This past weekend my wife was sick with some kind of 24 hour bug. I was glad to see her resting for a change, but not under the circumstances. I purchased the soup and juice needed to combat any sickness and plowed her with acetaminophen to keep the fever down. I am also a self preservationist, so I decided to call the kitchen my base camp for the day – as far from my sick wife as possible. I set up my computer, brought in my school books, a grant I was still looking at for work, plugged in my cell phone, and settled in for the day. I was prepared for a slow and lousy Saturday (and was kind of ok with it).

What happened next was kind of unexpected. Dev joined me. He sat across from me with a book, and his Leapster handheld game. He played the game for a little while, then he started chatting with me about life, heroes, fun, not going out, school and a bunch of other stuff. I worked on my computer and kept up pretty well with the conversation. At some point I sat back in my chair and closed my eyes. I have been so busy with all of my commitments that I just needed a second to decompress. That was when Dev started to read to me. He read for at least an hour as I sat there listening (mostly) and laughing at the parts that he found funny. The jokes were’t really funny, but I can’t help but laugh when Dev does. The adventures of Yugi Moto have never been more enjoyable.

At some point I made us lunch. I am embarrassed by what I made and will not mention it here, but trust me when I tell you it was not right. He was still there though, choking down daddy’s homemade meal. We talked some more while I continued my work. We read silently together some more, and out loud here and there. We stopped our intellectual pursuits to “moonwalk” and “thriller dance” and “beat it” and “smooth criminal” because it was MJ’s birthday weekend and 98.7 KISS fm was playing the legendary hits all weekend. We laughed a lot because we can’t dance (though we won a trophy for it on our last cruise – I’ll be writing about it on Uptake soon). I even dug out the dreaded Webkinz that my grandmother purchased for Dev and helped him set up the account. We laughed like two kids, one big and one small, at his digital cat driving a car and running on a treadmill.

At the end of the day my wife was feeling much better. She was moving around, stuffing her face with soup and sandwiches, and had the energy to watch a movie with me that night. Before the film started she said to me “when you went out to get the sandwiches Dev told me about the great day he had with you today.” I replied “Really? We didn’t do anything.” She said, “Well, he really enjoyed the time he spent with you. It was a very big deal for him.” I thought back on the day and realized how much fun we had without trying to have fun. I didn’t spend a single penny, or even leave the kitchen the whole day. I’m talking 9 hours. All I know is that he was right, it really was an amazing little day.