I feel like for all practical purposes we've dropped off the face of the planet for the past week and a half or so. Our usually healthy family (meaning that when we get sick, it passes through us fast, and usually doesn't affect every person) was hit by a pretty nasty virus.
Without going into all of the details, the virus included a bad sore throat, off-and-on again fevers, congestion, coughs, and runny noses and is lasting an average of 7 days each. Mommy's symptoms started on Wednesday evening, Kate's began on Friday, Anna's sometime on Saturday evening or Sunday morning, and Matt's started on Sunday afternoon. This meant that Monday and Tuesday EVERYONE had practically ALL of the symptoms. Yuck, yuck, yuck! Oh, yeah ... did I mention that I completely lost my voice on Sunday and Matt lost his yesterday? That didn't help the situation any.
So far we're all recovering without antibiotics, although I had a doctor's visit on Tuesday morning since I'd had a sore throat for 7 days. The doctor informed me that I just needed to rest and wait it out. Right ... rest? Good idea in theory, but bad in reality since the girls were up every few hours Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night, and Monday night. Thankfully, on Tuesday night we all slept through the night (relatively speaking ... I think everyone had at least one coughing fit, but no one needed anyone else's help). And now we're on the real road to recovery.
During all of this, Matt took most of Friday off since I was not in a place to be any kind of parent, and then he took Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off because he was officially sick.
So yeah ... it's been a rough week or so during which we've already used at least 5 boxes of Kleenexes, but we've survived and read a LOT of books and Anna has watched a LOT of videos :) Hopefully we'll be able to join the rest of the world soon.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Ah ... summer
We are certainly going to miss these days when they are gone. I was visiting with a friend last week and she asked what we were up to this summer. I had to think about it for a few minutes, but then I gave a brief summary of our playdates, pool playtime, zoo visits, and general hanging out. She responded by telling me she'd rather do that than go to work every day. I totally agree.
All things considered, it really has been an incredible summer for our family. Both girls are at fun points right now in their lives and being able to be outside for hours every day usually puts everyone in a good mood and also makes them very tired at bedtime ;)
Last week we had more of the same ... a picnic lunch and Dave Landau concert on Monday, a morning class at Aldo Leopold Nature Center on Tuesday morning, a "pool party" playdate at our house on Wednesday morning, a trip to the splash park on Wednesday afternoon/evening, another playdate on Thursday morning, neighbor Alexia coming over on Friday morning (so I could freeze/can green beans), a birthday party on Saturday, a family bike ride after early church on Sunday, and then another "pool party" on Sunday afternoon. Seriously, what a great schedule. Nothing too crazy, but something to keep us busy just about every day.
Anna seems to be growing up so fast these days. She's making up all kinds of elaborate stories and situations in that crazy mind of hers as well as trying more and more physical activities (thanks partially to her friend, Audrey, who is just a bit more adventurous than Anna and yet very patient with Anna as she tries new things).
As with just about every milestone in her life, Anna approached riding her tricycle/bicycle the same way. She refused to try for the longest time and then the other day everything seemed to click. Tonight she rode her tricycle all the way to the park, played at the park, and then ran home. Hopefully she'll sleep well :)
Kate also seems to be loving life right now, besides all of the mosquito bites and a random vomiting experience in the van on Monday morning on the way to the grocery store. (Thankfully we were able to have an emergency stop at a friend's house for a bucket, a bathtub, some rags, and a place for Anna to play so we wouldn't have to drive 15 minutes home in a very foul smelling vehicle to get cleaned up before going back into town to the store.)
This morning Anna came running into the kitchen and said "Mommy, Kate can RUN now! Watch this." And sure enough, Kate came *almost* running into the kitchen. She's also such a social, goofy kid who loves making other people smile and laugh. Little Kate already has her own repertoire of "jokes" for the rest of us :)
Like I said at the beginning, we will certainly miss these days when they are gone, but I'm sure there will just be other things to enjoy in the days to come.
All things considered, it really has been an incredible summer for our family. Both girls are at fun points right now in their lives and being able to be outside for hours every day usually puts everyone in a good mood and also makes them very tired at bedtime ;)
Last week we had more of the same ... a picnic lunch and Dave Landau concert on Monday, a morning class at Aldo Leopold Nature Center on Tuesday morning, a "pool party" playdate at our house on Wednesday morning, a trip to the splash park on Wednesday afternoon/evening, another playdate on Thursday morning, neighbor Alexia coming over on Friday morning (so I could freeze/can green beans), a birthday party on Saturday, a family bike ride after early church on Sunday, and then another "pool party" on Sunday afternoon. Seriously, what a great schedule. Nothing too crazy, but something to keep us busy just about every day.
