Sick Day

Today is the reason rocking chairs, and moms, and cuddle blankets were invented.

Poor Aaron has a doozy of a virus/illness/piggy flu and is capital M miserable. He's sicker tonight than I've ever seen him. Yesterday when I picked him up from daycare, he had a massive, no-holds-barred tantrum about getting into the car. Those kind of tantrums mean one of two things around here - sick child or tired child. He had a rough evening and was into bed early in the hopes that the magic of sleep would cure what ailed him.

Sadly, he's sicker than sleep alone can fix. We started and ended the day in the rocking chair.


There were a few bright spots, bursts of energy and smiles.


The walk to and from school with Meredith was a nice break from being in the rocking chair, and the kids did manage to play together for about half an hour in their new favourite toy - a cardboard box!

For all the bickering they can do at times, Meredith can be so empathetic towards him. Today she told me her heart felt broken that her brother was so sick, and she imagined mine must be cracked in a lot of places too.

May we be blessed with a quiet home and a night of that magical, restorative sleep tonight.

Spooky sweet!

Happy Halloween! The kids traded roles when we carved pumpkins on Halloween eve. Mr. Two Minute Attention Span sat through the carving of two of the three pumpkins and tried to clean the pumpkins out one seed at time. Meredith was interested in using the serrated pumpkin sharp knife to cut the tops off the pumpkin and refused to get elbow-deep in the pumpkin guts.

She got a lot more interested when it came to hitching her ponies up to Cinderella's carriage and finding a driver who was just the right size. Sadly, I forgot to take any nighttime pictures of the masterpieces!

Aaron's pick was a Thomas pumpkin.

As the sun went down, the costumes came out. Meredith was so excited and it was contagious! As so often happens, Aaron followed her lead and was raring to go. We are so fortunate that she is such an amazing big sister. It's not always rainbows and sunshine, but for the most part the example she sets for him is one of kindness and compassion. Aaron adores her!

The tiger bares her true identity! When I asked her a month or so ago what she wanted to be for Halloween, she asked what the "scariest" thing she could dress up as would be. I told her there's lots of time later in life for scary stuff, and we'd stick with non-scary for now!

When the sun finally disappeared, they were off! Aaron made it to about 10 houses before he was more interested in laying his head on my shoulder than looking in his bag for Smarties. After a pit stop at home to drop him off, Meredith shifted into high gear. She and her friend ran from house to house until they were gasping for breath!

It was a much busier Halloween than we've had in recent years. We saw lots of kids on the street, and ran out of treats at our house after around 100 ghosts and goblins had been by. It may sound strange, but I love the feeling of community that comes with Halloween! We seem to spend so little time in this day and age walking up and down our own street, knocking on the doors of neighbours and saying hello to everyone we meet.

Yet one more experience in life that has taken on a fresh new perspective as seen through the eyes of my kids!