Obstacles

You know, I come from the great land of South Dakota, and pretty much the only (PG) word that fits the last week is: Oofda. I may have started out thinking just Tuesdays were a pain, but wow, I underestimated the longevity and extremity of Tuesday. (I'm fairly certain that is an improper use of "extremity" but whatever; it fits the week, so I'm going with it.)

So after HD and RL had awful 24 hour stomach bugs last week, we thought by the weekend that we were finally in the clear and on the road to recovery, just in time to enjoy some spring weather (that's now turned back to winter, which is really so flipping fitting...). However, I should have known, based on our experience last year, that health and spring are not synonymous for our family. In fact, we seem to do worse at this time of year than any other.

After getting both kids healthy, we had a nice Saturday together with everyone feeling fine. Flash forward to 4 a.m. on Sunday and one. SICK. Mama. Ugh. I'll spare you the details, but it was awful. 6.5 months pregnant and sick with the stomach flu is terrible. For the second time in this pregnancy I thought I was going to have to call my doctor and be put on an IV! But then I started keeping down Gatoraid and staying awake for more than 20 minutes at a time and eventually, by yesterday afternoon, I was sort of functioning again. And, by luck, I had a regular OB appt. scheduled for yesterday, so I was able to see my doctor and find out that Baby was doing just fine and somehow I had managed to avoid dehydration. Yay, me?!

During all of this, Ben was a trooper. He stayed home to take care of the kids yesterday which was such a blessing because wow, I could not have done it on my own. This whole time, we've been saying that we hoped we wouldn't get sick, but then when I did, I told him he could not follow suit until Tuesday because I absolutely needed him until then. And, like a good hubby, he listened. But perhaps a little too well, because last night it was his turn to get the icks. Seriously. I know no one enjoys being sick, but this is a whole week of it now here and this whole drug out ickness is so frustrating.

So anyway, Ben is now the one sleeping and Gatoraiding the day away while I take care of the kids. And while I may still be tired and a little cranky after the last couple days, I'm managing today OK.

Enter the blessing of preschool. Last month Harrison came home one day all jazzed about an obstacle course that they'd done that day. While he still won't answer questions about his days at school, when he volunteers information, we actually learn quite a bit about what he's been doing or learning. And the obstacle course was obviously a highlight because he was so excited to tell me about how he got to go first and it was so much fun and so on. And I was impressed because he was sharing and using the word "obstacle" and it was all just good.

And thankfully that good came back to us today. Seeing as how this Tuesday brought a return to winter weather conditions and a continuation of our sick house status, I decided we needed some fun and run around time after lunch. Enter our very own obstacle course:

To the reasonable untrained eye, this is a messy playroom. Very messy. But that's why I love our house. We have a room that is dedicated strictly to play and it really doesn't matter how messy it gets. Occasionally we sort it out and pick it up, but for the most part, it looks a lot like this. But this mess actually has a purpose because this is our new obstacle course. Let me explain. My seat is Raegan's Anywhere Chair (man, I love those things, even if they are pricey!) where I holler out each stage of the course. The white pillow is the start/finish spot. The patchwork pillow is a jumping pad used twice, once early and once late, in the course. The wagon's box is for crawling in and crawling out before grabbing an animal friend (they are now all piled up by my/RL's chair) and scooting through the tunnel. After the tunnel is a bag full of baseballs for throwing into the cream-colored basket and then an oversized blue tennis ball for holding while running two laps around the Exercauser. The end, after landing back on the white pillow involves delivering the animal friend to me.

Whew! Are you tired yet? Me too, but Harrison totally loved this totally random arrangement and must have run the course at least 8 or 9 times in a row. Raegan even got in the fun at times, although she's still too little to follow precise directions in order. She mostly liked to chuck the baseballs at the basket and walk around clinging to a stuffed sheep. Hey - whatever works, right?

HD can't wait to show Daddy his new tricks when he gets up from his nap (his meaning Ben's, of course - HD and I are hanging out with PBS while B & RL sleep). And seeing as we've faced our share of obstacles in the last week, I'm glad we found something today that made obstacles fun (and kudos to the Y for the inspiration!).