Silly, originally uploaded by cheryl.
Though I can't be positive, of course, I am pretty sure my oldest son pulled a fast one on me today.
Yesterday, when I picked him up in car line at school, his teacher mentioned that he had not been himself and to keep an eye on him, as several of his classmates had been out sick recently and something was definitely going around.
Ominous words, those, for a mother with three school-aged children.
We made it home, and his cranky disposition reared it's ugly head. He was sent to his room for hitting one of his brothers, with no apparent provocation other than he happened to be standing beside him. And once in his room, he promptly fell asleep. And stayed that way. From about four o'clock yesterday afternoon until just after 6:30 this morning when I went in his room to see about school for the day.
Of course, you can't tell how well a child feels when you have to wake them up (after 14 hours of sleep, no less). With elementary school starting so early, there's no chance of observing behavior, you have to make an instant decision.
This is where I made my mistake. I asked him, "Do you feel any better? Do you want to go to school today?"
He skipped over the first question and just answered the second one.
It took several hours to realize this fact, but eventually I did. He was tired, and still a bit crabby, but he doesn't appear sick. His low-grade fever that I thought he had this morning was probably a result of too many covers, not an actual fever. Though lazy and lifeless the first few hours awake, the rest of the day he's been eating and drinking and bouncing around like a wild child.
So he may have gotten one over on me today. But he's going back to school tomorrow. I've learned my lesson, I'm not even going to ask. If he's sick, I'll just get a phone call later in the day. But the funny thing about that is on the days when he's complained of not feeling well and not wanting to go to school, I've never gotten that phone call. I'm pretty sure I won't get one tomorrow either.
Sneaky big boy.