sickness and spring break.

my kids are never sick. it's really amazing. but when they do get sick, it's usually at the same time, though not always with the same things. hollis woke up in the middle of the night the week before spring break complaining that his ears really hurt and he needed an ice pack for them. i thought he was full of it, possibly just dreaming, so i kind of blew him off. that led to a few more wake ups and ice pack shenanigans, but i still thought he was probably fine. great mom, eh? anyway. when he got home from school that afternoon, i could tell he wasn't feeling great and he was also running a low-ish fever. he wanted to just lie down on the couch. ek took great care of him, bringing him lots of babies and blankets and reading to him and getting him cold water. i gave him ibuprofen and warm compresses for his achy ears and extra cuddles. at his doctor's appointment the next morning, they confirmed a double ear infection and prescribed omnicef, which is basically the only antibiotic he can take since he's allergic to penicillin. here's some pics of them post-haircuts, and how hollis chose to spend his sick day (in jammies, with alllll the legos).

he started feeling better quickly, but saturday evening at the annual chip party (for national potato chip day, duh), ek was looking puny. i felt her and she was definitely running a pretty high fever. we got her home and on meds and into bed. she ran fever all day sunday too. monday morning was the first day of spring break and her fever was down, but i had given her ibuprofen around 4am, so i brought her to an early doctor's appointment just in case. they determined it wasn't strep and it was too late to do anything if it was flu, so sent us home. i kept her pretty mellow for the rest of the day and by the end of monday, i could tell she was mostly back to normal. those random viral things are so obnoxious.

tuesday i worked because i hadn't planned to take spring break off. i sent hollis to school and ek did a yoga kids' camp at my studio in the afternoon. but i was pretty stressed out about being crappy at both my job and parenting for the remainder of the week, so i emailed my boss and asked for vacation days wednesday-friday. it was definitely the right call, even if i'm behind at work now.

we had a really nice break. lots of time at the park, some play dates, picnics, bagel breakfasts, a movie, and unstructured play at home. i love those times with the kids and need to be better about embracing them. saturday, we battled the traffic and crowds and went to sxsw for sxsj - south by san jose. we saw thao and the get down stay down and we also saw the golden dawn arkestra. they were nuts - the kids loooooved them. after the live music, we headed to matt's el rancho for a tex mex feast and made it to bed super late.

it was tough to get up before daylight this morning and get back to work and school, but definitely a great week.

the great outdoors.

i got back from my work trip friday night and, despite being fairly worn-out from travel, we decided to pack up our gear and take the kids, dogs and ourselves camping saturday night. we haven't been on a family camping trip since 2012 when ek was 16 months old or so, so we thought we'd give it another whirl.

jb had everything pretty much prepped when i got home, which was amazing. tent, blow-up mattress, tarp, blankets, snacks, and a brisket on the smoker, ready to be pulled off and hauled to the great outdoors.

we trekked to liberty hill, which is only about an hour away. some friends know of a crew that's been doing a campout for texas independence weekend for 40+ years (same campout we joined in 2012), so we were pretty familiar with the sitch. we also invited some friends to join and several families took us up on the offer, so it was quite a little party.

the kids did amazingly well and the dogs had the time of their lives. fresh air, fire, peeing in the woods - it doesn't get much better. between the collective, we had enough food for probably 3 days, but we managed to put quite a dent in it. brisket tacos with pickled onions and crema, campfire potatoes, chips & guac, hot dogs, s'mores, the list goes on. we did not lack for snacks.

once it got dark, the kids all put on their pajamas and got flashlights and frolicked around. they were all pretty exhausted by 8 or 9 (i didn't really have my phone around, so who really knows?), so they each got into their respective tents and cuddled up for the night. the temp dropped into the 50s, so it was pretty chilly, but nothing compared to the 30s on our last camping adventure. there were a couple of wake-ups here and there, but i was pleasantly surprised by how well the whole crew handled it. after the kids were down, the adults spent some quality campfire time talking politics.

the morning after camping is always kind of touch-and-go. you've schlepped all this stuff out there and you want to make the most of it, but you're pretty tired, sometimes cold, and ready to shower and pee in a real toilet (and brush your teeth in a real sink). we heated up leftovers and did a slow re-pack of our stuff and made it home by 11 or 11:30, which was awesome. the kids immediately took a great bath and went down for a 3+ hour nap. i can see us doing this again soon...

while i was away...

some pics of ek at school. her teacher sent me these, letting me know she was missing me this week.

work travel.

i'm in california for work this week. it's a long week - i left at 6 monday morning and won't be home until late friday night. but it's been a good trip. i'm more revved about my job than i have been in a long long long time, and i've actually done a decent job sleeping and being social this week, both things i have historically struggled with during work trips.

it was hard to leave the kids this time, especially ek. she has been super delicate and fragile lately - very sensitive. i am not always good at handling it/knowing what to say to her when she gets upset about something. i tried prepping her a few days before i left so i didn't just leave in the night without warning, but i am not sure if this made it worse? she had anxiety about it from the moment i told her, especially the night before my departure. she even got out of bed about an hour after we thought she was asleep sunday night and came into the living room, teary-eyed, to ask me "who's going to be the mommy while you're gone?". my sweet girl. it's hard not to get frustrated at her hyper-emotional states, especially when they interfere with her sleep and hollis's (because sleep helps with the emotions, too - a catch-22). but i'm trying to be patient, encourage her to use her mindfulness tools, and breathe through it.

anyway. i'm ready to be home, in spite of the good week. i think we're going to go camping saturday night and we have a fundraiser for ek's school sunday evening that should be super fun too. i miss jb and those little mongrels.