The A Team Week 14b & 15a: Tis the Season

Tis the Season, and I'm not talking about Christmas...

After Christmas was over, we had three days left of A Team Week 14 and two days of Week 15 to spend at home with our boys.  Daycare was closed for all of Christmas break, which meant that we had plenty of family time.  Unfortunately we spent basically ALL of it plagued with one illness after another.  As I mentioned in my last post, Asher wasn't feeling really well on Christmas day.  He had a pretty bad cough and by the afternoon was running a fever.  He looked exhausted and fairly miserable for much of the day, but that didn't stop him from playing with his cousins and having a fun day.  That night though, his cough got worse and he was feeling terrible.  Eric spent the entire night sleeping on the floor of Asher's room because Asher felt so crumby that he kept waking up crying.  :( The next day he seemed to be getting a little better, and that continued throughout the weekend.

Avery taste testing his new toys.

While Asher got better, Avery stepped in and took his place as the family sickie and was next to pick up the cough, congestion and fever.  By Saturday he could barely breathe and his eyes were disgusting with conjunctivitis!  I spent most of the day (& night) snuggling him and trying to keep him comfortable and by Saturday night my own throat was starting to hurt.

Snuggling with my little sicky on Saturday.

On Sunday, Asher was well on his way to feeling better, but Avery and I both were a mess...congested, exhausted and just feeling sour.  We skipped church to protect others from our plague and had a lazy day at home.  Thankfully by Monday I was feeling a little better (although I still had a cough and felt like someone was sitting on my lungs) as Eric went to work for the day and I tackled the job of both kiddos at once.  The day went fairly well, but Avery still wasn't the happy little guy that he typically is and would start screaming every time I tried to nurse him.  I feared that he was getting an ear infection.  Then, that evening while we thought that Asher was clear of most illness he broke out in a bright red rash on his cheeks.  We put some cream on it and hoped it would be better by morning...it was (I actually think it was an allergic reaction to play-doh).  What wasn't better by morning though was my nursing issues with Avery.  He continued to freak out when I tried to nurse him and I knew that something was up.  In addition to that, I woke Tuesday morning with my eye crusted shut and red...pink-eye...great.

That day, Eric and I were planning to get packed up and head to the UP to celebrate New Years with my family.  With my pink-eye and Avery's irritability, I questioned if we should go at all, but decided to first see a doctor.  I called Avery's pediatrician, but they were booked for the next two days, so I packed Avery up and headed to an Urgent Care clinic nearby.  As I was pulling into my parking space, complete stressed by everything going on and trying to hurry so that we could get on the road, I mindlessly hit a parked car next to me!  ...not a great addition to the day.  I was so upset that I burst into tears and a man that saw the incident found the owner of the car for me.  Thankfully, the owner was less stressed about the incident than I was.  His car had only a very minor scratch which he said paled in comparison to the mirror that had been taken off a few weeks prior by another car.  My van, on the other hand, had a decent size dent in the front bumper, but since the owner of the other car didn't care about my accident at least we didn't have to involve the insurance and can pay to get the van fixed on our own!

Once that was all taken care of, Avery and I went into the clinic to get checked out.  He did indeed have an ear infection in his right ear, and I was given medicine for my pink-eye.  We headed back home, loaded up the van and FINALLY the first part of the week was over and we could enjoy the remainder of the week up North for additional holiday celebrations!

Brotherly Love?  (Asher is trying to eat Avery's hand)

Eric got a baby gift from a construction company he works with, so Avery is advertising.

So, as you probably figured out by now, the time between Christmas and New Year's wasn't the greatest as we enjoyed the Cold/Flu Season.  However, we did enjoy some good family time, had a few laughs and made a few memories...

First, Asher talks basically nonstop these days and soaks up EVERYTHING.  While we were in Michigan for Thanksgiving, he and Uncle Baby Robby had a joke about the "Baby Chairrrr..."  On Monday, I set Avery in his Bumbo seat and Asher immediately started talking about the baby chairrrr...

Sometime during the weekend, Asher also randomly said, "Mommy is a fart."  Not sure where that came from, but not sure I approve.

Video: The Baby Chairrrrr...

At another time during our holiday break, I introduced Asher to "over-easy eggs" and the ability to dip toast in them.  To my delight, he loved them!

Finally, I realized how much having two kids has really challenged my mind/sanity.  At dinner one night, Asher finished eating and then said that he was done, which means it is time for me to get a towel to clean him up before he gets down from the table.  I went to the Kitchen, grabbed a paper towel, and put some water on it.  Then I went back into the Dining room and started to wipe hands and a face.  No one said a word, but eventually I realized what I was doing and busted out laughing.  I was wiping up Avery and looked down to see a very confused little face rather than the face of our toddler (who at this point, along with his Daddy, was equally confused)!  I blame it on my cold!?  ;)