The Defense Coughs

The boys stayed home from school today, because they both had bad coughs. Actually, they coughed up a storm yesterday, and they did so today too, reportedly (I was at work for today's hackage), but they weren't coughing last night, when I told them that they were perfectly healthy and hence in a position to go to school. When I provided this assessment, even though they knew that I was teasing them, they both felt compelled to say more-or-less in unison, in the same unamused voice, "Daddy!"

Tonight, Ian announced that he won't be going to school again tomorrow, even though he will go to Russian math in the afternoon. I told him - again playfully - that he was fully recovered and would therefore be attending elementary school tomorrow. Ian wanted to make sure that I didn't have chance of believing something so inaccurate, and he proceeded to tell me that while he was eating his borshch earlier, he felt a cough coming on. In fact, even at the moment of the report, he was not free of that nagging urge to cough, which indicates unfitness for second grade instruction in a public school:

"Speaking of coughing, I'm trying to keep one down."

(March 5, 2012)