Anna seems to be growing up so fast these days. She's making up all kinds of elaborate stories and situations in that crazy mind of hers as well as trying more and more physical activities (thanks partially to her friend, Audrey, who is just a bit more adventurous than Anna and yet very patient with Anna as she tries new things).
As with just about every milestone in her life, Anna approached riding her tricycle/bicycle the same way. She refused to try for the longest time and then the other day everything seemed to click. Tonight she rode her tricycle all the way to the park, played at the park, and then ran home. Hopefully she'll sleep well :)
Kate also seems to be loving life right now, besides all of the mosquito bites and a random vomiting experience in the van on Monday morning on the way to the grocery store. (Thankfully we were able to have an emergency stop at a friend's house for a bucket, a bathtub, some rags, and a place for Anna to play so we wouldn't have to drive 15 minutes home in a very foul smelling vehicle to get cleaned up before going back into town to the store.)
This morning Anna came running into the kitchen and said "Mommy, Kate can RUN now! Watch this." And sure enough, Kate came *almost* running into the kitchen. She's also such a social, goofy kid who loves making other people smile and laugh. Little Kate already has her own repertoire of "jokes" for the rest of us :)
Like I said at the beginning, we will certainly miss these days when they are gone, but I'm sure there will just be other things to enjoy in the days to come.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Back on Track ...
For the most part, we're back on track in our family. Kate's cold lasted through about Wednesday, although she had drainage on Thursday and Friday mornings. Anna's two-fold bedtime plan seems to have worked. After two consecutive nights of her picking out special music and then following the bedtime rules, she and Matt had a special daddy-daughter date. Now she needs five stickers for the next date. Since we started this plan, we haven't heard a peep out of her after we put her to bed. Hooray!
Our naps still seem to be out of wack, though. Anna's in a two day off, two day on pattern right now. It's hard to tell her not to sleep, although when she does, she lies in bed for a LONG time before she goes to sleep. Kate is rotating between one and two naps, depending on the day. Today was *supposed* to be a two nap day and after the first one went so well, she lay around for about an hour this afternoon before I finally gave up and got her up. We may have a long afternoon/evening with that kid. Then again, she may still sleep at some point.
After feeling quite cut off from the rest of the world while we were dealing with the girls last weeek, we made a trip to the zoo on Friday morning with some friends. It's funny how the most exciting part for the girls was running the length of the visitor's center and checking out the men's bathrooms after lunch. Who knew that would be more fun than the animals?
Saturday we had an impromptu "pool party" with some neighbors in the backyard. Granted, the pool is not that big, but it's certainly more fun when there are more people around :) Anna was great for the first 40 minutes or so, then she got hungry and tired (no nap day) and became quite cranky.
In this transitional time for Anna's naps, she's become quite a fan of puzzles and games. We've picked up a few of each from garage sales lately and she LOVES them. She is a great companionable player with games although I get a little sick and tired of playing the same one over and over and over ... right now her favorite is "Hi Ho Cherry-O". She does surprisingly well with puzzles.
Kate is just simply Kate. It's hard to believe that when Anna was 14 months, she was just walking, whereas Kate has been walking for 3+ months already. One of her favorite things to say is "ahh mmm", which generally means food. We think it started with her trying to say apple and now she just uses it if she wants to eat something. She knows lots of animals and what they say. My favorites are "woof", "mmmm" (moo for cow), and "owl" ... who knew she could say that? She's also mastered Mommy and Daddy, as opposed to Mama and Dada, and she always seems to want to be wherever Anna is :)
So life is certainly better than it was about a week ago. Let's hope it stays that way for awhile :)
Our naps still seem to be out of wack, though. Anna's in a two day off, two day on pattern right now. It's hard to tell her not to sleep, although when she does, she lies in bed for a LONG time before she goes to sleep. Kate is rotating between one and two naps, depending on the day. Today was *supposed* to be a two nap day and after the first one went so well, she lay around for about an hour this afternoon before I finally gave up and got her up. We may have a long afternoon/evening with that kid. Then again, she may still sleep at some point.
After feeling quite cut off from the rest of the world while we were dealing with the girls last weeek, we made a trip to the zoo on Friday morning with some friends. It's funny how the most exciting part for the girls was running the length of the visitor's center and checking out the men's bathrooms after lunch. Who knew that would be more fun than the animals?
