Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

Hoo, it’s been a week!  I thought Elias was going to escape the sickness but, alas, no.  Mark this as his first illness (unless I’m forgetting something).  And the poor guy is miserable!  He’s congested and feverish and coughing and not sleeping much at all.  Of course it was Rob’s Reserves weekend so I’m not sleeping much at all either.  No one to split late night duty with.  Today was a bit better all the way around for all the kids.  There was even a time today when they weren’t all lying around in their jammies.  Of course they were playing in nothing but their undies (or in Gideon’s case, a diaper) but hey, at least they got out of their jammies for this first time in five days.   Except for Gideon who has become obsessed with playing at the kitchen sink and therefore at least got new jammies about once or twice a day.

I did get some time behind the camera today.  This morning Zion pointed out that Eva was lounging on the back of the couch and she looked “so cute”.  So I grabbed my camera and came over.  She did look so cute:

Awww.  Isn’t she purty?

And later Elias was hanging out in his favorite spot, his jumper.  He wasn’t quite as snotty today and seemed a little less feverish but still kind of a mellow guy.  He gave me this look:

Hoh, Lord, there goes my heart.  Melted.

I still had a heck of a time deciding which would be my picture of the day for My 365 though.  I don’t often get such good pictures of the animals.  But still.  Melted.  That one won out.

The kids even gave me a time when they all napped today (except Gabe who was permitted to play a zoo game on my laptop) so I got to knit a little.  I had one of those hankerings to knit something up real quick that I might actually have a chance to finish today so I knit this:

A cup cozy in about half the time it took me to watch a movie (Twister in fact.  Sometimes you just need a good natural disaster movie).  I’ll keep it in the van for those special occasions in which I treat myself to a coffee.  Now I don’t have to use on of those cup sleeves.  Just looking out for the environment and stuff, ya know?  It will look so much better on an actual coffee cup too, not that obnoxious orange thing that I’m pretty sure is left over from a pumpkin carving party we had about 5 years ago and has been hanging out in the pantry ever since.  But I needed a model and couldn’t run out to get an actual coffee so leftover orange thing it was.

Rob came home from his Reserves weekend and cooked dinner and made me brownies.  That can go a long ways in making up for what turned out to be a really hard weekend for my stamina (and sanity).

I also made some progress in the hat I’m knitting for Gabe’s birthday gift.  The last two weeks have not been spent planning a birthday party so it’ll be a big cram session on that this week.  Something to look forward to next weekend celebrating a wonderful boy turning 7.

Photo Update

Pictures from our life over the last few days. 

Tuesday my friend Jennifer passed along an invitation to join her and her son Trevor at a local Parks and Rec for their Mini-Gym.  We went and it was so fun for the kids.  Not that it wasn’t for me but I was too big for the roller coaster car.

I’m still pouting.

Outside Gideon immediately found a puddle.  Anything containing more than a few drops of water is a puddle to him and requires much splashing.

Tuesday we bought a car.  *sigh*  I’m still processing that myself.  Rob’s truck is a gas guzzler for sure and was starting to get to that age where keeping up with repairs could potentially suck us dry.  So in the name of saving (tons of) money on gas and (even more tons of) money on repairs he is now driving a new Ford Focus.  I’m hoping my trepidation over having a car payment isn’t squashing all of his joy over having a new toy …er, I mean car.  It also wasn’t much fun to spend so much time in the waiting room at the dealership with the kids while the paperwork was drawn up.  Here’s is Zion having made a “bed” for herself in which to play her DS.  Smart girl.

Earlier this week I experimented with making coloring pages for Zion.  I took a photograph of mine and played with it SEVERELY using Photoshop Elements, saved and then transferred it to a Word document where I used WordArt to add the letters.  Now she has coloring pages that will help her learn her letters that are personal.  This page “F is for friend” has a picture of her and her friend Kaitlyn.  I just thought it would be cool, ya know.

