Flu Fighters

WHEN PIGS FLY: Perhaps you've heard by now - the swine-avian-hybrid 2009 H1N1 is bad news. And for months now we've been hearing the "getvaccinatedgetvaccinatedgetvaccinated" message loud and clear on the news, especially regarding the kids. Good advice, but one small problem - it's almost imfrickingpossible to find any vaccine. I've been monitoring the supply - or lack thereof - and last Friday spotted a news story that a few thousand doses were arriving in Seattle (population 602,000 within city limits, around 3 million in the greater metro area, I think). One pharmacy in Ballard had a shot clinic on Saturday and lines stretched for 8 blocks.

That said, you can't get any if you don't try. So Sunday night I packed blankets, bags, books, layers of clothing and food as if we were going camping. We had our list of places to try to get the shot and Monday morning we started our day before sunrise. That's right kids, get up, we gotta run to the doctor's office in hopes we're lucky enough to be able to get them to shoot some of the live H1N1 virus up your nose! Now, who wouldn't want to crawl out of a nice warm bed for that?

Our first stop was Group Health, the HMO we're a part of. Friday evening, after hours, their Web site said they had a very limited supply of FluMist for eligible children. We were at their huge Capitol Hill compound by 7:15 a.m. Monday. Mercifully, the warm building was open (it was cold and raining outside). The injection room didn't open until 8, and we wouldn't know until then if we were going to be able to get the vaccine for the kids or not. So we waited in the lobby, catching more than a couple of 'you're crazy people' glances. Yeah, well stare all ya want, I'm just trying to keep my kids healthy. ... Of course there were no signs anywhere as to the status of supply. Why give people information when you can keep them guessing? ... Anyway, long story long, we DID get the kids immunized this a.m and were at Top Pot Donuts by 9 a.m. It really couldn't have gone any better for us.

I have to admit, later that afternoon, as I passed a pharmacy in Ballard that was giving while-supplies-last shots today only, I felt a little guilty. The line stretched around not just THE block, but for blocks, with people out in the elements, including many with babies in strollers. :(

HEADLONG: After a weekend away from formal (pencil to paper) learning, we were back at it with a vengeance today. We did a hybrid coin/probability/math worksheet, and then some math, math and more math. The kids were troopers, for the most part.

TURKEY TIME: After the math activity, it was time for some fun and fine motor skills work. I had the kids trace one of their hands five times on different colored paper and they cut those out. Then I traced each of their feet and they cut those out. The feet were glued together to form a turkey body, and the hands were used for its tailfeathers. They added eyes, a beak and legs, of course. While they worked, I hunted down some turkey-inspired songs on YouTube.

The first one was a quirky but sweet Albuquerque Turkey. The kids especially dug the parts of the song where the singer yodeled and they attempted to join her. I found another song called Albuquerque Turkey, this one was a completely different song, an instrumental, and very bluegrassy. The kids were bopping in their seats almost instantly. That's right, we love us some bluegrass at MPA! I told the kids when it's bluegrass, "You don't call it a violin, you call it a fiddle!" And Annabelle said, "Do you hear them stompin' and clappin'?" I told her I did and that "every once in awhile you have to let out a 'YEE HAW!' That set them off into fits of laughter and cries of "YEE HAW!"

Soon, they'd finished their turkeys and they took them on a turkey trot around the house. Kirby joined in, of course.
READIN' DOWN THE PILE: In an attempt to whittle down the mountain of library books we have, we read three books today. One, "The Thanksgiving Door," was about an elderly couple who, after burning their holiday meal at home, enjoys dinner out with immigrant restaurant owners. The moral of the story was that sometimes bad things turn into good things. A sweet story, but I couldn't help but notice obvious similarities to "The Christmas Story."

Next up was "Henry and the Crazed Chicken Pirates." Henry lives amongst a band of pirate rabbits. The group finds a note on the beach from an invading army. The rabbit pirates disregard the warning, but Henry, a worrier, begins planning their defense, which turns out to be a very prudent thing to do. Henry single-handedly saves the day. The book has colorful illustrations, but about a month ago, CJ let me know he isn't a fan of anthropomorphic animals. (No, he didn't use those words - he said he didn't like books where animals wear clothes and talk.)

While we were waiting at Group Health this a.m., Christian read a nonfiction book about lizards with Annabelle, who has been begging to hear it for three days. (CJ was unavailable at the time of the reading, as he was playing Club Penguin on his Nintendo DS.)

PENCIL US IN: At one point during math time this morning Annabelle was idle, staring off into space. But contrary to what I was thinking, she wasn't just spacing out. I know this because she popped off with, "How are pencils made?" I told her I wasn't sure, but I thought it was by trolls gnawing on trees. She discounted my theory, instead suggesting that they were made by cavemen. CJ had a silly theory, too, but we were all wrong.

I found an episode of "How It's Made" featuring pencil production. We learned that pencil 'lead' is really a mixture of graphite and clay. Pencils start out as a rectangular plank of cedar. Channels are cut into it and glue is poured into the channels, followed by the graphite. Another cedar plank is smooshed on top and then the 'sandwich' is cut into sticks and then shaped into a writing instrument.
PEDAL PUSHERS: While the skies cried all morning and into the early afternoon, by 3 p.m. there were a few breakthrough rays so we decided to get out into it. We mopped off the kids' bikes and headed for Terminal 91/Puget Sound. It was windy (whitecaps on the water) but not too cold. The kids biked about 3 miles round trip, I'd guess.

POP TARTISTS: Over the weekend the kids received the t-shirts they created on the Pop Tarts Web site. Needless to say, they were pretty excited when opening the envelopes and proud to put them on (though you would NEVER know it based on this photo. It looks a bit like a DUI mug shot - and this was the best of 4 pix I took of them in 'em!) ...