Illness

This past couple weeks the kids have been pretty sick. Emma has/had strep throat and ended up in the emergency room due to dehydration. It took some time to figure out it was strep throat and a strain that is resistant to antibiotics. She had to get a shot of antibiotics in the bum cheeks and not even that worked. We are on antibiotic number five and this is after we thought it had gone away. She may be a carrier and that could be the problem. Just as Emma was getting better (we thought) John came down with bronchitis and an ear infection. He was coughing so hard he would throw up several times. So all in all I haven't left the house in a couple of weeks except for grocery shopping after Aaron came home. Needless to say, I was going a little crazy and now have many Backyardigan songs memorized. Fortunately though, they are on the mend and we can rejoin civilization. I even got to go to church today for the Christmas program. It was really nice to be there.

All this illness has made me realize that taking care of someone when they are sick is a not so fun experience but also a bonding experience. Emma let me snuggle her the other night when I put her down for bed. John views me as his preferred playmate (unless wrestling Aaron is an option). So, there is an up side to having sick kids, even if a little piece of sanity gets lost along the way. Perhaps by the time my kids are grown we will be snuggling all the time and my mind will be gone but we will be happy and a little crazy!

The other thing that I have thought about is our random acts of kindness that we do for our advent calendar. Turns out it is hard to be nice to people when you don't leave the house. Before we started our count down I had the thought that this year, I could include my family as recipients of the acts of kindness. Turns out, they have been the main recipients as they have been sick. I am going to count John being excited that he got to watch one more episode of Backyardigans and both kids getting grape gatorade. So maybe they weren't so random but they were acts of kindness.