Fun Winter Weekend

Well, somehow I missed all of February on here!  Oops!  We have been sick pretty much since the end of January :(  

Joe eventually got over Fifth's Disease but was never 100%, then he got an incredible sinus infection where crud was coming out his eyes (yuck), Amelia had pink eye in both eyes for her birthday, Jackson had broncho-pneumonia and now I am fighting a raging ear infection in which I have found no relief yet.  Hopefully this is it for us and sickness for awhile!

Before my ear infection hit we took advantage of the wonderful weather this past weekend and got outside!  Saturday, I took Amelia to Willow River State Park to try out her new skis.  

2026 Olympic hopeful!

She made it about a quarter-mile and then quit out of frustration of slipping/sliding/falling.  Poor girl, she just wanted to keep up with the others on the trail and be as fast as the people she watched on the Olympics, ha!  She's excited to give it another shot and keep practicing!  After skiing she wanted to hike to the waterfall - so we did!  

It's thawing!

Sunday morning Amelia, my mom, sister and I went snowshoeing at Afton State Park.

We went a mile and a half!  I wish we had tried this sooner in the winter - it was a lot of fun!

You'll notice the boys are missing from all these activities/pictures...  Jackson went along with Amelia and I (in a carrier) skiing/hiking and during snowshoeing my dad watched both boys!  

Amelia begged to take Jackson out in the infant sled at my parent's house despite the snow nearly as deep as she is tall!  She pulled him back and forth on the path they use to fill their bird feeders!

As for dad, he has been skiing in Aspen since Friday!

We are picking him up tonight and the kids (Amelia in particular) are excited to see him!

As much as I love winter, I am ready for spring this year!  Between all the sickness that has plagued our home the past month and a half and the sub-zero temperatures that have kept us cooped up inside  - I'm over it!  Winter is no fun when you can't get out and enjoy it! 

Long Weekend

I had last Friday off and after Amelia's O/T we met some friends at Lookout Ridge!

 

We played for about three hours again!  The kids have so much fun and burn off so much energy there - it's great!

Saturday, Amelia went to a cat show with my mom and sister in the cities.  Jason, the boys and I went shopping for a few groceries/ingredients for soup and chili.  After that little excursion we stayed in the entire weekend - it's too cold to want to leave the house!  We pretty much watched movies all weekend :)

Sunday night movie (Ice Age) in a tent!

A little Jackson for good measure :)

We had a scheduled day off school yesterday and today was cancelled because of the cold weather so Amelia is also enjoying a long weekend!

Temperature on my way into work this morning!

Joe seems to be suffering from fifths disease aka "slapped cheek syndrome."  

It just kind of showed up yesterday.  He is a bit congested but no fever or other symptoms.  My googling only turned up fifths disease so we are just watching him for now since it is viral and requires no medical treatment.  We are going in Friday for Jackson's well-baby visit and I plan to ask her about it, especially if it hasn't cleared up by then!

Well, I have a crying Jackson and a messy room to help the big kids clean up!  Stay warm!

Feverish

I got a call from the school this morning (luckily I was on break!) that Amelia was in the nurse's office with a temperature of 103.8 - a little high!  I called Jason and he went and got her right away.  I came home to her passed out on the couch.

Around five o'clock I checked her temperature and we had gotten her down to 102.8 - an improvement.  We missed speech tonight which really upset her.  She refuses to take Tylenol (liquid or chewable) and ate next to nothing today (which is ok.)  We pretty much sat around watching Netflix most of the night in an effort to make sure she rested.

She went to bed right after Joe tonight and I plan to take advantage of this and get an extra hour of sleep - woohoo!  With that being said - goodnight!

Lazy Night

This afternoon I sat down with Amelia to watch Dora.  Two hours and fifteen minutes later I woke up to this:

The girl who never naps, napped.  That meant I had napped too :)

Then I had to go wake Joe up over an hour later than his normal wake-up time.  He woke up like this:

He had a fever of 103 :(   He got some "magic juice" and we spent most of the evening like this:

The boy who never sits still - sat still.  For pretty much the whole evening.  We watched Netflix and had saltines for dinner.  I was nervous to give them (mostly him) anything more than that.  I was pleasantly surprised that Amelia asked to go to bed at about the normal time.  Since we had the long nap I was prepared to be up late with her while she bounced off the walls ;)

Sick Saturday

We had an abnormal wake-up call yesterday...a crying child.  Usually Amelia just comes right in and wakes us up (and we ask her for 5 more minutes...ha!) but she wouldn't leave her doorway yesterday.  I noticed a little wet spot next to her on the carpet and asked her if she had thrown up.  Yep.  She had.  

Jason got her into the bath and I got her bed stripped and next door to the laundry room - thank goodness no one else was doing laundry!  Mid-morning Joe and I left to do a few errands we had intended to do before our final Christmas gathering at Jason's sister with his grandma.  Yeah, that was cancelled :(

By the time we got back, a few hours later, it was evident she was feeling a little better.  Just to be safe we went to the minute clinic and they recommended we keep a close eye on her and come back if any symptoms returned.  

For dinner Jason helped me make lasagna. 

We used a jar of his grandma's spaghetti sauce that his Aunt Lori made for everyone for Christmas.  It turned out great!  Amelia had "green pop" for dinner - Sierra Mist to the rest of us.

We didn't want to push her to eat anything if she wasn't feeling up to it - especially since dinner was chock full of dairy products.

Since she spent most of the day sleeping she was nowhere near ready for bedtime at bedtime.  She and I did alphabet puzzles.

She ended up staying until ten p.m.!

This morning she is back to her usual self so we felt safe to let her have dairy again - which thrilled her.

Drinking all the milk from her cereal!

Keeping her away from her milk and cheese yesterday was hard.  She nearly lives on dairy products - milk, yogurt and cheese specifically.  We made her "magic juice" and she finally understood that was all she could have.  "Magic juice" is unflavored Pedialyte, Gatorade and Tylenol.  At one point she kept asking for what Jason thought was mac and cheese and he was telling her that wasn't possible right then because she was sick.   It didn't sound quite like mac and cheese to me and we figured out she was asking for "magic juice!"  Too funny!

Amelia really can fight off sickness like no one else I've met.  There have  been a handful of times where she wakes up "sick", fever and all, and within half a day she is much better/good as new.  Now if only she could figure out how to get rid of coughs and congestion as quickly as she fights off other illnesses ;)

Quarantine

I came home from work to this:

Yep - illness plagues our home.  Jason is the only one sick so far but I think he is sick enough for us all...  

I'm sleeping on the couch until further notice!  One parent sick and missing work is bad enough, no need to make it two ;)

Sick Day

Jason kept Amelia home from school today - her first "'sick day."  Yesterday she was sent to the nurses office because she was pale and had a low-grade fever (99, barely a fever I say....) and then this morning she was coughing and not herself.  Just to be safe he called her in and we stayed inside tonight and didn't play with friends.  

Joe missed his naptime this afternoon and never really slept but Amelia did!  That's one sure sign that she isn't feeling 100%.

Joe seemed content in his crib - doing whatever it is he does in there - so I laid down as well!  I have been pretty beat the past few weeks so the rest felt great this afternoon!

Amelia's ponies were pirates today:

A friend on Facebook told me that today is "National Talk Like a Pirate Day" so apparently we got our pirate play in on the right day!

It was fun playing inside tonight, just us.

Tomorrow I start carpooling with a woman from work.  It will be nice.  I will have some company to and from work and, most importantly, it will cut down on gas costs!  This also means I can't run late...this woman is always ten minutes early...  I always aim to be ten minutes early just so I can be on time!