Compromises.

I just wrote a post and BlogPress ate it. Drat! It was an actual post, with words and meaning and everything! That is hard to come by these days and I don't know if I have it in me to write it twice. I have a feeling this will be shorter and less impressive, don't hold it against me. ;)

KayTar has been sickish this week, no fever, but she has cough, congestion, and she puked this morning. You know, the usual. So although it is Spring Break, we've been homebound. We don't like to share our germs or overtax KayTar's system when it is already on the decline, so we've taken it easy thus far. We've made due with a couple of visits to the RedBox and lots of sidewalk chalk and board game action. Today, the kids wanted to go out, so I tried my best to think of a workable solution. Before KayTar got sick, I had lots of imaginary plans for the week...the park, the zoo, having friends over...but none of that was appropriate anymore. The park is physically taxing. The zoo involves a lot of walking, and even in the stroller it is too much for KayTar when she is sick, and we don't want to invite friends over to infect them. Things like play places, hands-on museums, and anything where children are encouraged to touch things on a regular basis are on the NEVER list. We just can't do it...she always gets sick and more than few hospitalizations have followed a visit to these places.

KayTar wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese, which is on our Rare-If-Ever list. She usually gets sick after, but we risk it once or twice a year when we can afford a mild illness. There is roughly a vat of Germ-X involved and then we hope for the best. However, she isn't firing on all cylinders right now and we know that a visit would knock her out and we'd be kicking ourselves for a week. She just wanted it so bad. Really, really, really bad! It is usually easy to change her mind about these things, but not today. I hate telling her no in situations like these, even when it is for her own good. I waffled. I called Josh for his opinion, which was identical to mine. I polled Facebook. In the end, we decided to negotiate...we offered several of her favorite restaurants plus a trip to the bookstore. Nope. Different restaurants and a movie of her choice. Nope. Finally, we found a winner. Restaurant of her voice, plus a trip to the toy store! Bribery at it's finest! She chose Wendy's (Oooh, fancy!) and a beach-themed Playmobil. Later, my mom came to pick her up and take her to get a manicure with her cousin. A pretty good day, even if it wasn't what she really wanted.

Our life with KayTar seems pretty normal most days, but when we can't go to a normal kid place like Chuck E. Cheese because it would be genuinely bad for her, I remember things aren't totally normal. BubTar could go anywhere and do anything kid-appropriate at just about anytime he wants to...but it isn't that way with KayTar, so he's affected, too. She is really compliant with her limitations most of the time, as is BubTar (even that time she had an episode on his birthday and we had to abandon our plans altogether) so we hardly notice them...but on days when she really wants something she can't have, I hate having to be the one to shut it down. I guess it is worth it in the long run, though, if the payoff is having a healthy kiddo.


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