A Plague Upon Our House

The house is quiet.  I just finished unloading the dishwasher for the third time today and am now sitting down to a dinner of clementines and Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream (do not pity me - I am quite excited about this dinner).

What I am less excited about is the sickness that has plagued our house for nearly four weeks now.  We are all generally healthy, so I really can't complain, but this winter has been pretty unreal.  Brian is now dosed up on Tamiflu and in bed.  This is after Ella and Parker weathered the flu over Christmas while the rest of us had horrible hacking coughs and colds, and then last week Cooper came down with the stomach flu and the "real" flu simultaneously.  Let me tell you, cleaning up after poor C got sick in the middle of the night is by far the grossest thing I have encountered in my six years of parenting.  When he came stumbling into our room in the middle of the night, I literally screamed when I saw him.  Quite a mess.  If Brian hadn't been here, I probably would have just moved out and burned the place down.

And of course, just as Cooper was recovering, Ella came down with the stomach flu.  And before she was even done, Brian got the flu (he actually tested negative, but they are pretty sure it's the flu and put him on Tamiflu).  Throw in a double ear infection for Parker, bronchitis for Brian, pink eye multiple times and lovely chest colds for everyone, and it's been quite a cocktail of germs over here.  Last week my throat hurt so badly that I went to urgent care convinced I had strep (I didn't).  Brian and I have been on a continuous loop of trying to make sure everyone is fed, clean, medicated, hydrated.  We both have managed to make it into work a few times and luckily haven't been fired (yet).

Needless to say, we are ready for Spring.

My ice cream container is empty, so I think that's my cue to sign off. 

What We've Been Up To...

iPhone photo dump:

Ella started horseback riding lessons!!

Bat boys

A visit from Harper!  (P nearly fell off the couch two seconds after this)

Dinner at Old Ebbitt before seeing the National Christmas tree.

First mum-mum!

 Sick sick baby

 

Ice skaters!

 Working on dessert with Poppa and Sutton!

Post-birthday party

A snowy commute into work

 This boy loves his baths.

Chess lesson.

 

Out to lunch with mommy.

Happy New Year!

Five Months (well...closer to six...but who's counting)

This little guy is just too much fun!  Talking all the time (ba ba ba ba -- with some ma ma thrown in), working on crawling, laughing - and hiccuping - all the time.  Fascinated with his brother and sister (who wouldn't be?).   I just love this age.  Everytime I pick him up and kiss his sweet little head I think pleeeeeeaaaaaasssseeee don't grow up too fast! 

This looks cool.

Here I am world!

Merry Influenza Christmas

Christmas in a nutshell:  We fought the flu, and the flu won.  We were down and out for a full week, pretty much cancelled all Christmas festivities, shut ourselves in, didn't get out of jammies for about a week, washed sheets every day, drugged everyone up with tylenol and little Parker with Tamiflu.  Bless the grandmoms -- they dropped off food and crafts on the front door and waived at us through the windows.  Poor Ella was hit the hardest.  High fever for a full week!

Cookies iced with influenza.  Who wants one?

Christmas is magic even when you're sick.

Santa called!

A snotty reading of the Polar Express.

Santa's not afraid of flu germs, right?

Countdown to Christmas

 Despite the lack of posts, Christmas is in full swing here!  I've never seen the kids more excited.  They race around to find our elf every morning, whisper to him during the day, count down the days until Christmas, and are eating their weight in Christmas treats.  'Tis the season!