Back in the Land of the Living

What a few days it has been! On Tuesday night Mike came down with what we believe was H1N1, and he was completely wiped out from then through Friday night. He missed 3 days of work (which is not taken lightly when you are self-employed and have no paid time off) and basically was sequestered to the guest room, sleeping the majority of every day from Wednesday through Friday. Even on Saturday and Sunday he still needed to nap. On Wednesday night I discovered Zach had a fever, so he skipped preschool on Thursday and we went to the doctor. The pediatrician didn't think Zach had H1N1 because he hadn't had a real high fever (though Mike never really did, either) and wasn't completely wiped out like Mike was. Friday Zach seemed to be doing better, but we still skipped play group and just stayed home. I was starting to get rather stir-crazy, stuck home with sick people and with rain all day Thursday and much of Friday. So, we made our own quiet fun, since Mike was upstairs sleeping.

Zach put on his pirate costume that Grandma Ruth just made for him, and dragged Drew around on the Hawkeye blanket.

Then Zach got on the blanket and I dragged both boys around.

The rain and cold temps kept us inside all day Thursday and Friday, but not the dogs! Here's Maggie after I forgot about her and left her outside for about 45 minutes in the rain. Oops.

Friday afternoon I got a tip that my pediatrician's office had gotten some of the H1N1 mist, so I quickly called and got Zach an appointment. Zach was unhappy to hear he was getting the mist instead of the shot, but after a quick call to his cousin Cam and some reassurance from him (Cam recently got the seasonal flu mist), Zach felt better. Saturday it seemed like everybody was on the mend- no fevers, no achiness, minimal coughing, etc., and the day started pretty well. Drew played with the fridge farm and gave the animals kisses.

Zach and I decorated the sugar cookies I baked I Friday night.

Here are all the cookies once we finished. I surprised both Mike and myself by being quite calm and not as anal about cookie decorating as I usually am. Maybe it's because I knew we weren't giving all of these away. Anyway, we made ghosts, footballs, pumpkins, leaves, and tiger hawks, which is the Hawkeye mascot for you non-Iowans.

A couple of our Hawkeye cookies- we took most of these cookies (pretty much all the cookies I decorated) to Brad and Molly's house, which was where we watched most of the Hawkeye game.

Zach got a little orange sugar happy with this tiger hawk. I had to stop him from adding more sugar, and then I had to dump a bunch of it off this one.

Only one cookie ended up on the floor, frosting side down, of course.

After decorating cookies, Mike and Zach headed out to get Zach's H1N1 vaccine, and Drew and I played around before I had to go to my soccer game. After my game we all got ready to go to the Art Center for family pictures. We decided that since we haven't had any formal family pictures taken since Zach was 3 months old, we should do it this fall. I'm not sure why I decided it would be a good idea to do family pictures with a 19 month-old toddler, as that seems to be the most uncooperative age for professional photos, I think. But, we did it. Amazingly, the weather was great on Saturday, and the leaves at the Art Center were really pretty. Here are the boys all ready to go.

We arrived at the Art Center 5 to 10 minutes early, but couldn't find our photographer, so we ended up being late. How annoying. She and I had talked earlier in the day and I thought I understood where we were supposed to go, but apparently I was wrong. Drew was cooperative for about the first 5 minutes of the photo shoot, and then he decided it'd be more fun to walk circles around the family than to sit with the family for pictures. Susan, our photographer, is great, though, so I'm sure she managed to get at least one good family picture. Then she had a basket of fake apples that the boys played with, so I'm also sure she got good pics of that. At the end she gave the boys caramel apples to eat, and then Drew sat still, of course. I can't wait to see the proofs in a few weeks. I really hope there are a few good ones!

Saturday night, since everybody seemed to be past all the sickness, we decided to watch the Hawkeye/Michigan State game at Brad and Molly's place. The boys and I left early so I could get them to bed, and I ended up watching the end of the game by myself. And what an ending it was! If you missed the last few minutes of the game, you missed everything! The Hawkeyes won in the last 2 seconds of the game and maintained their undefeated status. Unbelievable. I was off the couch jumping up and down all by myself. I'm surprised I couldn't hear Mike and everybody two houses down at Brad and Molly's.

Drew was so excited on Sunday morning when he heard about the big win that he had to give Herky (the Hawkeye mascot) a big kiss. He's very much into kissing things lately- things, not people. His trucks and stuffed animals get way more kisses than I do.

Sunday the weather seemed nice enough to go to the pumpkin patch (finally!), but alas, Zach and Drew both had fevers, so it was not meant to be. Zach was also coughing and sneezing and his nose was running like you would not believe. I feel very bummed that we won't get to a pumpkin patch this year, but we've had busy weekends in October, crappy weather on our free weekends, and then nice weather and a free weekend, but sick kids. Ugh. So instead of going to a pumpkin patch, Drew and Zach got to try out their new rakes in the backyard. They picked the tree where the dogs don't poop, thankfully!

Apparently Zach was having a hard time smiling for the camera, so instead Foudy took his place and he got behind the lens to make Drew smile.

Zach and I also got started on some of our leaf projects on Sunday. Last week on our walks we collected a bunch of leaves, and they've been sitting in our phone books getting flattened out for a few days. Here are all the leaves we collected.

These are a few of my favorites up close. I really love how some of the maple leaves are green and a deep pink. How cool is that?

We did go to Grandpa Kevin and Grandma Cynthia's house on Sunday night to see Aunt Katherine, and both boys seemed ok, but not 100%. Zach was still blowing his nose every 30 seconds, and coughing and sneezing pretty often, too. After the boys' baths last night I took their temps, and they were both a little over 101, so we decided Zach would not be going to school again today.

Drew, who slept poorly yesterday, actually slept in this morning, and that seemed to be what he needed to feel better. I can't believe that with all the germs that Mike and Zach have been spreading around Drew and I haven't really gotten sick. My temp was up to 100.3 last night, but today I felt fine. Here's Drew after he woke up this morning. Notice all the stuffed animals. This kid loves his toys, and always has to have something (or as many things as his hands can hold) to carry around with him. Last night he slept with Puppy, Bridget (his alligator), and Cookie Monster, so they all had to come downstairs with us this morning.

Zach didn't sleep in like I hoped he would, but he didn't seem to have nearly as runny of a nose as he did yesterday, and he was in good spirits. Here are the boys playing one of Drew's favorite games. I call it train. Oh, and you can see one of our finished leaf projects (one we made this morning while waiting for Drew to wake up) on the door in the background.

Though Zach didn't go to preschool today, we did go to the grocery store- we had basically no food in the house. Zach decided that buying pumpkins at HyVee would suffice, though he was really sad to miss out on a hayride at the pumpkin patch. It seems people had bought all the normal sized pumpkins at HyVee already, so we came home with 2 huge ones that we'll have to carve tomorrow. This afternoon the weather was decent enough for us to get the dogs out for a nice walk while Zach rode his bike, and again, he seemed to feel good, so I think we'll be back in the land of the living tomorrow. I do wonder if that live vaccine Zach got on Saturday made his temp spike back up a little- I've heard the mist can do that. I suppose we'll never know, though. Zach still needs the seasonal flu vaccine, but our pediatrician's office is out of that, and Drew needs the H1N1 vaccine, which we're anxiously awaiting. I suppose it's too much to ask that we've had our sickness for the winter and that we'll be healthy from here on out, huh?