weekend sickos

it seems like i'm always posting on here about how sick my family is or has been. i'm starting to wonder if there's a correlation between that and my (lack of) housecleaning skills? nah...

anyway, this weekend has been one for the books. the kids developed nasty croupy-coughs, followed by fevers, lethargy, non-eating/drinking, and pitifully endearing little bursts of attempts at appearing recovered, only to be wiped out by the effort. layla was a day and a half ahead of carson, as far as symptoms go, so that was kind of nice -- we could predict what to expect from him, especially after his waking up one night from coughing and crying out, "my cougher isn't working!" poor kid. i think, over the course of the weekend, he's been awake a total of 9-10 hours. i'm not even exaggerating.

one tender moment: he wasn't drinking or eating anything, and after 2 days of this i was beginning to worry about dehydration, so i started casually and sweetly pestering him about what he wanted me to get him. one particular time, he replied, "i'm not hungwy, mom. maybe latuh. but will you scwatch my back fo' me?" apparently we've stumbled upon a new relaxing sensation for him. good to know.

that, and "hungry hungry hippos." we played a grotesque amount of that game this weekend; i knew i was getting near the breaking point when paul and i started trash-talking each other. but that game was a lifesaver of a distraction for the kids (thanks again, mark & heather!!).

so, while carson sloth-ed it up to feel better, we discovered (not surprisingly) that layla handles sickness much differently. she doesn't like to sleep; she likes to whine and act totally incompetent. (i still love her dearly, of course. just stating the facts.) when particularly sick, she'll sit still on someone's lap and zone out for hours, but she doesn't sleep deeply or for extended periods of time. carson wanted the couch to himself to lounge on; layla couldn't go 2 seconds without being in paul's or my arms or laps. i should give her credit, though -- layla did try to function normally; it's just that her breaking point was about 2 mm from the surface.

she was still awfully entertaining (case-in-point: the little blue toy pedometer that she has stubbornly decided is her very own camera; she'll push it around in her stroller and take it out at random times, demanding that everyone drop what they're doing and say 'cheese'). and she was never too sick to ask, so sweetly "may i have a treat please?" when the notion struck her. (we didn't give in, by the way, because she wasn't even eating real food, but paul got awfully close several times. "how can you resist that?" he says. call me cruella, but i didn't think twice about spooning her up some yogurt and telling her it was a "treat.")

paul and i, thus far, are in the clear. fingers are crossed that that continues, for us and for aunt michelle, who babysat last thursday and is, as i type, en route to the ukraine for the next 5 months. we'll sure miss you, michelle!!!