Picture What We Did Today

 Winter flowers

 Well enough for soccer again!

New pup Cloe, come for a visit!

Why Worry Now?

One of my top albums recorded in my life time is 'Brothers in Arms' by Dire Straits.  I think that Mark Knopfler may be one of the best song writers and singers that I have ever heard.  That said, if I ever met him in the street, I would not have a single chance of recognising him.  This song Why Worry Now? is just beautiful and makes me wish that I could play steel guitar.  This is the album that helped me get through University.  It wasn't about the work load, it was everything else.  It was at a stage of my life when I really did worry about things.  I used to worry about things in my control but I also worried about those that were completely out of my control.  I have since stopped.

I am thinking about this because although Levi was scary sick this week, I never really worried about him.  I asked myself if he had Meningitis and tested him, but knew that I would have coped as well with either a positive result or the eventually negative result.  I asked myself if he had Pneumonia and took him to the doctor to check.  Then I just waited for him to recover.  He is recovering I can assure you but the progress is slow.  This was a hell of a flu.  I am staying away from any of the kids that I work with, because anything that can flatten a healthy six year boy for that long, would kill them.  He has bounced back but I will keep him off again tomorrow because now he is just weak and tired and still needs an afternoon nap, which I think we can't really accommodate at school.

But what about worry?  I was talking with the other 'Soccer Mums' last week about this.  Now my soccer mum is a bit different from the one that comes to mind.  We sit on the sideline, tell jokes and generally rehash our week.  It is lovely.  Neither of these ladies has kids in Levi's class.  Actually they both missed the cut by being born in July or later and are in a lower grade than Levi.  Still I love these ladies.  I asked me how come I don't seem to worry about anything.  It made me think. 

I think that part of worry is a state of mind.  I think that part of worry is the lack of information and part of worry is a lack of power over the circumstances.  When Frankie was sick, I did worry but made a conscious decision to stop.  Why worry now about a future that can only get worse.  Worrying will only darken the time that you have left.  I started by scheduling a time to worry and at other times, I would think, "I'll leave that to worry time", but soon found that I would miss the time.  I found that I could in fact, live in the moment.  I found that it didn't stop me trying to think of solutions for him, but it did stop me perseverating on not finding the solution.  If you are given a problem with no known answer, it makes it hard to beat yourself up for being unable to find a solution. 

Now for me, there is the added "What's the worst that can happen?" litany.  Once 'the worst' has already happened, what can you do to me that I haven't already lived through.  It is hard to imagine something of Frankie's magnitude happening to Levi (or Evan, Or Ross for that matter), but I would live through it.  I have given all the boys the most that I am capable of.  If I died tomorrow, Levi would remember his mother as someone who loved him dearly and hopefully with the other structures in place, would grow up happy and healthy.  I think that I can't imagine the pain I would feel if it happened the other way around and Levi somehow died.  But I can imagine it.  More than that I can remember it and feel it still, but I have lived through that pain and although I still hurt, that pain made me a better person.  So why worry about something like that?  If I can't stop or change something, I am not going to bother to worry about it.

Why Worry Now?

Still Getting Sicker

The last few days have been horrible.  Levi wasn't better.  Perhaps we had a blip of improvement as the antibiotics killed their little part of it but then he screamed downhill again.  I had sent him to school Tuesday but was called before lunch because he was in the nurse's office.  He has had a horrible headache and has been so dizzy that he can't walk to the toilet without holding onto the walls or furniture.  He continues to cook at 103 - 105F dropping only a few degrees with Motrin.  This is what we did this morning:

He fell asleep about an hour after getting up and then roused briefly as I put him in the car to see the doctor.  One thing that was useful today was that taking a kid who is obviously that sick to the doctor meant that I got to wait in a room rather than trying to hold this sleeping six year old in my lap.  The nurse kept coming in and out of the room.  He really did look sick, of that there was no doubt.  He was febrile at the office and that was after he had been given meds.  

The doctor asked me if I had tested him for Meningitis and I said that I had, but I would prefer that he didn't let that stop him repeating them.  We all think that there is something big going on, but it may just be a big flu.  I hope that is what it is.  Pretty much we are going to wait it out a bit longer.  It has been 5 sick days now and by Friday will be a week.  At that stage, if he is not much better, I will take him for blood tests.  If he gets any worse, they said to bring him back or call an ambulance as likely if he was worse than today, they too would send him to hospital for the bigger tests and closer treatment.

