Spring Fever

It took having my first official 40-hr/week job before I truly understood what it meant to get spring fever.  All through school, if the weather was beautiful, I would just take the time to head to a body of water somewhere and enjoy it.  Studying, the part-time job, whatever responsibilities I had, could wait.  At least for that day, while I got in a good dose of spring time.

I LOVED and still LOVE spring time.  It's my absolute favorite time of the year.  I love the newness and rebirth and refreshing-ness and cool, crisp air.  Cold weather doesn't suit this Florida native, so when the first signs of warming occur, I'm rejuvenated.  I was thrilled outside of my brain when Katherine, my first precious baby whom I'd prayed for for years, was due within days of the first day of spring 2006.  Easter.  Flowers.  New growth.  Warmness.  Rebirth.

I love spring.

Spring is beautiful.

It's my favorite time of the year.

I really, really LOVED spring time before my three little precious-es came around, because, you see they have taught me to take the term "spring fever" quite literally.

I've written before about being disappointed for missing Easter 2 years in a row because of someone being sick in our house.  But 3 years?  Three years in a row we are split up because of sickness.  What's going on here, really?

To add insult to injury, Katherine's birthday is right around Easter, usually, so that means.... Yep, you guessed it - she's sick for her birthday!

Ahhhhhhhhhh!

So last year, when she turned 6, we had to postpone her birthday party.  And whadayaknow, we had to do the same thing again this year because of sickness.

Here's the breakdown:

Katherine's birthday party was scheduled for March 23rd.  We invited the largest entourage so far for a birthday party because it was going to be a Pony Party.  We paid a deposit to a Pony Party company for them to come out that morning and give unlimited pony rides to the short horse-lovers.  Except we had one serious problem - Katherine started "getting sick" at 4am that morning and it continued every half hour until about 7 when we realized we had to change the plans for the day.  That poor girl got sick every half hour for 4 hours and then proceeded to top it off for a total of 13 times in a 12 hour period.

Yikes, it was that bad.  I felt awful for her.  I couldn't stand her getting sick like she was and she was soooo excited about her pony party that we decided it was best to postpone.

So, no pony-ride birthday party for the day.  Jim took the 2 well children with him to celebrate Bamah's birthday party which was supposed to immediately follow Katherine's.

Sigh.  Poor girl.  I hated it for her.

So the next day, Sunday, when I realized dehydration might be an issue, I decided to make her some Gatorade pops.  Anything for her to get some fluids in and keep them down.  I had to get creative since we didn't have popsicle forms.

Behold, my astute engineering skills:

 

9 years of college were NOT wasted.  No sir-ee.

They did the job.  She enjoyed them and kept them down.

Monday meant daddy had to go to work and I was on my own.  I thought she might have been in the clear because we were able to paint.  [For those of you who know me well, this was BIG for us.  I don't do playdoh, painting or cooking with my children.  Let me re-phrase that: I don't do them often or well.  So for me to encourage 3 children to paint after being through major sickness for 2 days was kind of a shocker.]

I learned quickly that the well-feeling was short-lived for her.  She did great Monday, but Tuesday she was puny again.

Tuesday, we sat in the lawn next door to watch the tree be cut down in our neighbor's lawn.  Big excitement = heavy equipment.

You could tell she wasn't 100%, but was wanting to get out for some fresh air.

The tree company was friends with our neighbors so they kindly gave some heavy equipment rides.

Oh yeah, so one thing I forgot to mention was how Katherine scratched up her face the day before her planned birthday party.  We came back from school and were playing in the front yard.  She was happy, bouncing, playing and swinging and leaning back real far.  She leaned back so far she scraped her face along the ground and left a pretty bad mark on her forehead, along her eye and down her cheek.  Being the day before her party and the day before any of the sickness started, I was bummed she had scratched her face so bad.  It's the worst mark she's had on her face so far.  But nonetheless, we didn't have to worry about others seeing or questioning her about the scratches. :(

Not quite sure why, but Nathan just wasn't interested in sitting on the backhoe.  Hmm.

