A Dilema

I picked the boys up from school on Tuesday and immediately knew something was up. Theo came down the stairs from science class and flopped into a chair outside the office. "I am sooooo thirsty," he whined. And then he looked up at me with the tell-tale glossy eyes. When he placed one of his little palms on my arm and it felt like a pancake just off the griddle, kind of infused with a throbbing heat, I knew that he was feverish. We got home and he snuggled into the couch with a blanket- which he never does. Usually our arrival home includes Theo throwing his backpack and jacket in a heap in the entry way and then running to the legos. Anyway, I took his temp and it was medium high. By bedtime, however, he seemed great. So Jon and I debated the question- should we be good workers or good parents? Send a fairly healthy Theo off to school so we can go to work? Or keep a slightly ill Theo home so he can fully recuperate? Believe me, it's a hard decision. We decided to sleep on it.
In the morning he was fever free, but we know that he has this pattern of spiking again in the late afternoon and we knew that Wednesdays are long days for him with after school Spanish lessons. So Jon and I re-worked our responsibilities at our jobs so that Jon could stick around in the morning and I'd return at noon to spend the afternoon with Theo. I rushed in to work and sprinted around for four hours, and then drove home with my head spinning from all that I had done, and everything that I would have to try to squeeze in at some other moment. But then I walked in the front door and found Theo and Jon enjoying a nice lunch in the sunny kitchen and I realized there was no where else I was supposed to be at that moment.
The afternoon turned into one of those blissful escapes from the routine that you so rarely get. Theo wasn't actively ill, no puking, or coughing, or even really the sniffles, but he was moving a little slowly and was much more interested in reading or snuggling than he usually is. We spent four lovely hours in the house, chasing the sunshine through the rooms. When it came in through the office windows, we lay on the patch of sunshine on the floor and listened to Pippi on CD, then we moved to his bedroom and I curled up in a sunny beanbag and read a magazine while he talked to himself (out of the corner of his mouth like he does when he's telling a good story) and made several wonderful lego creations. His fever never returned and, in retrospect, school would have been no problem, but I am so glad we decided to take the day off. I think we all needed it.

San Diego

Every year about November we start thinking about how we might get away during the winter. We weigh all these different options and think real hard, then we book tickets to San Diego. Jon's brother and his wife live here, and my good college friend and her very nice spouse; there are beaches, and zoos, and LEGOLAND. This year there was the added bonus that my parents were renting a condo up the coast in Oceanside- right on the beach, and with heated pools, hotubs, and a ping pong table. What more could you ask for? It's never super warm, and the ocean is frigid, but we always end up having a great time. Here are some photo highlights from this year:

Here are the boys getting ready to 'surf'. Theo, in the shorty wetsuit, only got in to his knees, but Eli kind of fell in love with riding the waves.

LegoLand is great for kids and adults- there are rides and everything along the way is made out of legos. It's really pretty amazing. There is a whole "MiniLand" with cities from around the world. The picture below is San Francisco- all in legos. Yep. All made out of legos. Except the trees, which are little bonzai trees. I know you're amazed. This year's trip to LegoLand was especially nice because Jon and I didn't go! My mom and dad took the kids, leaving Jon and I free to meet up with Tim and Erin and Kerri and Jeff for a day of sporting activities. We were all exhausted at the end of the day- perhaps Jean and Rodg in the most extreme way- but they did say they sure enjoyed MiniLand and all the amazing lego creations!

The Chute

We have a laundry chute in our house that starts on the second floor in the hallway and ends with a trapdoor about 7 feet from the floor in the basement. On the first floor, in the kitchen, there is an access door to the chute. I know it is time to do laundry when I go to throw something down from upstairs, and instead of hearing that whisking sound of pure descent, the shirt just drops a mere foot or so, and comes to a rest on top of the log jam of a week's worth of dirty clothes. But there are those times when I drop something in, and you hear it drop, the sound exhilerating in a small sort of way, until it plunks on to the trap door. Those days are rare, to be sure, but today was one of them.
It was early in the morning and Theo had just gotten up and was standing bleary-eyed and barefoot in the kitchen. I was leaning into the fridge, getting out the juice, when I heard Jon open the 2nd floor chute door and drop in his running clothes. They zipped down the empty chute and plopped to a stop below the kitchen. Theo, who I am sure has heard this noise before- he and a few friends can spend hours dropping things down this chute- I can't tell you how many times I reach up to open the trap door with a laundry basket ready to catch the clothes, only to be pegged by a variety of balls and swords and stuffed animals... but this morning, he was tired, and he couldn't place that whisking noise. He quickly demanded, "What was that???" "Just Dad, throwing something down the chute," I replied. He thought about that for the barest of seconds, and then, "Yeah, but what would he be thowing down that would scream like that???" It's true, that sound does resemble something like a scream- let's say from a small animal who is going on a joyride that was a bit more exciting than it originally thought it would be. For the rest of the day I kept getting this image of Theo, trying to figure out why his dad had decided to throw a rabbit, or a hamster, or some other small rodent- who knows where Jon would have gotten such a thing- down the chute.

Climbing the Eiger

Yesterday we all went down to the science museum to watch the latest Omni film "The Alps". It was about a guy who's dad died climbing the Eiger when the boy was 9. Now he has a 9 year old daughter, so what does he do? He returns to the mountain to climb it. Thank goodness that he survives, or that might have been one bitter young woman. Anyway, the film's footage of the Swiss alpine villages made me yearn to get out of this prairie. But I had no desire kindled in me to do any mountain climbing. Theo, on the other hand.... Today as we were walking down the street he threw himself at every snowbank with passion, surmounting each one and declaring he had topped the Eiger. The snowbank created from plows clearing a large parking lot at the funeral home nearby created a huge snowbank with a very imposing 'North Face' at the top. The hill was probably 15-18 feet high. Theo easily climbed to the bottom of this final face. He then took some time to throw his body up to the very pinnacle. And he came flying right over the top and flew off the other side. He kind of cascaded down the icy hill and came to a stop at the bottom. He looked up at us with a smile. Later, when he came in from outside he said, "Mom, you know when I went fell off the top of the Eiger back there? Well, it feeled like I was flying!" I asked, "And was that a good feeling or a bad feeling?" "A great one!!!!!" he declared and ran off. I found him later in a sleeping bag careening down our stairs at great speed, a new trick picked up from last night's babysitter. I think we need to carefully screen movies we see from now on. And what's coming soon to the Omni? Everest.