Weekend Fun?

What a weekend!  Let's Review:

Husband gone for the weekend: *check*

Best Friend to help in his absence: *check*

Rainy Weather: *check*

Crazy Dog: *check*

Antsy Son: *check*

Daughter with Flu for the first time:*check*

Cabin Fever: *CHECK*

All I have to say is poor Lindsey.

Not two hours after we got both kids down on Friday night, Madeline woke up screaming.  I picked her up and brought her downstairs without turning on a light.  Put her on the couch and realized she had completely soiled her clothes.  As I began to strip her down, I noticed how awful she smelled, and not from the poop that was all over her, but she smelled like vomit too.  I ran up to her room and found that her bed, bumpers, sheets and blankets were all covered. I stripped the bed, put her in the tub, started the washing machine and  apologized over and over again to Lindsey. 

Maddie seemed fine after being cleaned up.  She was dancing around the living room and acting like her old self.  I let her stay up with us for about an hour, and then put her back down.  She did get sick one more time, but it was right after I had brought her down.  I figured it was something she ate, and hoped it would be out of her system by morning.

It wasn't. 

Maddie woke up late, and started screaming.  I went into her room. She had thrown up again.

I had to go through the whole routine again.  

I think I may have done 27 loads of laundry this weekend.

Lindsey was such a trooper. 

She went to Safeway and picked up Pedialite and everything else I did not have.

She played with Jack while I tried to console Maddie who was a moaning rag doll.

She went and picked us up lunch.

And assured me there was nowhere else she rather be.

(I love her for that....even if she was lying)

Gram saved the day and took Jack to her house for a bit. 

and Maddie finally slept. 

Brit came by later, and watched the kids so I could go to Target and pick up all the things the Pediatrician told me to get.  Maddie is on a no lactose, pretty much carb only diet for the next two weeks.

It was tough enough to be cooped up in the house for the kids, but to add a sick sister and no Dad on top of it.... Lets just say.....Jack was having a hard time.

He wanted to drink the Pedialite.  I told him it was special for Madeline, and that I would give him his own water.

So he poured all of the Pedialite Lindsey had just made a special trip for, out in the sink.

When it was time for bed, he snuck into my medicine cabinet, and stole my deodorant and used it as a writing instrument on his walls.

While I was changing Madeline, he used a blue ball point pen to draw on my white sheets.

I let him take a shower by himself and he emptied all of the shampoo and toothpaste out onto the floor of the shower.

To say he was having a hard time...is probably an understatement.

Madeline was getting a lot of attention....

I tried to explain to him, and reason with him....

But then I just lost my cool....

Jack probably had a time out for every diaper I changed this weekend.....

(I'm pretty sure I just finished changing diaper # 123)

It's hard. Sometimes it's so hard to be a parent. And nobody talks about it. 

Sometimes I feel like my children are the only ones who act they way they do....

That I'm the only one who occasionally loses her "cool".

So I figured I'd share.  My Wonderful weekend.

I'll say it again..

Poor Linds.

I probably have given her enough birth control to last her 2 years....

Or longer....

Still...

I am grateful for many things.

First and foremost, I am grateful that Clay comes home tonight.

I am grateful for my wonderful friend Lindsey for sticking it out the whole weekend.

I am grateful for Brittney who is always there whenever I need her.

I am grateful for my Grandmother, for still having enough energy to have Jack over.

I am grateful for my neighbor Lynne, who we call the "Baby Whisperer"

And finally, I am grateful for my children.  Who teach me patience and love like no one else could. I am grateful for their health and feel blessed that it took almost a year and a half for Madeline's first real illness.   I am thankful for Jack's unconditional love, and his understanding..that sometimes....Mom...just loses it but that her love for him will never end.