Home sick

We were so lucky with illness last winter, hardly caught anything, and I don't think the kids missed a single day of preschool/daycare. So I figured we wouldn't be so lucky this year. I mean, after all, they're kids, and they need to catch things. That's one thing I dread about our first winter back in Boulder -- we'll probably be sick all the time, since more of the bugs will be new to the kids.

Anyway, this week we had our first major illness. Baby B actually had a mild case of it the week before Thanksgiving, and missed one day of preschool. Everyone seemed fine over the holiday, but Baby A woke up Monday morning feeling awful -- and ended up staying home all week. ALL WEEK. And Baby B had an intestinal upset that kept him home on Tuesday. Oh, I could never be a truly stay-at-home kind of mom, with my kids there all the time. I need my time. When I used to work in an office, somehow the office time was my time. Now that I'm home, my solitary afternoons are my time. I don't like giving up that time! But give it up I did.

Our theme this week in homeschool preschool was "Animals in Winter" and I'd thought of some nice activities, but it mostly all fell apart because of illness. Baby A was not up to doing anything for the first few days, and since I never had any time to myself, I couldn't buy little extra props or plan the lessons out more thoroughly. Monday and Tuesday were mostly a bust, although we did read some of the books shown above. My favorite was Moon Glowing, which is about hibernation.

Wednesday I wanted to do some activities from the book Going Home, but I couldn't get them interested. The only thing they were willing to do was watch me draw migration patterns on a map. I'd wanted to get a world map, but no time, so we drew with washable markers on our laminated National Parks map. That turned out OK.

Thursday's activity was supposed to be building a bird feeder, but on Wednesday it occurred to me that that was crazy. So Wednesday night I rushed out to Home Depot and bought some cheap bird feeders, and Thursday's activity consisted of filling and hanging up bird feeders, which was really quite enough. Oh, and we also made the "suet" for the suet feeder from scratch, using a recipe from an Audubon site. Here are our feeders:

I never had any luck with suet feeders in Boulder, and since I've never seen a woodpecker anywhere near our house in Ridgecrest, and we don't have squirrels here, I'm not optimistic about this one. Still, it was fun to make the suet.

I'm embarrassed about the red-colored liquid in the hummingbird feeder. Even though the package said it was perfectly safe for hummingbirds, I think it's still frowned upon by true birders. When it's time for a new batch of nectar, I'll make it from scratch with no red stuff. Of course, I'm not at all sure we have hummingbirds anymore, though we had them this summer. Haven't seen anything at the feeder yet.

And here's the regular feeder. The trouble with our yard is that we have so little "cover" that I'm just not sure we're going to get any birds. Baby A was looking out my bedroom window today and got all excited because there were birds on the wires "looking at the bird feeder," or so he claimed. I don't think mourning doves (which is what they were) could use this sort of feeder, though. We need some sparrows or finches. I told the boos it might be a while before they show up. Maybe next week?

The most successful activity of the week turned out to be a couple of songs I found on a preschool website. I tend not to like it when people make up new words to old songs, but somehow in this case it worked. The first one is to the tune of "Frere Jacques" and it goes something like this:

Are you sleeping, are you sleeping, big black bear, big black bear?
Time for hibernation, what is your location?
In my den, in my lair.

We sang verses for mouse, bat, rattlesnake, toad and frog, etc.

The second song was Baby A's favorite and it's set to the tune of "Skip to My Lou."

Bear is getting ready, what does he do?
Does he wear coats and hats like you?
That's not something a bear would do.
He goes to sleep in his den.

and there are verses for goose, snake, rabbit, and tortoise. (Goose flies someplace warm, snake hides in a hole, rabbit grows thick white fur, and tortoise sleeps in its burrow.) We also made up a verse for Pie Bear. Baby A loved this song, and whenever things got bad, all week, he would ask me to sing it. It cheered me up too.

So, I thought everyone was healthy now, and next week would be better, but tonight Baby B complained of a stomach ache and wouldn't eat his dinner. I'm hoping that isn't significant, but it probably is. Here comes winter.