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A Good Try

I rubbed Vicks VapoRub on Kenzo and Osamu again tonight while tucking them in. The smell or the vapors or whatever were making me pretty nostalgic. Also cleared my head quite nicely.

After consulting with Eri this afternoon while boys were napping I tried to work downstairs at the kitchen table. It was a disaster. I'm trying to write performance reviews for my team while Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is comin' in strong just two meters from where I'm sitting and Osamu is doing his usual running commentary which includes asking me what I think every forty seconds.

It was a good try. With Eri gone at her career class most weekdays and me working, the boys have a solid three-hour stretch where they need to fend for themselves existentially. They watch their favorite Netflix shows, they build railroads, they argue and make up.

After dinner the boys have to take their cold medicine. They had to take the day off kindergarten today, but tomorrow they can probably go. Kenzo has his class potato picking excursion and Osamu, well, he just needs to go and run amok as is his way.

Kenzo doesn't like medicine. Who does? This time around he's got three meds he's gotta do. One is a sticker that goes on his chest that apparently helps with congestion. One is a powder that I mix with water and he's just gotta chug it because it tastes like chalk. And the last one is a chewable tablet. Last night he resisted that tablet like a vampire resisting garlic but in the end he ate it when I said he could have some gummy candy afterward.

Tonight he didn't fall for that trap. He railed against that tablet quite eloquently, from "I hate that medicine" to "Why do you always do this to me?" to "I'll never listen to that medicine". 

And so the tablet sits. On the kitchen counter. It's supposed to help with his cough, but I suppose Vicks VapoRub is gonna have to do.

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