My Family Is Sick, It Must Be a Holiday

I thought that we had had the worst of the sick when the kids had croup over Thanksgiving. I thought that I had paid my dues and we were free and clear for at least a week. I was wrong. We caught the family flu that is going around the Deringtons. That's what I get for hanging out with family I guess.

So, we are on day five of awfulness. It is coughs and body aches and fevers and drippy noses and it sounds like a cold... but it is so much worse, it is like a cold from hell. Oh yeah, I said it and I'm not even sorry. The doctor tells me that Nicole and Dano have brochitis while Matt and I have been diagnosed with the flu virus. Sounds all the same to me. Sounds like I am going to in bed for a week is what it sounds like.

But, in an attempt to be positive; if we are sick this week, there is no way we can catch something new during Christmas itself! So, hopefully, we will be healthy for Christmas. Unlike last year where the kids had croup and I had bronchitis the whole week of Christmas and I missed all the fun activities with the Deringtons.

How are Matt and I suppose to alternate families for the holidays if we keep getting sick and missing the holidays all together? Stupid sick.

Not the Worst Thanksgiving

For months, we have planned a trip to Albequerque, New Mexico to see my sister, Sarah for Thanksgiving. I called her an excessive amount of times about the trip and we took weeks prepping Nicole for the prospect as she is very anxious about any change.

And then, the curse happened. Dano got a double whammy of croupe and strep. The day before we were supposed to leave, we went to both the doctor and the ER with Dano because he was so sick. And we thought that maybe he would feel better fast and we could go a day late, but, alas, he did not. His fever persisted through Thanksgiving and we were forced to accept that the trip was not going to happen.

This happened last year too. Sarah came out for over a week for Christmas and the kids got the croupe and I got bronchitis and we did not get to spend hardly any time with her. I am cursed. Doomed to not spend time with my little sister!

So, we spent our Thanksgiving apart. I went to my parent's for dinner, then brought food home to Matt and the kids and then Matt left for his Mom's to have dessert. Even though it was a fairly crummy Thanksgiving with sick kiddos, it still was not the worst Thanksgiving ever.

I can only hope now that Matt and I will be able to plan some other get away to New Mexico to see Sarah and hopefully it will happen next time.

The Fourth

So, this post would be better if I had taken pictures on the fourth of July, but I did not. The night before the fourth, on the third, I had the stomach flu and it was awful. We were supposed to wake up early on the fourth and go and see the balloons launch with Marie's family, but since I had been up all night, sick, we cancelled. Which turned out to be okay since Marie reported that the balloons didn't launch due to bad weather.

So, for most of the fourth, we stayed home and recouped a little bit. Then, later in the day, we went to Momma Kimball's for the annual barbecue and fireworks. Momma Kimball lives a couple of blocks from the stadium of fire, so we always go to her house to watch the show.

I was still feeling pretty sick, but stuck it out and went to the family event and tried to avoid people. But, I had already been with the Kimball's the day before to take pictures... so... they were all doomed to get the stomach flu. Which they did. My bad. It was not my intent to get people sick but it is a little late for that. Sorry to all the people I got sick! *cough Marie* I was just feeling crummy and weak, so I spent most of the day on the couch while the kids played outside with their cousins.

So, we were a little nervous about doing fireworks with Nicole because she has a fear of loud noises and we have learned that it doesn't take much for her to get over stimulated and have a meltdown. But, we were both surprised that she was able to handle it quite well. When the fireworks started, she started laughing maniacally and started running around aimlessly (over stimulated), but there was no crying. She seemed to really enjoy them. Dan, on the other hand, was freaked out. The aerial fireworks in the neighborhood (before the stadium of fire) scared him and he cried and cried and clung to Matt or to me and did not want to let go. He had a little baby death grip. Which I didn't mind too much because I just pretended that he wanted to give me snuggles, which I love. But, he eventually got used to them because he slept on the lawn through the stadiums fireworks. I was so pleased that there were no major meltdowns about the fireworks and we got to just enjoy them. Plus, Dano snuggles are so nice.

