Peaches and cream

Lucas is sick again. I thought summer was supposed to be the season of wellness.

It seems to be just a cold, and he's well enough to go to daycare, but he isn't sleeping right and he gets oversensitive and cranky. We were worried he was getting croup again but it seems to be just a bad cough. (Today his voice sounds like he smokes too much.) Last night mommy got up with him twice, and then daddy was in his room for over two hours trying to get him back to sleep and keep him there. He slept in this morning and missed breakfast at daycare so daddy took him to the bagel shop. He wouldn't share his cinnamon raisin bagel slathered with cream cheese, so daddy got up and bought himself another bagel. Daddy tried to take a little of the cream cheese oozing off Luke's bagel to put on his own bagel, and Luke completely threw a fit. He ripped his bagel in two and pried apart the top and bottom, screaming all the while. We had to leave the bagel store and eat our mangled bagels in the car.

Right now Luke is resisting bedtime. We have been trying to gradually move out of his room while he falls asleep, and lately we've actually been sitting down just outside his open door after we put him down in his crib for the night. Tonight he screamed when I did that. He needs his sleep so eventually I laid on the floor by his crib and held his hand. I did the same thing repeatedly in the middle of the night last night. It is absurdly indulgent--insane, really. But what do you do when he is sick and miserable and can't get to sleep?

At one point while I was holding his hand I looked him right in the eyes for a long time. Eventually I smiled and he squinted his eyes shut. He knew he was supposed to be sleeping.