Our weekend in headlines

Headlines! How Exciting!

Thursday: A Nice Little Day Off
Friday: The Epidemic Grows Exponentially; The Day of the Pukes; Stop Screaming Already
Saturday: On the Mend?; Stop Screaming Already
Sunday: We Haven't Watched This Much Television in the Last Three Months
Monday: The Great Media Detox; I Would Feel Better if I Got a Decent Night's Sleep for Once


Want the story that goes with the headlines? I don't know why I was thinking in headlines this weekend, but it seemed fun.

Thursday morning Clara felt warm when she came to snuggle in my bed. So we got Nathan off to school, and then canceled preschool. It was perfect: we had picked up the house Wednesday night, but I hadn't done any prep for the letter K crafts I was planning. We watched a couple movies and snuggled. Easy day.

It's murky now, but I think Nathan was up feeling not well Thursday night/Friday morning, so he stayed home from school. I even remembered to call to excuse him (one day when we were especially late the school called to see if he was sick). Clara, Alice, and Peter, and I ate breakfast. PBS stayed on all day. Nathan was the first to throw up, on the carpet, making the basement a miasma of sickness. Clara followed soon after, and she's a screamer when she pukes, until you get her a drink of water. Somewhere in the middle of this I started not feeling so well, although I never threw up. By the time Levi got home at 3:30 I was laying on the floor snuggled in a quilt. He took good care of us.

By Saturday everyone was done throwing up. Some of us even had bananas and applesauce for breakfast. Gatorade was purchased and consumed. But there were still stomachaches and lots of movies. And then long naps, after some more screaming. Homemade bread and bean of bacon soup for dinner (Levi again took good care of us).

Middle of the night stomachaches and Peter's slight fever, and I knew we shouldn't even try making it to church. Suspended my own policy of no movies on Sunday, since Levi had meetings both before and after church and I was feeling dizzy for some reason. Let the kids delve into the midst of Amazon Prime Instant Video. Have you noticed that the more tv your kids watch the more awful they become? We've gotten into a good groove this school year where there isn't much television happening. So, really, I think we've watched more in the last three days than we have since school started.

Sunday night/Monday morning the kids slept fine, except for that Peter. The night before he'd slept until 5, so I asked him pretty please to do the same thing again. We laid him down at 9:30, and he was up at 10. And 12, when I gave him some tylenol, thinking that would help. And then at 1. at 1:30 I asked Levi to take him for a drive to help him sleep. At 2:30 I woke up, realized they were not back yet, and knew that I had killed a third of my family. Then I agonized that I don' t have the earning power to support my family in the manner to which we've become accustomed. They got back ten minutes later; Levi had driven to Brigham City and back, since Peter had stirred and cried a couple of times. I married a good man. Then Peter slept all the way to five! I slept/fed him on the couch until the kids got up.

Today, Monday, I've declared Only One Movie. Nathan had a stomachache after breakfast so he stayed home, but he's since perked up. Clara seems fine. She's actually back to her helpful self, and is feeding me a bowl of applesauce as I type. She decided it would be "fun to do the chores, since I haven't been doing the chores, and you usually do all the chores." We haven't seen helpful Clara in a couple of weeks. [She now wants to floss my teeth.] Alice has had a couple of especially yucky diapers but she seems happy still, so I'm hopeful we're at the end. Once again, if we can get a decent night's sleep, we'll survive.

I'll leave you with a happy story. Alice is getting really interested in imaginative play. Independent imaginative play. If we watch what she's doing she gets mad, growls No! and turns away. On Friday afternoon, after cleaning up the carpet, I left the roll of paper towels within reach, and she decided it would be so fun. There were only a few feet left on it, so I let it be. Levi caught her wrapping it around herself like a fancy cloak, and knew better than to say anything, but she still got mad when she realized she was being watched. Later, a sheet got torn off, but instead of getting mad, she put it to use by giving it to me for a blanket. How nice.

This morning she made up for it by using me as a couch. She said, "You a couch," and sat on me. And laughed. Being two must be so fun.

[Now they are doing my hair and Nathan just made me some homework sheets. Everybody's going back to school TOMORROW.]