One of the things that I don't like about the stadium fireworks is that they don't start until 10:30pm, which is super late for the kids. And, when we watch them at Momma Kimball's we get stuck there because of traffic. After the stadium lets out, Momma Kimball's street is immediately packed and not moving. We tried, this year to get out just after the fireworks ended... unsuccessfully. We ended up parking two houses down and walking back to Momma Kimball's to wait out the traffic. We were there until 1am and then we went home. Even though I enjoy the fireworks, I hate the traffic... and I hate keeping the kids up that late. After the events of the fourth, the kids were off schedule for a few days and it was unfun.

On the fifth, it was like the day of recuperation. We slept in, then we went to Freedom Days for an hour, only to return home and sleep for a really long time. We had wanted to have someone over for dinner because Matt had the night off from work, his first night off in the year he has been working there. But, we were too late in inviting and no one could come. Which was disappointing. It felt like a waste of a night, but it turned out for the best because Matt ended up with the stomach flu that night. One of us gets it and we all get it. Nicole ended up with it the next day. So, our fourth weekend was filled with sickness and Matt's very first night off from work ended in him staying up all night anyway... being sick. Bummer.

It seems like we are often sick on holidays. Last year, my family was all here for Christmas, but I missed almost all the festivities because the kids had croup and I had bronchitis. I hate it when people tell me that it is good that the kids get sick so much because that means that they won't get sick as much as adults. That is a bunch of BULL! I was sick all the time as a child and my Mom would tell me that I was building my immune system. So untrue. I get sick just as much as an adult as I did as a child. I am prone to catching sickness.

Yeouch!

So, a few weeks ago, Dano was playing with his piggy bank that he got for Christmas. I asked Dano to give it to me and he held it up for me. I reached down to grab it and then Dano threw it down on my right foot... and broke the piggy bank... and then there was a lot of pain.

My foot hurt so bad I had to immediately leave the room because I don't usually like crying in front of the kids; it makes them too sad. I elevated my foot and put ice on it, but it still looked like this.

These pictures do not do it justice. I literally looked like a golf ball size bump on top of my foot. It hurt so bad that I was sure it was broken. So, we called Matt's sister to take care of the kids and we headed off to the ER to get it looked at because it really hurt.

It was really quite painful, but they X-rayed it and determined that it was not broken. The piggy bank just broke a bunch of blood capillaries and the blood pooled up in this big golf ball sized bump. I think the bone was also bruised because it has been four weeks since this incident and the foot still hurts.

I was on crutches for three days and used a cane for weeks but now I am finally back on my own feet with nothing to aid me in my walking. I neglected to get pictures of the gnarly bruise that it left but just imagine my whole foot as a big ol' purple bruise and you will get the idea.

So the moral of the story? Don't give porcelain piggy banks to a one year old. They are not responsible enough to handle it. Also, if you are going to the hospital in your flood pajamas, make sure your legs are shaved.

You Know Your a Mommy When...

This weekend, Nicole and I were sick with the stomach flu. The stomach flu is really gross, I don't care for it, but I am glad that Nicole is old enough to get that she should throw up in a bowl rather than all over herself. And this weekend of sick made me think back to when Nicole was much younger and didn't know what to do.

When Nicole was really little and she got the stomach flu, there was no warning, just... "bleh" and then a big mess to clean up. But, then some Mommy instinct awoke in me and when she started to throw up, I would quickly cup my hands and thrust them toward her in an attempt to catch the vomit. This is when you know your a mommy. When you try and catch the vomit so it doesn't hit the carpet.

I don't do this any more with Nicole because she is old enough to use a throw up bowl. And, she eats real food now, so her vomit is way too gross to catch. Baby vomit is completely different from kid vomit.

We are all better now. The only good thing about the stomach flu is that it comes and goes quickly; it is usually only a day of sick. Whereas, colds last can last a whole week. And, it went through all of us, so I know we are done. Dan got it first, then Nicole and Matt at the same time and me a few hours later. I don't know why when one of us gets sick that we all get sick, but it seems to happen.

