RECAP: Flu Bug and Valentines Day

This has not been the most stellar year for Max in regards to staying well and avoiding illness. It seems that everytime a bug goes around the school/his class, he is a super-magnet for catching it. Saturday night (Feb 11) around 12:30am, he woke up with the flu. He suffered with it all night long and throughout Sunday. There is a nasty gastro-intestinal flu bug going around. As the days progressed we were hopeful he was getting better since he seemed to be doing fine during the day. But nights were not so fine. He couldn't keep anything down and was throwing up every night. We went to see our doctor on Wednesday and discussed everything with him. He agreed that it was going on long enough and if things didn't turn around within 24 hours we were supposed to come back to his office. Thankfully (there were an awful lot of prayers being offered) on Thursday afternoon he stabilized (no more throwing up) and slowly began to improve. It was a big moment of high-fiving when he was able to eat one saltine cracker (took almost an hour....just little bites!) and not have any rumbling grumbling going on in his stomach AND he kept it down! Liquid Gravol, Crackers and gatorade seemed to help him get back on track. It was very helpful to have the long weekend to give him that extra day to gain back his energy and be ready for school.

The only items offered on the menu for him were crackers, toast, bananas and gingerale:

Valentines Day. So of course, Valentines Day happened smack dab in the middle of Max being sick. The holiday is a little bit of a big deal at our house. I love celebrating Valentines! Not because it's a mushy lovey-dovey holiday...I just love the happiness and lovelyness of the day....all the red and pink everywhere....and who can forget indulging in yummy treats?! This year we did our best to celebrate but truthfully, Max was sicker than sick and as the day went on he just felt more and more horrible. The first part of the day was good and we tried to do a few little special things to take away his disappointment of not being at school for his Valentines Party.

Very glad he had written out his valentines a week early. I dropped them off at school that morning so his teacher could distribute them with the rest of the classes valentines. Scratch and sniff valentines. I love how his mind thinks...only girls got pink cupcakes. Only boys got chocolate cake. The peppermints and strawberries went to both boys and girls.

First thing that morning after dropping off his valentines at school, we headed to our little downtown to pick up some gatorade for Max. I stopped at Is this Chair Taken? (cutest little store!!) and picked up some pirate shrinkydinks for him to make and then we swung by the movie store to pick up a couple of flicks for him to watch.

Back at home, I raided my scrapbooking stash, looking for pink and red patterned papers which I used to cut out hearts. While I "heart attacked" the kitchen, Max sipped on his gatorade and worked on shrinkydinks:

What are shrinkydinks? Pictures on thin plastic sheets that you colour with pencil crayons:

Then you bake them in the oven for 30 seconds and watch as they shrink to miniature hardened little shapes. Very fun!

Next we decided to try our hand at baking a gigantic chocolate chip cookie in the shape of a heart for Keith. Max had lots of helpful tips and hints, including the fact that you have to leave it in on the oven longer to bake because it's so big. (He had baked a gigantic cookie with his Aunt LeeAnne a while ago. I have never done anything like this. He was the expert when it came to this project!)

I used this chocolate chip cookie recipe...it's reeeealllly good.

Courtesy of my sweet long-time friend Julie! :-)

All mixed and ready to pop in the oven:

While the gigantic cookie was baking, the doorbell rang and a special delivery arrived:

Thankyou my honey!

This was the how the cookie turned out:

DELICIOUS! It cooked evenly throughout. It helps to make sure your batter is even and not too thick before you bake it. The only problem was getting it off the stone. It was just tooooo big to lift off with a lifter so it started breaking on me. Next time I will put some parchment paper underneath I think. And yes, I will definately make it again. Serve warm in individual bowls with a scoop of icecream on top. Mmmmm!

Our next door neighbours delivered a beautiful and delicious cupcake for the Maxter. So sweet!

I stopped by the school at the end of the day and picked up Max's valentines so he could open them at home. He was looking forward to this all day long:

sweet loot!

By this point, he was starting to not feel very great. Rumbling and grumbling topsy-turvy stomach...

So we made a little nest for him on the couch, downloaded some new games for him on my phone and there he stayed for the rest of the day/evening. 

Chocolate covered strawberries are a must on Valentines! ;-)

Friday things started looking up. We made a little nest out of soft cuddly blankets in our office. All the hockey books were rounded up and read out loud ( by me), more new games were played on my phone, gatorade sipped, crackers munched on and a new Adventure in Odyssey CD was listened to over and over and over again:

Max has been blessed with two very sweet and kind grandmas for sure. Grandma J lives a distance from us, but she kept in touch and called to see how he was doing during his flu bout. Grandma G heard that Max was craving all kinds of (random!) foods that he likes eating at her house (chicken, blueberry pancakes, homemade applesauce, turnips). Friday afternoon, a text came through from her:

Awww! She cooked him his own fresh little batch of yummy applesauce. He was tickled!

Friday afternoon: That smile on his face, says it all. No more tummy rumblings. No more tummy grumblings. No more tummy topsy-turvy-ness.  All he's waiting for now is his dad to get home from the wild wild west and then all will be well with the world!

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The Never-Ending Resource

Prayer is... a mine which is never exhausted...

It is the root, the fountain,

the mother of a thousand blessings.

~John Chrysostom