We’ve been slowly introducing Z to day care over the last couple of months in anticipation of Dr. O’C returning to work. It’s been a pretty traumatic experience for both of them from what I hear, an experience probably best left to the protagonists to tell. Suffice it to say that Z is not yet a fan of day care. With Dr. O’C starting work this week it was to be his first full week at kiddie jail, as it’s known around the A Free Man household.

But Z got a temporary reprieve in the form of a winter bug and doctor’s orders not to send him to day care for the first few days of the week. Because Dr. O’C had just started her new job and thought her employer might be underwhelmed with her taking time off already, sick kid duty fell to me.  My own work situation is pretty precarious, I’m really just barely staying ahead of things, for example I finished my Monday lecture on the bus coming into the city that morning. Regardless, I was looking forward to a rare weekday in sole custody of my son.

Things got off to a bit of a snotty start, as Z’s mood and health was pretty well illustrated by the photo above. He was whiney and clingy and unhappy – the very model of a sick child. In order to save my sanity, I bundled the boy up and hit the road. I am not a shopping mall sort of guy, but on another rainy Australian winter day, it’s the best I could come up with.

It was at the mall that I realized something wasn’t quite right. While Zach was roaring around the play area, an acorn of suspicion started to germinate in my brain. When we left the mall, the weather had cleared up and man and boy headed to the beach. As we were walking along the jetty at Brighton, with Zach chatting, singing and laughing, I knew I’d been had. It seemed, in fact, that his symptoms had vanished completely. As someone who’s phoned in with the blue flu once or twice in his time, I know a con job when I see it. I mean, look at that smile – does that look like someone who is too ill for day care to you?

Baby Z, you can’t bull shit a bullshitter.

I enjoyed our day together so much, however, that I kept quiet  and didn’t grass him up when he started coughing, sniffling and moaning when his Mum got home. In fact, Z may have an accomplice in his anti-incarceration plan tomorrow.

Z and I thought we’d share a bit of our playlist from the day. Enjoy:

MP3: Ryan Adams – “Nuclear”
MP3: Count Basie – “The Kid from Red Bank”
MP3: Radiohead – “I Might Be Wrong”
MP3: Wolf Parade – “Modern World”
MP3: Morcheeba – “The Sea”

The albums from which these songs come are all available at Mates of State - Re-Arrange Us.

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