When the husband's away...

This has been one of those weeks. One of those weeks that I am absolutely blessed to have but exhausts me. School has been amazing. I love, love, love my new job. As in, I could do this forever. However, home has been cray cray.

Thursday I thought that Andrew would walk in the door and literally turn right back around and leave. He was in Houston all week on a work trip. Every time I talked to him I reminded him that he should relax and enjoy his quiet hotel room. (He has a tendency to not sleep well when he is away.)

Mom and dad claimed Addie as their own for the first 2 days to help me out. Morning one: she woke up with pink eye. Good start. My dad (whose job is way more important than mine) worked from home and let Addie stay with him.

Morning two: she woke up with a runny nose, tummy hurting, sore throat. I thought she was milking it and said and I quote "I'm not taking her to the doctor because she just has a runny nose." 

Elle had her 2 year checkup at 4:00 with shots which she called "bites." Did I take Addie? No. What did I end up doing? Calling the after hours clinic around 6:00 because she started running fever and throwing up mucus. (TMI)

Mom was right. There, I said it.

Day three: Took her to the doctor only to find out it's a sinus infection. Whaaaaat?! Called later to check on her. Dad had bought her a scooter and she was riding it around all day in the house. Sounds back to normal...right? There's more. When I picked Elle up from school, her body was covered in red polka dots. Was it from the vaccines? No. It was the tail end of a virus that we had no idea she had.

Day four: Got a call from Elle's school that she had spots all over and possible fever. I was in a meeting so I am texting under the table to figure out the pick up situation. Andrew pulled into town around noon and had to go pick her up. Welcome back, honey.

Day five: Sent Addie to school only to have her fever spike again and get a call. Fine all afternoon at school with me. Boom, sick again at night.

You get it. It was crazy! I started my weekend with a relaxing but challenging Pilates class and now I'm ready to watch some football and lay around on the couch. Pray that everyone will rest and be back to normal on Monday. 

Perspective

Perspective is a humbling thing. While mindlessly perusing Facebook I came across a picture that I had not seen of Elle. Her Mother's Morning Out class was holding up a sign of encouragement for a little boy in her class with cancer. He was cancer free and it came back.

He is Elle's age.

Being thrown up on suddenly didn't seem so bad. I sat and stared and tears welled up at the thought of going through that with a child. 

We have had friends go through tragic, unimaginable things with their children.The worst thing I have been through was an early miscarriage. It was life-changing for us and a very sad time. We learned to trust God's timing and rely on His plan instead of our own. We both grew from the experience yet it seems to pale in comparison. I've volunteered at a children's hospital and know how difficult and draining it can be on the family physically, emotionally, and financially. Those families seem to strap on their superhero capes and do it. They don't spend time dwelling on it. I truly believe that God gives us strength when we don't think we are strong enough. 

It's so easy for me to get caught up in the chaos of whatever and forget about anything outside of my little world. As I fill up another cup of pedialyte I am reminded that it's all about perspective. 

And then there were none

Addie came in our room about 3:30 this morning, climbed in bed and requested water. In my delirium I was like ok, give me a minute. 30 seconds later she threw up on me. It wasn't like full blown throw up, more like a spit up situation. But it was on me and the bed and the floor. You non-moms are all like "Ew, that's disgusting" but it will happen to you one day too. So you have that to look forward to. 

We changed the sheets. I changed. BC woke up hungry from all the commotion so Andrew fed her while I took care of Addie. May I remind you it was 3:30?! 

The only one that got good sleep last night was Elle. She's been dancing like a maniac to Disney Junior. Now if I can keep her from throwing things away in Addie's trashcan.

I guess I'm thankful that this happened before school started instead of my first week back. Silver lining. 

Virus shrimus

Have you ever felt like one of those crazy moms that dreams up some rare illness when your child acts sick? Yea, I'm usually not. Today however I was between Elle having West Nile or some crazy side effect from a spider bite. 

We go to the pediatrician a lot with three kids. Everyone's vaccines are on a different schedule and sicknesses don't always coordinate. Elle had an ear infection every month for eight months until we finally got tubes (two weeks before having Bentley Claire). So you do the math, 8 months of ear appointments plus 2 week checkup for BC and then 8 week appointment for shots. That equates to a lot of doctor time. And that's not even including Addie. 

Before Elle's tube surgery

Back to being a crazy mom. I mentioned the other day that Elle got a spider bite when the landscaper was here. Never google 'spider bites on children.' You don't want to see that. Trust me. Yesterday was day three of the bite and she started running fever. According to Google, you should panic if they run fever on the third day. This morning she was ok. No fever and seemed to be feeling fine. She went to school for about 2 1/2 hours while Addie was at ballet. When I went in to pick her up she looked like she had been swimming. She was drenched in sweat and was clearly feeling bad. So I called the doctor. 

He's super laid back and has 4 kids so I always feel at ease when we go. Her arm could be falling off and he would be like "Oh, that's an easy fix. We will just patch that right up." So he said it's probably not West Nile (you crazy lady), her spider bite looks fine, strep test came back negative, it's just a virus. Alternate Motrin and Tylenol. Ok, what a relief, viruses are no big deal right. Oh wait...viruses are miserable. 

Now I have a hot-as-a-firecracker child in my lap that will only stop crying if I hold her, I'm trying to keep from breathing in her sick air and keep the other two from getting this all at the same time. 

Happy Friday everyone.