She's alright and a conversation.

Long-ish day here today.

Sam woke Ben and I up last night at least 9 times between us (or around there) and so we were all tired this morning.

Sam barely ate anything for breakfast.

We took Katie to school and hung out with a friend at a nearby mall. The little car/stroller was fun for a little while but then Sam just wanted to be held with her head on my shoulder while we walked and I pushed the cart. For Ever. (30 min +)(ouch, my arm STILL hurts!)

Obviously tired and out of sorts I checked her temp before lunch and it was 38.9...a bit of a fever. She slept a lot, sometimes in my lap, sometimes in a chair. A lazy day for us. Cloudy and drizzly as the afternoon went on. While she napped I made soup. Which she then didn't eat, but of course that's ok because she's sick. She did nibble on crackers and a few other things. And drank lots of water.

As we were reading after supper, she was falling asleep again, so I got her jammies, her second dose of Advil and put her to bed. Katie and I were colouring (Henry and Diesel 10, from Thomas books) when Sam heard dad come home from his soccer assistant coach meeting (for Katie's team) and she walked out of her room saying she wanted to be up. Then dad went out again for groceries...he's a Really Useful Dad. =)

I held Sam while Katie and I drew pictures. And then, this magical drawing/strorytelling took place...
...here's a square, see how I can make it a box?
...oh, I should use this colour, Sam?
...Hmm...sea green
...let's draw an octopus
...Katie will draw his face
...why is he sad Katie? Oh, because the other fish and octopus friend wouldn't play with him and I should draw him in a cage?
...like this?
...Sam, you think he's sad and he should have a toy?
"...yeah"
...Ok, I'll draw a toy car...ok a red one.
...Kaitie, you want me to draw the mean octopus who put him in the cage?
...The mean octopus isn't letting the one in the cage have any food? Well, I'm sad about that, so I'm going to draw some seaweed for him.
...Yes, Katie, they eat little fishes too, I'll draw one of those.

And on and on. And while this conversation was so organically creative that I was tickled just by this, I was also glad to start to see Sam come alive a bit. I then noticed it was raining more so we went to the front window to see what we could see.

Katie: Cars! Houses! Trees!
Sam: smiles a little...and says "Pinecones!!"

And then Katie gets silly and lists all the things we saw in a funny voice and before you know it both girls are doing it and laughing hysterically.

So, I think Sam is feeling a whole lot better. Already she doesn't even feel quite as hot to me. Phew. Not that I was really really worried, but they are just so seldom feverish (knock on wood) that I get a little worried when that happens. Though, I don't think we had a single temper tantrum today. That's a bit magical too. =)