So on her actual birthday, Wednesday, I took her into the doctor because she wasn't perking up as fast as we thought she might.  The doc said that she was still contagious.  :(  The prospects of having her re-scheduled pony birthday party the next day, Thursday, didn't look good either.  So we made the hard decision to cancel the whole thing and start making phone calls.  Jim had to work the following Saturday and the next weekend was Easter and so on and so on.

I was so upset.  I tried not to show her.  It wasn't her fault and I didn't want her to think it was, but I was just so sad for her to be missing something she had been looking forward to for so long.  She handled it with more maturity than me.  She was calm and understanding.  She didn't cry once or even wimper.  She just knew it was what had to happen.

Boy, could I learn something from my brand new 7-year-old.

We still celebrated her precious birthday that night.

One of the super difficult calls I had to make was to our dear friends, the Poimboeufs.  We had made arrangements with them for Kaley, the youngest, to make Katherine's birthday cake.  The 2 girls browsed Pinterest and Katherine picked out a cake she loved.  One that Kaley could make.  So Saturday morning of the party, I asked them if they could somehow save the cake until the following Thursday.  Then Thursday, they delivered the cake.

Kaley did an awesome job.  The cake not only looked great, just like what Katherine had picked out, but it tasted dee-li-cious!  I just happened to be the official taste-tester.  It even tasted good after it was frozen. Twice!  :)

The following Sunday was Easter.  This was the 3rd Easter we missed together as a family because of sickness.  The devil has found a niche in breaking my spirit.  sigh.  Katherine felt better, but Nathan was down and out this time.  His didn't last a week like hers did and Brandon and Jim eventually felt the yucks for a couple of days.  She certainly felt it worst than anybody else and somehow, by the grace of God, I was spared.

Needless to say, my definition of spring fever has changed slightly over the years.

The good news ending to this story was that Katherine did get a chance to ride the ponies with her best friend, Reina.  The Pony Party people graciously let us use our deposit to come over and ride the ponies for half an hour.  Katherine and Reina had a good time and she got another horse-fix.

Horse sick

SOMEbody in our house has fallen in LOVE with horses.  I'll give you three guesses with one hint...

Ok, so she's totally fallen head over heals, wants one in our back yard to walk around the block, "Mom, I'm horse sick," in love with horses.  (She's heard the term horse fever before, but somewhere/somehow it got jumbled into horse sick.  Very cute.)

I guess most little girls go through a love of horses.  I did, but I was older and got one and took riding lessons and was able to care for it and ride it by myself.  She needs a little bit more time and about 5 more acres to do all that.

In lieu of, we made a trip to go visit Kayla, her beloved cousin that does have a great riding horse and was thrilled to cater to 3 little ones.  On her 13th birthday.  She's really cool.  And beautiful.

In horse heaven.

In heaven also, riding on the farm buggy with CowPapa. He's pointing to an excavator that passed by.

Taking in all the sights.  Contemplating.  Thinking about the meaning of life or which super hero can beat up SpiderMan.

 

Here's Kreo.  Kreo is short for creosote.  Cute name for a black-ish horse and he is a great riding horse.

Here's our birthday girl/horse provider showing Katherine how to saddle up and prep Kreo. 

This little man was very cute trying to make horse sounds over and over again.  He sounded like a slight whinney followed by lips vibrating.

 

Hi Kreo.  You're a good horse.  Thanks for fulfilling my baby's dream that day.

Horses are only interesting for so long.  The youth fair pig was nearby and much bigger and louder than Brandon was expecting.  There was much furrowed brow and looks of confusion when nearing the pig, Barbie-Q.  In the books they always look smaller, quieter and cleaner.  That was really throwing him off.

 

Barrels for practice.  Barrel-riding practice really, not rolling-through-cow-poop practice which is what it turned into.

 

Thank you Kayla.  We had a great day and you were a superb hostess on your birthday.  Katherine is willing to come visit you weekly but I have to be the "mean" mom and tell her no.  Keep up the good work riding and cheering but most importantly, in school.  You Rock!