I had it all planned out. The week after Christmas both kids had either day care or minicamp and I had vacation! I had a few things on my to do list after Christmas, but generally was planning on napping, working out, reading my book, and watching the new star wars movie.
The first morning I get to work taking down the Christmas decorations and around lunch time get a call from Isabel’s school. She has a fever and isn’t acting like herself. Oh crap! I pick her up and head to urgent care and she’s got a confirmed case of the flu. We rush over to the pharmacy and pick up Tamiflu for the whole family to hopefully stave off full house plague…
There goes the first half of my peaceful vacation week, but Isabel is so snuggly when she’s sick and we just got Disney+ so it’s not all lost. The first day, Isabel has a 103 fever and I bring her home and plop her on the couch to watch a movie (Little Mermaid). I offer her juice and tell her that she has to keep having juice and oranges in order to keep watching (It was a lie…she was going to get to keep watching either way). I call Jake and he’s able to shuffle his schedule and pick up CPK so I don’t have to bring the plague into his daycare. (Small victories). Isabel has almost no energy so we watch another movie (Tangled) and then another movie (Frozen). That’s 5 hours that she just sat under “her comfy blanket” (Which is my comfy blanket that I got as a birthday present) and stared at the tv. Poor girl. Luckily, medicine tastes pretty good and between Tamiflu, Ibuprofen, and Tylenol we get through the day.
Isabel was struggling to sleep…then daddy to the rescue! SO. Dang. Cute!
The next day everyone is still plague free (except Isabel). Fingers crossed…keep taking those meds team!
Isabel is feeling better, but not great. I had the day off anyway so we went to get donuts so she’d get some calories. Then back to the movies (Toy Story 2 – the worst of the Toy Stories). Finally she starts to get antsy and wants to do something so we go on a tricycle ride around the block – she doesn’t have much energy but at least we moved off the couch! As day 2 progresses, we are in much better spirits and she’s taking full advantage of ‘the perks of being sick’ – she’s getting juice and candy and donuts and chocolate covered almonds. Meanwhile, I’m spraying down the whole house with antiseptic spray and using the ‘sanitize’ setting on the washing machine on anything she touches.
Day 3 begins…The plague still hasn’t spread AND Isabel appears to be out of the woods. She’ll go back to school on Thursday and I’ll get 2 days of staycation. We get ready to take a family trip to the park and then disaster strikes…Connor gets a fever! NOOOO!!! I think to myself “Maybe he’s just warm and a nap/Tylenol will solve our problems”. I take Iz to the park, Jake stays home with CPK since he’s the doctor and I think he’s better capable of curing Connor. Well… he failed (just kidding). In the afternoon, Connor had a fever and was eating less and generally cranky (which is the opposite of his typical demeanor). Oh poo!
It’s not fair to send questionable-flu ridden Connor to daycare with other little babies so I stay home with Connor. He’s not really into movies so we play with toys, facetime, and experiment with Instagram filters. In case you were wondering – His harry potter house is Ravenclaw, his harry potter character was Minerva, and his Disney character was Mufasa. I’m hitting him with alternating doses of Tylenol and ibuprofen and taking his temperature every hour or so…there’s still a chance I can get a 1 day staycation. Come on Connor! His temps are manageable so we try to skip a dose and his temp spikes back up around 100. Wah wah. Dad and Connor get a second play day on Friday. It’s great to spend time together…but my poor staycation plans. Guess I’ll just return that library book and watch Star wars in 2020 sometime…
In the end, neither Jake nor I got the flu but it wasn’t for lack of effort on our kids part. Kids love to snuggle when sick, kids love to sneeze and cough directly into their parent’s mouths when sick, and kids hate to wash hands when sick.
The week’s scorecard:
Kids sick – 100%
Parents sick - 0%
Days of restful vacation – 0
Shows watched – 6.5 Movies (Frozen 3 times and half of Brave) + about 8 episodes of Daniel Tiger
Loads of laundry – 10
Cans of spray Lysol used – 2