Ooph, we've had a challenging couple of weeks. Skip this post if you're easily grossed out.
The winter child illness season just keeps hammering us. I've previously written about Audrey's persistent cough and then Charlotte's double ear infection. Right in the middle of Charlotte's course of antibiotics she started hurling. We assumed a drug reaction, but were told by the doctor that it didn't present right for that and must be a coincidental stomach bug (what we used to call "stomach flu", but which is really gastroenteritis - nothing to do with influenza). OK, so we made it through 24 hours of vomiting and then eruptions from the other end. Of course, two days later Audrey came down with it. Poor girl vomited the first time in the car stuck in traffic on the freeway. There was nothing Carol could do but let Audrey stew in it and get home - about 15 minutes. That was Wednesday afternoon.
Meantime, Carol and I both felt horrible and thought we were coming down with it, too. Wednesday night we both went to bed with body aches and assumed we'd be joining Audrey in being up all night sick. But fortunately we apparently had some immunity and we both just felt lousy for a couple of days but produced no unpleasant body fluids. Good thing, because Audrey was pretty sick for about 36 hours. I stayed home from work Thursday and we all laid around and watched TV and movies all day. Audrey, through this whole ordeal, has continually put herself to bed when she has felt tired. It's the cutest thing, and sad when it is because she feels sick.
Both girls hadn't kept much food down for days. Of course, as parents that made us really worried. Slowly they started getting better and Saturday morning they finally both woke up famished and ate a ton and kept it down. Neither of them are 100% yet, but they're definitely getting better. I hate to whine here, but that's been our life for the past two weeks.
Fortunately, that all hit after Audrey's birthday party. We had a joint birthday party with Audrey's friend Ian who is two weeks younger than Audrey. We held the party at the YMCA and invited about 10 other kids. We had an hour in the kids gym, which has tons of padded stuff to play on. Everybody had a blast. Then we moved into the party room, where the staff had set up decorations and had table places all set up for the kids with cupcakes and juice. The whole thing was very fun. The staff was wonderful and they do a great job.
Every February in Seattle we seem to have one or two days that are 70 degrees and gorgeous. Saturday was that day this year. We went down to Alki Beach and went for a walk. There were tons of families there enjoying the pleasant weather. After walking a while, Audrey wanted to play in the sand. She was still pretty low energy. She found a place near a big log and just sat in the sand for a long time and played quietly. We could tell she was enjoying being outside for the first time all week.
Yesterday Audrey wanted to go back to the beach. It was 25 degrees cooler, but it wasn't raining. She also said she wanted to walk to the beach, which is about a mile from our house down through a heavily wooded ravine (Schmitz Park). Usually we carry the girls in backpacks when we go that way, but yesterday Audrey walked all the way for the first time and loved it. We stopped at Whale Tail Playground for a few minutes, but it was too cold to play. So we went to the bakery for hot chocolate. Audrey was really enjoying her date alone with me (and so was I!). She even thought having her picture taken in the nice light in the bakery was fun. Then Carol and Charlotte picked us up in the car and we went to Tacoma for a little exploring and then to Aunt Tricia and Uncle Frank's house for a delicious salmon dinner with Aunt Beth and cousin Adam. It was a very fun day. Both girls fell asleep in the car at 5:00pm. We transferred them to bed and they both slept all night.
Less than two weeks to go until our trip to Palm Desert, CA and Carol and my escape to Las Vegas for two nights. We can't wait! Maybe some warmer, dryer weather will help Audrey's cough.
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