Young Punks

Well, flu season is officially upon us. Elliette came down with a light fever yesterday, and this morning when I was busy trying to get Koletrane's bag packed for school, she barfed all over herself and her playpen. Man, if I had stuff in my belly that smelled that bad I would ralph too. It looked like curdled milk, and smelled about 100X worse. We usually drive Kole out to the bus stop in the winter since our driveway is VERY long and icy (its about 1/8 mile from our door to the bus stop), but this morning I had to send him out alone. There are other kids who wait out there, so I wasn't worried about leaving him alone on the street. Anyway, once I cleaned Elliette up and got some Motrin in her, we shared some saltine crackers and her mood improved a great deal. She still hasn't had much of an appetite to speak of, but she's been getting plenty of fluids and isn't acting very sick.

The boy has been crawling up my butt to start putting studs in his leather jacket ever since he got it. For some reason, people (including me, I'm ashamed to admit) told him that it may not be appropriate to go ahead with doing it since he wears it to school, and the administration might find it "inappropriate".  But the more I thought about it, it just seemed incredibly hypocritical to not let him modify his clothes and dress the way he wants to. Especially since I have a denim jacket covered in patches and studs. It just seemed to me like we were sending a message of  "don't stand out, keep your head down and don't do anything that would draw attention to yourself". That is NOT the way I want to raise my children. Haters be damned, he's a good kid, and he should be able to do and wear whatever he feels is "cool" as long as it's not endangering anyone else. THATS the message I feel is most important for kids to grow up with.