A Team Week 77: When it Rains it Pours

This week was in no way a bad week, but it also wasn't without its challenges.  At the end of the last week, Avery woke up from his Sunday afternoon nap coughing and whining quite a bit.  We had only been home from our vacation for a little over a week and already he showed signs of illness...again! By Tuesday, Avery was feeling pretty miserable with a low grade fever and congestion and went to bed over an hour before he typically does.

As Avery continued to deal with more sickness our church also dealt with a major disappointment after the second floor toilet plumbing broke and flooded the two floors below, which included almost all of the children's Awana rooms and the church nurseries!  The ceilings, cabinetry, flooring and more were a complete loss and although the church was gearing up for the reintroduction to the community, this was going to provide a bit of a setback to the updates and progress that had been made.

That day (Tuesday) was also a beautiful Spring-like day with temperatures in the lower 70s, but I (as always) was stuck in the office missing my boys and wanting nothing more than to be playing outside with them.  On a positive note though, Eric surprised me at work that afternoon with a Culver's Concrete Mixer and flowers.  :)

My Surprise from Eric

The boys a little confused by the sudden change from snow to 70s.

Warm weather meant the first fry of the season.  Eric couldn't wait to make some tots.

By Wednesday, Avery was feeling quite a bit better, but still had a disgusting nose! (I swear that kid was born with a snotty nose!)  We had a fun day together with Asher, but in the afternoon Avery took a spill.  I was working on putting dinner together in the kitchen while keeping an eye on Asher and Avery playing in the backyard when Asher came running up to the house yelling that Avery got hurt.  I looked out the window at him and he wasn't even crying and was going back to playing, so unconcerned I went back to cooking.  When he came into the house a while later though, I felt like a bit of a terribly mommy when I looked at him and realized that he a fairly large bruise and egg in the middle of his forehead! :(

Asher with friends Theo & Violet at the Kenosha Museum

Feathering a bird at the Kenosha Museum

Light Blocks

Britni, Asher, Avery & Theo checking out the harbor.

An Apple Phone...Hello?

That evening, I thought that Asher might be getting sick too as he barely ate any of his dinner.  When bedtime came and he was whining that he was hungry though, I realized he was fine and had just been trying out his new technique of avoiding eating dinner so that he can delay bedtime with hunger.    I did let him eat but told him if he was so hungry he would have to eat dinner as-is, which meant cold meatloaf and cold green beans.  He ate it all...with an extra helping of meatloaf!

On Thursday, Asher was the excitement for the evening.  He went to bed like normal and like normal I could hear him playing around in his bed.  Then all of a sudden I heard a loud clunk followed by a crying/screaming child.  I ran into his room to see what had happened and found that he had somehow fallen out of his bed and hit his head on the wooden corner that holds in his mattress.  I comforted him and got him settled down and snuggled back in bed.  Then I went back out to the kitchen.  In his room, there had only been one small dimly lit lamp on, but the kitchen was fully lit.  Standing there I looked down at my hands and realized that I had blood smeared all over my hands, shirt and face.  He had apparently cracked open his head and I hadn't even noticed until after I'd left him!  I had felt the wetness of the blood on my hands, but had assumed it was from his tears as he cried in my arms.  :(  We went back into his room to check on him and he was fine.  The bleeding had stopped and it was just one small cut in the back of his head.  Made me wonder what life would be like with girls...

When both boys were asleep that evening, we had thought the excitement for the evening was over, but realized shortly after that it had only just begun.  In the middle of the night (around 2am), we woke up to a crying baby boy that was VERY unhappy.  For the remainder of the night we did everything we could to get him back to sleep, but NOTHING worked.  He would snuggle up with us in a chair and pass out for a few minutes but then wake up again crying.  We tried to get some sleep, but instead Eric and I both headed to work Friday morning with only a few hours of sleep under our belt and that was after Eric got to turn around and head back home after heading to daycare and having Avery gag in the car as he coughed and puke all over himself! :(  By the time dinner time came that night we were both exhausted and completely unmotivated, so we headed to Qdoba for a family dinner.  Thankfully by that time, both boys were both feeling much better and Avery (who had not eaten much all week) had his appetite back.  He scarfed down the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I'd made for him along with the rest of his dinner.

I cannot get enough of this goofy smile!

With the arrival of the weekend, things turned around.  On Saturday we had a farewell brunch at our house for our friends the Laillets.  It was a good time, but bitter sweet as we are sad to see them go.  Then we spent the rest of the weekend trying to catch up on the rest and family time we needed from another long week, with an amazing shopping and a yummy dinner by Eric mixed in!

Snuggles with Daddy

Avery inventing new ways to hold a sippy cup.

I'm still not sure how this happened, but with $10 of Kohl's Cash, I bought 4 pairs of pajamas for Asher, a T-shirt for me, an R2D2 shirt for Asher and a set of black socks for myself...and I still had 28 cents leftover!

Eric's pasta creation.  It was delicious and so colorful!