Josie is SIX! Sickest birthday so far (not the cool kind of sick)

 

On the 30th of January I found a magic wand up my sleeve. Literally! Somehow a puffy sticker of a magic wand ended up my dress sleeve during the laundering process. I felt powerful and magical after whipping that out of my sleeve. Alas, my powers did not last very long, the powers fled by Wednesday evening. The next 10 days was a blur and mess that captured the entire family. Stupid magic wand. 

Let's backtrack a little to the good days right after the 30th. I kicked off the week with a vision appointment, it's still hard to see at a distance. The optometrist upped my distance prescription .25 in my right eye. I quickly chose a pair of sparkly clear frames just for kicks. Josie had her well-child Wednesday morning. She is growing just on the light side and short side of the spectrum. She almost walked out shot free but I decided on the COVID vaccine just so we can go to DIsneyland (and California) in June.  

Amelia auditioned for the Mixed Chorus at All-State choir this year. She was accepted shortly after auditioning. Mrs Cene passed on the music and some practice tracks after school resumed in January. Amelia was told to learn and memorize all the music (a total of 6 complex songs). Mia had 3 voice lessons with RaShel Ferrin who helped her figure out her parts, phrasing, etc. I was so proud of Mia for practicing each night for weeks on her music. The first night of the event was Wednesday evening. I checked her in at 5:30 then picked her up at 10 pm. Thursday and Friday she spent from 8 am until 4:30 pm practicing with Dr Paul Torkelson and the choir. She said it was so fun, the time went by quickly. Dr Torkelson looks exactly like Professor Lockhart from Harry Potter! Saturday morning at 9:30 am the Mixed choir performed. Those kids did an amazing job, exactly how your brain would imagine a professional choir. The kids sang: Que Sedes, Exultate Justi, My Flight for HEaven, I'll Ay Call in by Yon Town,  David's Lamentation, and John the Revelator. I loved the power of quiet singing in David's Lamentation, reminded me of the last song in Hamilton. Someone in the audience got a little excited and started clapping before the director put his hands down. Ruined that last floating note the choir was holding. 

Evelyn and I started feeling under the weather Wednesday evening. We made it through the night thanks to pain reliever and Nyquil. She felt well enough to attend school the next day since only her head was hurting. I woke up feeling like death warmed over. It was grocery day so I manned up and went after the Tylenol kicked in. I had two newborn session scheduled for Friday that would be really difficult to reschedule. As a precaution I took a COVID test on Thursday and another Friday morning, both were negative so I kept the appointments. The kids did a great job on their chores after dinner so I had time to start setting up my photography stuff. I only managed to get the backdrop/paper and the posing table set up before I ran out of steam. Justin worked until after 9 pm so I left Amelia in charge of putting on a show then went upstairs and crawled into bed at the unheard of hour of 7:15 pm. Evelyn stayed home from school with a headache and mild sore throat. 

Friday morning I realized it was the 100th day of school and Josie needed a shirt with 100 things on it. She helped me bust out 100 hearts drawn on an old tank top minutes before school started. Phew. Disaster averted. I was quite out of it but managed to get through both sessions with medicine and a nap between sessions. The first newborn was Nico, his sister was only 362 days older than him! I photographed Isabel about a year ago as well. After lunch I met the lovely Senada and Kaden with their newborn Lemmie and Kaliah. Kaliah is in Josie's lyrical dance class, so that was fun for Josie to come home and find a friend here. I wore a mask and lysoled everything before and after the sessions. Thankfully, my mind was sort of with me because I had Josie put on a pretty dress for a couple studio style birthday photos. I had planned to take her out Saturday afternoon for a Mom-Josie birthday date downtown for a treat and photos. Once again I was in bed before 8 pm for another uncomfortable night, the body aches and headaches were the worst I've ever experienced. Hurt to move, hurt to lie still, hurt to sit, hurt to breathe, hurt to exist. 

After Amelia's recital we all donned PJs and spent the next week moaning on couches, floors, beds, chairs, and carpets. I was near delirium by Saturday evening, we watched Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives with me on the couch staying warm thanks to Amelia's legs. Come Sunday morning we were all in the same sick boat: chills, coughs, fevers, aches, sore throats, stomach aches, headaches, etc. Josie and Everett had fevers around 102.7 most of the day. I took another COVID test just to be sure...this time it was positive. Amelia also tested positive, so I assumed the rest of us all had some form of COVID or another. I'm sure glad we got that immunization shot...(blech). 

