highs and lows

Maybe it's just me but I feel like 96% of staying at home with smallish kids falls under the 'ordinary time' category. Things aren't boring or stagnant but things aren't terribly exciting either which is fine! Bring on the ordinary in the face of a whole host of potentially terrible scenarios!

allow Phoebe to illustrate ...

 
... like so. 

The other 4% is split between the actual terribly exciting events {Christmas morning, the first three minutes of a road trip before the reality of a road trip with children sets in, the first few days of spring/summer, etc} and then innocuous but inconvenient child illness. I'm sure I could break down the %'s better but me + math = match made in hell. You get the gist, I know you DO.

So the past few days we've been swimming in the deep end of that inconvenient illness %. I hope it goes without saying but I'll say it anyway that minor stomach bugs are noiseless blips compared to the myriad of serious suffering and illness going down around us today and always ... I know. I'm merely reporting the late breaking from the Camp because I know you like your perch seated in the front row. Don't shoot the scribe.

Anyway ... I'm still riding medium-high from our Floridian getaway so instead of pounding you with the vom diaries I thought I'd balance things out with the few glimmers of light.

Still .. let's record the lows lest the blog suddenly becomes completely unrecognizable ...

THE LOWS.

made tangible by Theo "cuz I'm saucy" Patton.

1. Sebastian started "spitting up"(as he and Julia call it) hours after Phoebe, Simon, and I got home this weekend.

2. Followed by Theo (a dream come true, though) the next night.

3. And a mere hours later ... Julia fell victim and was sure the whole house knew of her plight to the tune of 3:40 in the am even though she was hit with the shortest and kindest of the plague fairies, thankfully.

But look!

THE HIGHS.

1. Phoebe has gone unscathed. So far!!

2. When Sebastian first got sick he and Theo had just gotten out of the bath and were wrapped in towels and Sebastian ran to the trash can (how he has no problem spraying a clean load of laundry with an entire can of Pledge or the contents of his very full bladder but is thoughtful enough to throw up directly in the trash can ... a conundrum for the masses) while Theo followed the leader directly to the scene of the sick crime in true Theo fashion. In between bouts of Bash heaving, Theo took his hooded towel edge and wiped Sebastian's face and mouth clean and I'm not one for trite parenting clichés but it was one of the more endearing things I've seen in my parenting time.

3. Even though Sebastian has been hit the hardest (day 5, he's a soldier) he's still managed to keep up his pleasant demeanor (singing and dancing to, "Everything Is Awesome!" 56 seconds after getting super sick .... AGAIN ... while I look at him and wonder how we share DNA because ... too much happy) and insisting that he carry his neon green plastic puke bowl everywhere with him just in case. And he uses it .... even at 4am while he's 90% asleep. Hopefully I can remember his thoughtfulness next time I find him squeezing our last living bottle of shampoo into the toilet or waking "cheeky Phoebe" up from her much-needed nap, "just to say hi!"

4. I might be in the parenting minority but I'm a big advocate of encouraging and fostering independence at an early age around here so I have to mention that Phoebe has mastered using a straw ...

... the better to gulp down my mostly gross and mostly healthy smoothies with, m'dear. Next up: dressing herself and her helpless siblings.

I'd like to say something like this high was maybe grasping for straws BUT ... we all know I'm above that.

WAY above.

I do hope your week has been full of lots of highs ....

... and few (no?!) lows ...

... and Theo does too. Of course.