While Nicole was sick, and I was sick, Nicole turned to me and said, "Little girls need their mommies when they are sick." And I said, "Very true and you never stop wanting your mommy when you are sick." Which is true as I was wishing that I had my Mom to take care of me while I was sick and too weak to hold my own child. I'm just glad that my children find me as comforting when they are sick as I have always found my Mom. Maybe I'm doing something right.

Why Sick Why!?!

The kids are sick again. It is inevitable. Kids get sick, it is a thing. But I still hate it.

What started as a runny nose and a cough has become a monster! Cough cough, vomit. That is what my kids do because they haven't yet figured out how to clear their throats after coughing, so they start to gag and then vomit. Awesome.

Also, Nicole has a runny/stuffy nose and still hasn't figured out how to blow her nose. It has resulted in lots of tears because we try to explain it to her, try to show her how to blow her nose, but she just keeps sucking in instead of blowing out and then she cries.

And then the fevers came. Not just little fevers, but the scary fevers 103.5 fevers. Why does Nicole fever so high when she is sick? I've started getting used to the high fevers so when she clocks in at 101, I'm like, "psht, that's nothing, she's fine."

I took a half day at work yesterday so that I could stay home with the kids while Matt finished up a school project and went to class and I got a small glimpse at my soon to be stay-at-home life. And, even with the sickness, it was awesome. Being a stay-at-home mom is going to be awesome.

Here's hoping that my kids are better by Friday so that I can leave them with a sitter and go to the Twilight movie. I don't know how to speed up their recovery though. I suppose we just have to wait it out. I take extra vitamin C and extra airborne when I'm sick, but kids aren't suppose to do that. If only there was baby vitamin c and baby airborne.

Pain in My Back

I thought that my back had healed, my pain was mostly gone and I was doing good. Then, for no reason at all, my pain started to return in my lower right back, and down my right leg, in my right knee and my right hip. Ugh. I don't care for being in pain.

So, I suppose I will do my exercises and my stretches and hopes that it heals on its own because I don't know what the cause of all this pain is. I have already been to three different doctors for this and they all seem to think that it is nothing that will go away. So, there is no point in going back to have them tell me the same thing again.

I just have to work through the pain because there is no other option. I still have to go to work and I still have to be a mommy. No break from that.

Trauma

Sunday morning the kids and I were at Marie's house because we had spent the night. Nicole was having a bad morning. She refused to eat her breakfast and so I sent her to time out at the bottom of the stairs and went upstairs to pack up our stuff so we could go.

I was at the top of the stairs with a backpack, a purse, a duffle bag, and the portacrib in my hands. It was just then that the shoulder strap on the duffle bag decided to break. I bent down to retrieve the duffle and accidentally dropped the portacrib. It went sailing down the stairs at a speed that I did not think possible. It was like a bobsled going down the bobsleddy slide thing that bobsleds go down.

I grabbed for the playpen, but was too slow. I looked down the stairs in fear and saw both Nicole and Dan at the bottom of the stairs, because Dan was sitting with Nicole while she was in time out.

Being the "awesome" mom that I am and using really dumb logic, I yelled, "Look out! Look out!" knowing that there was nothing else that I could do to save my children from the portacrib sailing down the super steep flight of stairs.

My kids, being the wonderful 3 and 1 year old that they are, look up at me with innocent looks on their faces that say, "What Mama?" Just in time for the portacrib to smack right in to Nicole's face, knocking her off the stairs and onto the wood floor below.

I run down the stairs to my now screaming child. I pick her up, cradle her in my arms and look for injuries, only to see blood all over her face and hair. I have an immediate panic feeling in my chest. I am terrified. I look up to see Marie and Anthon standing there and I say, "I don't know what to do. What do I do?"

Marie and Anthon have calm heads and can actually think logically. Marie presses tissues to Nicole's head so that we can actually see where the blood is coming from. There is a small gash on Nicole's forehead and I panic again. My baby has a gash on her head! I feel like hyperventilating, I feel like crying, I feel guilt, I feel like I need Matt to tell me what to do because this mommy is ill prepared for this situation.

