It’s no surprise that when Mama is travelling for work, things can get a bit challenging for Baba and Reina. The key is routine – breakfast, school, dinner, bath, play, read, bed. Repeat until Mama comes home. We’ve spent enough time isolated without Savvy that it’s not so traumatic when she’s gone, unless of course, one of us is sick.
Thus, the god of irony smiled brightly upon us this past weekend and Reina contracted a cold. By Sunday evening, when Savvy departed for the USA, Reina’s cold was on steroids. Her fever toped out at 102.5 somewhere in the middle of the night and she was tossing and turning amid coughing fits all night long. Before going to bed, she looked up at me with pleading watery eyes and in her cute froggy voice asked, “Who will sleep with me?” There was no shirking her need for a comforting presence. “Baba will,” I replied.
Normally, a night of broken sleep wouldn’t bother me much, but I too had a cold that was entering overdrive Sunday night. So, with the one healthy member of our family speeding away at 35,000 feet over the Pacific, Reina and I tried to cough our way to sleep.
Thankfully, Reina did not try to get out of bed until 10:00AM; however, it was well into the afternoon before I could coax her to eat much. It is tempting at times like these to rush her to the hospital, but as long as she is drinking fluids and her fever stays in check, I’ll let her rest at home. Undoubtedly we will both feel completely healed by the end of the week, right about the time Mama’s plane lands at Beijing International Airport. At least the two of us won’t have jetlag.