Two night ago I finished this tiny blanky bunny for a friend’s baby.  It is surprisingly easy and a quick knit for those times when you suddenly realize you forgot you have a baby shower the next day (are there any other times).

I heard Elias’ squeal for help.  Much to his chagrin I laughed and got my camera instead.  Can’t you just hear him thinking “Would you just put the camera down and get me out of here – I stuck!”

A little while later he’s all tuckered out from playing and ready for his morning nap.  Awwww…

Wednesday morning Zion woke up coughing and with a fever.  She spent the day nestled on the couch with her princess blanket watching movies and playing DS.  She’s so mellow when she’s sick.  Is it wrong that I like that so much?  Just say no.

Elias had a wet through.  No surprise there, he has one to three of them a day.  They don’t make a diaper that can hold what that boy can put out.  I didn’t have new clothes handy and the sun was coming in the slider so I let him play for a while.  Zion put the blanket on him.  First she covered his head and was waiting to see if he could take it off but I put the kibosh on that.  Even though it was kind of funny.

Elias and I love to play with the ladybug toy.  It’s eyes light up and it makes funny noises.  I also thought it was cool that I could frame his eyes with the antennae.  Looks like specs. 

And that’s the last few days.  Today Zion AND Gabe have slight fevers as do I.  Again.  *sigh*  When will the sickness end?!!!

Still Here

We’re over the stomach bug that we all passed around (except Elias, thank God). We had a lovely Christmas which I will blog about soon. Found out yesterday that Gideon has Chicken Pox.

Yes, really.

So I’ve been busy with extra cuddling and hand washing and medicine giving and more cuddling and avoiding Elias. Rob took today off because we were all going to go see a movie among other things but instead I stayed home with the older three and Rob ran out with Elias to take care of things that need to happen for his ailing great uncle.

So basically I came on to say I’m exhausted (Elias is NOT sleeping well lately, waking frequently and being fussy when he wakes) and very busy and I hope to be back very soon with some lovely posts about Christmas.

This Week

Has been not what we expected or planned. There are no pictures. You can thank me later.

What shall we call it?

Pukefest 2010?

Merry Pukemas and a Hurly New Year?

FIVE buckets of PUKE! Sing it with me.

You get the idea. Saturday night I wrote my post about my fantastic day with Harry Potter. In the wee hours of the morning on Sunday Rob wakes me to tell me he’s been bowing down to the ivory throne – and also been on the throne (but let’s not get too graphic). I gently suggest he go back to bed in the guest room and after he does I get to work with the Lysol wipes (‘cause, Good Lord, I can feel his breath on the back of my neck while he’s telling me. Gee thanks, Hon). Yep. In my nightgown still while everyone sleeps Lysoling everything I can think of. Once morning hits I also rewash all of the handwashing he’d done the night before and reload the dishwasher with any dish I think he took out of the washer and every piece of silverware from the drawer (most of the time I love that my hubby helps in the kitchen. This was not one of those times).

Oh yeah, and our septic decided to go on the fritz so actually MOST of that work happened after the plumber came and went because I couldn’t use the clothes washer, dish washer or toilets before then. Yeah. The puke laundry and contaminated dishes were piling up and let’s not even talk about the toilet issue.

Gideon started puking right before the plumber showed up. Poor guy. He puked again while the plumber was here. I have a new appreciation for my leather loveseat. SO much easier to clean than cloth.

On Monday Rob and Gideon were on the mend. No one else was puking. I was very nearly allowing myself to relax and think that all my cleaning, washing and sanitizing had worked! Yeah right.

Tuesday about 3AM I realized that my tummy was feeling a bit rumbly. By 5AM I’d spent a great deal of time on the potty with a bucket at my feet. I actually had Rob bring me a bowl of mints and a book. I wasn’t about to leave my little camp too soon and I hate being bored.

