A Team Week 54: Yuck!

This week started and ended all right, but the part in the middle left much to be desired.  On Monday morning, we all woke up tired but happy and feeling good after a great weekend celebrating Avery's first birthday.  Later that afternoon though I got a text from the boys' caretaker that Avery had thrown up twice.  I finished up my work and headed back to Kenosha to pick them both up.  In the meantime Avery threw up one more time, but afterwards seemed back to his normal self.  After his birthday along with the fun, chaos and enormous amount of cake (I am still working on his party blog) I thought maybe his body was just retaliating.  With flu season going around though I should have known better.

Avery playing outside on Monday after I picked him up for being sick.

On Tuesday Avery was doing fine and never had any other symptoms so he went back to daycare and the rest of us went on with our lives.  That evening, we began a new bible study that we joined as an effort to get ourselves better connected in our church again.  As I sat in the group though, my stomach began to feel sick and by the time it was over, I could not wait to leave.  We picked up the boys from the bible study childcare and then headed home.  As soon as I got Avery in bed, I headed to bed myself exhausted and laying in the fetal position to relieve the pain in my stomach.  A few hours later, I woke up and made a dash to the bathroom to confirm that I (as I now knew of Avery) had the flu.  I won't get into the gory details, but it was not pretty.  I spent much of the night feeling very ill and couldn't even hold down water.  Then, not long after I began to be sick Eric and I woke to Asher screaming in bed.  Eric went downstairs to find that he had also fallen ill to the sickness plaguing our home and had thrown up all over himself and his bed.  He was crying and didn't really understand what had happened.  I came downstairs to help Eric clean things up a bit, but unfortunately Eric was basically on his own since I was quite sick myself.  At one point Asher was crying and said that he wanted mommy to come because "he had stuff coming out of him."  Eric replied by saying "Mommy can't come down because she has stuff coming out of her too."  ...as I said in the title: Yuck!

On Wednesday it was my day off, which worked out since I wouldn't have been going to work anyway, but we did have to change our plans.  First, I was supposed to bring Avery to the doctor for his 12 month appointment, but Eric had to take him instead...meaning I missed a checkup for our boys for the very first time.  :(  Then, Avery went to daycare for the remainder of the day and Asher and Eric both stayed home (Asher because he was sick and Eric because I was too sick to look after Asher).  We had a pretty low-key day home together, of which I slept for about 3/4 of the day.  On top of still feeling very nauseated and having no appetite my entire body ached and I was completely exhausted.

Asher & I snuggling on the couch while Eric and Avery were at the doctor.

Avery with his battle bandages after his 12 month shots.

On Thursday Asher and I were feeling better again, but the flu had taken another hostage.  It was Eric's turn to endure the torture, but somehow he made it through a day at work despite feeling the awful flu symptoms.

The boys playing on their "tontoon" boat.

Thursday night bath time's crazy hair

Finally, the weekend came and we did nothing.  Absolutely Nothing.  After a crazy week of Avery's birthday celebrations followed by a week of illness we were tired...very tired.  So, when Saturday came we had nothing on our agenda and spent the entire day in our pajamas lounging around the house and enjoying a lazy day together as a family.

Saturday morning snuggles in bed...one of my favorite times of the week!

Saturday morning breakfast: Asher requested "tiny pancakes".  This is what Eric gave him the first time around.

More snuggles with Daddy during our lazy day.

Halloween dress-rehearsal.

Video: Hi Grandma!

Sunday: Introducing Asher to Ants on a Log for snacktime

He was a big fan of the ants (M&Ms)

Despite the Yuck of the week, we did make a discovery that I am embarrassed to say we hadn't made earlier: We discovered that Avery LOVES to read!!!  In the first 12 months of his life, I sheepishly admit that we read very little to our little guy.  When Asher was a baby we read quite a bit to him, but he really didn't seem to enjoy it until he was around 15 or 18 months old, and even then he had a pretty low attention span.  With Avery, we unfortunately assumed it would be about the same and that assumption along with another busy little guy in the house resulted with very infrequent story times.  Then, for Averys first birthday he got a few new books and when we read them to him we realized that we had made a big mistake.  The boy LOVES to read.  He ooos and ahhs and squeals with glee as we go through books together.  He frequently brings a book over to us and just stands there staring at us.  As soon as we sit down with him, he immediately plops down in our laps to enjoy the story and when it is over he often insists that we read it again!  It is absolutely adorable and easily the highlight of the week (& the last month).  Too Cute!!!

Video: Avery Loves to Read