The Plague House

So our house is disgusting. We have been sick, ALL OF US, since pretty much the buddy walk post a few weeks ago.

Faith got it first from her daycare we think. She threw up TWO WEEKS AGO tomorrow, and was home for school the next two days. I got it after her and was out of commission for five days. Tanner was next and bounced back after only missing a day of school. Jake got it and rallied, then really got it and missed two days of school. The whole time Marisa didn't feel right, but never got sick. She was well enough to be making snide comments, "Well I guess you're not in such great shape after all, are you?" and, "How about those great vitamins of yours now?". Then she went out of town for ONE night on business.

She was fine, walked in the door when she got back home, was throwing up less than five hours later, and was down and out all day today. I don't know what to do. At this point, there is not a bathroom that hasn't been thrown up in (or worse), I have washed every set of bed sheets at least once. There have three vomit etc. (ugh!) specific loads of laundry and the carpet between the kids bedroom and the hall bath looks like a trauma scene. I Cloroxed every surface in the house today; doorknobs, light switches, counters, faucets, computers etc. But don't know what else to do at this point (other then lighting the carpet on fire...).

It's not H1N1 (although that's the OH SO FUNNY neighborhood joke), as it's just stomach issues, no fever, no cough, congestion etc. So I don't know what in the hell we have. Plus it's not like I'm takling anyone to the doctors office to find out what it is, and catch H1N1 there, we're just self medicating with TV and Gatorade. Now come to find out that our daycare providers daughter has been home with H1N1 for the last week, and to answer your question..... yes OF COURSE our kids were there this week.

We promise to either have the house cleaned/santized and germ free by the time everyone comes for Christmas, or we'll move into a new house before you arrive (after the board of health condems this one).

Pumpkin Patch

The fact that the last two weeks have been hell on wheels, could not deter us from getting to the Pumkin Patch come hell or high water today. Marisa was home sick (more on all that in the next post). So I decided to venture out with the kids to the Pumpkin Patch myself to get them there first and foremost, but to give her a little peace and quiet in the house as well.

We got up and out early this morning, trying to get to the County Health Districts' H1N1 vaccination clinic (you can't get the vacine privately here, it has to go thru the County Health District) and get the little kids their shots as they fall into the higher risk category and are allowed to get them now. Jake got his at school last week, just before they ran out and Marisa and I will have to wait awhile as we are not high risk, but Tanner and Faith are both under 4 and fit into the high risk category. Anyway, we got there an hour and a half before they opened, paperwork in hand, and didn't even bother to get out of the car. They had stated there were 1,250 doses available at each of the two clinic sites and there were already more than 1,250 people in line. We're going to have to plan better for the next clinic, sounds like me getting up at 4 am or so and camping out....In order to bribe the kids to get dressed and out the door that early on a Saturday we had to go to the Mickey D's Playland for breakfast. After that, home, grocery store, house sanitization duty for a couple of hours and off to farm country.

The Pumpkin Patch is forever and gone from our house, it takes an hour + to get there. It was fun, but Pumpkin Patches to me always make carnivals/the fair look glorious by comparison. I always feel like at least the carnies put this stuff together and run it on a regular basis. Who knows what Cooters', who's driving the cow tractor ride, real job is when it's not Halloween. Anyway, we went. The kids went thru the petting zoo, the boys got to play in the jumpy houses and Faithy got to take her pony ride. We got our pumpkin, nachos, corns dogs and sodas and headed back home for dinner and a movie.

Speaking of movies, we (the kids and us) watched Bedtime Stories recently. If you haven't seen it...very cute movie for the kids. It is an Adam Sandler movie, so there is fart humor of course, but our kids, being kids, find it as funny as Adam does, so no harm no foul. Over the course of staying home sick, Jake and I watched Rudy together which he loved as much as I do (I cry every damn time!) and the Princess Bride, which he also enjoyed. He is now a Notre Dame football fan, so I can pass that tradition down which is good. Hopefully we're all on the mend now and things can move healtfully onward, at least until we get the Swine Flu in the next couple of weeks.....

The Buddy Walk

Being a parent is hard. I mean, deciding what a reasonable expectation is, figuring out consequences for bad behavior, how to best teach things like honesty and respect and kindness. Brian and I are constantly asking ourselves, "Are we doing OK or will our kids all end up in years of therapy?". But there are a few things that we are really sure we are doing right. And there are moments that shine through the day-to-day worry that make it clear that this is true.

A year or two ago we started a "Pay it Back" system with Jake where for every outside activity he joined (YBall, Tball, Chess Club, etc..) he had to "pay it back" by doing something good for the community. Over the last few years he has helped clean up the riverbank, raised money for a cause by selling his old toys/books, made cookies for the local fire station, picked up trash in our community, etc...

Most recently he chose to do The Buddy Walk which benefits the Down Syndrome Association. When we first moved here, Jake was 3 1/2 and was in a summer camp with a boy, Anthony, that has Downs. He became friends with him and with this boy's grandfather (Pop Pop). It also turns out that Anthony is in his first grade class this year and Pop-Pop volunteers in there weekly, so this friendship continues.

