Chicken pox!

Apologies for not updating on Friday, but there was nothing to show as I was in London until late on Thursday and since then I have been frantically trying to sort out Christmas things while juggling a poorly boy. We now know why he has been fractious and more grizzly than normal over the last few days as yesterday evening we discovered the first spots and today we went to the NHS drop-in centre who confirmed that Alex has chicken pox. This means that this coming week is going to be an interesting juggling act between work (three grants to write before Christmas) and looking after Alex because Tim is too ill to take him all the time. Such is life.

Despite not being well we have had a nice weekend with Alex, playing with cars, trains, stickers, drawing etc. Yesterday evening we went for a run around the park as he needed some fresh air and Tim needed some sleep. I dressed him up nice and warm, and he decided he wanted to wear a scarf and the only one we could find was mine so he wore it the whole time! Alex enjoyed it for the most part, coming down the slide, crawling through the tunnel, scooting round on the scooter and generally having a nice time, although he was a lot more tired than normal (unsurprising now we know what is wrong with him). Today we went to the NHS drop in and confirmed our suspicions and this afternoon we played outside again, even though it was freezing - we can't go anywhere indoors as he is still infectious. We may be able to get away with unpopular parks out of the usual hours as the infection is airborne, but we must be considerate of others. I think the poor little thing is going to be really bored by the end of the week! Crafting wise I have taken a break from Christmas and continued to scrapbook my childhood. This first page followed a sketch by Lyn on Quirky Crafts Forum and is entitled 'Snow Day'. It uses almost entirely elements and papers from the Cosmo Cricket Jolly By Golly range. The snowflake brads are Papermania. The journalling reads 'Me with my snowman, built in the front garden at Barr with the help of friends and my seaside bucket. Aged 4'. The second page fits with the challenge from Scrap and Stamp which is to scrapbook yourself. It is entitled 'St John's my first school' and uses the Basic Grey Recess papers and stickers, Just Rite (alphabet), Woodware (star) and Tanda (compass) stamps with Adirondack and Distress inks. Part of the challenge was to include your own hand-writing, which I used for journalling and for writing a few of the things I remember from school round the edge of the matting (marbles, dancing, learning, off-ground touch, drawing). The journalling reads 'St John's, Taunton, was my first school. I attended there for two years from pre-school aged 4 (left hand photo) to Kindergarten (right hand photo). I had the smae teacher, Mrs Gerrard, who I thought was wonderful, and my best friend was Jane Drummond. Sadly the school is now a carpark'. I would love to know what you all think. Have a great week everyone.

Love,

Caro

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