All Dressed Up with No Place to Go

That's my girl Lucy. This has been a lousy week for her and the third lousy week for our family. All three kids have had stomach bugs and the girls have also had ear infections. Clara also had pneumonia. And of course, rather than have it all happen at once, they went down one after the other, so it's been nearly three weeks of being mostly housebound. Bleh.

Today, Peter asked to go to the local toy store so Lucy asked if we would please take her allowance money and get her a tiara. We brought it home, she vomited and then got dressed up. She had a little water and then needed to lie down again. (Note the towels covering difficult surfaces to clean and the wastebasket/vomit bucket.) Poor thing.

One day we will all be healthy and summer will begin in earnest.

**Edited to add: I cannot express how deeply bone tired I am. All this illness is just so depressing. David has taken all kinds of time off of work so that one or the other of us could tend to a sick child (running to the doctor, picking up medicine) while the other tended to the not-as-sick children (picking up from school, running errands, going to the playground).

We have both been up a lot at night. It's a bit like having a fairly new baby around. You sleep, but you are always on alert for crying. You jump out of bed like a shot and then console and clean. You rinse out buckets and clothing, strip bedding, rinse hair, wipe a nose and wash hands. Then you settle the child back down and stumble to bed, crash asleep, and wait for the next cry.

No one wants to be around us, because no one wants to get this. I have hardly spoken to any of my adult friends in three weeks. I am tired. So tired.

I was so looking forward to the summer. Looking forward to setting our own schedule - not the school's schedule, trying to set a routine that will provide us with structure and flexibility and that will nurture varying aspects of growth and development. And have I mentioned that we are moving August 1?

If not, here it is: We are moving August 1. It's only 4.5 blocks away, but it is still moving. Things must be sorted, purged, and packed. Children must be prepared. And this time there is a fair bit of renovation that we have planned, but we are mired down by the city and all of the rules and regulations. That adds to the stress.

This will pass. They will not be sick forever. We will move and get settled. Eventually. I hope.