Cabin Fever

The girls and I have been actively trying NOT to leave the house for over a week now. We've officially fallen victim to a pretty nasty cold and it hit the littles hard. In reality, it has actually been nice to allow ourselves the luxury of letting each day ebb and flow at it's own pace with nothing other than the occasional trip to the grocery store pulling us out into the real world. Our days have been filled with quiet games of pretend, hours spent leafing through books and arranging puzzle pieces, snuggles upon snuggles upon sleepy, feverish snuggles. And John has been a rock star, beginning with his absolute refusal to fall in with our pathetic, sniffling lot. While I've been battling this bug with vitamin c and essential oils, he has utilized nothing but an unwavering stubborn will...and it seems to be working out so far. He has been our steady rock--our supply officer, bringing home everything a sick kiddo could want from the commissary.

All in all, even though I worry like any other Mama about breaking high fevers or making sure the babes are breathing peacefully as they sleep, it's not all bad. I enjoy the snuggly movie marathon days it merits. I love being with my kids...until they start to get better, that is. Then there is this indeterminate amount of time it will take them to transition from "living in the movie-filled style they're suddenly accustomed to" to "reality". 

So, our week was punctuated by kids who could somehow spend two hours at the dinner table without finishing half of their meal, a Bear who decided to cry for me from her bed fifteen times in one hour, only to demand that I leave her alone once I appeared...and another kid who, despite all her assurances that she had a very full tummy, vomited at an ungodly early hour because she chugged water on an empty stomach.

These are the days that find me trying to stop recalling memories I thought had been successfully repressed from our days living in parenting survival mode. They also bring me an extra measure of gratitude that this behavior is out of the norm for our girls--the knowledge that, God-willing, we'll be able to put our heads down and barrel through the transition back to "normal".
  
So, although I'm usually cool with remaining housebound and I had already run through the aforementioned silver linings to the situation, all it took was one more meal in which Audrey took the smallest bites known to man (or possibly any species--still waiting to hear back on that study) and Bailey managed to hold food in her mouth longer than it would naturally take someone's saliva to completely break down any substance...by this point I fairly sprinted out of the house for my coffee break. I remorselessly left John behind, repressing the urge to yell something juvenile like: "Later, SUCKAH!!", and heard him tell Bailey for the three-hundred-and-ninety-fourth time to chew the food in her mouth as I closed the door behind me.  I did a little jig and then the enormous bag of trash I was taking out ripped open on the stairs.

Kharma, you say? Well, she was being kind. You could've heard me whistling Dixie while I scooped coffee grounds off the steps with my bare hands. Best coffee break ever.  (get it?! get it?! *nudge* *nudge*)

Don't judge me. Bad puns are a well known side effect of being slowly driven crazy by demanding not-really-still-sick children.