In case I’m in danger of giving the impression that Florida is all sunshine and alligator hunting, let it be known that my mom usually gets the phone calls about the bad times and I blog about the good times. Um…sorry Mum. Isaac developed a spotty rash all over his body, then got a touch of a bug that’s going around. He just didn’t feel great—reduced appetite, very sad half-hearted crying even during his favorite activities, generally needing to be held a lot. Poor little guy.
By Friday, he was very tired and didn’t really want to play, not even with his crocheted ball, for very long. The only thing that seemed to cheer him up was constant low-key movement. Kind of like…housework. So we folded laundry, vacuumed, and other baby-appropriate chores. Our house is rather clean. And it’s not even Cleaning Day!
After we folded all the baby blankets and baby socks (tiny socks!! my favorite!), stashed the onesies in their bin, etc etc, Isaac was tiring even of this, his most favorite of chores. So we made him a fort, which means I put the laundry basket over him. This was delightful, and garnered his biggest smile all day. Oh wait, he also gave a huge smile to the Jehovah’s Witnesses who showed up unannounced. Anyway, Isaac liked his laundry basket fort so much we let Pounce try it. 
Besides Isaac’s short bug, we’ve also had quite the issue with real bugs, like the nine caterpillars devouring the dill in the herb garden, and a fat spider (here trapped under a glass) creeping nonchalantly across the kitchen floor in broad daylight. Yuck!
A good thing about Chris’ schedule being all over the place this week—I think he got home at 7pm, 1am, 9:15pm, and worked from home one day—was that he was around the morning Isaac and I discovered the caterpillars and he sprayed them all dead. Their fleshy little corpses still litter the garden as a warning to other herb munchers. Caterpillars bring out an ugly side of my soul. Shore tours: when husbands are around to do bug things. Except I had to take care of the spider anyway because Chris stepped over the glass on his way to work. The [nonvenomous, Florida House] spider lives on in the herb garden with an understanding that he will not eat the dill. Upon penalty of death.
Japanese Fan Dance and the Art of Graceful Aging
West Side Dining
Moving Is (Sort Of) Difficult
Spanish Lullaby: Refrain
Ewww, I hate those spiders! One made its way into my house in Milton and I actually successfully prayed it to death. And by that I mean I sat there sobbing and praying that God would just let it die so that I didn't have to ruin a good book killing it. And then it died. It was either that or the remainder of my bug spray that I had just sprayed along the bottom of the door it crawled in through. That was nice of you to let it live in your garden though.
Is that a wolf spider? Yikes! When we first moved in, I trapped the stray almost dying cockroaches under red plastic cups that I weighted down with other household objects for Phil when he got home. This past weekend, he had a cross-country, and one of my hanging flowers suddenly had an ant hill, I found a crushed dead toad in the driveway (bird eventually got it after two days of turning black), and I think I may have killed a black widow headed to our sliding glass doors. Now, we don't have very many problems with bugs… gotta love new FL homes! Also, did Isaac have 5th's disease? Sophia had a rash, slight fever, and generally felt OK, but she had an all-over rash; this was when she was 3.
Ok, your friend who prayed the spider to death just made me laugh.
I am wondering, did Pounce like the fort as much as Isaac?
It's good to have something to do on sick days. Thanks for sharing all the great pictures of Issac!