This is what we did this afternoon:

 Yes, the position is the same and the posture is the same.  And, No he isn't any better yet.  He has not moved from the couch.  He doesn't cope if I am not touching him.  Finally tonight I put him to bed and he has stayed there without me touching him.  We watched TV.  We watched DVDs.  Tonight we read 'Deltora Quest' or more accurately, I read to him and he would only talk if I stopped to take a breath.  I will continue the story tomorrow.  Thank goodness, it is a big book. 

I called my boss this morning to just let her know that I would be off for at least this week.  Next week I am due to go to Townsville on Outreach.  I hope he is better by then.  More correctly, I hope he is better well before then, but changing Townsville would take an act of God and I think that God doesn't bother with menial details. 

Certainly Levi comes first and I love my job because there was never a question of that, my boss just said;

"They will just have to do without you if he is not better by then"

It is wonderful to work for an organization that understands the real priorities.  I hope that he wakes tomorrow a step better than the last few days though.  Pretty much he couldn't take much of a step the other direction without being a real worry at the moment.

I am going insane.  This pace is not a good one for me.  I am better when I can actually do something.  I have been on and off the computer as it's battery fails and I have been reading my own books but if I see another episode of Play School I think I am going to tear my own eyes out!  I am getting Cabin fever already and it has only been a couple of days.  I am so not used to this at the moment.  This is the 'well' child.  I hope he gets back to that in a hurry!

Well, I am going back to kiss that sweet fevered brow and snuggle up against that little hot water bottle and hope that it all just gets better in the morning.

Day Off

Today we had a day off.  Of course!  Actually by early last night the fever had broken and he  (and I ) slept well through the night.  That said, he woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 4.30am.  He was wide wide awake and so by extension was I.  The disadvantage is that there is really no TV at that time of the day.  I can't really just send him out to watch TV because there is actually nothing on.  I was just grateful that he was feeling well.  It had been a long and fairly scary weekend.  There was no reason to send him to school even though he was getting better.  Yesterday before bed he was so dizzy and run down, that he had to have something to hold onto to get to the shower and eventually looked so unsteady, I just carried him.  He could have a day to rest.

This is what we did today:

We made geometric shapes out of the Magnetics play box.  Levi loved that you could make a pyramid with either a square base or a triangle one.  His preference was for the square base but we made plenty of each, and cubes and any number of other shapes.

We also watched DVDs, lots of them.  It was one of those really fun parenting days.  I just really enjoyed being with him.  We wrestled and played games and just generally enjoyed being with each other.  There was no reason to go anywhere and we had no agenda, other than not doing anything too active.  I had fun again and I realize that I have missed that.  I needed a reminder that it isn't all about getting stuff done and frantically trying to make ends meet.  It isn't about getting lunches in lunch boxes and school clothes on.  It is about enjoying each other's company.  It is about having fun.  I am going to try very hard to remember that in all the chaos of 'real' life!

In Sickness

Almost immediately after publishing the post last night, our lives took a dive for the worse.  I went in to get some sleep and Levi was restless and really hot.  I mean really hot.  Since then he has been somewhere between 101F and 105F depending on when his medication was given last.  His temperature has never been normal.  About a half an hour after that and before I really went to sleep, he started into delirium.  He was scared and angry and yelling out and never recognized that I was beside him.  He called out for me over and over.  It was heart wrenching.  It is hard to feel that he desperately needs you but that he can't recognise you.  Eventually I managed to wake him up completely and he snapped back to being him.  Now of course he was sick and hot but really wide awake.  We watched 'Ice Age' together at 1am in the morning.  He sweated through the night.  We both got very fragmented sleep.  Naturally we didn't make swimming.  In fact we won't make school/work tomorrow.  Pretty much, this is what we did today:

This was taken with my phone, so the image is pretty bad but this was it.  He either cooked while he slept on my lap or he cooked and watched TV.  I took him to the doctor this morning and he has started antibiotics, more as a precaution against secondary infection, than thinking this is really bacterial.  He went to bed hot, so I suspect that tonight may well be bad again.  I gave him a tepid shower tonight and tucked him in.  We shall see!!