I get to spend Tuesday in bed. Rob gets to spend it with the kids. What a great guy to stay home “sick” for me. And he took them to Costco. Anyway, I digress. I cannot recall the last time I actually got to be in bed sick when I was sick. If I hadn’t been so sick it would have been a nice break. As it was I kept my bucket close and my mints closer. I wonder if it was my constant sucking of mints that actually kept me from needing my bucket the whole time. As it was, everything that left my body exited the usual way (though definitely NOT the usual consistency – OK that’s as graphic as I’m getting).

I did get to read a few more pages of my book while in bed, watch disc 1 of The Fellowship of the Ring (I was really bummed I didn’t get to watch more) and play a game on my laptop (which Rob brought to bed for me) in between passing out and taking long naps throughout the day. Sometimes with extra blankets and sometimes with less.

Wednesday I continued to recover and Rob worked from home to help me with the kids. Thursday morning in the wee hours, yep THIS morning, you guessed it, Gabe. Hurling. Pooing. Rob got the first round. I got the second a couple of hours later.

After Rob headed to work I got up to check on Gabe and found Zion on the potty. Let me tell you what a trooper my girl is! I found her striped neked, sitting as far back as possible on the potty so she could throw up between her legs while she was still going #2. I was filled with pride and empathy all at once. I said “Good girl, Zion!” and she looked up and cheerfully said “I’m throwing up in the toilet like you said!” (I had the foresight to keep reminding the kids over the past few days of what to do if they felt like they were going to barf.)

She was so pale and drawn and yet she never gave up her chipper attitude. Gabe on the other hand was a regular ol’ Eeyore. Nearly always on the verge of tears and pathetically uttering statements like “I’m dying of starvation up here!” Sorry but I’m not giving you an all you can eat buffet. As it was I ended up cleaning up more of his vomit after he went to bed. Change of sheets, blanket, pillow, pajamas… *sigh* I knew he was trying to much too soon.

I AM going to have to get them to eat more once they are able though. Both Gabe and Zion looked like victims of starvation the minute they got sick. Skin and bones, people! Skin. And. Bones. It was instantaneous. I know those two have precious little to spare but this really brought it home. Must fatten those two up a little!

So now, here we are at the end of day FIVE of being stuck at home with the pukes. This is so not how I wanted Christmas break to go. I was so excited, SO excited, for our families first “real” Christmas break ever. Now that Gabe is in full-time school it really was going to be our first real Christmas break. When he got off the school bus on Friday he was bawling, broken-hearted that he didn’t get to go to school for two whole weeks! I got down at his level and put my hands on his shoulders and told him how much FUN we were going to have! So many things to go do and so many friends to have over to play. He was going to have a blast! We all were!

So things haven’t worked out like I dreamed. The awesomeness may have fizzled but we’re still going to do our best to eke out some real Christmas fun. We have tomorrow. Tomorrow to read all our favorites stories, watch all our favorite movies, eat all our favorite foods.

Wait. Maybe not that.

Nibble on our favorite crackers to be safe.

Tomorrow! And then on Christmas we get to go to my sister’s for Christmas.

That is, if Elias doesn’t come down with it next. Praying that he doesn’t.

Praying.

So hard.

G'head, guess.

Guess who wondered if pre-term labor was starting yesterday. Had a number of signs.

Guess who discovered last night it was just a case of stomach flu.

Guess who's been walking around with a bucket all day.

At least the bucket hasn't been used. Phew!

What's A Mommy To Do

...when she wakes up feeling so sick that making breakfast is out of the question?

Why, she breaks out the pop tarts and sippy cups and serves a "picnic" breakfast on the couch of course.

This is from last week. I'm feeling much better now. Every day I'm coughing less. Now if only I could get some energy but I think that's not going to happen until after June. :)

Just When I Think

...we have all been sick enough and we'll be healthy for a while we get sick again. Last week Rob and Gabe got sore throats and a cough for a couple of days. I am never one to be outdone when it comes to sickness though and have to "show off" my lack of an immune system so for a week now I've had a sore throat, cough, tiredness (times ten) and sniffles. My cough is nasty and wet and brings up green stuff. Yeah, you really wanted to know that. I won't torture you with more detail just apologize for slacking in the blogging area again.