Saturday we had an impromptu "pool party" with some neighbors in the backyard. Granted, the pool is not that big, but it's certainly more fun when there are more people around :) Anna was great for the first 40 minutes or so, then she got hungry and tired (no nap day) and became quite cranky.
In this transitional time for Anna's naps, she's become quite a fan of puzzles and games. We've picked up a few of each from garage sales lately and she LOVES them. She is a great companionable player with games although I get a little sick and tired of playing the same one over and over and over ... right now her favorite is "Hi Ho Cherry-O". She does surprisingly well with puzzles.
Kate is just simply Kate. It's hard to believe that when Anna was 14 months, she was just walking, whereas Kate has been walking for 3+ months already. One of her favorite things to say is "ahh mmm", which generally means food. We think it started with her trying to say apple and now she just uses it if she wants to eat something. She knows lots of animals and what they say. My favorites are "woof", "mmmm" (moo for cow), and "owl" ... who knew she could say that? She's also mastered Mommy and Daddy, as opposed to Mama and Dada, and she always seems to want to be wherever Anna is :)
So life is certainly better than it was about a week ago. Let's hope it stays that way for awhile :)
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Upside down and inside out
We're all feeling a bit upside down and inside out in our house lately. Life has been kind of rough for the Mischnicks since Anna turned three; whether or not it has to do with the actual birthday, we'll never know, but that's about when it started.
For some inexplicable reason, Anna, who has historically rarely had sleeping troubles, has been fighting bedtime with all of her will this past week and a half. We had probably only one or two nights last week when she didn't scream, cry, get out of bed, etc. for 1/2 hour to 2 hours (seriously!) before finally succombing to sleep. We tried reasoning with her; we tried conning her; we tried punishing her; we tried tiring her out, but nothing seemed to be working. Now we're trying rewards and so far so good. Last night she got to pick out the music she wanted to listen to, have two books in bed with her, and was told that if there were two nights in a row with her obeying the bedtime rules (in bed and quiet), then she and Matt would do a bikeride to a park just the two of them. Like I said, so far so good.
Part of this probably stems from the fact that Anna is transitioning out of her nap. She doesn't really need one every day anymore, but still needs to have some kind of rest time (and I still need that break in the middle of the day). The current plan is for her to have about an hour of quiet time in her room with some special quiet activities (puzzles, books, colored pencils and notebook). Again, so far so good, although she still falls asleep every second or third day.
The other reason we're all upside down and inside out is that Kate has had some kind of weird virus for about a week and a half. Early last week she had several days of diarrhea (which included several middle of the night diaper changes), which cleared up after a day or so on strictly bananas and toast. Then on Sunday evening she came down with a fever and has been just miserable since then. Stuffy nose, coughs, and the inability to sleep more than about an hour and a half (including at night) without help from Mom and/or Dad. We went to the doctor on Monday afternoon and he said that everything was clear (ears, lungs, and throat), and that she probably had a virus that started in her GI tract last week and then moved system wide on Sunday. Whatever the reason, we all hope she feels better soon.
So, combining a three year old who screams and cries until 10 or later and a sick toddler who has been up several times a night for the past week means that we're all a little out of sorts. Hopefully, life returns to normal soon!
Meanwhile, in the few days in between Kate's symptoms and before things completely fell apart with Anna, we had some fun days :) Friday night we went to a friend's house for dinner and then stayed to watch some fireworks. In retrospect, that may not have been the best choice to make since we didn't get home until almost 11 and Anna cried for about a half hour before she fell asleep, but at the time it was a lot of fun.
Saturday we went to a local fair for awhile in the afternoon/evening. The girls LOVED the animals and rides. I took both Anna and Kate on the carousel and then Anna and I rode a bear ride. That, including dinner and ice cream, was about the extent of what the family could handle at this point.
Sunday afternoon we set up a kiddie pool and rigged up the slide so both girls could slide down it into the pool before getting out some (pretty tame) fireworks. Anna loved the fireworks, but Kate was already feeling ill by then and didn't think they were too great.
This week we've been just trying to maintain status quo, even with Matt being off on Monday and Tuesday for the 4th of July. We hope, for everyone's sake, that things look up soon for everyone here.
