loonatic ravings of an ill parent

Max is much better – still sick – but definitely better. Ash now has a really bad cough – but the upside is that he’s still “baby” enough to where he’ll just sleep most of it off until his body heals itself. Yesterday, this lady at Target was just STARING at us with the kids in the cart and Max (who behaved VERY well for most of our shopping trip) was just beginning to go astray and poor Ash is just sneezing his little head off and I just wanted to turn around and yell, WHAT?? WHAT!! We’re sick!! We’re IN the pharmacy section so its pretty obvious!! You JUST don’t even know – you OBLIVIOUS person!! :-p You think this is EASY?? You come do this then!! Come on down!!” But you know – I didn’t. I pulled Max away from the hand mirrors for about the 10th time and then we gave up looking for a nose squeegee thing and headed for the check out. I remember when I used to get sick…. And I could like lay in bed and get well…….. that was awesome. It doesn’t really happen anymore. I get sick – and my life continues as usual – only its much harder because I’m weaker. This is how people get gray hairs – I’m convinced. I got SOO mad at Max the other day (he was just not feeling well and was acting up and was really grouchy!!) that I actually used the phrase, “…and I rocked him to sleep every night for the first 10 months of his life – you’d think he would treat me better than that!”. LOL! He’s 3 you know. Ah, parenthood.

The Sick House

Everyone is sick. Except me of course.

So - Greg has been sick since about Tuesday. Max has been sick for I think about two weeks now. Ash just got sick this week - and his case seems to be much milder. I have a weird body ache - but no actual "sickness" to speak of. Unfortunately - this means that Friday morning I ended up having to dash home from work because Greg had just gotten so horribly ill that he just couldn't handle himself much less the boys for the day. If I had known he was that sick I wouldn't have gone in to work to begin with. So - I came home and did tons of laundry (sick laundry) and disinfected everything that was reasonable. Poor Max too - Max is at that age where he is in between baby medicine and "kids" medicine - so we can't really give him anything except tylenol and vicks baby vapor rub. So - we're doing that and I'm using saline spray for his nose and we have a vaporizer set up in the boys' room, warm baths.... Everything we can think of - we're doing - but he is still soooo sick. We've got him sleeping on several firm pillows to help his breathing and congestion. Its been a mess to get him to sleep - because he wakes up coughing and crying because he can't breathe well. So - Greg and I are both up and down all night every night. We tried to go to breakfast this morning at Wishbone and no one ate anything except me. Max looked like he might go to sleep at the table.

During the day it hasn't been too bad - as long as we're all at home. Ash will nap most of the day in his crib and wake up to eat a little bit now and again. Max will camp out on the sofa and watch movies with Greg. We've watched Cars and Toy Story and Toy Story 2 several times. Both of the boys also like the old Mickey Mouse cartoons (the classics - we have them on dvd), so we've been watching a lot of those too.

I don't know how Greg has been managing to make it through his shows in the evenings. I know on Friday he got sick before he went on stage - but somehow made it through the rest of the show. He can't really stand up for any length of time because he's so weak - so I dunno - maybe he just collapses in a chair behind stage or something.

I think its because they're sick - but the boys have been super-grouchy about their beds, blankets, pacifiers, etc. If they don't have the "right" ones - they both scream and scream until we magically come up with the right combination. Its a little loud.

So - we're hoping everyone is on the mend soon - but for right now its sort of sick city around here. I have lost the nose squeegee-thing - so I have to run to Walgreen's again tomorrow.

I'm very tired. Today has been a very long day. I don't usually say that about the weekends. Also - I just feel so bad for the boys! We can't take them to Bubbles, Kohls (museum), or any playdates because they're sick - and its too cold for the park - and they feel so bad they wouldn't have any fun anyway. They are going to be so happy when they can get out and about again.