Signs of Love I Never Expected

Joy says, "We didn't even have a camera with us." I think, all things considered, you will forgive us.

Our car broke down Thursday while we were running some errands. We didn't have our cell phone. Thankfully, I knew the bus routes in that area very well and realized that if we caught the next bus in 5 minutes, we could transfer to another one at Cornell and get home right away. If not ... well, it would only be a 75-90 minute walk carrying Hyrum and some groceries.....

Hyrum, who is enamoured with the song "The Wheels on the Bus," was excited at the prospect of getting on the bus for the very first time. He ran around the little bus shelter, slamming into the glass walls. The other patrons were very patient.

We boarded the bus and headed to the back. Hyrum told me the doors on the bus go "open, shut." The driver on the bus said "Hello" instead of "Move on back," but Hyrum was excited.

So excited, he started coughing. I put my hand over his mouth to cover his cough.

Then I realized this was a more serious cough than I had anticipated. I adjusted my hand a little and changed his position as he lost the little bit of food he had eaten that day [poor little sick toddler!]. He was stunned for a moment, then lost twice as much again.

So there I sat with a cupped hand full of partially digested applesauce, food on my suit soaking my pants, on the floor ... just not on Hyrum because I had used the second's warning to make sure he missed himself. The other passengers were also clean and very nice about things.

The first thing I did was ask Hyrum if he felt better. He agreed, but was pretty shaken. I soothed him as best as I could and then we turned to the question of cleaning up. We gradually realized we had diapers and baby wipes we could use to mop things up before we left. Thank you, Joy.

We caught our buses and were home soon enough. Hy went straight to bed and stayed there quite happily. Daddy had a shower, and all was well.

Later that night, I thought about it a little more. If Derrill the young single adult had been holding a child threatening to do what Hyrum did, he most likely would have tried to distance the child from him as fast as possible. I don't want this stuff on me. Instead, my instant reaction was to keep it off of him and even to capture some in my hand in case it was only a little. My next reactions were to make sure he was feeling better and see if I could do anything to help him instead of worrying about my suit or getting this stuff off me.

I guess it's just one more way I love my son. I just didn't realize at the time I was holding love in my cupped hand.

The doc says he has strep throat, so we got some antibiotics and he managed to keep down several foods, including peanut butter, so we're hopeful he's on the road to recovery. The two of us probably have strep now, though. Yet another sign of love, I guess.