What a weekend. For some, there was probably a bit of turkey, some shopping, some football and maybe even hanging out with the family. For me, there was some vomit, coughing, runny noses, and oh yes - I made pie.
The weekend started out promising enough, on Wednesday morning. K made it through her preschool's Thanksgiving program (albeit in tears until she could come and sit on my lap), and we went home. I made pies while she napped and B read on the couch. Much excitement in the house, since it was also Hanukkah. For the first time in a long time and the last time in about 70,000 (although I've also heard 78,000) years, Hanukkah was starting before Thanksgiving. So B and I also put up our decorations and menorahs. (The outside lights went up on Sunday, much to my neighbors' likely confusion.)
Wednesday was spent in relative peace, with candles and presents (although I can't remember now what we had for dinner.) The girls each opened a present and Rob and I exchanged gifts. Around 8:30, I decided to run out to see if I could find the early edition of the LA Times, to get my Black Friday ads. I know that I've done it in years past, but apparently they don't do that anymore. After trying 4 different spots and the newsstand, I went back home.
Turkey day dawned sunny and a bit chilly. We settled in to watch the parade and spent the morning just hanging around the house. Rob got up and hit the gym early and picked up the paper for me on the way. When he got home, I decided to take quick run around the block and hopped in the shower when I got home. Rob had the girls fed and at some point, my mom arrived and started to make her pumpkin cheesecake (gluten free.)
At some point after lunch, things started to unravel. We tried to put K down for naps, and after about an hour and a half of her not sleeping, we gave up. She came back downstairs and started to play, but quickly got whiny and weepy. At one point, she said "Mommy, I don't want to throw up." I had no clue what she was talking about, and when I asked her if her tummy hurt, she said "no." We were still about an hour from leaving for Phil and Heather's house for dinner, but she was concerned about putting on her shoes. As she sat down to put them on, I heard a noise and looked over. At the same time, Rob asked for my help, B said "ewwww!" and ran away and K started crying. Let the gastro-pyrotechnics begin. K tossed her lunch and anything else she had eaten in the last few days. I got her cleaned up (luckily, most of it went into the trash can or on the floor or blankie) and threw blankie in the washer. She was then pretty unhappy for the next hour as we struggled with whether or not to go to dinner. Deciding to go, we piled everyone into the car and crossed our fingers.
About 1/2 way there, B made another "ewww!" noise, combined with "Mom!" and I turned to find my mom reaching for the bag to catch the next round of K's tummy turbulence. (We started stocking bags in the seat-back pockets after a particularly nasty drive last summer, when both girls got sick in the back seat.) We had unwisely decided to put B in the middle seat, which made it more difficult for my mom and I to handle K. The drive to Phil's continued (they only live about 10 minutes away), and we tried to clean K up when we got there. (Her new "My First (and only) Thanksgivukkah" shirt had now taken 2 beatings in less than 2 hours.) Her poor cousin (who is about 18 months), wanted nothing more than to give her a big hug, which we couldn't let him do.
K was still a bit cranky, but we sat down to eat. She had just a few tiny bites of carrot and maybe a piece or turkey before she started getting whiny again. Everyone kept one eye on their plates and one eye on her, hoping that she wouldn't ruin dinner. About 1/2 way into dessert, she went for round 3. This time, I was ready. I had a spare "sick bag" in the diaper bag, left over from last year's trip to the doctor for a stomach bug. I kept it out and ready and she even pointed to it before she started to toss. (Have I lost any readers yet, cause I realize this is pretty yucky.) Ah, the joys of being "mommy."
Anyway, it was at that point that we decided to say our goodbyes. K seemed to slightly recover for the ride home and then went right to sleep. All good, right? Nope. Shortly after Rob and I went to bed around 12, K started to scream. Unsure of whether she was sick again, or what was wrong, we rushed in. She seemed frightened, and we figured that she might have had a nightmare. (Monsters University before bed probably did not help, although she's already seen it about 20 times.) I sat with her in the recliner for over an hour and she finally fell back to sleep. I crawled back into bed around 1:30. My alarm went off at 5, to get up and out for shopping with mom. (No deals were that good, that I needed to be out at 4 a.m., or even the night before.) Just as I hit snooze, K started crying again. Another nightmare. This time, I brought her back into our bed and snoozed just a bit more, before crawling out and leaving her with Daddy.
The shopping was uneventful. Target, JoAnns and even Michaels were all empty. Mom and I began to wonder where everyone was and what deals we had missed by sleeping in a bit. Then we went to Kohls. I'm not sure what people were there for and mom and I figured out that their prices were a bit inflated (we had seen identical merchandise elsewhere for a lot less) but there they were. We finished up and headed home for a break, before heading back out to have lunch with Rob and the girls. We tried to go to Macys, but things got a little crazy at the mall, so we went home.
Generally, I enjoy Black Friday shopping (for the people watching, of course.) But this year, it just did not seem like there were as many deals. And certainly not as many people as in the past.
Saturday was not too crazy. We ended up going to see Frozen with the girls and things unraveled a bit again. K, who is potty training, decided that she needed to go in the middle of the movie (of course), even though we had equipped her with a "pull up" for just this event. She refused to use the Pull up and wanted to go out. (Which I guess I should applaud her for, right?) At the end of the movie, B went home with Nana and Papa and we would retrieve her at our Hanukkah celebration Sunday night. Except we didn't make it that far.
We came home and Rob ended up getting sick after we put K to bed. I spent the evening wrapping presents and then crawled into bed. Rob ended up spending the entire day on the couch, feeling horrible and I stayed in the kitchen baking cookies and keeping K entertained. (She actually kept herself happy for quite a while, which was interesting to watch.)
In the end, the weekend unfolded in an unusual, unexpected and crazy way, which is normal for our family. I'm crossing my fingers that I don't get sick, following K and Rob's pattern, simply because I've got way too much to do this week. So, I'll be hanging out here at the office, hoping to avoid the germs.
I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday weekend with family and friends. I'm looking forward to the middle of December, when things will hopefully calm down and I can take a breath. Until then, Happy Holidays!
