Back Amongst the Living!

Hooray! I'm back, babies! Prepare yourselves. Or yourself. Who even reads this thing anymore? Anyway...

We have had quite the infirmary going on here this last week or so. As I'd mentioned, Dalton was sick last weekend. Then everyone else. Jason must not have had the illness first like we originally thought because he's sick with it now...again?

But back to our week, I picked Easton up from school on Wednesday and that's the last time we really went anywhere till last night! We would've gone out yesterday except, when I went on my regular Tuesday morning Krispy Kreme run (the kids were here with J) I discovered my car wouldn't start. Grrr. We thought it was the battery but Jason had a doctor's appointment and couldn't stick around to try to diagnose or fix the problem so we were stuck here all day yet again. The bright side is that I didn't have to cook AGAIN (since I couldn't go get any ingredients). The downside is that I was in a grumpy mood all day. But my kids are awesome and just rolled with it (and me) again.

We've kept ourselves fairly entertained since last Wednesday afternoon.

On Thursday during quiet time the boys tucked themselves under the same couch blanket:

I often find them on entirely separate couches for their quiet time shows so I had to document the event.

Family Fun magazine arrived in the mail that day and I saw a fun idea to do painting with pencil erasers in kind of a pointillism/Georges Seurat kind of way. I thought the boys would love it. They love to paint. Easton didn't even want to...I got Dalton to do some with me. Barely.


How do you like my finished product?

Easton and Dalton both contributed to the green at some point but that's about it, the stinkers.

Friday is when we discovered Easton's fever and that he'd be staying home from school. He was a little bummed he'd be missing learning about the latest planet and racing the other 5 year olds on the playground. He really wants to test out his theory that he'll be faster now that he's five. Instead he had to settle for doing his new birthday solar system puzzle here at home with us:




"Look, Dalton! There's a piece of Uranus!" (No, he doesn't know why I laughed so hard when I heard him say that).


Dalton sweetly entertaining Autumn once again:


We got in lots of snuggles during these few sick days. Dalton actually took this one:


See how she's just wasn't her little bright-eyed self?


That adorable little pout again. Girl's gonna learn how to work that to her advantage for sure. :)


Dalton photo-bombing:


An outfit change was in store for Autumn. She's growing even more so her 3 months stuff is getting too small and her larger 3-6 months stuff is starting to fit better. So she's now wearing this little Calvin Klein number from a co-worker of July's. The quilt is from July's mom:


Later we noticed Easton had received a package. A birthday gift from his pen pal Isaiah! He was thrilled to open up some new PlayDoh and accessories. We got right to work:




My monster creations for Dalton:




And then I thought Easton would love these...turns out he didn't like my idea but I kept at it. Mean mommy.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

On Saturday I actually got out of the house for a bit for some groceries. Jason insisted a trip out would be good for at least one kid so I took the healthiest one (Dalton) with me to Wal-Mart. Autumn was napping and apparently Easton crashed on the couch. Dalton and I saw Mrs. L while we were shopping which was fun. Then I came home to find Easton completely miserable and burning with fever. We got some Tylenol Cold in him and some snuggles and he was faring much better:


We also watched the Saints win their playoff game! Yay!

Sunday we had to miss church again with our sickies. And we watched more football. Easton played more PlayDoh.

Monday I would've sent Easton to school if they would've had it (it was MLK Jr. day). But Autumn was the really sick one at that point. Anyway, Jason still had work despite the federal holiday and I just laid around with Autumn much of the day. It was nicer weather so the boys played in the backyard awhile. Oh how I wish we had our trampoline set up already. For now, the sandbox will suffice:


With the back door slightly open, somehow a bee made it's way into our house. A bee! With a stinger! In winter? But yeah...I was not too excited about that. I ended up trapping him in a Tupperware against the sliding glass door but because he was trying to get out through the glass it was impossible to slide the lid in to safely contain him so I could let him outside. In a slight panic I had to call Easton for help. I sent him for cleaning supplies and I was trying to talk him through opening the child-safe locks on the cabinet that has the hazardous supplies in it. Yes, seriously. He couldn't do it (which is really a good thing, I suppose, as that's what they're for...to keep kids out) but I remembered where I had some that weren't locked up and sent him for those. Easton--who is the man of the house when Daddy is at work--ordered Dalton to go to their room and shut the door to stay safe. How cute is that??? My pint-sized hero returned with some cleaners and I sprayed and squirted stuff on the window and then moved the bee container over that. Sad but true. He kind of drowned/poisioned to death :( and then I didn't want to dump him in the trash just in case he came back to life or something. Hee hee. And I didn't want to dump him outside because I didn't want a bird to eat his poisonous self so I put him in the garbage disposal and ran it. Good grief, eh? We'd been stuck in the house for so long I think my sanity had run out.

After the bee fiasco we decided to have a middle of the day bubble bath just for something fun to pass the time. They rarely get to linger long in the bath and even more rarely do they get any bubbles. Autumn had to watch from the sidelines with me:


Easton had fun...






...but Dalton had a blast:








Then because we weren't going anywhere, they put on some fresh jammies and posed for some super-slick lookin' pictures:




The boys did a fabulous job entertaining themselves while I largely laid around myself or had my hands full with their very ill sister. They played so well together and came up with all kinds of fun on their own. Their latest favorite is using the blue and green gingerbread men from Candy Land as their "action figures". These figures have accompanied them to the sandbox, all around the backyard, and are the new astronauts for E's space shuttle:


Yesterday (Tuesday) is the day when people were pretty much seeming healthy enough to get out of the house. Autumn had had a horrible night so I did too. This was on top of two previous nights of less than stellar sleep with the sickies already. Even with my mere 3 hours or so of sleep total I had big plans for Office Max, the grocery store, and the library before I learned my car was dead. So we made due again. More sandbox fun even though it was a much cooler day:


Autumn was napping and I sat by the door watching the boys and flipping through my Parents magazine that had come in the mail. I saw a cool idea to draw your own pictures on Band-aids instead of always buying the pricier character ones. I thought it sounded fun and hoped I'd remember to do it in the future. I was thinking much further into the future, however, on his way into the house, Dalton fell and skinned his little knee through his p.j. pants. :( So he picked our décor for his two bandages:

He felt much better.

Yesterday afternoon, Jason left work a smidge early to try to fix the car. It wasn't the battery like we originally thought so he came in to research a few more troubleshooting ideas and tried one and ended up getting it to start again. And again. Whew. For now. He showed me what he did in case I get stranded out somewhere. Eek! I really hope it was just a fluke. With the car fixed he and the boys headed out to test it out again and pick up some take-out for dinner.

And that brings us to today where Easton got to head back to school. Autumn seems much much better today. Once she woke for the day I dressed her in a 6 month sized outfit and posed her on the opposite side of the quilt July's mom made:




My little flower child. She's got her sparkle back. And her appetite too. Yesterday she went over 7 hours during the DAYtime refusing to eat at all.

Autumn, Dalton and I then headed out for a quick errand before picking up Easton from school and running a few more errands. Ahhhh, so nice to be out and about again. Of course now we're home for lunch and quiet time but to have been out amongst the living has been lovely!