The Pox!

Well, the days of worrying whether or not to vaccinate for the chicken pox are over for our family. All three boys now have the pox and are suffering to varying degrees. Salix had spots first, but very few. I thought it must have been a late mosquito attack, although I haven't seen a mosquito in weeks. I thought the "bites" acted funny though, because the scabs didn't just heal up and peel off, they were DEEP scabs. Yuck. I won't even go into it, except to say that Salix is a scab picker and now has little craters where the scabs used to be.

you can see how few spots he got.

Almost a week after Salix's spots showed up, Healer woke up covered in them. He has had the worst of it, needing oatmeal/soda baths and calamine lotion (although he didn't like the calamine lotion). He has also had a really hard time sleeping. The day before his spots showed up (when he would have been most contagious) we were at Children of the Boreal, exposing all the kids we know, and then we decided to have an impromptu sleepover child swap with WildRootsWoman. Healer went home with Panther, and slept in the same bed after playing together all day, while Dove came home with me and played all evening and all the next morning with Salix (who was probably at the height of his pox.) When I think of all the things the kids did together (at both houses) I think we could not have infected Panther and Dove more effectively if we tried! Good thing it's just the chicken pox!

Little Ollie Stomper's pox just showed up yesterday and he doesn't have very many so far, but judging by his sleep habits the past two days, they must be pretty uncomfortable. He got several hours of diaper free time out of the deal though, since most of the spots are showing up in his diaper area and I imagine that can't feel good with a diaper on them.

And then there was school...
Yes, chicken pox or no, when you home school, you just keep moving forward. Today was the first day that my flexibility with my schedule was really put to the test, since Healer did not wake up at the usual time and I figured that as uncomfortable as he is, he needs to sleep when he can. He didn't wake up until after 10, so I started Salix with his lessons and was done with all his morning work by the time Healer woke up. Then Salix was ready to play on his own and Healer got my full attention for quite a while. Here is what our plan looked like today:

Salix set us up with the day of the week and the weather outside:

 I was up late making these little guys- gnomes from the Story I started with Salix that will carry us through the entire year (supplemented with other stories too.)

 At painting time, Salix painted autumn colors like Birch, the gnome, saw when he looked out the window this morning

 and Healer started with the first day of creation in Genesis: "Let there be Light!"

We finished our work together with bread baking, which we don't do often at our house, so although this was meant more for the Kindergartener, our third grader really enjoyed the project too.

 And I can't forget the new baby! This is our new puppy, Rosie! She is a very very sweet puppy, who is at peace inside the house and doesn't bite much. She is still learning not to jump on everyone. She is actually my dad's dog, but he left for Moose hunting right after he got home, and plans to leave again when he's done with that for a trip to Wisconsin and Germany, so she'll be all ours until Thanksgiving. Healer and I are planning to take a puppy training class, as Healer is VERY into having a puppy of his own. She is a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, just like all my dad's dogs, and is the daughter of his other dog, Lucky. I couldn't get a very good picture because, like all puppies, she is busy and constantly in motion!

The funny thing about having a puppy in the house is that she follows the same rhythm as Little Ollie Stomper. They take naps at the same time, want to eat at the same time, get crazy at the same time, and need to pee at the same time. It has almost made it easier for Ollie Stomper to be diaper free because I am conscious of  both babies bathroom needs and pee one right after the other! At this rate, I'll have them both potty trained in no time!