Joel Andrew's First Real Sick Day

Yesterday was Joel Andrew's first real stay at home sick day.  He has certainly had them many times before when he was younger, but this is the first time that he had one when Mommy was a full-time worker, and he was old enough to understand what being home sick meant.  Some snipits from the day for you:

• I have been saving "Llama, Llama at Home with Momma" for just this occasion.  We read it both for the first time, and while reading I realized this book stunk. (SPOILER ALERT): The beginning of the book is all about resting in bed, and blowing your nose - but the end Momma gets sick too and the little Llama is bored.  What?  How is this helpful?
• By 9:55am, which is exactly 5 minutes before drop-off closes at Daycare, and also 5 minutes before my conference call with my supervisor, Joel Andrew came downstairs announcing he was just fine.
• He requested to watch Chicken Run, twice.
• The fish tank cleaning guy showed up, while Joel Andrew was supposed to be napping.  Overheard from downstairs, the door opening from Joel's room and the pitter patter of little feet walking to the Man Room where the fish tank is.  Then: "My Mommy says I am supposed to be sleeping.  What are you doing?" As soon as I ran up to get him to go back to bed - he heard me coming and ran to his room too.  Little devil.
• When no nap was happening, we went on a car ride and sure enough he fell asleep no problem.  From 4-6:30pm he slept, including a transfer from the car to the bed in the playroom.  Not sick my tushie.  He never did that even when he was a baby.
• My Supervisor (who has no kids) wisely said to me "if you let him have fun and watch movies all day, he will want every day to be a sick day."  Sure enough, this morning he came downstairs complaining he didn't feel well and needed to stay home.  No joke, I responded by telling him all the TVs were broken.  His reaction: "I want to go to school today Mommy."

James and Mommy Time

James has been sick - coughing, snots, the cold works - the last few days.  We think it might have been croup, and he did have a fever which was so low - yet still required one of us to stay home with him all week which was a bummer - but now he is looking much better.  Still the nose and the cough, I anticipate that will kick around until spring.

It was tough spending the whole week trying to get work done, and have this little guy.  I was on many a conference call when in the background they would hear cough-mcgee.  When I said "Bye" to my fellow callers, James shouted one time: "Bye-Bye" and I heard all of them take a collective: "awe, so cute."  He was actually very good compared to how his brother might have been at this age, he can entertain himself for way longer, and is easily distracted by food!

The Joel's went off to Sunday River this past weekend, and I stayed home with sick-boy, who by Saturday morning was much better.  I needed a weekend to get caught up on around the house stuff, and I am happy to say I had a lot of me time too - finished Downton Abbey, got ready for our impending trip to Chicago, etc.

As James was feeling better, and he hadn't been out of the house in ages, we went to the Children's Museum of NH in Stratham.  Sadly, this is the first time I went to a Museum with just James, and really the first time James has been to a Museum.  Sure, he tagged along with Joel Andrew during my pre-work days, but in all honesty he was strapped in the stroller and I hardly let him out except for one or two photo ops here or there.  This time it was all him, the Museum was his oyster.

Boy, did he love it.  He was so overwhelmed with all of the colors, people, kids, sounds, you name it.  When we first walked in he was mezmorized by a ball at the top of a bench, and sat there for five minutes. I had to convince him that this was only the tip of the iceberg, buddy.  He would enter a new room in the Museum, and probably would be content to stay there for 2 hours each.  I had to urge him to see the next thing so we could see most of it, and he was so excited and overwhelmed that he did not object.

His favorites were the musical instruments, the choo-choos, and he probably would have spend more time in the archaelogy dig or the submarine if I had let him, but we had to get going.

We have had some good meals together this weekend.  Mommy is trying to get back on track with weight-loss which has been temporarily derailed.  We discovered he loves the movies The Incredibles and Chicken Run, but really nothing else.  I have also found my child who loves to color (A-Ca-ddur, he likes to yell) - which is nice, but a bummer too.  He will not only color the paper, but the furniture and the dog and just about anything if you are not watching him.  My brut artist.

Sunday River Vacation

We just came back from four fun filled days at Sunday River.  Actually, a lot of the time was spent lazing around the condo which lead to cranky and antsy children and parents - but we did have fun.  It is just hard when your fun is so weather dependent. Saturday was lovely, but we were waiting for our company/the rest of the weekend fun so we didn't jump on the skiing.  By the time Sunday rolled around, high winds shut down most of the mountain by 10am, and the whole mountain by 2.  Monday was not better at all, so Tuesday was our only day to ski, and by then, James had developed a monster cough...  but we managed, and we had fun.

The Kings joined us, and also had their own trials.  Making a fun weekend at Sunday River is a lot more work than it used to be!  They didn't show up until Saturday, because Declan was sick into Friday (I know what you are thinking and it is a totally different sick than what James has now)..We had an awesome lunch at the Matterhorn, where we were "those" parents and we just let our kids go crazy in the video game area.  You know, touching all of the buttons and the steering wheel on all of those video games (no wonder James is now sick) and having a great time, while the parents drinks beers (all except for the preggo Lauren!).  We were basically inline, I would say - and the Matterhorn is built for such craziness, so it was a lovely afternoon.

