On embracing the suck

I'm sure I've written about this before...about how Eric's favorite phrase for the year that he was gone  was "embrace the suck." It's funny how we continue to use that over things that do actually "suck" and the little annoyances. But every time I hear the phrase, I'm reminded of all that we've been through. Well, these past few nights I've had a different sort of lesson on embracing the suck. Last week we went to the farm... (enter small photo bomb..)

 Judge, judge, judge...I still haven't cut his hair...

 Now please don't mistake these pictures for suck. I don't think Eric was wild about going (errr...and paying an entry fee...thanks Babe!) but he indulged my need to do family friend activities on a beautiful Saturday. The day was great, B was in the bouncy house, all over the playground, in tree houses and even looking at the animals.

Now, that being said, I'm still trying to determine our little culprit. It could have been the slide, the obstacles in picture 3 up there, the bouncy house...or the fact that my child sucks on his hands...no matter where, when or how hard you try to make him stop. Don't believe me? See the last picture. This makes up the majority of his day when he's not playing or babbling. But when he's resting? Yep. He's sucking on them. These happy pictures were taken on Saturday...by Sunday morning he had a cold, and by Sunday night he had a pretty nasty cough. The cough would go away during the day, but just seemed to get worse at night. And by worse, I mean that I was doing 2 loads of laundry a night to keep up with the puke. I took him to the doctor mid-week and we quickly became acquainted with our first case of croup. Much to my surprise, the doctor said it's fine for B to continue to go to daycare, it's just a cough that would go away on its own. He sent us on our way after a liquid steroid that was supposed to help keep B from coughing too much for the night...(it didn't, in fact that was one of the worst nights yet). So this croup thing...lasts up to 6 nights. Tonight is night 6...so we had darn well better be near done. Last night, my angel baby was up until 10:30, scratched me, puked twice, wanted to be held but didn't want to be touched, was too cold outside but when I started a hot shower to get some steam going acted like I was trying to murder him. Eric was not home last night, and the text to him at 10 went something along the lines of:

"I think I'm on the verge of an emotional break...I'm at a complete loss, he's miserable I'm exhausted..." enter more complaining here but I think you get the point.

I've determined that one of the suckiest feelings in the world is being helpless. Knowing that you have a kid who can't actually tell you what's wrong but who is so clearly miserable with a terrible cough and there is literally nothing you can do for him (note to moms/moms to be: medicine doesn't work, it's a viral infection of the vocal cords) was absolutely miserable. After much coughing, shrieking, frustrating, tears from both of us and supportive texts from Eric, I forced Brady to bathe (and I have the battle wounds to prove it) and when I took him out all he wanted to do was put Christmas slippers on (don't ask). At this point, there was no sane reason to fight putting slippers on him. So the little man is wrapped in a towel and has slippers on, and I lay him down on our bed to diaper him...and then...a magical moment. The sandman must have come (albeit, 3 hours too late for my liking...) but it was nearly instant. Head on the bed, BMan out cold.

And you thought I was kidding about the slippers...

If I had a drink, I'd raise it to embracing the suck...because that picture alone and the cuddles that came after...was worth embracing the suck for.