We knew it was inevitable, but we really enjoyed a healthy January. Amelia woke up in the middle of the night with a significant fever, kicking off our winter sickness cycle. Since it was a Friday, we canceled all of our plans for that day and pulled out the winter/sick/quarantined activities.
Mommy decided to start the sick day with unconventional fun.
She worked on her felt owl pillow while Austin was at preschool.
They had been asking to do their perler beads for a few days. So I used the internet to get free patterns for random things. They chose what the wanted to create, and we spent well over an hour creating.
She gets away with so many things the other 2 kids never got to do. Like eating cheerios upstairs.
Austin had extracted a promise from me to work on his valentine display after dinner.
Amelia continued having the high fever into Saturday, but showed off her super lose tooth that morning. It had started hanging all snaggle-tooth like the other one, but we didn't get too excited since the other front tooth took over a week to come out.
Then while eating breakfast, she exclaimed that it fell out!
Amelia worked on her valentine's display while Austin was at soccer.
It's hard to believe, but the Wal-Mart down the street from us is closing. They put out huge signs on Friday saying that the everything in the store was 25% off. So I ran to the store and braved crazy lines. But I outfitted Austin for summertime until he's 10. Got a bunch of clothes for Amelia also, and picked up all kinds of things that never go on sale or have coupons (medicines, for example). I think we have enough children's tylenol now for a couple of years, but the current wave of sickness may prove me wrong.
The realization that we've been in NJ for 5 years (as of May) has hit, and so we've started on our updating projects that waited for us to hit this mark. So Patrick spent much of Saturday & Sunday replacing the master bathroom faucet. I kept the kids busy with painting and other projects.
Sunday morning Colleen woke up with the high fever and lots of congestion. Amelia still had the high fever. So the sick girls were allowed to snuggle; Amelia felt proud to help give Colleen the nebulizer.
She might be miserable and attached to me as another appendage, but her smile is definitely still there.
On Monday, Amelia's fever finally broke, but she needed to be kept home to make sure it didn't return. She asked me if she could learn cursive. So after verifying that she wasn't going to be learning it in school now (I didn't want to give her any bad habits beforehand), I printed off some worksheets and let her go at it.
Feeling miserable together.
Yes, more snacks upstairs. We're in survival mode at this point.
This boy was missing out on so much attention since Colleen was attached to my body at all times, and the girls had had fevers for so many days. So one afternoon we pulled out this building project for some special Austin-Mommy time.
He loves his math pages so much that he's actually finished all of them. I've got to go hunting for more Kindergarten-math worksheets.
Day 4 of fever and congestion, yet still smiling.
Wednesday was the first morning where both big kids were gone while Colleen was sick, so she got some special bath playtime.
She kept pouring the pitcher of water over her own head and then looking like she was surprised.
Clean, relaxed girl fell asleep during her nebulizer time. She hadn't slept more than 20min-1hour at a time since Saturday night, she was so tired!
She finished her owl pillow!
Sweet boy snoozing during nap time.
On Thursday I gave Colleen her first mini-French braid. It didn't last more than a few hours, but it was effective in keeping her hair out of her face for that time.
Colleen's fever had disappeared for a few hours on Thursday morning, so I went into another cleaning spree, including the snot-covered couch covers. Austin & Colleen had so much fun using them as stepping stones and trampolines for the morning.
I pulled out the YouTube kids' exercise videos to let Austin burn some energy.
After being house-bound for so many days, I took the kids to Smashburger for lunch. Compared to our last visit, this one was quite enjoyable. (Even if Colleen still had snot pouring out of her head.)
We pulled out all our craft supplies for Valentine cards. It was a complete free-for-all; the kids asked me for very little guidance. They created quite unique cards, individualized for each kid in their class. Some were just sticker covered; others had drawings or fancy paper glued on them. I know one day they will be too cool for this, so I'm glad to see them enjoy making them now.
Colleen's fever reappeared with a vengeance. So after 6 days of fever, the pediatrician gave us antibiotics for an ear/eye infection caused by the flu-like virus. But she didn't bounce back until a few days later.
She refused most food all week. But offer her a Hershey kiss, and she'll pop it right into her mouth happily.
Patrick decided I needed a mental health break after being house-bound for 8 days. So we got a sitter for the big kids, and he took me and still-not-great Colleen out for Sushi and to the grocery store. Colleen loved being at the restaurant and having both parents' attention.
