You Call This a Birthday?

We started the week off with tons of fun Sunday night when Avey went to bed a little early, feeling not quite herself. She called out to us just after we had gone to bed, having tossed her cookies. She had the wherewithal to catch most of it in a bucket she'd brought with her, but in the dark had missed some. We cleaned it up quickly and she went back to bed. The poor thing was up twice more that night with more tummy issues, though. She stayed home two full days until she finally was able to keep food down long enough to go back.

We were also up with Merritt Sunday night, just as we thought we'd have some peace. He was crying violently, so we assumed the worst - that he had what Avey had. Kira must have asked him if his tummy hurt, and he was so out of it that he said it did, but as Kira fought to hold him steady for when the inevitable came so that she could direct it somewhere, he just fought harder to be let go. He sat on the potty for a minute, but then nothing came, he was so tired and upset. He finally got off the potty and sat in Kira's lap to calm down, and then he leaked through his diaper onto her. We figured that he just needed to go potty, and did the right thing by trying to hold it, but then we upset him by assuming he was sick. He never did come down with anything.

Tuesday was almost normal. Although Avey was home from school, nursing her sick tummy, the boys were in for a treat after school when the bus came to pick them up, and it was their very own auntie driving!

Hannah said that Hakan made a surprised face and then kept peeking up at her over the seat with a big smile.

Carver was not feeling too great Tuesday, feeling a headache coming on, with a sore throat, and looking tired. He actually went to lay down around 4, and just stayed there, falling asleep. Kira took the other two boys to a Festival of Learning at Hakan and Carver's school, showing off the kids' projects to parents, and so they came home after bed time, and tried not to wake Carver as they climbed into bed.

Carver was not feeling much better the next day, which was his birthday. The poor guy stayed home from school and hung out on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket. Kira had made a doctor appointment for Avey the day before, because we still weren't sure what her deal was. Of course, she was feeling better Wednesday morning, so went to school late, and then Kira took Carver to the appointment instead. They didn't find anything that would indicate strep or something more serious, so recommended fluids and rest.

Carver skipped youth activity and the Minecraft Meetup at the library, even though he had been looking forward to both. We did still open presents and have his cake that Kira put together amid all of the sick kids and such. He had a decent time, considering.

Luckily, he was feeling much better and nearly normal on Saturday, when he joined his best friend for a joint party. That hopefully made up for what he didn't get from Wednesday.

Hakan, not to be outdone by his older sibling, came down with a wicked cough Thursday night and then didn't go to school on Friday. So none of our children went to a full week of school. I, of course, had to go to Chicago every day this week for meetings and classes, leaving Kira to do the bulk of the daytime routine.

Hakan, The Blue Crayon

Kira got a call from a new client who seemed very motivated, but could meet only on Saturday. Her new office would work with that, so she agreed to meet Saturday afternoon. With Carver's party that day, and the boys due for haircuts, I opted to then run some errands Friday night after the boys were in bed. Hannah came along, and we stopped to use some coupons for ice cream on the way back, bringing treats to Avey and Kira who were finishing a movie and working on another show.

After such a crazy week, I'm semi-thrilled to be in Spring Break now. I'm sad to have missed my annual conference this year (last week), but glad to have some time to just get caught up on things. I tried to squeeze out a couple of projects on Saturday, adding molding around our door from the garage into the mud room instead of looking at the ugly gaps in the drywall. I also removed a switch from Avey's wall and combined it with another one on the same wall. A previous owner had added a switch, but it wasn't level with the other one, and only about 4 inches to the right, so it looked sloppy (and it was). I put them into a dual switch, which looks much cleaner. I've patched the old hole and will paint it when I can. I also came across a nice cabinet left out by a neighbor for the garbage, but I thought it could have new life in the garage, so I installed that yesterday, very pleased with the result.

I'm going to try to focus on getting ahead of work for the second half of the semester, but I'm sure I'll get the itch to work on a few more house projects.

The kids don't have break for another couple of weeks, so this should be pretty normal aside from me being home. The weather's beautiful today, so let's all hope that this keeps up.