Ute game

The last two weeks of September were not our finest moments of 2016. First, the twins came down with a cold that wasn’t severe enough to curb their energy levels too much, but was bad enough that I kept them home from preschool for a day and we pretty much stayed at or near home for the rest of the week while they recovered. I like staying home, but there’s something about being forced to be at home that makes everyone go stir crazy. Let’s just say the days were long!

After a week of being constantly informed that, “I HAVE SNOT! I NEED A TISSUE!” Samantha and Amelia slowly regenerated to normal energy levels (read: bouncing off the walls) and desperately needed to get out of the house/back to their regular scheduled programming. Just when they were on the upswing, Meredith and I caught the dreaded disease and felt miserable together. Cue another week of chicken noodle, tomato, and potato leek soup on repeat.

As everyone knows, there ain’t no sick days for momma, so I dragged my pitiful self around, trying to keep the twins alive and Meredith comforted. The poor thing needed to get a nice steaming next to the shower every few hours because she was so congested. Still, she was remarkably happy for being up all night and sneezing all day.

Jake was the sole survivor and entertained me by texting memes during the week, while I alternated between feeling very sorry for myself and thinking, “C’MON, SNAP OUT OF IT!”

Despite being holed up at home, it gave us an excuse to cuddle up and watch movies, read books, play board games and just hang out. If it weren’t for the coughing, congestion, and general sense of doom and gloom, it would have been quite pleasant!

Lots of garage playroom time.

The twins generally felt well enough to play at the neighborhood park for twenty minutes, after which they were cranky, achy, tired, and in dire need of chicken noodle soup. Either that, or I ran out of tissues and we had to go home.

Something on my face? Who, me?

One benefit of having no agenda for the day was that the girls had to use their creativity skills to keep busy.

Our saving grace while I was feeling sick was having a little bit of rest time while the girls were at preschool. Meredith, of course, was bored to tears, and was always so happy to pick up the twins!

I call it, “Maniacal Baby Troll Doll Murders Berries.”

When we were too tired to go to the park, but getting cabin fever inside, we caught up on some much-needed gardening. We harvested buckets of tomatoes, green peppers, and zucchini, which unfortunately didn’t fare that well due to a caterpillar invasion. The twins helped me catch them all and we drowned them in soapy water– without remorse.

After the girls had gotten over their cold, but while Meredith and I were in the beginning stages of feeling horrible, I dragged myself out to take the girls to their gymnastics evaluation. Not sure what they did to earn their medal, but they were proud! Ever since they watched Team USA during the Olympics, they have a renewed zeal for gymnastics and tell me it’s their favorite class.