"happy" valentine's day

matt and i have never been grand valentine's day people and we had a busy day scheduled, so we weren't doing anything for each other. my mom is coming later this month so we are just deferring our night out.  and it is a good thing too...

last night mason and maddux were feeling so much better (and were very well rested from days of napping) that they wanted to stay up all night.  in our room.  we started the day very tired.  and manning woke up early.  and with a fever.  ugh.  he wouldn't nurse but was generally happy - as long as i was holding him.  after about an hour, he fell asleep and i put him back down.  so much for making the kids heart pancakes...

we had a super rush trying to get super tired boys (remember they were up most of the night) dressed an into the car.  mason cried.  a lot.  but we managed to get everyone to school on time.  i warned mason's teacher about how tired he was because he was so difficult all morning (mason doesn't act out, he shuts down).  but no time to relax now, i had a dentist appointment.

the two littles just watched while i had my cleaning.  maddux sat happily in the stroller (well, happy until the very end) and maddux colored and played on the ipad.  the hygienist was just raving over how good they were and was asking how we did things - like everything.  she told me that she and her husband are getting ready to try soon.  she even wrote down "love and logic" to make sure she wouldn't forget.  so thankful that are kids are generally great in public!  but no time to bask...

i was hoping i would have enough time to run to bj's for a few things before we needed to pick mason up from school.  it was going to be tight but i thought we should make it.  maddux started asking to go to the bathroom.  okay.  i guess we were going to be a little tighter.  quick stop in the bathroom and we started rushing through the store.  when we stopped for orange juice maddux wasn't happy with the specific bottle choice i made and totally lost it.  i mean screaming and prostrate on the ground (this isn't very normal for him and i was thinking of the hygienist and laughing a little).  thankfully he got past it relatively quickly.  at least i didn't let it slow me down at all. :)

we made pretty good time so i thought i would swing by the house to pick up a few 'lunch' items for the boys and i so that we could meet madelyn for lunch at school.  we have never gone to have lunch with madelyn before but she was crying a few days ago about wanting to be with her family on valentine's day.  i had made her a special lunch with a cut-out sprinkle heart and heart cut-out apple slices (sorry - no pictures.  crazy morning, remember?) but i thought the surprise of the boys and i would be pretty great too.  so i grabbed the sandwiches the boys hadn't eaten yesterday, some string cheese and juice boxes and threw them in couple of lunch boxes.

and off we went to pick up mason.  his teacher said that he was a little sluggish but once they started the 'party' he perked right up.  he was in great spirits when we headed out so i felt we were safe to go to lunch with madelyn.

we were a little early and had to wait about 30 minutes before madelyn's class headed to lunch.  the boys were great and received many raves from the school staff and other waiting parents (the parking lot was pretty full when we got there and the lobby was too - i guess i wasn't the only one with the lunch idea, but this might just be normal too).  one of the other waiting parents looked familiar but i couldn't place her - until she started talking with someone else - she was the doctor who delivered manning!

madelyn actually ended up surprising us because she was heading back to her classroom before lunch.  she was still pretty excited.  when we went to sit at the table mason was very insistent about sitting on a particular side of me (thinking about it now, that should have been a clue).  so mason sat on my right, manning on my lap (i was just carrying him), maddux on my left and madelyn on the other side of maddux.  it was difficult to make any conversation because i know that madelyn barely has time to finish her lunch on a normal day and i didn't want to slow her down by asking her questions.  i actually spoke to the other kids at the table more because they were so excited to see a baby.  manning and i didn't really do any eating although he did try to get everything at the table.  maddux was chowing down and mason asked madelyn for her carrots.  i looked over at him when he started coughing and at first thought he was choking on a carrot, but then i realized what was happening - he was throwing-up.  all over him and all over the top of the table! 

this was a little bit of a worst-case scenario.  manning kept trying to touch it, mason was crying, maddux was just eating his lunch and watching silently and i had no napkins at all.  i used manning's blanket to try and mop it up from running into the lunches of the kids across the narrow table from us while attempting to get the attention of the lunchroom helper (a parent volunteer who opens containers for kids who need help) for some napkins.  she brought me a few napkins and then a wad of paper towels - you know the brown, non-absorbent kind?  i was trying to feel in the diaper bag strapped behind me for anything made of cloth or absorbent in any way.  i used the nursing cover and maddux' spare pants and underwear and then tried to jam it all back in the ziplock i carry his spare bottoms in for a wet clothes swap.  yuck.  what was even more alarming was that no one seemed to care that he had thrown-up.  it was actually enlightening about why madelyn might be bringing home so many germs from school...  but i did the best i could with one hand (still holding manning with my other one) and tried to get us all out of the little table set up with all of our belongings.  a quick good-bye and sorry to mads and we headed out. 

