Sick Chicken Soup

Last weekend, while Natalie was in New Mexico, we took Olivia and Parker with us to Wal-Mart to do our shopping.

While we were getting ready to go, Parker was so cute. I put a T-shirt on him (the weather was so nice), and he was upset with me because he didn't want that shirt. He took it off and said "I want a cowboy shirt." I don't know where he got that, except that earlier in the day, I was talking on the phone about Natalie's cowgirl party plans for her 5th birthday in May. Anyway, he went with me to his room so I could try to find a cowboy shirt. I found a red plaid long-sleeve button-down shirt and pulled it out and asked him if it was okay. He said, "Yeah, good cowboy shirt." It was so cute and silly. He was very happy.

So, a trip to Wal-Mart with the kids always takes 3 times as long as it would without them. I had Olivia in my cart, and Billy had Parker in his. We sort of split up for part of the time to try to make things faster. When Olivia and I reached the frozen meat section, I was searching for boneless chicken breast, and she was standing on the back end of the cart, hanging on (and making it difficult to steer). I was keeping watch on her to make sure she didn't hop off and start poking the meat packages. Well, she is so fast when she is doing something she knows she shouldn't do. I witnessed in horror (literally) as she quickly reached her arm toward the freezer and scooped up raw chicken juice with her finger from the lid of a carton at the base of the freezer. Faster than I could make the 3-foot distance to her, she stuck her finger in her mouth. I almost puked right then. I grabbed her hand out of her mouth and bent down to her face and told her she would make herself sick doing that. In the time it took me to pull the cart away from the freezer, she quickly reached over and did it again. She was seriously scooping up raw chicken juices and licking them. I think I might puke now just typing about it.

So, I figured for sure she would be sick this week. She's fine. Poor Natalie has been sick for a few days with a high fever and just feeling yucky and looking yucky. She was better today - enough to participate in some activities and eat a little.

Oh, something cute and not disgusting that Olivia did today:

I put some cheese crackers on the table for Parker, and he went to the living room to play, forgetting that he had crackers there. A little bit later, he came to me asking for more crackers. I asked Olivia to show him where I put his crackers. She enthusiastically said, "OK", and she picked up a little pointing stick (out of a kite kit) that she was playing with. She walked over with her hip-shaking walk and said, "Ok, Parker...here and here and here," as she pointed with the stick like a teacher. It was funny. Later, Parker asked me for more crackers, even though he still had some on the table. Olivia overheard him ask, and before I could say anything to him, she picked up the stick and said very loudly with a sigh, "One more time! Here, here, and here." I was cracking up. These kids are so dramatic. I have noooo idea where they got that.