Let me end on a positive note, though. Anna has thoroughly been enjoying being a big sister recently, to the point of feeding Kate her breakfast this morning (giving her a few pieces of toast at a time and talking to Kate the entire time ... "You want more? You need to finish what you have first before you can get more. Show me with your signs that you want more, Kate. There! That's good! Here's more toast for you." It was a lot of fun to listen to.) She also will lead Kate around and ask her to play with her now, too. Very sweet stuff.
Kate is pretty funny, too, at least when she's feeling well. She can indicate to us yes and no, now, and both are great to watch. An easy no is when she simply shakes her head, but she'll yell loudly while shaking her head if she really means it. Her yes is this full body bob with a great big smile. She doesn't quite have the muscle control to just nod her head yet so she kind of bends at the waist or twists her arms to show us she means yes. Maybe you've just got to see it; it's pretty cute.
Okay ... Anna's rest time is almost over. We'll see if she's alseep or not ;)
For some inexplicable reason, Anna, who has historically rarely had sleeping troubles, has been fighting bedtime with all of her will this past week and a half. We had probably only one or two nights last week when she didn't scream, cry, get out of bed, etc. for 1/2 hour to 2 hours (seriously!) before finally succombing to sleep. We tried reasoning with her; we tried conning her; we tried punishing her; we tried tiring her out, but nothing seemed to be working. Now we're trying rewards and so far so good. Last night she got to pick out the music she wanted to listen to, have two books in bed with her, and was told that if there were two nights in a row with her obeying the bedtime rules (in bed and quiet), then she and Matt would do a bikeride to a park just the two of them. Like I said, so far so good.
Part of this probably stems from the fact that Anna is transitioning out of her nap. She doesn't really need one every day anymore, but still needs to have some kind of rest time (and I still need that break in the middle of the day). The current plan is for her to have about an hour of quiet time in her room with some special quiet activities (puzzles, books, colored pencils and notebook). Again, so far so good, although she still falls asleep every second or third day.
The other reason we're all upside down and inside out is that Kate has had some kind of weird virus for about a week and a half. Early last week she had several days of diarrhea (which included several middle of the night diaper changes), which cleared up after a day or so on strictly bananas and toast. Then on Sunday evening she came down with a fever and has been just miserable since then. Stuffy nose, coughs, and the inability to sleep more than about an hour and a half (including at night) without help from Mom and/or Dad. We went to the doctor on Monday afternoon and he said that everything was clear (ears, lungs, and throat), and that she probably had a virus that started in her GI tract last week and then moved system wide on Sunday. Whatever the reason, we all hope she feels better soon.
So, combining a three year old who screams and cries until 10 or later and a sick toddler who has been up several times a night for the past week means that we're all a little out of sorts. Hopefully, life returns to normal soon!
Meanwhile, in the few days in between Kate's symptoms and before things completely fell apart with Anna, we had some fun days :) Friday night we went to a friend's house for dinner and then stayed to watch some fireworks. In retrospect, that may not have been the best choice to make since we didn't get home until almost 11 and Anna cried for about a half hour before she fell asleep, but at the time it was a lot of fun.
Saturday we went to a local fair for awhile in the afternoon/evening. The girls LOVED the animals and rides. I took both Anna and Kate on the carousel and then Anna and I rode a bear ride. That, including dinner and ice cream, was about the extent of what the family could handle at this point.
Sunday afternoon we set up a kiddie pool and rigged up the slide so both girls could slide down it into the pool before getting out some (pretty tame) fireworks. Anna loved the fireworks, but Kate was already feeling ill by then and didn't think they were too great.
This week we've been just trying to maintain status quo, even with Matt being off on Monday and Tuesday for the 4th of July. We hope, for everyone's sake, that things look up soon for everyone here.
Let me end on a positive note, though. Anna has thoroughly been enjoying being a big sister recently, to the point of feeding Kate her breakfast this morning (giving her a few pieces of toast at a time and talking to Kate the entire time ... "You want more? You need to finish what you have first before you can get more. Show me with your signs that you want more, Kate. There! That's good! Here's more toast for you." It was a lot of fun to listen to.) She also will lead Kate around and ask her to play with her now, too. Very sweet stuff.
Kate is pretty funny, too, at least when she's feeling well. She can indicate to us yes and no, now, and both are great to watch. An easy no is when she simply shakes her head, but she'll yell loudly while shaking her head if she really means it. Her yes is this full body bob with a great big smile. She doesn't quite have the muscle control to just nod her head yet so she kind of bends at the waist or twists her arms to show us she means yes. Maybe you've just got to see it; it's pretty cute.
Okay ... Anna's rest time is almost over. We'll see if she's alseep or not ;)
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