Not So Smiley

Oh my word. This has been a really tough couple of weeks. Very cranky, sick kids and very little sleep for mom and dad.  The sleep deprivation reminds us of having a newborn in the house. Ugh.

Last week I stayed home from work for 3 days while Turbo weathered a virus that caused sores in his mouth - he couldn't eat because they were so painful. :(  The virus is said to be mild, so you just manage the symptoms, and the biggest concern is dehydration. It started to get bad enough that I was tracking urine output so that he didn't go 8-12 hours without a pee. It's a scary situation, but he turned the corner just in time.

Some funny things happened over those 3 days too. One is that Turbo saw M&Ms on the table and excitedly asked if he could have some. I knew they'd hurt his mouth, so I told him this and I'm pretty sure he ignored the warning cuz he tucked right in. They did hurt his mouth, poor guy, but the good news is that I had ice water on hand and he ended up drinking a ton of water just to get those chocolates down. He got fluids (score one for mama), and he got treats (score one for Turbo).

The best - or worst, depending on how judgy you are :) - was on the 3rd day, when he was crossing into wellness, but was still very skeptical of what he could put in his mouth. I let him eat marshmallows for dinner. As many as he wanted. When your kid hasn't eaten in 3 days, you just want him to remember that food will not hurt him. He swallowed them down with chocolate milk. Mother of the year, right here.

Oh, did I mention chocolate milk? He's nearly 3 years old, and I think it's pretty remarkable that I've avoided chocolate milk until now. In fact, a few weeks ago I had a glass of Ovaltine for breakfast and offered it to him and he sneered at me and said, "I don't like that. That's your coffee."

During the sickness I tried a hundred different options for fluid intake: popsicles, ice cream, milkshakes, warm water, cold water, anything with a straw and my stubborn little cutie wasn't going for any of it. He really was miserable. But he knows what chocolate is, and when I asked him if he wanted to try chocolate milk, he looked at me to see if I was kidding. "You mean this stuff comes in chocolate?!?" his eyes seemed to say.

So, yeah, chocolate milk was the gateway to wellness for Turbo.

Fast forward a week later and Smiley is sick. Only she can't talk and doesn't know how to use a straw and is sooo miserable (sad) and cuddly (sweet) and since I took so much time off for Turbo, my husband stayed home with her. Today I did stay home and she played some, but only if I remained in the room with her. Accessible. Otherwise, she cried and wandered around trying to find me.

She's been sick for 3 days too. Finally, I tried ibuprofen (we'd been using Tylenol) and whammo! I got a smile 23 minutes later. Why on earth hadn't I tried this before? She played fairly happily for a couple of hours - still needing me nearby, but not as much. I actually got some dishes done.

Then she saw some Cheerios on the counter pointed her chubby little finger and said, "da" which we're pretty sure means "that" as she points and "da's" all the time now.

She ate a good amount. Phew! I think the key is that since all the sores in her mouth are near the front, something like a sippy cup really hurts, but finger food she can squeeze past the opening and happily munch away. She was so happy I even let her walk around with her cup o' Cheerios.

And she finally smiled. Oh, my sweet angel, it's good to see you.

And now she is even napping. Alone - for the first time in about 5 days. My body is wrecked for holding her in chairs and on couches and in bed (nights have been awful too). I think we're finally seeing the light and can't wait to get back to some sense of normalcy.

And sleep. Please let us all sleep tonight.

So, that's where I've been. Too tired to write. I've missed it and hope to be back in it.

Diaper by Flashlight

You'd think with two kids, one who is now potty trained and one who is a year old, that I would have seen almost everything with diapers. Not true, my friends, not true.

I've just returned from a new one: I changed a poopy diaper by light of a flashlight.

Not because we had a power outage, not because we're conserving electricity, but because of the following story.

Today was a wonderful and weird day. Smiley had her 1-year shots yesterday so was a little cranky sleeping last night and today was mostly happy with a few bouts of more-than-usual tired. Turbo was fine until about 4:45 PM.

We had spent a lovely afternoon in Bellingham visiting some great friends (love you guys!), enjoying their park-like yard, and petting bunnies and kitties. Turbo seemed tired when we got into the car and within 20 minutes or so was asleep. Not typical, but he'd had only a short nap earlier, so perhaps he was making up for that.

Smiley is the one who got more and more cranky (although she napped too), and so around 4:45 PM we pulled into a Mexican restaurant and got some dinner.

I don't know if you've had the same experiences with bringing in 2 small children into a restaurant, but we usually get seated in the very back of the place, next to no one. This time it worked out for us.

In the end, the dinner went like this: Smiley was really only happy if she could practice walking and so we did laps with her around the place. She was happy, but mom and dad didn't enjoy much leisure in their meal (very typical, right parents?). Turbo seemed fine at first, but then kept asking to go potty and then couldn't really deliver and so spent the meal laying in my lap while I ate one-handed. I asked him if his tummy hurt and he said 'yes' and so I immediately shoveled some food in, packed it up and tried to get out of there before we had a vomiting episode. That is one restaurant experience I do not want to have!

All was well, but Turbo was getting whinier and looking sicker as we got closer to home.

Long story, cut short... neither kid is feeling all that well today. By the time Turbo was ready for bed he was running a good fever and really needy for mommy and so I was the one to put him into bed. Thank goodness, because while I was feigning sleep as Turbo drifted off with one hand cupping my face (sigh, so sweet), I overheard the undeniable grunts of a Smiley pooping in her diaper.

Here's the shocker, she didn't wake up. She is known, at home and at 3 different daycares, for waking up immediately if she has a BM while sleeping. But no waking.

So I recruited Dad to help me and together we quietly took care of business in the hallway outside the bedroom, Dad with the flashlight helping me so that the overhead light won't wake her fully.

But she did open her eyes, and she saw her darling Daddy looking down at her and she cooed.

She loves her Daddy.


ps - to our friends in B'ham, the kids were feeling great at your house, so thanks for a wonderful afternoon! Glad they waited until after we left to take a turn.

pps - please wish us all a good night's sleep tonight.