New Sick Kid Rules

If you follow the news, you know that University of Kansas resumed classes last Thursday, and by Monday 47 of the kids had the swine flu.

Well, Xavier is playing in their league. School here started last Wednesday, and Xavier woke up with a croupy cough yesterday morning. Luckily (I think), it does not look like the flu. (Mom, before you correct my grammar, the sentence above is correct -- I think I am lucky it is not the flu.) The problem is, Xavier has a runny nose, occasional cough, and no fever. In fact, with the minor inconvenience of his asthma and being nagged about blowing his nose, he feels great! But, because of flu fears, he is not allowed to go to school. According to our county's new "accepted level of wellness" rules, no child with a runny nose, cough, or temperature over 99.7 is allowed in school. Last year, we would have sent him to school like this; this year, I am learning it is nigh impossible to work from home when your child is bouncing off the walls.

Today, I caught Xavier coughing his head off as he jumped on the sofa (as if it were a trampoline), and told him to stop and blow his nose. "Don't you want to get better?" I asked.

"Nope!" he replied.

Not sure I'd heard him correctly, I said, "You don't want to get better?"

"Heck, no!" he replied. "As long as I am sick, I get to stay home with Mom, get snuggled by Mom, make YouTubes, play with Legos, drink root beer and watch videos. I NEVER want to get better!"

Daddy is staying home with him tomorrow.


On that note, here's a plea to friends and family that is not a joke ...

On the one hand, I am thrilled that kids with colds are being asked to stay home from school. When your child has asthma, there is no such thing as "just a cold." On the other hand, as a working mother facing the prospect of staying home with a mildly sick kid (except for the asthma) for possibly as long as the next two weeks, this is totally uncool.

So, please listen: much as we love to see you, we don't want to see you with any sort of respiratory illness. We will happily postpone visits with you (even major holidays) if it means giving you a chance to recover. That way, you will enjoy our company more (because you are feeling better), and we will be able to keep our kids in school.

Thanks for your cooperation on this!

Testing Your Knowledge

The kids made the following videos (they call them YouTubes, but we aren't posting them there). Can you tell who made which one?

The Manduran Alligators:

I should note that the two stars of The Manduran Alligators are Darth Vader (from Star Wars) and the Penguin (from Batman). Just so you know.

Life and Death:

Penguin also stars in Life and Death (I think), but I'm not sure who the other players are.

And who says girls and boys are creative in different ways?

And here's a blast from the past ... now you know where it all began:

Xavier-wan Kenobi

In case you can't tell, Xavier is using his light sword (that we got at Busch Gardens last week) to read a comic book in bed when he should be sleeping. Perhaps if Anakin Skywalker had spent more time using his lightsaber to read Archie comic books instead of killing people with it, well ... okay, the Star Wars universe might be a better place, but the movies would have been pretty boring.


We were eating supper the other day, and we were talking about doctors. Adam commented, "Usually people expect doctors to help them get better."

Gwen scoffed. "Better at what? Better at golf?"

Only eight years old and already jaded.


On a child-unrelated note, it seems that some mothers are using their blogs for financial gain by posting product endorsements (see http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/10/mommy.bloggers.ethics/index.html?iref=newssearch for more information.) I, for one, will not take this pledge, because this is an anonymous blog for my children's safety (so anonymous even the email address is fake, so I don't get product endorsement opportunities anymore.) Furthermore, as I sit here drinking my Larry's Beans Fair Trade Organic coffee and brushing my teeth with Tom's of Maine toothpaste (at the same time! Sure! Why not?), I realize that my readers deserve better (although reading this might be better yet using the Amazon Kindle.) So sit back, drink your Blue Sky Organic soda, and know that you are logged into the one blog source you can be sure is uncorrupted. And if you are still having trouble sleeping thinking about our capitalistic society, try Rainbow brand Children's Bubble Bath -- the gentle scent of lavender is formulated to help you (and your child) relax at the end of a long day.

Unless, of course, you have a light sword from Busch Gardens.

Good night!

Keep it simple, Elton!

Tonight while Adam and Xavier were finishing supper (speedeaters Gwen and I were already done), Adam had Elton John's "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" playing on the stereo. Conversation had fallen into a lull, and they were sharing some male bonding time, listening to Elton crooning the last stanza:

What do I gotta do to make you love me?
What do I gotta do to make you care?
What do I do when lightning strikes me --

"You die!" Xavier snapped, exasperated. "That wasn't so hard to figure out!"