Quarterback and Wide Receiver

Caroline was quite sick for the first half of the week.  No matter how much she kept telling me she was okay, we still missed our fire station field trip.  There were many moments of sleeping.  In fact, one day she took three naps.  There were also many moments of being awake - she saw 3:45 a.m. for quite a few nights.  Then there were times that she would get sick and about 2 minutes later ask if she could have chicken nuggets.  Uh, let's wait until you can handle 1 oz of water for more than half an hour.

It was a rough go for a while, but by Wednesday she was finally keeping things down.  By Thursday, she was totally back to her old self, chatting away.  Henry woke up Thursday morning and came up and whispered to me, "Can we touch Caroline again?"  It was a very sweet question on his part.  I had not let the boys near her and they really missed playing together.  Henry and Caroline have been getting along better than they have been in quite some time, so maybe this sickness has helped their relationship.  We will all be very happy to see the constant bickering depart.  Henry even asked her if she would take a walk with him around our circle that Thursday afternoon.

With her being sick, we improvised a little with school.  We moved a few subjects to the living room so I could keep an eye on Caroline and the boys' work.  Henry happily did his spelling on the living room floor.

Josiah did his reading there, too.  It is amazing to see how in two short years he's gone from reading first grade material to reading long chapter books.  He loves reading, so it's never been a chore with him (ginormous blessing there), but it's just crazy how much he's grown, how well he can read and comprehend.  He's getting so old!

At CC we did a fun experiment this week.  We had half a cup of water and vinegar and put them in a bottle.  Then we slid a balloon on top filled with baking soda.  When the baking soda went in the bottle the chemical reaction caused the balloon to inflate.  The kids had a lot of fun doing it and, fortunately, it worked really well.

Dumping the baking soda in the bottle.

We finished up our week having a birthday meal for Henry.  He wanted Sweet Tomatoes and we went during a really busy time, so we had to scrunch into a booth.  Henry wanted to sit in-between Todd and I, and since it was his birthday meal we went ahead with it, making our side of the booth really tight.  He ate a good meal and stuffed himself until he wanted to fall asleep as is his custom there.

For Henry's last few days as a six-year-old, here are a few pictures to completely encapsulate what he likes to do best.  He tries to do it every moment of every day.  He runs from one end of the house to the other throwing the ball in the air and catching it as he runs.  He acts as the quarterback and wide receiver.  When we play catch in this same area, he likes to yell, "Omaha!" like Peyton Manning did.  And when he plays catch with his brother, every throw/catch is a possible touchdown pass.  If it's caught, "Touchdown!"  This child always has a ball in his hand.  He says he wants to be a football player when he grows up.  He's always asking Todd and I what the scores were for games played early in the last football season.  (He hears a lot of, "I have no idea." from me.)  He's always talking football.  Always getting football books from the library.  He loves football.

In just a few short days he's going to be a strapping seven-year-old.

The days are long, but the years are short.