We clean her up, put some gauze on her and Anthon packs up the car so that I can head home. I get home, wake up Matt (because he had just got home from his 12 hour night shift) and have him look at Nicole's head because I am convinced that she need stitches but don't want to go to the emergency room unless I am absolutely sure because our copay is 300 dollars. I think the insurance company has astronomical copays to discourage you from going to the doctor. Evil. Stupid Obamacare.

Matt concurs with my need to go the doctor, but we head to Instacare instead. Matt is more familiar with head wounds than I am since he had them quite a few times as a child.

By this point, Nicole is not crying any more, but rather is ready to play and eating a sucker. Her calmness makes me calmer too. If she is ready to play, there is obviously no lasting damage.

Us at Instacare. We are all still in our pajamas and pacifiers were still in the mouth.

 The doctor looked at Nicole's head and decided that they could glue it shut rather than stitch it. I breathed a sigh of relief because I knew that stitches were going to be awful for her. Thank goodness someone invented skin glue.

Close up and out of focus picture of the gash. It doesn't look like much here, but it was pretty deep and man did it bleed a whole lot.

Dan and Matt at the doctor. Oh yeah, it was a family trip.

Nicole was freaked out by the chair that raised up high at the doctor's office, but other than that, she was a champ. She was convinced that she was going to fall off of the raised chair. Matt stood with her while the doctor glued her head shut and I managed the wild man Dan.

I didn't get an after shot with the glue in it, but it looked really wonky with glue bubbling out of the cut.

Nicole is okay and the cut is healing and hopefully there won't be much of a scar.

I did it, I survived our very first big kid trauma, though I still feel shaken by the whole event. I still feel guilty and my regular mommy worry meter is heightened to high alert.

I know that there are accidents and that kids get hurt, but I don't like it. Can't I just keep them in a bubble where they are safe and happy all the time? Being a parent is hard. If I didn't love my kids so stinking much, then maybe I wouldn't worry so much. But I do, I love them so much, and I worry about them all the time.

Hopefully, the next time this happens I will be calmer, I will know what to do and I will be a better Mommy. Not that I plan to send a portacrib down the stairs toward my children again, but I know that this will not be the last time that they get hurt.

Despite the fact that I am upset by the whole thing, at the same time, I am grateful. I am grateful that she wasn't more hurt. I am grateful that it only hit one of my children. And, as bad as it sounds, I am grateful that it hit the older child and not the younger one. If it had hit Dan, things could have been much worse.

Oh My Aching Back

A couple of weeks ago, on a Wednesday, I was sitting at work and I started to have some pain in my lower back.  As the day went on, my pain got worse and moved down my leg and into my right knee. The next day I went to the chiropractor who said that my tail bone was crooked. He adjusted me and I went home.

The next day, my back hurt worse. I went a weekend being in pain and trying not to sit because sitting hurts worse than standing or laying down. I returned to the chiropractor on Monday and he adjusted me again, but I did not feel relief from my back pain.

So, two days later (Wednesday) I went to my Family Practice doctor. She looked at my back, took x-rays and determined that it is my sciatica that is having problems. She prescribed me pain meds, steroids, and muscle relaxers.

Sciatica problems are often caused by excessive amounts of sitting. So, I applied to get workers comp because I sit all day at work. HR sent me to their doctor to get checked out. This doctor determined that it was not my sciatica, it was my hip causing problems and she cleared me to work and my workers comp claim was denied.

So, full of pain meds, I returned to work. My back is feeling a little better, so I'm hoping that the steroid is working, but I'm still in pain. I haven't been feeling very posty because I'm just trying to make it through work and taking care of the kids every day.

Hopefully, my back will heal from whatever is hurting it and I can feel regular again and not feel loopy from the pain meds all the time.

Hand Foot and Mouth Baby

Dano at the doctor on day 2

 Dano and Coley had Hand Foot and Mouth this weekend. While most kids get sores on their hands and feet, but my kids just had sores in their mouth and had outrageously high fevers.

