Just Breathe Mom » school

Milking the Strep

Meredith — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:21:49 +0000

My poor little guy is battling his first case of Strep throat. Since he is in kindergarten, I knew it wouldn�?Tt be long before he got it. Well he actually is handling it quite well. So well in fact that he�?Ts got that strep working for him.

Let me explain. Other than one night of him looking and feeling poorly, he has been pretty playful. A typical restless kid. But the moment I ask him to do something for himself or pick up his toys, he goes into the pitiful routine. I think he learned it from the champ because I knew how to milk illness better than anyone when I was a little girl. Another payback for me. Anyway, he�?Tll say something like, �?oBut mommy I�?Tm sick, I don�?Tt feel good.�?� Now imagine those words in the whiniest, most pitiful tone and you�?Tve got it. I do fall for it a little because I feel bad, and I have looked into his mouth and seen those vicious tonsil terrorists up close. They are not pretty.

Then, when he sees his friend, our next door neighbor outside, he is miraculously healed. �?oWow mom, the medicine really is working.�?� These words came out of his mouth about 4 hours after his very first dose of the antibiotic. Wow. I wish all antibiotics worked that fast. He was not a happy little boy when I told him that he still couldn�?Tt play outside because we did not want to give the germs to his friend. Twenty-five minutes of a crying tantrum did not change my mind on that one. I must admit though, I�?Tm pretty impressed with his acting skills. Maybe there�?Ts an Oscar in his future. In the meantime, I sure can�?Tt wait until he returns to school!

For information about children’s health, visit JustBreatheMom.com.

Hello, Dali!

Meredith — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:56:31 +0000

One of my assignments when I volunteered in my son’s kindergarten class the other day was to hang the children’s artwork above the chalkboard. The artwork had a Halloween theme. Basically the children cut out pumpkins that they made from orange construction paper and glued them to a piece of black construction paper. Then they drew ghosts and other creatures of the night with white chalk. They were adorable creations.

With most of the artwork, it was fairly simple to tell if I was hanging the picture right side up. The kid’s names in the bottom left hand corner helped me figure out how to hang any questionable ones. I really only struggled with one picture. It was a mess, and I had no idea what I was looking at. And of course I couldn’t find a name anywhere. I certainly didn’t want to hurt a little kid’s feelings by hanging his or her artwork upside down. I had no choice but to wing it because this kid gave me no clue whatsoever.

I secretly said to myself, “Whoa, I hope this kid doesn’t have dreams to be the next Da Vinci, because it ain’t gonna happen.” Then I was ashamed of myself for judging a kindergartener so harshly. I decided just to hang the picture and hope for the best. It was in that instant that I noticed a faintly scribbled name in the left hand corner. Well wouldn’t you know, it was my son’s name. I did a double take and thought, “No surely not, this can’t be my son’s Halloween picture that I was just snickering over moments ago.” But it was.

So I had to backtrack. And look for the beauty in it. And I found it with one simple college memory of surrealism in the art world. Yes that was it. My son’s picture was surreal! All the other pictures looked the same. My son’s was different. He might not be the next Leonardo Da Vinci, but he sure had a fighting chance to be the next Salvador Dali! Poor kid. I guess he’ll have to survive growing up with me first.

Find out what kind of artist your kid can be by visiting these sites on JustBreatheMom.com for coloring page printables.

The Bugs Are Back In Town

Meredith — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 18:05:14 +0000

Let’s see, it took a whole seven days for my 5 year old son, who just started kindergarten, to bring home his first bug. Yes it’s that time of year again. However, I thought I still had a few months before the big bugs moved on and made way for their microscopic buddies. It’s just not fair to have earwigs and viruses in one house at the same time. But alas, that is how it is.

So does this mean that as long as my children are school-aged, I will be sickly? Will I ever get to attend a PTA meeting without a stuffy nose? Last year when my son went to preschool, he missed a lot of school. Our whole family was sick a good part of the school year. And everyone kept saying, “Oh your immune system will be extra strong next year. You’re only sick because it’s his first year of school.” Yeah…okay. Apparently my immune system is so strong this school year that it brought me a nasty cold in AUGUST! Uggghhh!

I wasn’t even remotely prepared for this cold. I wish these viruses would have the decency to knock before entering my house. Then I could prepare for their extended stay. I remember a 5^th grade teacher at my elementary school named Mr. Peters. He was known for making silly sentences out of the week’s spelling words. One week’s list featured the word influenza. His most famous sentence using that word was, “I opened the door, and influenza!” Well, isn’t that the truth! JustBreatheMom.com has numerous sites relating to family health and wellness.