The Flu Sucks

it's around 10:30 p.m. Monday night as I'm drifting off to sleep and hear the unmistakable sounds of a wet gurgle and something hitting the pillow as a little throats gags. Three seconds later I'm in the girls bedroom rolling Aliyah over for fear of her choking on her own vomit. So scary...but even scarier for her.

I knew something was up when she went to sleep without a fuss and didn't want books read to her because she was way too tired. That is So. Not. My. Aliyah. She will beg for more stories until you have to threaten to take away all her books from her and then lays fully awake for an hour or two, thinking up excuses to get you back in her bedroom.

So I had to get her undressed, in the tub, clean up the sick bed, and then get myself cleaned up. And wait for the long night ahead.

Because inevitably, they always throw up again and about a half hour later, she did. So I cleaned her up again, changed her bed again, and got her to go back to sleep. Again. I had to get up one more time later that night, but amazingly she puked in the bucket next to her bed and didn't get a drop on her.

So now my body has been immersed in the sick germs and do you think I will go untouched? Hell no. About three that morning after I had still not fallen asleep, I awake to the urge of throwing up myself. But not only did it come out of one end, it came out of the other as well. Double whammy.

When I was finally drifting off to sleep around 4 that morning on the downstairs couch, Ben starts to yell for me because now Alex has thrown up in her bed. And he expected me to come take care of it. As if I'm not already on my deathbed, but his reasoning is that I have been touching it all night and what's one more cleanup? Plus, he has the weakest stomach and just looking at it or smelling it will make him ill. Nice.

So all day Tuesday, I barely had the energy to get out of bed but there I was completely ill and taking care of two ill little girls. It was misery rolled up I tell you. I think it doesn't phase kids as much as an adult when it comes to being ill because I was a completes baby. But my stomach cramped up about every 10 minutes and that was hell on earth. I kept breathing through it like I was having labor pains, because that's what it felt like. I almost called Ben to bring me to the hospital, I was in that much pain. I couldn't eat or drink anything until 4 that day.

Today we are feeling much better, but I decided to stay home so I wouldn't risk getting people at work sick. Even though you feel better, I don't believe in bringing it to work the day after. I feel bad for taking two days off, but really had no choice. I also kept Alex home from Kindergarten today, I think too many parents rush their kids back as soon as they can without thinking of what they are doing. Sure, everyone's job is important, but I think recovering and rest is more important.

It's weird that I got sick at all, considering I have an uncanny ability to avoid the flu. Ben had it twice last year, as did the girls and it didn't hit me. When Aliyah was 10 months old, she got the rota virus (extremely contagious), passed it on to everyone in the family and I still didn't get it. We went to a party a week after the flu incident and one day later, everyone came down with the rota virus. We were to blame, but how could one know a person carries the germs with them?

Oh well, we are on the mend and I have to drag myself back to work tomorrow. Just hope everyone is staying healthy:)

Photo's of the Girls

Some Christmas photo's:) The girls had to feed the reindeer the night before Christmas, so we were sprinkling "food" out on the front drive, all bundled up in their vests. Good thing daddy had his head gear on to light the way. Then of course we had to leave a plate of cookies for santa, and oh yes, we must taste test them as well.

Our Arndt family Christmas was so much fun, we loved staying home and opening presents, eating yummy food, and playing board games most of the day. We hope next year will be just as much fun.

Aliyah's Boo Boo

Just a few pics of Aliyah's owie. She got the stitches taken out on Saturday and to my surprise, she did well. The doctor took the first one out and she was so cute because she thought she was done. When the doctor told her she had to take two more out, she got mad and started to cry a little bit because she just KNEW there was only one to take out. So I held her against my shoulder while the doctor quickly took out the last two.

After that she was ready to go home and didn't want to even go get lunch. She just wanted some mac n cheese and big chocolate donut from the grocery store. So off we went to the store and by god I got her that donut!!!

First Accident of the Year

I got the call all mothers dread...when your child needs to be picked up and taken to the hospital because of an accident.

I was working in our warehouse for most of the morning and of course my Ben tried calling my work phone, cell phone, and eventually got through to the secretary to tell them he needed to speak to me because it was an emergency.

So there were people hunting me down and eventually my coworker Gabe figured out where I was so he grabbed my purse to bring, since he didn't want to dig for my phone. I called my husband who was on his way to urgent care with Aliyah because she was running, fell down, and got a big gash in her forhead.

Great. She needed to get stitches and all I could think about was the fact that I couldn't be there to hold her and tell her everything would be all right.

But Ben called me right before they saw the doctor, put her on the phone and she was all excited about her "owie" and needed to get it "fixed." She barely even flinched when he stitched her up as well.

Well now, that sounds just like my Aliyah. Nothing pains or phases this kid, which I am ever grateful for because when it comes to child #1, she literally freaks out about the thought of any pain.

Alex even went so far as to almost cry when she found out about Aliyah's accident, her lower lip trembling telling me - Momma, I feel bad for Aliyah. She's in a lot of pain!

I just have to steal myself for this in the future, knowing there will be a lot more trips to urgent care or the er.

Swim Lessons

Alex and Aliyah love the water. So we found out our YMCA offers swim lessons, which are 7 week sessions and only cost 25 bucks. Now that is a steal, considering I have looked into what the city offers for swim lessons and they are over a hundred dollars. And private lessons are about 150. That's crazy!

So we enrolled Alex back in November and I am amazed at how much of a better swimmer she is. She can float and do the breast stroke, swim backwards and dive to the bottom of the water without our help or the aid of a life jacket. So we enrolled her in the next level and she started lessons again last night.

As for Aliyah, she amazes me as well. When she was a baby, I always freaked out about her going into the water because you couldn't dunk her head with the tubes. Two summers ago, she didn't really like the pool in our back yard and would cling to me. Then last summer, she got very brave and started swimming around by herself with her life jacket. By the end of the summer, she was jumping into the pool by herself and dog paddling pretty fast.

Then when we started going to the Y, she got even better. She can now swim under water a foot or two, without her life jacket! For a three year old, that's pretty good. So her first swimming lessons start this coming Thursday and she is really excited about them. I just think it's important to teach your kids how to swim early because you hear of so many accidental drownings, etc of kids who don't know how to swim.

Safety first!