Little did I know that our Halloween treat-or-treat extravaganza would be our last fun for a while… Within 18 hours, I was sitting in the doctor’s office with Fred. He was treated for croup and we were sent on our way. I thought we were done with illness after that. Oh….I was so wrong. Then came the sluggishness and loss of appetite. And sniffles. And headaches. Then the congestion. Then the coughing. By the end of the week, Jesse was home from work and sending me back to bed every time he looked at me. Then it was his turn. We traded germs and rotated through symptoms in quarantine for a solid two weeks. I pulled Ben from preschool for 8 days. It was gross. Any pictures from November 1-15 look pretty much like this:
The boys filled their screen time quota for the year in about 2 days. Oh well. You know it’s bad when the preschooler is totally content to be wrapped in a blanket and left on the couch for a couple hours at a time in the middle of the day. Slowly we got back into trains and eating and playing. We were just slow for a while…
We did make two exceptions to our house-bound state. I took the boys with me to vote. That might have made me sicker, so we went to the church sanctuary to pray about our health and the state of the world. Whew! The second trip was to the medicine aisle of Target. Good thing they provide cart wipes. Sorry to be out with my germ monsters, but we REALLY needed to leave the house for a minute and restock on some supplies.
Then things finally started getting back to normal. My parents visited, we made a triumphant return to the zoo (and saw the baby rhino!!), parks, the library, and the world in general.
After staying inside with two snotty, wonderful children for so long, I was ready for a date night!! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO! Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them did not reach Harry Potter amazing status, but it was a good show with some magical fun.
Thanksgiving was a nice treat of visiting with family at Great-Grandma’s nursing home and then attending Disney on Ice! So much fun. Ben was at the perfect age and loved the music and lights. He enjoyed Peter Pan flying, but later assured Jesse that “ropes helped him”. Ha! We had another Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws on Saturday. It was some nice family time.
We also checked out the Festival of Trees. It was a very nice event and fundraiser. It won’t be added to our “must do” holiday list in Des Moines, but it was definitely worth checking out. After all, there was a train to ride… and Santa. Obviously my boys loved Santa.
Recently there has been a baby boom in Des Moines. I’ve been lucky enough to get to snuggle some fresh babies, but I’m also reminded that babies are HARD. Haha. It’s great to be living in these exciting toddler/preschool times. I would gladly pause time for a while right here…
