Boy – what a month. I feel like I forgot most of it because the last week has been awful. Andrew caught the flu – Influenza B, to be exact. So much for his flu shot this year. Generally, he seemed to have lots of cold/cough going on in January and then last Friday, he was sent home from school with a fever. We thought he was having issues with his asthma before, but I guess it was the flu. By Saturday, his fever was up to almost 104 and it stayed there for the next week. Only this Friday did his fever finally go away. Saturday was AWFUL – he was hot hot hot and throwing up all the time and it just got worse and worse. By dinner time, he was throwing up and coughing and sitting by the toilet and just screaming and crying that he couldn’t breathe. We called the nurse's helpline and they told us to give him three albuterol treatments in an hour but they didn’t seem to be helping at all. We were giving him medicine for the fever and it wasn’t lowering the fever at all. So, the nurse told us to take him to the ER. Katsu carried him to the car because he said he couldn’t walk. By the time I got down there to take him to the ER, he seemed a bit better and was talking by the time we got to the ER. I think the meds had finally kicked in, but I took him in anyways. He threw up some while we there, but gradually got better, especially after they gave him some ibuprofen. I think they were somewhat unimpressed and kept telling me he had a virus (and two ear infections). But if they had only seen him at home … anyways, they did a chest x-ray because his chest sounded not quite right, but thankfully no pneumonia. So, we spent the next week with him and Katsu and Seth at home. We all took Sunday off from church and enjoyed celebrating Setsubun and the Super Bowl, but mostly were all in bed (except me, I got sick only at the very end of the week). Basically everyone got sick. And poor Andrew had his fever for a week! We took him back to the doctor on Wed. to check him out because he still had a fever. That’s when they tested him for the flu. Anyways, the poor boy.
Plus, he missed two other days of school in January with his coughing/asthma. Of course, both days I totally regretted it because then he and Seth were at each other’s throats the whole day. I told him he was not staying home again, but then he was home a whole week. No wonder I have been going crazy this month. Andrew hasn’t been in school!
Andrew was SO sad to miss school. By the end of the week, he was crying because he missed his class so much. And he missed their Chinese New Year celebration, which I felt really bad about. So, we promised him that when they were better, we would take them to the Chinese Buffet to celebrate the New Year. We went to a new place just down the round on Saturday and the boys loved it. They were skeptical at first (they always are of new buffets), but it was even better than the other one and they loved it.
Otherwise, Andrew is learning to read at school. He is starting to bring home books to read – he brought home one and it seemed really easy to me. Andrew loves to read easy reader books at home. He has taken home the King School Series books from the library and loves them. He picks out like 10 at a time and then orders them in order of level and wants to read them all. He does pretty well, but the highest levels 12-14 are hard for him. I think he is about a level 8 or 9, which is mid 1st grade, they say. I can tell that he is getting a lot more fluent.
Andrew has been loving hearing chapter books. He was reading My Father’s Dragon at school and has been telling us all about it. I wasn’t familiar with the books, so I didn’t know what he was talking about and Andrew couldn’t remember the title. But it turns out Katsu loved them when he was little and we even have a Japanese board game based on the books. So, the boys have loved playing it with Katsu. We read the 2nd and 3rd books this week off my Kindle. We have also found a much better selection of books for the Kindle at the library, so we have started reading some more chapter books for Andrew – a series about a boy named Andrew and also the Junie B. Jones series, which Andrew has seemed to enjoy so far.
Andrew has been learning a lot about China in school this year. For social studies, they learn about the holidays, so they have been getting ready for Chinese New Year. It is fun to hear all the things that Andrew has learned. They also did the 100th day of school. Andrew insisted on writing the numbers out from 1 to 100 and bringing that. I didn’t think that was exactly what they wanted, but he insisted, so he brought it in. He was excited because the principal got everyone a cookie with the number 100 on it.
Andrew’s new favorite hobby is Sudoku. I guess his uncle must have taught him the basics when he was here, because he saw one in the newspaper and wanted to do it. He has finished a couple now and seems to really enjoy it, though he needs some couching and which number to work on next – he can do it all himself, though.
Andrew also LOVES to be on the computer and would spend all his days away at abcya.com. I can not entice him to build Legos at all, which I was hoping he would get into. Besides the computer, he mostly like crafts, reading, and making forts, and playing with the car racetrack.
Fun Things This Month
- A couple beautiful days at the park, but otherwise, the month has been really cold.
- A new session of swim lessons. Andrew is doing really well.
- Incredibles movie at the History museum. It was going to be a me and Seth date, but he wanted the whole family to come. Andrew enjoyed the snacks and the movie, but was pretty non-plussed by the underwear exhibit we saw afterwards.
- Seeing lots of planes at the airport from taking Katsu to and from the airport.
- Loop Ice Carnival – the kids LOVE this. Businesses in the Loop have coolers full of ice with either dollar coins or chocolate coins inside. You throw them on the ground to get the treasure inside. It was a gorgeous day and the Loop was packed and most of the coolers were already empty, but the boys got a few. We also checked out the ice sculptures that were in front of the businesses, ate out for lunch on Katsu’s treat and Andrew and Seth both went down the ice slide a couple times. It was a super fun day and gorgeous.
- International Night at the school – families sponsored booths and had snacks from their home countries. Andrew and Seth went with Katsu and tried all the different foods. They loved it! Andrew eats so slow, so of course he couldn’t finish it all. It is so funny watching him at school where he has to say hi to every single person he knows. And I love his little facts about school. Like Ms. Jackson-Terry is the principal because she has the longest name. Love it.
- Setsubun – we threw jelly beans at a bemasked Daddy. Andrew, of course, has it all figured out that the goblin is really Daddy, but still enjoyed doing the holiday and throwing jelly beans and eating them. He kept saying Chinese phrases instead of the Japanese ones. He was excited to tell his friends at school about the holiday.
- Super Bowl – we ended up being home the whole day because everyone was sick, so we made a party of it with lots of snacks.
No comments:
Post a Comment