It’s Sunday and I have a cold.

I’ve never been the type of person who can power through a cold no matter how small and manageable the symptoms. My mom spent the majority of her life never going to the doctor and rarely ever missing a day of work, my dad has chronic stomach problems and he’ll still get on a plane to work out of town no matter how severe his pain is. I, on the other hand, will totally lay around on the couch like a overgrown baby with the slightest stuffy nose or headache.

So when I got home from helping my mom with her Tivo this morning I had every intention of collapsing on the couch. Audrey was outside playing with Max in his yard, and Erin had taken Margo out shopping with her so I was alone to watch whatever I wanted. I flipped through some channels before deciding to watch something on the Roku box when Audrey and Max decided to come in. Audrey said, “We want to play wii fit.” With a tone that only underscored the statement she had made a few nights before when she said, “Dad… I think I’m smarter than you.” Since then she’s been talking to me like I normally talk to her when she’s whining, or convinced that Margo has stolen something from her. I said I was sick, and I didn’t want to sit around with them in the basement office just to walk them through playing the Wii game. She kept at it until she finally just decided to go downstairs and start it up herself. After a while I heard both kids call up to me.

I spent the rest of the afternoon at my computer more or less lost in how crappy I felt while Max and Audrey  jogged in place in front of the screen on the other end of the room. Then I heard A woman’s voice from upstairs, and thinking that it was my wife, I called up saying we were in the basement. Soon I heard another call from upstairs so I started up the steps to be greeted by Max’s mom and sisters heads looking down at me from over the railing. They said that they were going to go shopping and wondered if I could keep an eye on Max. I said sure and went back to feeling sorry for myself infront of my computer. Then later, they were back to get max, we all went out to my front steps and hung around talking as Erin and Margo returned. Then a Census person showed up at Max’s house, so Amy walked over and answered his questions. After that they invited Audrey and Margo to have a picnic dinner up in their swingset/treehouse and we all parted ways so I could give my kids a bath. Then Max and Rachel showed up in my living room asking if my kids were coming over. I sent Audrey out since Margo wanted to stay in. I watched them perched up in the Rainbow system treehouse alternating between eating and throwing food down the slide and thought about how funny it is that out of our whole neighborhood, only our two houses have this ’60s style, open-door policy for neighborhood people to come in and out whenever they please and it doesn’t feel intrusive at all. I get to hear the sound of screen doors slamming which is something I haven’t heard since I was a kid, and I get to have the pleasure of yelling, “Don’t let the cats out!” at everyone, including the other parents.

After the kids went to bed I fell asleep on the couch, which I had forgotten all about wanting desperately to do a few hours earlier.