what are those childhood lessons we lisped at our mother’s knee?

if you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all (not a grammatical dream, but a good lesson nevertheless)

do unto others as you would have others do unto you (i would love it if when we went out to dinner my friends always suggested we eat indian)

never smile at a crocodile (because why?)

and, oh yes, i remember it now…

DON’T MAKE FUN OF HF&M DISEASE AND PUBLICLY DECLARE YOUR CHILDREN DON’T HAVE IT BECAUSE BY THE NEXT MORNING THEY WILL.

i had forgotten that one.

i don’t know how carys found the time to get hf&m disease, she was crying all last night and i was carrying her from midnight to four am. yet, by 7am, she had a perfect little pustule under her tongue. i guess while her mouth was open all night long, the pustule moved in and set up house.

and jasper also has hf&m. he isn’t unconsolable, and still smily. a little confusion dots his brow, but otherwise, he is fine, and jasper. his pustules are on his hand.

sela, horrified with visions of possible long term disfigurments that hf&m disease might result in, is fighting the good fight and refusing to succumb to it. she still might, though. and sebastian, so far so good.

no party today.

explaining to sebastian, who was singing happy birthday in preparation for the party, that he would not be attending was not an easy task.

i couldn’t say because your brother and sister are sick, because if my parents had stopped me from going to a party because pam and graeme were sick, i would have hated pam and graeme. so i couldn’t really give the reason he was going, i had to give an alternative.

bassin go to sam abu daday party?

actually, sebastian, we;re going to stay home because daddy is coming home today! instead of going to the party, we’re going to see daddy!

whew! those long dormant pr crisis skills coming into play. i thought that was a brilliant, and possibly only way to console sebastian about not attending the party. 

he’s in his bed (singing happy birthday) right now. i didn’t know that "abu daday" was a lullaby, but it soothed the wee three off to sleep, and for that, i am grateful.

my turn.