Poor AJ is red-faced and asleep, clutching his blankie in his damp palm. His eardrum was swollen to the point of rupture, but hopefully the antibiotics are working their magic while he sleeps.

Meanwhile, my own coughing fits have been quelled by ginger tea and Dayquil, which I have never used before but am perfectly willing to tout as the new wonderdrug. My cough is, if not completely gone, totally under control! I can breathe! And I neither feel like I�m about to doze off nor like I�m stoned. My voice is even starting to come back (I had a horrible moment last night when AJ was screaming with pain and I was trying to call the pediatrician on call but the machine wasn�t picking up my hoarse voice, even when I screamed into the phone). This is particularly helpful since I�m supposed to deliver a paper tomorrow. It�s always easier to make your argument when you�re not Marcel Marceau. Although I suppose I could always pull an Ashlee Simpson and get a friend of mine to do the actual reading from outside the door while I stand in front and move my lips. As long as she doesn�t start reading the paper delivered earlier in the session.

Also, I have just received an invitation to attend a bris on Thursday, for the first child of a friend of mine. I don�t believe I�ve ever been invited to a bris before, although I�m not sure if I could stand to watch. In any case, I shall have to decline, given my current health. I�d hate to be known as The Friend Who Gave Our Firstborn Son His First Disease. If the other patients in the pharmacy waiting area were treating me like Typhoid Mary this morning, I�m fairly certain that the adoring grandparents who are hosting the event would be more than likely to show me to a seat in the garage. They might even give me the keys to their car.

I like the idea of a bris, though. Circumcision should be a big deal and lots of people should be paying attention. When AJ was circumcised, he was unceremoniously hauled out of my hospital room and returned an hour later with a bandage where no bandage should be � his first wound. There was no ceremony. There was no naming, no introduction to his family and friends. There wasn�t anyone there � my husband had gone out to grab a sandwich and I was left alone in my room crying with guilt for subjecting my brand new boy to a �procedure� he couldn�t possibly understand for reasons that I no longer remembered. The only rite of passage that was marked was the formal transfer of his health care from my obstetrician to his pediatrician. Mazel Tov! Today you are your own social security number in the health care system!

I seem to be feeling exclamatory today. Enough with the overdramatic punctuation. AJ recovered much faster than his parents. I�m sure it was just one more indignity in the highly indignant process of his birth. And afterwards we held him and didn�t want to put him down.

In his feverish state these last two days, AJ has been asking again and again to hear the story of his birth . �Mommy, tell me about how you were watching a movie and you went to the hospital and I was born,� he says as we leaf through photos of a ridiculously tiny person. �Tell me about how Mr. and Mrs. Stein (our cats) smelled my head when I came home and I was wearing a hat. Tell me about how the cab almost left before I got out (true � the cab home from the hospital started to drive off as we were getting our brand new boy out of the back seat. I didn�t know I could yell that loud.). Tell me about how I was a birthday present.� He loves the idea of being a birthday present best of all. His due date was a few days before my father�s birthday and while I was pregnant he had joked that what he wanted for his birthday was his grandson. He got his wish. AJ was born on my dad�s birthday with just minutes to spare. But really, AJ, you have no idea what kind of a birthday present you really were. And to my friends B. and H. who are only in the 6th day of knowing their own birthday present, who will receive his own name on Thursday, I wish you much joy and happiness, but I�m sure you don�t really need it. Mazel Tov.

[second entry today]

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