Quarantine

It's that time again!

When your dad is a doctor you sometimes get quarantined when you're sick and can't pass the blue line.

Flu season has hit Winston-Salem like a hairy, vengeful snow-beast, and we've been watching it slowly approach our home (in the form of facebook statuses from everyone we go to church with who, one after another, posted that their kids were throwing up) for the past few weeks. We actually considered staying home from church on Sunday in an effort to miss the epidemic, but after a little contemplation decided that (1) that probably wasn't super spiritual of us and (2) we'd rather they get sick now than on Christmas. Once we decided to go I told Steve that we should just have our kids lick some infected kid just to be sure. (This is a joke. We do not advocate this.)

Yesterday morning I dropped Gracie off at school and brought my other two home. Charlie was in rare form, crabbing about everything from his cereal ("I don't like my Life!") to his beloved Daniel Tiger. He even told me, at one point, that he didn't like me. So as you can imagine, the second it was time for quiet time I had him in bed with the door shut. He'd told me his stomach hurt a couple times, but I didn't give it much credence since he's claimed to be sick once or twice over the past week in an attempt to get my iPad tuned to some kids shows in his bedroom. He cried a little when I put him to bed (as he usually does--often about a loose string on his sweatshirt or because a toy he is playing with is too large to fit into some container; having a baby sister steal your thunder for a while is hard) and I let it go and he fell asleep. Then around 2:30, just before I was about to wake him to go get Grace, I heard his plaintive little voice calling, "Mommy? Mommy....?" from his bedroom. I hurried up the stairs and opened the door to a mess that I will not describe to you. Suffice it to say he had thrown up, and I had to get him cleaned up some so I could take him in the car to get Grace. I paged Steve at work and ran around getting fresh clothes and wiping poor Charlie's hair and face, and then we got in the car.

I am happy to say that having three children has mellowed me even further (which is fantastic, because I was pretty uptight when Steve and I got married--seriously, ask him, he'll tell you) and though I was sad for my baby boy, I wasn't freaking out at all. I had a game plan (I'd given Charlie a sweatshirt just in case when I realized I'd failed to bring a bowl, and I'd decided Juliette would probably have to cry a little while I cleaned Charlie and his bed up as she waited for her feeding) and Steve had called back to say he'd be able to make it home shortly since his shift was pretty much wrapped up. So I actually found it kind of funny when "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" came on the radio, and then Charlie threw up. Ahhhh, flu season.

He was so sweet about it. Here he is totally losing his stomach and he was just so patient about the fact that he had to be strapped into a carseat while it happened, and then sit in it while we got Grace and for the whole ride home. Happily, Steve pulled in to the driveway as I was taking Juliette out of the car, and I asked him to feed her a bottle while I dunked Charlie in the bath and cleaned up his bed and carpet. (THIS THROW UP CLEANER I found on Pinterest works fantastically, by the way.) Then Steve took a turn with the grossness and hosed off a pile of blankets and Charlie's carseat for me before we threw everything in the wash. And then we took turns taking showers to try to decontaminate.

Oh, and meanwhile Gracie started claiming to be sick, which we thought was because Charlie was getting to watch TV in his bed and she was not. We told her she could lay in her bed and gave her a bucket just in case, but we were pretty sure it was a ploy to get some television because she'd been fine at school all day. But lo and behold, moments after Steve took Juliette downstairs  I heard coughing coming from her room and ran in to rub her back and help her clean up. Poor kiddo. They were both such good sports about it. Charlie even declared it "silly" and laughed after he finished losing his lunch.

Steve set up a quarantine zone with some painter's tape, and they spent the rest of the evening sipping Pedialyte and watching Netflix. Unfortunately the germs didn't seem to respect the line of demarcation, because I woke up feeling a little peaky this morning (so far I'm keeping my food down though) and when I fed Juliette at ten this morning I just had a feeling so I fed her on a blanket so I could keep my bed clean just in case. And the poor thing threw up, too. And then she smiled and cooed at me when she was done. These kids are the best.

So we're hunkered down again. At least its cold and rainy outside. And I have a good book to read. And I don't feel nearly as sick as I did when I was pregnant! :)

Sickies

This is not the most pleasant thing, but since 3 out of the 4 of us have been knocked down with the stomach flu, it bears documenting. Right?

Charlie threw up on Sunday morning, right after Steve and I had done our morning swap (weekends one of us gets up while the other sleeps, and then we switch). So I went to lay down and minutes later Steve came in with Charles who needed to be plunked in the tub (while poor Steve cleaned up the mess in Charlie's room). And, I'm a little ashamed to admit it, the first thing I thought of was that I had been sneaking snacks out of Charlie's cereal bowl... Oops.

So of course the next day, Monday, I finished the taxes and then my Cheerios and the porcelain bus had a meeting. Luckily (1) Charlie was already on the mend and (2) Steve had a short day at school. So I laid on the couch all morning while the kiddos watched too many PBS shows (they're educational, right? Except Dinosaur Train. And Clifford. Ugh.) until Steve got home. I discovered a few foods which don't taste so bad on second taste, if you know what I mean. And I started thinking that we need to find some way to get a ton of money so I can afford day care for the 6-8 weeks of morning sickness that will happen next time we have a baby, because I don't think Charlie will be quite as tame a charge as Grace was. And the day went endlessly on. The kids ate a lot of cereal, and Steve let me sleep.

