An Otherwise Beautiful Weekend, Marred

One week of toddler “gentle separation” class and my girls come home with their first art projects (decorated pictures frames and colorful, abstract paintings) and their first communal illness (the dreaded stomach flu). Madeline was the first to succumb: She woke up in the middle of the night on Friday. Nicole heard her cry a weird cry and raced down the circular stairs as fast as she could and made it to Maddie just in time for her to threw up in Nicole’s hand. Poor Maddie spent all day Saturday in various positions of repose around the house, all quiet and tired and spent. Seeing her without energy is truly bizarre, since this child is normally hard to keep up with.

I had big plans to eat my way through the weekend since it was likely that I would end up throwing up too, but decided that was not the healthiest of ideas. We drove back to the city on Sunday and I started feeling cocky that Nicole and I were going to escape this virus. No such luck. I woke up Monday and felt well enough to run five miles, but as soon as I got home the rapid decline began. And by noon I was begging Nicole to come home from work and take care of the girls because I could not stand up, and then texting her every half hour to see where she was and when she would arrive. In the meantime, I lay on the couch, trying to attend to Avery’s many needs (“I need choc milk.” “Maddie took my ________.” “I need to watch a show.” “I need to climb on Momma.”)

As soon as Nicole came home, I locked myself in the bedroom and slept the afternoon away. Around five-ish, Nicole started to feel a little dizzy, and then she was sick. I was a little disappointed that there couldn’t be a little space between our downfalls, because who will then take care of the girls? One sick parent is hard enough, but two? I guess I am not the boss of those germs. So far, only Avery has managed to escape, but we will see what happens today. Nicole is in the weak and very tired stage; I am in the dizzy recovering stage; Maddie is in the full-one energy stage and Avery is a giant, needy question mark.

Yesterday was 60 here in the city and since I was sick I could not go out. I was so excited to take the girls out in the sun; so much for that. I am more than ready for this spring, as is almost everyone else I know. I am just excited for spring in general. Lots of stuff on the calendar. Two weekends from now I am going to a photography weekend seminar, ALONE, where I will learn a little more about how to operate my camera properly. It is in Vermont, so we will all drive to Northampton and then on Saturday morning I will leave Nicole and the girls and drive up north alone. Three hours in a car without having to twist my body around to pick up a dropped cup or toy. I will be spending the night alone in a hotel, which I haven’t done since my go-go days of journalism. The alone time will be nice, but I am more excited to learn more about light metering.

I ate nothing yesterday. As in absolutely nothing. Maybe I should start a fast, since I already have the first day under my belt and absolutely no appetite. This morning I had some coffee, because I don’t need caffeine withdrawal on top of everything else. Hoping for a miraculous speedy recovery, but not holding my breath.

Pictured above, poor sickly Maddie. And a view of the trees: Can you see a very prominent symbol there in the trees? I tell you, signs everywhere. And Mommy and Momma’s upstairs lair. That is what we call it, and now that is what Avery calls it too. I must start watching what I say because Avery repeats it ALL. Which means we are treated to such gems as “Maddie is a little devil” and “I can’t take it anymore.” Gee, wonder where she got those expressions from?