Sick Girl #2

Before I went to bed last night, A was moaning in her sleep and when I checked on her she was sitting up in bed, seemingly awake, but unresponsive to my questions. I layed her back down, covered her up and she fell back asleep. I figured it was her legs hurting her, since she had complained of aching legs last night. She gets them after a day of a lot of activity, running and playing, days like our Life Learner events. Anyway, she came into bed with me later and she was hot with fever, so I guess she did not avoid whatever it was that E had.

It was her turn to lie on the couch all day. She watched a little tv, but was also wanting to do the puzzles in the Top Secret Adventure kits she has. She worked on a few and looked at the books that come with them, each about a different country. She kept calling out to me, asking things like, "What does c...h...i...n...a spell?" She has been doing this frequently the past few days and I simply give her the word. I have learned from experience that any funny business like asking her what she thinks it is, or prodding her to sound it out, is met with stubborn indignation. When she asks a question she expects an answer, darn it. If she wanted to know how to sound it out, that is what she would have asked. Or if she wanted to know if the word was what she thought it was, THAT is what she would have asked. And I know this because she has asked those specific types of questions before.

I am continually amazed at the passion exhibited by my children's efforts to learn things. Of course, I am also continually thwarted in any effort I may make to "teach" them anything. They truely know their own minds and their learning is totally their own, as well. I shudder to think what would become of their passion if they were forced to put aside their own adgendas and comply with a standardized learning plan. Might they become mindless, purposeless automatrons, perhaps? Good citizens, I'm sure. What is the point of living then, I ask you?

Ok, off my soapbox. Not sure where that came from. Must have been lurking just beneath the surface...

E and I took advantage of A napping today to make some flubber together. You can make it with glue and a borax and water solution, but we have this cool paint that makes great flubber. Same basic chemistry, just great colors with no effort! For some reason, once a new batch of flubber is made, the first thing to come out is the plastic dinosaurs. They both like to play dinos stuck in the tarpits with the puddle of flubber.

E also requested that we make cinnamon buns, and I agreed that would be great. Once I got the dishes done (with E offerring to help since she knew that would get the buns started sooner!), I found a new recipe for sweet dough to try. It was the best ever, so light and yummy. We'll be making that recipe again. They were done after dinner and with Daddy home from his business trip this week, we settled in to watch the new episode of Avatar on Nickelodeon. It has been a family event each week to watch this show together since it debuted last spring. We missed our Friday night routine over the summer and were glad to see it start back up with a new episode this week. We've got a family thing for anime, starting with Spirited Away and continuing with all the rest of Miazaki's films. This show is done in true anime style. And it cracks me up, so it's all good.

It was nice to have my partner home tonight for bedtime, so A and I could read HP together and E could have Daddy time. Can you guess what they did? Whoooooooooo lives in a pineapple, under the sea?