Okay. My goodness. I feel like we're finally starting to round the corner here. Since returning from Mexico it's been madness. Honestly since early October it's been madness. Preparing for Halloween, preparing for Mexico, doing Halloween, having my work's Complete Champions Reception, going to Mexico, coming back to regular life and school days, trying to catch up on missed work, and then BAM! COVID :(
My last "regular" post was on November 3rd. November 4 was a 13 hour work day for me for our Complete Champions Reception. It's always a long day, but it was exceptionally long since I knew I had to get as much done that day as I possibly could in preparation for Mexico. The event went well, we've raised just over $840K net! Shy of our $900K goal, but still extremely impressive considering just two years ago we were thrilled with $562K.
Saturday I worked another 8 hours from home while we got the kids and ourselves ready for our trip to Mexico. Dave brought the girls to Agassiz and I brought Dom to my parents' place.
MEXICO!!!
Alrighty. Back to reality!
We got the kids' school pictures!
I had Eva's 18 month immunization and doctor's check-up. The doctor cautiously said, "So... she's off the chart on my growth chart here." She was relieved to hear I was already very aware she was tall haha. She wears some of the same clothes as my 4 year old. I'm aware :). Emilia came with me to the appointment and then we had Scott & Ash over for dinner, followed by a bit of quiet colouring when they left.
On Thursday I was feeling ambitious and I made a top sirloin roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, beans, carrots, and threw in a kale salad. We invited Gramma & Grandpa to join us and I'm glad I was able to share the meal with someone other than just my children. It's just not as enjoyable when 60% of the table whines that they don't like it haha. For the record, it was the tastiest gravy I've ever made, and the meat was *chef's kiss.
I was honestly feeling completely worn down after not having a break at all between Mexico and real life. We had gotten home at 1am (4am Mexico time) and didn't get to sleep until past 2, and then were up for the day at 7 with the kids. I had a quieter day at home, and then the boys convinced me to go downtown for a "JARS night". (JARS = Jeff, Adam, Renee, Scott). Jeff & Adam treated Scott and I to some lovely food and drinks downtown plus some casino time! We came out +$10 I think all together?
Dom woke up on Saturday with a cough and a fever and not feeling well at all. We had been planning to go to Abbotsford Tradex for the Christmas show since Rebecca was going to be a part of a ballet performance for the first time. Dom was desperate to go, so we figured he could just mask up and we'd go. He wore that thing religiously (thank goodness). The show was cute! Rebecca was super nervous. I expect nothing less. I would be too! We didn't buy anything at the show, but all 3 kids enjoyed running around and Eva was pointing out all the Santas "Anta!!"
By the time we got home, Dom was pretty out of it. He spent the day laying on the couch, watching movies and resting in his bed. Finally around 630pm he perked up and had some dinner and quiet play. Dave and I set up the Christmas tree to prep for decorating on Sunday if everyone was up for it!
Sunday rolled around and Dom seemed a lot better. No fever. A bit of a cough, but nothing crazy. We spent the morning decorating the tree and I relinquished a lot of control because toddler & young children haha. We got outside for some play time and had a lovely cozy day together as a family. I said that evening, "I wish we just had one more day of weekend like this." (A statement I would later regret).
Sunday at about 1030pm we heard Eva coughing and crying a bit. Huh. Weird! By 4:30am she was super upset so I brought her into bed with me and she had a fever of 104F (40C) and was suuuuper lethargic and pathetic.
Monday rolled around and Dom seemed back to normal so we sent him to school with a mask as an extra precaution. (#1 regret).
Eva spent the entire morning sleeping on me or on the couch. She does not do this. She never sits in one spot for more than one minute. She was so sad and obviously so uncomfortable it was breaking my heart. We gave her some Tylenol (which a Pharmacist mixed up for us) and her fever still wasn't coming down. Finally an hour after a dose of Advil her fever came down a couple degrees and she perked up, but wouldn't eat anything.
That evening we got a text from someone (who we haven't seen in over a week) saying they tested positive for COVID. While that wasn't an exposure, we figured we should test given Eva's state. Dave did a test first as he had a bit of a tickle in his nose. Immediate positive. Shit. I tested second. Negative! I then tried to test the kids, but could only get a somewhat proper swab done on Emilia (who hardly had any symptoms. Just the start of a cough). Positive. That was enough to deduce that all the kids had COVID.
Oh my gosh. What the heck! I am guessing Dom got it from school since I heard there were a few kids out sick the past week or so. I pray we didn't foolishly expose anyone at school sending him on Monday. For some reason it just didn't even cross my mind that it could be COVID. Every little runny nose he gets he gets a cough, so I figured it was just another one of those. Won't be being that negligent again, although I'm sure with my over-developed sense of responsibility, my "negligent" is most people's norm. Dom's teacher was more than understanding and I really appreciate it.
After breaking the news to the kids and arguing with them about it (Dom insisted he did not have COVID because he wanted to do his show and tell the next day), we hunkered down for some good old fashioned quarantine. Ah. There's that extended weekend I asked for!
Tuesday was a movie day. Wednesday was a movie day. Today was a movie day. haha. I continue(d) to test negative so I'm not sure what that is about. I have a bit of a sore throat and a runny nose, so I'm sure I have it, but my viral load must just be too low due to being fully vaccinated/boosted. Every evening Eva would spike a fever of 103F-104F and she REFUSED to take any sort of medicine. We tried everything to sneak it into her, but nope. No go. It was really hard and heartbreaking to see/hear her struggling so much but not be able to help her other than snuggling. She spent two nights in my bed with me which has never happened before. Therefore I spent two nights not sleeping and a third night staring at the monitor all night to make sure she was okay (she was). On Tuesday Dom started to get a fever again as well and was just sort of blah. Not as much coughing from him as I expected. Emilia has had a pretty steady fever the whole time, but not super high and she always handles them well and has way more energy than I wish she did haha.
We are finally rounding a corner I think as Eva and Dom have both been nearly 24 hours fever free at this point. Eva is still insufferable and not wanting to eat anything, but she'll come around. It's been an absolutely exhausting week physically, mentally and emotionally. However, this is the best possible week for this to have happened. It is after Mexico, we did not have any big plans to cancel, and it does not impact any birthdays or Christmas. At least we won't have to worry about COVID this holiday season! This round of COVID was waayyyy worse than our January round. In January Dave and I had very mild symptoms and none of the kids had a cough. They all just got a low fever for one afternoon and had a dry throat for a day. This has been a doozy. I'm very grateful Dom is vaccinated or I think he would have been much worse off.