Later that evening Brian and Declan and Joel Andrew and I ventured out to try some tubing.  How could we miss out, it is right next to the condo and Joel Andrew and I already went earlier in the year.  It was so tame that I had no idea how they ever got anyone to pay $15 to do it.  Well, I figured out how when we went back. As I was taking the magic carpet ride up with Joel Andrew I looked and saw - the additional snow the season brought allowed them to extend the tubing lanes another 30 feet, of all drop...  And, they had contoured the path so there were lots of dips along the ride.  Brian gave me a look like: "Are you kidding me?" and they made it one run...  Joel Andrew had the time of his life and made me go with him three more times before I realized that he or I could seriously injur ourselves, and we went inside...

They next day was ski lesson day for the boys, it was 10 degrees, and really windy.  Needless to say, Joel Andrew - who was slated to go up the lift for the first time in ski lessons, did not make it.  And, poor Declan...  I kept trying to convince Aunt Lauren that it was like a bandaid, like daycare drop off, just put him in the class and walk away...  But it was 10 degrees out and the kid was sick less than 48 hours ago.  He tried his hardest, and Joel Andrew tried to help him along too.  Too cute.  In the end Declan said he enjoyed the day, but we will need to try again, on a beautiful sunny, less windy day, when he is fully up to par.

The boys got back and watched movies together, and we quickly realized that it was time for the Kings to go home.  Sadly, I moped around all evening long as I missed my buddies and it was fun having the Kings up.  Then I racked my brain about why we felt like there really wasn't much to do - and then realized that it was the weather, and the age.  1-1/2 - 3 is a fun age, but not for going out to eat, skiing, tubing, ice skating, movie watching, board game playing.  Really, what is fun at this age?  Regardless, we still had fun, but the fun we had was a lot of work!

After the Kings left, we stayed the course.  We went to the pool at the condo with both boys and this is a true test in Mommy's OCD.  It is gross.  And there are snots on the boys, and dirty floors and no flip flops, and public pool, and etc. etc. - you get the point.  I am not a fan, but the boys and Joel Husband loves it, so we go.

Afterwards, Mommy got to go get a massage, or beat up as I now call it.  I got a deep tissue massage which I thought would be a good plan as it has been a while, but it was a beating.  I did not stop her, because I knew I needed it, but my back is a sore reck mess today.

Fast forward to our vacation day, the last day of my ski trip, the first day I got to go skiing.  This was the best weather day of the week by far - 40s and sunny, no wind - and plus it is a mid-week day, so Joel Husband and I had planned to put James in daycare (he would be there if it wasn't a vacay day is the working-mom-rationale), and Joel Andrew in Ski School, and Joel Husband and I would ski together all day like the good old days and have a nice lunch at a ski-to place, and make it back in time to get the boys and get home.  Sadly, this did not happen (predictable), and instead James kept me up 1/2 the night and Joel Husband up the other half with his nothing-else-but-a-cough-cough, and Joel Husband quickly determined that daycare on the mountain would call us the second he started hacking. So, we got one pass and took turns.  It was still pretty cool - I got to do more runs in less than 2 hours this morning that I did so far all winter long. It was a beautiful day and wonderful not to have lines.

Home now, James has seen the Dr., he is fine and resting well.  It is sad to think only two more weekends up at Sunday River this year for me and the kids.  We love it there.  I hope Joel Husband and I can retire there!

Really, really gross post

This morning Joel Husband said "Pull My Finger."  Which, Joel Andrew did.  Then Joel Andrew lost his breakfast all over the floor.  Nice Daddy, really nice.  Disgusting.  Poor Kid.

Snowmageddon, Part 1

The big storm is upon us, and we are in Maine.  It is exciting and probably stupid at the same time. My office called that they would be closed by noon today, and since I am usually working from home Fridays, I figured what is the difference between working from home and working from home which happens to be Sunday River?  The bonus that threw it over the edge, daycare was cancelled, but a day in ski school was still an option!

Joel Andrew, who sometimes threw a tantrum when we dropped him off at ski school - went today with a smile.  He even told the instructor the second he walked in: "I am going to do a really good job at skiing today."  The mountain is perfect.  There is hardly anyone here and there is fresh snow on the ground.  I am itching to get out, and alas I am a slave to the laptop - though I finally claimed done at 2pm.  Offices were officially closed at noon, I think that is ok.

I hope we have a fun weekend, I hope it is relaxing, and I hope nothing really bad happens to anyone anywhere - or our house - while we enjoy it.  Lets just have a weekend without work, a weekend with lots of snow and fun with the kids, and a weekend of relaxation.  We all deserve it.  (if you can't tell, I may have had a glass of cabernet with my last hour of work...).  I hope to check back tomorrow, with some fun photos!