Elisa’s Day

Apparently i spoke way too soon when i said that we all escaped unscathed from our incident with The Flu. Olivia had a strange and intermediate version of it about a week later, she would have one symptom for a day or so then be fine for a day or so, then next symptom. Very odd. And she definitely has the nagging cough which sidney never had. And she is definitely The Child Most Likely To Infect, so i should have known that it would be olivia, she of no personal space not even in the face of flu germs, that would give me the flu. I’m guessing it was the morning that i rolled over thinking ryan had slept through his alarm only to find olivia had crawled into bed with me, breathing her flu all over me while i slept. Sigh.

So i have spent 6 hellish days in the grips of death. Or so it felt at the time. That is the reason people get flu shots. Right in the thick of it, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to NOT avoid this hell if at all possible. But then it’s hard to have any kind of perspective or reason with a raging fever and an entire body ache. Of course the main symptoms only lasted a couple days, unfortunately the ability to retain any kind of calories escaped me for quite a bit longer. For 5 days literally anything but water went right through me. So i existed on water. And fat stores i guess. And i slept and was cold and dizzy a lot. Oh yeah, don’t forget the part where i’m still nursing a baby all of the time. So if you think any of those fat store calories were going to me, think again. By sunday night i’m not even sure there were many going to the baby who was also sleeping a lot, and running a low temperature of all things. Like me….cold and tired…..and calorie starved. I wonder just how long you can nurse a baby without taking in any calories anyway? Thankfully monday became the day i started eating again. Slowly. Cautiously. And now, on wed, i almost feel like i human again. And hey, it’s not all terrible….i bet i lost at least 5 pounds, it’s the pre-holidays swine flu crash diet.

Except i also lost a week. A week i couldn’t really afford to loose. Now i’m not sure i’ll get all of my knitting done in time. And the mountain of laundry is truly daunting. Laundry is daunting around here all of the time. I do at least one load every sinlge day. So imagine after one week what kind of back load i’m looking at. Ryan did his very best to step in while i spent most of the last week in bed. He cooked, he “cleaned” ( as only men can, really, what is the deal with that? It’s another entry all together ) but he doesn’t do laundry, so it’s really really behind. Plus i planned to be putting up decorations this weekend. How can i do that when the house is a mess?

Ahh the mess. While i was sick, ryan got a more realistic insight into the life of the stay at home mom, and safe to say, one thing we are both 150% fed up with is constant mess. I can’t live in mess. I know some people can. I can’t and i won’t. And if my kids won’t start picking up after themselves, then i have told them i will get rid of every thing…..all off it. Because we have talked to them about it more times then i can count, it just never seems to make an impact, so I’ll leave them with one doll each and books. No toys no mess. I am so sick of toys strewn about constantly. Too many toys. No respect for any of it. I am having serious purge urges. I WANT to get rid of it all. I want to see if it would even make a difference to them. Would they then learn to appreciate all that they have? Bah, i doubt it. But we’ll find out because i am so not kidding around this time. We already started the first bag last night. Anything not picked up after it’s played with gets put in a garbage bag then put in the basement for me to decide it’s fate from there.

Oh, and thanks to the perfect tidbit of info from the always lovely ashley ( the fact that i could do the book layout on my own computer was the clincher ) i did download the program from blurb ( it took a whopping 3 hours…..hahahaha ) and i did put together the book, i hope it looks as good in person. Now i just have to get it saved to my memory stick and into my friends place to upload it, hopefully tomorrow.

i’m still dizzy sometimes, and yesterday i thought i’d lay down for an hour and woke up 3 hours later. so i have to take it easy. but today is knitting and laundry.

i have decided to put off my attempts at learning to crochet ( again ) until after christmas. only because i have several gifts i want to make, and it makes sense to stick with what i already have a (semi)-grasp of. so i have a few different knitting projects on the go already. all fairly simple of course, next year if i want to get more complicated i better start in august. i am working with my first pattern, up until now it’s been scarves and blankets, straight knit, knit, knit. it’s a simple pattern, but a pattern all the same, and it’s coming nicely. i’m excited to be making gifts for people, it really is satisfying.

