what's up weekl

Life is a pendulum: sometimes it's up, and sometimes it's down.  And when a lot of life is happening under one roof, often the ups and downs are happening at the same time.

Take a look at what I mean.  Here we have High Highs: a table full of happy kids, drawing their own Harry Potter illustrations, without a care in the world.  

And here, we have Juni, living her best life.  She discovered where we hide the Movie Night treats, and she also figured out how to open ziplock bags.  

She looks pretty proud of this week's accomplishments.

However, what you can't see here is that we've had a pervasive tummy bug in our midst.  Laurelai came down with it first about eight or ten days ago: it starts with the barfs, nausea, and a general feeling of yuckiness.  Then it goes away.  Then it comes back.  Then it goes away and comes back in a constant cycle for about five days.  Also, it is drawing itself out nice and leisurely-like through the kids. 

 

Penelope then came down with it on Saturday and fought it until Tuesday morning.  Callista started it up on Sunday night and fought it until Tuesday.  Atticus fell sick Wednesday night and is still really fighting.  Rocco seemed to have had it last week, though his was just a gurgly belly and only lasted a day, so maybe it was something different.  Finneas and Juni are the last men standing in the juvenile set, but I have set my expectations low that they'll fly under the radar.

Not well, but as good natured as he can be.  Yes, he's in the girls' bed (it's closer to the family than his own room, but not right in the thick of things like he would be on the couch) and yes, he's wearing his hat.  That hat is his bosom companion, even when sleeping - "it keeps my head warm, Mom."  And just like that, he's parenting me through appropriate headwear.

I've already started a blog post about how to care for sick children - including how to care for our attitudes when caring for sick children - and I'll post that next week.  The long and short of it is, today's mothers are woefully uneducated in caring for the sick.  We have not been taught, because our own mothers never taught us.  Well, I am here to tell you at least what I have learned - I still have a long way to go, but I am grateful for the example and the instruction of older women who are kind enough to write on the subject, as well as plenty of experience dealing with sick kids, so I'll be sharing the little that I do know.  Brace yourselves; I have thoughts on all this.  (Did you really think I wouldn't?)

Anyway, beyond sickness, very little happened this week.  We had to reschedule plans with a friend because of the barfs... and then reschedule the reschedule because of more barfs.  In a weird lull (by Wednesday morning, no one had been sick or had a fever for over 24 hours), we had a friend come over to cut my hair, and we had guests for dinner.  We realized we weren't totally done with the bug when Atticus threw up after everyone left.  Whoops.  We had chiropractor appointments yesterday, although I left Atticus home with Todd rather than taking him with us.  Our chiropractor is wonderful and loves seeing the kids, even when they're sick (did you know spinal adjustments boost your white blood cell count and help you kick bugs faster?), but the best place for Ad was at home.

And that was our week!  Wish me luck with any future barfers, including potentially myself (knock on wood that doesn't happen!).