How we spent our sick days

Wash away those germs!

Our sweet, sweet boy


William watched daddy shovel the driveway through the window. I ran into the kitchen to get a tissue for his nose, and by the time I got back, he had crawled on top of the shelf...and fallen off.

Bubble time!

No joke - Lily came down the stairs wearing this 'outfit', stood in front of me, and completely straight-faced said, "Giddy on up and giddy on down".


So the entire family was struck down with strep throat last week, and poor little William had sinusitis on top of it. The worst part is that I had no idea. William got what we thought was a simple cold a couple weeks ago. We didn't think much of it, as he did not seem to be grumpy or in any discomfort. The only changes we saw were decreased interest in food (other than blueberries, applesauce, and yogurt) and maybe a slight disruption in sleeping habits, both things that could easily be explained by a cold.

I then got sick with a fever and chills, but that did not last long, and then I just had a persistent sore throat with a general feeling of ickiness. Looking back, of course, I should have known that this was not my typical cold symptoms, but when you are caught up with the day-to-day stuff, I was more concerned with just making it through the day with two little ones while feeling crappy than I was concerned with what was actually ailing me. Carl finally caught the bug, recognized that it was not a cold (and likely strep), and went into his doctor to have it confirmed.

After Carl's diagnosis, we took the kiddos to our Pediatrician. Now, bare in mind that Lily never once complained of anything (despite days of Carl and I both asking if she felt okay) and never acted even slightly different than normal. We really just brought her to the doctor since we were all going anyway and because strep is so highly contagious that it seemed like a possibility. When we first talked with their doctor, he mentioned how recent studies had shown that many kids tested positive for strep but didn't have any real symptoms and really didn't need to be treated, but the nurse swabbed them anyway to run the culture. When the doctor looked in Lily's throat, he stopped short and very dryly said, "That throat is impressive. When her culture comes back positive, we are treating her. My throat now hurts just looking at that." He also checked William and did not see the same swollen throat, but based on other symptoms, decided that William had sinusitis. Moments later, their strep tests came back positive, and then we all took a family drive over to Walgreens (at 7:30 pm) to get 4 prescriptions for 4 different antibiotics. Good times.

Thank you to mom who had Lily over for a sleepover on Friday night and to Ingrid who gave us a much-needed adults-only lunch break today. This is especially nice since we are gearing up for another week spent indoors due to the "storm of the century" coming early this week. Between snow days and illnesses, Lily has been in school only a handful of times this month. (Why couldn't illnesses and snow days overlap??) I guess it's a good thing that we really like our house because I have a feeling that we will only see the inside of it for the next few days. And so it goes...