Day #2 of a sick child

Today Brayton was home for the 2nd day in a row with a cold. He really isn't lacking in energy, his cough just sounds terrible. I know if I sent him he wouldn't get a whole lot out of class, nor would anyone else with his hacking. We have now tried everything to help him :-) The vapor rub on the feet seems to help so he can sleep, but he says he doesn't like it because it makes his feet itch. Today I did a bath with the vapor rub smelling bubbles and that worked great. He stopped coughing for a few hours. We've tried hot (really just warm) tea, cough drops (Ludens, so more like lifesavers), soup, water, juice and now they are eating (Taite had to have one too) a frozen fruit thing.

He's been busy with his video games, Cartoon Network and a new Lego account that he registered for online. He was kind of frustrated with the Lego site because you have to make friends, but most of them want you to have something to give them before they will be your friend. He can't get over how wrong that is! Yesterday at supper he was telling us how this one character actually was smiling and he still said Brayton had to give him something before he would be his friend. Brayton said "He was smiling! Usually people who are mean don't smile!" Ah, it will be only a matter of time before he learns that's not true :-) As soon as Taite got home with Brayton's homework yesterday, Bray sat down and did it all! I asked if he missed school and he said he did. One of the things he had to practice was writing the capital 'W'. As he is writing them he says "We are supposed to write 10, but I always like to do extras" I looked at them as he was writing and thought they took up a lot of space, but didn't say anything. When he was finished on the one line writing 'W', he started to count them. . . 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (he looks at me ~ there were only 2 left to count (he assumed he'd counted wrong and there weren't 10 on the line; he'd just told me how he always writes extra) so he starts to count them again and still comes up with only 9. His solution is to squeeze in another 'W' that you couldn't really read, but he had to have 10! As he was writing so perfectly he said that in his class they picked the 2 students with the best handwriting to write a letter to a soldier and he and Payton (I thought that was cute) were chosen so they got to write the letters!

Tomorrow Chris comes home and we are all excited (wait and ask us in a couple days, though how excited we were. . .he's usually crabby for a few weeks after coming back)! This time wasn't so bad, though, with Skype's help. Brayton likes to watch himself on camera and that makes for an interesting call. Taite is usually playing in the background with the dog the whole time. It's a regular circus :-)

A couple of nights ago we started reading the book SuperFudge together. The boys and I take turns reading a page and they remind me if we miss reading it at night. They are also reading books on their own, but I enjoy reading with them because I LOVE it when they get the humor in the stories ~ it proves they are comprehending it and paying attention. It's still a special time for us even though they can read on their own and don't need to sit together ~ I'll take it as long as they will share with me!! Plus, in reading with Brayton, I can tell that he gets bored and that's how he reads ~ all monotone and boring. I'm just so glad they like to read I want it to continue because that is one of my favorite things to do and you can do it just about anywhere!