Lesson Learned

Ah, so the cold I was complaining about. Truth be told, I am not done complaining about it and since your role as reader is quite passive (especially since blogger doesn't like people commenting on this blog despite my best efforts) you will be forced to hear more of the March cold saga. So, back to the cold, it all started the day my mom and I headed down to see her mom, great-grandma Hope to the kids. I felt fine when we left but soon starting sneezing, then a runny nose... it was all down hill from there. We did however have a great time visiting with my grandmother. The kids were very well behaved and we even survived lunch with both of them in the dining room without incident. SUCCESS! It was a beautiful day so we took my grandmother out for a stroll to a near by park where the kids could run off some energy and she could enjoy the spring.

Despite being in carseats for 6+ hours in one day, they were quite happy. Mette was a bit antsy in the car but overall was quite a trooper. Otto was his usual amazing traveler. By the time we got home I had a bad sore throat and wanted to go to bed. Since eric was still in L.A. I got the kids to bed as quick as I could and followed suit. Over the next few days we entertained ourselves in the great spring weather we were lucky enough to be having and counted the days to Daddy getting home.

On Tuesday we were hosting playschool at our house which meant going and getting snacks etc... Since the previous weekend was the official start of spring I wanted to do some special spring activities with the kids. I hard boiled some eggs and painted some of them metallic colors and left some white. I found some great glitter glue as well as fun bits of string to glue on the eggs. Some markers and we were all set to make some Spring Eggs. We don't celebrate Easter but painting eggs is not a tradition I want to give up on. Luckily it really doesn't have much to do with Christ, it is really about spring and I am all in favor of celebrating spring!!!! It was a bit success. And by that I mean the kids were totally into it for about 10 minutes and then they dispersed to play with other toys. Really, you can't ask for too much more than that from a group of 2.5 and 3 year olds.

Otto was not drooling, that is silver glitter glue I busted him trying to eat.

Masterpieces

Mette gets to attend playschool by default every other week when I am one of the mom's in charge. She actually loves it despite being the baby. When they play dress-up, she wants to as well. Here is fireman Mette to the rescue.

As the week progressed my cold led into more of a cough with a ton of nose blowing. Back to the cold??, yes, I told you I wasn't done complaining yet. Wednesday after playgroup Rachel and I took the kids to a local farmstand for lunch where the kids can run around outside. I was lifting them up and down off things and feeling really lame because my abs were so sore from coughing and blowing my nose. I know I have two kids, but I do some sit-ups and I walk everywhere, I can't be THIS out of shape. That afternoon during naptime I couldn't even stand to make dinner I just had to lay down. By the time we were putting the kids to bed I was in so much pain it was getting hard to breathe. That was when I noticed the bump above my belly button. At once I had an idea of what it was, a hernia. I called our doctor's office and they connected me to the doctor on call. I told him my symptoms and explained that I really did not want to go to the ER but was I foolish to wait?? He said if I could handle the pain I could stay home but if it got worse I should really go in. I opted to stay home since Mette still nurses at night I couldn't figure out how I could logistically go anywhere in the night. First thing in the morning I called the doctor. I got an 8:45 apt and was on my way. Little did I know that they would send my straight to the surgeon for a consult and that he would try to schedule me for surgery that afternoon. It turned out that I couldn't get in that afternoon and would have to wait until friday morning but still, it was a whirlwind of appointments I was not expecting. And you know what cause all of this nonsense??? That's right, coughing and the stupid March cold. UGH.

I had the surgery on friday and it went quite well. I spent a lot of the day in a somewhat quiet bed at the hospital reading the New Yorker which I will admit was quite luxurious. The recovery is not a joy, but not too bad either. I feel much better each day and the soreness is getting better all the time. The swelling that makes me look like I just had a baby again is quite demoralizing I'll admit, but other than that it isn't too bad.

In an attempt to do something fun that wouldn't be too stressful we took the kids to the Whitaker Science center in Harrisburg yesterday. It is a nice car ride which is totally my speed and once we were there I could pretty much just sit down and watch the kids play. It was a lot of fun and it felt good to get out of the house.

Not surprising with our kids, the water table was a huge hit.

As were the fish....