Calfgrit7 is joinin’ the Cub Scouts. He was unsure about the idea at first, but after we met the den boys at a bowling alley one Saturday a couple weeks ago, he started thinkin’ better ’bout it. He learned the Cub Scout sign, shake, salute, and motto immediately, and he’s proud to show ’em off when I ask him to perform for someone.

And then we went to the local Scout Shop to buy his uniform. I guess there’s somethin’ about a uniform that boys just love. He was very int’rested in everything in the store, and was excited to try on the shirt. I got ‘im the shirt, a hat, a belt, a neckerchief, and the patches he needs to start off. He was so happy with it all, he asked to take a picture of the stuff sittin’ on the sales counter. I handed him my camera-phone and you see the result.

His hesitance at our initial offer for him to join the Scouts had me worried he wouldn’t take to it. But his enthusiasm has grown. I was in Scouting as a young boy — Cub through Weblos — and I remember it as some fun with other boys. I don’t remember why I dropped out of the group, but I have a feelin’ it was prob’bly because it was too organized for me. I’m not big on organized clubs and such, and I can see this aspect of me in Calfgrit7. He and I both like “free time” to do our own thing.

Well, so long as he enjoys it and has fun in it, we’ll do Scouting. I’m glad we got him to try it, but if he decides it’s just not for him, we won’t push him in it.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

Calfgrit7 is studying fairy tales in school this week, and a homework project he had was to create a magic wand. We had two weeks notice, so we had plenty of time to discuss and plan what kind of wand he wanted. We also included Calfgrit3 in the project.

I explained the magic wand concept and asked them both what they wanted their wands to do. They wanted the wands to summon a dinosaur pet. Calfgrit7 wanted a meat eater pet and Calfgri3 wanted a plant eater pet. So I took their desires and went to The Home Depot and A.C. Moore for the supplies.

We spent an evening and a morning creating the wands, and I ended the construction by gluing the dino toys on as they directed.

The one on the left is Calfgrit7’s Allosaurus wand, and the one on the right is Calfgrit3’s “dinohorse” wand (CG3 pronounces “dinosaurs” as “dinohorse”). The colors on CG7’s wand is a volcano scene wrapped around the stick.

When I procured the wand materials, I made sure to get enough for Cowgrit to create a wand of her own, too. She did a great job with constructing and painting hers, but the magic she chose was not dinosaur related. Hers is supposed to make boys and men clean the house. Sadly, for her, so far, she has to imagine the magical results as much as the boys have to imagine their pet dinos.

Special Note

Happy birthday, brother!

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

Well it seems that I managed to make it through the flu invasion of our home without contracting the bug, myself. I’m amazed; shocked, even. This episode turned out considerably milder than I expected, apparently thanks to the previously-received flu shots and timely prescription of Tamiflu.

An interesting thing about illness and children is that when they’re on medication, like Motrin to reduce fever, you’d never know they were sick. When the Motrin is in full effect, the kids talk, play, and do everything they’d normally do. But when the Motrin wears off, and the fever comes back, they are the most pathetic things you’ve ever seen. And when you have more than one kid ill at the same time, you must keep them on the same medication schedule. You don’t want to have one coming down while the other is going up.

In our case, Calfgrit7 started showing symptoms Thursday night. We took him to the doctor Friday noon. The doc gave us the prescription for Tamiflu for both boys — to reduce Calfgrit7’s symptoms, and to help prevent Calfgrit3 from getting any symptoms. As we were about to give them their first dose of the med Friday afternoon, Calfgrit3 had a fever of 102 degrees. As it turned out, Calfgrit7 had the most severe symptoms in the family, but the illness came and went relatively fast. Calfgrit3 had very mild symptoms, and they went away quickly.

Cowgrit had been stoically suffering for a couple days — she thought it was just a bad cold — and her doc said Tamiflu wouldn’t help someone who was already so far into the flu. So she had longer suffering, and it was worse than Calfgrit3, but not quite as bad as how Calfgrit7 suffered at his worst.

And then there was me. I washed my hands so many times a day I probably lost three layers of skin. I wouldn’t let Cowgrit touch me at all until yesterday — I had to keep a sterile field around me unless contact was absolutely necessary. I slept either on the guest bed or the sofa for three nights. Cowgrit commented that the next logical step would be for me to carry a can of Lysol and spray everyone who got close to me.

When you see three people suffering from a nasty illness, and you know that if you get it, it will probably strike you harder (because of no flu shot), it’ll bring out the religion in you. “Please, God, don’t let me catch this.” I’ll hug and kiss and love up on my family tomorrow to make up for the “helping at arm’s length” of this past weekend.

* * * updated * * *

Dammit, dammit, dammit! Within a couple hours of posting the above, I went down hill like a rollercoaster. I started feeling a little bad and discovered I had a fever. I immediately went to the local clinic (no time to wait for an appointment time with my regular doctor) to get checked out. The doc prescribed me Tamiflu, and if it works as well for me as it did for my boys, I should be better in a couple days. Right now, I feel like crap.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

Cowgrit and both Calfgrits have the flu. It started Thursday night (February 14) and just got worse last night. Ironically, all three have had the flu shot, but I haven’t (I just forgot — I always get one, every year). Fortunately, even if the innoculation doesn’t prevent someone from getting the flu, it supposedly helps make the suffering less bad.

Since I haven’t had the shot this year, it’ll be a miracle if I don’t get it. And if I get it, I could have it worse than the rest of my family. Seeing them all suffering really puts fear in me thinking that I could get it worse. This has started to become a very nasty weekend, and it has all the potential of becoming downright hellish.

And to think, I had the boys hugging and kissing on me Valentine’s Day. I bought them a bunch of super hero Valentine’s cards (like kids give out at school) and told them they could get one for every hug or kiss they gave me. They showered me with love enough to get all the cards in five minutes. Those might have been the kisses of death for me — or at least the kisses of illness.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com