Sick kid vs. Not so sick kid

Last week Clara was super sick.  I mean throwing up, diarrhea, fever, the whole nine yards.  It was quite a week.  And it was spent primarily at home all day long.  Nancy has never had days like that before, because when you are a second child, you just get carted along to everything that your older sibling has to do… playdates, dropping off and picking up at preschool, swim lessons, etc.  So, they learn to go with the flow and that life is just full of action.  And then, suddenly, we didn’t go anywhere or do anything.  And all big sister wanted to do was lay on the couch (how out of character!).

So, I had to entertain an (almost) one year old by myself, which is something that I haven’t had to do in almost three years! We made a lot of towers and knocked them down.  I tried to read her a bunch of stories (although she just is not as into them as Clara was at the same age).  She walked around and around the house, holding my hand (because she just hasn’t made the mental leap that she can walk on her own yet.  And then in a fit of just wanting to sit down for a moment, I made her her own play kitchen.  A cardboard box, a couple of real pots, and some blocks to put in there to cook and stir with a wooden spoon.  Brilliant!  This bought me at least a half an hour a couple of times.  You know, so I could start laundry to clean up vomit.

Fall Window Tree

Since we are sick here in the Foster residence, I’ve been coming up with all sorts activities to try to keep us busy and active without leaving the house.  I’m so glad that I found this blog from Frugal Family Fun Blog.   This took up and entire morning!  We painted coffee filters, cut out the tree, hung the tree, dug up carrots from the garden while waiting for the coffee filters to dry, cut out leaves, and hung those on the tree. Overall, a very fun project that the whole neighborhood can see since its on our front porch screen door.

Also, we learned that coffee filters are fun for all sorts of things. They make great boats for little animals, make pie crusts for mixing all sorts of “food” into, and are just fun to try to separate for fine motor skill practice. Thank goodness they are cheap!

What did we do while quarantined for H1N1?

1)  Orange apple print pumpkins

2)  Painted contact paper leaf collage

3)  Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

4)  Butterfly wings for Halloween

Toddler Ailment

I hate for my first blog entry to be a complaint. I really do, but this has been my week. One of the longest of my life. It has long been my contention that men (and specifically husbands) are horrible, whining messes when they are sick. For an illustration of this phenomenon, see “Man Cold.”  But this week, I learned that there are worse things than a man with a cold.  There is the toddler with a cold. 

Clara has been horrendous!  Yes, she has had a fever, hacking cough, and snotty nose.  But for the love of God, please stop whining, crying, and being completely unpredictable.  I’m done with it, thank you very much.  She has also been bored.  Very, very bored.  Mostly because I generally fill every day with activities, friends, and activities with friends.  There has been none of that this week.  We can’t give our friends this awful affliction.  So, we have been at home.  By ourselves.  

Monday was okay because she was very tired and we had to go grocery shopping.  It was actually the best grocery shopping ever because she was content to sit in the cart and shake things like macaroni boxes.  In the afternoon, we made valentines.  Tuesday was semi-okay because in the morning we had a dance party, then built a tent out of sheets, and then Daddy came home to entertain us.  Plus it snowed, so that was exciting.  

Wednesday, it all started to go downhill.  The boredom had reached a fever pitch.  Let me illustrate.  Clara learned a new game on Wednesday.  She only gets time outs for a) biting or b) hitting.  She knows this.  When she was not getting her way this week she started hitting me in the face.  Time out.  She learned quickly.  Soon, for entertainment she was hitting me, then running, giggling to the time out step.  No amount of explaining to her that hitting hurts Mommy would change this.  

Thursday.  Oh, Thursday.  Clara wanted things her way, or no way.  Screaming for no reason seemed to work.  Screaming, screaming, and screaming.  That was my Thursday morning.  We went to the mall to run and play.  We bought new shoes.  No, there was still screaming.  Yikes.  Then there was nap time.  A beautiful three hour nap time.  And it got sunny out.  And when she awoke, everything seemed better.  We went for a lovely walk (thank you, Lesley) and everything turned glorious.  Thank God that’s over.