this week in purgatory

A bullet list, cause it just feels right...

• On Sunday I found mouse droppings on the deck by our back doors. Not cool. Upon further inspection, I found droppings in numerous places in the couch room and one in our bathroom. Completely not cool. I don't do mice. And I definitely don't do mice in my main living space. And I absolutely do not do mice in my sleeping space.
  
• Sunday night we set traps. Two inside and three outside.
  
• Monday morning nothing caught.
  
• The rest of the week I blame on the mice. Seriously, I need someone to blame.
• Monday actually started out to be a really good day. Anya had a cooking class in the morning, so Evan and I ran some much needed errands and Anya had a blast making cookies. We did one more errand downtown after picking her up and ended up eating lunch downtown and playing in the Oak St. fountain. Totally spontaneous and it felt good.
  
• Monday afternoon we had a tornado warning. Of course, I found this out (thanks, Michelle!) just after putting my kids down for their naps. I debated back and forth on whether to wake them up to take them down to the basement. I called Steve. I frantically looked outside. I tried to find accurate, up-to-date info on the internet, radio and TV. And finally just decided to take my peacefully sleeping children down in the dungeon. Anya was totally confused and never went back to sleep. Evan thankfully stayed asleep and even managed to wake up happy for the first time in several weeks.
• Monday night right before bedtime, Evan started throwing up. Steve was gone and thankfully Anya was a good helper, running to get towels and staying out of the way.
  
• I hate throwing up. You all know that if you've been paying attention. It's a serious obsession of mine.
• Tuesday, "Day 1," Evan had a strangely active day for having thrown up all night long. He was incredibly irritable that we weren't giving him more than 1-2 teaspoons of pedialyte every 10-15 minutes, but we survived. I was tired, but I ended up sending Steve back to work after lunch so he could get some stuff done.
  
• Tuesday right as Steve came home, Evan started throwing up again. It again lasted all through the night.
• Through this all, Anya was remarkable. She played by herself a lot and sensed when I just couldn't give her anything more. We actually played together a lot this week. She probably felt like I was ignoring her all the time, but in reality I gave her a lot of attention. Partially out of feeling bad that Evan was being so demanding and partially cause I wasn't able to "get stuff done," so I was just sitting around (catching vomit/holding a screaming child) and could "play" with her.
  
• Wednesday, "Day 2," was completely awful. Evan seriously cried the ENTIRE day. I'm totally not joking. We had the windows open and our neighbors were working on a project outside for most of the day. When we went outside later in the afternoon, they were like, "What have you been doing to torture that child?" They were joking, but I'm sure they were as sick as I was of hearing the poor child cry. The next day I shut the windows and turned on the air conditioning.
• We actually have spent a lot of time outside this week. It has helped my sanity. It has been good for Anya. We even filled up the pool and turned on the sprinkler on "Day 2," while Evan cried and thrashed around on a towel on the shady deck. It has helped me feel good for us all to get some fresh air. And heck, if you throw up outside, you can just hose it off, right? It never happened, but the idea was appealing.
  
• Anya took her first bike ride (at least with me) across the street. I pushed Evan in the stroller and she rode down our street, across the road and on the path and over the bridge and back. It was the longest she's ridden with me and it definitely pulled at the heartstrings to see my little girl being so old. We did it first yesterday and today she wanted to go on the same adventure again.
  
• Have I mentioned that I LOVE our deck? It is amazing! Thank you, Steve! Thank you for letting me get my way on the shady cover. And thanks for admitting that you are glad I pushed for it.
  
• I love all the flowers Anya and I planted. It makes me happy to see them. Just a little beauty in an otherwise crappy day.
  
• I've actually had to make a "talk to Steve about" list this week because we have all these little things we need to discuss, but absolutely no time to talk. This isn't really just a problem with this week, but it was extra intense and I've rarely, if ever, had a written list.
• We still haven't talked about any of the items on said list.
• This Wednesday, Steve and I had our ninth anniversary. I haven't officially looked it up, but apparently, you get vomit for #9. Seriously, we were actually working on (albeit last minute) plans for a babysitter so we could go out to eat. This is pretty significant, considering we've NEVER had a babysitter and Anya is almost four and a half years old. We seriously need to start planning tomorrow for our ten year anniversary cause it will probably take us that long to figure something out. Add it to the list.
• Thursday, "Day 3," we awoke to both our children needing attention. Anya had a runny nose. This happens all the time. We've actually been giving her allergy medicine which has seemed to help, but I think I forgot amidst all the other chaos this week. I went and slept with her in her twin bed to try to get another hour of sleep for us both. Steve stayed with Evan who started throwing up AGAIN!
  
• Until mid-morning, Evan slept on the floor in the couch room, waking up every little bit to throw up.
• Anya and I worked in the kitchen making banana bread and banana muffins. It was a little crazy to be simultaneously baking and catching vomit. I mean, what can you do? Life must go on. And don't worry...my hands were cracked and bleeding from all the handwashing going on.
  
• Poor Evan spent "Day 3" as a lethargic lump on the floor. He was so out of it. And while on one hand I was worried about him and wanted him to feel better, it was such a calm compared to "Day 2" of screaming. I washed dishes and laundry and played with Anya all while worrying and taking care of my little sick boy. He was so pathetic.
• He did venture off the floor into the kitchen a couple times when he heard food sounds. I had to take the drawer of sippy cups out of the cabinet and put it out of reach on the counter. And there's nothing more pathetic than your little sick child following you around the kitchen with a bowl in hand, sweetly begging, "Mommy...Evan's bowl." As sweet and pathetic as it was, there was no way I was filling up a bowl of macaroni and cheese for the child that just stopped vomiting hours before and had already fooled us two days into thinking he was done. But oh those sad little eyes looking up at me.
• At the end of "Day 3," I finally reminded Steve to check the mouse traps. We caught one! Wonderful, right? Well, yes, it was great to have one gone (who knows how many there are this time). But this was Thursday night and the last time he had checked the traps was Monday morning. So, chances are we had a dead mouse sitting under our couch for three days or so. The thought of this just still creeps me out. I know, better a dead mouse than a live one, but still....ewwwww!!!
• Friday, "Day 4," was middle of the road compared to the rest of the week. Evan finally seemed to be over the vomiting, but we were still being cautious with the food and drink. But he did get a sippy cup - filled with ice and a little bit of water. He clung to that thing for dear life and didn't even get too upset when the water was gone and he had to wait for more ice to melt. And his food diet consisted of saltines and banana bread cut into bite-size portions. And he still cried a whole lot. But we made it through.
• And nobody else has gotten sick...at least not yet.
  
• I have not been out of the house since Monday lunch. Yes, I'm going a little bit (okay, a lot) stir crazy.
• I had to write this blog entry just so I could get it off my chest.
  
• Did I mention that Steve is gone both days this weekend? No, I didn't, cause I'm not at all mad at him or trying to make him feel guilty. He's doing some more racing Sat and Sun and I'm happy that he gets to do it and have his own private Father's Day celebration, but man does the timing stink.
• And we're headed to Ohio on Wednesday for Mark and Katie's wedding. Yippee! And in addition to all the wedding fun, we'll get to see family we haven't seen in almost a year, so that is definitely something to look forward to. Now, if I could just figure out how to get everything done between now and then.
• Probably should stop blogging...