If I was TWO I'd totally be napping right now...

Besides coughing, sneezing, LONG nights and exhausting days- not much has been going on since Easter. Having sick kids is no joke. Everytime one of my kids get sick, I know the other will follow, and I start prepping for the days and weeks of extra tears, extra tissue boxes, extra whines, extra kids in my bed, extra bolts to the toilet with the gagging child... and I think "I can't believe my mom did this with 6 of us." It must have been MONTHS out of commission trying to nurse children back to health and get everyone back to school and our normal activities. So, for me, a tough part about the whole "sick" issue, is knowing when I should allow my kids to be around their friends. I'm no Doctor, so judging whether or not they are healthy enough to join society is tough. I know they just have colds, but I don't want to spread the sickness, so I keep them home. But, I don't like Kylee missing too much school, because I think her preschool is very important for her development. And, when I do take them to the Doctor- I ALWAYS feel stupid because they ALWAYS say, "It's a cold, we can't give 'em anything, it'll run it's course." Great. Thanks. I love spending lots of money to have you give me NOTHING.

Another major contributor to my funky mood is the fact that Owen won't nap. Owen has always been my sleeping champion- he plays hard, and he crashes. Now we just have play hard, sick, cranky Owen, WHO WON'T SLEEP. I am totally blaming the Easter Bunny for his nap rebellion... because, if you were here Owen would tell you, "The Bunny stole all the Binky's." That's right, Owen has spent the past 12 days since Easter without a Binky (Pacifier, Paci, Fafi, Nuk... whatever you like to call them). Somehow, all the Binky's mysteriously got lost on Easter, and we just told him that the Bunny must have collected them and brought them to the babies who need them. It SEEMED like a relatively good story- though, we have yet to see if he will hold this against the bunny as future Easters approach. And, while I am proud that he has been surviving without this lifelong crutch of his, I REALLY, REALLY JUST WANT TO GIVE HIM ONE SO HE'LL REST FOR GOSH SAKES. Wes is happy, he's all for the cold turkey method- but I miss the good old days where I could hand him a binky and a blankie and lay him on his bed for a rest. He'd generally fall right to sleep. Now, he's like a crazed maniac, just tossing and turning and screeching until he comes bolting out of his room running wildly through the house. I lay him back down, lay with him and read another story, and he gets more and more wound up. After hours of this, I give up, he wins, and we've missed another nap. Come 8 pm, we start the bedtime routine, he's been up for 14 hours straight- and it is the SAME battle at bedtime. He eventually breaks down and passes out, but only after sneaking down and getting Daddy out of his office and convincing him to "Peas, lie down with me?" Which, at that point, I am totally fine with because now Mommy can rest, too.

I apologize for the ranting in this post- I definitely feel for the kiddos and wish I could take all the sickness away from them. But usually by this point in their colds, I feel like my only role in life is to be a human snot rag and I feel the only line coming out of my mouth is "Cover you cough." Oh yeah, and, "Go back to bed."