So Dekker recently learned about “not feeling well.” I’ve talked about it on here before, and have wondered how unwell he actually feels. After a bit of digging and weeks of observation, I’ve decided that he really doesn’t likely feel well, but that maybe that means a different thing to him. He is really working through a hard stage, and I think he feels unhappy sometimes. He also doesn’t feel well when he’s hungry, or sleepy, or when he needs time away from his sister. We all have times that we don’t feel 100% and I think this is just his way of expressing it.
This morning, I woke up around 9:00am. Laela was awake and talking, and I could see that Dekker was awake too, but he wasn’t up moving around or initiating games with Laela like usual. I gave them some time to wake up more, as Dekker has never liked being retrieved before he is wide awake, but nothing really changed. Laela was ready to get up, but Dekker was pretty unmoving. When I went into their room, Dekker sat up in bed and said “I feel sick.” Not that he didn’t feel well, but he felt sick. I put out my arms for a hug, and he came and just plopped himself in my lap for his hug. So I snuggled him for a few minutes on the floor of their room before I sort of did my warp-speed-mom-check. You guys know what I mean. Feeling for temperatures, looking at skin colors, checking fingers and toes for hairs or fibres cutting off circulation, stuff like that. His feet were freezing and his torso was warm, so I checked him with a thermometer but it checked out fine. Other than that, he just had a wet diaper. So I changed that up while he lay limp on the floor. I won’t lie. I was pretty thankful for the lack of fight, and I am always thankful that Laela is sooo patient when Dekker is struggling. She just stood in her crib and watched. Yes, I could have freed her, but I know that it often agitates Dekker how close she’ll stand to his face while he’s laying down. So she waited patiently, and then Dekker waited the same way while I changed Laela. Everything was very quiet.
Dekker sat quietly at the breakfast table while I got his cereal. Normally I give him his options and he can pick, but today I opted for Cheerios, which is the most boring but least flavorful or sugary. Before I even poured it, I heard Dekker politely ask for Cheerios with milk. Perfect! He ate a great big bowl of Cheerios and asked for more. While the kids are their Cheerios, I puttered in the kitchen and unpacked the dishwasher from the night before. Ya, I do my dishes now. Kind of a big deal over here. But I’m always on mom alert, so maybe 15% of me was paying attention to the dishes while the other 85% was on the kids. And I observed Dekker giving Laela bites of his cereal, talking to her, and playing peekaboo. When Laela takes a drink of her milk, she often moves her cup to the table off of her tray, but then forgets about it and doesn’t drink any more. I observed Dekker putting her milk back on her tray every few minutes so she would remember to take a drink.
At one point during breakfast, Dekker suggested I get a hot drink and come sit down with them 🙂 I love that. It always brings me back down to earth and reminds me that my kids are waaay more important than my dishes. So I did just that. I let him pick my drink (thanks for the tea, Dekker!) and I sat down at the table with the littles for the rest of breakfast. While we were sitting together, Dekker said something about not feeling well again. I confirmed “You still don’t feel well?” He thought about it and said “I not not feel well.” I asked him what he meant, and he said “I feel ok.” I made a big deal of how I was so happy that he felt well, and he confirmed that maybe the food had helped. It was a good breakfast.
However, the morning wasn’t smooth, and Dekker still seemed quite off. When I knew I was right around the corner from losing my cool completely, I told him that they would need to go down for their nap early, and Dekker was fully on board! So now they’re tucked away, and while I can see Dekker isn’t sleeping, he is welcoming the quiet time. It would appear that my biggest little truly isn’t feeling well today. Poor boy.
While the kids rest, I’m in bed, blogging and eating dried pineapple. Hopefully we can all feel 100% soon 🙂