Thoughts on Angelina Jolie

Tonight I am contemplating Angelina Jolie.  Actually, you will have to forgive me because I am writing this while watching Tomb Raider 2.  Hence why I am contemplating Angelina Jolie.  I feel enormous sympathy for her.  I think it must be so hard to live in the public life so completely.  She gets attacked no matter what she does.  I think that if I had $50 billion dollars as my net worth (and frankly I actually don't!) I would likely do exactly what she is doing; trying to save the world at a UN level and at the same time trying to save the world one child at a time.  I just feel sorry for her.  I see Levi have so naturally that her children will never have, the freedom to run around without judgement.

 She is so completely in the public eye it would be hard to find a way of being yourself.  She is so completely torn apart and glorified at the same time, finding yourself in the middle would be just impossible.  Her kids can't run around getting into trouble, falling into creeks (Yes, yes they did) and  scraping themselves on deadwood.  I just wish for her sake and theirs that they have a place like the creek.  Somewhere far from prying eyes, far from nannies and cameras.  I would hope that for their summer holidays they could find a place to run and be wild a little as our kids so easily do.  I can imagine them here, but without anyone else, just being kids.  It is so not fair on both sides of the spectrum.  Being in the middle makes for a great life for these boys.  They can be explorers with just enough fear to make it exciting.  Well her family would be welcome here but I suspect that I won't have to get organized any time soon.  I suspect that they will all be poorer for that fact!

The boys were so sweet together today, forging new paths and trying new ways.  They both had a very different outlook to problem solving.  Ty's theory was to never take a backward step.  Levi's was to stand back and decide which direction, even if backward was the most sensible to get around an obstacle.  They both got where they were going, but one was cleaner.  I think that Levi was more wary partially because, contrary to my last post, he is, in fact, sick again. 



He cooked again last night and was 103 something when he woke up.  I put him in his soccer gear but we never left.  He also said that he couldn't hear through one ear, so I suspect that it was blocked or sore as well.  Today he did well, but again was 104.3 just now.  I tested him as he fell asleep against me watching TV and well before his bedtime.  I am pretty over this illness and I think that Levi definitely is.  He is just getting so tired and we are only a few weeks into term. 

I think if it continues over the next week or so, I will have to crack and go to the doctor, to see if I can get it sorted for him.  I'm afraid that I'll just take him and it will be the whole 7 to 10 day virus thing.  It has been nearly three weeks this fever.  I hope that it is just a bunch of illnesses back to back.  I can hear him snoring from here, two rooms away.  I wish that he hadn't fallen asleep before I could give him meds.

Tomorrow we are supposed to have swimming but likely he will be too sick for that in the morning and I am certainly not waking him if he does by some miracle sleep in!

Sick? Not!

I had today off.  It was lovely.  Levi and I could sleep in as long as we wanted.  Because I had the day off I had organized to go and see a movie with as many of my nieces and nephew as possible.  They are mostly in university, so Friday morning is generally pretty quiet.  It was lovely to be able to just have some time with them.  Soon they will all be adults in their own rights, with jobs and families, and it is nice to steal a few moments while they still have time.  I met for coffee with the one that couldn't make the movie because her lectures started earlier (meaning noon - it is Uni).  Then saw a movie and had lunch with the rest.

When I had Levi in the car ready to drop him off for school, he said;

"Mum, you are dropping me off this morning, right?"

"Yes I am"

"And you are picking me up?"

"That's right"

"Do you have a day off today?"

"Yes, I do"

And then he said in all seriousness and completely cracking me up;

"I'm feeling sick"

Yes, he is trying that routine already!  I was talking to the kids at lunch and they said that the youngest (still in school) had managed to convince her mother that she needed to be off as well.  I so wish I could take them all, but during the day is the only time I have consistent babysitting, so they will have to miss out for the moment.  I was happy that during lunch, all the kids were sitting there deciding when to do it again, so I think they enjoyed it.  I certainly did!

Normal? Day

We keep on moving.  Days seem to just go on.  Levi has been more grumpy than usual but I have little to complain about given that he really has the mildest temperament!  He is happy enough but has little niggling things.  Maybe he is just testing me.  Today we went to soccer in his school clothes, because he had decided that he 'hated' soccer and didn't want to get dressed.  I told him that I didn't care what he wore but we are going to soccer.  Of course, half way there he 'loved' soccer again.  Who knows what that kid is thinking sometimes!

At the moment my house looks like someone exploded a few cardboard boxes in it.  Levi's new game in the last few weeks has been to cut up cardboard boxes. 

Is he making things with them? I hear you ask.

"No, he isn't" would be the answer.

