School Days

Ah to be a child again. Hearty imaginations. Vast amounts of energy. And an inexplicable love for school.

Sierra just loves to go to school. So does Ryan. A couple weeks ago it was February vacation. That was fun. The first couple days went by smoothly enough. Playing all morning, rest time in the afternoon, a nice schedule. However, by Wednesday or Thursday, there were some serious cases of Cabin Fever going on. I was very thankful I'd thought ahead of time to sign the kids up for an activity at the library. It broke the week up nicely and gave them something to get them out of the house.

So Thursday morning, I bundled the kids up and we headed out. It was very cold, but the car warmed up quickly. The activity in question was a book reading and cookie decorating. When I had called the day before to sign the kids up, the librarian had warned me they had about 30 kids signed up already. I decided to get there nice and early to be sure of a parking spot. By about 10 minutes after my arrival, however, the library was swarming with at least 30, but probably closer to 40 or 45 kids, plus parents. What a zoo! I let Sierra and Ryan go off to find themselves some books while I took Eva over to the play area while waiting for the book reading so start. When 10:30 came around, they crowded all the kids into the tiny back room and sat them on the rug for story time. I held Eva on my lap. She was very fussy and I began to wonder why. It wasn't nap time, and she had eaten right before we'd come. I gave her her binky and she settled down. Then, about 5 minutes later, I realized why she had been so fussy. She wasn't feeling well. Evidenced when she got sick all over herself.
I was all the way at the front of the room, so I grabbed her up, and made my way to the back door, trying to keep all the other mothers from realizing I had a sick child.

Life Lesson #13: When a child is sick, the sickness will spread like wildfire to any other child within 200 ft.

Once in the bathroom I discovered, to my dismay, that the extra outfit in the diaper bag was actually just a sweater for Sierra. So much for that. Thankfully, Eva hadn't gotten sick very much, so I cleaned her up, washed the front of her shirt, and stood her under the hand dryer for a few minutes. She was obviously feeling much better and thought the warm air blowing all over her was quite exciting. I had by now come to the conclusion that the apple she had for breakfast had been on the wrong side of ripe, causing the stomach upset.
By the time I had her clean and dry, the story was done and the cookie decorating had begun. Eva of course wanted in on it, so we went back to the room where I found a table in the corner for them to sit at.
The rest of the morning progressed as planned and we headed home around 11:30 or so.

The rest of the day, as well, progressed very fine. By Friday, however, Sierra was whining about how much she missed school.
I'm so thankful Summer vacation happens during the Summer, when it's warm outside. :P

Life Lesson #31: Kids like playing where they can run and yell and get out their energy.