Fever and wren is caught by a homonym

Wren has had a fever since yesterday and I will be taking him to the doctor in the late afternoon. Since his fever is not high they were not going to see him until tomorrow but its a holiday weekend (isn't it always when they get sick?)we are going in today.

There is always a concern about endocarditis until a symptom emerges to explain the fever. It is not too high (101.6 last night and 101 again by 9.30am) and its probably a virus but I feel OK about letting the pediatrician do the worrying about the important things.

Now, the funny stuff.

The Bread Making Fiasco

This morning it was time to make bread. Wren loves when I make bread - he stands on his stool and helps by pouring ingredients into the bread machine. While the dough spins around he stands on tippy toes to watch it. After he had stood like that for 10 minutes I decided to move the bread machine to the floor and he sat mesmerized as the KNEAD cycle progressed.


Wren watching the dough go around.

After a while I ducked over to my laptop to check my email. This is what any parent of toddler does the moment their child is engaged in an activity that does not require their attention. I could see him from the desk so I felt fine about it. Eventually, Wren tired of watching and came through to see what I was doing. The dough had quieted down and was rising so I suggested we have one last peek at it and then it was naptime. The next picture shows what I saw when I opened the bread machine.

This is what we saw.

I shrieked and scooped the dough out. There were veins of bright purple and orange running right through it, not just on the surface, so there was no way to save it. My reaction saddened Wren and he was very sad when I told him the dough was no good and we had to throw it in the yard waste with the "yuck yuck". He cried and said "dough? dough?" as if to figure out what had happened.


"Dough, dough?" "Dough yuk yuk"

Of course it was not his fault that Wren had been confused by a homonym. Before we started making dough he had been playing with playdough which we also call "dough". He has seen me add flour and water to the breadmachine to get the dough the right consistency and while I was inattentive he had been innovating a tiny bit.

I did not have enough yeast to make another batch so I told Wren we would make a small bread. The small bread was fun to watch also and although nap was delayed a while the Maple Oat Sampler loaf is rising on the stovetop as I type.

Wren is napping, dreaming (no doubt) about multicolored doughs which invite retribution.