Just Another Manic Monday (oops!... I mean TUESDAY!)

Sick Twins with Mama

(note the struggle to hold them both gracefully on my one little lap, note that they both want their mama's affections when they're not feeling well, note the look of desperation on my face, note the large mug of black coffee)

That's just how manic it was: I barely even knew what day it was amidst all the manic madness of that day! The last day of October, 2006, was one of our little tiny family's most incredibly full/intense/up-down/high-low/roller-coaster of emotion days yet. I'm going to be posting a whole ton of stuff about this day. So whoever out there in blogland is actually interested in reading/seeing all this is gonna have a lot to take in on these postings!!!

Well, so far Braydon and I agree that the hardest part about the whole dual-career-with-young-kids-far-away-from-extended-family-"thing" is those unfortunate scenarios when all hell breaks loose because one or more of the four of us get sick. I feel like we manage very well and the whole ball of wax holds together pretty nicely (all things considered) until... the dreaded: that phone call from the daycare to "come pick up ___ *now* because he's sick." And then, almost just as dreaded: that "conversation" with the daycare director when we pick up the poor little sick baby and she says as flatly as can be: "Oh, and you cannot bring him here tomorrow in case it is contageous." And then she adds, as if it is just a side-note: "And really, they both should stay home since if he has it he probably has it too.".............. UGH. It happened on Monday.

I picked up Kyle and went straight to the doctor. He said it was an ear infection. And he wrote a prescription. Antibiotics are wonderful. Braydon posted to the blog on Monday night (see "Alone At Last"), and our baby boy slept like the precious little bambino he is-- and those antibiotics went straight to work in his little system. Braydon and I had our team huddle (sadly, our team consists of just the two of us), and decided that for Tuesday our strategy would be the following: we'd both cancel all our meetings to stay home, trade of-and-on with childcare throughout the day, and each try too to get as much accomplished work-wise as humanly possible when we were "off duty" childcare-wise. We went to be early Monday night, prepping ourselves mentally for whatever the next day would bring.

By Tuesday morning at 7:00 a.m., this was the scene:
Note: Do either of these children appear to be sick to you?

O.k., so we had our ups and downs all day... the photo at the top of this post portrays an actual scene that occurred multiple times that day-- but those times were countered by just as many crazy-fun-"this feels like we're playing hooky, not taking a sick day"-moments. By the afternoon, and after another round of antibiotics dispensed, both boys were absolutely FINE. I mean, really, really themselves. Would never have even known they were ever sick at all.

Here Kyle tries to take his own temperature with our ear thermometer. Note: he did not have a fever all day (it had broken in the night Monday night thanks to those antibiotics).

And seriously, this next picture is Owen... he doesn't look a bit sick, does he?! I can't help but think that the look on his face is expressing something along the lines of: "Ha! Fooled ya! You fools actually thought I was sick!!! I'm only TWO and I'm already playing HOOKY!!!"

At the end of it all, the high points of the day were so high that they waaaay off-set any of the sick-babies-srambling-to-hold-down-two-jobs... Read on to find out why! :)