Benda-what? Benda-who?

This week, my kids came down with yet another mystery illness. R started to feel warm and on Wednesday and then he started coughing. Pretty soon he was asking for his "breathing medicine." He has a touch of asthma (nothing near as severe as what I have, thankfully) and although his inhaler used to make him scream as a baby, now he realizes that it makes him feel better and he frequently asks for it when he's sick.

The next day, L started to feel sick and get feverish. By dinnertime she had projectile-vomited all over our white carpet. Fun stuff. The weird thing about this illness is they seem to get better and worse in waves. Sometimes they act perfectly fine and then later they're lying on the couch moaning and asking to snuggle.

So it's been an exciting few days of snuggling, napping, cleaning up vomit, and doing at-home activities. Despite being sick, one of L's favorite things to do is play in the backyard (in the 100-degree heat index weather) in the kiddie pool. After the adventure of inflating the crummy one the other day only to have the holes I put in it the first day we opened it up start leaking, I ordered a non-inflatable one on Amazon. I was amazed by how much water it holds!

The thing took at least 15 minutes to fill by hose and you have to watch the sides carefully, because they don't really stand up until it's over half-full. Once it was full, L played in it for about 5 minutes and was done. R didn't even stay interested long enough for it to fill up. Preschoolers are so fickle! I'm planning to leave it filled as long as possible and just skim off the bugs and leaves.

Another of L's favorite activities is playing with Bendaroos. Actually, she likes to watch me play with the Bendaroos. Thankfully, I find the activity rather fun, if sometimes aggravating. Those things don't stick like they appear to in the commercials. Even as I type this she is begging me to make more. Here is my lovely collection of sculptures (so far):

In case you can't tell, that's (from left to right) an alligator, elephant, starfish, ice cream sundae, penguin, watermelon slice, clown fish (like Nemo), pumpkin, giraffe, lion, cheeseburger, panda, and seal. I'm especially proud of the ice cream sundae. I spent at least 2 hours on that one. Of course, that's mainly because the included instructions called for a fancy vase-like bowl that kept coming apart. Eventually, I scrapped it and created my own bowl using foil inside to wrap the Bendaroos around. L was so patient while I worked. At one point, though, she fell asleep at my feet.

The final activity L has been participating in a lot is finger painting... with food. Though her dad and I aren't thrilled with the mess it makes, I hate to stifle her creativity.

Hopefully, we'll be out of sickie-land soon without a mommy or daddy casualty. OK, I guess it's time to work on my Bendaroo shark!