Abstract Dad

As Xander becomes more involved in school work, he is beginning to draw more. One focus is to be able to draw Mat Man, which is just a man formed by shapes (circle for the head and so on). Before this, Xander would draw a picture if I asked but he didn't ask for crayons and paper.

When school began he had to draw a self portrait. His first attempt was pretty decent despite the fact that he drew four legs. He explained that was because it was a picture of him dancing. I was very tempted to put a note with the picture to explain why his picture had extra legs but I refrained from doing doing so.

He now will ask to draw a picture and he continues to add little extras that he is all to happy to explain. Below is the picture he decided to draw of Chris. Interesting, I know. Allow me to explain.


You can clearly see the head. Xander did start out with Dad's eyes, nose, mouth and ears. You can just make them out if you try. The little bubble on top is a hat. The blue on the top is hair. The purple on top is the brain. Yeah. I know. The blue in the middle is Dad's beard. (Chris is currently in beard mode, in case you haven't seen him.)

The red on the ears? Ear gloves. I kid you not.

The red on his feet? Snow socks.

And, in case you haven't noticed, Dad is in a bubble.

Also, there are no arms. Xander said that Chris could add in arms but they had to be little arms. He strongly reiterated that, "Short arms, Dad!"

I can't wait to see what he thinks of me.

Highbanks Metro Park

I really wanted to go to the park to get pictures of the kids in the fall foliage and, since it was nearly 80 this weekend, I managed to drag Chris away from the patio for a few hours. The kids were excited to go to the park because in their heads park = playground. So when we started walking on the trails, they were less than happy.


Xander flat out refused to have his picture taken.




After a little teasing from Dad, Josie cheered up and had a good time.






I taught Josie how to stomp on the leaves to hear them crunch. That lead to running through the leaves. Finally, Xander cheered up when he realized he was allowed to throw the leaves.






Now I just need to work on figuring out the best settings on this fancy camera. I mean, there isn't one that says "Pictures of kids on a sunny day in a shady park" so we made due with "Auto." I did try a couple "Aperture" settings, but the pictures came out blurry.

Going Viral

About two weeks ago Josie woke up with crusties and some puss in her left eye. I cleaned it and wondered if something was in her eye or if it were the beginning of pink eye. The puss did get worse over the next few days but her eye never turned became pink and she only rubbed it occasionally. Within a week it was all gone.

A week after that Xander woke up and insisted he was cold. In fact, he was shaking so badly at breakfast that he could barely get his spoon to his mouth. After a quick confirmation of a fever I told him that he wouldn't be able to go to school. He insisted he could go, he would just tell the teacher he was cold. I had to explain that he could share his germs and then the other kids would all be cold too. So Xander missed his first day of school and spent the morning curled under a blanket and watching PBS cartoons.

That afternoon I returned home from teaching and knew just what Xander felt like. Chills, aches, sore throat, some coughing and very tired. So I curled up on the couch with him and relaxed.

The next day was Saturday and Xander was ready to go. I was not. I still felt lousy.

I finally felt better on Sunday morning. I still had a sore throat and cough but the fever finally broke and I wasn't achy any more. But wait, what's this? I woke up with crusties in my eye. I duly ignored them, put in my contacts and went about my day.

Monday I woke up coughing so hard I was short of breath. And my eye was a nice, blood shot shade of pink. Off to the doctor I went, toting along the culprits who made their mom so sick. The doctor checked it all out and said that it was a viral pink eye and I was still recovering from the flu. So no antibiotics and things should clear up within the next seven days. With the pregnancy, I just need to drink lots of liquids, watch out for fever and let them know if my symptoms are still stubbornly hanging on next week.

Isn't it great that the kids can share?