A Week, Briefly (In Which We Go to the ER and then a Homeschool Conference)
Our week began on Saturday when our cousins arrived for our book club meeting about How to Eat Fried Worms. We ate worms for lunch (sliced and broiled hot dogs) and had worms-in-dirt for dessert.
We were supposed to have a discussion about characters and getting along with friends, but our new sand pit was too much of a draw, so we let the kids follow their bliss and figured we all at least made happy memories over a shared book and meal.
We had the missionaries over for dinner on Sunday, but Sir Walter Scott and the teens hosted while I was at the emergency room with Nature Angel. A terrible headache struck her all of a sudden. She was writhing about and crying and clutching her head. She is not a melodramatic kid--even her broken arm did not elicit this sort of behavior--so to see her like this was terrifying. We tried food, drink, rest, and acetaminophen to no avail.
Then she started throwing up.
Twelve kids and the resulting experience with illnesses and injuries notwithstanding, we felt that this was beyond our ability to cope.
It turned out to be nothing.
We don't know.
They gave her ibuprofen, Zofran, and Gatorade and sent us home some hours later. I asked the doc what was going on, and she had no answers for us, only stating that since the ibuprofen gave her some relief, there was nothing serious to worry about.
Even on the Zofran, Nature Angel threw up again when we got home, and I was not comfortable all night, thinking that there might be more to the story than we could see.
But it seems I was wrong, and she is fine.
Sometimes it's good to be wrong.
Monday
Nature Angel was allowed to sleep in and take a sick day. Her appetite came back, and so did her color. She said her head hurt a little off and on, but never did she cry or seem ill.
Once we got through our morning routine (our preschool story of the week is The Brave Little Tailor) Pixie's school dominated the morning as she tried to complete an English assignment from last week. What we thought would be a quick half hour's tying up of loose ends, turned into a 3 hour endurance test as we worked together to find a video editing tool that would allow us to rotate her videos the right way (she filmed vertically).
We learned a lot more than the assignment intended as we experimented with various programs and sites. And she successfully completed her multi-media presentation.
Otherwise we made it through a fairly typical school day for us, albeit without a formal Academy meeting because Sir Walter Scott was working on preparing our garden, and the kids spent many happy outdoor hours helping him.
Super Star started her new Digital Savvy computer course; she thought the history of computers was hilarious. I heard her actually laughing out loud about mainframe computers.
Pixie went to her first physical therapy session for her arm, but the therapist noticed that Pixie's entire right side of her body is out of alignment, so she spent time heating and massaging the muscles up in her shoulder in order to prepare her to even begin therapy.
Time to call the chiropractor.
We ended our day with a chapter each of The Enormous Egg and Shepherd, Potter, Spy, and the Star-Namer.
Tuesday
The enormous storm of the night before knocked out power to many of the local schools so seminary was cancelled. Rose Red went back to bed. Pixie started working on a school assignment. It's hard not to laugh at this clear example of their different personalities.
*********************
And then I stopped writing and left for a 2 day trip with my teens to a homeschool conference.
My brain is utterly fried by the experience of leaving my littles, driving so far, attending the conference, being so tired, and driving again.
I think Baymax is weaned. He curled up in my arms to nurse when I got home last night, but then he turned his head and fell asleep.
I feel a strong urge to cry.
I still haven't seen my other littles, but I'm going to get them up in half an hour, and I'm pretty excited to do so.
I hope the day will be joyful . . . because it could easily be dreadful if, in the unconscious regions of their brains, they decide to express their frustrations at being left behind. They kind of did before I left--Thursday was dreadful.
But I'm not going to worry too much because I know they had a grand time with their daddy, and the wonderful memories they made with him are a blessing. What I am going to do is revel in small hands and faces and big hugs.
And I'm going to leave reporting on the homeschool conference to another post. I simply cannot think clearly enough to get words from my brain to my hands.
I have a lot of words in my head!
And I long to get them out and make sense of them.
But I can't yet.
Suffice to say that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were school days such as we usually have--with the added chaos of kids tantruming and peeing and generally falling into old habits of confusion and fear in spite of my best efforts to explain how much fun they'd have with Sir Walter Scott all to themselves for 2 whole days.
On Friday he took them to our local nature center where they got to get up close and personal with birds of prey and spend happy hours outside exploring and climbing.
On Saturday it snowed, but not enough for play, so they spent the day inside and had the treat of watching the classic Annie musical. I wonder what they thought of Miss Hannigan. :)
And Baymax is, in fact, not weaned at all.
He just came out of his room all sleepy and confused, climbed right into my lap and demanded to "nap" (his word for nursing).
I'm okay with this.
More than okay.
(linking here)
We were supposed to have a discussion about characters and getting along with friends, but our new sand pit was too much of a draw, so we let the kids follow their bliss and figured we all at least made happy memories over a shared book and meal.
We had the missionaries over for dinner on Sunday, but Sir Walter Scott and the teens hosted while I was at the emergency room with Nature Angel. A terrible headache struck her all of a sudden. She was writhing about and crying and clutching her head. She is not a melodramatic kid--even her broken arm did not elicit this sort of behavior--so to see her like this was terrifying. We tried food, drink, rest, and acetaminophen to no avail.
