Family Sick Week

I often think one of the cutest things about my husband is the big tough guy's fondness for all things holiday- and birthday- related. He loves occasions to celebrate, and surprises, and presents, more than most small children-- a quality that I find endlessly endearing until his birthday rolls around. I actually dread February every year, knowing there's no way I can ever pull off a Seth-caliber birthday.

This year, though, was a failure of epic proportions. We were all sick, fighting some torturous version of a daycare cold, and Seth's birthday was on a Wednesday (after we had been out of town the long weekend prior.) I managed cards from Finley and I, and the vague promise of a new TV (what to get the guy who buys himself whatever he wants...?), and poor Seth had to settle for a slightly-charred steak at 9:30pm. Complete with a sniffly-but-wired 15 week old. And, because she rocks, homemade lemon cupcakes from Mom.

In my head, I got better and redeemed myself later in the week, maybe with a date night and a halfway decent meal and some new-TV shopping, but my cold went from bad to strep by the end of the week and I spent the weekend fighting chills and fever and not being able to take any decent cold meds, thankyouverymuch breastfeeding. Seth was still battling a horrible cough too, and Finley- the little germ factory- was under the weather (although not nearly as sleepy as we were!), so we spent the weekend learning the hard way that babies don't care if you're sick. They still want to play hours upon hours of peekaboo and helicopter and whatever bizarre acrobatics routines Seth had invented for his little prodigy. Although we were miserable, we have never been more appreciative of the value of teamwork, eventually just taking shifts with our energizer bunny. The photo at right shows what happens when Seth gets the dinner shift. (Some highly bubbly mimosas and a very messy venison concoction. Keep in mind that I was too sick for mimosas this weekend. I have no idea where all that champagne went... although I have a suspicion.)

And this photo shows the very rare Sleeping Finley, who enjoyed her family sick weekend immensely.

Luckily, we got a ton of snow, so we didn't feel too bad about being housebound. (This is the view from the kitchen window Saturday, probably taken as I fumbled around desperately for coffee.)

And I took this because I was unbelievably impressed by the "rain or shine" dependability of our farm delivery.

It's now Wednesday (according to my phone) and- having finally demanded antibiotics after several worthless trips to Walter Reed and at least two "lost" throat cultures- I'm almost feeling human again. The past five days have been a blur, and I'm sad to have missed the hot chocolate run at work, Mamma Gran's birthday, Jackie's crew rest in town, and lunch with BA (to name a few)- but here's to the end of the awful family sick week and the wonders of modern science (in the form of antiobiotics). I'm toasting both with wonton soup, which I picked up on my Very Expensive "finally hungry again" Trader Joe's stop on my way home from Walter Reed today.

But I digress. The photo of the week, hands down, is this screenshot of a text I got from Seth, after he bought Finley sunglasses and then snuck this photo in his rearview mirror on the way to daycare. Not easy, indeed.