I really want to post about Easter and some other fun things. I also want to sit down and update my links and my header. I think the pictures of the kids are all about a year old. In kid years that's, like, forever.

So some changes coming up. Don't give up on me. :)

Update - Hopefully the Last

We are all doing much better. I have a bit of energy to regain but otherwise am pretty much back to normal and it seems the kids are too. Hopefully that means I'll be back to blogging more again and that it will be about something other than sickness.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Update

Gabe stopped puking, Zion stopped puking, I was on the verge of puking all day yesterday and was otherwise sick as a dog with body aches and total weakness and Gideon puked once Friday night. God bless my sister for coming despite the puking and staying to help! I felt better this morning and the kids have not puked all day. Zion is back to her zippy self, Gabe is getting hydrated and regaining energy and Gideon acts like nothing happened but as of dinner time I'm sick all over again. Weird. I don't feel like throwing up but I wish I could order an epidural right now - or even a general anesthesia. That would be sweet! Just thought I'd feel better if I complained you'd like to know. Pray for us that we're all healthy for Thanksgiving -especially my sister and her family!

Just When You Thought It Was Safe

If your child had the flu but hadn't vomited in almost 48 hours and you only had a few diapers left would you think it was safe to go to the store to get more? Yeah. I thought so too. Walmart won't soon forget that big mistake on my part as Zion threw up in the middle of the baby section as I was looking for Pedialyte. Completely covered her coat, shirt, pants, socks, shoes, Gabe's pants, my coat, the cart and the floor. There are no cleaning stations in the baby section. I did find one poor staff member though and he was kind enough to bring me garbage bags, gloves, paper towels and a new cart. He didn't bat an eye when I striped my kids down and grabbed new clothes off the rack and he was totally willing to clean up the rest of the mess so I could get out of there. What a guy!

...sorry, I got interrupted, not that you noticed, by a puking boy. Ahhhhh! Gabe just left massive quantities of puke all over himself, his sheets, his comforter, his lovey, his pillows and his bed. Oh Lord, please spare me and Gideon. At least Gideon. Stomach flu in babies just flat out scares me. *sigh* Well, I'd better go. I've got a week's worth of vomit laundry to do.

Miscellany

Yesterday dawned with such promise. My water aerobics class at the Y, Nora bringing Isaac over for the boys' preschool lesson, I had lined up a babysitter so that a friend and I could go take a knitting and crocheting class. Yep, it was going to be great! Going to be until Zion threw up all over my love seat while I was making lunch. SCREEECCCHHH! That's the sound of the brakes being put on my great day. Nora was great and finished making the lunch while I striped Z naked, wrapped her in a towel and scrubbed the couch with a towel and hot water. Wow! How did so much come out of someone so small. I mean, that was ridiculous! I made all the calls to cancel with the babysitter and my friend. Such a bummer! The angel of the day turned out to be my friend Deon who braved the Amazing Puke-Master (or would that be Mistress?) and chose to babysit anyway. What a gal! My class turned out to be loads of fun. Maybe knitting will stick this time, I've tried to learn twice before. Sad, huh? I got home and my kiddos were in bed - sweet! And she said they all went down without a peep and that Zion hadn't been sick again. Whew!

OK, that last part only lasted until I got up this morning and found Zion practically wading in a pool of mostly dried vomit complete with undigested pasta and meatballs. It covered her sheets, bed skirt, P.J.s, and some of the rails and even part of the floor. Too much information? Sorry. I've been stuck at home all day with little interaction with the outside world. I did order pizza though and boy do I hope I don't catch her bug because I ate half a taco pizza (a small one, but still).

So that's what we've been up to and I haven't felt much like posting the last couple of days. I do want to update you on Laura and Joe. To make a long story short he is home, she is taking care of him and his surgery is scheduled for the first week in December. They have a need for seasoned firewood as it is their main source of heat right now. If you live close and know where they can get some let me know.

