The black hole of Winter

Dear January, February, March, and possibly April:

I beg you. Please please, go away. Take your chilly frigid wind, and constant drab grayness  - and just disappear. Dont come back. And take this dreaded flu and virus season with you.

Dear California:
Please move to Idaho.

Love,
The Beals

What a month we have had over here. Sick sick sick. Thats what we have been. Ever since Christmas, we have been fighting off this terrible sickness. They say its viral. I say its terminal. Every single one of us has been sick off and on for weeks. And im so....so.....tired.

Poor Spencer. On sunday night he was so sick he was delirious. He was burning up so we gave him some tylenol and put him to bed. He got up around 4 am and I fed him, gave him more tylenol and put him back to bed. Around 6 am we were jolted awake when we heard this weird high pitched scream coming from Spencer's room. Gabe ran in and picked him up and he was on fire. Then I noticed he was doing something weird with his arms and legs - and all of a sudden I realized Spencer was having a seizure. He was looking at us - but he just had this terrified expression and wasnt really seeing us. His arms and legs were tremoring and his body was completely rigid.

Then all of a sudden he stopped seizing, started crying like normal - and projectile vomited everywhere. I laid him down to change his clothes and he seized again. He had maybe 4 little episodes in about 3 minutes. Gabe quickly gave him a blessing, and we called Hart to come over and stay with Brigitte while we ran to the ER. By the time we got to the hospital the fever was gone, and Spencer was looking and acting like nothing had happened. They told us he had had a febrile seizure, that he would be sleepy all day and that it most likely would never happen again.

We followed up at his pediatricians who reiterated what the ER docs had told us. She said he had a crazy virus that causes severely high fevers for 5-7 days - and it was going around. She told us to keep him on Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours around the clock, even in the night. It was an exhausting few days!

All day Monday after the seizure Spencer was delirious. He wouldnt even lift up his head or interact at all. He wanted to be held at all times and his hot little cheeks were so sad. He just moaned in his sleep and whimpered all day long. Finally on Tuesday my sister took Brigitte for a few hours and my mom came in to stay the night so we could get some sleep after 48 constant hours of tending to Spencer. By wednesday his fevers were still getting up to 104 and I thought it was never going to end!!!

But alas, I am happy to say that last night we had NO FEVERS! I think we are over the worst of it at least. Sick babies are the saddest things in the world! And I have never seen a child so sick in my life. Now we live in fear that Brigitte will get it - but so far so good.

Boy am I ready for some sunshine and normalcy! I hadn't left the house in a week straight so last night when Gabe got home I busted out for a bit. It was great to wander around Ross without the kids for an hour. To ward off the stir crazy, I think I am going to start jogging right when Gabe gets home from work at 5. I havent been able to lose these last 10 pounds of baby weight (thanks a lot jalepeno poppers!) and it has GOT to go! Plus I just need to get outside! Even if its 40 degrees on a warm day.

Other mood boosting projects on the horizon? I want to repaint the red wall in my dining room to bright green. My kitchen needs a curtain sewn, and Im going to spray paint a maroon wingback chair into a pink wingback chair. Thats right, spray paint.  The lazy way to reupholster.

What have you been doing to fight the winter blues?