Hand, Foot and Mouth

Some friends came to visit over the weekend and, unfortunately, Evie wasn’t feeling very well. On Sunday, Evie woke up at 4:15 (Happy Father’s day!) and proceeded to have an absolute fit until maybe 6. It was a doozy and I was very embarrassed to have her behaving as such with company over. It’s one thing for us to wake up at 4:15, but quite another for the entire building to wake up then.

We soon realized she was sick with a cough, a runny nose and a slight fever. She’s pretty much always sick though, so we decided to proceed with our plans anyway. We hit up the Pirate Exhibit at the Field Museum…so maybe it was a successful Father’s Day after all! She had a good time at the museum, but on the way home she was clearly exhausted.

Sara had noticed that she had a rash on her hands and was a little suspicious, but later when Evie fell asleep and Sara took off her socks and shoes to get her into bed easier without waking her up, she confirmed her suspicions when she saw a rash on Evie’s feet. It was not surprising, therefore, when we noticed some sores on Evie’s tongue: she had hand, foot and mouth disease. I will save you from seeing some of the awful results that show up in an image search, but if you’re a glutton for punishment it is quite disgusting.

We confirmed with the doctor that there is really nothing we can do except ride out the virus. Our friends wisely ducked out once it became obvious that “irritability” and “tiredness” (which are more or less the same thing) were actual side effects, not just the idle threats.

So we had a couple of rough days, although she seems like she is on the mend now. She can’t bring her plague to daycare this week, so her grandparents are staying with her.

I feel really bad for her because she was probably as miserable as she has ever been in her short life. One of the things we did to help her feel better was allow her to watch a movie. Now keep in mind this is only the second time we’ve ever let her watch T.V. The first was an Elmo potty video. And you can tell she doesn’t see much T.V. because when the movie started and Tinkerbell came out and painted the Disney logo, Evie said, “That was great!” and jumped down from her seat and made to leave.

The height of movie technology

The height of movie technology

She enjoyed the movie, especially the songs, but she got bored before the end. One of the best parts for me is when she went over to our cat and said, “Nala, I’m watching a movie about you. You’re big now.”

(Note to grandparents, this does not mean she’s allowed to watch T.V. whenever!:) )

Another funny thing that happened this weekend, obviously we were taking her temperature a lot due to her illness and, as usual, she replicates what she sees. Therefore there was a very awkward moment for both Sara and I independently when she pretended to take our temperature…let’s just say we don’t take her temperature orally.

In completely other news, the other night I had a dream that I was in Wisconsin and I got a fine for not having a moustache.

Wait, there’s a pirate party?

According to Reuters, the Pirate Party has actually won a seat on the European Parliament, via Sweden, including this no joke quote from the article:

The Pirate Party captured 7.1 percent of votes in Sweden

Pirates going legit? Gaining political power? What has this world come to?

Possible Pirate Party Logo

 

Pirate Defense

If you would have asked me, I would have said, “Nothing makes me happier than a good tower defense flash game.” Well, now I have to amend that statement to, “Nothing makes me happier than a good PIRATE RELATED tower defense flash game!” 

The game actually has nothing to do with pirates. I mean, the bad guys are pirates, but they could easily have been anything, even little green dots. But this is still a different take on the tower defense idea because instead of just towers, you have traps. So you have to build triggers for the traps so that they go off whenever a pirate steps on a trigger. You get bonus points for combos, for example, the pirate might step on a trigger next to a catapult, launching him through a bees nest and finally landing him next to some good old fashioned dynamite which would then blow up. Combo!

For the record though, I do not condone the killing of pirates in such a sneaky fashion; they should be killed in honest swashbuckling combat or by walking the plank, as god intended.

The Flu Pandemic

Well, the first cases of swine flu in Illinois have been confirmed, including 2 cases where Sara works. Which, obviously, reminds me of this song, by the Flying Fish Sailors:

Nothing can cheer you up about deadly flu faster than a pirate band.

I’m not sure what the deal with the swine flu is. I feel like people are trying to make me flip out about it, but I just can’t bring myself to be that worried about it. As far as I can tell, with less than 100 cases confirmed in the U.S. (that’s about .00003% of the population if I did my math right) and only one death, it is far far less common or deadly than the regular flu. Now, certainly it could continue to grow and then maybe we should start to worry, but it seems to me like the incidence is much lower right now than the reaction.

Well, the good news is, there is a website you can go to, doihaveswineflu.org

Another Important Developmental Toy

As we all know, an important developmental step in the life of a child is deciding which side to come down on in the endless Pirates vs. Ninjas debate.  The sooner this is settled the better, for example, if your child thinks that a ninja could beat a pirate, he potentially has some form of mental illness. Well, now we have a tool for helping your child make that decision earlier in life: the pirate vs. ninja mobile!

Via Gizmodo via Tony Vegas