Sunday, November 23, 2014

Mobile Moments, 11/17-11/23

For most of this week, we have all been sick, sick, sick. It seems at just around the time Michael managed to pick up some random bacteria that just so happened to settle into his lungs and give him pneumonia, the rest of us (and probably Michael, too, on top of everything; perhaps it's what caused the additional bronchiolitis he's suffering from) managed to pick up some nasty kind of cold virus that we are still having a ridiculously hard time fighting off.

Tom and I have mostly been achy and fatigued, though I have been dealing with some annoying sinus issues as well. Abby, however, has developed a pretty nasty-sounding cough, and Mia's is even nastier-sounding, which is part of the reason I finally had Tom take her in to see the doctor a couple of days after Michael's revealing visit.

As it turns out, her recent extreme crankiness and poor sleeping/napping (which began when the cough started) have been due to an ear infection, which should have occurred to me and didn't because my kids so rarely get them. The wheezing- which was what really got me alarmed, especially in light of Michael's issues- turned out to be due to croup, and earned us a second prescription for steroids, this time oral instead of inhaled, as Michael's were.

And so, right around the time that Michael was finishing up his own antibiotics and breathing treatments, Amelia began a round of her own. This was also around the time that I started feeling pretty awful, so the week has largely been a blur of managing the coughing and breathing issues of all the littles while attempting to ignore the pain in my own head, and trying to keep up with laundry and basic household maintenance despite my extreme fatigue. Sadly, the near-constant videos I had playing in a desperate attempt to keep the kids calm and resting so that I could try to do the same had a diminishing effect on the older two as the days went on, and proved a completely useless distraction for Amelia, who would have attached herself to my breasts every minute of the day if only I could have remotely tolerated it. Instead, I have spent many long stretches of time trying to deal with her near-inconsolable tears in other ways.

I have one word for it all, and that is exhausting, and since even thinking about it now is exhausting me more, I'm moving on to the pictures, which are the whole point of this post anyway.

The one bright spot in the week: Figuring out how to deliver Michael his breathing treatments in a way that he actually enjoyed.
By the end, everyone looked forward to "Mask time," and missed it when it was gone.
"Abby, what are you drawing? Is that a caterpillar?"
"No, Daddy. It's a green circle with lots of dots that I'm pretending are rats."
Quite possibly the saddest patient in the pharmacy line.
All tired out from her appointment.
Turns out everyone wants Mommy for story time when they are not feeling so hot, even though Mommy is probably feeling the least hot of all...
Getting our energy back, and possibly hinting that we'd like a tricycle for Christmas?

Overheard this week:

Between Abby and me

In the midst of a conversation between Tom and me, in which we began inventorying our medicine cabinet when we realized that Abby is now old enough for cough medicine but that we probably didn't have anything appropriate in the house: 

A: "Can I have some of that?"
M: "Abby, that's grown-up medicine, not big-girl medicine."
A: "Well, can I borrow it?"


Between Tom and Abby

While trying to sort out an altercation:

T: " Abby, what happened? Do you know why Michael pushed you?"
A: "Because he didn't want me to stay not pushed; he wanted me to be pushed."

Michael

"Ratatouille!"
"Want mask."
"I no want."
"I say no."
"I need a hug."


Between Tom, Abby, and Michael

T: Teasing, when he didn't quite catch what Michael requested at breakfast, "Michael, you want a Tardis?"
M: "Yeah! Want Tardis!"
A: "Maybe you should ask for one for your birthday so you can get one."

Mia

"What frog make? Ribbit!"
"I sorry."
"Apples, strawberries"
"Please (peese)."
"Amen!"
"Clap hands!"
"Shhh. Quiet!"