Another Freeze Day & Delay

What do you call a "Snow Day" with no snow and subzero windchill temps?  Well, I've landed on Freeze Day after briefly contemplating this blog post title.  I don't know when these cancellations started happening, but we never had Freeze Days when I was growing up.  I figure at this point (since we are on our third delay and second cancellation simply due to cold temps), we ought to make the most of it.  Yesterday was another Freeze Day.  Koen actually really needed the extra gift of another day at home.  This cold that has taken him down for days, then Tav, then Penn and now me, is a long, annoying one.  Koen in particular has a hard time vocalizing how he feels and often tries to act like nothing is wrong even though it is apparent that something is really bothering him (it comes off like a major attitude and willful disobedience and finally after he crumbles due to how awful he feels I figure out that most of the behavior issues are stemming from his rough physical status at the moment...poor kid!).  So, I'm glad he got another day to recuperate at home, even if it meant that Tavin and I took the brunt of these negative behaviors.  Tavin's preschool had a Freeze Day too, so I came up with one of my lists and we had ourselves a day at home keeping busy and warm and with plenty of time for resting.  

Since Koen and Tavin were at each other's throats most of the day, it was hard to grab any happy photos of us getting through our schedule for the day.  Thankfully "create!!" time was a big hit.  Tavin is learning about animals that hibernate, the Poles and arctic animals at preschool, so we made a polar bear in keeping with those themes.

Koen has several homework projects right now and one that he is particularly excited about is his "culture kit" for the Asia unit their class is doing.  He chose Japan from the Asian countries they are studying.  He has to design a box and then fill it with at least 6 items that have something to do with the Japanese culture.  He has been so interested in learning about another culture (and inundates Doug and I with new Japan facts almost daily).  He was very excited to learn that there are frequent volcanoes and earthquakes in Japan (he loves weather and natural disasters just as much as his father) and so I figured making a model of a volcano would make a great craft time activity and be a good item for his culture kit.  He loved the idea and took great care in making it.  I took some pics of the culture kit box he's been working hard on as well.

Later after the little guys were in bed, Koen and I worked on another project.  Doug received a few gifts for the boys anonymously on his desk at work on Sunday.  This was quite a blessing as it provided the boys and I with some fun distractions on these cold days stuck in the house.  Anyways, Koen and I got to do a U-Build-It Connect 4 game.  It's like Legos and a board game all in one.  First you build the game, then you play it.  It took us 45 minutes to put it together and then we played for about 15 minutes before we were both ready to relax a little.  Ha!  It was a fun activity for us though, so thanks to whoever that was that surprised us with the game and other things.  

That sums up the highlights of the Freeze Day on Tuesday.  I was thankful for the time to just hang out with the boys and tried to keep that perspective (and not lose it when their boundless energy had them bouncing off the walls or their high emotions due to their colds had them at each other's throats).  On Wednesday, the temps were still in the single digits so the school had a 2 hour delay.  Koen was very thankful that it wasn't a cancellation though because his class had a field trip to make Japanese pottery at the Union Project.  I was happy for the delay to give him some more time to rest as he tries to shake this awful cold that is definitely nagging at him still.  Before he had to leave I let he and Tav watch a Handy Manny.  Penn likes to pretend to watch (and usually drives his bros crazy crawling over them on the couch).

The rest of Wednesday was pretty quiet and restful and when Koen came home it was evident he was feeling lousy.  I gave him the option of missing swim lessons, but of course he said he was fine, so we went anyways (possibly not my best parenting decision, but how does one know how their stubborn 6 year old is feeling if they refuse to tell you?).  Tavin and Koen made a lot of progress in their lessons, but by the end Koen was a wreck and I knew he was still feeling the cold symptoms.  We got home and shared dinner with our friend, Lisa, who stays at the house while I take the big boys to swimming and she and Penn have hang-out time.  Penn has really warmed up to Lisa.  Even with me around he brings books over to her, crawls in her lap and loves to read with her.  How precious!

After our fun taco night meal with Lisa, we got the kids upstairs for bedtime.  Koen went on a downward spiral really fast.  Thankfully he and Tav fell asleep quickly, but starting at midnight one of them was up on the hour every hour with cold issues or not being able to sleep because of the other one's noise, etc.  Koen's problem was very, very evident that his ear was hurting terribly.  I'm keeping him home from school today and taking him to the doctor.  We all get very little sleep (except for Penn and Doug who slept through it all).  Hopefully this poor Koen can get some relief today when he starts on meds.  My heart just breaks for him.