we got through last week, mostly due to help from a generous aunt and uncle, and not mention a heap of luck. r had a fever for three days and was clearly "off" (mostly weak and achey) for another 4 days. sunday was the first day he seemed to be close to normal energy and spirits. k's illness was quick and dirty (literally -- it led probably to 4 loads of laundry) and had her back on her feet in no time. i think poor r had it 100 times worse. the mornings in particular were awful. he could not get up and could not move. we had 3 of the roughest mornings ever. friday night, he and k had their appetites back and both ate almost a Punch pizza each. that was a relaxing evening. by the way, when we were at the doctor's, we discovered that r is 43 inches tall and weighs 41 lbs. so he has grown about 2-3 inches in the last several months. this explains his constant leg aches. his height-weight ratio is now below 50% in comparison to others so we would like to continue to put a little weight on him. but it is hard to do when he shoots up in height so quickly. at least we know that the food we are feeding him is going in and helping him grow! no stunted height here (he is still in the 90% for height).
on saturday r was motivated to go to his first ice skating class with his friend mira. but he could barely muster the energy to go or to move once he got there. he was just too weak and tired. we tried to do some fun winter stuff in st. paul with auntie hot hot after that, but there was too much fatigue. r had 5 hour nap that day and still woke up out of sorts. k and i ran around the midtown market with some other center friends (aunt tracey, nat, and gabe) which was fun. we then had another event -- a fundraiser for the anti-war committee sponsored by r's classmate. he brought change for the kids' penny donation jar and enjoyed his two classmates.
on sunday, it all caught up with me. and when mom gets sick, everybody has to slow down. luckily we had no events at all for sunday (despite one invitation). so we built a fire and mom lay on the sofa achey and cold, sometimes with stomach cramps. i could barely move. but everyone did great! it was a pretty relaxing and smooth day. we just tried to recover.
i felt better by monday morning which is good because i had meetings, an exam, and class. r had a rough time getting out of bed. he was very tired.
ruskin and i think that a school that starts at 7:15 is not going to work for us. there is no way we can get him out of bed, dressed, and fed by 7 am. so we will have to think about a limited number of schools. [in minneapolis, you have some choice about your public school which is terrific and overwhelming. i am sure that you will be hearing more about that. tomorrow ruskin goes to visit my favorite school -- barton -- which is terrific but starts at 7:15!!]
but back to the day. he was fatigued but not weak. getting out of bed was rough but he enjoyed his breakfast and almost made it to the car without falling apart again. he was sleepy in the car while k was quite perky.
she had a great dropoff and is very excited about going to see her classmates and teachers. yesterday she taught us a game (that they must play at school) in which she pretended we were all sitting on a bus. she sang wheels of the bus to us and told us to do the hand motions. she also made us raise our hands and said something about marching bands. she directed us deftly and we complied. she is a fun monkey. today when i peeked in on her, she and her friends were sitting in a row on the windowsill pretending to be on a bus. she told me later that she was the driver and they were going to the zoo. she waved happily from her perch but did not seem at all tempted to leave.
r seemed to have a good day. he played pretend by putting out food for a feast. he also worked on some interlocking parts toy and said he built a computer. he told us that he likes this time of year because there are holidays which are special. at pick-up, he did well until he put his structure away back in the bin and the kids started taking it apart for the components. though it was fair and he would have done the same thing, this greatly and understandably upset him. it was clear that he was on the edge after that. he has taken to yelling at us which is not pleasant. k was all right except that r would not let her participate in his train building in the toddler foyer. she recovered but he remained sullen. both were not at their best and it took me 40 minutes to do the pickup from start to finish. ruskin was teaching until 6 so we did not get home until almost 6:45. the snow was pretty and the kids had fun stomping in it. we drove home and managed not to have many more struggles. i did not feel well in the evening and dinner was both late and spirited. we had some boisterous and sometimes antagonistic family puzzle time. at one point, r popped in piece and yelled "holy cow!" this addition to his vocabulary (along with razamatazz surprised us).
story time went smoothly and everyone is asleep except for me. things are hectic in the next few weeks and i lost a week of work to the illnesses and such last week, so blogging might be light for the next week. don't panic. it is the end of the semester and we are all busy.
holy cow!
No comments:
Post a Comment