 My poor Dano had a hard time of it. His mouth hurt so bad that he was refusing food and drink. I kept forcing small amounts of water into his mouth to keep him hydrated, he screamed and cried like I had injured him. My poor little baby.

I took him to the doctor on Monday because he hadn't needed a diaper change in 20 hours (that is bad). He was so lethargic and whiny and wouldn't leave my lap. I felt so bad for my little man.

It is really hard being a Mommy with a sick little kid. It breaks my heart every time they are sick and I feel helpless to make them feel better.

Today, Dano started feeling a little better. He finally began drinking and eating. I know his mouth still hurts because he still cries when he puts things in his mouth, but he is on the upside of things, thankfully.

Ignore the fact that I look awful in this picture. I was going off of only two hours of sleep and I hadn't yet showered.

Hand Foot and Mouth

Last night, Nicole and Dan both fell asleep before 8pm. I thought it was a miracle! I thought that I was the luckiest mom in the world to get kids who were asleep so early. No such thing as a luckiest mom.

Nicole got out of bed at 9:30pm and came into our room. I was going to send her back to bed, but Matt wanted hugs and snuggles, so Nicole hopped into bed with Matt for snuggles and Matt said, "She feels like lava."

I pulled out the thermometer and took her temp... 103.9!

Thank goodness Matt wanted a hug before bed otherwise I would have sent my fever girl back to bed to boil there.

I knew that Nicole's cousin, Lindy, had Hand Foot and Mouth last week so we knew that the kids had been exposed, but I was really hoping that the kids would avoid getting it. Alas that I am not the luckiest mommy in the world.

Nicoley had said that her throat hurt while she was eating dinner, but I thought that it was another one of her tactics that she uses to get out of eating dinner. But, her throat really did hurt. I shined a flashlight in her mouth and she has little sores on her throat. Poor girl!

We immediately got fever reducer into Nicole and then put her into a cool bath. She did not like the cool bath, but she was so brave! She sat shivering in the cool water, letting us pour more water down her head to cool her off and she didn't cry.

I told Nicole while she was sitting in the bath, "Nicoley, I'm so sorry that you are sick."

Nicole said back to me, "It is okay Mommy, I forgive you."

She is so cute! It just breaks my heart when my little one is sick. The bath and meds got her fever down to 101, which was acceptable enough to get her out of the cold bath.

Nicoley stayed in our room until 11pm when she declared that she wanted to go back to bed. She went and was quiet and fell asleep.

I checked her this morning and she was fevering at 103 again this morning. Ugh! I hate Hand Foot and Mouth!

Unfortunately, Hand Foot and Mouth is a virus, so there is nothing we can do but wait it out. No reason to go to the doctor unless the fevers get unmanageable. So, Matt will keep her hydrated and let her eat a lot of popsicles, and hopefully, this thing will pass quickly.

Feeling Unposty

This past week or so, I've been feeling unposty. I just haven't felt like posting much. We have all been sick with respiratory problems ever since the fires started, Matt the worst of all of us. It just puts me in a gloomy mood and makes me not very much want to post things.

So, until I'm feeling better again, I shall refrain from posting. This week will be a busy one because it is a holiday and we are having the Kimball family reunion up at Bear Lake. Hopefully, we are well before all the events begin.

Sick Weekend

Nicole woke up with a cough on Saturday morning, but we all hoped that it was just a passing thing. Then, Matt started feeling bad on Saturday night and I knew it was spreading.

This sickness was really weird. It started with a cough, then it consisted of aches, fever, and excessive tiredness. No sore throat, no head congestion... weird. Matt was so exhausted Saturday night that he went to take a nap at 6pm and then just didn't wake up until the next morning. He has never done that before. It was weird.

On Sunday, we all woke up with coughs and all hope was lost. Dan and Nicole were grumpous, Matt and I were grumpous and it was unfun. Nicole had a fever of 102.5 degrees and it got kinda scary there for a little while, but by Monday, we were feeling... betterish.

