X-tra Stress

Well, thank goodness that week is over!  Henry came down with what seemed to be a bad stomach virus on Thursday.  His school called and said he was so ill, he needed to go home right away.  I was able to rush over on my lunch break and then bring him back to work so I could teach the last two classes of the day.  (In hindsight, not the smartest thing to do since he was clearly miserable and being around middle school kids did not help.)

When he was no better on Friday, I took him to the pediatrician instead of going on Liam's preschool field trip.  We'll just have to catch Seussical Jr. another time.  Good thing I brought Henry in and mentioned that Strep Throat had been reported in a classmate.  They did a culture and sure enough--positive.  His doctor prescribed penicillin straight--no chaser.  (Although I did have the pharmacy add apple flavoring to disguise the bitterness.) 

Henry did not perk up right away as one would expect with antibiotics.  It was a full 48 hours before he was even slightly active.  I don't think he ate a thing for 3 days.  (Oh, and he reported that his throat never hurt one bit--strange.)  Anyway, when Liam woke up with a fever on Saturday, I figured he had it too just as the doctor predicted.  Penicillin patient #2.  No problem--let's kick these germs out of here!

Fast forward to late Sunday night when Liam woke with a bloody face and red, angry welts on his hands.  Clearly some kind of allergic reaction that cause him to scratch himself for hours while he slept.  I'm surprised at how calm I was at 4 am.  He really did look like something out of an 80's horror movie.

I called for another substitute teacher and brought Liam to the doctor Monday morning as soon as they opened.  Looks fine, could have been penicillin but probably not.  Probably not?  I knew then that I should have taken a picture of him with my smart phone five hours earlier.  Oh, well--I was just glad he had recovered so quickly.  I asked about a different antibiotic since he only had 2 days worth of the penicillin.  Nope.  Probably doesn't have Strep after all.  Probably?   Well now he has a terrible cough and runny nose.   Henry, however, is much better and will be finishing the full ten day course of his antibiotic.

In spite of the excitement that illness always brings to a household (aren't you glad I skipped the part about cleaning the downstairs toilet seven times in one day?), I had time to help Liam put together his X Bag.  After missing two days of preschool, he brought it in today:


Letter Bag items:  fox, box, six, Rex, K'nex

 

We sent items that have the x in the final position. It's the /ks/ sound that young readers need to recognize. They'll see the rimes -ox, -ax,  -ix much more often than words that start with X. I'll leave teaching it actually makes the /z/ sound when in the initial position to next year's preK teacher.