So Tuesday was challenging. The whining started more or less immediately. What was going to keep these boys interested and engaged while being stuck inside all day?
Here's a nice view from inside our fort.
The snow muffins we "baked" were delicious.
The snow muffins made us want the real thing, so we whipped those up too.
We waved to Daddy while he so fearlessly snowblowed.
And then Jason took Ashton outside for some winter fun.
Poor Alex, such is life on the inside. He was glued to the glass for 30 minutes watching Ashton play. Look how skinny his little neck is. This is made worse by the fact that his hair makes his head look bigger than it is. It's very fluffy.
They went down to the backyard to build a snowman while I fed Alex lunch. Ashton came running back when he needed a "cawwot" so I gave him one and followed him out to snap a couple quick pictures.
"Bean" is code for penis in our family. Readers, can you imagine a situation where instead of Jason building the snowman with Ashton, it was me, and I came in giggling because I had actually made a snowwoman and she had the genitalia to prove it? Of course you can't! Because it would never happen! Even grown men are boys are heart, especially when it comes to their penises. I have seen first hand just how early this fascination starts, you know, by raising two members of this male species. The other day, Alex was sitting in the tub and dropped a toy, which sunk down between his thighs. His visibility is limited because his tummy is so big, but he reached into the water to try and get it. You can guess what he found; it was not the toy, and he damn near drowned himself trying to look down and see what he had grabbed.
Of course, I flipped out about this hyper-masculine, wishful-thinking snowman. I was like, "Jason! Our neighbors are going to see that! Go take that OFF! Are you serious?? Come on!" And he laughed and went back down to take care of it, but not before I called after him "Make sure to take a picture first!" ;) Hey, if you can't beat'em...
Where was I before we got distracted by penises. Oh, so after naps, the snow day continued with "A Bug's Life", which Ashton swore he wanted to watch and whined and flapped his hands until we bought it. Turns out, he didn't really like it, but he kept still for about five minutes, which was nice.
The rest of the night is a blur and then...what do you know. We had ANOTHER snow day on Wednesday. Jason got up bright and early to go snowboarding and then had to head to work, so luckily Jen and Mike (her boyfriend) were here to help me with the boys. Why did I need help? Brings me to the second part of this post.
I had had a bad cough for about a week and then spent all of Saturday night awake with lots of chills and shaking. Sunday morning I felt terrible, and was in and out of bed all day, no appetite, headache, still coughing, and general malaise. Thank goodness Jason was around to help me with the boys and ended up taking Ashton to a birthday party that afternoon instead of me. Monday morning I dragged myself into work, but due to the impending snow storm was back home by 3 pm. I again went straight to bed, and much of Tuesday, the snow day, was spent the same way. It sucked. I could hear the boys downstairs playing and Jason picked up 100% of the slack, but I just felt so bad that I couldn't do anything but lay in bed. I had had a chill for 3 days and the worst fatigue and coughing. Wednesday came and I woke up and felt good! I was like, hmmm, I'm losing my voice, but I have some energy so I must be turning a corner. With Jason off snowboarding, Jen and Mike came, and I caught up on all the laundry, cleaned and wiped the whole kitchen, scrubbed the tub, and in general picked up the pieces from the last few days. Mike took Ashton outside and shoveled all kinds of roads for his dump truck:
And when I was done, we all took the boys for a walk around the block. It was the first time Alex had been out in the snow!
Around 1:30 pm I crashed and felt worse than ever. I had talked to my sister that morning who had said, "Uh, go to the doctor, you might have the flu or something!" For the record, I did get my shot, even though I know it's not super effective this year. But I had been coughing so so much and feeling so sick, since Sunday, that I called up, and they could see me in an hour. Perfect.
Long story short. She sent me for a chest x-ray and I have pneumonia. Ain't nobody got time for that! I cried, I really did. Thankfully I'm not contagious, but THEN she told me she was going to prescribe me a z-pack, but that I could not breastfeed on it so I would have to pump and dump my milk for 7 days. This really sent me into the tailspin because a) I have almost no frozen milk, certainly not enough for a whole week, b) Alex has never had formula, and I was definitely going to need time to work it over on him, c) could tonight be my last night breastfeeding? Was this it? I don't expect anyone besides another nursing mother to understand this, but it was beyond saddening and I was just a mess about it. Usually weaning is a process, not cold turkey! It's such precious time I have with Alex, I was not ready for it to be over so suddenly.
Luckily, I got a second opinion and the antibiotics are safe to take while breastfeeding. But I did buy formula anyway and have been adding an ounce to his bottles in an attempt to make up for my failure to keep up with pumping. I'm so tired, and I'm tired of my pump, so if I can get him on formula for a month (just bottles) and keep nursing him at night, I will be happy. When March comes it will be time to do the cows milk thing so it's not for very long. Anyway, that's in the works - I've started with 75% breastmilk and 25% formula and it's not going well so far. The little bugger knows there's a difference.
Yesterday, Thursday, I stayed home from work and rested. Jen came and took the boys to the library because their music class was cancelled, and then after naps, Mike came and they all went to Launch so I could rest some more. She doesn't know I have this blog, but she, and especially Mike, have been my saving grace this week. Just want to give her a shout out for being so flexible and patient. Mike usually tags along with her when he is not working, so I get them both for the price of one, and Mike has always been the one to build Ashton his crazy train tracks, take him outside, play cars, etc. while Jen watches the baby. I'm a lucky mom to have them.
Last night after Alex went to bed, I laid on the couch and Ashton was super concerned with making sure I was comfortable. He helped me with my water and brought me an extra blanket :)
And I kept asking him for things because Jason was in the kitchen so he got lots of exercise running back and forth between us. "Daddy! Mommy needs tea! And chwapstick!" and was so excited that he was helping me "feel bedder". I had quite the set up.
The trashier the magazine, the dirtier the gossip. Poor George - it seems Amal has turned out to be quite the diva.
So as I type this, it is Friday, Ashton is at school for the first time since Monday, Jason's at work, and Jen is downstairs with Alex. I'm supposed to be resting but my good friends the Cardillos are next door making all kinds of racket doing snow removal so I decided to try and blog. Blogging feels restful enough :) I'm hoping to lay low this weekend and then get out of my sweats, wash my hair, and join the living world again. Day 2 of my antibiotics and I'm already less tired, the chills and sick feeling are gone and my coughing has subsided a lot. My voice is coming back too! But I know not to push it so I can get done with this business of being sick as soon as possible. I'm so over it, and I'm over the snow too! There should be antibiotics for cold weather. Oh wait, there are. They are called "tropical vacations", of which none are in my future. But I'll take "sick of winter" over "sick with pneumonia" any day! ;)
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