It's Been One Heck of a Week

Can't sleep, so I might as well blog. Staying up so late will be a bad idea when my kids wake up in 3, 2, 1 ...

Alright. Still sleeping ... for now.

It has been one heck of a week around here. A very long 7 days of solo parenting + little sleep + sickness = oof. Man, the days just drag when no one walks through the door in the evening to break up the monotony of our day. Wake-ups, breakfasts, lunches, nap times, snacks, dinners, baths, bedtime. REPEAT.

I loaded the kids into the car at 4 o'clock today to make a liquor store run because I was out of wine and couldn't possibly fathom another night of solo parenting without my vice. To shake the disgusting feeling of hauling my children to the liquor store with me, I went to the one attached to the grocery store and bought bread and yogurt to make it look like I'd come there for necessities other than wine. A lady in the check-out behind me said, "WOW, you've got your hands full" to which I responded, "Why do you think I need the wine?"

I love being a mom more than anything in the world but ... the 5 o'clock hour is a hard one for me. Make that the 4 o'clock to 6 o'clock hours. So much whining and crying from my children all at once and unfortunately, my patience are just shot by that time in the day. Wine helps, don't judge.

I filled our Andi-less days with lots of playdates and activities, as per usual. It helped, until we all came down with a variety of sicknesses. I battled a head cold all week long and pouned Airbornne and cold meds to nip my cold in the bud. It stinks caring for other people when you feel like garbage.

What's worse is when the children become ill. On Wednesday, Tory woke up cranky and whiny, and just wasn't herself. My mid-day, she spiked a 103 degree fever, had body aches and was throwing up. My poor girlie.

I cared for her the best I could with Aden there, and was thankful when he took a long nap in the afternoon so I could snuggle Tory and dote on her as much as she needed. By dinnertime, Tory's fever broke and she was feeling much better. I kept her home from preschool today just to play it safe. She was back to her spunky self all day.

All better!

Later today, Aden was diagnosed with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. I guess it started on Monday when I noticed a spot - almost like a pimple - on his cheek. His cheeks have been red from teething anyway, so I didn't think much of it. I put some lotion on his dry, chapped face and kept my eye on it. The next day (Tuesday), I noticed a few spots on his leg right where his diaper rests. I classified it as diaper rash because I had a few random Huggies in the closet I switched to using that day. Aden has super sensitive skin anyway, so I figured the new diapers must've irritated his skin. I slathered on some diaper cream, but noticed later the rash never went away. Yesterday (Wednesday), I noticed two spots on Aden's ear lobe and a few spots on the tips of his fingers and toes. Hmm?? Now I started to question the other spots on his body. After more investigating, I found a few tiny spots on the palms of his hands, too. He seemed happy and was still eating and drinking formula fine, but I decided something wasn't right. I called the Baby Line this afternoon and as I described the symptoms over the phone to the nurse I knew right away what it was: Hand, Foot and Mouth. Ugh. Aden was a bit fussy on Monday and was running a low fever (which I attributed to teething), so I gave him a dose of Tylenol and he's seemed fine ever since. No sores in his mouth that I can see, or trouble eating so I hope (hope, hope, hope!) we're through the worst of it. I was surprised to hear the nurse say he can be around other children so long as he isn't running a fever. I guess it's a common illness for kids? We'd never experienced it before.

Happy guy learning to crawl, with one spot on his left cheek ...

It couldn't be worse timing, of course, because I'm leaving for the weekend to join Andi at his work event in Tennessee. We planned my visit months ago when Andi mentioned he'd booked Dierks Bentley to play in concert for the Saturday night finale of the ATV event he's producing. I joked that his lovely wife wouldn't mind seeing Dierks in concert and he could fly me in for stuff like that whenever he liked ... and, well, my gracious husband did just that.

I leave tomorrow night and fly (by myself!) to Knoxville. I can't even remember the last time I flew without my children. What will I do with my my free time?! (Drink Starbucks. Read a magazine. Blog. I think I'll be able to come up with a few things). Andi's producing the event Saturday so I won't spend much time with him that day, but that's okay. I'll ... sit. Or go for ATV rides with other people. Or sit. Or drink coffee. Or DO WHATEVER I WANT. And Sunday, Andi will be done with the event and we can hang as a couple for 24 glorious hours before flying home Monday.

I am really excited for the weekend, but I'm also way nervous to leave my kids. Especially when they've been sick. They'll be in the very capable hands of my mother-in-law and our favorite babysitter so I know they'll be just fine ... but ack. Time away is HARD.

Don't even get me started on the fact that Aden is thisclose to crawling and if he figures it out for the first time when I'm not there I'm going to be SO BUMMED. We've been practicing tummy time and crawling moves so much this week. I think I'll tell Janie to keep a lid on it if Aden becomes mobile over the weekend, so I'll be surprised for myself come Monday.

Well, enough rambling. Tory's crying out for the third time tonight and it's 10:30pm. Long night ahead, I'm sure. TTYL.