Tired of illness, and its just the beginning of winter

Noah has been down with the flu, and as you would expect from an energetic child, the illness only keeps him down when he spikes a fever otherwise he is just plain stir crazy. I finally went to the store today to get him a mask so he could wander around the house. The funny thing about this time around, is that Chad is sick to, and he is just as stir crazy if not more so than Noah.

Reflecting on the two boys in my life being quarantined in their rooms and their complete opposition to it makes me thankful that I was often in my room as a child, or often by my self forcing me to learn to enjoy the down time, or at the very least, do something useful with it. Lesson learned from the past week for me is to be deliberate about making sure that my kids are OK with spending time alone in their rooms with toys, books, etc. and don't have the "must always be doing something" itch that seems to be so prevalent now, even in my own house.

Looking forward to full nights sleep, without having to wake up and drug anyone this weekend :)

The flu...

So I am sick for the second time in three weeks - this time around is much worse than the last time in terms of energy- I think I finally have succumbed to the media star H1N1. I am ok with that, with as infective as it is, I would rather just get it over with.

The scary thing is really the lack of preparedness on the part of the authorities (health, governmental, or otherwise). The "swine flu" is the same protein designation as the casual agent of the 1918 flu pandemic that was highly lethal, and as we can easily see by watching the numbers add up this time around, the transmissibility is still there.

Lucky for us, we dodged a bullet in that it doesn't seem to be as virulent as the last time around. When the truly nasty flu pandemic finally hits us, as it inevitably will due to the highly mutagenic nature of the flu, will we be ready? or will it be a replay of this pandemic, with the deaths and subsequent panic piled on?

back to the blog

So a year later- I think I will make a go at the blogging thing again.

Today is just personal thoughts. I just started my second year at LCCC and things are off to a hectic start. I am happy to say that in spite of the craziness, I do love my job, and since so many are out of a job currently, I will try to keep my complaining in check.

Noah starts school in a couple of weeks- It is such a strange feeling to think that the "baby" years are coming to an end- now the majority of his time will be filled with school and other various activities. Some days it seems like a lifetime since Noah was born, so much has happened. But on the other hand, I still have vivid memories of painting his nursery while I was pregnant. Do all mom's feel this way?

Today I spent about 20 minutes trying to get Ava's snow boots on. Noah had on his, so of course, little sister wanted to stomp around too. The reason this actually sticks with me is it is the first time that we have really had an actual struggle with her bad leg/foot.

We went to see a neurologist at Children's hospital a couple of weeks back, and they think that Ava had a stroke in utero, and that the stroke is the cause of the reduced use and motion on her left side, including the impact on her speech. It is such a bittersweet diagnosis - positive in that she has minimal damage that she hasn't already overcome, but startling to think that something that severe could have happened to her without me even knowing. She is going to have a MRI done next, basically to have a baseline if anything happens down the road.

It has been an interesting summer.