Dark Night of the Stomach and the Bright Light of Spring

Last Friday night we started our weekend by having dinner out. The weather was beautiful, the kids were great and I wasn't cooking. All good things. We got home from dinner, put the kids to bed and I felt exhausted. And weird. And then Aiden woke up covered in...vomit. Suddenly everything clicked. FOOD POISONING.

Aiden and I had shared a dinner, and within a half an hour of each other we were horribly ill. All night neither one of us slept, poor Sean ran back and forth and I tried to decide whether I was going to die or whether I just really hoped I was dying because I felt so awful. The next day we were still barely functioning. Both of our moms came over and brought (easily digestible) food and sympathy. Food poisoning was terrible. Until the next day when Sean got sick and my mom got sick and whoops that wasn't food poisoning happy stomach flu everyone! You're welcome, we love sharing, no need to send a Thank You note.

Sorry about that everyone we came into contact with. OUR BAD.

Luckily the baby never got it. Miracle of miracles. I have no idea how he avoided it. It didn't really matter that much however because he quickly came down with a pretty nasty cold. So all this past week we got nothing done, everyone was recovering from some bout of awful illness and there was just a whole lot of screaming and crying (even from me! Haha, alright, it was mostly just me. And Rory. We screamed a lot).

Needless to say, it was a rough week where I felt emotionally incapable of being a good parent and lamented not being able to take care of every little detail of our lives while regaining my strength and caring for sick kids. Fun stuff. Sean kept quietly whispering "And you still want a third kid? SERIOUSLY?". Yeah. I kind of do. Eventually. 3 would be nice. (Or 7. Or 15. Sorry, I need to keep myself in check here.)

However, this weekend pretty much made up for all of that awfulness. The weather finally acknowledged what the calendar has been saying for a month: it's Spring! We spent most of our time outside digging in the garden (me and Aiden) cleaning up the lawn (Sean) and eating grass and leaves (Rory). The kids ended each day sweaty, dirty and smelling like sunscreen. Basically, the proper way kids should look and smell.

 

  

 

Aiden also had his second swim class this weekend. I wasn't sure how he'd like having swim class in the giant High School pool with lots of new kids but he loves it. I'm pretty sure it's way too easy for him since he's already mastered most of the skills they're trying to introduce but we're kind of looking at it as a lesson in socialization. He's already gravitated towards the class clown as his new friend and has the teenage girl who assists with the class totally wrapped around his finger. Business as usual.

Rory is also learning some new skills as he decided to stand up. Out of the blue he decided he'd like to see inside the tub as it was filling with water and boom, there he was standing up, peeking over the edge and looking like he couldn't understand why Sean and I were shrieking with excitement. My guess is that he's never going to properly crawl. He'll do this weird army crawl and then he'll walk. That will be that.

Anyway, now that we're through with illness and ill weather everything is looking up. Here's a goodbye kiss from Rory:

Spring Break

This past week was Aiden's spring break. Or, more accurately, winter break part two. Last year we were graced with weather in the seventies and spent every day at the park. This year it was blustery and in the thirties. Gross. 

We had a very low key Easter, the bunny came though, and since Sean had work the boys and I hung out and ate our body weight in jelly beans and hard boiled eggs. Not too bad. 

Despite the awful weather we did manage to get out on Wednesday. I kept promising Aiden that we would do SOMETHING fun on his break. I wanted to take him out to a nearby farm to see the new baby animals and some sheep shearing but thigh high mud and the wind chill pretty much ruled that out. Instead my friend Tierney and I took the kids to a nearby museum where they were having a special exhibit on butterflies. Aiden loves, adores, cherishes the world's insects so I knew this would be a hit. They had a whole greenhouse set up where you could walk through and see different types of butterflies flying around and the would, if you were lucky, land on you. One landed on Aiden and one landed on me, directly on my head. Very cool. 

The intense cabin fever from having both boys home all day meant that we even braved the wind and bundled up to start up our daily walk ritual once again. Aiden has decided this year he likes his bicycle, so he rode while I walked. He got this bike as a gift two years ago and he would ride it occasionally and then decided he hated his helmet or the road was too bumpy or whatever. This year he is obsessed and I'm going to need to buy new running shoes and oil the jogging stroller if I have any hope of keeping up. He's so in love with riding his bike that on the days that were too cold to go out he would break down in tears over not getting his bike time. I'm thinking by mid summer we'll get the training wheels off. This dude's obsessed. 

All in all, we really didn't get around to getting out that much this break. I felt bad that the weather was so limiting and that I didn't man up and plan something bigger for the kids to do. Honestly, we're still stuck planning around Rory and his naps. We have to weigh the benefit of skipping the nap to do what we want and risk him screaming the day away, or try and squish activities in during his awake hours. That's life with a baby though, and I know now how fast it goes.  Luckily, this summer he should be more flexible and we'll have a lot of time then for running around. 

The good news is that he now had four teeth, and has made it through his latest bout of horrible-no sleep teething. He's becoming more and more aware of how he affects the world around him and it's his life's mission lately to make people laugh. He'll play peek a boo or make weird faces and noises and just wants everyone to appreciate how hilarious he his.

Having all day to play together had really made me appreciate the relationship between Rory and Aiden. Rory is just starting to get into Aiden's toys and Aiden runs around trying to yank stuff out of his reach all while saying "I'm sorry but this is too dangerous for you! Not a safe idea Rory!" while Rory does his absolute best to disrupt whatever Aiden is doing. But then sometimes we're driving in the car and I hear Aiden telling Rory all about where we're going and asking him if he likes the crane truck over there or that big building over here. The two of them together, fighting or playing, just seems so perfect.