All praise Maya, queen of Sick.

Maya woke up with a tummy ache today and was not at all interested in breakfast, except for a bit of smoothie. She was a bit emotional, but nothing huge. Then at noonish she was yawning a lot, so I asked if she wanted to lie down on the couch for awhile and have a rest. (Who wouldn't? You seen that couch? I'm in lurve.) She did, she joined Eli who was already sleeping there, and she fell right asleep. Unusual, and I finally realized that she wasn't well. I am, factually, the least observant person in the world.

After she woke up, she stayed on the couch for most of the rest of the day, even having another nap later in the afternoon (which isn't only unusual, but completely unheard of). She didn't eat, she didn't drink, she didn't go to the bathroom.

In the evening, she watched Swan Lake (the 1968 Kirov production) and started to look a bit sleepy again. I brought down her pajamas for her and helped her change. Now this is a person who likes to follow procedure - she doesn't like to skip a meal (even if we graze all day and none of the rest of us is hungry), she doesn't like to fall asleep fully dressed (even if she's in the car and we carry her up to bed) - so I asked her what she would like me to do if she fell asleep on the couch. Should I carry her up to bed? Should I wake her up for any reason? She thought it a bit silly that I would consider putting her in bed without having had her teeth brushed, so I suggested that we go upstairs, brush her teeth, then come back downstairs and she could cuddle up on the couch with the lights dimmed and fall asleep watching the ballet. She agreed. So upstairs we went, brushed teeth, went potty, etc. Since her bed was right there, I asked her if she would just rather go to sleep in bed since we're already upstairs, and she said, "Yeah, I think I should."

This little girl, this one who just turned five a few weeks ago, is so amazingly in tune with her body. She didn't complain once, all day long, except when I was urging her to eat her breakfast and not listening to her telling me that her stomach was hurting her (still learning here). Her body was using its energy to fight off whatever it's fighting off and didn't need that extra digestive load. She slept a lot because she was burning through a lot of healing energy and she needed the sleep.

Damn, this girl is awesome. Hooray for listening to our bodies. She's a major inspiration to me.

I hope she feels better tomorrow!