I worked from home on Monday to help out Matt with the kids since I was feeling better and he was not. Which turned out to be a good thing because the kids' coughs were breaking up and kids don't know how to handle that very well. Babies and little kids don't know how to spit or clear their throat, so... Dan and Nicole were throwing up when their coughs started breaking up. It was good to have both Matt and I there. One parent to clean the kid, one parent to clean the mess.

Hopefully, Matt and the kids are feeling a little better today and we are past the gross and the crying and the whining.

Sick with a Cold

So, Tuesday I started feeling sick and then Nicole had a fever of 102 Tuesday night and I figured out that Dan wasn't teething, he was just sick. I was up with Nicole and a little with Dan on Tuesday night and stayed home Wednesday to rest.

It is so sad seeing my kiddos sick. Nicoley got to watch cartoons all day on Tuesday and just wanted to stay in bed all day. That is when I know she doesn't feel good, when she doesn't want to play.

I'm feeling slightly better today and am back at work, but Matt is taking the kids to the doctor today. Hopefully Matt doesn't get sick, but it will probably happen. One of us gets it, we all get it. We are good sharers in the Kimball house.

My Poor Baby

Dan hasn't been sleeping well the last few nights. He has woken up coughing every night for four days, but he is a happy boy during the day so I thought maybe it was a teething cough. It got worse yesterday and his appetite decreased and he was super fuss face, so I made him a doctor appointment.


It turns out that Dan has the croup and a double ear infection. My poor baby! I had no idea that it had escalated that much. I hate it when I am a powerless parent who cannot interpret or diagnose my baby when he isn't feeling well. Hopefully, with medication, Dan will be feeling well again soon.

I wish I were home to squish him and kiss his baby face.

Sick, Sick, Sick

Being sick with a cold for a week is awful. But, having a sick husband and a sick baby on top of that is the worst. Matt and I were both feeling sick yesterday, but the kids were kind enough to fall asleep in their room together before 10pm! It was very much a success. Usually, we put Nicole to bed in her room and we put Dan in the playpen in our room and when they are both asleep, we transfer Dan over to his crib in their room.

Alas that both Matt and I were feeling all sick, so it was difficult to fall asleep last night. Then, at 3am, Dan woke up because he is all stuffy and having trouble breathing. It breaks my heart when my kids are sick and there just isn't much that I can do for them. So, we let Dan roll around on our bed making growly sounds while we watched tv. Dan knows how to make me laugh even when I'm sick and I'm tired. We were all up together until about 4:30am when Matt was the wonderful husband and took Dan downstairs so that I could go back to sleep. When Matt does things like that it makes me want to marry him all over again.

I'm pretty sure that Dan was up until 5am and Matt was up even later than that because it is just hard to sleep when you can't breathe. My alarm went off at 6:45am this morning and I immediately disabled it because I was not feeling inclined to drag myself out of bed just yet. I was very tired and stuffy and grumpy.

But, fifteen minutes later I heard Nicole shouting about something in her room and I knew that if I wanted to shower, I ought to get up out of my bed and quit being so lazy. I begrudgingly got out of bed and got in the shower and before I was finished showering, I heard Nicole opening the door and asking me, "What are you doing?" Which is one of her favorite questions.

Once I was all out of the shower and clean, I found that Dan was awake too. To which I thought, "Figures" because Nicole always wakes Dan up in the morning.

Matt never did come back to bed, so I knew he must have passed out on the couch downstairs, so I did the morning routine with the kids: diaper change, toilet visit, breakfast, and cartoons. Matt slept through all of this even though we were in the dining room eating breakfast and Dan kept shouting at me for more yogurt. I wish I could sleep like that! But, even when I'm all drugged up on cold medicine, I wake up whenever I hear one of the kids make a sound. Dumb mommy instincts that keep me up at night.

So, I was a little late to work this morning because I was caring for the kids while Matt got 30 more minutes of sleep. Which is nothing compared to how much Matt lets me sleep when he gets up with the kids at night. He is obviously winning the best spouse competition. I will just have to work extra hard this weekend to try and catch up.

