This felt like a hard week and I wanted to wave my flag of surrender many a time. Sunday night Sarah got sick with a tummy bug. I spent the night on her floor so I could be ready at a moment’s notice to hold a bowl for her in case she had more puke or to give her a drink of water. She was home sick Monday and I cancelled my morning plans so that I could be home with her and Sonia could stay away so as to hopefully remain well. Tuesday Sarah stayed home from school but Sonia was here because Sarah seemed very much on the mend. Wednesday and Thursday Sarah went to school, though she protested first. Thursday afternoon her teacher said that both days Sarah had spent a large chunk of time at school crying for me. I don’t know if this is her having a harder emotional time because we are in a new developmental stage or because her ongoing dirty undie situation is stressful for her especially when it happens at school, or if it was that she still wasn’t well and I didn’t know that. Wednesday Carl got sick with the tummy bug and Thursday Sonia got sick with it and was out Thursday and Friday. Thursday night I had to cancel my client 15 minutes before our appointment because Sarah suddenly showed significant signs of pink eye. I cancelled and I sent the sitter home. Friday morning I took Sarah to the doctor. Two weeks ago at her well-visit check-up she had an ear infection but because she didn’t seem bothered by it we didn’t treat it. She still had the ear infection. Now she is on Amoxicillan and eye drops. Thursday night I also had a headache for most of the night that continued at a low level throughout Friday. Saturday morning Carl and I woke up with pink eye. Earlier in the week Amy had an audiology test at her school. She didn’t pass in one ear. Friday they did a retest after a discovery of faulty equipment. She passed! That last bit was wonderful news, but the first bit of not passing did not add ease to my week. Saturday I spent a large portion of the day reading in bed to refill my Jenny reservoir. Today we had an amazing team meeting to start the day (though not without first thinking Amy was getting the tummy bug and canceling the sitter so that Carl stayed with the girls and missed the meeting; Amy has been in perfect shape since 10 minutes before the meeting and continuing throughout the day, which is awesome but I might wish there had been no blip of tummy discomfort).
Anywho, that is a lot of words. It has been a lot of week. I have totally rocked many moments. I have also felt very empty and as if I wanted to just turn to sugar, fat, salt, and comfort food but couldn’t actually find the right food and I know that certain sugary foods won’t actually help me feel better and will only make me feel like I am getting a cold. This awareness bit can sometimes be so inconvenient! 🙂 There were a few times when I just sat on a small step stool because I couldn’t think of anything to do or eat or say that would help me feel different so I just sat with myself and that actually did help (of course).
Back to the team meeting…I shared all of my recent struggles and we talked about ways to incorporate more academics into the SR sessions in the most SR-ish way we can. I love these amazing, creative, dedicated, loving, smart, wonderful people!! I think we all felt invigorated and ready to leap into future SR sessions. I realized that I can teach history from the angle of whatever Sarah says or does that reminds me of something from the past. I can look up the history of clocks. When she is persistent about wanting something I can connect that to the persistence of women working to get the vote. I can wear a dress from the Civil War era that is covered in dots and then talk about how things were different then as compared to now (clothing, technology). We thought about ways to incorporate math with Sarah’s love of confetti or counting how many letters are in the state names on the map in the SR room. We talked about using Sarah’s love of her own personal history to help her with telling stories and we can tell her our stories too. We discussed how to have things go wrong. Maybe we try to solve a problem but we don’t count right and we need her help to get it right. Maybe we take apart various contraptions that I find at the center for creative reuse. We want to have whatever we are doing be fun or interesting for Sarah, salient and relevant to her loves and current interests.
One highlight of the week was when Amy decided to make herself look like Daniel Tiger. Sarah saw this and immediately grabbed markers to decorate her own face. She then said to her own reflection, “I look gorgeous.” I love how often Amy will do or say or sing something and Sarah will notice it and want to do it to. In those moments I feel like my work here is done.
I hope you are all well.
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