When I thought the worst part was over

It has been a few days without updates.
It has been a few tough days (primarily nights I guess) and updating the blog has not been a priority.
Surviving, has.
However, it is far from as bad, miserable and desperate as it might sound.

Alex left Friday for a hunting trip with a friend. Just for the weekend. I was looking forward to being "home alone", which I really enjoy every now and then. I obviously know that I'm far from being alone (with my three little boogers in the house) but it is a different feeling when you are the only adult at home and the kids still sleep more than I do (who doesn't! ;-) so I do get some alone time at night. Little did I know what was waiting me.



Playing Timber Friday night. Marlee won!

Gabriel slept very bad both nights and woke up every or every other hour. In addition to that I had one leaking diaper in our bed the first  night and one incident of throwing up in our bed the second night. We have very clean sheets now... 

Noah has been a little under the weather lately and it got really bad on Sunday when his ears started hurting very badly. He was crying and complaining and the only thing I could do was to sit on the couch holding him. Painkillers did not seem to help and he really did not want me to touch the ears or put something warm on etcetera. He finally went to sleep on the couch and I sat there with him until he woke up. It was a totally different Noah who woke up! He still had a pretty bad cold but was playing, running and laughing! What a relief!!



Hurting ears!

You might think that it was a bad weekend for Alex to be gone, and I guess it was in a way, but I was still happy to get my alone time and we had so many good moments too - fish for dinner Friday (Alex does not like fish) and Marlee loved it! He even had the left overs for lunch the day after. Marlee worked on a Lego "creature" the whole day Saturday and did so good!! Noah was happy organizing cars :-) The weather was gorgeous and we enjoyed some good time outside walking and biking. When things got so bad with Noah's ears Marlee was at a friend's house (who's mum had already offered to help me out and picked up Marlee earlier) and Gabriel was sleeping good so I could really focus on Noah. It was like things worked out pretty good in the middle of all the sorrows :-)



Building lego



Marlee's lego "creature"



Car organizing



Blowing bubbles





So did Alex come home and save me? Well not really, he was feeling really sick, too, and last night (Monday) was the worst. So was Gabriel. Just when I thought he was getting better and the worst part was over! He kept crying and crying at night and could not go to sleep. I ended up sitting on the couch with him all night, some times sleeping, sometimes crying from pain. When it was time to get up and get Marlee ready for school I just could not convince myself that school was more important than me trying to get some more rest before everyone woke up, so I texted his teacher and explained our situation. Also, I really did not want to put Gabriel in the car seat screaming even more. He does not like to go in the car! We all ended up staying home until the afternoon when we went to a park to see a friend and her boys. We had a great time with clear blue sky and strong winds.



Considering this was the first time I had to actually just sit and hold one of my children because he was feeling so bad and that it was actually the first night where I had to spend the whole night sitting (not lying) on the couch, I still feel very lucky! Some parents do that A LOT more! BUT it is still very hard when you are in the middle of it. 

Now I'm lying in bed anxiously waiting to see what this night will be like...