The Best Medicine

Alex stayed home from school yesterday.

He said his stomach didn't feel well. In fact, when I asked what kind of not feeling well it was, he said "I feel like I have The Puking Sickness." Ah. Well then. So I kept him home.

Fortunately for me, he didn't actually HAVE that sort of sickness, he just felt yucky in that region of his anatomy, and he didn't feel like eating much.

Now, for those of you who might be thinking "yeah, it's more like the "going back to school after a week of vacation" sickness," I just need to tell you that this is a boy who LOVES school and usually cuts short my wasting time reading trivial stuff online hard work on this blog with the announcement "Mom! It's 8:02! Can you make my lunch now? I have to go to school!" He doesn't even need to be at the school until closer to 8:30, but he likes to get there early and, be still my heart, read, because it's nice and quiet. Oh, sure, he is learning to play classical guitar like his father, but this child is MY boy. At least in this respect.

Anyway, so since he is usually dragging me out the door so he can get to school long before the bell rings, I knew he wasn't faking anything. I emailed his little league coach to let him know Alex wouldn't be at the game that night, and I left a message where the kids take swimming lessons to let them know he'd be missing this week's lesson. Done. All bases covered.

So after I brought Julia to school later on, Alex wanted to do something with me. We agreed to play a board game, and he picked Sequence for Kids, which he's had for a few years now and we've lost several of the playing cards, but both kids still like the game, so we keep it. I think Alex could move onto a more advanced version, actually.

Anyway, he got the game out and gave me the red chips and picked green for himself. I shuffled the cards while we discussed the game plan. I didn't want to play the whole time Julia was at school, so we agreed on a "Best of 9 Games" series.

He likes to win, this one. And I re-learned that it's not wise of me to think about other things while I'm playing against him. He is totally focused not only on winning, but on making sure I lose. They're two separate things, you know. That's another thing I need to remember when I'm playing against him. If I just focus on my own stuff, I generally lose because I'm not remembering to block him enough.

So. We were at a point where he was ahead, four games to my pathetic two. He'd just won his fourth game, and as we were clearing the chips off the board and gathering the cards into a pile, he casually said, "By the way, the Mayor of "Losing at Sequence" called. She wants to know if you need a room."

I stared at him for a minute, because I was just not expecting to be dissed so wittily.

And then I laughed.

And then we both laughed.

For a long time.

I think he started feeling better right about then, too.