how to lose weight - the unhealthy way

I lost 4 lbs yesterday. yah, take that evil body fat. unfortunately I'm not sure I can recommend my "technique." The kids really get the credit though, they're the ones that started it all...

On Monday Annemarie was in town, so Blake took the day off work. I went to work in the morning for a meeting and then came home to hang out in the afternoon. Unfortunately, when I came home Blake told me that Kaylee had thrown up. Just once, and Blake thought perhaps it was some yogurt he gave her that morning. After their nap Kaylee was perfectly happy but Ethan was a grump. He didn't want to do any of his favorite things, not tickling, not jumping or running around, not even swinging. In fact, after just a few pushes (in the swings we have in our backyard) he wanted out. In retrospect, it's obvious, but of course it didn't occur to us at the time that the kids might have the stomach flu. After that fateful couple of pushes in the swing, Ethan spent the next couple hours throwing up every 20 minutes. It was very sad. Fortunately, by about 10pm that night Ethan was done.

Which, apparently, was Blake's cue to get sick. So Blake was up all night. I held out until 5am the next morning (Tues). Fortunately, this is an intense but short bug. The kids were worn out from being sick the day before, and took two naps for us, plus they went to bed an hour early. My mom dropped off some gatorade and applesauce. (Blake had picked up some saltines and gatorade Monday night before he got sick, but we weren't anticipating so many people needing to drink only diluted gatorade.) Blake, despite not having slept much the night before, was about 7 hours ahead of me on the road to recovery, so he did the majority of the parenting and I napped and napped and napped some more.

Today is much better. Blake and I woke up feeling great. He's back at work, and I'm home with the kids. They've got some lingering diaper issues and sometimes Ethan tells me he has a "tummy owie" but a few minutes ago Kaylee just told me it was "tye beh" which I discovered meant "time for bed." So they're napping now and we may have another double-nap day today, which is fine with me.

On the upside...

• I lost 4 lbs in one day. I don't want to do it again, but I'll take the silver lining.
• I am SO thankful that we all got sick at slightly staggered times. If things had been shifted just a few hours all 4 of us could have been sick at once. That would have been SO bad.
• I'm really hoping Annemarie doesn't get sick. It was so helpful to have her hang out with happy Kaylee while Blake and I were both taking care of Ethan on Monday afternoon. So, if Annemarie escapes this sickness herself, then I'll be very glad she was there to help out!Yesterday, when Annemarie wasn't there, Kaylee kept asking for her. "Ammie? Ammie?" (like Annie, but swap the n's for m's). I think she thought Annemarie was more fun than lazy/sick mommy and daddy...

And now, to end on an unrelated but more cheery note, here's a picture of Kaylee on Easter Sunday.