He is seriously cutting up the boxes into little squares about 2 inches square.  Every now and then, he builds something with sticky tape and staples, depleting my store of both.  Mostly however he just cuts then up and either gives the bits out as 'coupons' or 'tickets'.  Again, who knows what that kid is thinking sometimes??

Every night before he goes to sleep, after the stories and the sight words but before the cuddles, he wants me to give him maths problems.  He can do most addition to about 100.  He can do Subtraction from 100 to about -20 and he can do multiplication to about 50.  Tonight I asked him 3 X 8 and he got to 24 but it was from a very interesting angle.  He goes from what he knows.  He divided 8 by 2 and got 4.  Then he multiplies 4 by 3 getting 12.  Finally adding 12 and 12 together.  It was certainly not the direction that I would have gone and was fairly convoluted, but there is a basic logic to it all.  So much fun to watch him learn sometimes!

Meltdown

Levi had a funny day yesterday.  He spent the first two hours of Sunday morning begging me to go to Ruby's place.  After finally giving in and taking him to Ruby's house, he freaked out and didn't want to stay.  I have no idea what his problem was.  Still don't!  He cried and didn't want me to leave. 

Now, I would have understood if this was the first time he had been to Ruby's house (Nope, every month or so). 

I would have understood if he had not been left at a friend's house without me before (Nope, since he was about 3). 

I would understand if he was still sick (Nope been well since Tuesday!)

I knew that if I could peel his hands from my legs and escape out the door, he would be fine about a nanosecond after the door closed behind me.  Ian (Ruby's Dad) was great and spent the time thinking up things that would be really fun to do after I managed the hand peel.  I wasn't going to give in, because little Ruby was so excited to have him again and for such a little thing, I wasn't going to disappoint her.  Finally he went to watch 'Karate Kid' (the bribe that worked) and I went shopping.  I texted Ian to see how Levi was doing .... of course .... fine as soon as I walked out the door.  I just don't know what's going on in that kid's mind sometimes. 

Today we had a whole day of Professional Development talking about play.  It drives me nuts to have to sit in a seat for a whole day.  It does my head in!  I can do about 2 hours absolutely tops before I just lose track.  One of the things that I thought was interesting in the presentation was the first statement:

'We are all born with the same abilities and then we build on them"

Maybe in their world.  In my world, some babies can't lift their heads or swallow when they are born.  In my world, some kids are born with abilities, build on them for a bit and then crushingly slowly lose those very abilities.  In my world, some babies can't see or hear.  For them all I will keep getting up in the morning and trying my utmost to make their time on earth, regardless of how long that is!

Samford Show

I am feeling better.  As Kate so aptly commented, I was over it almost as soon as I wrote it down.  I realised that I needed some time doing normal things.  I just needed time as Evan said so long ago "All by self!"  So that is what I did.  I had some time the next morning at work before anyone came in.  They were very productive hours.  Then after a couple of people came in we were chatting and I convinced them to have a huge lunchtime break and come and see Harry Potter with me.  One of the best things about my work is the flexibility of my hours.  You can work longer hours in the beginning of the week.  It is great, esp on a Friday, when most in my office don't work full days.  So we all took a two and a half hour lunch, walked the five minutes to the shopping centre and watched Harry.

Now, I love the books and the movies but want to be a slightly dissenting voice in the chorus of good reviews for this movie.  I thought that this one wasn't as good as either Deathly Hallow Part 1 or Half Blood Prince, both of which I thought was brilliant.  It was a good enough movie, don't get me wrong, but just not brilliant.  I was worried going in that they would do the 'Kings Cross Station in the sky' scene poorly, but thought they did that incredibly well.  I just thought they were too much into the duel at the end.

Then I went to my 'sanity' friend's place for dinner.  I can relax and chat (and cry).  Levi plays happily with her children, without my intervention at all.  I caught up with the big things happening in her life and she caught up with the things happening in mine.  I can bounce things off her and never feel judged.  Everyone needs friends like that and I have been blessed in my life with several.  I came away feeling refreshed and not just able to shoulder life again, but to start to do it joyously again!  I think that these 'sessions' are good for Levi too.  He deserves to have a Mum who is happy and fun to be with.

Saturday and Sunday this weekend is the Samford show.  My dad used to say that Samford's show is the only one where you need safety glasses to watch the wood chipping.  I took some photos of Levi sitting on the fence watching the motorbike jumping and you can see from them, just how close we were to that.  At one point they came so close to the wall, Levi got a fright and after they went past, this big eyed face turns to me and says "that was a bit close!"