mason was begging to go home the whole time i was trying to clean up and i kept explaining that the sooner i cleaned up, the sooner i could take him home.  we got outside and it was snowing, lightly, but snowing. maddux was wearing shorts, mason was wet from vomit and none of us had jackets (seriously, i thought today's forecast was yesterday's of 45 instead of the 30s/20s it was).  mason cried the whole way to the car and was really displeased when i striped him down to his underwear before letting him in.  he didn't want to do his buckles and was crying to go home.  i explained that he needed to do the buckles so that i could take him home.

once settled at home, manning and maddux took naps and mason had perked right up.  i did make him lay down and watch a little pbs in the hopes that he would nap.  while everyone was down i got to making the crust for our heart-shaped pizza dinner.  madelyn had dance and then straight to the parent/teacher conference with her teacher (more on that in another post) where we would meet matt. so i made crust and while it was rising i did my morning bible study and i think a few blog posts.  then it was time to get everything and everyone packed up and ready for dance so that we could leave as soon as madelyn got home and changed.

mason was feeling and acting fine so i just wrote off the throw-up at school as too many sweets during the party.  i kept the boys away from the other little boy just in case we were still carrying some germs.  everyone was great and an hour later we were loading up to head over to the school.  about half-way there (in 5:00 traffic) i heard mason coughing and madelyn yelling that he was throwing up everywhere.  of course this happened where there was absolutely no where to stop.  i guess i could have pulled to the side of the road, but it was very muddy and i didn't want to get stuck if this wasn't an emergency.  i could see mason and he was doing his unresponsive thing (he just freezes up when stressed/scared).  he threw-up a few more times as i made my way to a parking lot while searching my brain for what was in the car that could be used for clean-up and to catch more vomit.  ugh.  i keep an extra disposable shopping bag and a roll of paper towels in the back of the van for just an occasion.  there wasn't much i could do for him because it was all over his car seat so i just wiped him up a little and made sure he was okay before continuing on our way to the school to meet matt.

i pulled up to where matt was waiting and asked if he wanted to take the "barf bus" home or stay while i took them home.  he gave me his keys, showed me where he was parked, listened to my update on dinner, manning and mason and then took the kids home.  the conference was fairly short and we started a little early so matt didn't even have dinner in the oven when i got back home.

since we had some time, i told the kids to go get their valentines for daddy - which they happily did.  i had made him a quick on too.  so quick that i didn't even have the time to find a frame that actually fit in a way you could see the whole thing.  we have some that are empty in the basement but this one was on the counter from the heart ball so i went with the quickest (hey, it has been a busy week and i was more or less going to have to do the finger prints over because madelyn's is so dark).  we just need to add his finger print.  i thought that this was really cute when i saw it and will definitely make him a nicer one in the coming weeks.  i also got him a bottle of wine and we were both pretty happy to have it.

he had been feeding manning but he was fussing a lot so i told matt it might be a good idea to stop since these were the first solids he had eaten all day and he had barely nursed.  matt wiped him off, picked him up and then manning threw-up all over the both of them.  ugh.  again.  matt went to shower while i stripped manning down and then i gave him manning to wash off too.

i did take a picture of the heart pizza i made, but it kept turning when i posted it.  it looks right on the computer, just not when i add it to the blog.  oh well, you get the idea.  the kids were super excited about it.  while it was baking, i held the pitiful manning until he fell asleep and i could put him down in his crib.

i kept begging mason to stop eating.  he even heaved a few times during dinner and kept coming back to eat!  i did talk him out of the ice cream cones i had gotten as a special treat, but i couldn't talk him out of a little ice cream.  we had neapolitan and he asked for just the vanilla.

and then we got all the little monkeys off to bed.

we had invited a neighbor and her daughter over for lunch tomorrow and after seeing my first facebook post about my day she sent me an email to ask if i wanted to cancel.  after mason threw-up the second time, i conceded that, yes, he was really sick and we did need to cancel.  she offered to come relieve me if i needed her to so i asked if she could come over for 20 minutes in the morning so that i wouldn't have to haul all four kids up to the school to drop off the goodie bags for mason's class (madelyn had the day off from school - their schools are in different school districts).  she graciously agreed which was wonderful except that the house was trashed and both dishwashers were full of clean dishes.  since it was valentine's day (and because he is generally wonderful) matt offered to help me empty the dishwashers so that i could load up the dinner plates and clean things up a little.  the other perk to her coming to watch the kids was that we didn't have to mess with getting the carseat back in the car tonight and it could wait until the weekend.

just needed to roll out and heart cut the home-made play dough for mason's goodie bags and get them all assembled.  matt helped get the trash bags emptied while i finished up.

whew.  what a day.  happy to end it with my valentine and a glass of wine.  love.