A rough week

I haven't written for a while. Life got a bit more complicated than it's been in a long time (read: ever), but I think things are calming down.

We were in the throes of planning Jellybean's birthday party, -- more on that later -- her actual birthday day and a weekend away for L and me. As if that wasn't enough to coordinate, Peanut got sick with what turned out to be a pretty serious infection. She's fine now, but she was definitely having a rough time. Just in time for Jellybean's birthday party, of course. (Why do kids always get sickest on the weekend?)

Having two kids is rarely easy, and of course we hardly ever get to give them the attention and recognition they deserve every minute of the day. But when one is having her first-ever school-friend birthday party at a special location and the other is simultaneously fighting a 103.9 fever for reasons unknown, our parenting instincts and abilities stretched in ways we didn't know they could. Jellybean deserved to be celebrated adequately, and Peanut deserved to be cared for, snuggled and loved, not to mention carefully watched.

How did we handle all that? Simple, we picked teams. Other than the party itself, which we all attended, we split into teams for all the party-planning activities, cake baking, medical visits, rest times and play times. One parent with the birthday girl, the other with the sick girl. We ended up doing a great job of balancing both the fun and serious activities, so neither L nor I did all of the same type with the same kid.

Jellybean's actual birthday was a few days after her party, and we had promised her we'd do something fun on that day too (note to self: don't promise this next year). Unfortunately, Peanut's infection didn't clear up quickly, so she was still a pretty sick kid even on that day. So, Jellybean got to pick which parent would take her to the city pool to play and swim, while the other one stayed home with Peanut, instead of all 4 of us going. I was ready for her to be sad that we all couldn't go, bracing myself for her to be bumming a bit. Not at all. She was thrilled to get to go and swim, and she chose me to go with her! Our teamwork went perfectly.

Those 5 days or so were very rough. Lots of activities, worry and stress for Peanut, interrupted sleep from thunderstorms (Jellybean) and illness (Peanut). We're officially done with birthday celebrating, and Peanut is on the mend. For now, hopefully we're back to the status quo -- for the few days remaining until we head on our summer vacation.