annoying, she would stop. And he did. Seven seconds later, when it hadn’t worked, he objected, but I told him to wait it out. Give it a minute, I said.

And he did, and it WORKED. Thirty seconds later they were chattering about something totally different, and my sanity got a second chance at surviving the day.

The second miracle is a bigger one. for me at least. Usually, with the flu and its ilk, I’d have been all over the blog, wailing and demanding everyone sympathy and mapping daily symptoms and suffering, milking the whole thing for humor and material. This flu–which I, for various reasons, have personified, antrhomorphized and think of as a particularly subtle evil villain with a thing for me personally–got into my head. It sucked away every ounce of humor and patience I had, and brought out the very worst in me, even though honestly, I’ve felt sicker. I barely tolerated everyone, and that bare tolerance extended to Rory, and hating her again–even though she was in excellent company, as I hated everyone who attempted to talk to me, let alone requested something really difficult, like cereal–was such a step backwards I couldn’t even confront it. How could I still feel this way? I thought I was over this! Why am I taking her head off because she wants a curly straw at dinner like the one some fool gave Wyatt at a birthday party?

Um…because I’m taking everyone’s head off. Because we’re actually most evil, rude and impatient to the ones we love, who love us back, and are stuck with us. It’s not that I didn’t know that, it’s just that I’m new at applying it in this case. Lucky Rory, I love her, which means that when I have the flu, I won’t be exerting myself overtime to be polite. Wouldn’t you like to be part of my family?