On Sunday morning, while at my parents' house, Levi woke up with a horrible cough. We thought it might have just been from having the windows open at night, as I often wake up hoarse and/or stuffy with open windows as well.
On Monday morning, back at home with the windows shut and the air conditioner on [don't judge me; I'm 29 weeks pregnant and it's 85 degrees here!], Levi woke up still coughing and with an extremely drippy nose. After he threw up during breakfast [that happens when he gets a cold; I get particularly nauseous when my sinuses are draining, too], I nixed our usual library storytime plans and hunkered inside to wipe his nose repeatedly.
Tuesday was worse. By Wednesday morning, Owen had the same cough that Levi had had on Sunday. Levi showed a bit of improvement Wednesday evening, so I cancelled the just-in-case doctor's appointment I'd scheduled for this morning, but even still, I knew we had to stay put today.
It's rare that we stay home for an entire morning. Sometimes I feel like that makes me a failure of a stay-at-home mom, since I rarely, well, stay at home. We get plenty of free playtime at home, and often we're only gone for an hour to grocery shop or whatnot, but still, it's a trip out. As such, I'm always a little nervous about getting from breakfast to nap time without any out-of-the-house diversions whatsoever.
So, I pulled out my trusty Toddler's Busy Book, flipped through it quickly during breakfast, and ended up with the following morning:
On Monday morning, back at home with the windows shut and the air conditioner on [don't judge me; I'm 29 weeks pregnant and it's 85 degrees here!], Levi woke up still coughing and with an extremely drippy nose. After he threw up during breakfast [that happens when he gets a cold; I get particularly nauseous when my sinuses are draining, too], I nixed our usual library storytime plans and hunkered inside to wipe his nose repeatedly.
Tuesday was worse. By Wednesday morning, Owen had the same cough that Levi had had on Sunday. Levi showed a bit of improvement Wednesday evening, so I cancelled the just-in-case doctor's appointment I'd scheduled for this morning, but even still, I knew we had to stay put today.
It's rare that we stay home for an entire morning. Sometimes I feel like that makes me a failure of a stay-at-home mom, since I rarely, well, stay at home. We get plenty of free playtime at home, and often we're only gone for an hour to grocery shop or whatnot, but still, it's a trip out. As such, I'm always a little nervous about getting from breakfast to nap time without any out-of-the-house diversions whatsoever.
So, I pulled out my trusty Toddler's Busy Book, flipped through it quickly during breakfast, and ended up with the following morning:
- Breakfast at the little table instead of in high chairs. Actually, this wasn't my idea, but when I suggested we have Cheerios and bananas (Cheerios are usually a snack-only food in our house), both boys immediately sat at the "snack table." Don't you just love the little chairs my aunt found to go with the table?!
- Vertical coloring. This has been a go-to activity for me for a few months now. Thanks to some high school project of my husband's, we have a decent supply large white sheets of paper. I tape one to the wall, get out a few crayons, and let the boys go to town. This morning, on a whim, I traced our feet on the paper first and had Levi tell me whose was biggest, smallest, in the middle.
(You can't see any coloring because of the flash, but I assure you, there are many scribbles!)
- While Owen took his morning nap, Levi and I did another craft to go with our creation unit. I had hoped to have him do straw painting -- blowing through the straw to spread the paint around -- but he wasn't terribly good at it, and in the end he just used the straw as a paintbrush. I'll post pictures of our creation crafts if I ever get around to blogging about that. :)
- Owen coughed himself awake earlier than usual, so I really threw our day's rhythm to the wind and plopped the boys in the bathtub with an inch of water and an assortment of plastic bowls and pitchers from the kitchen. I also sprayed shaving cream all over the sides of the tub and gave them each a pastry brush for painting. (No pictures of this, because it was impossible to get a modest one!) I was particularly pleased with Levi on this front: last summer, he steadfastly refused to finger paint, because he hates so much to have his fingers dirty. Today, though, he ditched the pastry brush and really got into spreading the shaving cream with his hands. I feel like we've conquered a little bit of his compulsiveness.
- After half an hour, they were restless, so it was back to the living room for some unguided play. While Levi amused himself (I forget with which toy), Owen dumped the leftover Cheerios on the floor in the kitchen. He kept coming to me complaining, pointing to his feet, and I'd find Cheerios stuck to the bottom of each foot. I'd pick them off, he'd eat them, and it was back to the kitchen for more. (Hey, he'd just gotten out of the bathtub, so his feet couldn't be that dirty, right?)
- Lunch. Nothing too exciting here.
- Outside play. Praise the Lord for our composite wood (no splinters, no upkeep), mostly-shaded, child-safe deck!
- Nap time for Owen. Levi has a list of things he's only allowed to do when Owen's asleep, so I always let him choose, and he opted for our phonics letter tiles "to make some words," as he says. We had a good time with the word families "og" and "ill."
- Nap time for Levi. We arrived!
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