Funny, I don’t FEEL particularly god-like

At 5:00 this morning, my life went from Fast to Stop. Captain Adventure went to bed with a fever last night, which automatically meant I was not going into the office today – but I hoped he’d be feeling better this morning and I’d be able to settle him down with some crayons or the Wii or something for a few hours and, you know, work for money.

At 5:00 this morning, I woke up to him crying in his room. Aw, biscuits.

So I got up, grabbed some children’s Motrin and went in to check on him – burning up, sweaty, clingy, super-extra-high-maintenance.

Captain Sez: FULL STOP!!!!

This post has been interrupted seven…heh, eight times so far. (He started bellowing, “Noooooooo, doan touch it mine pay-per!!!” – apparently, a sister was trying to “help” him color. Sigh. Full-bore sibling warfare, and I’m the United Nations. Awesome.)

But I’ve been thinking today that, you know…Mommyhood is a crazy job.

I didn’t gain any Cosmic Insight the day I became a mother. Shoot, poor Eldest spent the first year of her life bawling because I couldn’t tell the difference between a ‘hungry’ cry and a ‘hurt’ one and a ‘bored’ one. We dragged Danger Mouse to the hospital emergency room because of a fever – one that came right down with a single dose of Tylenol, never to return.

I frequently feel like I’m in a boat without an oar when I’m confronted by things the children drag into my life.

But the Denizens trust me to know what to do about just about anything; the older ones are starting to suspect that maybe I might have a human failing or two, but for Captain Adventure I’m still infallible.

He stopped crying the minute my hand was on the door handle this morning. He knew it was me. He reached out for me from the bed, confident that I was going to make everything all better.

Not the grape flavored medicine – me. He trusted me so much that he stopped crying the instant I was there, so sure that relief was coming with me that he actually felt it before it was really there.

Being the woman behind the curtain, I know the wizard is full of flaws, frequently uncertain about what she should do, not sure which path is the right one.

But to the Denizens, The Mommy is all-knowing, all-seeing, and (mostly) benevolent being.

It’s a lot to live up to, day in and day out.

But comes in handy when somebody has a rotten sore throat and is running a fever – I shall use my shazam!, and because you beeeeelieve, you shall feel better immediately (and by the time you’d start to think maybe I’m full of it, the Motrin will have kicked in…SHAZAM!!!!!)

(Bets on how long before whatever germ he’s got moves into my system, anyone…?)

(Ohmygah…he’s trying to give me his candy. Which he has probably already licked. Seriously, is it, like, a kid rule that they have to do everything they can to give Mommy whatever disease they’ve picked up?!?!)