Once again, we’re derailed by sickness. JediBoy was complaining last night of a sore throat and sore stomach; when he got up this morning he said his throat felt worse and his glands were quite swollen. We put a call in to the pediatrician and finally got an appointment at about 10:45. They checked him and did a quick strep test, which came out negative, and so the tentative diagnosis is coxsackie virus.
Unfortunately, it’s a virus and so there’s not much we can do but treat the fever and pain and wait it out. It’s also very contagious through unwashed hands (there I can be vigilant) and coughing (which JediBoy has been doing a lot so it’s hard to be vigilant). This puts a big damper on our weekend plans, which included the first soccer game of the summer season, a birthday party and Aunt R’s wedding! We’re going to try and get him as much rest and recuperation as we can, cut away some of the activities and hopefully still make the out-of-town wedding.
We stopped by the grocery store for emergency provisions, which included fresh spinach to make Hulk Shakes (spinach, fortified oj, flax oil, bananas and frozen blueberries) because JediBoy said only Hulk Shakes would give his body the energy it needs to fight this virus. We also picked up lots of nice cool, smooth foods like applesauce, yogurt, pudding and jell-o. I made his favorite popsicles too (just Stonyfield strawberry yogurt frozen in popsicle molds).
As sick as he is (can’t you see his fever eyes?) he still wanted to do our history project for the day - trying our hand at making a shelter from what’s in our yard. He’s really enjoyed the short chapter on nomads becoming farmers in the Fertile Crescent and keeps asking to “play nomad” which involves making a tent out of chairs in the living room, then hunting wild animals and bringing home their blanket skins (no chipmunks this time!).
We pulled several huge goldenrod (not yet bloomed) from our meadow to add a grassy, protective layer to his shelter, and on one of the leaves we found this tiny, but very hungry, caterpillar. JediBoy is outside now in the slightly cooling air collecting leaves for our new friend.
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