Thankful For Sickness

Ben was not himself today. He was lethargic and moping around. He even crawled into his bed and got under the covers at one point! He couldn't think of anything to play and when I took him for a bike ride, he wouldn't shoot bad guys with me, just rode along in silence.

All day, I was asking him if he was ok and if anything was wrong. "No, I just don't have anything to do and no one wants to play spy cars with me..." I just thought he was moping because I don't know how to play "spy cars" and wasn't showing an eagerness to learn.

Well, right before dinner, I found him curled up on the couch down in the basement. It finally dawned on me to take his temperature and, sure enough, he is sick. Why did it take me so long to suspect he was sick, not just moody? Well, normally he lets me know when he isn't feeling well and will just find a place to curl up and sleep. Today, he kept trying to keep going. He threw me off the scent!

After choking down a few bites of dinner, he took a bath without his pesky little brothers (not a luxury I usually grant any of them), and asked if he could just get in bed. He was asleep before I even finished reading a story.

I have to admit that when I discovered his temperature, I was relieved. I just breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn't entering into some moody phase or some hard-to-figure-out phase. Ben has always been so easy for me to read. I rarely am left wondering what he is thinking or why he is behaving a certain way. Today had me worried, like our connection was weakening. The fever eased my worries. Sometimes I am just thankful for little sicknesses.