The first sign of any childhood illness in my home is altered behavior. My son, Mikey, is usually off the walls driving every one nuts with his far too much energy, too loud voice and constant need to move or speak or both. So today when he seemed quiet and kept to himself, I knew something was wrong.
It started as soon as he awoke. Mike was leaving for work and I heard the boys in the stairway. Mikey usually has happy cooperative energy in the morning, but today he was jealous and cranky. I could tell that his throat hurt because he grimaced when he swallowed his juice.
His energy level went downhill until by Tommy's PT at 10:30, instead of inserting himself, Mikey was withdrawing to the bedroom to take a nap which he all but gave up. He slept or FOUR HOURS AND WOKE UP WITH 103F fever. Yikes.
It reminds me also of this blog called decorating nature, sorry I couldn't find the link, but I wanted to mention this because similarly the artist takes and decorates an element from nature but leaves it there as decoration.
These other pictures are from the walk around with Cleo. All of these buds and flowers are in our block. I like the red buds against the whitish grey bark. I would also like to know what these blue flowers are. In many of the yards, like the bulbs, they have begun to emerge from underneath last year's dry growth.
this watercolor was made by Kim Toohey and submitted to Illustration Friday under the topic "fleeting". I can only guess how she did it, maybe from a high contrast photo of Blythe doll. I secretly love Blythe who has huge eyes which come in five colors, and she was only made for one year in the States, the year of my birth. 
Now that seems like a cool process, but not what I was looking for exactly. I want to buy some simple but cool stencils for artwork with the kids. I could make them I guess, but I really want to make the finished work with the kids using simple stencils of letters, flowerers, animals, etc. Any Suggestions?