Unipolar in a Bipolar World

Pippy was down with us the last few days because the rest of the household is down at the island.  She doesn't suffer by this (obviously)!  It has been difficult for me, not because of the dog but looking after the rest of the farm.  At extremely short notice, I am having to 'do' the farm and organize getting Levi to school.  It has just got to me in the last few days. 

I think that I am just sick of being Unipolar in a Bipolar world.  Now I don't doubt that it is hard to be bipolar at times, but I think it can be freeing at times too.  I don't want to be bipolar, but I am tired of being the person who has to pick up afterward.  I am tired of being responsible.  I am tired of being reliable.

1.  I want Financial stress to be 'the time waiting for someone else to bail me out' rather than the crushing limitation on social activity and spending

2.  I want to be the fun aunt, buying expensive presents for my nieces and nephews, because if I run out of money whatever ... see number 1

3.  I want to be able to change my plans instantly regardless of who that will affect, because, hell, I'm the only important person on earth

4.  I want to make up stories and lie without any accountability, because if I get found out, I can always just make up a bigger lie to cover the previous one

I wish that I could have some days that are just about me.  I know.  I know.  I wouldn't know what to do with a day like that.  I would love a day that I could just hand over some burdens, perhaps cry on someone's shoulder.  Nah!

But I am just tired and cranky.  I mostly have empathy (OK not tonight!), but I think I am just at the end of this candle.  The candle that I started burning at both ends and then without any control, someone else lit it in the middle as well.

Cold again

It is just cold as it could possibly be at night at the moment.  I turn on the electric throw rug when Levi has a shower and then it has time to heat up enough to snuggle into bed.  Downstairs in a concrete brick house it just never really gets a chance to warm up at all.  The dog comes down and snuggles under a blanket and I have my little warmer in there when I go to bed. 

I would love a little global warming at the moment and am struggling to get my head around this whole carbon tax thing.  I am not sure what is best.  Best for me.  Best for Australia.  Best for the planet.  I do think that it is a political stunt to a certain extent, but Australia has always led the world in ecologically sound practice.  It has held the solar race from when they were tiny cars and huge batteries driving across a desert.  But taxing carbon?  That I don't know.  I wish I could get some information that wasn't coloured by political speak.

Levi had his first day back at school today and I think that it was the first day that he was actually well, for the first time in about two weeks.  Sucks that he had a whole holiday of being sick and just got well before going back to school.  this next term is going to be impossibly busy, with one reprieve in the centre.  We have a weeks holiday in Cairns, mid august.

Ambulance Day

I am in a contemplative mood.  Sorry.  Some of it has to do with the day, which was weird in many ways.  We got up and went to swimming.  it was a bad lesson, because the regular teacher wasn't there and so the lesson didn't really fit with the kid's skill.  Then we came home and we had been here for a little while when Brian came down from upstairs.

Brian and his wife Jude are staying a while because Jo is down at the island.  Anyway he came down to tell me that Jude needed help to get to the bathroom. I went up and she was in so much pain she couldn't move.  They wanted me to 'PT' her but I have had experience in these things.  I called an ambulance.  In my less experienced days I made a huge mistake by not calling an ambulance.  A friend had fallen onto her back from the veranda railing at a party one night.  Early the next morning she called me to come help her.  When I got there she was in lots of pain.  I was about 2 years out of University, but everything screamed at me that she had fractured her spine.  I begged her to call an ambulance.  She convinced me to drive her instead. 

I was an idiot!

She was incredibly lucky!

Her spine was fractured in several places.  It was unstable in at least one place.  Lucky is not strong enough word.  After twelve months of stabilization, she has come out of it neurologically intact.

That was my history.  I didn't want to make the same mistake.  So I had a long conversation with dispatch.  About five minutes of the conversation to establish that she would send us an ambulance Code 1.  The rest of the conversation was directions...No, we don't have a number.  Have the ambulance just keep driving until they see a kid waving them down.  Please don't stop at the creek.  No, not Samford, Yugar.  OK, not Yugar, Closeburn!  It is confusing.  We live in three suburbs.  Our mail runs through Samford and it is the only place most people know.  Our road is in Closeburn, but officially we don't live on that road, but another.  That road is in Yugar, but that road only exists on paper and in theory.  Certainly no ambulance is going to drive it. 