Then she started throwing up.
Twelve kids and the resulting experience with illnesses and injuries notwithstanding, we felt that this was beyond our ability to cope.
It turned out to be nothing.
We don't know.
They gave her ibuprofen, Zofran, and Gatorade and sent us home some hours later. I asked the doc what was going on, and she had no answers for us, only stating that since the ibuprofen gave her some relief, there was nothing serious to worry about.
Even on the Zofran, Nature Angel threw up again when we got home, and I was not comfortable all night, thinking that there might be more to the story than we could see.
But it seems I was wrong, and she is fine.
Sometimes it's good to be wrong.
Monday
Nature Angel was allowed to sleep in and take a sick day. Her appetite came back, and so did her color. She said her head hurt a little off and on, but never did she cry or seem ill.
Once we got through our morning routine (our preschool story of the week is The Brave Little Tailor) Pixie's school dominated the morning as she tried to complete an English assignment from last week. What we thought would be a quick half hour's tying up of loose ends, turned into a 3 hour endurance test as we worked together to find a video editing tool that would allow us to rotate her videos the right way (she filmed vertically).
We learned a lot more than the assignment intended as we experimented with various programs and sites. And she successfully completed her multi-media presentation.
Otherwise we made it through a fairly typical school day for us, albeit without a formal Academy meeting because Sir Walter Scott was working on preparing our garden, and the kids spent many happy outdoor hours helping him.
Super Star started her new Digital Savvy computer course; she thought the history of computers was hilarious. I heard her actually laughing out loud about mainframe computers.
Pixie went to her first physical therapy session for her arm, but the therapist noticed that Pixie's entire right side of her body is out of alignment, so she spent time heating and massaging the muscles up in her shoulder in order to prepare her to even begin therapy.
Time to call the chiropractor.
We ended our day with a chapter each of The Enormous Egg and Shepherd, Potter, Spy, and the Star-Namer.
Tuesday
The enormous storm of the night before knocked out power to many of the local schools so seminary was cancelled. Rose Red went back to bed. Pixie started working on a school assignment. It's hard not to laugh at this clear example of their different personalities.
 |
| Lola wanted to watch and listen to Anne Frank, too. |
*********************
And then I stopped writing and left for a 2 day trip with my teens to a homeschool conference.
My brain is utterly fried by the experience of leaving my littles, driving so far, attending the conference, being so tired, and driving again.
I think Baymax is weaned. He curled up in my arms to nurse when I got home last night, but then he turned his head and fell asleep.
I feel a strong urge to cry.
 |
| While I rocked Lola during Symposium, Baymax fell asleep on the floor waiting for his turn on my lap. The bottle behind him is Lola's--she threw it down as she fell asleep. The laundry was clean and waiting to be folded and put away, which is now done. |
I still haven't seen my other littles, but I'm going to get them up in half an hour, and I'm pretty excited to do so.
I hope the day will be joyful . . . because it could easily be dreadful if, in the unconscious regions of their brains, they decide to express their frustrations at being left behind. They kind of did before I left--Thursday was dreadful.
But I'm not going to worry too much because I know they had a grand time with their daddy, and the wonderful memories they made with him are a blessing. What I am going to do is revel in small hands and faces and big hugs.
And I'm going to leave reporting on the homeschool conference to another post. I simply cannot think clearly enough to get words from my brain to my hands.
I have a lot of words in my head!
And I long to get them out and make sense of them.
But I can't yet.
Suffice to say that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were school days such as we usually have--with the added chaos of kids tantruming and peeing and generally falling into old habits of confusion and fear in spite of my best efforts to explain how much fun they'd have with Sir Walter Scott all to themselves for 2 whole days.
 |
| Baymax had a terrible fever on Wednesday--he felt so yucky, and the fever was so high. Super Star cuddled up with him and let him watch her play video games on her phone while I made dinner. |
On Saturday it snowed, but not enough for play, so they spent the day inside and had the treat of watching the classic Annie musical. I wonder what they thought of Miss Hannigan. :)
And Baymax is, in fact, not weaned at all.
He just came out of his room all sleepy and confused, climbed right into my lap and demanded to "nap" (his word for nursing).
I'm okay with this.
More than okay.
(linking here)
I hear you re your youngest. Mine is six and it is all going past so heart-breakingly quickly :(
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to hear about the homeschool conference! And Nature Angel's illness sounds frightening. We have one who is having headaches more regularly and throwing up from them so I am beginning to wonder if we have migranes happening. Only time will tell.
ReplyDeleteI will pray for a relatively easy transition post-conference for everyone. ((HUGS))
Yucky sicknesses. I hope everybody feels better.
ReplyDeleteYah for playing in New sandpit, Nature Angel''s headache not being caused by anything serious (but it sure sounded worrying) and for home school conventions. I'very gone to a few workshops but those big conventions sound amazing if a little overwhelming.
ReplyDelete