The Scoop

I've spent the last couple of days taking care of sick kids. The last month has been very reminiscent of last winter when 1 or more of us were sick for about six months straight. It was very frustrating then and frustrates me all over again to think that we could face another winter like that. Holed up all day and not even a Daddy to come home for dinner to break up the monotony. Should I pre-order my straight jacket now? A week ago I got us all the flu shot hoping to avoid at least some of what's going around. Still, yesterday Gideon ran a 103 temp for most of the day and Zion's been stuffed up all week and has a wet cough. Grrr!



My fish has been sick too. Poor little guy. I've had this beautiful teal Betta for a couple of months now but haven't been able to find a food he'll eat since I got him. I tried a few different kinds of pellets but he's just gotten skinnier and skinnier and the other day I noticed stress stripes in addition to him being super thin. Finally I bought him some frozen brine shrimp the other day and waddya know, he loves them. Up till now I haven't been able to think of a name for him. What do you name a fish that would rather starve to death than eat a less than superior food? Well, I'd like you to meet my finicky little Betta - Gordon Ramsey. Now I've just got to get him back in condition with the help of those teeny little shrimps. Hopefully soon I'll be able to post a new picture of him in all his fat glory.


I also heard from Rob this morning for the first time in a few days. He reports that he has reached his destination tired after traveling for about a week but in one piece and eager to get to work. Now's when the rubber meets the road. We'll try to keep you up to date but for now I'll just give a little reminder to pray for us. Thanks!

Well What D'Ya Know!

I'm not taking care of a sick baby today. Nope. I'm taking care of TWO sick babies. Yep. Sometime after putting Gideon to bed last night it became apparent that he had picked up Zion's cold. He was miserable all last night. Not really sleeping, having a hard time breathing through his nose, wanting to nurse but panicking the second he tries because he couldn't breath while eating.

What were you doing at 3AM? I was sitting in my living room with Gideon in my lap hand pumping breast milk and then feeding it to him via syringe. Poor little guy. I'm sure he had a fever but I don't have good luck with thermometers. Mine says his temp is 96.something. Yeah right.

This morning when I got out of bed my appearance rivaled Gary Busey's mug shot. Rest assured, I'm at least slightly better looking now having wiped the sleep out of my eyes, getting my contacts in and putting on some non-breast milk soaked clothes.

Zion slept from 5PM yesterday to 7-ish AM this morning. I looked at her and thought "wow, her nose cleared up - great!" Then she coughed. Nope. All that congestion just moved to her chest. Poor kid.

So say a prayer for their quick recovery and that Gabe and I don't get it also. That would really be not good.

Can we be done now?

Thought we were past it. Thought the rest of us had escaped. I thought wrong. Rob and I were downstairs this evening thinking that we'd finally gotten to the part of the night where all kids are sleeping and any chores left can be put off until tomorrow and we can relax when Gabe suddenly appeared and said that he felt like he was going to puke. I thought perhaps he was faking it because he was upset the other day that he didn't get to drink the Pedialyte juice when Zion did and told me he was sick then too. Alas, it was not to be so. He was a trooper as he heaved into the bucket that I'd gotten to put by his bedside even though neither one had made it to the bedroom yet. Poor guy, it'll be years before he can look a quesadilla in the eye again. Sent Rob off to restock our Pedialyte supply in case we need it tomorrow.

Please, Lord, let this be short, short, short and keep the rest of us healthy. I am so nervous about Gideon getting sick.