Anyway, we got Jude to hospital.  She was unable to move without several doses of morphine, so I think my chances of getting her to move were slight.  The doctors think she had scar tissue tear and she is home again tonight, but much better than this morning.

Levi is still sleeping more than he usually does and I suspect that he is still getting over his illness.  He was wonderful through all the drama today and was more mature than I suspected.  He held Jude's hand and drew her pictures and generally kept her mind off it all.  When I needed him to, that six year old went out and waved down an ambulance and directed the paramedics inside.  I am very proud of him. 

Climbing

 Yes, face paint has become a real thing in the last few days, first the knight and now stripes.  What can I say?  It's holidays!

Levi and I met up with some friends and went to the bike paths and playground today.  There are some jumps that the kids can ride over and some that are bigger still that they are not quite up to riding over.  Levi has progressed his riding now and is significantly more confident with the whole thing.  He is doing the small jumps without difficulty and doesn't cry when he falls off anymore!  Then Levi decided to climb the trees.  At least he did it in a helmet. 

I have times when I despair that the next generation will have any respect at all.  Well, except for my child of course, because he is perfect!  There was another couple of families there and it blew me away how those kids played.  They stood in the middle of the jumps so no one could use them.  When they were finished using their bikes or scooters they just left them in the middle of the pathway!  One of the boys about 10 or 11, threw a cup at a kid jumping a bike.  Had he hit him, the bike and the rider would have taken a huge tumble.  That we did react to and the thrower looked contrite and stopped.  My question though is where is his family?  Why did a stranger have to discipline her son doing an incredibly dangerous activity.  It is not like she wasn't standing there partially watching.  I am hoping that we were just witnesses to bad parenting, but there are times that I do despair about the state of the children!

Medieval Day

Medieval Day was just fabulous.  The kids all loved it and were just exhausted by the end.  They ran at pells with jousting poles.  They painted shields and their faces.  All around it was a wonderful day in the sun.  They jumped on castles and climbed on frames. 

Still Hot

 Another day, another fever!!  This is the longest freaking fever that I have ever had to deal with.  We are on about day 4 and still the fever persists.  Actually it isn't a bad illness  to have to deal with because with the medication on board, he can still play and enjoy his friends but there is a limit.  A limit of about three hours.  You can see it in his eyes, even when he is coping and he has just started having his;

"eyes leak but I'm not crying Mum because I'm not sad"

We had another fun day of playing, first at Pine Rivers park again and then the kids wanted a fire down at the creek again.  They love just poking at fire and it is an easy thing to do, especially since the big floods in January deposited enormous amounts of driftwood that is now perfectly dry and high above the water line.

Levi is in his favourite shirt.  He wears it about every other day and any time that it is clean.  It is another shirt that grips my heart because his brother loved it too.  Levi is now in the last of Frankie's shirts.  Frank was just three when he died but the prednisone saw him increasing in size, sometimes by a size a week!  It meant that keeping him in cute shirts was an endless task.  After these shirts we just put him in hospital gowns, because it was too hard to get to all his lines in a Tshirt and Frankie didn't care.  I see Frank at times when Levi wears these shirts but I love that they both have the same favourite shirt.

 At the creek, as the boys played, I sat and enjoyed the moment.  There was peace in it all.  The boys playing happily and the creek doing what it had been doing for countless years; years before I was born, perhaps even years before Brisbane existed.  The creek has changed course even in the last few months and it is fun to watch it happen.  I feel trapped sometimes here but the creek can make it worth it all, just by being somewhere that you can go and talk to yourself, talk to God and sometimes even find answers

Playing at the Creek

Levi is still sick but it isn't really slowing him down.  Actually, more honestly, about 75% of the time it isn't slowing him down.  The rest of the time he is either due for medicine or has just had it and it still hasn't kicked in yet.  His temperature this morning was 104.6 F.  He woke several times last night and usually right as the Motrin was wearing off.  We had Ty and Steffi today (after warning their mum that Levi was sick), but I'm sure that partially the decision for her was easy as Levi got this illness from Ty originally.  You can still see in his eyes that he was only just coping and this was taken right in the middle of his 'good' time. 

 Also two boys came over with their grandmother for some time 'On the Farm'.  We took them to the creek and built a fire for them to have a picnic lunch down there.  They were very city type boys and they had never had a fire they could just poke around at and a creek to just throw rocks in.  They will remember the day for a long time I imagine.  It makes me remember how wonderful it is for Levi to grow up in this place, where he can run around barefoot and wield sticks and throw rocks, build towers and sculpt mud.  All without feeling like he is doing something wrong and without Someone watching over his shoulder all the time.

