The Aches & Pains of Raising Children

"My friend Vivian's been out of school for two days.""There were 6 people out sick today, Mom!""...hmm...I have a headache. Maybe I have it."Me: stop saying that!"My friend Jessica's been been out of school for two days. She had a 103 fever.""There were TWELVE people out sick today Mom!""Hmm...wonder if I'll get it."Me: Stop saying that!Do they listen? No. Somewhere around 12:30 a.m. I woke up to find Sissy staring at me with huge eyeballs that weren't adjusted to our low lit room. Kinda creepy coming out of a deep sleep...If you're the mom of a kid over 2, you know what I mean.So I wake up to huge eyes staring at me and she says she needs to get to the bathroom STAT, which is never fun. It's pretty standard Mom stuff though; when you're under 15, you never throw up unaccompanied. So we head for the bathroom and - nothing. I coaxed her to bed (in my exhaustion, but she didn't want me to leave. She suggested I "stand there". Nice. Instead, I decided to lay down with her. Bad idea.Next thing I knew, I was in somebody else's house doing who knows what when my leg starts to hurt. It got worse & worse 'til it hurt like nobody's business. After a while I check it out and it's beet red with huge varicose type veins bulging out all up & down my leg! That was pretty scary right there and the pain? Horrific. So I did what any other 36 year old mom would do; called Mom! Too bad Mom & Dad were on vacation. I tried to tell her "But Mom, you don't understand!" in hopes that she'd come rescue me I guess.Then I woke up, relieved it was a dream, but in reality, my leg was trying to tell me that unless I moved, I might do some sort of permanent damage. Who knew that sleeping in your kid's bed and not moving for hours would cause such trauma to a limb? I must have lost all circulation to my left leg and it, was not happy. My hip aches just thinking about it.