Poor Josie had the lamest birthday on the planet this year. She opened a couple gifts throughout the day here and there. She was really surprised to find the Wonder Woman mermaid tail extra super gift, we looked a few days prior and I told here even if I ordered it there was no way it could get mailed her in time...true...except I ordered one 3 weeks prior. She was pleased to get some Gabby's Doll house toys, an elephant squishmallow, a squeaky pig thing, mermaid tail, a Frozen Doorables set, and a lot of Tsum Tsum toys with a Mickey carrier. She asked for rainbow spaghetti noodles for dinner. She was feeling too sick to eat her favorite meal, just picked at a couple noodles. She wanted chocolate chip cookies for her "cake" this year. No one was able to make cookies, thankfully I had enough leftover dough from a few weeks ago to eek out 6 small cookies. Justin gave her his cookie so the lucky birthday girl scored double cookies. We enjoyed watching videos of Josie during her first few years of life. 

We tried to make it up to Josie the rest of the week! Aunt Jana sent us a large box of cookies from Crumbl...Josie claimed the chocolate chip cookies as her birthday treat. Monday we had a girl's spa in my bathroom. We soaked our feet, got Valentine nail polish treatments, and face masks while listening to Disney music. Tuesday we left our house for 30 minutes to order Josie a Happy Meal via drive thru at McDonald's, our first venture outside since Saturday morning.  Thursday the kids and I were feeling halfway human again so we grabbed Jimmy John's sandwiches for lunch then went to park for an hour soaking in the sunshine. Amelia and Phillip played on the teeter totter for 10-15 minutes, Amelia's leg hurt so badly the next 3 days she was on crutches. The sun felt amazing, the fresh air quite invigorating, my small bladder cut the adventure short (curses on small bladders). I made my first online Walmart food order for pickup Thursday evening. It was fine, just a boring way to shop. I can see why young mothers would especially love it, avoid the store completely. Sara brought over a cute Josie birthday gift on Friday. She unwrapped a fruit snack box! The real gift was a silky Koala blanket and chocolate bar. Josie has her first loose tooth! She is growing up. 

We tried to keep up with school a little, my heart and mind were not up to speed so we mostly did nothing all week. The kids did finish their class Valentines. Amelia and Phillip did a little bit of work teachers posted online. Everett did a spot of reading. We played quite a few games of Llamas unleashed and Sushi Go. I got the kids Minecraft Java edition so they were really excited to play that over the weekend. 

Justin was amazing...he worked all week and did much better than I fared. I felt like I stepped off the planet for 5 days, I am finally starting to feel human again. The kids will be in quarantine for 10 days. Evelyn can return on Tuesday, the other kids on Wednesday or Thursday.   

Friday the 4th Everett caught Phillip looking at porn on his computer. Guess all the education and learning went in one ear and other the other. Our hearts fell at the prospect of helping Phillip out of his tangled mess. He was banned from his school laptop and computer until we (1) felt a bit better and (2) gathered our thoughts and created a plan of action. I was able to chat with Jared for a bit and get his take/advice about what to say and do. We just did not want to instill a sense of shame rather exude love and support his decisions to deal with the issue. Justin, Phillip, and I had a wonderful talk on Wednesday about pornography. It took Phillip a long while to actually tell us about his side of things, the what/how/where/why in his own words. We felt it was imperative for Phillip to use words and communicate his story. Today we met with the Bishop as a parental group and Phillip after church. Phillip has a plan of action and a taste of the pornograpy path, we hope and pray he chooses to take this experience and turn away from that temptation knowing what the consequences are. It is hard as a parent knowing we took the time and love to teach our kids about this danger, yet it still did not keep a curious child from looking at x-rated material. We now have a better internet monitor and filter (bark) and have banned YouTube from all devices. The kids cannot be on devices with screens pointed away from others, sit at the table with laptops, and other normal rules. 

On a good note: Justin and I were called today as Pa and Ma for one of the trek groups! YESSSSS! I can finally go on Trek, only 30 years later than my peers.