a month of suck... oops, sick

Avery played with Mom's camera phone an awful lot during her two-week convalescence. She's a big fan of the Selfie.

 "Yesterday was plain awful," Annie sings to Daddy Warbucks in the final number of Annie.

(I should know, I have played that [and every other kiddie movie we own] more than once recently.)

You can say that again. 

Despite all of us getting our flu shots (like good little boys and girls always do) in mid-September, the past few weeks have been a never-ending parade of the Big F Word, featuring tissues, thermometers, medicine droppers, popsicles, juice, and general misery. It started each time when runny noses and sore throats merged into 104 degree fevers, lost appetites and wracking coughs. For four days straight. FOUR. DAYS. Four days of worrying sick and wondering and force-feeeding and bathing and watching news coverage of the number of flu-related deaths climb and barely sleeping. 

First Avery. Then, two days after her fever finally broke, Carter. 

The worst day of Carter's flu. When it came to the end of her six-hour medicine cycle, she couldn't function at all.

Klayton and I got watered-down versions of the same flu, but we were somehow better equipped to fight it off, thank heaven. We were each out of commission for just one day- the others were bearable misery. Carter has bounced back from her flu pretty well. The aftermath for teensy Av, however, has included a runny nose, hacking cough and hearing loss in her right ear due to fluid that just wouldn't drain! You know, you're average walk-in-the-park type stuff.

Sleeping Beauty.

 But I am pleased to (finally) report that all are mostly-well again and life is moving on. It has been hard to get Avery back to school since she had two weeks off for Winter Break, then about four days into school in 2013 she started getting sick and took another 2+ weeks off (plus, she kind of hates Kindergarten! I wonder what she'll think when school is three hours longer and you don't get to finger paint...), but we are all adjusting to normal, contagion-free life bit by bit. Yesterday was our first day back to church as a family, and it felt really good! The theme for February in our house is "Let's pack some pounds back onto Avery so I can no longer count each and every one of her ribs." 

Wish us luck.

The moral of this story? "The sun will come out Tomorrow." It's just that sometimes Tomorrow is weeks away. And you will go through Costco-sized packages of Kleenex, Tylenol and Halls in the meantime. And the sun only actually comes out metaphorically-speaking because it's wintertime in Portland, Oregon.
Thanks anyway, Annie.