The worst day

Yesterday was a very bad day.

I had been anticipating the day for a while because it was the first day of enrollment for the "new kid." The business is doing very well - all the kiddos are about the same age, ranging from 22 months old to 26 months old - with Julia as my assistant at her tender age of 4. But yesterday was going to be my first day with a FULL HOUSE - five 2 year olds and Julia. I was both nervous about it, and super excited about it - finally, we'd have enough kiddos to do some really fun things... like playing with the new parachute that I purchased a few weeks ago... like playing duck-duck-goose... like having a real full-on classroom. But still - who in their right minds looks forward to a day with five two year olds without a little bit of apprehension, right? :)

On Sunday night, while running, we ran into one of my newer charges who told me that she would not be bringing her son in on Monday because he'd been running a fever all weekend. I listened to her story, apologized for her son's illness, and went about my way praying for M's health while silently grumbling about how my first full day was going to have to be a first full day, minus one.

Little did I know this was the beginning.

You see, this boy who wasn't going to be here on Monday due to his weekend fever - well, his family is friends with ours and we spend quite a bit of time with them on a weekly basis. And, I come to find out late Monday morning that, whatever the boy had that induced a high fever over the weekend? Was now something that we've inadvertently shared with the rest of the kids who visit my house.

Ugh, my Monday was filled with irritated children, fevers, advil, tylenol, motrin, on and off napping, children refusing to eat, children not drinking anything, calls to parents, email conversations, worry, worry, prayer, worry, prayer and more prayer and worry.

I ended up sending two of the three kiddos home. All four of the toddlers that come here have the same virus. This plain ole S U C K S. I feel horrible that they're all sick. I feel terrible that they're miserable and suffering fevers. I feel worse that they all probably got sick from each other while in my care. Yesterday was by far the worst day I have ever had as a childcare provider. Sending children home one-by-one and communicating about the illness with all the parents is something I hope to never relive.

I'm so happy that it was just a fever virus, that there were no other symptoms to relate to it. Hopefully everybody will be able to snap out of this within the next day or two. I just keep praying for health and wellness. I'm taking every precaution I can think of to make sure this doesn't happen again any time soon... but no matter how well established our hand-washing routines are, no matter how much I sanitize toys, no matter how careful I am about spreading germs... when you get 2 or more kiddos together, sharing the same toys, the same furniture, the same space and air... a total wipeout virus like this one is still possible. Kids learn to share everything ...icky sicky germs included, like it or not.

Yesterday might have been my worst day so far, but that doesn't mean that today can't be our best. We'll take what we're given and make the most of it!