A Long and Hard Week

 Try not to notice the mess in the background. With a household full of sick people and the cook/maid/teacher/mom out of commission too it doesn't leave the home looking too spic and span.  But just take a look at that face. That is the face of the only member of our family to not have gotten this sickness. How did he do it? The rest of us (His Dad too excaped so far with only minor symptoms) have spent days on end feeling rather miserable.  Molly was the last to get it and is still suffering the rest of us are finally starting to feel normal again. But Henry somehow made it, lived right along side us for a week of coughing and sneezing without seeming to catch even a sniffle. Of course this has been a little difficult to deal with since all the rest of us wanted to do was climb back under the covers and sleep or huddle on the couch and listen to our audio books while Henry was busy as ever. He had cabin fever so bad by the end of the third day. But he tried to keep himself entertained by playing games with Molly, like Pretty Pretty Princess.

My kids also have decided Popcorn is the best food for the sick. We had a large bowl full just about everyday. It was something they could make themselves and all enjoyed.  Molly especially enjoys watching the new air popper quickly turn a little bit of corn kernels into a fluffy snack.

After our marathon long day of audio books on Monday, Henry wouldn't allow us to have yet another day like that. He insisted on doing something. So we watched a few of the school videos that have seemed to sit on the shelf. We finally watched the shows on light and color. We also watched a few biography type shows about Alexander Gram Bell and Thomas Edison. Bill Nye the Science guy was their favorite.

We needed to keep our boy busy. So we did a few projects.  We tried to build the suspension bridge. I can't say it worked completely. I think I mangled the milk cartons a little too much when cutting them because they weren't as strong as they really needed to be in order for the strings to really hold up the roadway. But it worked enough for them to get the idea.

Mostly we listened to audiobooks and just relaxed. We have now listened to almost all the Ramona Quimby and the Henry Huggins stories by Bevery Cleary. We also added in Chocolate Fever. Which was sort of fun to listen to while we were all feeling sick.  And we fit in a few Classical Kids CD's just for a change of pace. The Magic Flute was a welcome change after hours of listening to the same voice read book after book to us.

Molly too wasn't really sick until Friday. She and Henry kept the rest of us from wallowing too much in our ailments I guess.


This is Molly's new favorite position. She grabs a book of the shelf and flops down on the floor and lays on her tummy looking at the pictures.  If I am in the chair she will throw the book at me to look at with her. But if I am not available then she takes this position on the floor and goes through book after book.

It is very cute to watch her look at books and point at different things and jabber in her sweet little voice. She loves to find all the birds in books. But really it doesn't matter what kind of book it is she loves to just turn to pages and look at what ever happens to show up.

If anyone sits still for any length of time they usually get a book thrown at them and they too have to look at books with Molly. Here a patient, sick Ian is looking at the book with Molly. What a nice brother! He was even trying to read the words of the Magic School bus book to her. She usually doesn't let us still on any one page too long so reading a book to her doesn't happen too often. Mostly she just likes to look and have us tell her what she is pointing at.

What is really amazing about all of this is the Molly actually puts her books back on the shelf. Not always but almost always picks the book up when she is done looking at it and shoves it back in the shelf, not always gently or to the books benefit but at least it is back on the shelf. This is something she needs to teach her siblings to do. There always seems to be an assortment of books strewn about the front room.

So after almost a week straight of staying home and going nowhere. I decided we needed to go to co-op. It was Art class and Valentine Party day. This is not the day to miss. So while we were showing signs of finally overcoming our sickness we made Valentines and mailboxes so we would be ready for the party.

The kids were so excited to finally have a project but also they were thrilled to be finally getting out of the house. A week, with only a few short walks outside for sunshine, is a very LONG time to be sick.

I am glad we finally are able to reenter the world of the healthy. If only Molly would recover now. She was miserable today, but even so, she didn't stop us from dragging her to co-op. We all really needed that party and that interaction with human kind.