We've been Swined!

Uggg.. the days are passing slowly in the house. After a fun filled week with my dad (aka Obbie... now known as BOB (thanks to Brooke)) we hit a wall of sick. Backtracking to our week with "BOB"... I think he had a great time meeting Brooke and seeing what wonderful kids Hudson and Larkin have turned out to be. The kids all took to Dad really quickly, and while I think it may have been exhausting being totally emerged into a house with 3.5 kids, I think my dad had a great time. Hopefully, we will see more of him in the future. I enjoyed having someone taking care of me for a little while! For now, Brooke comes down the stairs everyday wondering "Where's BOB." It really is quite cute.
Dad/Obbie/BOB left of Sunday morning just in time to avoid our quarantine. Hudson woke up sunday with a high fever and what the doctors think is the H1N1 flu... we will never know for sure though. Larkin followed with her fever on monday night, and Brooke is following suite with her high fever today. We aren't all that sick really... just fevers, coughs, and general exhaustion (plus super intense nose bleeds for Hudson). My doc put me on the Tamiflu as a preventative because I'm pregnant... good times... to which the only major side effect in pregnant women (that they know of!) is premature labor... great.... this baby is not ready to come out (she doesn't even have a name yet!)!!
To top off the week, Gregor leaves today for a week to take his big engineer test in California. That leaves me at home with sick kids praying that I don't go into labor or get a severe case of the flu myself. My panic must have been evident to my family (although really not to me because I kept assuring everyone that I would be fine... I can manage... I can do it all myself... because I'm what?? supermom?? right... I obviously have a hard time asking for help or admitting that I can't do it all). Anyhow, my brother is flying in for the weekend to save the day just in case things get out of control. I'm optimistic that we are all going to be fine. In reality, this hasn't been a terrible flu (yet). Hopefully, we'll just be able to enjoy the weekend with my brother with no drama. I have to say though, I am grateful that he's going to be here.
What I'm finding the hardest part of it all is not the fevers, the snot, the coughs in the face, the extreme irritability of all the kids, etc... the hardest part is being in the freakin' house all day for the past 4 days with more to come. All I want to do is get in the car and go to the park or the grocery or something... even just drive around for awhile... the house is driving me crazy. I just want to keep cleaning it, which is impossible because every time I get one room under control the kids have taken over another room. Everyone is at each other's throats because we are literally on top of one another. We are running out of puzzles and movies and organization projects. Hudson is starting to feel better which means he has more energy (not good when we are stuck in the house!). I don't know how to just stay in the house all day successfully I guess... it is driving me absolutely nuts. So please... let us all get better soon... if only to get out of the house for a little while!

Where does the time go...

We have had a busy couple of weeks here in Patsch World with lots of fun changes and happenings. First of all, we changed the car seats around in the car... unexciting I know... but wait it gets better. Gregor took Larkin's car seat out and I've never felt like a grosser than gross mom. Here is a picture of what was under her car seat keeping in mind that this is with the "no food in the car" rule (exceptions are made on long road trips). Apparently, this car seat hasn't moved for quite a few road trips. I was wondering where all those barrettes were hiding! That is the definition of true "crud".

On the same big car seat move day, Gregor and I also got inspired to move all the rooms around to see how the girls would handle sleeping in the same room. We thought we would ease Brooke into sleeping with Larkin and then transition to her big girl bed so it didn't happen all at once. This was all great in theory, until we realized that we literally had to move everything from all three rooms, and we didn't start until 6:30 at night! Seriously, what were we thinking! But, somehow we got it all done and I think it's going to be really great. It's been 2 weeks now, and the only real difference is that when (and that's a big when) Larkin takes a nap she has to do it in our room. Napping in the shared room just doesn't work. Somehow though sleeping has been a success. I think they both actually like it! Brooke feels like a big girl and Larkin seems to love being the older sister. They girls have gotten so much closer. They play together a lot more now and just seem to generally enjoy each other's company now. It is really adorable (these are a couple of pictures I took of the girls waking Hudson to the bus one morning... they were running together and laughing so hard). I think the way we have the rooms situated is really going to work out well too. Now we just have to get the mattress for Brooke's bed and the dresser, then we can move the crib and changing table into the new nursery to start getting ready for the baby!! Yay :) I also want to paint all the rooms now, clear out the clutter, and start organizing all the baby gear... here comes that nesting thing again.

Hudson started soccer last week and Gregor and I were actually pleasantly surprised at how much he's enjoyed it! He's made goals every game and ahhhh, his smile and look directed right at me when he scored that first goal actually choked me up (I'm blaming pregnancy hormones for the tears in my eyes...). I am so proud of how hard he's trying and how much he's really enjoying it. I never thought I'd like hanging out on the soccer field, but I can honestly say, it's been really really fun. I also ran into Hudson's teacher and she told me how much they love him in school... that's he's so quiet and shy, but making friends and listening, and really doing well. He also got his little interim report and got the equivalent of all A's. Yay Hud!

My job is coming to a close this week, and for the most part, I'm feeling good about it. I'm going to miss the identity I had up at the university, where no one really knew I had kids and I had a few hours a week with no kids yelling in my ear or pulling on my pants. I also was proud of what I was doing up there. I'm also going to miss the money and feeling like I was contributing financially.... But, I'm not going to miss the constant stress and pressure of always feeling like I should be working, never taking a minute to myself, feeling like I wasn't giving the kids all my attention, doing the really important things with them (taking time to hang out, play, read, etc), and keeping up with the house. So, I'm excited to see how it feels to me a real "stay at home" mom. Hopefully I'll take to it well and we can swing it financially. Thanks Gregor for working nights etc to make this happen. I truly appreciate it!

I also included a funny picture of Larkin getting herself ready to go to the neighbor's house for a playdate. She is so funny with her looks, accessories and hand gestures while she explains things to me, ahhh the things that come out of her mouth. She cracks me up daily.... my little fashionista.