About that sick kid...

I'm backpedaling but I want to qualify some points of my last post lest I sound like an insensitive yutz spreading germs willy nilly throughout society.

1) I'm talking about the common cold only, not infections, fevers, diarrhea, etc. I'm convinced that last year Tobey caught 5ths disease from a trip to the Monterey Aquarium. I was a little annoyed at that but alas, there was no face to blame.

2) I usually won't be out in public with Tobey on the first day or two of his cold anyway, the worst days of him being sick. I have done it on occasion but only to places where he doesn't have contact with others, like shopping in a stroller or shopping cart.

3) Speaking of that shopping cart, the majority of Tobey's past colds seem to come from the shopping cart. This year I'll probably be more vigilant about Purelling, which brings up the point that if someone really wants to keep the germs away, then they'll probably want to (or should?) take measure to protect themselves as well, instead of relying solely on the general public to keep germs out.

4) Assuming the sickness is just a cold or is on its way out of the system, I kind of don't want to stop our world from turning until he's in perfect health again. Tobey's cold #2 this season was probably from Morgan on our family reunion. I'd never expect (nor would Tom) Matt-n-Kat to NOT come up because the kids have colds. Last year Tobey started a stomach thing in our and extended family over Christmas, which he caught from a playdate who unknowingly had it and unknowingly caught it from a kid at their Gymboree class. Although I could trace the path of destruction, I didn't hold it against my friend and we kind of couldn't do much about spreading it around our family. Point is, it happens. The importance of the event definitely outweighed him being sick.

All that said, even though Dr. Moore says no big deal if they are sick -- it builds their immune system anyway -- for my sanity, I'm going to be trying to protect them from getting sick a little better this year. And I'm sure they'll still get sick a bunch. I guess I'll see you all next spring!