Healthy Me, Healthy You!

Along with the fall comes back to school and sharing. Lots and lots of sharing. Ok, most sharing is a good thing. It shows complex reasoning, higher thinking, creativity, etc. Unfortunately, it also means we all get sick:) Lucky for us, we haven't been too hard hit so far. I wanted to nip that idea of sharing germs in the bud by doing a week of Healthy Me, Healthy You. I think we may have a follow up week on nutrition after halloween because it was a HUGE hit! We had a GREAT dramatic play area this week with doctors and poor little cabbage patch patients (they ended up covered in bandages and oxygen tubes, gauze, etc. We were able to make doctor nametags, stethescopes, lots of germ demonstrations and experiments among other things. I think it made a real, lasting impression too! Ike keeps singing "5 Little Germs!" instead of 5 Little Ducks now:)

Ok, I know you're dying for the words...
5 Little Germs were busy at play
on a child's hand one day
They were playing side by side
Then the child washed and one germ died! (Each time you sing this line, the child takes a bar of soap and pretends to wash really well). ** I have great germ clipart that goes with this for feltboard

One demonstration was putting blue soap/paint mixture on one of the kids' hands and letting him touch several different objects in our classroom, thus showing how we spread our germs if we don't wash.

We also made doctor bags and painted at the art center with different doctor supplies like gauze, cotton balls, q tips, sponges, etc.

The other day, we paired up and I squirted blue paint/soap on one partner's hand. The other partner had to take a baby wipe and try to wipe it all off their partner's hand. This demonstrated how well we have to scrub tops, bottoms and in between. It was a great week!

writing prescriptions

Wouldn't you trust them to take out your appendix?

Artwork called "Tissue Tina"

Sick in the City

Just as luck has it, I am conquering my first illness in Phoenix. Lucky because Ben is still on break until Monday:) I wanted to post this in case any of you ever have similar symptoms. I know without the keen awareness and loving prodding of my "sister," Jen and "mother," LaJean, I would be in a heap of trouble! As most of you know, I am breastfeeding Zach. I have been nursing him now for 6 months. Wow! Six Months! I also nursed Ike for a year, so I'd like to think of myself as somewhat experienced in the matter:) Well, chalk one up to learning a lesson... Yesterday afternoon I noticed that I was awfully sore when nursing on one side... like the engorged soreness you feel when you first begin nursing. Anyway, as the day wore on, I realized it wasn't going away. I also noticed my breast was really hot and getting pinkish in spots. After a few hours, I also started feeling flu-like symptoms... achy body, headache, nausea, you get the picture... Anyway, as we were driving back from a little day trip to Anthem, I started putting it all together and remembering a story about Mastitis my mother in law had told me years ago. I remembered her saying that it was important to see a doctor immediately because Mastitis can have severe complications if left untreated including fevers above 104, milk ducts completely blocked (leading to surgical procedure to lance), etc. She was hospitalized with Mastitis several years ago... So, after a nice little chat with my "advisors," I made a trip to urgent care to get it checked out.
      Now comes the Sick in the City... Our insurance only approves certain Urgent Care centers, and it is a holiday weekend, so my choices were limited. I ended up at a good one, but a busy one. I sat in a waiting room with about 15 sick people for 2 HOURS! Ughh! I just kept getting out my bath and body tangerine lime hand sanitizer and trying to breathe my own air. Luckily I had a few people to text or I would've been going crazy(er). Anyway, because of the sicknesses going around, etc. Ben had to wait in the car and at Quiznos next door with our kids (as our good friends are all out of town) and I needed him to drive me... not to mention, I had to feed Zach halfway through my wait. Luckily, the receptionist was nice enough to let me nurse in the car and then call me when it was my turn. It just wasn't very safe to bring in my unvaccinated child;)
       In the end, the doc took one look at me and knew it was mastitis. I am on an antibiotic and tylenol, and obviously not sleeping very well having lots of flu like symptoms. He said I should be feeling better in a couple of days. I am just feeling really blessed to be able to go to the doctor when I need to and to have a mother in law, and sister in law good enough to teach me about things like this and strong enough to tell me to get to the doc immediately. If I would've waited, I know my fever would've been really really bad. So, life will be good, and for now, I'm trying to not work too hard... we'll see how that goes:)

As long as we're talking candy...

So, I read on my friend's blog about her favorite candies... makes sense... there's sure a lot of it around our post-halloween infested house! I have a few thoughts about this candy business...
   1. I now understand why parents are so plagued by their kids getting too much halloween candy... first, I don't want to eat it all. I'm working hard to not touch it
   2. It is constantly on our minds. I feel bad having to ration it for the family, but lets face it... none of us need that sort of sugar intake!
   3. We can't even GIVE it away! I've tried, but it seems everyone has this problem of too much candy. Strange times we live in:)
   4. I have heard of a couple solutions... my favorite is a dentist in Laramie, one of our good friends, offered to buy candy from the kids (up to five lbs. worth) and is then packaging it and sending it to the troops in Iraq. That is a great idea! I wish we could've donated ours:)
   5. My favorite candy is the kind that is out of my house! I like chocolate, but if I'm choosing a sinful sweet, it is hands down cookies. Keep your yucky candy:) The boys in my house love anything sweet though.
   6. Why is it that sugar products have to be so bad for you? I think just looking at them makes me gain weight... too bad.

Anyway, enough candy ranting... If any of you have a great idea on a way to dispose of this candy without actually disposing of it, let me know! I'm open to suggestion!