Summer Vacation Day 51: Sick Aiden and (Spoiler Alert) 'Sick' Sophie

Hello, Tim!

Today was another Monday, a second last Monday that comes from the dying summer break.

Good grief.

I am so not ready.

8/20, Monday

Aiden was sick. Again.

Every time the kids face a brand-new place, they would easily become sick. For example, when Aiden started his kindergarten for the first day, he caught the flu so bad he had to take a sick leave. Now, he just moved, and he caught scarlet fever? I mean, we all know that kids are sensitive to environmental changes, but wasn’t this a bit too much? Kids are so poor, needing to go through all these while their surroundings kept changing like this.

Look at the cute and asleep boy.

Scarlet fever was not scarce among children and adolescents. It is a germ-caused syndrome that gives you the rash on every inch of your skin, little red dots riddled across your back. You might have a fever and would possibly feel nauseous and so on. According to some brief introduction on the Net, if not treated properly, it could lead to permanent impairment of vital organs like the heart and the livers.

We took care of him- all lively and bouncing, without a sign of feeling sick- while he was behaving well until Mom got a call from the kids’ mom, saying that the school asked her to pick Sophie up from school at noon, even though she was supposed to have four more hours of class. Why was that?

‘A suspected case of stomach flu,’ was the answer I got from Sophie’s school nurse when I arrived at Daoming International School hurriedly in a taxi twenty minutes later. The nurse showed me that Sophie said that her hands felt itchy, and there were some weird red dots forming on her palms. To avoid carrying the (supposedly) highly contagious flu around the school was not what the school wanted, so that was why Sophie was sent home like this.

Sophie and the barely functioning mask.

I had to state that when Aiden was the only person to take of, he was both understanding, loving, energetic (seriously, the only thing that proved that he was indeed sick were the little rash dots on his arms and calves.) but well-behaved. It was a turnaround description with his big sister present.

There were rude comebacks -some utterly disrespectful- coming from Sophie, and the obstinate non-cooperation from the sister-present-Aiden. They wouldn’t even behave when waiting for just a trifle FIVE minutes at the waiting seats at the hospital.

My mom and I tried everything- ranging from stern shouting, very serious scolding, punishing time-out, serious scolding WITH punishing time-out, all the way to no-snack/IPad threats and nice talks, putting-a-carrot-in-front-of-a-donkey-style tactics, talking sense (pfft) … But none of them worked, and it ‘amused’ us every time. I know that one of the definitions of the word ‘kid’ was ‘acting upon the exact… opposite words you say in an imperial sentence,’ but for real…

Where do we find a Nanny McPhee?

I love kids, and I love almost everything about them, but I certainly do hope not ending up with the devious side of Sophie and Aiden (their angel side are very sweet, mind you) as kids.

This is all for today.