In my arms as I type this post is a sacked out 15 month old. She's had quite the week, which means we've had quite the week! About a week ago she spiked a fever. For 3-4 days she was our cuddle bug, and when with me nursing almost nonstop (which is likely why I'm once again nursing a plugged duct as she feels better and slows her frequency of nursing again - argh!). She didn't have a lot of other symptoms, so we were a bit perplexed by the whole thing. She was plenty crabby, and was once again sleeping horribly at night. She would cough every now and then and seemed to have a sore throat. She also seemed a bit off balance and we caught her playing with her ear a few times. Strep throat? Ear infection? She never seemed lethargic, more just washed out by days of a fever on and off. Finally the fever subsided on day 4 and within hours I noticed a rash cropping up on her torso/face. Something clicked in my mind and a little internet research confirmed that she likely had Roseola or Fifth Disease. We were glad that was a closer match to her symptoms than say scarlet fever (which we were also googling!). So it seemed the best course was to carry on/ride it out!We are still riding it out, but we think the major waves are beyond us. Sleep has improved for her, and therefore me, in the last night or two, and she will take off to play with her sisters again for snippets of time (not needing to be in my arms 24/7). She had two especially rough days this week - my office days. It seems she can now remember loved ones when they are gone and the one day she spent the first 1/2 hour of the day walking around the house looking for me, accompanied by pitiful wailing (or so I was told). Hate that! I'm glad today she is much more of her spunky self - in other words trying to climb on things again and get herself into all sorts of dangerous predicaments).
We decided to proceed with our family night plans last evening since it seemed that a diversion would be good for all of us (and since all signs pointed to the contagious stage of her illness being pre-rash). So despite her face looking pretty bad at points in the evening (it seems to come and go, sometimes hardly noticeable and sometimes rather impressive looking), we enjoyed our night on the town. We've been aiming for one family night/month (that was 2016's plan), where we each take turns planning the night. Of course, never content to leave things as they are and always good at mixing things up to make them more complicated, our 2017 added a new twist. We now plan one family night together each quarter, we each get to plan one family outing a year (so one each quarter since Terah's not ready to get in the line up yet) and then one family retreat day each quarter (we each get to plan one of those days). The retreat days have the parameter of not getting in the car. The jointly planned family nights and the individually planned ones can include an outing and possibly the expenditure of some cash to make it happen. So still 1 thing/month, I just have to make sure to keep track of what that 1 thing is. Our kids get so into planning these things and it is clearly making special memories so it's worth it!
Yesterday's was more of a family afternoon/evening, as we picked up the girls around 2:30 from their friends' home in time to get to town to check out the Fire Department's Museum (closes at 4). We all agreed it was interesting to go, we enjoyed our time there (we had the place to ourselves) and we are unlikely to feel the need to return. It was a great impetus for talking together about fire safety and establishing our meeting spot outside (the far end of the pine trees) in case of a fire. We also determined that some future family time will need to include the fun of practicing getting out various rooms through the windows. We'll try to keep it light, as Alida is at the age/stage where things can easily inspire fear in her. I think the museum and the games there and the bag of goodies she came home with was a good way to address the subject with her. She wasn't, however, interested in donning the gear!I mistakenly left my camera at home so snapped a few pictures at the museum with my phone and then just soaked up the rest of the evening without a thought to pictures. The one plus of a family outing to town is we were able to park in one location and walk to everything from there, using the car as our pit stop for diaper changes, restocking supplies, unloading things accumulated, etc...
After the museum, we went to the Visitor's Center by the main library for Kali to get some brochures of things she might like to do for our next family night that she is in charge of. Terah snagged a nap in my arms while I sat in one of the side rooms there and watched a video on the civil war battles that took place in the Shenandoah Valley. I left feeling rather pensive, to say the least (as I looped through the entire video more than once while she nursed), as I pondered the valley's history and thought about its future.
Next stop: well the library of course. We are now well stocked with new reading material for the next few weeks. And it was even a productive visit as both Jason and I had outdated library cards so they are now renewed (I knew about mine and it had been on my mental list to take care of for months - didn't even know Jason's was out of date so we got that taken care of before it ever made its way to a list!). After we relieved our arms of the bags of library books, we set off the fill our bellies.
Our initial plan had been the Indian & American Cafe. But we had enjoyed walking around town and looking at the other restaurant options that we had never tried before. We ended up deciding on a Mexican restaurant that we were told by a customer, while we were standing outside looking at the menu, served excellent food. We enjoyed the chips, salsa, burritos, quesadillas, and fajitas. I don't consider myself super picky when it comes to food - I can enjoy a wide variety of foods. And it was a fun new experience to have as a family and the girls enjoyed their time (including the spiral staircase we took to get to our dining location)! I imagine you know a "but" is coming. It's just hard to have that compare to this morning's brunch: roasted sweet potatoes with garlic, potato crusted ricotta spinach quiche and potato crusted pork sausage and mozzarella quiche. Truly a hearty Tangly Woods meal that spoils us for most restaurant fair!
We made it home in time for Jason to keep working at his writing project (mentioned above) and for us to fit in a little popcorn taste testing (gotta keep moving on that project or we won't know what seed to use come planting time!). It's such a hardship! :) The girls and I played some rounds of Phase 10 until it was clear that the day needed to end so we could all get refreshed for the next one. Terah's been so clear when she wants to cuddle and fall asleep. She'll even walk crying to the recliner in our bedroom and pat it or lean on it. Still no explosion of words, but she can communicate what she wants most of the time! She did that again this morning when she determined it was nap time - off to the bedroom she went beckoning me to join her! And that is where we still are and I better shift gears to get some work done before she wakes...
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