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- It’s Groundhog Day tomorrow! So, the big question is: what will Phil predict? If he sees his shadow, it’s said that we’ll have 6 more weeks of winter, but no shadow means an early spring. Seeing as how we haven’t really had a true “winter” yet, I’d be okay with 6 more weeks of winter – but an early spring & just completely skipping winter would be totally fine with me too! (Unfortunately, Phil’s predictions aren’t exactly accurate – Wikipedia says he has somewhere between a 36%-47% accuracy in predicting the weather!)
- Well, this always seems to happen: we get thru Christmas & birthdays & then BAM – sickness hits. I’ve been going thru photos from 2019 (in order to fulfill one of the goals I wrote about in my Year In Review post back in December) & literally, this exact week last year, the kids came down sick. And so, history repeats itself. It’s been icky. I mean, I’m thankful we made it thru the holidays & both Leander & Braelynn’s birthdays being healthy & avoiding all the nasty sickness that’s floating around out there – but being sick is just the worst. I hate watching my sweet babies be sick – especially when they don’t quite understand what’s happening nor how to explain to Derrick & I what’s wrong/how they’re feeling. It’s so hard!
- So, needless to say, we’ve spent the entire week, sitting on the couch, watching Baby Shark (you think I’m exaggerating? I’m not). Braelynn has always been fascinated by the TV & from when she was little (like 10 months old), she would sit & watch a show. Leander, on the other hand, could care less about the TV – to this day, he truly just does not care. Since he came down sick first, I needed to find something to help him sit & relax & rest – we tried Baby Einstein (Braelynn’s original favorite), a bunch of Braelynn’s current favorite shows – we couldn’t find anything he would watch. Then, we stumbled across Baby Shark & ding-ding-ding we found our winner! I wouldn’t even venture to guess how many times we watched Baby Shark – how about a billion?
- Leander started coughing on Sunday & really came down with the congestion-nasty-stuff on Monday. I ended up taking him to the doctor on Wednesday because his appetite had dwindled & he wasn’t sleeping well (two things that Leander excels at: eating & sleeping). He never had a fever, but he was just coughing so much. Dr. H diagnosed him as having bronchitis & put Leander on an antibiotic. At this point, Braelynn was still feeling completely normal. Then, on Thursday, she started to act a little strange – much more lethargic & not wanting to eat – she began complaining that her tummy hurt. She had a low-grade fever Thursday night & was up on-and-off all night long, crying that she didn’t feel good, but not really being able to explain why/how. She took it easy all day Friday, but by Friday night, she seemed almost back to normal. She ate dinner (the first food in 24 hours) and has been 100% ever since! I truly have no idea what she was sick with – as she was never sick-sick. I’m just really glad she recovered quickly & is back to normal!
- When Braelynn had her low-grade fever, I put a cool washcloth on her forehead with a few drops of peppermint oil to help bring her fever down. She instantly perked up & said, “Oh Mommy, I love that smell – it reminds me of Deep Creek.”
- So, all that to say, I spent 90% of my week sitting on the couch, snuggling one or both of my babies. At first it was kind of fun – just relaxing & cuddling. But, by Wednesday, I started to get really antsy. It’s hard to simply sit on the couch (and watch Baby Shark over-and-over-and-over) when I have stuff to do. Like, we had a huge party for Braelynn last Saturday & hosted Derrick’s parents all weekend – I need to put my house back together, I have business stuff to do (hello tax-season), I have normal day-to-day life-stuff to do – and sitting on the couch was accomplishing nothing. It was hard (and the endless rounds of Baby Shark weren’t exactly helping). Further, we didn’t leave our house – except to go to the doctor – so we’ve been in our house all week long. Let’s just sum it up to say: it’s been a long week & I was literally bursting to leave the house today & go to Starbucks for a wedding meeting!!
- I did write “Chapter 23” of Derrick & I’s love story this week (I managed that in chunks after the kids went to bed). I’m actually really excited – I outlined the rest of our story & will finish everything up in just 3 more chapters (I know, you all think that this story is never going to end). I’m excited though because I’ve outlined a “chapter” for February, a “chapter” for March, and in April – for our 10th wedding anniversary – will be the “chapter” where Derrick proposes (and the end)! So, if I’ve lost you over the course of this 3-year process of writing out our story, I promise, it’s almost done!
- Another week has gone by of sleeping on our Nectar mattress & we just really don’t like it. It really isn’t helping Derrick’s back at all & so we’re ready to go back to our old mattress (which there really wasn’t a problem with to begin with – we were just trouble-shooting to help Derrick’s back-pain). So, Derrick tried to initiate the process of returning the Nectar mattress & they said, “Oh, sorry, but you have to have it for at least 30-days before you can initiate a return.” Boo. So, we’re stuck with it for like 2 more weeks.
- One of the gifts I got for Derrick for Christmas was a weighted blanket (I bought this one off of Amazon because it has a washable cover & most weighted blankets are simply not washable – which obviously wasn’t going to work in our house with 2 kids). He wasn’t super thrilled with it as a gift, but I told him I really thought he would grow to love it. He started out just sitting with it at night before bed (while we watch a show), and then this week, he started to actually sleep with it at night. I don’t think you’re actually supposed to sleep with it at night, but we are rule-breakers. It’s actually helped him sleep at night better than he’s slept in a long time! It’s still not perfect, he still is working thru his back-pain situation (he has an appointment to try out a new chiropractor this week), but he feels like it’s a step in the right direction!
- So, bottom line: don’t get a Nectar mattress, just get a good weighted blanket.
- I mentioned that I had a wedding meeting this afternoon – when I arrived at Starbucks, I glanced at my phone & saw that Derrick had texted me. He usually doesn’t text me when I’m headed to meetings or shooting – so I instantly had that fear of: “Oh no, is something wrong.” I opened his texts and it was 2 pictures of Leander: one of him up on top of Braelynn’s bed & one of him standing on a chair. He wrote: “With no assistance.” (Meaning, Leander has now figured out how to climb up onto things by himself). How is he able to do these things? I feel like, in my head, he’s still just a tiny, helpless baby, so how are we already at this stage? My heart is just not ready!