2 am last night? Steve got it. I took him a glass of water, which he always does for me. One of the nice things about being married. Not having to throw up alone. Is there anything that makes you feel more vulnerable than throwing up? I hate it. So anyway he called in sick, and today we've just been taking turns laying miserably in bed while the other watches the kiddos from the couch or a pillow on the floor. More TV. More cereal.

Thank goodness for TV and cereal, right?

Grace keeps telling us we're "sickies."

But the nice thing is that being sick has made me REALLY SLOOOOOW DOWN. I got lots of cuddle time with my babies this morning--I discovered that tickling the back of Charlie's neck will make him stop crying. He has also been laying his head on us a lot and saying "huuuuh" (hug). Gracie read me lots of stories and patted my cheek. (And yesterday, when she heard me throwing up down the hall, she yelled, "Bless you!") I've been wearing jammies all day, which is never a bad thing. And Steve is home in the middle of the week. Most of the calories we've consumed have been Gatorade. Haha. I have never loved my squishy bed and three pillows so much. :)

Under the Weather

So we're all (except Steve) a little (or a lot) sick over here, and it is pretty sad. Gracie came down with something over the weekend, and when she got worse and worse, Steve decided to take her in to the pediatrician on Tuesday. They did a test, and she came up positive for influenza. Of course we freaked out, because that is dangerous for a teeny baby like our Charlie, so we did our best to keep them totally isolated from each other.

Gracie and Steve camped out in her room watching Disney movies while Charlie and I stuck to his room and my room. You may notice that Steve put a warning on her door...

Yes. That is a BIOHAZARD notice.

Monday night I started getting sick (boo!), and last night poor Charlie started came down with a fever. Steve took him to the pediatrician this morning, and lo and behold he was sick--but with an entirely different virus! He has RSV, and we have no idea where it came from since we've been mostly on lockdown. So now we're trying to keep each kid from getting what the other has... My hands are raw from all the hand-washing!

You can tell Charlie is really sick, because he normally detests the baby swing. He literally won't sit in it for more than a few minutes before he bursts into really angry tears. But here he is today:

Poor little guy. Please keep him in your prayers; he is so little to be sick like this--it's scary!

not whining (but it might sound like it)

Steve recently complained that I haven't written a post lately. That's true. The fact is, I'm ashamed to say, I am completely overwhelmed by the list I've prepared for myself to get done before the holidays. And I've even trimmed down the Christmas items to bare minimum (sorry if you all get Christmas cards late, I promise, I am working on them!) but there is just so much going on.

Weirdly, we have also all gotten sick, presumably with different things, all at once. Gracie has some sort of cold (which makes for a very cute/pathetic little cough), Steve has a viral throat infection that has him in bad pain, and I have some sort of crazy bad allergy to some mysterious something that makes the insides of my ears and back of my throat itch like a  5 year old with chickenpox and also makes my nose useless for things like smelling and breathing. And I can't figure out what it is! There's nothing blooming, and I've scoured the house to remove any missed mold. It's driving me nuts. If you have any thoughts, please share!!

So you can see why I haven't posted. We're boring. Actually, we have done a lot of fun stuff, too, but I don't have the pictures on my computer yet. I guess that's not too hard to do. Okay, I promise you pictures of some stuff later today (or tomorrow... or sometime this week). :) I've also been working on a lot of Christmas gifts, but those, obviously, are top secret. :)

There is No Fruit in North Carolina

First, let me say that mostly I love it here.

Now the griping.

There are three things I hate about where we live:

(1) The roads suck. They do, I'm sorry. Usually one road is labeled as two or more, so for example you can be on the 421 North and 40 West and it is the same road. Or you can be on the 85 and the 52, which I think also go in perpendicular directions, at least in the real world. There are also roads labeled "Business" which are different than the real roads. So again, example, the Business 40 is different than the 40. What?!?!?! And the signs are terrible.

(2) Everyone in California who I want to call is alseep until at least 10am here, usually later. This makes communication difficult.

(3) There is no produce here. Well there is some. But it is terrible (goes bad really fast), not local, and waaaaaay overpriced.

The worst is when any or all of these three things combine. Like today.

After a fruitless search over the past week for a farmers market or produce store of any kind, I came across something promising--a farmer's market in downtown. 13 minutes away.

Well, I took the 40 instead of the Business 40, which meant we drove for like 30 mins instead. Then we found the farmer's market. It was one farmer. With a pile of veggies the size of maybe two of our kitchen tables. I didn't even want to see what he was charging. I just kept on walking back to our car where poor Gracie had to sit there again as I tried to figure out how to get to the right freeway.

I miss fresh fruit and vegetables, local grown, low prices. I wonder if I can grow a garden in our closet.