The Flu: Week 1

Anthony has been down for 8 days with a terrible fever, cough and congestion. He’s a sick little guy. He frequently doesn’t have the energy to watch TV. He lies on a chair and stares at the back of it. The first half of the week the challenge was to keep the little ones busy and not perturbing him.

So first they played the “Honey Game”. Where Thomas and Rosie are each Honey (a mommy and a daddy) and CeCe is “the kid”. So they dressed up for work and grocery shopping and then they shifted plans, got suited up in aprons and got busy with chores. They make a very industrious family. When that wore out it’s entertainment ability we did a little baking. Anthony had a perky 1/2 hour and helped us. But he was rapidly worn out and back into bed watching dinosaur documentaries on Netflix.

One of his great joys during one of his perky times was to sharpen both ends of his colored pencils. He’s really demanding patient. Shortly after he finished The Great Pencil Sharpening of 2011 Rosie went off-food and promptly developed her fever. Cecilia followed in the middle of the night.

At some point in The Longest Week Of My Life we took a short walk to “air the babies”. I took the bookends down to look at the creek that just started to thaw. I realize that the pictures look like Anthony did not want to go but I assure you – he wouldn’t hear of staying home. So, I loaded him on the stroller and he rode down a couple blocks just like this. Face hidden curled up. This is what he’s looked like all week.

Being out, even for 15 minutes was like a miracle worker on Anthony (CeCe was less impressed but she wasn’t any more miserable). He was totally fascinated with the melting ice flying down the creek. We’ve been watching a lot of penguin movies lately (March of the Penguins, Happy Feet, reading the Little Penguin, we’re kind of on a kick) so I guess it resonated with him. But he tired out after about 5 minutes and rode home in the stroller and then climbed onto “his chair” again and didn’t move for the rest of the day. Literally, didn’t move.

When we returned from our excursion to the four wailing walls of our jail home Thomas had joined the ranks of the diseased. He was the last to fall and put up a darn good fight but we all knew it was inevitable.
With all four kids having the flu it’s a little like playing Whack-a-mole, without the bopping them on the head part. They all have their perky moments as different times so they are rarely able to keep each other entertained. But it does occasionally happen. You can notice that Rosie is never really too sick to dress her doll and herself up. Even if they just lie around on the couch all day they must be well-attired. She insisted on wearing her “Sunday dress” on Sunday in spite of staying home from Church. It was Sunday, after all.

We tried to watch the Princess Bride together as a family. While initially there was great deal of excitement from Rosie, due to the name of the movie (her two favorite things), after the first 2 minutes the phrase, “he’s not dead, he’s just mostly dead” had a new meaning when you looked at her. Thomas was “cared” of every other person or animal and Anthony thought it was boring. Well, it is boring when you go hide in the kitchen every time there’s a sword fight or a wrestling match or a little bit of fire-swamp action or torture. So that was pretty much a flop. The only thing that we have discovered to be a big hit for the WHOLE family, two-years old on up, is Pass the Pigs game. The turns are fast enough for even Thomas to wait, the scoring is simple and there is NO skill needed. We’ve had many games of Pass the Pigs this week.

I don’t know how CeCe would fit into the Pass the Pigs game because she spends her whole day either nursing or in the Ergo. When she’s perky she rides along in the back (as pictured) when she’s feeling crappier she rides in the front. She does take many naps in her crib. THANK GOD for that. It’s very difficult to take care of the other kids when she’s onboard.

So, we are now into week 2 of the Flu and I have changed my formerly apathetic attitude regarding the Flu Shot (cue the angel-singing). I think it only takes one bout of the Flu to hit the whole family to make a convert. This will be the last year that we don’t go the preventative route, I assure you. You win Flu, you win.