Girls' Weekend (or, 46 Hours of Hell)

OK, I shouldn't be so dramatic. I actually enjoy weekends alone with my girls, but his past one, two of them were sick and it seemed that anything that could go wrong did. Jayson went to Green Bay for the Packers game. He met his friend (and rid) at about 1:45 on Saturday. Lydia had been a little sick that morning, but as soon as Jayson left, she got exponentially sicker every minute. She was a snot machine. Plus, she was wailing dramatically (the only way Lydia really does anything) about missing her Daddy. Snot. Everywhere.  Then Charlie started to get sick too. The kind of sick where she can't breath through her nose and just stares at you with her mouth open.

So, when we got home from dropping Jayson off, it was nap time for Charlie and quiet time for Lydia and Audrey. We laid in my bed and watched Elf. Only one of us napped, and it was not the 3 year-old or the 5 year-old. And it wasn't exactly restful. The snot ball was accumulating a collection of used tissues on Jayson's nightstand and the other one was not interested at all in sitting still.

After naps, we had our traditional trip to get Chinese food when Daddy is gone. Jayson hates Chinese food. First we ran to the craft store because I needed new knitting needles for a scarf I wanted to make. Lydia was hell on wheels (Well, I guess minus the wheels? Where did that expression even come from? Oh, thank you, Wikipedia.). I spend almost the entire trip telling her to quit touching everything and if she did not stop right now, there would be no Chinese food, which I knew was a lie, because there was no way I was going to give up my Chinese food, much less cook.

So, the Chinese food. Several months ago, a new building was being constructed down the street and we waited eagerly to find out what it was. I asked the cashier at the grocery store next to it what it was going to be, and she said it would be some Chinese restaurant. This excited me. I told the girls it was going to be a new Chinese restaurant for us to try. Every time we passed it, Audrey would excitedly say, "There's our new Chinese restaurant!" Then the Panda Express sign went up. Panda F-ing Express. They were already set on trying it, so that's where we headed Saturday night. Panda Express is expensive. They must use real Panda. I ordered our food, and we went home to eat it, and even the girls, who have eaten grass, food off the ground, and their own toes, said it was not good. Lydia told me, "Next time, let's go back to our old place. It's good to try new places, but only once."

After dinner, I asked Lydia if she wanted to try the neti pot. She had seen Jayson use it a lot, and at first was pretty against it, but then decided to give it a shot. I was pretty surprised at how well she did with it, and it cleared out her nose so she could get some sleep. Then the girls went to bed, and they went down pretty easily. I stayed up and graded some quizzes. Then I started my knitting project and watched a movie. At about 10:00, Charlie was up coughing, so I brought her downstairs to cuddle while I watched my movie and then got her back down. I went to bed shortly after midnight. At 2:30, Charlie was up again and back in my bed. She flopped around, and eventually fell asleep. At 4:30, Lydia was up in my room, coughing away. Charlie woke up, but went back down in her crib. Lydia slept in my bed with me.

In the morning I was supposed to teach Sunday school, but called the coordinator to tell her that I wouldn't be able to make it in with two sick kids. I made the girls cinnamon rolls and Lydia sacked out on the couch, miserably sick. I took a shower and had her sit in the bathroom with me to get the steam in her nose. I called Jayson to tell him I didn't think Lydia would be able to go to school the next day. His mom was supposed to watch the girls on Monday along with their baby cousin and we agreed we didn't want him to get sick too. So, Jayson's mom came over to watch the girls while I ran to school and got sub plans ready.

We took it easy the rest of the morning and early afternoon. Lydia was supposed to have a Christmas concert at church and I told her if she felt better, we could go. She did start to feel a bit better, so we got ready to go. I went upstairs to change and came back downstairs to find Lydia unraveling my knitting project. I freaked out a little bit, but was able to rescue it.

The concert went pretty well. I was very nervous about going solo with the girls. We brought a bag of toys and I had my toddler lock app (genius!) on my phone ready to go. I told Lydia, "If Charlie gets loud, I will take her to the back of the church. You either stay here with Audrey or come with me, but either way, make sure Audrey is with you." After about twenty minutes, Charlie started crying and I leaned over to tell Lydia I was taking her back, and started to speed down the aisle. I heard Lydia say, "Audrey, let's go!" and they ran down the aisle after to me to the chuckles of the people within earshot.

After Charlie quieted down and it was Lydia's turn to sing, we went back to our seats. To my relief, the people behind us weren't annoyed by us. It was an older couple and the woman kept playing with Charlie, giving her toys, and laughing as she danced in the aisle. After the concert was over, the woman took my hand in both of her's and said, "You deserve an award!" I explained to her that Jayson was out of town and she told me how great the girls did and how fun they were. Such relief.

I took the girls out for corndogs and then we shared a banana split with four spoons. I tried to feed Charlie, but she grabbed the extra spoon and dug in herself. I let her happily dribble custard all over herself because really, there was no other option. If you know Charlie, you know things are done HER way. Bedtime was again easy, and I again settled in with my knitting and a movie.

Luckily, everybody slept through the night. In fact, Charlie slept 14 hours straight. Lydia wanted to go to school when she woke up, so I let her and told her that if she got to school and didn't feel well, she should have the school call me and I would get her. At 9:30, Charlie woke up 100% better and going about 100 mph. As soon as her feet hit the ground, she was laughing and playing. I felt a little bad about taking a sick day when the girls were on the road to recovery, but I still wouldn't have wanted Mason to get sick, and I was still recovering from a rough Saturday night.

When Jayson got home, the girls were excited to see him, but I think I was the happiest. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing.