Spring, please!

March in New England can be a miserable month. Everyone is anxiously awaiting spring's arrival but it is still fairly cold and cruddy around here. The average daily high is 40 degrees. Or in the 40's. Last Thursday morning was a refreshing 16 degrees. Snow is not unusual either. On occasion, one or two of those really warm sunny days will roll through. It will hit 65 - 70 degrees and everyone will rejoice, "Spring is here!" while they pull their summer clothes out of storage.

And then it is cold the next day.

Last weekend was fairly warmish. In the 50's. Maybe near 60 degrees in some areas. It was cloudy and windy at our house so not all that nice but nice enough to convince the girls that they needed to play outside.

Traffic jam.

Allie yelled out, "Oh, no! There's smoke coming out of my car." (By the way, I have no idea where she picked that up from.) Em then said, "There's smoke coming out of my stroller."

My poor Allie Bear has been having quite the week. It all started on Saturday. I should preface this by saying that I caught Em gnawing on a finger last week. When I asked her if another molar was coming in, she quickly ended the conversation and the gnawing.

On Saturday, Allie told me that she had something in her mouth. But it sounded like this when she said it, "I have something in my mousth." And then she told me that her "mousth" hurt. She was pointing to the front part of her mouth so I didn't think much of it and assumed that she had just bitten her tongue or her lip. I had noticed her putting toys up to her mouth and biting them with her front teeth but I wrote that off as a kid thing.

We started the bedtime routine earlier that night and all three were sound asleep shortly after 7:00. Allie woke up crying around 8:30, which is not like her at all. I couldn't calm her down and we ended up bringing her downstairs to the family room. She kept covering her left ear saying that it hurt.

We are not ear infection experts around here at all. Allie is the only one who has ever had an ear infection and that was a one time event. I gave her some Motrin and asked Rich if he should bring her to the ER. I thought that maybe she had punctured her eardrum with something because she didn't have a fever.

It took us over an hour to calm her back to sleep and even then Rich ended up sleeping in her room with her a few hours later. I finally put two and two together at midnight and realized that molars might be breaking through. I checked her mouth the next morning and there does appear to be molar activity. Awesome. I suspect this is why Anna and Em are having some issues as well.

Teething never ends. If you remember, it took about six months for their two year molars to come in.

I haven't been running since I was struck down by the stomach virus that had invaded our house in January. The reasons vary. I'm either sick or I feel sickly or I'm way too tired or I've pulled something in my neck or back. Last weekend, I decided that enough was enough and I was going to start running again. Sunday.

I had been feeling off for a few days. Not really sick, just not hungry. But I kept eating. I ran 2.25 miles on Sunday afternoon (even though I do like to start my running weeks on Mondays.) I felt sick after but thought it was from needing a snack. Or from the smelly white-out I was using.

It was neither. I was sick and awake from 3:00 to 5:00 AM puking. Again.

So I stayed home on Monday. The girls understand when I am sick but they still think that I should be able to sit with them while they eat, play with them and then just sleep on the couch amid the chaos that accompanies three three year olds. Em tried to nap with me first thing that morning and it just wasn't happening. I felt her little hand on my shoulder and then something on my face. I opened my eyes to see Little Lion staring at me. I eventually convinced her to join Grammy and sissies downstairs while I napped with Lion and Baby Piggy, who were apparently both sick as well.

In the middle of the day, Allie threw a fit when I attempted to go back upstairs to nap. I felt sick all day and just wanted to rest in bed. I noticed some white goop in her eye but didn't think too much of it because she was crying hysterically. Although, she had told me earlier that she had rubbed crumbs out of her eyes. When I rejoined them around 5:00 that night, I noticed that both of her eyes looked irritated and there was more white goop.

You know where this is going. Yes, pink eye. The very best part of this was when I gave her a wet facecloth to press against her eyes and then caught Em rubbing her eyes with it! Em told me that she needed to clean her eyes too. So far no one else has been afflicted with it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The girls' pediatrician prescribed eye drops for Allie and within the first 24 hours, her eyes were pretty much back to normal. Rich and I have been rubbing our eyes all week. Just like we scratched our heads with the lice notice.