Punch and Judy

I don't know if you remember your last hangover. I remember mine. It was five years ago. Two friends and I were camping way up north in the wilds of Quebec and I figured I couldn't do much harm, so I went a little overboard on beer, vodka, and orange juice (I know, what was I thinking?). For most of the next day, I had that horrible hangover-related feeling that I would never again feel well. That I would feel awful for the rest of my life. Today, I was reminded of that feeling, listening to the hacking cough coming from Violet, watching her trying to breathe through her tiny, stuffed nostrils, and hearing her frustrated cry as we continued to clean and medicate the rash on her neck. It's hard to imagine that she will ever get better, especially when we look at pictures from a few weeks ago and wonder what the hell happened - dwelling on what we might have done differently. What makes it worse is that I'm the one that brought home the cold. But in reading through our baby books, looking frantically for ways to alleviate some of Voilet's suffering, I came across a line that gave Linda and me some comfort. Apparently, someone did a study that showed if a baby is sick, but you can still get her to smile, then she's not seriously sick. So Linda and I put on quite a show today, doing anything and everything we could think of to squeeze some smiles out of our little girl. She paid out more than a few times. After I finish this, we'll work out our routines for tomorrow. I'm thinking puppets...

129 days old