I just had to go and do the medicine again.  His temperature is better, only 102.4 now.  He wanted to switch back into my bed as well.  With Ty staying the night, I thought that he might sleep by himself but I think it was a bit much for a sick little boy. 

Really not better

Yes, I think he really is as sick as he looks.  The Motrin will hold him together for a little while but not really very long.  We had brief glimpses of drug induced happiness, but most of the time we soldiered on.  Levi woke about 4 times last night mostly from fever and coughing.  Consequently he slept late.  Swimming was on the agenda but he slept through any chance of that.  While the Motrin is holding his fever down, he plays, albeit quieter than normally. 

I had to go grocery shopping or really we weren't going to eat this week.  I felt bad but frankly he was either going to be in this position on the couch, or in this position in the cart.  I snuggled him up and just went and did it.  I had him in a sweater and with mine around him, and he was still cold.  Sweet thing is now in bed with a hot water bottle, an electric throw and his robe on.  I am going to die of heat exhaustion in there but maybe he will be warm enough.

Tomorrow we have about a million boys between the ages of 4 and 6 coming over, so I hope he is a bit better.  Ty and Steffi are coming over and I am looking after them, in return for her looking after Levi last week.  Luke and Nate are coming over to play in the morning.  Then there are two boys coming over.  They are 5 year old twins, grandsons of a friend of Jo's.  OK, not a million, seven, but I think it will feel like a million, especially if Levi is still a bit sick. 

I am going to snuggle into bed beside the hot little mancub

Saturday

 Today we woke late, both of us.  Then we went to Pine Rivers Park.  It was a great day, for a while.  Levi and Zac and Alex all had a blast, playing on the big spider web and kicking a soccer ball on the grass.  It was a beautiful day.  The sun was shining and it was getting close to hot out.  Right about then, Levi asked for his jumper (sweater).

Now if you know anything about Levi and I, you know that neither of us was born with a thermostat that works.  It has to be freezing for either of us to even contemplate putting on an extra layer.  Well, freezing or sick!

By lunch time, he was slowing down and sat on my knee during lunch.  I was rethinking dropping him at a friend's house and took him home.  I gave him Motrin and about 15 minutes later there he was begging to go.  So I let him.  OK there was more to it than that, I told Cheryl and then I let him. 

Then I worked my tail off.  I have other kids I am looking after most of next week, so I knew that if I wanted to get stuff done around the yard I needed to do it this weekend.  So I mowed and weed whacked for 4 hours while Levi played at a friend's house.  Then as night fell, I went over and they fed us both.  Gotta love friend's like that!!

This face got more and more common during the day.  Poor little tacker.

Planes, Cars and still more Boxes

 A fairly eventful few days for Levi and I even given that he was sick and I was at work for some of it.  On Thursday, his Vacation care all went to the carnival.  I talked to the workers and they said that one is organized every year.  Brilliant really!  All the nearby Vacation Cares get together and pool their money.  Then they get slides and rides and face painters.  The kids get free access to everything without checking because only Vacation Care kids are invited.  They get a Sausage sizzle lunch, fairy floss and a Popsicle.  Then they just wear themselves out all day until the poor parents have to get them.  When I picked up Levi, all the kids were sitting quietly watching a DVD.  All the kids were barely conscious.  The teachers were just sitting back relaxing!

Levi has been on the edge of sick the last few days, not quite sick but not quite well either.  He is in there snoring quite loudly at the moment, so he isn't better yet.  It has just meant that I have kept him quieter than I normally do.  We went to see the movie Cars 2 today and I had to stop part way on the 15 minute car journey because he felt car sick.  He must be really on edge. 

The movie was not as good as Cars 1 in my opinion, but it was entertainment out of the house for Levi and a few mates, so worth the cost.  The first movie had lots of great messages in it, but the sequel was more just going through the motions.

Levi has been really into making random boxes into things, since we made the rocket car (Incidentally battered but still trucking on).  He gets the boxes that get delivered and makes them into anything that comes to mind.  It is lovely to watch his imagination at work.  This latest one is a plane.  He is drawing the console here below.  Yes his mouth and tongue are still very important drawing tools!

 He punched holes in the side for the balloons that will "give him lift".  I thought that was great!