February: When Love And The Flu Is In The Air (And Also The Smell Of Chinese Food)

So far, it had been a great winter for our family...Aurora in particular. She celebrated her sixth birthday with her best friend, she got to visit the zoo and pet a live rhino, and she joined a soccer team as well! (More on that in a later blog post).

And then, the day after cheering for our beloved world-champion Broncos, Aurora got another fun break from routine: she was able to celebrate Chinese New Year (Monday, February 8th, 2016) with her kindergarten class!

There is a sweet little girl in Aurora's class who was adopted from China when she was just a baby. Her adoptive parents have tried hard to educate their daughter about her cultural heritage, and this year, they decided to share a bit of that culture with their daughter's whole class at school. The mother brought lots of Chinese food and Chinese-themed decorations to create a little feast for all the hungry kids.

 

There was enough food there for the whole class, as well as all the adults who showed up to help! There was a huge pile of lo mein noodles and several dozen egg rolls, for starters. Every kid also got their own mandarin orange and fortune cookie. For the less adventurous children, there were also juice boxes and cupcakes decorated to look like monkeys (since the new year is the "Year of the Monkey," according to the Chinese calendar). There were also some sweet treats that were unusual but delicious. Each child got a wrapped candy with an edible wrapper; if they put the candy in their mouths with the "plastic" wrapper still on, that wrapper would melt quickly in their mouths! There were also a few containers of dried coconut strips that were quite addictive. They were very flavorful and not terribly sweet!

Best of all, all the kids got their own set of chopsticks to eat their food. I was never good at chopsticks and got a little nervous on the kids' behalf, but Aurora (smart girl that she is) mastered the trick quite easily and used them to finish off all her noodles, plus seven egg rolls (yuck! It's amazing how much food that kid can put away when she puts her mind to it). Over half the class did quite well with their chopsticks; I was impressed at their adaptability. Oh, to be young again, and a quick learner! I was just glad there were forks provided, so I could eat my noodles successfully.

The Chinese New Year was a fun, educational celebration and Aurora was super happy. My older girls were happy too, because they were going to get in on some of the celebrating. There was also going to be a school assembly featuring Chinese dancers later that week, and then (best of all!), on Friday the 12th, all the elementary school classes were holding their Valentine's Day parties. The girls had worked hard on their Valentines and they were looking forward to eating lots of candy and having lots of fun.

And then, this happened...

And this...

Sorry if the pictures are dark; we had the blinds tightly shut for several straight days. But in case you can't see the pictures clearly, they contain lots of tired, sick children. Just two days after the Chinese New Year celebration, our home was hit by one of the nastiest bugs we've ever encountered. We never made it to the doctor, but we strongly suspect we were hit by this year's version of the "superflu" bug.

I felt it coming on that Wednesday night, during Activity Days, because I was suddenly coughing a whole lot and couldn't stop. I had a bout of pneumonia back in 2004, and ever since then my lungs have been more sensitive to whatever nasty illness is floating around. I was concerned by the coughing, but assumed it was just a head cold coming on. No such luck. The next morning, Celeste was feverish, Lorelai was glassy-eyed, and I was exhausted. The day just got worse as it went on. I made it to CostCo to do a little shopping, which sapped all my strength. Celeste stayed home from school and slept at home the whole time I was away. No sooner had I arrived back home when I got a call from the school, telling me Lorelai was running a fever and I had to go pick her up.

Lorelai foolishly tried to go to school again the following day (Celeste once again stayed home, and I had a raging fever by this time and was happy to lay on the couch all day with her). I am happy I have a daughter who loves school, but sad she wasn't cognizant of her health. I got another call from the office that morning that Lorelai was running a fever of 103; I was shocked and felt terrible that she'd been at school while feeling so sick. I hope other parents and students did not judge me too harshly based on this experience!

Overall, it was a really rough weekend. Both Lorelai and Celeste spent the majority of the time on the couch, barely moving or eating. I dosed them both (and myself!) with medicine repeatedly, to stave off their high fevers. I was too weak to cook, so Nathan had to bring in meals for several days. Aurora, who still felt fine, was bored and kept climbing all over us demanding attention (much to our displeasure). Both my older girls missed the Chinese dancers and their Valentine's Day parties. Celeste was very upset about it, but too weak to even stand at the time. They ended up spending about four days sitting at home (they missed church as well). Valentine's Day, which was that Sunday, was a subdued affair; I never even took my pajamas off, and laid around coughing and feeling exhausted. The most "romantic" thing that happened was Nathan doing the dishes and my making a plate of brownies for everyone. Oh well, we can't have grand romance in our lives whenever we want!

By that Monday, the older girls were well enough to go to school...but when they got home, they were so exhausted they fell asleep right away. This flu bug was terribly persistent; it left us feeling worn-out for almost a week after the worst symptoms disappeared. I was running on half speed for a very long time. And just when the three of us were getting our feet back under us, Aurora fell ill as well. She ran higher fevers than everyone else; at one point she was so hot I knelt down and said a prayer while giving her medicine. Luckily, the high fever didn't last long, but she was incredibly sluggish, soft-spoken, and slow-moving (none of which are normal "Aurora" traits) for close to a week. She missed soccer practices, and insisted on playing in her next game while still ill. I was impressed by her courage, but she was obviously still very tired, and sure enough, her fever came back soon after the game ended. Aurora is a very active kid, and it is hard on her emotionally to sit still for so long.

Even Nathan, who usually manages to skate past all the colds that go through our house, fell victim to this one. He valiantly took care of everybody for several days, until I was functional. Thankfully, he managed to hang on for close to a week before falling sick. He had lots of important business meetings and presentations the week we were all sick, and he was terrified of missing them. When he wasn't bringing us dinner, he was out golfing...and I couldn't blame him, he had a lot going on! Luckily, he caught a tamer version of the flu the rest of us endured; he was pretty weak and slightly feverish for several days but managed to stay (mostly functional) after the first few rough days. From beginning to end, we had at least one sick (or very sick) person in our house constantly for two straight weeks. The house was rarely cleaned; doorbells rarely answered; life ground to a near halt at times.

It's been a really long time since we've had a cold that nasty. I am one of those people who refuses to get a flu shot (it always seems to make me sick, so I reason it isn't worth the bother). This year, in light of how ill we all became, I did wonder if we should have gotten the shot after all; perhaps it would have saved us? I suppose it's pointless to speculate now. All I know for sure is that, after two weeks of either being cared for or caring for someone else, February seemed like sort of a "lost month" for our family. We were pretty out of the loop! The end of February did have some fun times (which I'll write about soon), but for now I will just pray we don't fall ill again any time soon. Hopefully our "illness" quota has been filled...we've got a busy spring ahead!