Cousin Sleepover and Illness

This past weekend, Zennie and Johnny came over to spend the night.  Their parents really wanted some time alone and we really wanted to see their kiddos so it worked out well.  Well, sorta well.

This looks cute but didn't last long.  Apparently, Zennie doesn't stay put on a big kid bed.  Luckily there was a comfy trundle bed below her instead of the hard floor!

They came over at dinnertime on Friday and I was feeling pretty accomplished at 11 pm when Dave got home to a quiet, clean house.  We went to bed, anticipating an early-rising baby Johnny.  Ha.  He was the boy with sleeping issues.  Eddie woke up at midnight, crying about something.  I went into comfort him since I didn't want him to wake Zennie up. And then he woke up again about 15 minutes later, this time with Zennie half on his bed and half in the gap between the bed and the trundle.  Eddie did NOT like that Zennie was nestled there in the corner of his bed--but she didn't appear to be bothered by it and   He went back to bed.  Then about 40 minutes later he was back at it; this time Dave was on call.  After a few more of these incidents I barked at Dave to put Eddie into our bed.  Of course, Eddie takes up most of the bed (along with the dogs) so Dave retreated to the couch.  Then at 5 am Eddie woke me up complaining that our room was too dark (at 5 am...ya THINK?!) and that he wanted his special "Uncle Blanket" from his room.  I told him it was supposed to be dark because we were supposed to be sleeping still and that I wasn't going to bother Zennie by going into his room.  Eventually Eddie fell back asleep...and then Zennie started crying for Eddie at 7 am.  Dave snuggled her and they both fell back asleep for another 45 minutes until Johnny was up.

It was a very nice morning for a walk.

Dave and I were so tired that we felt hung over.  The kids didn't want any breakfast and Eddie kept complaining that his tummy hurt.  He hadn't eaten much for dinner so I coaxed him into eating some cereal, figuring he had intense hunger pangs.  Otherwise he was fine.  The kids all played well together and we went to get donuts and play at the park.  In the afternoon, I had to skip a friend's baby shower because I was too exhausted.

All ready to go to the shopping center for some donuts!

Zennie, Eddie, Mary Jane, and Callen got to work digging more holes in the front yard.  Zennie knows all about gardening so she fit right in.

Johnny Valor is definitely a Bower: this is a classic example of the 'Bower jaw,' something all Bower males do when they zone out.

Uncle Dave and Johnny.

I made chocolate dipped shortbread cookies after the cousins left: jam thumb print with crushed nuts on top and green cookies dipping in minty chocolate and topped with Andes mints.

The kids wanted to watch Dave troubleshoot some leaking copper unions he'd just soldered into place. They kept saying that it smelled "like stinky burned fart" from the solder.  Haha.

Poor Eddie then got painful stomach cramps on Sunday and had diarrhea.  He told us his belly was "saying that it doesn't want to play." Maybe his very weird sleeping on Friday/Saturday was due to cramping, too?  Or maybe it was because Zennie thrashes around in her sleep and it was bothering him?  Who knows.

Monday he seemed fine (attitude, sleeping, appetite) so he and Dave had a usual day of playing with the neighbors and doing stuff around the house.  Then he had diarrhea some more and he sorta lost his appetite.  So I had to stay home with him on Tuesday and again on Wednesday (he has to be 100% symptom free for 24 hours to return to daycare--and since 2 other daycare kids had barfed over the weekend Cassie wanted us to be very sure he was well before bringing him back).  Staying home and playing with him on Tuesday was fine because I had resolved to avoid working that day.  We did some Pinterest activities, watched a movie, played a lot, did some painting, went to a UCD baseball game and he drank 'sick juice' (watered down Gatorade) and ate bananas and bread.  He had diarrhea again on Tuesday morning...poor kid.  So we hung out at home again on Wednesday and I waited and waited for him to have a 'normal' poop so I could feel sure that he was well enough to go to school.

I really, really wanted to get some plots made in R but was having trouble--not only with getting some Eddie-free time but also trying to get the plotting function to work properly.  Thank goodness for Edward being on Gmail chat constantly and being a programmer so he could help me troubleshoot.  It took about 4 frustrating hours, but I finally got them done.  After that we biked to the store to get a few things.  Eddie had been a pretty good boy that morning and his appetite was definitely back so I let him pick out a cupcake--he chose the T Rex with a volcano of frosting on top.  After his (very short) nap he got to have the cupcake...and he only ate the frosting and candy dinosaur.  I know I shouldn't let a sick kid have so much sugar but I was going bonkers trying to keep him entertained.  It's soooooooooooooo hard for him to hang out with adults all day.  He craves playtime with his contemporaries and gets super whiny and cranky when he can't.  Luckily, he was well past the 24 hour threshold by the time Mary Jane and Callen got home from school so I took everyone (dogs, too) to the park until it was too dark to see outside.  While we were eating dinner Eddie had to potty and he FINALLY had a normal poop.  Yay!

Anyway, enough about poop.  Here are some of the fun things we did while stuck at home:

We rode our bikes to the store in the rain and hail.  I think Eddie needs a bigger bike!  I did raise the seat about an inch when we got home.

In class, our students were complaining that Davis lacks a sports culture--a lot of them are athletes and it bothers them how few people (students, faculty, community members) attend their games.  So I decided to take Eddie to see a home game on Tuesday afternoon.  He was still technically sick but I figured the stands would be pretty empty so we wouldn't risk interacting with anyone.  And boy was it ever empty.  We never did see my student play (he was doing stats or something) but it was fun anyway.  Although admittedly, Eddie was more interested in eating popcorn, climbing on the handrails, and rolling/retrieving a baseball he found in the bushes than actually watching the game.  And that's good because I don't know much about the game to explain to him anyway.

I found this 'sticky spider web' masking tape game on Pinterest and tried it out.  Eddie liked playing but the next day he found it more fun to rip the entire web down from the door way.

We played trains yesterday morning.  Well, I was instructed to build the tracks and then he never really played with the actual trains.  But this is my genius solution to having train or LEGO pieces everywhere: I spread a huge tablecloth or sheet on the floor first so all we have to do during clean up is gather up the cloth and pour the pieces back into the box. Ta da!

I went to check on him last night and found him sleeping with...a tripod.  What a little weirdo. He calls it a "smile, cheese!" since that's what people tend to say when using a tripod.

This morning during breakfast, Eddie was whining about not being able to watch an episode of Busytown Mysteries before eating.  I ignored the incessant demand as much as I could and announced that I was going to make a list of all the plants we needed to buy to take to Gualala for our summer garden.  I let him choose the color of pen or crayon for each plant and he even let me write in the journal he got from his goody bag at Renee's party.  Thank goodness distraction does still work at times.