She Doesn't Cry When She Pukes

When you are grieving over the loss of a loved one and in shock over the pending separation with another there's nothing quite like one of your children getting the puking flu to make you to stop living in your head and get you to deal with what's right in front of you. This morning Zion woke up with the puking flu. Actually I think she puked first in the middle of the night because it was dried in her hair, on her jammies and on her sheets. So she puked in the night and didn't even cry. Weird. She proceeded to puke up everything I gave her orally throughout the day. Water, juice, Pedialyte, crackers, Fruit Loops (which I gave her before I realized that she really was sick). It doesn't seem to phase her at all. She puked in her highchair, in the baby swing (which I was indulgent in letting her sit in this morning), next to the loveseat, on the loveseat, in her crib (twice), and in her chair in the living room. Each time she just got this look on her face like "hm, I really wish I would stop doing that." and stand there and wait for me to clean her up.

Interestingly, her sick personality is so different from her well personality. Well, as you know, she's all over the place, simply on fire with life and exuberance. Sick, she's passive and quiet and quite amiable. Well, she only comes to find me when she has a demand like "cracker!" or "cup!", sick she doesn't like to be more than 5 feet from me, preferable sitting next to me or on my lap. Luckily she didn't care which one it was because Gideon is going through a growth spurt and spent the day either nursing or screaming because he wanted to nurse. Cleaning up puke is bad enough but doing it while your newborn screams himself into hysterics is really, really not fun. So my list of accomplishments for the day was nurse, clean up puke, change Zion's clothes, scrub the carpet, do laundry - wash, rinse, repeat. You get the idea. Poor Gabe got the short end of the stick today. The squeaky wheel gets the grease you know and he simply wasn't squeaky enough to compete (thank God!) with his siblings. I'm hoping and praying that the flu will stick to Zion and not spread to any of the rest of us and that she'll be better tomorrow. Feel free to pray for us, too.

Right now I'm going to sign off and go send an e-mail to the makers of Pedialyte. Why in the world do they put colored dye into a product that parents typically only give their child when they have a stomach bug?!? Stomach bug = puking. Puking = vomit all over your things. Dye in the Pedialyte = dye in the vomit. Vomit all over your things = dye all over your things. Grrrr! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

The Winter of Sickness

That is what this season has become known as and it actually started in the Fall. Last October both Zion and Gabe were sick (I can't even remember if it hit me and Rob) and I remember Zion's cough lasting about a month. I remember because we skipped her one-year vaccines because of it. I think we managed to get through Thanksgiving and Christmas OK but then come January here we are at it again. A month ago Zion got sick quickly followed up by me and Gabe while Rob was in Guam. Everytime I think we are over it the darn thing changes and someone will get sick all over again only with different symptoms. None of us have actually been fully recovered before getting sick it kind of just morphs into something new.

Poor Gabe is the unlucky recipient of the recent morph. Yesterday and today he has been battled a really terrible cough, a runny nose that has left his face raw from kleenex and a fever. He has really been out of it. Last night he woke up crying so many times wanting to know why the cough won't stop or why his nose is still runny or telling me that he's lonely (at least that is easy to fix, just leave Maisy the cat in his room to cuddle with) and it's just so sad.

It's also sad that I had to stay home from a MOPS steering committee meeting today, I REALLY needed to get out of the house. Tomorrow we are going to play Gabe's school and AWANA's meeting by ear. We'll see how he is when he wakes up. But Thursday is Valentine's Day! I have a special event with my women's Bible study that morning and Rob is actually going to be home! He is supposed to get back from Oregon tomorrow night. We have plans for a nice lunch and the couple's Valentine's dessert at our church - kid free. But all of those activities depend on the sketchy health of our kids. So if you read this in time send up a prayer that we'll all be fit as fiddles come Thursday so we can have a bit of fun both as a family and Rob and I as a couple. We really need it for as much time as we've spent apart and/or sick this year.

On a happier note (and I know I keep saying this but it's been little by little) I really think that Zion is all the way back to herself. Not just eking her way back, but actually, honestly back to herself. This means that she is both mischievous and hilarious and sweetly concerned for Gabe, patting his back when he coughs, all at once. She has also started signing "bird" which is adorable and "saying" prayers at mealtimes. Let's hope she doesn't come down with something new!