sick boys (and mama too) :(

W has been sick with a fever since Tuesday. I am hoping he gets better today, we have been monitoring him and the doctor's office said if he develops any worse cough let them know, but so far so good. Overall it has gotten way worse at night, and besides being a bit grumpy he has been in good spirits and had lots of jello and popsicles. Sadly we will miss storytime this week and there are only one or two weeks left. C seems to have just a stuffy nose and sneezes, but at least no fever.

W has been wanting to watch Christmas movies since he has been stuck on the couch being sick, so already we have watched more than our share for November, but it is nice to get in the spirit of the season a bit early. We have also listened to holiday music on Pandora.com, which lets you choose artists you like and then plays similar music along with those artists. It is such a great idea to get a bit more variety.

edit: as thursday wore on C and I developed low grade/ mild fevers and coughs, blah :( Hoping we will be over this by next week.

nature walk

Well, we took a rail trail nature walk yesterday. W and his friend gathered many leaves to put on sticks, and loved seeing all the acorns and little empty acorn shells. I will have to incorporate them into some kind of craft today. The stretch of rail trail that we walked was beautiful this time of year, you can look into the woods and see the leaves floating down.

After reviewing our route on google maps, it seems like W must have walked about 4.5 miles yesterday, of course taking some breaks here and there to rest and play. No wonder he was so tired. :) It is more difficult pushing the double stroller and taking 3 kids out, but it was such great weather yesterday I am glad we all got outside for the better part of the day. C was very laid back and content in the stroller so that made it easier than it could have been.

a bad apple

Today we went to the library as usual for storytime. W went ahead to the storytime room for the activities while I held C and watched S play. All went well for the most part, until W was done with the craft and came out to meet me. He was very proud of the page he drew, his name with a sun in the sky and he pasted the mouse on the bottom in the page over the preprinted letters in a creative way (although not anatomically correct but I was proud of him that he did it himself and he was proud of his artwork). A stray kid with his Mom nowhere in sight proceeded to make fun of W’s drawing and W in general. I wanted to slap him but of course restrained myself and asked the child where his mother was, and to please go to her and leave my son alone. He did not cooperate but I told the kids in frustration that we needed to leave any way to get home since we have a handyman coming this afternoon. If I did not have all 3 kids in tow it probably would have been easier to find the other mom and tell her, I do feel badly because I would want to know if my kid had been that rude to somebody because that deserves punishment. I feel sorry that he is such a brat to come up and taunt kids.

The next time I see the boy and his mother I hope to tell her how much he hurt W’s feelings and to please talk to him about it. The sad thing is the Mom probably has no clue he behaves this way and he will probably be let loose in some school to do the same to countless others. Why do some children do this to others? Perhaps it is because they themselves are picked on or are just seeking attention even if it is negative.

It is too bad how a few little words can mar a perfectly good day. And most of the time storytime is such a great social outlet and a pleasant experience for all the kids, so I will try not to let this incident bother me too much. And as usual as a parent I am sure it bothers me more than my son. :) W and S certainly have their moments of misbehaving sometimes, but they are very kind hearted and helpful children so I want to use this example to show them how not to behave and also try to teach them to stick up for themselves in these types of situations which unfortunately are a part of life.