I’m gonna start with the adorable before I rewind for the not-so-adorable, m’kay???
M’kay.
So…heeeeere’s my boy, with the ocean diorama we spent 3.5 hours making today, for his school assignment. Ta-daaaaa!
I seriously could not LURV this finished product any more—nor could I lurv his stinking adorable feisty energy any more; nor nor the massive amount of quality time we clocked today, assembling this thing.
Honestly, it’s almost a shame it turned out so darn well, because I’m worried people will think I just made the thing, when TRULY, my boy did loads and loads of the work! And art directed every, single piece!
…but he’s just now on the downhill slide of yet another beat down round of illness that was officially diagnosed on Friday at the pediatrician.
Then I remembered I had this project in the craft closet that I meant to bust out for the kiddos of the summer, but never got around to it, so…voila! After he completed his doodle, he started assembling fish and jellyfish (that are not octopuses, as I erroneously claimed, ha):
Next up…I also remembered a sticker-by-numbers booklet that we already own, that’s OCEAN themed. Ha. I kid you not: I didn’t buy a single item for this diorama, other than the box! The benefits of a packed craft closet. ;)
My boy was pretty happy and hysterical throughout, and it was a joy to spend so much purposeful time together. I even snagged unsolicited snuggles and hugs of thanks for the help I was giving him, and—UGH—there’s nothing better for my Mama heart.
I seriously could not LURV this finished product any more—nor could I lurv his stinking adorable feisty energy any more; nor nor the massive amount of quality time we clocked today, assembling this thing.
Honestly, it’s almost a shame it turned out so darn well, because I’m worried people will think I just made the thing, when TRULY, my boy did loads and loads of the work! And art directed every, single piece!
It’s pretty much a wonder he was up for this today, given the fact that he was HOME SICK AGAIN. Or, perhaps, I should say, home sick STILL.
UUUUUUUUGH.
I mean, this dude might look full of energy—and he really was, for a decent portion of the day…
…but he’s just now on the downhill slide of yet another beat down round of illness that was officially diagnosed on Friday at the pediatrician.
This time: RSV.
I mean…seriously.
And to make matters far, far worse: not only did he test positive for RSV, but the same day we finally caved and took him back (again!) to the doctor, he woke with a full-body rash, that turned out to be an allergic antibiotic reaction to his strep meds from the week prior—even though he’s never presented with one before!
This shot is just a tiny portion of his torso—on the best day of it! It got far, far worse, and literally COVERED his body. :(
I’ve been speaking with loads of moms and teachers and friends locally, and none of us can remember a season of illness quite like this—at least, not for about four years for our family, when we battled round after round after round, but our kiddos were much younger then.
I’ve been speaking with loads of moms and teachers and friends locally, and none of us can remember a season of illness quite like this—at least, not for about four years for our family, when we battled round after round after round, but our kiddos were much younger then.
I mean, look how many of my posts in the past few weeks have included the title “sick” or something related. And these are just Little Man’s rounds of sick ick!
I’m sure there are lots of medical opinions about how masks might have hindered our immune systems, but I also thing there’s just a lot going circulating this year, in general.
Strep all over the place.
Flu, left and right (Chicklet’s best friend went down for the count with it, just today).
A stomach bug that has taken out many in Little Man’s class—including his teacher today.
And this RSV yuckiness that several little friends have tested positive for, as well.
Ironically, I’ve not heard of any COVID (though I shouldn’t even type that).
So, so, yucky. And it’s hard not to get a bit beaten down as parent when you’re constantly nursing at least one child back to health—not to mention rearranging schedules on a whim.
I’m grateful that, at this point, I’m sort of just expecting to have a child home sick, because then it’s a bit easier to mentally bob and weave with a positive attitude.
Like today.
When I decided to take the opportunity to tackle Little Man’s project and turn lemons into lemonade.
I’ll tell ya…after SO many sick days, this whole looking-at-the-positive isn’t always possible. But at least today, we managed it. :)
After he selected “ocean” as his diorama theme, we spent some time brainstorming, and quickly arrived at the idea of a doodle to utilize as the background on one side. Right up his alley!
Then I remembered I had this project in the craft closet that I meant to bust out for the kiddos of the summer, but never got around to it, so…voila! After he completed his doodle, he started assembling fish and jellyfish (that are not octopuses, as I erroneously claimed, ha):
Next up…I also remembered a sticker-by-numbers booklet that we already own, that’s OCEAN themed. Ha. I kid you not: I didn’t buy a single item for this diorama, other than the box! The benefits of a packed craft closet. ;)
My boy was pretty happy and hysterical throughout, and it was a joy to spend so much purposeful time together. I even snagged unsolicited snuggles and hugs of thanks for the help I was giving him, and—UGH—there’s nothing better for my Mama heart.
This time is precious and fleeting, peeps. And I’m grateful for every moment (sick ick and all).
Also, can we just note a couple things:
Also, can we just note a couple things:
First: my son can’t stop changing his pajamas these days. You can tell from his top in these pics, ha.
And, second; when did he start posing for pictures like a mini Gene Simmons???
Anywho…back to the diorama.
Anywho…back to the diorama.
Little Man had the genius idea to snag items from our water-less, fish-less “fish” tank, ha. And it truly made this whole dang diorama come together in a fantastic way!
Hysterically, we packed so many items in there, you have to move things around to even spy some of the cool background items, ha. Like the orange sticker-by-number fish.
Or his coral doodle…but what a packed and AMAZING diorama it is!
So…in summary, I’m so grateful to have had this wonderful time together.
Hysterically, we packed so many items in there, you have to move things around to even spy some of the cool background items, ha. Like the orange sticker-by-number fish.
Or his coral doodle…but what a packed and AMAZING diorama it is!
So…in summary, I’m so grateful to have had this wonderful time together.
And even more grateful to use it in a happy, productive way, for this project that’s not due until Monday. Win/win.
ALL the kiddos are home tomorrow, as our school district is closed for Election Day. So it will be more mass chaos—and a pivot toward working on Chica’s biome project that’s also due next week.
Busy days, peeps.
Busy days.
But…HAPPY MONDAY.
And here’s to hoping we can get our household health stable!!
Over and out.
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