Monday, November 17, 2008

Mommy, I Don't Feel Good

When it comes to sick days for the kids, I tend to err on the side of compassion. My mother was much the same way. If we weren't really all that sick, but she could see that we just needed the day, and it wasn't abused more than a small handful of times over the year, she was fine about us kids staying home from school. My father's policy was more along the lines of, 'If you have no fever, you're going to school.' High school was tough enough that even if I was sick enough to stay home, I often tried to insist that I be allowed to go anyway, lest I miss something important.

RaggedyDad actually (successfully!) performed the thermometer-to-the-lightbulb trick as a kid to get out of going to school in Russia (Soviet schools? Who wouldn't?!), and certainly at this age, Ann and Andy are not missing much if they stay home from nursery and Pre-1A (Kindergarten to the uninitiated. More on these silly grade-level name differences another time).

So yesterday, when we discovered that Ann and Andy have ear infections, Andy also has strep, and everyone's got a cold, it became clear that we were going to get another Sunday on Monday. As in, another day to be home. This comes closely on the tails of Little Rag being deemed a possible 'strep carrier'.

[Pediatrician: He's got strep for the third time in a row.

RaggedyMom: What? Why? What does this mean?

P: Well, I'd venture to guess that he never actually had strep to begin with.

RM: Doctor, is this some kind of phantom-strep conspiracy-theory? Have you and I been watching the same prime time tv shows?

P: Here's the number of a good ENT I know.

RM: And you may ask yourself, "How did I get here?"]



Aside from the whole kvetchy-sick part, it is rather nice to be together.

Here's a roster of some of our sick day events:

*"Lunch for breakfast" - macaroni and cheese at 8:30 a.m.? Sure, kids!

*"Wine and cheese tasting" - er, choices of pomegranate juice or Kedem grape juice in 'fancy' plastic shot glass cups, American and 'Gorilla Cheese' (Andy's pronunciation of mozzarella) on party toothpicks

*Camping with blankets - because that is a given on at-home days

* Freestyle project-athon - Cutting up old magazie collages, pom-pom gluing, sticker applying, googly eyes, early-birthday-card-for-RaggedyDad production, etcetera

* 'Helping' Mommy to refold clothes in drawers and resort toys in bins, or ensuring that Mommy will have to do this job all over again

* Play-Doh or fingerpainting, depending on how much of a glutton for punishment I feel like being.

*Sick day cuddles

*PBS hour . . . or two.

*"Breakfast for dinner" - Pancakes, anyone? Yes, The Apple, I know we just had them yesterday -- but we're siiiiiiick . . .


We won't be doing laundry, as our machine is having "issues" and Our Man of Maytag, Jerry (referred to by Andy simply as "Jelly") is not available until tomorrow afternoon. Luckily, we were all caught up before it stopped working.

We also don't need to devote any time to paper decluttering, as I mostly did all that yesterday, nor will we be evaluating and saying goodbye to old school and camp projects, because we successfully purged all but the most special last week.

Whew! The only caveat to today is not making sick days so much fun that they never want to go back to school. Ah, well. They're only this little once. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go find the mini-marshmallows for some hot chocolate.

8 comments:

Leah Goodman said...

refuah shleima all.

the apple said...

lol! It sounds fun - pancakes for dinner! :D But I hope everyone gets better soon.

I also used to fake being sick so I could get out of school (who didn't?) but now that I'm in college, I always feel so guilty for cutting class!

Ezzie said...

Aww, so cute! Sick days at home growing up were not as fun - no computer games, not much I could do... but I did get to drink Coke out of a sippy cup! Or on snowy winter days, hot chocolate. :)

Our school nurse, whom I visited daily with headaches, was kind enough to alternatively say "Ezzie, you're not sick - goodbye!" as soon as I walked in or let me hang out for up to an hour if she thought I could use the break.

Amen on the "they'll never want to go back to school". Ah well, school ruins their minds anyway...

pobody's nerfect. said...

can i come over next time i'm sick?

actually, i'm feeling kinda icky now- and smores on the stovetop sounds pretty awesome to me.

Erachet said...

High school was tough enough that even if I was sick enough to stay home, I often tried to insist that I be allowed to go anyway, lest I miss something important.

We probably went to the only high school where it was more stressful to stay home than it was to go.

Also, RaggedyMommy, I don't feel well...can I have some pancakes and hot chocolate? Pleeeaaase????? *adorable, irresistible, pleading puppy dog eyes*

LittleBirdies said...

I've had the kids tell me they were sick (when they had a little cold) so that I'd stay home with them. I try not to let them get away with it though.
They love school, but both my husband and I work full time, so it's a special treat to spend the day with either of us.

Hila said...

I hope you all feel better soon! This is somewhat off topic but I thought I might offer a suggestion for sorting through all the projects--you can make a photo book of pictures of all the things Ann, Andy, and Little Rag make over time and put them into hard back books. Just go to SnapFish.com and you can create a photo book of your own for a fairly good price. I saw it on Oprah last week so you may also want to check out Oprah.com. Anyhoo I just thought it was a neat idea because it allows you to capture the projects and the memories without all the clutter of storing every card and poster ever created. :-)

Leah Goodman said...

You've been tagged on a meme at my blog
http://trilcat.blogspot.com/2008/11/7-things-about-me.html