This time last month, Hayley was still having some trouble with going to school and would either negotiate (“I promise I’ll go to school tomorrow if I stay home today!”) or come up with reasons why she should stay home, such as her toe hurt or she had “stayed up all night” even though she had slept from 8 pm until 6:30 am. She always had a good day once she was there but she really didn’t want to go. Nowadays, she’s not thrilled to go in the mornings, often saying she wishes she could stay home, but she generally looks forward to going and leaves willingly in the morning. In fact, she usually only has trouble getting out of bed and eating breakfast, but after that she’s fine.

Still, what happened today was a total reversal of a month ago. George woke me up to say that Hayley seemed a bit off and that she had said her throat hurt a lot. We decided that we’d let her stay home because she could rest and be better for Thursday and Friday (Friday is both pizza day and library day, something she’s been looking forward to for awhile). About 40 minutes later, she started crying and told me she really wanted to go to school. She told me that her throat was better after having a drink of water and that she felt just fine.

I called George, who had already left, and we said if she was really better then she could go, so I gave her a muffin for breakfast and started getting myself dressed. Hayley is always slow at breakfast (all meals, really, but breakfast on school days is an especially tedious event), but I noticed she could barely keep her head off the table and seemed to be having trouble eating. It turns out that her throat still hurt, she was warm but not feverish yet, and had a headache. And she STILL wanted to go, insisting she was fine.

I called George back, and said with some amazement that our daughter who had tried to fake being sick several times in the past was now trying to fake being well! That’s such a total switch. I convinced her that it was okay to stay home today. She was upset because we had ordered her a hot lunch and she didn’t want to miss it, so I told her I’d make her a hot lunch myself (it was pasta with brocolli and tomato so I’ll make her pasta with peas and carrots since that’s what I have). She was disappointed because she had gym today so I explained that running around is hard with a headache. She said she would miss her friends, so I mentioned what George had pointed out, that she could make her friends sick and then they wouldn’t be at school tomorrow or Friday.

I also told her that when I was little, I used to cry when I had to stay home sick from school because I loved going so much, and that it was okay but that it was also okay to stay home and rest when you’re not well, and that teachers and other people appreciate not having germs brought to class.

In the meantime she’s been keeping quietly busy. We did some of her usual morning routine that she has at school, discussing what day it is today, singing some songs, and dancing the hokey-pokey. She had her snack, and she’s done some art work and practiced writing by making a card and paper puppet because today is also George’s birthday.

In general, it hasn’t been too bad. Now she’s sitting on the couch, looking at some of her new books that she received from Scholastic the other day. She got some great stuff!

Soon I’ll make her lunch and convince her to do her post-lunch quiet time that they do in class – she doesn’t have to sleep, just rest quietly. Later I’ll let her help me make a cake for George if she promises not to cough in the batter.

Hopefully with the low-key day she’ll be okay to go back to school tomorrow because clearly she really wishes she could have gone.