i was also thinking of possibly using one of those book printing sites to make up books of photos for the grandparents, has anyone used one of these? it seems like a bit of a daunting task the more i think about it, only because i can’t do it from here, being as we’re all hooked up to the world wide web like it’s 1994 and everything. i would have to take photo’s on a disk to a friends house and work the whole project there high speed style. and i have no ideas what kind of time i’m looking at as far as doing all the photo editing and layout stuff.

i gave in to my inner hipster yoga mom and bought molly sophie the other day. though i paid slightly less then that at our local fancy baby store, it was still a pricey chew toy. but since i have not bought a single thing for miss molly, aside from one new sleeper to come home in, i figured, what the hell.  i have to tell you, sophie recieved at least 20$ worth of love the very first day. babies really do love to chew sophie’s nuby little head. go figure.

today is an olivia home day, so also her little friend. i’ll be packing everyone up and we’re off to the early years center. finally. we had to skip last week since sidney was all fluey. she survived btw. quite nicely. she wasn’t even that sick. i mean, i don’t know for sure it was The Big Scary Flu of course, but considering it’s rampant around here, it’s a safe bet. and surprise surprise, it wasn’t Big or Scary, it was just the flu. and people are STILL asking if we’ll be getting the shot. even after we’ve all been exposed to it? really? gah.

the early years center has started the pizza lunch wednesdays again, so i think we’ll be taking advantage of that today too. then when we get home hannah and molly ( hopefully) can go right to bed and the girls can go off an play and i can get some knitting done

i can’t even get a handle on how fast time is whipping by us these days. it was thanksgiving and all of the sudden it was halloween and i just know that before we know it it will be christmas!

the last few weeks have been a blur of activity. halloween costumes were made, a baby blanket was knit, the resulting chaos that became the house with so many other projects on the go, was finally cleaned and organized. it was probably a good week after thanksgiving before i even got the extra tables out of my living room ( they actually came in handy when sewing halloween costumes )

i have another project to knit in the cue and i really want to start teaching myself to crochet, so those are my focus for november.

i just finished re-reading The Timetraveller’s Wife. so good.

sidney has the flu. I don’t know if she has THE flu, or just A flu, and truthfully i don’t really care. my kids are healthy, with no pre-existing conditions ( like asthma ) to complicate, they have strong immune systems (  the last time i can recall sidney barfing was in 2004 ) so i am really not scarred of THE flu, it’s a flu like any other flu. i do have minor concerns about the baby. sidney is to go nowhere near her. and i wash my hands before i pick her up every single time. and i will be keeping a very close eye on her for any fever or breathing issues and will take her into the doctor immediately if i notice any. hopefully we were careful enough soon enough that it will be a non-issue, there is nothing worse then a sick baby.

speaking of the baby…..she’s so big. i’m in full denial of her bigness. she can’t possibly be big enough for toys. but she is. her favorite is this little haba mouse. she loves to look at it while i shake it, she loves to talk to it and touch it and especially to chew on his little ears. she’s all slobbery smiles and giggles. she finds sidney especially funny. when sidney laughs, molly laughs. sometimes we tickle sidney just to get the baby laughing. i think she might be teething.

the girls had a great halloween, much trick or treating was done, much junk food was procured. sadly, being sick has kind of taken the fun out of it for sidney, who only got to enjoy her bounty sat. night and sun. morning before the headache set in. for now the supply is still ridiculous, but if she’s sick more then another day or so  i will stash away some of the goods for her before the other two ( and dad and i ) finish it off.

we missed the last farmers market, though i doubt there were many vendors, it was a dark and rainy day. we did make it last week though so i could stock up on macoons. if you like mac apples and ever find yourself with the opportunity to try a macoon do so. it’s a cross of a mac and some other apple i can’t remember. best apple ever. i pretty much bought out the apple guy, as many as i could fit in my crisper and ryans little beer fridge, now our apple fridge. i always look forward to late fall for the macoons.

and mondays, i look forward to mondays because it means dexter, pvr’d from last night.