Easter Weekend 2015

We had a pretty great Easter weekend, and I hope all of you did as well.

I had off from work on Friday, so my weekend with the kids started a day early (Michael still had to work). We had awesome spring weather (finally!) on Thursday and Friday, which meant that we spent a lot of time outside. I left the office a little early on Thursday, ran a couple of quick errands, and then grabbed the kids from daycare a bit early and took them home to play!

Vivienne was hysterical because she was scared to walk around outside. She would stand in the same place or take teeny little steps on the driveway and grass, whining the whole way and giving me a look like, “Ohmygod, Mommy! Why am I standing out here? What are you doing to me?!” The fact is that she was just starting to learn how to walk last fall, and I guess after spending the ENTIRE winter indoors—which up here is about, oh, five months—she had forgotten how to play outside. Poor New Yorker baby! :) I’m confident she’ll get the hang of it in the coming weeks.

On Friday, it was cold in the morning but warmed up quickly as the day progressed. When I came downstairs from showering, Michael told me that Nora hadn’t eaten much breakfast (unusual for her), but we didn’t think much of it. He left for work and I played with the girls for a bit. I brought the bin of 18-24 months and 2T summer clothes up from the basement and brought the girls up to Vivienne’s room to play while I did some work in Viv’s closet. Half of the clothes in her closet were still 12 months, which haven’t fit her in a few months, so Nora helped me remove all of that stuff and pack it away. Then I went through the spring/summer clothes and got all of that organized. Hopefully we’ll be putting those on her very soon!

After this, Nora was being very whiny—also pretty unusual for her. She complained about wanting to “do something,” but was turning down every offer I had for playing games, coloring, etc. I texted Michael like, “OMG, she’s driving me crazy and it’s only 10:00.” He suggested she make Easter cards for the family and of course, she ate that right up.

I helped her with her cards for a while (wrote the names and such down for her to copy) and then I packed everyone up for a quick trip to Target to buy tights for the girls’ Easter dresses.

Once home, we didn’t even go back inside. It had warmed up considerably so I set the girls loose outdoors for a while. I tried Vivienne in the Power Wheels Jeep with Nora, seeing if she was strong/stable enough to sit up on the seat now (instead of sitting on the floor like we did in the fall, ha! I still can’t believe the thing doesn’t have a little seat belt!). I told Nora to stay in the “slow” mode and they did great. Vivienne loved it and Nora enjoyed herself, too.

Suddenly, though, Nora said she’d had enough. Again, kind of unusual for her (see the pattern yet?). It was time to go inside for lunch anyway, and once inside, Nora collapsed on the couch, bundled up under a big blanket, saying she was cold.

I fed Vivienne and took her upstairs for her nap, and came back down—all this time, Nora was just resting on the couch, doing nothing. No TV, no iPad, no books, etc. If my kid is happy just resting on the couch with no entertainment whatsoever, there’s probably something wrong. I finally had a chance to take her temperature and it was over 103 degrees. What.the.hell. She was just sick like this 2-3 weeks ago, and now it was hitting us again. While I made a little lunch for myself, Nora passed out sleeping on the couch.

I left her there to sleep while my mom and my brother came over with his kids. The kids played outside while both Nora and Vivienne slept, and I cleaned the interior of my car.

Eventually, Nora woke up, I gave her a fever reducer, and she came outside. At first, she wanted to just sit and watch, but then the fever must’ve come down because she was up and playing with Hunter. We played the rest of the day outside, until Michael came home from work and we went in for dinner.

Nora was restless through a lot of the night on Friday night, waking up frequently and calling out for us. After a few more doses of meds (alternating Tylenol and Motrin), she ended up coming into bed with us around 4:00 a.m., completely burning up. Thankfully, she passed out snuggling with me and slept through until around 7:00.

We were due to have Easter breakfast (a day early) at my mom’s at 9:00 a.m., and then celebrate with Michael’s side of the family at noon. Given that Nora had nothing more than cold symptoms, and the fever had broken—and this whole high fever thing has been her M.O. for cold viruses this winter—we decided to go on as scheduled. Nora rallied at my mom’s for breakfast and the Easter egg hunt.

We went directly from my mom’s to my in-laws’, where Nora was okay for a little bit but then went downhill quickly. She spent most of the afternoon on the couch watching Disney Junior, but it was nice to get a chance to catch up with everyone and celebrate the holiday together.

We headed home after 5:00 p.m. and planned to color Easter eggs before bed. We all got into pajamas/comfy clothes and settled in. Michael and Nora played a board game while the eggs were boiling, and then, while we waited for them to be done, I asked Nora if she wanted to snuggle with me on the couch for a bit. She climbed up with me and closed her eyes, while Michael and I just talked and Vivienne played. Next thing we know, Nora was sleeping soundly in my arms. Poor thing was burning up again.

After a little bit of reveling in the snuggles, I carried her upstairs and we tucked her into bed. I roused her long enough to get some more meds into her, and she drifted back off. We put Vivienne to bed and relaxed!

An hour or two after putting her to bed, we heard Nora crying on the monitor. We went up to check on her and she was communicating with us, but still half sleeping. She said that she was scared because “Sadie’s plates keep moving.” (Sadie is our niece, about the same age as Vivienne.) Does this happen to anyone else’s kids? They have super weird and vivid dreams when they are feverish? Because a few weeks ago, when Nora had a fever, I actually slept with her because I was worried about her. The whole night, she kept saying the most random stuff in her sleep. Anyway, when we asked Nora about the plates the next morning, she said that they had feet! LOL.

Nora made it through the whole night in her bed, and we woke Sunday to filled baskets from the Easter Bunny.

Nora definitely seemed to be doing a bit better, so we decided to attempt church. We all got dressed and ready for 11:00 a.m. Mass.

Church went well—both girls were good. Nora was really patient, and Vivienne was sufficiently distracted with snacks and by setting her loose to toddle in the aisle a bit (we were in the “overflow” room—actually a gym—so it was okay). And we didn’t run into any nasty witches in the parking lot, either. Side note: Reading through my post from last Easter weekend, it’s funny how similar it was to this weekend. All the way down to working on the closets and cleaning out the car! Ha! Except it was SNOWING when we got out of church yesterday, so we certainly weren’t enjoying 70 degrees again this year.

We went directly from church to Wegmans to do our weekly shopping since we didn’t have the chance to go Saturday. Once home, we all got into comfy clothes again and we laid low the rest of the day. I finished and filed our taxes (latest I’ve ever done it, oops!), watched Frozen, made dinner, did baths, then bed.

Despite the weather and Nora’s sickness, it was a really nice weekend—the four of us had plenty of time to spend together, and with extended family, and that’s all that matters, right?

Fingers crossed that Easter signifies the real beginning of SPRING! Bring it on, Mother Nature. Pretty please?