The Virulent Virus

I have a perfectly acceptable reason for my lapse in posts. The Halloween weekend puke fest took Kyle and me out too. First Molly, then Lily, then Claire, then my mom, then Kyle, then the visiting Uncle, then me, and today I rushed home to relieve the nanny who felt it all coming on. So that is 8 out of 9 people who got this horrid awful thing. Only the visiting Aunt is still standing. It's a good thing Papa cancelled on his weekend visit otherwise he would have been another victim.

This virus just hangs with you. I came down with it Monday night at 11pm (after going to work that day and leaving a sick Kyle in the basement with the nanny taking care of the kids upstairs), was up every hour through the night, but thanked the heavens it happened once kids were asleep. Tuesday I stayed home, on the couch, and felt horrible all day. Today I'm at about 80% but my stomach is still feeling funky and I'm weak from not eating very much. I now understand why the twins are just now getting their appetites back. Claire, Kyle, and I are still barely eating.

I did not go to work today. I felt too weak. Instead, I spent the morning spraying every germy surface of our home with Lysol - this is my version of fumigating our house - hoping to keep the nanny from getting sick (clearly that failed because I put her in the hot seat on Monday). This afternoon the nanny showed up to help while I left the house to conduct a few conference calls from my car. I only made it through one call when I got the SOS text message from the nanny that she was starting to feel bad. I rushed home, sent her on her way (with many apologies), and had to keep Claire quiet and occupied while I finished working and joined another conference call. I bribed her with bubble gum. I admit it. I'm still playing catch up from not working Tuesday so I was busier than usual. I was lucky the babies napped for a couple hours this afternoon.

All I can say is that it is hellish to have five out of five family members get so sick in such quick succession. We have had a household full of stress and frustration. I can't stand times like this.

While I'd like to be an optimist, I never am, so realistically speaking with winter approaching I know we have a tough road ahead for the next few months. We'll get sick again and again and struggle through all of it. It would be nice if we could learn how to do it with a little less stress around the house.

The photos from today were actually taken by the nanny on Monday. Lily was napping so there are no photos of her in the bunch. The nanny did a nice job.