Illness sucks.

Tending to a sick child is one of most stressful things we'll ever face as parents. Not only do we have to constantly wipe and sanitize every surface of our home every five minutes, we have to worry about spewing bodily fluids, hacking coughs and lots of tears. Having three kids, I have to worry about this triple time because not only am I trying and hoping that John and I will avoid the sickness so we can adequately care for the children, we have to try and ensure that the other children will not get sick. I haven't yet decided which is worse - all of the kids being sick at one time or the tag team method my children usually employ of one after the other after the other.

This time around it started with Evelyn. Tuesday morning she woke up complaining about how she wasn't feeling well but she did not have any other symptoms besides the whining and let's face it, if whining were a symptom, there would always be something wrong with all of the children in the world.

I thought about keeping her home from school but Tuesday was picture retake day and there was NO WAY she'd be missing that.

Priorities.

She was fine throughout the day until a couple hours after I picked her up in the afternoon. By that night she was running a high fever and had body aches and chills. I spent the next two days walking around with a can of lysol, spraying randomly here and there while my kids played in their rooms, oblivious to the germs breeding on every toy they handled. I did my best to sanitize their things while they were occupied with other things - movies, coloring, pooping.Evelyn spent most of the two days huddled in a ball on her bed like a pathetic little lump. Evelyn's fever finally broke last night and today she is as good as new. And as loud as ever.

Unfortunately, Oliver woke up very early this morning with a slight fever. I tucked him back in and he slept for another few hours, emerging around 9:00 with the very rosy, flushed cheeks. No amount of bribing would get him to take any form of fever reducer so I had to resort to mixing children's advil with some cranberry juice. Now, if you know my son, you know the two true ways to his heart - trains and food. Unfortunately, I wasn't about to bribe him with a train (we already did that with the flu shots - go ahead. JUDGE MY PARENTING SKILLS.) so I figured a sweet concoction of juice and advil would do the trick. And it worked! He sucked that liquid down like a soldier in the Saraha desert. Hopefully he'll get better over the weekend.

And then there's little Wesley. Sweet little Wesley. I'm trying to dilligently to make sure he doesn't get sick but my efforts may be in vain, especially since he is in the phase of putting anything into his mouth, including the leaves that blow in when I open the front door. Crunchy! I'm hoping he'll manage to stave off any sickness and stay healthy.

I just hope John and I manage to avoid falling ill. Because the last thing I need is to tend to a large man-baby.

***

Photos of the random variety

Evelyn was sad because I kept taking pics of Wesley so I offered to take a picture of her and Oliver. Aaand this is what they gave me.

Wesley learning to use a fork. His fork must be selective because somehow it wouldn't pick up any of the green vegetables on the table. Heh

Someone insisted on taking a picture together. Can you tell which kid isn't quite pleased?

Happy to have the pink princess chair all to himself. Maybe it's time I get him his own chair. That is not pink. Oh and not ugly.

Ladies, you like what you see?

Blah. Just.... blah.

Wow.

I guess I've been neglecting this blog for a while now. I don't know, these days I don't really have much to write about. Normally my mind would be teeming with excellent blog material. I mean, I am a stay at home mom to three kids under the age of 5 and one would think the day would be filled with random happenings and such.

But yeah, I've got nothing going on here.

Well, okay. That's not necessarily true. Now that Evelyn has started school, I have become a part time limo driver. Except it's not a limo, it's an dirty old pathfinder and I don't even have one of those nifty caps.

Which reminds me, I rear ended a car on the way to drop off Evelyn. We were fine, I was fine, the other car was fine. My car was the only one with a tiny bit of minor damage. But somehow, Evelyn manages to bring up the event as often as she can remember.

"Mommy, you should slow down. remember when you hit the red car on the way to school? Daddy, you should slow down because Mommy hit the car on the way to school. You should just down. You don't want to run into another car on the way to school, okay?"

Even Oliver chimes in with "Swow down! You going too fassst!"

Seriously, who knew small children could backseat drive?

Also, when Evelyn's at school, the house is eerily silent. and I LIKE IT. Of course, I miss her terribly during the day when she's at school and I sit by the clock wringing my hands until it's time to leave and pick her up. But I am very much enjoying the peacefulness of having just the boys at home. Believe or not, Oliver turns into an angel when Evelyn's gone. He rarely has a complaint and even enjoys sharing his toys with Wesley. I think Evelyn's presence tends to turn up the noise and the activity up a million few notches.

Other than that, I find myself not really motivated to do much else besides the usual household and motherly duties. I have a pile of books on my nightstand, waiting to be cracked open. I now have time to maybe search online for part time work at home job opportunities. Even start seriously looking into pre-reqs for the Highline nursing program. I have all this extra time when Wesley sleeping that I could devote to learning a new hobby - sewing, perhaps? I even have a sewing machine tucked away somewhere in the closet. But these days, nothing seems to really grab my attention. I'm just feeling kind of.... blah.

Blah, blah, blah.

Sometimes, I don't even know what I'm doing anymore.

To be cont.....

Wah wah wah Charlie Brown's teacher

I am having one of those parenting days.

You know, the ones where your throat is sore. But not because you are sick, if you know what I mean. I was just telling my husband the other day how pleasant the kids have become. When Evelyn is at school, the house is peaceful. Oliver happily plays with his trains, Wesley crawls all over the house like a madman and things are quiet. On Evelyn's off days, the kids all play together in Oliver's room, sharing trains and laughing and reading books.

I should just really keep my mouth shut and count my blessings because today?

Today was different.

Today was one of those days. The days filled with threats, screams, tears. Thank goodness everyone is now in bed. And they better stay in bed or else....

Also, Glee is on! I'll be in my happy place at 9:00pm.

It doesn't help that my teeth are $%#*& killing me! I just had my wisdom tooth extracted last Monday but I've still been feeling residual pain. I did some reading on my oral surgeon's website and it sounds like I may have dry socket or whatever godforsaken thing can happen after an extraction. Fan-bloody-tastic, I tell ya.

Jeez, my first blog post in a long, long time and this is what you get.
Didya miss me or what...