Holiday Season Sick Days

by Lauri Griffin | More from this Blogger

12 Dec 2007 11:41 AM

Eeek! It's less than two weeks until Christmas! We haven't been having much fun our house for the last few days. The stomach bug bit us hard. We are camped out in the living room - one boy on the sofa, another on the love seat - trying to make the best of an unpleasant situation.

It's a bad time of year to be sick. We've had to cancel quite a few plans. The kids are frustrated because they are missing out on Christmas fun. And it's not just fun activities they are missing. People with upset stomachs don't need cookies, or fudge, or candy. At least peppermint sticks aren't hard on tummies. Ginger ale and Sprite seem like a festive way to keep up the liquid intake, especially when it comes with a straw.

Yesterday I hauled out our box of Christmas books. Even though my boys have mainly outgrown picture books the Christmas ones are special. We have several books that are pop-ups and a couple of very old ones that change pictures if you gently move a tab. The books bring back good memories and my sons love trying to figure out how the pull tabs work. I Spy books are nice for sick days, too. We are lucky enough to have the Christmas one. Reading aloud is a great sick day activity.

I also discovered that plain old markers work great on those ready to paint plaster ornaments. One of my sons felt good enough to sit up and paint but I didn't want him using real paint while he was on the sofa. We pulled out the markers and in some ways they are better than paint. The colors don't turn out to be quite as vibrant as paint, but actually have an antique or retro look. My son was very happy with the details he could put on the ornaments with fine tipped markers.

We've also got quite a few old VHS holiday movies. On a normal day the boys wouldn't be that interested in the Rugrats anymore, but today it helped.

Right now everyone is napping. I'm almost caught up on laundry. I think I'll put on a quiet Christmas CD, turn the tree lights on, and hope for a germ free holiday.

Also See:

The "I Spy" Books

Sick Day

Sick Days... What Sick Days?

Learn more about Lauri Griffin

Lauri lives in Colorado with her husband and three sons. Amidst all the laundry and packing of lunches, she tries to keep parenting fun.

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Lindsay Gray (19063) 12 Dec 2007 12:45 PM

I hope your sons feel better real soon!

Lauri Griffin (2703) 13 Dec 2007 08:39 AM

Thanks so much, Poliscmjr - that's so sweet of you!