Double Whammy!

And the day after we recover from the stomach flu, we are smacked down with coughs and colds. Poor little Nicole's sweet high voice is all low, froggy, and raspy. She coughs herself awake in the night and we are miserable again. We haven't gone anywhere since Christmas because, well, we've been sick and haven't left the house. I don't know where we picked up this second sickness.

I'm telling you, if someone is sick around us, we WILL catch their sickness. It is inevitable. My family has the worst immune systems ever. Sick people just need to stay in their homes and quarantine themselves and stop passing on their diseases! I'm obviously mad about getting sick one day after getting better.

So... This is Christmas?

Christmas Eve we packed up our kids, our pies, our fondue, and our jello salad and went to our first event, early christmas dinner with the Derington's at my brother Jake's house. My brother Jake hosts this event every year and we were extra lucky to have it there this year since Jake was out of town up until the even this year.

It is always a fun time that includes food, gifts, and just spending time together. I was really proud of Nicole this year. Nicole has a lot of social anxiety, especially in a crowd, but this year she actually played with the other kids and had a fun time. She really likes her cousin Keira who is close to her age. I saw them walking around holding hands and it was just so stinking cute!

I tried to get a picture of the girls together, but they were so busy looking at each other that they wouldn't look at me.

Little did we know that this party would get us all sick. Not just my family, but also my parents and my sister Marie's family. I don't know where it all orginated, but 9 of the 16 guests got the stomach flu within 48 hours of this party. Oh yeah, it was definitely a Becky holiday (I notoriously get sick on holidays and during travel).

After my family party, we headed to Momma Kimball's house. We did a white elephant gift exchange with Matt's family and we all stayed the night at Momma Kimball's house.

Nicole actually did really well with this too. On the fourth of July, we tried staying over night at Momma Kimball's and it was awful because Nicole just wouldn't sleep, but she did really well and slept in until 7am. Dan on the other hand, woke up many times in the night. We all survived though.

My little family was of course the first ones awake and we woke everyone in the house up because we were staying downstairs and had to walk all the way upstairs and past everyone to use the bathroom in the morning. And Nicole likes to ask a lot of questions and doesn't know how to do it quietly.
"Are we going to the bathroom?"
"Is it dark?"
"Is there a bear in there?" (Uncle Carlos is a loud snorer)

So, since everyone was awake, we started with stockings. Momma Kimball made a stocking for all the grandkids and put a bunch of toys inside, so Dan and Nicole got a lot of stuff between their grandma stocking and their "Santa" stocking. And, they got so wrapped up in stocking stuff that they got all side tracked from the real presents.

Nicole is wearing her Christmas pajamas in these pics, but Dan is not because he peed on them before I was able to get a picture of them. I had all these plans to have the kids in cute pajamas on Christmas, oh well.

After stockings, we ate a yummy breakfast of sticky rolls and quiche. Then, we opened presents. The kids got a LOT of toys. Like more toys than I would have liked, but I packed up a BUNCH of their old toys when we got home so there would be room for their new toys.

Nicole's big toy of the year was a treehouse for her Little Petshop animals.

Dan's big toy was a spinning car track... thing.

I only got a pic of Nicole's toy.

Nicole loved her gifts and it was a fun Christmas morning... until church. We went to church with Momma Kimball and Nicole was a terror! I guess the excitement of Christmas was a little too much because she could not sit still or be quiet and we ended up leaving early.

We spent the rest of the day at Momma Kimball's because the Kimball's had a big Christmas dinner. The dinner was great (until I was throwing it up later). Nicole had a hard time though because we had opened some of her new toys for her to play with and her cousins also wanted to play with her new toys. Nicole is not very good at sharing new toys (but what child is really?). Her cousins had gotten new toys too, but their parents had taken them away right after they got them, so the only new toys out were Nicole's and it was a fight to play with them. Now we know, if other parents take away the new toys, we must too.