So we signed the family up to walk in the Buddy Walk. It is a one mile walk through downtown Boise, starting at the Capitol Buliding and ending at Julia Davis Park with activities and food for everyone. It promotes awareness of Down Syndrome and also raises money for research. We bundled everyone up and joined the walkers yesterday morning. Jake, and I walked it, with Brian pulling the little kids in the big red wagon. We didn't know if Anthony and his family would be there or not, but they ended up right in front of us and were surprised, I think, that Jake had chosen to do this to support Anthony. The boys walked together, playing and talking about Halloween costumes, then hung out for a little while at the jumpy house at the end of the walk.

So, between this "pay it forward" thing and the fact that they can all sing along to music by artists from Abba to Led Zeppelin- we are at least doing something right as parents.

Friday Night Lights

In our never-ending search for cheap family activities, we went to the Capitol High School Homecoming Football Game last night. Capitol High is most likely the high school that the kids will go to given it's proximity to our nieghborhood, and is a football powerhouse right now. They are in first place and it was easy to see why, as they won 40-6 over Centennial High.

The thing that makes this an even cooler thing to do on a Friday night is that they play their home games under the lights at Bronco Stadium as the school doesn't have a lighted football field. This means we can see a game on the BSU turf for $10.00 as opposed to $100.00+. For the students, it means that the BSU coaches watch most of their home games (Coach Pete was there last night) and more than the schools fair share of football players end up playing for the Broncos.

We saw a few people we knew from the nieghborhood in the stands and we know a couple of the players from home as well, so it was a lot of fun and something that we will probably do another couple of times before the end of the season.

Go Eagles!

1st Grade, Preschool, and Daycare... Oh my!

Things are hectic around our house these days. Here's our typical schedule on preschool days:

6:30 Boys come in our room to wake us up
6:30-6:45 Boys watch Sports Center while Brian and I brush teeth and get dressed
6:45 Cartoons go on, Brian and I check our work email and get started with our work day
7:15 Cartoon is over, breakfast time. I play short order cook for awhile
7:30 Everyone gets dressed, plays (if we're lucky) until 8:30 -although this usually involves at least one fit from someone and at least a few sibling arguments to referee
8:30 Bundle everyone up, put little kids in wagon, walk Jake to school (he rides his skateboard)
9:00 Drop Tanner at preschool (next door to our house) and drive Faith to daycare
9:30 Back to work for a few hours
11:30 Pick up Tanner from preschool, drive him to Miss Wendy's
12:00 Back to work again
3:00 Walk to school, pick Jake up
3:45 Homework time! We work and prep dinner while helping Jake with his homework.
4:30 Pick up Tanner and Faith from daycare
5.00 Dinner, baths, playtime, clean up, etc...
7:00 Bedtime
7:30 Brian and I plop down in front of the TV, exhausted, and still having work to catch up on for the next day so we can do it all over again!

It sounds like I am complaining, but these days are actually a lot of fun. The challenge comes when one of us has to be out of the house early for a training or something and all the chaos falls to the other one. (Lately it has been me that has to be gone early. My work is crazy busy right now.)

I was reminded this evening, as I drove in the driveway with the little ones at 4:45 and Brian was out front for the third day in a row tossing the football to Jake,- just waiting to greet us at the car- that we are so lucky to be doing this together-I mean the "everyday" stuff of being a family. I forget that not all dads are lfortunate enough to have a job that allows them to be on the front lawn at 4:45 to play catch. And not all kids are lucky enough to have dads that are around for that on a daily basis. It may not be glamorous, but for a dual income family especially, it's a pretty good life.

Fall has arrived in full force here. The trees are turning red, the extra comforters are on the bed, and mornings require a hat of some sort and a coat. The hot tub is turned back up to 103 and is getting used more frequently, the shorts and tanks are put away, and my shelves are once again filled with sweaters and jeans. I love seasons!

The kids are all doing great.

Jake- Loves first grade, is good about doing his homework on his own, is excited to start YBasketball again this month, loves to skateboard, is more independent and able to go to the library and Merc on his own, and is GOING TO BED WITHOUT THE DRAMA.

Tanner- Loves preschool (and we love watching him out our window as he plays!), is pretending to read, wants to learn to downhill ski this winter, is excited for his 4th birthday (his first real party!), has a mean spiral, and is just as loving and affectionate as always.

Faith- Still plays with her horsies- making them eat grass, putting them to bed, and waking them up each morning so she can carry them around in an old purse, likes to color and use stickers, sings songs that she makes up herself, is fiercely independent, and looking more and more like the little girl she is and less and less like her nickname "Baby Girl".

Now, it's time to turn into a couch potato. "Fast Forward" starts in 15 minutes....

The Honeymoon is Over

Tanner and Faith appear to have gone from "cute loving old married couple that bicker occassionally" to full blown "How many ways can I annoy you in a 60 second time span?" mode.

Sample of the dialogue on the way home from daycare today:

Tanner: Mom, Faith's poking me!!!
Mom: Faith, stop poking your brother, he doesn't like it.
Tanner: Faith if you keep doing that mom is going to send you to your room when we get home and pull your hair! (What????)
Faith: MOM!!!! (crying) Tanner said that if I keep doing this (demonstrates by poking Tanner on the arm) you're going to send me to my room and pull my hair!!!
Tanner: She started it! She's TOUCHING ME!!! STOP TOUCHING ME BABY!
Faith: I can touch you if I want to. HMMPH!
Tanner: OK, then I can touch you (puts his arm on Faith's arm) just to annoy her)
Faith: Tanner STOP TOUCHING ME!!! Mom, Tanner's touching me. (crying now)
etc.....etc.....etc...etc....

Thank goodness the ride home is short.