Reply #10: I will. That's the bright side, although I feel terrible he's sick.

[NNadir]

He just doesn't get sick that much, so we're not used to it in this family.

He had perfect attendance all through junior high. I guess we were lucky.

He has an assignment from his robotics team - which he's been enjoying a great deal - to learn C++. He was well enough today to email the faculty advisor about a compiler he found and has been working with. I was proud of him for getting up to do that, self-motivated.

He's good with programming, and scored nearly a perfect score (299/300) on the science standardized test in these parts, but truth be told, when it comes to class based science and math, he really wants to do the minimum. I think I may have killed his interest by pushing it so hard when he was small. I swore I was going to be better than my parents in this way, but I'm not sure I've managed to be as good as them, never mind better.

On the other hand, his younger brother, a 5th grader, wants to talk science all day, and lately he's taken to giving lectures that even I don't want to hear - and can't always understand - on sub nuclear particle physics. He bought himself this book this summer: http://www.amazon.com/Alpha-Omega-Search-Beginning-Universe/dp/0670031798

I thought he bought it to try to look impressive, and I discouraged him from spending the money on something I thought he wouldn't use, but damn if he didn't read it 3 or 4 times already. Now he cruises the internet looking for particle physics stuff.

But the big guy, he'd rather do programming and art. His goal is to build video games, maybe because I hate video games. Hopefully he'll do that robot thing too. I could use his help on some of that stuff.

It's hard to see him sick and unable to do his things.

But I'm rambling at you and you're sick: Feel better. Stay warm.