We headed home in the evening and it was a relief to finally be home in our own house. I put away the toys, unpacked our stuff and we went to bed. And then woke up a couple hours later to my sweet baby boy throwing up. And an hour after that, Matt was throwing up, and an hour after that, I was throwing up. We spent the next 12 hours trading turns in the bathroom and holding Daniel over the sink to throw up. There is nothing worse than watching your baby dry heave.

Nicole, luckily, did not wake up throwing up. She woke up with a fever and didn't throw up until later in the day on Monday. It was a horrible, violent, awful stomach flu that took about 30 hours to pass. On Tuesday morning, we were all done throwing up, but still retained our fevers. I spent most of Tuesday washing vomit laundry and trying to recover and clean up from the stomach flu.

So, two days of my holiday were spent sick and it was awful, but I am glad that I was with my family and that I was able to be there to take care of my kids while they were sick since I rarely get to do that. I like to be the mommy and take care of my kids. Matt, of course, deals with sickness a lot better than I do and was a lot better at taking care of everyone than I was. Matt's a super daddy/husband.

So, the holiday was good... and bad, and over. I'm excited to be well and finally get to play with my kids and their new toys... and my new toys (Just Dance 3 and Metroid oh yeah!)

What the Heck!

So, after having the stomach flu go through everyone in the house a week ago, I thought we were in the clear for a little while. Obviously, I was mistaken because I woke up at 5am to the sound of Dan retching in his bed. My poor little man is sick again!

He retched and retched, but there was nothing in his stomach that early, so it was just dry heaves. Then, we gave him a little pedialite, which we had on hand from the last week. He fell back asleep and then woke up at 6am to throw up the pedialite. My poor Dan was so pale. But, he is in good spirits, so that is good at least.

I feel like we just can't catch a break. I do everything I can to keep my kids healthy, but they keep catching stuff. Arg! Matt has a final project presentation today, so he can't miss school and I have no days off left, so I can't miss work and we can't send a sick baby to a sitter... it is so frustrating. I wish that I were a stay at home mom so I could just be home with my kids when they are sick and we wouldn't have all these crazy complications every time the kids are sick, which seems to be often.

Anyway, we will do the BRAT diet for Dan right now and see how that turns out. He was just barely getting his appetite back from the last time that he was sick. Now we have to go through it all over again. Curse you stomach flu! *shakes fist*

Sick Weekend

Nothing is worse than having a sick baby. My normally happy, smiley, little man was sick with the stomach flu over the weekend. He started with the diarrhea on Thursday. Over the weekend, Dan, sadly, went through 45 poopy diapers. My poor little baby has a very sore bum!

Dan was really whiny and sad on Saturday and started throwing up that night. It is very sad to watch your little baby throw up... a lot. I remember doing this with Nicole when she was about 9 months old, but she was still nursing at the time, so she was getting food that is softer on a little tummy. Dan stopped nursing like 2 months ago.

Luckily, we had some of my milk frozen in the freezer. So, we thawed out the milk and Dan got mama's milk for a day. He went through it in no time though and then it was all gone. But, he didn't throw it up, so it was a success. But, once we were out of it and tried to give him the formula again, he was pretty mad. That is what he gets for giving up nursing. I wanted to keep going, but my little man was done a while ago.

So, Saturday, we pulled out the bed downstairs and camped out all day Sunday.

We stayed in our pajamas and were very lazy. Nicole loves it when we pull out the bed. She thinks it means that she can sleep downstairs (which we do not allow). But, it does mean that we can all snuggle together and watch tv. Normally, I would snuggle with my kids on my bed, but after Dan threw up on my bed, I was done with that. I would much rather that he threw up on the pull out bed (though he didn't, my bed is the lucky one).

Oh, and did I mention that I started feeling nauseated just after Dan threw up the first time? I didn't ever throw up, but I did feel sick to my stomach all day on Sunday. It hit Matt Sunday night. Luckily, it happened on a weekend and we were able to trade responsibilities with the kids depending on who felt better.

Dan is down to just 4 poopy diapers a day, so hopefully the worst is passed and his bum will heal. And, hopefully Matt and I will feel better soon too. I'm at work today either way.